Friday, May
15, 2009
Sweep Complete!
Bring on the Yankees
It’s Friday, which means I am
in charge of the Morning Doinks on the Twins Page at
BaseballDigest.com, so here are a series of Twins topics for you to
read and enjoy.
·
The Twins completed
a three game sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a dramatic come-from-behind 6-5
win on Thursday afternoon. Through five innings, both Scott Baker and Justin Verlander were throwing shutouts and cruising. However,
in the sixth inning, Baker gave up five runs. Down 5-0, the Twins were able to
work Verlander over 120 pitches and he left the game
after a walk and a single in the bottom of the 7th. At that point,
the Twins bats came alive. Then with the Twins down 5-4 with runners on 2nd
and 3rd, Joe Crede blooped a two-run
single to centerfield that gave the Twins a 6-5 lead. The bullpen got the job
done the rest of the way to hold the lead. Jason
Kubel went 3-4 with two doubles. Denard Span went 2-4. Craig Breslow went 1.2 innings of shutout
relief, and Matt Guerrier
got the final out of the 8th inning. Joe Nathan struck out two in a perfect ninth inning for his sixth
save.
·
How good was Justin Verlander
on this day. 6+ innings pitched. 13 strikeouts. According
to Denard Span, “"I
knew he was nasty today when I saw Joe Mauer offering
at pitches he normally doesn't swing at. That's how you know someone is going good."”
·
Speaking of Joe Crede
playing hero. He came to the plate with the bases loaded and the scored tied at
ten on Wednesday night. On a 1-2 pitch, he hit a grand slam to help the Twins
win that game in the 13th inning. If we go back to an old statistic
that has not been used over the last several years, in the series, Joe Crede
would have had all three Game-Winning RBI. He was 4-15 in the series. Jason Kubel
raised his batting average from .308 to .333 by going 6-10 in the three games. Kubel came in to pinch hit with a runner on, down by two,
in the bottom of the 8th, against Joel Zumaya, and on the first pitch hit a
home run to tie the game. Joe Mauer went 4-11 with four walks and a home run in the
series as well.
·
Next up for the
Twins? A four game series in New York against the Yankees. The Twins will face Francisco Liriano,
Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey and Glen Perkins to the mound against Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain,
AJ Burnett and Andy Pettitte.
·
If you had May 14th
on the Gardy’s First Ejection pool, congratulations!
·
Delmon Young will be away from the team for a little while with Jose Morales being called up to take his place.
Young has been placed on the Family Medical Emergency list as a family member
of his is very ill, according to LaVelle
E. Neal. Jim
Mandelaro discusses the Morales promotion, and
says that it is Delmon Young’s mother that is very ill.
Obviously we wish Young and his family the best.
·
In the same
article, Mandelaro also commented that Mike Radcliff, Twins Director of Player
Personnel, was in Rochester to watch Sean
Henn and Bobby
Keppel.
·
Ed Thoma
of the Mankato Free Press find
the selection of Jose Morales as
intriguing, particularly with the Twins going to New York. You see, the Yankees
top two catchers are Jorge Posada
and Jose Molina. Both of them are
injured. So, is it possible that the Twins are trying to showcase Morales? Thoma admits that is a stretch. In reality, Morales becomes
a DH option with Jason Kubel likely to see more time in LF in the short-term.
·
Matt Guerrier has been very good much of this season. Nick Nelson points out that the team’s
(meaning the other bullpen arms) need to protect
his arm so that he doesn’t tire in the second half of the season.
·
According to Phil
Mackey, Jason Kubel thinks
he can be a .300 hitter. The Twins could really use that!
·
Travis Talks
presents his Top
5 Most Disappointing Players in the Twins organization so far this
year. That was after posting his Top
5 Biggest Surprises the other day.
·
On Wednesday, Justin Murphy posted his Upstate
Update, a look at the Rochester Red Wings play of late. He e-mailed me
something that is certainly worth mentioning, “David Winfree's batting line, with an OBP under .300 and slugging
(almost) .500. I poked around a little bit and found that, on the major league
level, only two players EVER have done that over a full season- Dave Kingman in
1976, Mike Jacobs in 2008.”
·
Phil
Miller tells us what kind of
music bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek is not
a fan of!
·
At Over
the Baggy, Parker analyzes
the Twins starting five, looking at their run support and games scores
and more.
·
At his StarTribune.com/yourvoices blog,
Seth Stohs showed how
the current Twins roster is comprised, how they came to the
organization.
MINOR LEAGUE REPORT
Thursday -
SethSpeaks.net Hitter of the Day – Mark Dolenc, Ft. Myers
Miracle
Thursday -
SethSpeaks.net Pitcher of the Day – Tyler Robertson, Ft. Myers Miracle
ROCHESTER REPORT
Thursday –Rochester 5, Indianapolis 4 – David Winfree has made a career out of coming up with big hits in
big situations. Late in this game, Winfree came up
with two on and two outs, and drilled a long, three run homer to give the Red
Wings the lead. It was his fifth homer of the season. Luke Hughes went 2-3 with a walk and his sixth home run. Justin Huber was 3-4 with his second
triple. Jason Jones started and gave
up three runs on eight hits and two walks in just 4.1 innings. Bobby Keppel then worked 2.2 scoreless
innings in relief. Sean Henn recorded his fifth save. He struck out four in two
innings and allowed only an unearned run.
ROCKCAT RECAP
Thursday - New Britain, Portland – This game was suspended by rain in the top of the 4th
inning. Portland was leading the Rockcats 8-1
already. Jay Rainville
started and gave up seven runs (6 earned) on five hits and two walks in
just 2.2 innings.
MIRACLE MEMOS
Thursday –Ft. Myers 19, Sarasota 4 – Mark Dolenc
led the potent offensive attack in this game by going 5-6 with three doubles. Evan Bigley
is still unfazed by the Florida State League. He went 4-5 with a walk. Ben Revere was 3-5 with a double. Danny Berg was 3-6 with a double. Deibinson Romero went 2-4 with two walks. Jair Fernandez and Chris Cates each had a single and a double. Cates drove in three
runs. Tyler Robertson was the
beneficiary of the offensive support. The lefty gave up just two runs on five
hits in 5.2 innings. He walked two and struck out three. Alex Burnett got the next four outs, three of them on strikeouts. Santos Arias then gave up two runs on
four hits in the final two innings.
SNAPPERS SNIPPETS
Thursday – Beloit 6, Clinton 7 (13 innings) – Danny Rondon had pitched two scoreless innings before coming
back out for the 13th inning. It was in that inning that he gave up
the winning run. Brad Tippett started and gave up three runs (2 earned) on
eight hits and no walks. Henry Reyes gave
up two runs (1 earned) on two hits and a walk in two innings. Steve Blevins struck out five in three
innings of one run ball. The Snappers managed just five hits in this game. They
did walk seven times. James Beresford was
2-6. Jonathan Waltenbury
and Angel Morales each hit their
three-run homer.
Please feel free to Send me an e-mail, or leave
your questions or comments here.