Fire Gardy

Today the Twins played the Pirates. I get to listen to it on the radio. I’m going to try to change my format here, splitting it up by player, giving brief reports about each of their performances. I think this will be better than going in chronological order. Also, it’ll be nice to record a little more information about the at bats than statistics can give you. We’ll see how this works.

• Pridie
• Easy fly ball to left field to lead off the 3rd inning
• Got a broken bat ground ball up the middle in the 4th, and managed to beat out the throw because it was hit so slowly (it wasn’t much of a hit)
  
• Mauer  
  
• Made a good throw to 2nd on a steal attempt in the 1st inning; it would have been an out if Harris had caught it
• Took some strikes, but drew a walk in the 3rd; scored from 1st on Cuddyer’s double (his legs seem okay)
• Cuddyer
• Absolutely crushed a ball to left center field, hitting high off the wall; drove in Mauer from 1st base in the 3rd inning
• Advanced to 3rd base on a wild pitch; this was pretty head’s up baserunning, as the ball didn’t get far from the catcher, but it got just far enough (still sounded risky though)
• Sneaked a lightly hit grounder up the middle for a base hit; the shortstop couldn’t quite handle it (it wasn’t much of a hit)
  
• Morneau
• Struck out to end the first inning, with a man on base
• Hit a sac fly in the 3rd, on a 3-2 pitch, after fouling several pitches off; he’s still not making solid contact this spring
• Hit a double down the right field line, hitting the chalk and driving in 2 runs in the 4th inning; it was “hit decent” according to the commentators
  
• Monroe
• Led off the second inning with a rocket line drive that the third baseman got his glove on
• Blasted a solo homer on a line drive over the left field wall in the 3rd inning; the wind was trying to keep it in the park, but he got more than enough of it
• Kubel
• Weak grounder to second base in the 2nd inning
• Followed Monroe’s homer with an even longer home run, this one high and majestic, getting into the “jetstream” and carrying well over the fence
• Buscher
• Worked a 3-1 count, then swung through a breaking ball (clearly thought it would be a fastball); drew a walk on the next pitch, recognizing the offspeed pitch
• Tolbert
• Dropped a popup behind the mound in the first; according to the Pittsburgh commentators, he collided with either Harris or Baker
• Weak popout to the third baseman in foul territory to end the 2nd inning
  
• Harris
• Dropped Mauer’s throw to second on a steal attempt in the 1st
• Roped a line drive base hit to left field on a 3-2 pitch in the 2nd
• Made a good play on a grounder up the middle in the 2nd inning; had to move a long way to get to the ball, and threw across his body to get the out
• Baker
• Easily worked through the first inning despite an error
• Labored in the second inning; gave up a hard base hit and a walk, before getting a strike out and a ground out to second base to end the inning
• Duensing
• Replaced Baker in the third, and absolutely blew the Pirates away with a 1-2-3 inning
• Gave up a walk followed by a long, looong home run to Adam LaRoche in the 4th inning to end the “shutout bid”
• Followed that by giving up a wind aided home run; it wouldn’t have been a home run except for the wind
• Gave up another walk, then hit a batter on an 0-2 pitch, and walked the following batter load the bases
• That ends his stint, after having been unable to record an out in his second inning of work (3 BB, 1 HBP, 2 HR in an inning — or a whole game — is pretty terrible)
• Rincon
• Replaced Duensing in the 4th, with nobody out and the bases full; say what you will about Rincon, that’s just a crappy way to have to enter the game
• Struck out the first batter he faced, swinging
• Struck out the second batter he faced, swinging
• Gave up a warning track fly ball that Cuddyer corralled in right to end the inning
• I’m pretty sure performances like that are what managers mean when they talk about a “veteran presence on the mound;” great job by Rincon
• Daigle
• Replaced Rincon in the 5th, and got an easy 1-2-3 inning
  

After a 1-2-3 top of the 5th, the Twins pulled most of the starters, with a 6-3 lead. This is usually the part of spring training games that starts to get les exciting, given that the good players are gone. I probably won’t have many updates from here on in.

I will say that the power display by Monroe and Kubel was good, and Morneau finally made some “decent” contact on his double. Cuddyer made even better contact on his double, and Mauer showed some good speed on the bases.

Harris and Tolbert both looked pretty bad. Buscher didn’t do much today. Duensing went from looking very strong to completely losing it in his second inning.

Today was a mixed bag; hopefully Gardy learns some good lessons from it and it helps him make the correct evaluations.

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