There you are bullpen…..
We’ve missed you.
I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous every inning of this game, especially when the ones that featured Breslow, Bonser, and Mirajes. Good thing each of them didn’t last long (innings that is, not pitchers). I thought Blackburn did a great job pitching out of jams, granted he got himself into those jams but its a good sign that he doesn’t lose focus and just gets guys out. You can’t blame the guy for giving up a homer to Junior, he is probably the greatest hitter of our generation.
I don’t think its possible to stress how much those four near perfect innings of relief were. The combination of Breslow, Bonser, and Mijares gave up a total of one hit and one walk in four innings. That is pretty damn impressive considering just how bad the relief corps has been of late. Blackburn just didn’t seem to have his best stuff but he still managed to get through five innings and only give up two runs to this powerful White Sox lineup. Ken Griffey, Jr. was responsible for both of them. I think the bullpen appreciated that effort by Blackburn and decided to pick him up and make sure he got the win. Now, if I find out that the bullpen has been deciding when they want to pitch well, and when they want to pitch poorly I will kill them all.
On the offensive side of the ball the Twins were pretty boring but did what they needed to do. Outside of Gomez we only struck out twice (Gomez struck out 3 times, I think we should start calling him Karlos). We drew four walks and positioned ourselves on the bases so we could score two of our runs on outs. Both fielders choices (i have no idea if both of those should be plural) by Joe Mauer.
Nathan made it interesting, but with the help of Karlos his linescore looks like he just allowed one harmless walk. Instead of nearly giving up a double to AJ that was catch-able by one center fielder in baseball, and throwing twenty pitches, only ten of them for strikes. I’m starting to notice some Mark Fidrych tendencies in Nathan, hopefully that doesn’t lead to full blown craziness.
Tonight is the surgeon Kevin Slowey, Amy Nelson has a good piece about the Twins young pitchers, especially Slowey on ESPN.com. I really like how we bookended this series with Baker and Slowey, in my opinion they are our two best starters, 1a and 1b if you will. Enjoy the game tonight. Any predictions on the lineup Gardy puts out there? I think you have to stick with the normal lineup versus righties. Buscher at third, Kubel DHing. Thoughts?
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It was a good win; we really needed it. And it was a nail biter too, which I wasn’t really hoping for. Scoring runs on fielders’ choices isn’t the way to do it, and Mauer’s 0-4 brought Pedroia right back into the batting title hunt. We need to get some hits tonight.
With Baker and Slowey at 1a and 1b, where do you put Liriano? 1c?
I guess I wasn’t counting him because he hasn’t been a starter all year. but maybe 1a1 or something.
Did anyone see AJ’s quote “If we win tomorrow these two games don’t matter” Um, yes they do AJ. You still lost 1 game in the standings. Idiot.
Read that comment from AJ and had to snicker too. I think that attitude matches Guillen’s laissez-faire approach. I liked that Passan article, especially this part:
There is a general feeling that Gardenhire is a very good manager, the same reputation heaped on Joe Torre and Tony La Russa, and this is in spite of his insistence on giving Nick Punto 400 at-bats a year.
National media see the love of Punto too — gotta love that.
Finally, let’s shove that same bunch of closers out again today. Keep those other guys off the field…
Actually I’m hoping we can let our talented set of Breslow/Mijares/Nathan rest for a night, by getting 7-8 innings out of Slowey and scoring 7-8 runs for him. That would put us in the best position for the KC series.
AJ’s quote is pretty ridiculous. But it’s typical AJ douchebaggery to say “Oh those games don’t matter” after they already lost. (They mattered quite a bit before they lost.) Pretty sure I knew some kids growing up who were like that. They were douche bags too.
Gotta stick with the same lineup as Tuesday night, however, I’d like to see Tolbert in at SS and give Punto a rest (see benched). Tolbert just gives that little extra pop in the bat in the 8th hole that makes be much happier to see than Punto coming up and wondering if he’ll beat out an infield single or bunt attempt by sliding into 1B again. So I’d go with the following lineup:
Span RF Casilla 2B Mauer C Morneau 1B Kubel DH Buscher 3B Young LF Tolbert SS Gomez CF
Side note: Where is Morneau? I think the “MVP” chanting has to stop… please, that’s not what he’s playing for… And what can you say about Delmon Young? Pretty impressive series so far… keep it up!
My one concern is the twins seem to let down a little bit when going for a sweep. Can someone tell me the last time we swept a series? It seems like forever. Maybe this will be different because they have that killer instinct and know they MUST win tonight.
The last series we swept was August 15-17, against Seattle.
Since then we’ve won the first two games of a series against the Angels, Royals, and Orioles and failed to sweep those series.
So it’s time to turn that around and get the sweep. (The White Sox haven’t been swept since the All Star break. Time to turn that around too.)
Getting 7-8 innings out of Slowey would be outstanding, but if you have to throw someone out there early, let it be Bonser/Breslow/Mijares. I’d rather have them shutting the door on short rest instead of those other guys.
re: Young. He’s 16/38 (.571) in his last 10 games. Nice.
So is every game from here on out “the most important game of the year”?
If the Twins are going to make the playoffs, then I think the answer is a resounding, “YES.”
Every game is as important as the one that came before it — no, more important!