Friday, May
29, 2009
Friday Twins
Notes
After losing six games in a row
to the Yankees and White Sox, the Twins rolled out wins in five of their next
six games. On Thursday afternoon, Anthony
Swarzak pitched well through six innings, but Josh Beckett was even better and the Twins
fell 3-1 to the Red Sox. Jason Varitek led off the top of the 7th inning
with his second home run of the day and that is when things got interesting.
Several batters and a couple of pitchers later, Dustin Pedroia flew out to Jason Kubel
in RF. Kubel fired a strike to Mike Redmond at the plate and Jeff
Bailey was called safe. Replays and slow-motion replays confirmed that the
play was indeed incredibly close. Redmond leapt into the air and into the face
of the home plate ump and very quickly he was deservedly ejected. Ron Gardenhire
came out, and he too was ejected. In the bottom half of the inning, Beckett
disagreed with some of the home plate umpire’s pitch calls and vocally demonstrated
his disapproval. Varitek, realizing that his pitcher
was likely the next to get the boot, turned around toward the home plate ump
(something that should generate an ejection) to protect his pitcher and was
soon ejected. Soon after, Red Sox manager Terry
Francona
was thrown out. The Twins fell short 3-1. They will now start at 3 game series
against the defending American League champion Tampa Bay Rays. The Twins will
trot out Scott Baker, Francisco Liriano and Nick
Blackburn against the Rays’ James
Shields, David Price and Matt Garza. Here are some more thoughts
and Twins topics:
·
With Anthony Swarzak pitching
so well through two starts, he has created discussion about what the Twins
should do when Glen Perkins comes
back from the Disabled List after a rehab stint in Rochester. Swarzak could stick around in the bullpen as a long
reliever. Perkins could be sent to the ‘pen as well. The Star-Tribune’s Jim
Souhan suggests Francisco Liriano be sent to the bullpen
to figure out his issues.
·
Joe Mauer is off to a great start since his return to the Twins
lineup on May 1. Seth Stohs looks at
how
his career numbers compare to Hall of Fame catchers.
·
Doogie Wolfson adds his
two cents on Steve Phillips’ crazy comments about Denard Span not really being an ideal leadoff
hitter, and that he should be a 7th hitter.
·
Nick Nelson
talks about the Twins newfound ability to play Big
Ball. There is little more frustrating than hearing Dick Bremer wax poetic about the Twins
ability and necessity to play small ball. Turns out that a lot of people dig
the long ball!
·
Seth was joined
by Travis Aune
of Travis Talks on the MNGameNight.com
Minnesota Twins podcast last night. They discussed the homestand, this weekend’s series with the Tampa Bay Rays,
the AL Central, and then spent time discussing the Twins full-season minor
league affiliates and highlighting some of this year’s surprises in the farm
system.
·
On his site, Travis has been posting arguments on
several Twins topics of interesting. For instance, you can argue for or against
regarding Carlos
Gomez or Delmon Young, whether
Francisco Liriano should go to the minor leagues,
whether
Aaron Hicks or Ben Revere is the Twins top prospect, whether Rob
Delaney or Anthony Slama is the better relief
pitching prospect or whether
Justin Morneau could win the Triple Crown.
·
The Rochester Red
Wings scored two runs in the top of the 9th but it wasn’t enough as
they lost 8-7 to Durham. Philip Humber
started and gave up one run in each of the first four innings. He gave up eight
hits and four walks and got the loss. Bobby
Keppel came in and gave up three runs over the next three innings. Armando Gabino
gave up an unearned run over the final two innings. Jason Pridie, Alexi Casilla, Jose Morales, Dustin Martin
and David Winfree
each had two hits.
·
The New Britain Rockcats got a great start from Matt Fox and beat Trenton 7-2. Fox threw seven shutout innings,
allowing five hits and walking none for his fourth win of the season. Jose Lugo and Rob Delaney each worked a scoreless inning. Steve Tolleson hit two doubles in five at
bats. Brian Dinkelman
added two more hits, and Rene Tosoni drove in three runs.
·
It was an ugly
game for the Ft. Myers Miracle as they lost 8-3 to Tampa. Carlos Gutierrez started and gave up seven runs in just 3.1
innings. Just one of the runs were earned as the Miracle
had eight errors in the game. Two of the errors were on Gutierrez who also
walked five hitters. Loek Van Mil made his first appearance of
the season and threw two shutout innings in relief. Van Mil suffered the same
injury as Twins reliever Pat Neshek. He rested and rehabbed and has not had a set back, so it is great to see him back on the mound. Ben Revere went 2-3 with his 20th
stolen base.
·
Beloit beat South
Bend 4-2 behind a strong start from Bobby
Lanigan. The right went seven shutout innings,
allowing just two hits. He walked two and struck out five. Joe Testa got his third save by striking
out the game’s final batter. Jonathan Waltenbury led the offense, going 3-4 with his seventh
double. Angel Morales was 2-4 with
his seventh double. Jeff Lanning had
two hits, including his second double.
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