Thanks A Lot, Nick Swisher

オハイオ州のたわごと(Oh Shit!)

Minnesota Twins fans who were looking forward to seeing Tsuyoshi Nishioka's Target Field debut will have to wait for a lot longer than today's home opener.

In the seventh inning during yesterday's game, the Twins second baseman and former Japanese batting champ was standing firm on second base when Yankees right fielder Nick Swisher attempted to break up a double play and took a hard slide... right into Nishioka's firmly planted left leg. Nishioka was carried off the field and it was later ruled that he had fractured his fibula. Ouch.

Nobody is blaming Swisher for playing dirty. Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire was quoted as saying "Swisher's a clean player. It was a good slide. That's not an issue at all." And Nishioka himself called the slide a "professional play." Right now the bigger question is why in the hell Nishioka didn't jump out of the way.

Congratulations, Minnesota Twins New Guy!

With Nick Punto still on the DL, the Twins called up Aussie infielder Luke Hughes, and today he made his first start at the hot corner. Hughes first came up to the plate at the bottom of the second with two out, but then Delmon Young got caught stealing third. Hughes resumed his plate appearance at the top of the 3rd, and he hit a home run at his very first Major League at bat.

The 25-year-old Hughes was signed by the Twins in 2002, and has been hiding out in the Twins' farm system for the last 7 seasons. Which leads us to ask why the hell we haven't called him up sooner???

On a side note, one of our favorite tater-mashers, Jim Thome, hit bomb number 568 tonight. He's just one shy of tying Rafael Palmero for the number eleven spot in all time home runs. Way to go, Jim Jam!