Weekend Recap
Well, that was fun. Nothing like sweeping two rivals in one week. Lets start with friday. How Livan didn’t give up more than one run boggles my mind. It seems that even his outs were loud, but as the saying goes: don’t question miracles. Or something like that. The bats looked good on friday, consistent pounding the ball. We got production from the entire lineup, which was awesome. We only had one homer, but had 4 doubles and a triple to go with our 10 singles. The only person to go hitless was, surprise, Nick Punto. I can’t believe Ullger played him in Center.
Saturday was also good. Not a blowout. In fact it was very close most of the game. Craig was able to put it away with this second homer of the year. The hero of the game was Brian Bass, with 4 shutout innings in relief of the injured Scott Baker.
After watching the first inning on sunday I was upset that the Twins were going lose the third game of a series in a blowout, something they seem to do all too often. After winning the first two they totally shut down on sunday and get trampled. However, they didn’t give up. They kept chipping away, and Boof righted the ship after the worst first inning I’ve seen in a while.
It was good to see Mauer catch all 5 games of the homestand. He looked good at the plate too, and I think he is going to have a big summer. Let’s hope Baker doesn’t need to go on the DL, but if he does Slowey will be ready to pitch in Chicago. So lets head to the south side and sitck it to the Sox again. Go Twins!
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I’m pretty sure Boof’s missteps in the first inning were due to the fact that he got a haircut. Like Samson, he lost all his strength and it took him a rough first inning before he realized he’d have to work a little harder than usual.
Hopefully he learns not to listen to jerks who tell him the long hair is no good. What do they know?
Also … the comeback was excellent. I’m hoping the team comes together after that win and starts trusting each other and nobody tries to do too much — just do your part and the next guy will do his.
Oh yes, one more thing: First place!
Given the situations in all three of the Tiger games, we could have easily been swept. Livan vs. Verlander and a hot hitting Tigers team really scared me. Also, losing Baker in after the 3rd inning Saturday and needing Bass to go 4 innings for us could have been disaster. Then giving up 6 runs in the first on a Sunday game seemed to spell game over. It was great to see the Twins win games where the deck was seemingly stacked against them, or at least not in their favor. I have a feeling that Cleveland and Detroit will eventually get really hot, and to maintain first we will have to win a high percentage of our games. Here’s to hoping they can keep it up, and especially keep winning in the division.
I definitely agree with that, we could easily have lost all three of those games, and I think it’s the sign of a good team that they can eke out a victory when perhaps they shouldn’t.
Of course, the stats guys would tell you that winning close games is the sign of a BAD team, and the only way to be good is to blow the doors off everyone you play.
I think the truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Are the Red Sox “bad” because sometimes they have to rely on Manny or DOrtiz to hit a 9th inning home run? No? Rather, the fact that they have that ability to win games close and late ADDS to their quality as a team.
The same can be said of any team. Like the 2008 Twins, perhaps.