Angels 9 Twins 1
The game got off to a terrible start as the Angels ripped pretty much everything Boof threw in the first inning. Even the outs were hit hard. After a leadoff double in the second, he reall seemed to settle down. He didn’t give up any more runs until the 5th, and the pitched a scoreless 6th before being taken out. His final line 6ip, 8H, 4R(3 ER), 4Ks and 0BB. Not to bad for his first time back against a good hitting Angels team. The bullpen on the other hand was not good. Crain pitched for the first time since last summer and gave up a run in 2/3 of an inning. Followed by Reyes, who threw two pitches to Anderson and gave up a hit. His night was over quickly. Then Brian Bass came in and gave up 2 runs (1 earned). He didn’t look good. He had the bases loaded at one point and prevented a run by throwing home to force out the runner on a chopper right back to him. Some would say he should have turned and fired to second for the double play, but it would be hard to double up Figgins and Matthews, Jr (especially since Matthews has steroids that make him run fast). Rincon didn’t fare much better in his first appearance. In fact he fared much worse. There are really only three guys in the pen I trust. Guerrier, Neshek and Nathan. With the game within reach after Bonser left, why not use Guerrier to start the 7th? Maybe Gardy trusts Crain and his bum shoulder more than Guerrier. The game was still in reach at that point.
The offense was downright awful. The only real bright spot was DY, who had 3 hits and scored the only run of the game. Gomez had some pretty good at bats. He wasn’t up there hacking like people said he would. He had a nice single at the end of the game but Mauer drilled one right at the SS (or 2b, I don’t recall) for an easy DP. That seemed to be the story all night. We had something like 17 groudball outs. Gomez hit a ball deep in the hole at short and almost beat it out, but the Angels have a very good infield defense and we were unable to sneak anything by them. We were facing Jon Garland, a pitcher who we have faced a lot in the past so our inability to do nothing against him was just downright pathetic. I guess we have lots of new bats in the lineup, but Garland is far from special. Oh well, not like we were going to go undefeated all year. I wish Torii the best, but it would be great if he went hitless against us all year.
On a sidenote, late in the game Punto went out to warm up the pitcher while Mauer put his gear on (and Redmond did something much more fun, I’m assuming). As he ran back to the dugout, and old lady sitting behind me yelled “Good job, Nicky!”. Do people love him so much that they will cheer for him when he does anything. I think I saw him hand a glass of gatorade to Boof, should I make a sign? The guy is a utility infielder. I’m pretty sure opposing fans who come to the dome think we are the dumbest fans ever. “Why are they cheering that bat boy after he warmed up Brian Bass?” Also, the wave? come on, its 2008. Stop it.
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Bass had no chance at all to turn a double play by going to second base. He had to charge that ball, and his only play was at the plate. Matthews was going fast enough that Mauer was still unable to turn the DP despite the short throw to home.
Mauer’s DP was to the second baseman. And I wouldn’t use the word “drilled,” it was an easy one. I’ve already gotten used to that; he hits a lot more grounders to the second baseman than a good hitter should.
And while the DelBat has looked good in these two games (which I’m thrilled about), it’s not quite enough to overrule the fact that Morneau is still hitless, and has looked terrible in every at bat. He’s going to have to get out of this and start hitting, soon.
You can’t win if you don’t hit, pitch, or play defense. Hopefully at least two of those bounce back today.
I’m pretty excited to see Blackburn pitch today. Hopefully he can keep the Angels at bay long enough for our good relieivers take over. Everyone is raving about how good our pen is, but I’d say its more top heavy than good. We have three really good relievers, and then several average at best ones. Reyes is a spotty lefty specialist. Rincon has been on the decline for years. Crain has a bad shoulder so who knows if he will come back. Bass only made the team because he is out of options.
I think you’re being a bit too hard on the bullpen. How many teams have a top three that match Guerrier/Neshek/Nathan? Having three elite guys like that makes the bullpen pretty damn elite.
For a lot of teams, Rincon and Crain would be their 7th inning guys in close games. We’re definitely in better shape than that.
We’ll see how Blackburn does. I’m still hoping he’s turned the corner and will exceed his minor league numbers.
As of now is he the guy who will get bumped next week when Liriano comes back? or is it TBD depending on how Blackburn and Slowey pitch?
I think Blackburn is the odd man out right now, but that can obviously change if he out-pitches Slowey by a significant margin.
Also, don’t be surprised if they give Bass several chances to completely suck, which will make it more likely that he’ll pass through waivers. And if he does well, we’ll be able to trade him for something if someone tries to claim him. That’s probably the ideal world; we’d get to have both Liriano and Blackburn on the roster.
I was at first really disappointed that the Twins made Garland look so good, considering that they absolutely pounded him last year to the tune of a 9.something era in 3 or 4 starts, but then I remembered that a large part of our offense wasn’t on the team last year, so numbers against teams last year are less relevant. It would have been nice though, if the guys who were on the team last year, Mauer, Morneau, Cuddy and Kubel would have done a little more than 3-16 with no runs or rbi. There will be plenty of games, even with good teams, when the wheels just come off, the question will be if they are able to bounce back and avoid long ruts.
Also, I am fairly certain that the Metrodome is one of the last, if not the last stadium that still does the wave. And it isn’t just once every great while, it is multiple times every game. This must be stopped.
My guess is Gardy will wait to see which pitcher does better, Blackburn or Slowey, and send that person down. Just a thought
Mauer/Morneau/Cuddyer/Kubel have to start hitting, regardless of whether we faced the pitcher a lot last year or not. They’re the heart of the lineup, and we can’t afford to have to rely on Adam Everett to drive in runs.
Its been two games, lets wait until they have a few more ABs under their belt. I usually give them two series, so after the weekend if they still look bad we might be in trouble. Over on espn.com they have a lot of content about David Ortiz being hitless through 3 games. I think he’ll be fine. So will Mauer and Morneau. I wonder how much of last night was them trying to hard to get big hits since nobody was getting on base. If everyone just tries to get on base the runs will come.
I was hoping the addition of these hitters would take the pressure off Mauer and Morneau, so they wouldn’t have to try so hard and could just be themselves and get into a nice little groove.
Despite the fact that DelBat is hitting like crazy behind them, they don’t seem to be taking the pressure off.
But you’re probably right. It’s a bit too hair trigger to start criticizing them after just two games. But I’d like a game that gives hope for the offense. Averaging 2 runs per game isn’t very encouraging.
Well, Kubel will be on the bench again tonight. Saunders is a lefty. When a lefty is pitching against us Gardy will start Monroe “to play the percentages”. However, he will start Monroe a lot against righties because “Craig-y really hits this guy well” When he actually doesn’t according to the “numbers”
With Young doing so well and Gomez apparently able to handle leading off for now, shouldn’t the wise move be to put Young in the 3rd hole!? Cuddyer certainly doesn’t belong there and it would only help getting more people on base in front of Morneau (who will eventually deliver the big hit). Young needs to come up in the 1st inning, not hope to and then lead off the 2nd inning or whatever… hopefully Gardy realizes this sooner rather than later…
And as for the wave, it’s the dumbest thing ever and it’s almost enough to keep me from going to any games this year…
Last thought: Adam Everett throwing error - who saw that coming in the 2nd game of the year!! Better bring in Punto! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the reason for pushing Young down to the 5-hole is two-fold:
1) His OBP is going to be pretty low, and we want guys on base in front of Morneau.
2) He’s a great hitter, and having him behind Morneau should give Morneau more pitches to hit.
I’d like to get Young more ABs, but I think that twofold logic makes sense.
I see your point, I just think he’s a better option than Cuddyer (as Cuddyer is not your best hitter and shouldn’t be taking ABs away from your best hitter, which will be Young this year or close to Mauer), those guys need the most ABs I think…
but i do know what you’re saying as he strikes out a lot, but Cuddyer isn’t doing much right now that is any different.
I would hope they at least try it (what can be worse than what we’ve already done in the past!)
I continue to think we should move Gomez to #9, pushing everyone up 1 spot, thus Mauer would lead off and Young would get to bat #4. But that’s probably a little crazy. And it wouldn’t have been very effective these first couple of games, since Gomez is one of the guys who’s actually doing something thus far.
But really, a spot in the batting order is worth up to 50 ABs over the course of the season (they say). I’d argue that whether DelBat hits in the 3 spot or 5 spot, the real victim is Kubel, who needs 500 ABs this year and has to contend with Gardy doing everything in his power to prevent that from happening.
Totally agree on Kubel… he just needs to play every game, he’s better at hitting RHP than Monroe will be over the course of the year anyways… he should be DH’ing all the time, it’s only going to screw up his timing, groove, what have you if he’s benched every other day…
stupid gardy.
The Kubel situation kind of reminds me of the Cuddyer situation in 2005. Everyone was saying he sucked, and Gardy kept moving him around and benching him for long periods of time. Of course he is going to suck. Then he stuck him in right field (I believe it was after someone like Lew Ford got hurt, forcing Gardy to start Cuddyer)and he hasn’t looked back since. They are both at about the same point in terms of total major league ABs, so why not just let Kubel lock in at the DH spot and just rake. Everyone loves Cuddyer, but they hated him 2 years ago, all he needed was a chance.
Does anyone have any thoughts about Kendrick’s slide into Mauer last night? I understand he was trying to break up a potential 1-2-3 double play, but he definitely went into his foot/leg spikes first.
Kubel today is in precisely the same spot that Cuddyer was in at the start of 2006. Career ABs, status in Gardy’s eyes, blocked at his position by a severely inferior player.
I think Monroe is better than Lew Ford … but I also think Kubel is better than Cuddyer. He simply needs to be in there every day. Does Gardy not remember what happened in 2006 when he decided to stop trying to overmanage the team and just let Mauer and Morneau hit against lefties for the first time? (Hint: Batting title. MVP.)
I didn’t see anything wrong with Kendrick’s slide. Shit happens, and I don’t think Mauer got hurt at all. The only thing about the play that I thought was weird was that Mauer looked down at Kendrick after he slid. Maybe Mauer did take a spike.