Fire Gardy

“I might take a sleeping pill tonight. And a glass of vodka,” Guillen said. “Twenty-seven innings and we only had one good one. We wasted 26 innings in this town.” -Ozzie

I hate to use the term “emotional roller coaster” so I won’t.  That was a wild game.  Slowey looked unhittable for three innings, then the wheels came off.  He couldn’t get a guy out in the fourth inning. After retiring nine in a row on thirty pitches, he decided to stop throwing strikes.  However, lets not talk about the top of the fourth anymore.  I think the key to this game was getting two runs back right away.  We didn’t go into shutdown mode after they put up a six-spot in the top of the inning. We knew we couldn’t rely on hitting a grand slam at some point followed by a solo shot, so we had to start the comeback right away.  Two runs here, a run there, a few more later on.  That is how the Twins comeback.

How about that bullpen?  They have thrown ten scoreless in the last two games.  If you had told me that a week ago I would have slapped you in the face.  I think Ozzie allowing Jenks to pitch a third inning was questionable. I’m assuming his reasoning was “Jenks at 70% is better than the next guy in line at 100%”, which I tend to agree with.  Karlos had probably his best game of the season, maybe tied for first with the time he hit for the cycle (also against the White Sox). 

Granted a lefty was on the mound, but I don’t like Gardy’s decision to pinch hit for Kubel late in the game.  Kubel is one of our best hitters and I think he could have done some damage. Not that it matters, we won anyway.

I have a theory about why this team has played so well this season (September swoon not included):  Our players are young enough that they don’t realize the pressure of the situation.  I get the feeling Gomez, Span, and Casilla would be playing the same way if we were ten games out.  I have no facts or evidence to back that up, but this is the internet and I don’t need them.

Shifting gears for a minute, how bad would the NYMets be WITHOUT Santana?  They are in the midst of collapsing AGAIN and he is the only reliable player on that squadron.  He has to be frustrated, granted the Twins bullpen hasn’t been much better of late, so he can’t have that much buyers remorse (I’m not sure I used that term correctly, but again its the internet, I do what I want).

Hopefully Gardy and the rest of the coaching staff keeps the team focused and they don’t have a letdown against the Royals, who have quietly been playing well.  The white sox get the indians at home, with Cliff Lee going on sunday.  The magic number is now 4. Go Twins.

Also, USC lost.  Good day all around.