Brews’ pen blows seesaw battle, 7-6

Sigh.
The Crew took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second. Then a 6-3 lead in the top of the fifth. But starter Seth McClung allowed two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, and the pen gave up another pair of runs, and Milwaukee lost the first game at Minnesota, 7-6.
Corey Hart, Russell Branyan, and J.J. Hardy all hit home runs on the evening (Hart hit two, actually, to bring his ’08 total up to 14), accounting for all 6 Brewers’ runs.
The Twins collected three dingers of their own on the night, all solo shots.
But the Twins got the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the 8th…after Guillermo Mota took the hill with a 6-6 score. After getting lead-off batter Carlos Gomez to pop-out to Branyan at first–and Nick Punto to fly out to Ryan Braun in left, likely Twins’ all-star catcher Joe Mauer secured the come-from-behind win for the Twins with a home run to right-center. Joe Nathan gave up a pair of hits, before getting Prince Fielder to ground out with the third out to give Nathan his 22nd save of the year.
Manny Parra gets his chance on Saturday night…rumor has it that Eric Gagne will be activated before the game and take over the 8th inning set-up role that Mota’s had recently…only time will tell if Gagne will be better than Mota or not.