Twins 7, O’s 5
Nice little win the team put together last night. Perkins looked pretty terrible but somehow managed to only give up five runs in five innings. The way they were hitting the ball I thought it would be seven or eight. Boof’s 2 2/3 shutout innings were huge because he came out firing strikes and the offense could rest easy that they wouldn’t be down by more than five the next time they came up.
I really like wins like this. Where the team chips away at a defecit. Nothing fancy, not a grand slam, or all the runs in one inning. We stopped the bleeding early, and for the second half of the game we had the O’s right where we want them. (Sidenote: Why are they called the O’s? Is that an acceptable nickname for an Oriole? Why aren’t the Twins called the “T’s” or the Yankees the “Y’s”. Same goes for the Celtics being called the “C’s”. Is this laziness, lack of creativity or both.) Back to the game. Getting two runs back in the second was huge too, because it showed we weren’t going to roll over and die for Cabrera kind of like we did for Liz the previous night.
Great showing for the ‘pen, nothing like 4 guys (thats 4 if you count Reyes as a full person) combining for 5 shuout innings with only 2 baserunners. I was shocked at how easily Boof was getting guys out after every ball hit when Slowey pitched was hit really hard. I think Boof will thrive as a middle reliever, he doesn’t seem to have the mental makeup or the stamina to be a starting pitcher. He proved last night he can probably still get guys out, which I like because I have always liked Boof, even when he was terrible. I think that is probably because I am just fresh out of hatred after using it all on Nick Punto.
Good to see Mauer hit another moonshot last night. Can we call them moonshots in the dome since we are inside, and we can’t see the moon so therefore can’t judge if the ball is headed that way? Whatever. I remember saying earlier in the year that the only time Mauer pulls the ball is when he grounds out to the second baseman. Have teams not realized that he hits lefties better than righties? Because he does.
Today we have Scott Baker going at noon. Should be a productive day at work.
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Mauer’s 2008 numbers: Against lefties: .379/.403/.517 Against righties: .308/.416/.398
That’s actually a shocking split, I think. He’s just not driving the ball against righties. One possible explanation is that right handed pitchers are “afraid” of him and try to nibble on the corners and don’t give him anything to hit — possibly explains the .108 IsoD vs RHP compared to .024 IsoD vs LHP.
I think the story of the game, though, is Mauer’s 2 RBI sac fly. That’s just awesome.
I dislike noon games. Makes it extremely difficult to do anything at work. Still, I hope Baker has a good showing after his month off.
I’m not that surprised by Mauer’s success against lefties, but it seems so splits should be reversed. He’s not exactly “struggling” vs. righties, but he’s a great hitter and he’ll even things out as the season progresses.
And it’s great to see him on the bench today with Redmond batting third. Gardenhire is an idiot.
It’s also great to see another appearance by Bass and/or Rincon in a close game. Why does Gardenhire only choose to utilize our good relievers when we have the lead? His management of the bullpen is the worst.
I agree. While I don’t think he should be using Nathan in the 7th, he should have brought in Crain (who has shown signs of getting better) or maybe Guerrier. I don’t recall how many pitches he threw yesterday. With Boof in the bullpen now, is Bass expendable, since they both serve the same purpose? I’d rather keep boof than bass.
I’d like to defend Perkins a little. He didn’t pitch very well last night, but I thought the last two runs he gave up should have BOTH been unearned. The initial play on the ball that Roberts hit to center should have been an error on Gomez, but because of the subjective nature of errors and the fact that Gomez didn’t touch the ball, it’s not so the run scoring from first is earned even though it was Gomez’s horrible misplay that allowed the run to score. Good to see Young charged with an error for his lazy back up play. Is it just me, or does it seem like he’s completely lost in the outfield?
I think earned run is a pretty selfish stat. I mean I like Perkins and everything, but he did allow the batter to rip a sinking liner to center, so he shouldn’t be totally off the hook. Remember when Mark Buehrle faced us and gave up 7 runs in the first and only one was earned? That doesn’t mean he pitched well. He still had to give up hits to score the un-eanred runs. The situation yesterday is a bit different because Gomez should have played the ball on a hop, conceded the runner to first and prevented the lead runner from scoring. But every starter is entitled to a bad outing here and there. I hope he uses this as a learning experience and comes back that much better next time out.
I’d like to welcome the newest member of the Twins’ organization, Aaron Hicks, who the Twins just drafted with the 14th overall pick in this year’s draft. Hicks was exactly who they were projected to take and by all accounts sounds like a great pick. Another high-ceiling, “toolsy” outfielder, who also pitched in high school. Sounds like he might be a better pitcher than hitter, but he would like to play the outfield. Given the lack of quality bats in the Twins’ farm system, I’d prefer to put him in right and see what he can do.
Kevin Slowey just ran for Mike Redmond. I understand Redmond is slower than most children, but Slowey? Macri or Harris aren’t capable runners?
Can the Twins draft a new manager with the 27th pick?
Macri’s gone. When they called Baker back from the DL, they had to send someone down. We kept 13 pitchers and sent Macri down. So a pitcher had to pinch run. This comes one inning after we used three pitchers in one inning.
I think it should be clear to everyone that we have too many pitchers. Just not, apparently, Gardy.
The problem, though, is that the only pitchers they might want to send down — Breslow, Bass, Boof — are out of options. Meaning they’d have to pass through waivers. And Gardy is really worried about that, because he greatly overvalues anyone who lacks talent. (Remember when he was “shocked” when nobody took Garrett Jones off waivers?) What I don’t understand is … why are we so worried about Breslow or Bass being taken off waivers, when we just picked them up off waivers and nobody else wanted them?
It makes no sense, but that’s the thinking behind keeping every pitcher we can lay our hands on on the major league roster, especially given that they’re not good enough for anyone else.
I don’t see the problem with using Slowey to PR. I don’t know anything about his baserunning skills (except his name is bad), but if he had success in the minors (prob’ly not) or college, why not? Save a bat in case you need it in the 11th inning.
Why are they called the O’s? Is that an acceptable nickname for an Oriole?
I think they should be nicknamed “Oreos” But that’s too many syllables for a nickname.
That is a good point about Slowey. That spot wasn’t going to come up again so why waste what few hitters we have. Although I think the bigger problem is that we have 13 pitchers. We were down by one and having a speedy (or speedier) runner could have made a difference. We will never know however.
Ya, really 12 pitchers + Rincon. What’s up with keeping him around? If we cut him, we still have to pay him. So what? Don’t we have to pay him if we keep him?
I don’t understand either. The twins have always been opposed to just cutting their losses. Hence bringing Rondell white back for a second year after 2006. If we cut rincon we pay him, and he doesn’t hurt us. Unless someone thinks he can hurt us by pitching for another team, which I find laughable. If we keep him on the team, Gardy will use him and we will lose a game or two, while paying him. Can’t we DFA him, and trade him for some PBNL, at least then we can trade him to the NL if the front office is indeed worried he will become a force for the white sox or something.