Twins smartly stay put at trading deadline

Depending on who you ask, the Twins did themselves no good by not making any trades before the deadline. Some wanted a shutdown reliever and were willing to get rid of above-average center fielder Denard Span in the process. Others wanted to move one of Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, or Delmon Young and try to get the best selection of prospects in return. The problem lies in the team’s position to make a late playoff run. They are in limbo of sorts, not far enough back to sell everyone but not close enough to buy a big name guy. Either way, GM Bill Smith is right by not making a move unless it makes sense. No trades at the deadline is better than making the wrong trade(s) at the deadline; anyone remember Ramos for Matt Capps? Yeah, that.

 

The team is now in California to face the Angels, and their first starter will be ace Ervin Santana, who threw a no-hitter in his last start.

Span is also back with the team, with Luke Hughes being sent down again. Lineups have not been posted yet but I would suspect that Span will lead off and Ben Revere would get the day off.

 

Twins steal one from Rangers

It was another high-scoring game, this time with more suspense, that thankfully ended with the Twins on top. For a minute there I thought we were headed for another snoozer in which the Rangers of Texas (no relation to Walker, the Texas Ranger) would rack up a giant score against our fragile pitching staff.

Luckily, the Twins clawed back and slowly but surely gained the victory to remain 7 games back of Detroit. Minnesota actually led Texas 3-2 going into the bottom of the 4th, but the Rangers put up a 5-spot in the frame to take a 7-3 lead. 

 

Umm…

 

Umm would be a good way to describe that picture, as in “Umm…why is #5 throwing from the mound?” Umm is also used in place of an actual title, because it’s tough to find words to describe the Twins game from last night. The end result: 27 hits and 20 runs for the Rangers. 11 hits and 6 runs for your hometown team. The Twins committed 3 errors if you look at the boxscore, but one can make an argument that there was actually 4 or even 5.

 

Offensive highlights for the Twins would be Jason Kubel‘s homer in the 8th inning. He absolutely crushed it, and also had a solid single up the middle. It’s no secret he’s my favorite Twin and he continues to be a consistent hitter in the middle of the order. Jason Repko, Delmon Young, and Danny Valencia each added two hits as well, with Young and Valencia getting a double and a single. Although Tsuyoshi Nishioka went hitless, he didn’t strike out! You can see I’m grasping for something here.

 

Pitching highlights for the Twins: ________________

You can see I left that space blank, because there really isn’t a highlight. At all. The bright spot of the game only happened because the team was looking at a 15-run deficit with one inning to go. So the manager did the only sensible thing and turned to super utility player Michael Cuddyer to pitch. And, quite frankly, he pitched well…for an All-Star right fielder/first baseman. Sure he walked a guy and gave up two hits, but nobody scored (one of just two innings in which the Rangers failed to score). But the leadoff batter hit a double to the gap, and if Alexi Casilla could have fielded the throw cleanly, the runner probably would have been tagged out at second. The next batter “singled” into shallow left center, even though the ball only dropped due to a communication error by Nishi and Repko. Unfortunately there were no swing-and-misses, at all, by the Rangers, which is surprising considering that Cuddyer’s sinker/cutter/fastball had more movement on them than most of the other pitches thrown by our professional pitchers. I think the best part of it all is that Cuddyer came to bat in the top of the 9th, as a pitcher, and reached on an error.

 

The simple fact is, Carl Pavano needs to go deep in the ballgame tonight for our Twins to even have a chance. I’m sure long reliever Anthony Swarzak may be available this time around, but we can’t keep relying on a bullpen that boasts the league’s second-worst ERA.

View Cuddyer’s entire pitching performance here, if you’d like.

 

Slow second half start

After ending the first half of the season with a 9-3 record, getting a rejuvenated Joe Nathan as the team’s closer, and looking forward to Delmon Young and Jason Kubel to make a return, it was easy for Minnesota Twins fans to be positive after the All-Star Break. And by starting the second half with 12 straight games at home and against division rivals, it was an especially appealing way to continue the surge towards first place. But instead of gaining ground, the team went 5-6 and actually lost some ground on the Detroit Tigers. The starting pitching has been inconsistent, our relievers have actually been acceptable, but some of the spark that the team once had seems to have vanished.

Before yesterday’s game, in which he went 0-for-3 with a walk, leadoff man Ben Revere had only reached base three times in his last 28 at-bats. He currently sports a .249 batting average, which truthfully could be very acceptable for a CF that plays good defense and can steal some bases, except…to go along with that he has an on-base percentage of just .287. I do believe that he gets quite a bit of slack for being a rookie, and can only imagine that his plate discipline and ability to get on base will improve with more experience. With his current pace, he’d draw between 20-25 walks in a full season (close to Delmon’s numbers). And that is not acceptable for a leadoff hitter. I still think Denard Span is our leadoff hitter upon his return, and could see Revere going down to the 9-hole because that keeps the speed at top and bottom of the lineup, like Gardy likes, but also allows him to generally be in less-important situations and can give him some time to keep improving. Speaking of the 9-hole…

 

Tsuyoshi Nishioka had a career year last season in Japan, but I was still very excited for his arrival. Playing in just 6 games before the middle of June due to a broken leg, he didn’t get the chance to start out slow like a lot of Twins players typically do each season. When he came back from injury is when the Twins started winning more games and his production both on offense and defense became vital, especially with his infield counterpart Alexi Casilla tearing it up. Instead, Nishioka has been a major disappointment, both offensively and defensively. Some have questioned whether he should even be playing shortstop, opting for the more casual second base instead. Nishi is hitting a respectable .270 in the month of July, but like Revere has struggles getting on base with his .293 OBP for the season. But the alarming statistic is that after yesterday’s hitless performance, Tsuyoshi now has struck out 31 times on the year while amassing just 30 hits. This is a very alarming number that suggests Nishi hasn’t been able to get solid reads on MLB pitchers yet. But the question becomes, How long will Gardy stick with him? Earlier indications pointed to a very long leash, but with Trevor Plouffe performing superbly in AAA and getting the call up, does he deserve a chance to start again? His possible talent goes mostly wasted by sitting on the bench. It’s a tough situation for Twins fans to deal with, as well. He hasn’t been very solid defensively like he was supposed to be. I understand that Ichiro and Nishi are very different players, but the whole “coming to play MLB from Japan transitional phase” thing can’t apply to our 2B. Ichiro had a .350 batting average in his first year stateside, and although that was his average while playing in Japan, Nishioka’s past certainly indicates that he would be a better hitter than he has been thus far.

 

One of the reasons it was important to get off to a good start in the second half, other than the obvious AL Central matchups, is that now they head west for a 10-game road trip in which they take on the Rangers, Athletics, and Angels. Although the Twins have beaten the Rangers 3 out of 4 times this season, Texas sports a 14-3 record dating back to before the All-Star Break and have some absolute mashers for hitters. The Angels have a fantastic pitching staff that I feel could cause some big issues for our lineup, and Oakland is…well, Oakland.

 

At any rate, I predict a split in the series against Texas. I think Nick Blackburn will give us a good performance tonight and that Brian Duensing will rebound and get a W on Wednesday night. Carl Pavano could be outpitched by All Star C.J. Wilson and Scott Baker may struggle pitching outside of Target Field. Only time will tell.

 

Player stumbles early, team stumbles late

 

It was a game of stumbles this evening, as the Twins fell to the Royals 2-1. Things were slow going, if you’re a fan of high-scoring games, or they were perfect, if you’re an old-fashioned baseball fan, for the first three and a half innings. Then the flashiness of Ben Revere came to the plate and knocked the team’s first hit, a single. After a few pitches to Alexi Casilla, Revere successfully stole second. Casilla grounded out but advanced Revere to third in the process. With Joe Mauer at the plate, the Royals’ pitcher bounced a pitch in the dirt that ricocheted off the catcher’s gear and allowed Revere an easy chance to score the first run of the game. Revere has been a fantastic call-up, providing a much-needed spark at the top of the lineup. Revere owned both of the Twins’ hits, in fact, until bottom of the 7th inning. Revere’s second hit was a line-drive into the right field corner and Ben rocketed around the bases, eventually ending up on third base for a triple. The best part, though, is that Revere did a full somersault halfway between second and third base, but he got up immediately and kept trucking to slide into third.

If anyone saw Gardy’s postgame press conference, you would have seen him talk about how the loss isn’t placed on Matt Capps, and the offense was more to blame. In Capps’ defense, the team mustered a whopping three hits before the 9th inning came around. The offense also had opportunities in the 9th, with a runner on third base and only one out, but they failed to get pinch-runner Matt Tolbert home. I guess technically Tolbert has himself to blame for not scoring, since he ran home on contact from a half-bunt by Luke Hughes and got thrown out by a distance most likely similar to his height. Regardless of all that, though, the fact of the matter remains: the team had a lead in the 9th inning and failed to come away with a win. The inning tipped to the negative side of the scale right from the start, when Capps walked the leadoff batter on four pitches. Capps then recorded two outs (the second one being a very hard-hit linedrive) but surrendered a go-ahead, two-run dinger to fresh big leaguer Eric Hosmer. It’s Capps’ 7th blown save of the season and frankly should not close for this ballclub any more. He can’t be trusted when it matters the most. Whether something may be physically wrong with him (refer to the 2 strikeouts in the last month stat from yesterday’s post) or mentally wrong with him (the fact that he cannot seem to close a game to save his job), he can’t be relied on anymore. Joe Nathan has shown a lot of improvement as of late, and although I know some fans may want to see him close again, I’d prefer to see Glen Perkins get the spot instead. He has been dominant in his newfound role as a reliever and he seems to have accepted that role with a confidence that would work in late-game situations. Listening to 1500 ESPN radio after the game, I got some great information regarding starting pitcher Nick Blackburn. He pitched very well, going 7 innings and only giving up 4 hits. However, in his final inning pitched, it was a 1-2-3 inning in which he threw a measly 6 pitches. It was an interesting move by the manager, because he certainly earned a chance at throwing in the 8th as well. Regardless of how he performed there, it was still almost a certainty that Capps would have pitched the 9th, but it’s an interesting scenario anyway. On to some positives, other than Revere’s good night at the plate:

Danny Valencia had a nice diving stop at third base in the first inning to record the final out of the frame. He is a very solid defender at the hot corner, even with his 7 throwing errors on the year.

Delmon Young continued his good hitting with a solid double to left center as one of his two hits on the night. When he hit the ball, his swing made such good contact that I thought the ball would travel to the outfielders very quickly and Delmon wouldn’t be able to advance, but he trotted into second base without needing to slide. He saw just 8 pitches throughout his 4 at-bats, but I’ve come to accept that Delmon simply will not be patient at the plate. And as fans, we have to deal with it because it does not seem like he will change his approach at this point. I can’t fault him, as long as the approach continues to be successful for him.

Carl Pavano looks to get his 7th win of the year tonight in the 3rd game of 4 against the Royals.

 

Holy Plouffe

It was a rocky start to the second half of the season for Francisco Liriano and batterymate Joe Mauer. In the first inning, a wild pitch got away from Mauer, allowing a run to score. In Mauer’s attempt to dish the ball back to Liriano, it skipped away and allowed another run to score. In Liriano’s defense, Mauer’s throw was absolutely terrible and he honestly had no reason to even toss the ball back home. Luckily it would prove to be a non-factor.

The Royals actually held a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 5th, but the two-out Twins just happened to show up at that point. After a pop up and ground out by Alexi Casilla and Mauer, Mr. All-Star Michael Cuddyer drew a walk. Danny Valencia then added on to his team-leading RBI number with a double to score Cuddy. Delmon Young, in his first game back from a DL stint, smacked his second double of the game (en route to a 3-for-4 evening) to score Valencia. Then it was Trevor Plouffe‘s turn, a born-again utility man who has found his love for baseball again. He launched a home run to left field and frankly picked up where he left off at AAA. He would also single and walk during the game, hopefully giving us Twins fans some hope that he can be a solid offensive contributor down the stretch.

Thanks need to go out to the atrocious KC Royals pitching staff. Their starter, Bruce Chen, never threw faster than 84 mph. He also threw over to first base a total of 14 times – just when it was Casilla on first. In the Twins’ other scoring inning, the 7th, they scored two runs via a bases loaded walk and a bases loaded hit-by-pitch. Kudos to Ben Revere and Casilla for being troopers at the plate during that time.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka, our wonderful Japanese import, committed his seventh error of the season last night. I think I’m part of a small group that frankly isn’t too concerned with his poor defense. I feel like things will come around for him in time, and I think people forget that this is basically just his second month playing in the Major Leagues. He will adjust, and be a solid player. Already in July he’s posting a .324 batting average paired with a .425 on-base percentage. I don’t believe that he will be close to those numbers all season, but it is still encouraging to see him hitting the ball well when the team is trying to make a run at first place.

I leave you with a couple of interesting tidbits, found on Twitter (which is a fantastic invention, by the way. Follow me @tntryan for awesome baseball updates.)

From Nick, at Nick’s Twins Blog (@nnelson9) - “Since June 17th — about one calendar month — Matt Capps has struck out two hitters. Unbelievable.”

And from Parker Hageman at Over The Baggy (@overthebaggy) – “Liriano held a 13.00 K/BB ratio against lefties last year (52/4). That’s down to 1.50 K/BB this year (18/12).”

 

Very late edit: Plouffe is starting in RF tonight, further proving his willingness to be the best super-utility player this side of the Mississippi.

 

First pitch says it all

Nick Blackburn allowed a solo homer on the very first pitch of the game, and the A’s never really looked back. Blackburn would also allow a two-run single in the 4th inning, but he still pitched a very good game. He was able to last eight innings, something that’s very welcomed by the bullpen. Four of the six hits he allowed were singles, but he had some control issues in that 4th inning and finished with two walks and two strikeouts, all while throwing 66 of his 99 pitches for strikes. Apparently he “locked in” after giving up the two-run single and retired eleven of the final fifteen batters he faced.

 

Offensively for the Twins, nothing happened until the 8th inning. You could blame it on being unprepared; Oakland’s starter left after just 2 and 2/3 innings pitched, with pain in his right hip. Fresh call-up Kirk Saarloos came in and allowed just three singles and struck out three in 3 and 2/3 innings of relief.

 

The 8th inning provided some excitement, and hope. Denard Span led off the inning with a sharp single, but Nick Punto flew out right after that. Joe Mauer, Minnesota’s hero, hit a ball that ended up bouncing off the left field wall, even though it didn’t look like he had hit it very far. Span scored easily, and Mauer wanted to stretch it into a triple. The left fielder’s throw hit Mauer as he slid into the base and caromed into the Twins dugout, resulting in an advance of one base because the ball went out of play. The final scoring on the play was an RBI triple with a run scored because of an error. Justin Morneau followed with a sharp single of his own, and nearly every armchair manager was screaming for Carlos Gomez to come in and pinch-run. It was simple, really. Gomez replaces Morneau and Mike Lamb would come in to play first base for the 9th inning (and any subsequent innings, if necessary.) Then you have the option of sending Gomez to second, or possibly doing a hit-and-run with the pull-happy Jason Kubel at the plate. The non-move proved costly, as Kubel grounded into a double play to end the threat, and inning.

Not that Delmon Young‘s pathetic 9th inning at-bat helped matters. He swung and missed on the first two fastballs, then made lucky contact to foul off the next two pitches before a feeble half-swing at a slider that was caught in the middle of the left-handed batter’s box. I don’t like to rag on a single player like that, because even the great Mauer or MVP Morneau can have bad at-bats. But Delmon is the one player I can watch and have absolutely no hope that he’ll do anything good with the bat. He has no patience and can’t field very well (as seen by the ball that fell out of his glove and the ball that bounced over his glove last night. He was luckily only charged with one error.) I have faith that he’ll be a key member to our team in the future, I just wish he’d show some signs of improvement.

 

Speaking of improvement, I heard a nice quote about Gomez. When he found out he wasn’t in the starting lineup, he said something to Ron Gardenhire that was along the lines of “that’s o.k. coach, I’ll play whenever and wherever you need me to,” which is a hint to me that he may be maturing just a tad bit.

 

Adam Everett had to leave the game after taking a Nick Punto foul ball to his hand. He has a “deep bruise” and it isn’t known whether or not he’ll be able to play tonight.

 

It’s well-documented that Minnesota’s bullpen has struggled lately. I cringe every time I see Brian Bass warming up near the left field seats. Speak with any person that has seen me cringe and they’ll tell you how I’m convinced Bass should wear a white flag underneath his cap, because his coming into the game is the signal of surrender.

Anyway, Al Reyes was released by the Rays yesterday, and might be an option for the team. He collected 26 saves last year for Tampa Bay and currently has a 4.37 ERA in relief this season. Before you shout “A 4.37 ERA is horrible for a reliever!” in disgust at me, please note that if acquired, Reyes’ ERA would put him as our 5th-best man in the pen; ahead of our supposed setup “ace”, Matt Guerrier, and Gardy’s love child, Mr. Bass. One more rant on Bass: he seriously has no ML talent whatsoever. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but he literally has shown nothing to prove that he belongs with the big boys. At least Boof as had some flashes of dominance.

 

Alexi Casilla was 1-for-3 in a rehab start last night, and he hopes to be back to the team by the end of the month.

 

I am fortunate enough to have a ticket for tonight’s game, and will be attending in my beloved Kubel jersey. Look for me in either section 232 or 233 (I can’t remember), row 11, and either seat 7, 8, or 9. Oh yeah, it’s in the upper deck, because it’s apart of the All You Can Eat Seats promotion…I’ll let you know how that works out.

 

It’s like déjà vu all over again

The baseball game has been over for approximately one hour, and I’ve been unable to type anything regarding what I just witnessed. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced so many different feelings within a 3 hour and 14 minute period. I don’t even want to pull up stats.

 

The Twins struck first, scoring two runs in the top of the second. The first thought that went through my head was “Well, we had a six-run lead last night and blew that, so two runs is nothing.” Mood: cautious optimism.

 

Sure enough, in the bottom of the third, Seattle scored four runs, highlighted by a Raul Ibanez three-run homer. This guy is killing us, with 11 RBI in the two games that have been played. Mood: hoping for the unlikely.

 

The top of the 6th rolls around, with Jason Kubel leading off. On the sixth pitch of his at-bat, Kubel turned on an 85-mph fastball and unintentionally morphed the baseball into a weapon heading for beyond right field. Mood: proud, because my favorite player brings us within one run.

 

Bottom of the 6th, and Scott Baker takes the hill. To summarize the inning, Baker ends up loading the bases with one out and is removed in favor of Craig Breslow, who pitched in the previous game. A ground out and RBI single later, Breslow is gone with Jesse Crain jogging in from the bullpen. Five pitches and Crain gets the final out of the inning, and despite not pitching in the first game of the series, is done for the night. Mood: deflated, pessimistic; any chance at a victory was just squandered.

 

Fast forward to the 8th inning. Remember in yesterday’s post, how I said that the inning the Mariners scored ten runs in was literally the worst inning ever?

I retract that statement. The 8th inning of last night’s game takes the cake as the worst inning, ever. Justin Morneau doubles with one out, and yet again Jason Kubel turns white leather into a tooth-remover, hopefully not injuring any defenseless Washingtonian en route to his second homer of the night. A few batters later, Mike Lamb pinch-hits for Carlos Gomez. A questionable move at best, as Gomez has two hits in the game. After watching two fastballs come by outside of the strike zone, Lamb smokes the third consecutive fastball into right-center field to tie the game. Denard Span would strike out to end the threat, and inning. Mood: surprised the Twins could put together an inning like that.

 

Let’s transition into the bottom of the 8th, and what makes it the worst inning ever. An overused Matt Guerrier starts the inning by allowing two singles while recording just one out. He threw just five pitches but they were all mid-90′s fastballs. Bring on Joe Nathan, the self-proclaimed “door-closer“. At this point in the game, you have Brian Bass, who pitched in the last game, or Nathan as pitching options. FYI, Dennys Reyes is apparently sick with food poisoning and is out for an undetermined amount of time. It was an easy choice to go with Joe and hope he could get a quick double play since runners are on first and second and there’s an out already on the board. It took 12 pitches for things to get out of hand. A 5-pitch at-bat retired Adrian Beltre for the second out of the inning. 6 pitches into the next at-bat and the count is full. All of a sudden, the screen goes black and shakes a little bit. Color returns us to a screen showing the two team names and their respective records, with a picture of Safeco Field. Literally, the video feed cut out for viewers everywhere. The only thing we had was Dick Bremer‘s voice slightly cracking as he said “Poked to left field and DOWN for a hit, and Seattle has retaken the lead.” Mood: disbelief, shock, awe, anger, frustration, etc.

 

The 2-3-4 hitters are scheduled to hit in the top of the 9th. If anyone will win the game, it’s gotta be a combination of these guys. Nick Punto and Joe Mauer both strike out swinging. Great, our best hitter up in the clutchiest of situations. Morneau draws a walk to climactically bring up Kubel yet again. On a 2-2 pitch, Kubel goes opposite field on a 97-mph fastball for a double. Mood: believing the impossible might actually happen. Morneau was correctly held at third base. Folks, he’s easily the slowest runner on the team, and the ball was on its way in from the outfield when Morneau was touching third, so please don’t get upset that he wasn’t sent. For once in his life Scott Ullger made a wise decision. Delmon Young is intentionally walked to bring up Adam Everett. Another easy decision by Gardy is to pinch-hit for Everett. Who he chose could be questioned, as Mike Redmond saddled up in the batter’s box while rook Randy Ruiz saddled up on the bench. All we needed was a classic Redmond bloop single into right field and we would’ve retaken the lead, hopefully for good.

But it was not to be. Red Dog lined the third pitch into right field, an easy catch for the speedy Ichiro.

 

 

There’s a few things that can be learned from these first two games:

1. Our bullpen is overworked and unreliable without Pat Neshek. Either the starters need to pitch above the 100 pitch mark or the team needs to make something happen. Call up Bobby Korecky, who was serviceable while pitching in the Majors earlier in the season, and ship Bass to whoever will take him. I’m convinced that Bass should staple a white flag to the inside of his hat so that whenever he takes the mound, the opposing team knows they can add a W to their season totals.
2. Every starter in the rotation is vulnerable at any moment and nobody is a sure win anymore. It’s times like these that make a fan miss the Johan Santanas of the world.
3. Joe Mauer pulls the ball to the second baseman way too much. Seriously, if you’re going to ground out, at least try hitting it to the 3B so you might be able to beat out the throw. Mauer is also 8th in all of baseball in double plays grounded into, a pretty awful stat for a number 3 hitter. This is where Gardy should be doing more hit-and-runs, or attempted steals, because chances are it’s either Span or Punto (formerly Gomez or Alexi Casilla) on first so you know they have some speed. Try something to help Mauer out.
4. Lastly, I can reiterate my point that I do not believe Gardenhire is a capable manager. He throws Crain for five pitches but nothing more, not to mention he’s a huge fan of these 1-out appearances for pitchers. Seriously, who does he expect to pitch if the game goes into extra innings? It would’ve had to be a starting pitcher for crying out loud. Maybe you can’t pin that all on him, because he doesn’t have the power to sign another reliever. But he can manage the bullpen better than getting just one out from both Breslow and Crain.

 

Today’s game starts at 3:40 and I don’t know if I will be able to watch.

 

And oh yeah, the Tigers scored two runs in the top of the 14th to get an 8-6 lead over the White Sox. But, um, Chicago scored four runs in the bottom of the inning to win the game and get sole ownership of first place in the division.

 

With Liriano back in action, Twins top Indians for series win

I was unable to watch any part of the game, but saw a brief highlight on ESPN…that counts as watching the game, right? No? Well, maybe not, but I have to say that the highlight I saw showed Francisco Liriano throwing his slider to make hitters look ridiculous. It also showed him getting out of a bases-loaded jam, something that probably ends up being more of a mental challenge rather than a test of physical ability. To me, Liriano showing the poise to get out of such a situation is an immediate sign that he’s improved on more than just his velocity and mechanics (both give us hope for the future, by the way.) In the end he had allowed just three singles in six innings of work. From what I’ve read, he wanted to throw his fastball right away to each hitter but he had a tough time controlling it and that definitely contributed to his three walks. But aided by a key double play and nifty defensive move by first baseman Mike Lamb, Liriano didn’t allow any runs in his six innings of work. He struck out five and had eight groundball outs compared to five fly outs and those numbers are also really encouraging. In all honesty, I just can’t wait to actually watch him pitch in his next start.

 

 

Offensively, Denard Span continues to hold on to the lead off spot, and for good reason. He was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, including his second homer of the season (off former Twin Juan Rincon, no less.) I’m anxious to see who goes to the bench when Michael Cuddyer comes back. It’s pretty much guaranteed that he will go into right field immediately, but you can’t get rid of Span with how good he’s been playing lately (offensively and defensively.) Span’s hitting line is now up to .315/.403/.865 with a very good 21:19 K:BB ratio. Those numbers are through 130 at-bats this season; let’s compare them with Carlos Gomez‘s month of June, in which he had 130 ABs: .236/.266/.575 with 28 strikeouts and 4 walks. I think it’s clear to most fans that Gomez certainly has the potential to be a fantastic player, some day. I don’t believe that day will happen at any point this season, or really next season for that matter. He needs to develop more and simply hasn’t shown improvement this year. Frankly, he’s the first candidate to get demoted when Cuddyer comes back. You can’t bench him. I don’t believe you can bench Delmon Young, and there’s no need for 5 outfielders on the ML team (I’d consider Jason Kubel the 4th outfielder in that scenario.) But I don’t know how well Gomez would take a demotion. I certainly hope he’s mature enough to realize that there’s a(some) problem(s) and that they need fixin’.

 

Brendan Harris hit his 6th homer of the year yesterday, a solo shot in the 3rd inning. I have a feeling he is close to a hot streak and his final numbers will mirror the .286 batting average, 12 homers, and 35 doubles he had last season.

 

The bullpen kind of blew up yesterday, with Jesse Crain and Matt Guerrier combining for 2 IP, 4 hits, and 2 runs allowed. They are lucky the Twins had scored 5 runs up to that point or we could still be in second place in the AL Central standings.

Yes that’s right folks, the Twins now hold a .5 game lead over the Chicago White Sox!

 

The Twins now travel out west for a 3-game set with the Mariners. Tonight’s and tomorrow’s game starts at 9:10 central time while Wednesday’s starts at 3:40. Glen Perkins looks for his 9th win tonight.

 

Twins win series against Indians

Minnesota did not have a runner on base until Craig Monroe hit his 9th double of the year to lead off the 6th inning. That’s where things sort of unraveled for Cleveland because Brendan Harris walked and Nick Punto reached on a sacrifice bunt that was misplayed by both the 3B and pitcher. He bunted down the third base line but the 3B went to cover the base, while the pitcher stood on the mound. By the time anybody got to the ball, Punto was long safe at first.

This is where the news turns to unfortunate, if you’re Nick Blackburn. Denard Span and Alexi Casilla, the next two batters, each got an RBI through a groundout. So how is that unfortunate news for Nick, if his team was ahead 2-1? With the bases loaded and nobody out, the Twins only managed two runs. Our bullpen would give up a run in the 8th inning, giving Blackburn a no decision in a game that he pitched pretty well in. He was able to go 7 innings on 99 pitches, only allowed one run on 4 hits, plus he struck out 3 and walked one.

 

The lineup came up big in the 9th inning though. Casilla hit a 1-out, ground-rule double. Justin Morneau, after Mike Redmond had struck out, hit his 25th double of the year to drive in Casilla and pick up his 76th RBI of the season. Delmon Young was intentionally walked, and Jason Kubel made them pay for it with an RBI single.

 

More key 2-out hitting by the Twins…what a shock. The Twins lead the Majors in batting average in multiple situations: with runners in scoring position (.315), with runners in scoring position and two outs (.286), with runners on (.297), with the bases loaded (.341), and in close-and-late situations (.280). Close-and-late is defined as the 7th inning or later with either the score tied, or the tying run for either team in the on-deck circle.

Truthfully, it’s one of the very few reasons the Twins are just 2.5 games behind the White Sox this late in the season.

 

Speaking of the Sox, they’re coming into town for a 4-game series…I don’t think it’s too outlandish to think that it’s the most important series of the year, thus far. The problem for the Twins is that Chicago will be throwing 3 (probable) lefties, and for one reason or another the Twins just cannot hit left-handed pitchers this year. The Metrodome favors Minnesota though; the Twins are 34-19 at home this season which is 5th-best in the Majors.

 

A quick update on Francisco Liriano: he threw 6 innings last night, giving up 8 hits and 4 runs, but he only walked 1 and struck out 9. There’s still no new news on a possible promotion date, which is unfortunate.

 

Kevin Slowey pitches tonight and will look to get the team off to a good start in this crucial series.