Thursday, April 3, 2008
Twins 1, Angels 3
Actually the score of the
Thursday afternoon game was Angels 5, Twins 4, but just to be different, I
figured I would title this for the series which the Angels won three games to
one. The game was again not very pretty. Here are a couple of quick notes, but
I encourage this to be a place to talk Twins. The minor league games start very
soon, including Rochester this afternoon. So, check in on that as well.
·
Kevin Slowey left the game in the fourth inning with what has
been reported a couple of different ways. The primary report is calling it a
strained biceps muscle, but I have also heard that it may have been some
flu-like symptoms. I am certain we will hear more in the near term. He pitched
great in the first two innings. Then a Howie Kendrick
double, a Maicer Izturis
single and later a two run home run by Gary Matthews in the 3rd
inning and Slowey had given up three runs in 3.1
innings. Not a great start overall, but the injury/illness is more of a concern
than the results of the start.
·
Brian Bass came
in and got out of the fourth and pitched scoreless sixth and seventh innings.
So it was a good appearance for him… until the 7th inning when he
gave up solo home runs to Torii Hunter and Mike Napoli. Juan Rincon, Dennys Reyes and Matt Guerrier
kept the team close for the remaining innings.
·
The offense wasn’t
impressive again, with the exception of Joe Mauer who
had two doubles, a walk and a sacrifice fly. A very good day for the Twins
catcher. Carlos Gomez also had two hits in the game.
·
Jason Kubel unloaded off of Justin Speier
to hit his, and the Twins, first home run of the season. Hopefully that will
keep him in the lineup now!
·
Justin Morneau went 0-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly. I’m sure
he’d love to get that first hit out of the way.
·
Adam Everett had
a walk and a single. He was then pinch hit for by Matt Tolbert in the 9th
inning. Tolbert worked out a walk against Francisco Rodriguez for the season
straight game.
·
Despite the lack
of offense, the Twins scored four runs (which isn’t horrible) and had two
runners on base when Michael Cuddyer struck out to
end the game.
·
SIDE NOTE –
Johnny Cueto is making me look like a genius for
ranking him the #3 rookie pitcher in 2008 back in February, and for having him
on all four of my fantasy baseball teams! Not a bad major league debut.
·
CONGRATS – Chris Coste took the first pitch that he saw this season and hit
a home run. He went 2-4 with a walk in the improbable comeback game this afternoon.
·
By the way, the
Royals beat the Tigers to sweep their three game series today. So again, let’s
not overreact to the Twins first four games.
Any thoughts, please share them here.