The Great Baseball Road Trip, Part VI: Miller Park is so much better when the roof is open and the Twins win

When you wake up Friday morning, drive 40 miles toward Milwaukee, play 18 holes of golf at a VERY strange course in an odd little Wisconsin town on the Illinois border, then you stumble upon the Jelly Belly tour on your way out of town and get to ride at the front of the train ... well then your day has been set up to be monumentally good.

Past experience has taught us, however, that watching the Twins play during the Great Baseball Road Trip, very much including at Miller Park, can turn a good day into a bad one quickly. The last time the GBRT rumbled through Milwaukee, in 2010, the Twins lost both games we say against the Brew Crew. We saw the Twins get swept at Wrigley in 2001. We saw them lose 3-2 in 14 innings in Cleveland in 2003. We saw two parts of a three-game sweep in Boston in 2005, including the game during which Torii Hunter broke his ankle. We actually saw them win at Kansas City in 2008; the next day, they coughed up a late lead and lost in extra innings on a Tony Pena Jr. hit. And of course there was 2010.

The second part of the Milwaukee equation that has a chance to make life miserable is Miller Park. We generally don't mind the stadium -- though we far prefer Target Field, and we're not just saying that -- but several times when we have been there, the roof has been closed for seemingly no good reason. It seems, too, that we almost always have sat on the first base side, where the roof's presence looms more prominently.

On Friday, however, the stars aligned. We started with a good ol' Wisconsin tailgate, which we have to grudgingly admit our eastern neighbors do quite well. After three brats and three New Glarus products, we had the proper base to enjoy the game. Our seats were on the third base side, providing a much better look at the stadium. And by some meteorological miracle, the roof was wide open on a glorious night. All we needed on top of that was a reasonable performance by the Twins, which was -- shockingly based on this season and our GBRT history -- delivered with enthusiasm.

Denard Span had an outstanding game, as did Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Josh Willingham set the tone with a two-run homer in the first. Scott Diamond was less polished but still reasonably effective. Anthony Swarzak, playing under the rarer-than-Sasquatch open roof, recorded five very important outs over the sixth and seventh. With each insurance run the Twins tacked on in the late innings, more disgruntled Brewers fans left. By the time the 3 hour, 35 minute slugfest was over, the place was nearly empty. It was glorious.