Karma Police Strike Again

Karma sucks sometimes (though, by its very nature, The Common Man supposes it's a good thing just as often).

Last night, The Common Man was merrily watching the Twins beat the Oakland A's on his birthday. But because of the game's late start and the fact that The Common Man was bound and determined to spend a few hours of quality time with The Uncommon Wife, a totally hot scientist who has a grant due this week and so is mostly unavailable, The Common Man forsook his Twinkies after the 5th and headed upstairs to the boudoir. After all, how likely was it that the Twins would let an 11 run lead get away?


Huh? Oh.

The good news, I suppose, is that The Common Man didn't find out about it until this morning, when it was already too late to ruin his birthday. But still, The Common Man considers it a karmic bitch slap for embracing his inner Dodger fan and leaving early, and for making fun of Alexi Casilla's miserable birthday (Casilla's horrible day continued, as he and Nick Punto were the only Twins starters not to get a hit yesterday, combining to go 0-for-8 with a walk). Yuck.

Lost in all the talk about the A's comeback (it was epic) and the boning of the Twins by umpire Mike Muchlinski (which, after giving up an 11-run lead, let's face it, they kind of deserved), The Common Man wants to extend a hearty congratulations to the A's bullpen, who held Minnesota to just two runs (one earned) over 6.1 innings (and no runs over the last 4.2). Craig Breslow got some karmic love himself, getting a win in relief over the team that mistakenly cast him aside earlier this year.

And while Breslow and the A's pen deserve credit for silencing the Twins, perhaps their success had less to do with their awesomeness and more to do with them not being Gio Gonzalez. Gonzalez again showed he's not ready for the big time, giving up 10 hits, 4 homers, and 11 runs in just 2.2 innings. In 61 career innings, Gio's got an 8.41 ERA, largely due to 16 homers and 42 walks. At just 23, he's still got time to adjust, but for now it's clear that Gonzalez is not good enough to pitch to hitters like Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, and Michael Cuddyer. So while all the offense was nice, The Common Man is skeptical given virtually all of it came off a guy who throws beachballs.

Tonight, The Common Man is going to try to get some karma back, watching the contest on Gameday in bed instead of on the big screen in the basement, with The Boy beside him because he doesn't want to sleep in his big boy bed. Stay tuned to see if his good deed goes unpunished.