Scrum-ptious.

There are some things that fired me up yesterday, even before Ian Kinsler, with the same look on his face that Brenden Morrow had as Mike Modano fired in the empty netter to clinch Round One on Sunday, was the first player to tear out of the home dugout to mob David Murphy on the game's final play.

I was fired up by the way this team responded to the Twins' four-spot in the top of the third with a five-spot of its own in the bottom of the third, on the strength of seven straight hits. Hank Blalock's rake to right that scored Josh Hamilton to tie the game was obviously big, but it was the previous pitch that really lifted me out of my seat, as Michael Young scored behind Kinsler on Hamilton's single and sprung up from his slide and shouted and fist-pumped and bounced all the way to the dugout, like a college player who had just scored a tie-breaking run in a June game in Omaha.

I was fired up when, before the game, Jon Daniels did his weekly radio segment with Victor Rojas and said, without hesitation and without pretense and without spin: "The fans are pissed. I'd be pissed."

Bravo. That sort of raw honesty hasn't always been prevalent around here. I wasn't crazy about a few Ron Washington remarks after a couple of the week's losses, comments that sounded as if he was counting on us not having watched. (Moments after the four-game sweep in Boston: "I thought we came in here and handled ourselves well. Things might have unraveled a little bit today, but before that I thought we handled ourselves well.") A little insulting.

From Daniels we got this, instead: "We've played terribly the past two weeks, and that's a reflection on me, the coaching staff, and the 25 guys on the field."

And: "When a team struggles, you have to look to leadership to turn it around. The expectation of ownership is that we get things turned around. That's on Ron. That's on me. It's on everybody that wears a 'T.' I'm not going to put the blame on any one man."

Accountability and a refusal to take the fan base for granted, or to try and slip one past us: much appreciated. We're all in this together.

I'm also fired up by the 14-4 Clinton IanGacs and the 15-5 Frisco CD-Ram's (sorry) and Cristian Santana and Jose Vallejo and Kennil Gomez.

And the impossible fact that nobody in the 16-team Pacific Coast League has more walks than Nelson Cruz (who, more characteristically, is also third in the circuit with a 1.204 OPS).

Keeping an eye on A.J. Murray, who is on the 40-man roster, and Doug Mathis, who could be soon. Warner Madrigal and Kendy Batista, Craig Gentry and Grant Gerrard, Derek Holland and Andrew Laughter.

Learning that Jarrod Saltalamacchia is up with no plans to return him to AAA, no plans to have him wither on the bench, and no plans to play him at first base, and that Taylor Teagarden is headed to AAA to replace him, paving the way for both Teagarden and Frisco's Max Ramirez to start catching five days a week.

Learning that the MLB Network will launch before the 2009 season.

But of course, nothing was as adrenalizing as the Murphy shot to left that plated German Duran to give Texas an April win that felt oddly like a meaningful September win.

It's too bad that these four weeks have made last night's win feel that liberating, but given what's gone on, and despite the frustration that we didn't put that game away in regulation, what this team needed was a win but what it was blessed with was a walkoff party. The daps procession behind the mound is cool; the dugout-hopping, field-storming, pogo scrum closer to first base is a lot cooler.

After a whole lot of lousy over the past couple weeks, that was a perfect moment -- for the GM, the coaching staff, and the 25 guys on the field -- and for us. Regardless of what comes next.


===========================================================

To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar.


(c) Jamey Newberg
http://www.newbergreport.com
If you want to be removed from this list, please e-mail me at newbergreport@sbcglobal.net