Target Field, Home of the Twins- Game 2

If you read my last post, you might be wondering who the young boy in the pictures with us is.  His name is Jake, and he’s my boss/friend Derek’s son.  When I was originally planning the trip, Derek and Jake were going to come too, but Derek had some stuff pop up for work, and so we offered to take Jake so he didn’t miss out.  He’s a Red Sox fan who spent several years growing up in Minnesota- he had to go!  Jake was a little wary of us at first I think, but eventually warmed up, especially on Friday night.  It had been a long day and him and Joel were a little slap happy I think, so they had a grand old time getting settled in at Melissa’s and eating chicken strips.
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The fun continued the next day- Saturday’s game was an afternoon game, and they were geared up for another day of baseball!

The Seats

This game was our cheapest seats for the series- bleacher seats in left center field.  Melissa came with us too and I was excited for a sunny day of baseball.  I was really unprepared for how toasty it was going to be, though.  I would dare say it was unbearably hot- Joel lost his shirt a few innings in and Melissa and I kept having to go up to the water coolers they had set out to keep people to prevent heat stroke (not kidding, they really did that and they really needed to).  The bleacher seats offer absolutely no shade, so we were left out there to fry. 
Now that I’ve gotten all the complaining out of the way, lets talk about the good stuff!  The view out there is actually pretty great and we were right up against the Red Sox bullpen, so we got to watch the pitchers warm-up, including the starter, Eduardo Rodriguez.  We were packed in a little tight to begin with, but as people gave in to the heat and left, we actually were able to spread out quite a bit, which was nice and made it possible for… (drumroll please) us to get a homerun ball!  Jake snagged a ball hit out by Xander Bogaerts off the bounce, which was one of those bucket list baseball moments for me.  Xander doesn’t hit a ton of home runs either, so it made it even more special.  The Red Sox crushed the Twins this game, scoring what seemed like a billion runs, setting them up for a chance at the sweep on Sunday!

The Eats

Since it was an earlier start time, we ate breakfast at Melissa’s and headed down to the game early to catch some batting practice again and make sure we got the promotional giveaway.  At the game, we tried a few of what the stadium had to offer, including a sandwich Melissa got that had the thickest bacon I think I’ve ever seen.  It was good, but it was so hot that the thing I enjoyed most was a cucumber cocktail that I paid an exorbitant amount for- buying alcohol at a stadium is always going to cost you an arm and a leg, but it was so good and refreshing that it was definitely worth it.
After we had gone home and changed, we went out for dinner at a hibachi grill spot, Benihanas.  Everyone was pretty beat after sitting in the sun all day, but the food was delicious and completed a pretty great day overall.
 
Other Deets

We parked in the parking garage again, which again was cheap and easy to get out of after the game.  Usually, the Red Sox don’t seem to see many promotional games- Red Sox fans are everywhere and travel well, so a lot of times teams don’t have to do anything to get fans there- the games are already highly attended.  In fact, I’ve found that tickets to stadiums are 25-50% higher when the Red Sox play there than most other teams, which can be frustrating as a Red Sox fan.  Therefore, I was pretty surprised that we got not one but two promotional games during the series.  The first was the firework show after game 1, and the second was a Brian Dozier replica jersey giveaway before game 2.  The jerseys we got are actually pretty nice- not your high-end game replica jerseys, but definitely not just a t-shirt either.  I will probably never wear mine, but hey, free stuff!