The Men Of LaMancha

They dream the impossible dream, reach for the impossible star: the .500 mark (Official Mediocrity); no matter how hopeless, no matter how far ... 

The grail slipped a little farther away tonight with a 6-4 loss to the last-place Twins.

The loss leaves the Quixoties two games under OM at 39-41 with one game remaining before the season's halfway point.

This year's secondary quest is getting Rugburn off the Interstate. (In Maggie's Rugburn-off-the-Interstate pool, I have July 30 at Fenway as the day and location of his finally cracking the .200 barrier.)  RR went 0 for 3 to end the night at .178; the mirage of just being ordinarily awful wavering in the summer heat. 

Tonight's LOL moment was Purnal Boesch hitting for Rugburn with two on and two out in the seventh. The right kind of hit would have tied the game. But he struck out swinging. At least he didn't stand there and watch the third one go by. The moment, like a painting by one of the great masters, seemed to capture the spirit of that precise moment in time, and of the whole 2012 Tiger season.