• Great Googly Moogly: Netherlands upset Dominican Republic in 11 innings

This has to be one of the greatest baseball games I have ever seen, period (boy, am I glad I decided to spring for that MLB.tv subscription even though I don’t have any money).  Actually, most of these WBC games have been better than a lot of World Series games in recent years. It’s been a series of stunning upsets so far:  Italy over Canada, Australia over Mexico (and nearly over Cuba, too) and now the Dutch have knocked off the Dominican Republic.  I don’t think anybody gave Team Hollandaise a chance to win this one, I know I certainly didn’t.  I thought the DR lineup was too potent, and that they were going to come out swinging. And I was partly right, they did come out swinging, but unfortunately everything they hit barely made it to the warning track.  I wouldn’t exactly characterize this game as a pitcher’s duel; the DR kept threatening to break the game open, but the Dutch pitching staff kept making pitches when they needed to.  The Dominican staff was brilliant (somebody give Pedro Martinez a job) through 11 innings, who recorded a combined 15 strikeouts (10 of which were by Ubaldo Jimenez! That has to be some sort of record) and held the Dutch hitters to a mere five hits.

When the Dominicans scored the first run in the top of the 11th on an error by Gene Kingsale, I figured that the Dutch were done for.  They don’t have a potent offense, and they hadn’t been able to manufacture any runs against any of the DR pitchers.  Carlos Marmol was coming in, and it looked like the game was over.  But then Sidney de Jong hit a leadoff double to deep left center, and suddenly the Dutch were back in business.  de Jong then advanced to third on a groundout, and all of the sudden the tying run was 90 feet away with only one out.  Kingsale, who made the crucial error in the top of the inning quickly redeemed himself by singling to right, and started one of the most miraculous rallies I have ever seen.  Kingsale advanced to second on a bad pickoff attempt by Marmol and then came around to score the winning run on an error by first baseman Willy Aybar, who will be known as the Dominican Bill Buckner from now on.

And to Mike Francesca or any other blowhards who whine about how the WBC is essentially a series of meaningless exhibition games:  kindly shut the hell up.  This game meant a lot to the Dominican Republic, a proud people with a great baseball tradition.  And now it sure as hell means a lot to the Dutch.

• Crisis Averted (For Now): Joe Mauer is apparently fine

Further testing has revealed that Joe Mauer simply has an inflamed sacroiliac joint in his back.  His doctors are going to put him on stronger medication, and he ‘s going to rest for a few days, and that should be that.  The pain he’s been experiencing has nothing to do with his kidney surgery (evidently it is located in his right buttock), and once again, he should be ready by opening day.  The good news is that the pain hasn’t been holding him back from participating in most baseball-related activities.  He can hit, catch, and throw with ease, but wasn’t able to run very well (which is kind of important if you intend to get on base).

Obviously this is great news, though I’m still a little concerned that Mauer might not be ready for Opening Day and that he will continue to have problems throughout the regular season (that awful Dome turf certainly isn’t going to help).  The lineup has been struggling to score runs without the M&MVP boys, though they have still managed to win most of their spring training games.  The Twins have been stranding a lot of runners, though, especially in today’s game against Baltimore when they left 29 men on base.  While the pitching has been good enough to keep them in the games so far, the Twins might as well forget about making the playoffs if they don’t score any runs.

More importantly, whether or not Mauer can stay healthy this year will weigh heavily on the organization’s decision to offer him a contract extension.  By all accounts, the Twins are interested in signing him, and Joe reportedly wants to stay, but it doesn’t make sense to spend so much money on a player who might spend half of the season on the DL.  I’ve weighed in on the pros and cons of signing Mauer to a long-term deal before, and I’m extremely torn about the idea.  On the one hand, Joe is one of the best catchers in baseball, and nobody wants him to remain a Twin more than I do.  But not if he isn’t going to be healthy.