Thursday Night,
August 12, 2010
Round 3: Twins Top Sox, Take Lead Back
The Twins and their fans felt great after Tuesday night’s 12-6 win over
the White Sox. On Wednesday, the Twins looked lethargic and played bad baseball
in a 6-1 loss during which the game was never in question. On Thursday, the
Twins won by that same score of 6-1, and yet, in my mind at least, this was as
intense a game as there has been this year. This game had drama throughout.
That is, until Jason Kubel’s 7th
inning home run turned a two run lead into that five run lead. Liriano was not at his best most of the game, but when he
put himself into bad situations, he found it within himself to find his best
stuff and worked out of those situations. The bullpen came through huge. This
was just a great game, and at the end of the day, the Twins won two out of
three on the road, at US Cellular Field and reclaimed a one game lead in the
division. The Twins have been playing terrific baseball for a month now again.
Here are some notes from tonight’s game:
·
Before even
getting to the game, the Twins front office was busy with a few transaction
decisions. Jose Mijares
did require a trip to the Disabled List, so the Twins recalled Jeff Manship
for the fourth or fifth time this year. When I wrote out various options for
pitchers at Rochester who could take Mijares’s place,
I failed to mention Manship. That was a mistake on my
part. Despite the fact that Manship has really not
pitched well at all in Rochester this year, he has proven himself a capable
long relief or spot starter option for the Twins. For some reason, he has
pitched significantly better with the Twins. Also, having a second left-handed
reliever is a luxury. The team really needs a guy who can give them more than
two innings when necessary. Manship can do that.
Perkins does remain with the team, and he could potentially be a lefty reliever
in a few days after his arm recovers from his start. As I wrote yesterday, I
still think that having Rob Delaney
up in the bullpen would be better than Perkins.
·
JJ Hardy was
out of the lineup tonight after hurting his wrist again. They don’t believe
that it will require a DL trip, and although I have about zero confidence in the
Twins medical staff, I will buy it. That said, I would
let him rest and give Casilla a few starts in a row…
just to be sure.
·
Manship was scheduled to start for Rochester on Saturday
night. The Twins assigned 2009 top pick Kyle
Gibson to the Red Wings, and he will make the start in Manship’s
place. It will be interesting to see if Gibson remains with Rochester if and
when Manship or Perkins return
to AAA.
·
There is no question that Francisco Liriano has been one of baseball’s best pitchers most
of the season, particularly in the second half of the season. He definitely has
struggled in first innings in games that could be construed as “big.” You can
tell immediately by two things. First, his fastball flies up and away to
right-handed batters. His slider is over-thrown and bounces near the feet of a
right hander. He got himself into trouble with a walk and a hit batter in the
first inning. He somehow got out of it with just one run allowed. He looked
terrific in innings two through four. Then he started overthrowing again and issued
another walk in the 5th inning. Miraculously, Liriano
was able to get out of the inning without allowing a run. It was absolutely
remarkable. He got a weak groundball back to himself and got the force out at
home. Then he struck out Alex Rios and Carlos Quentin to end the
inning. He again loaded the bases in the 6th. Thanks to a great Denard Span catch, he got the second out. But
when Ron Gardenhire came out to ask if he
could continue, Liriano must have said something that
made it clear to the Twins manager that it was Matt Guerrier
time. Thankfully, Guerrier got Alexei Ramirez
to pop out to end the inning.
·
By the way, Liriano became
the first Twins pitcher this year to get out of a bases loaded, no one out
situation in 2010. In 2009, Joe Nathan and Nick Blackburn each
did it once.
·
I love this game.
It is full of second guess opportunities. Here are some:
·
After loading the
bases in the 6th, for the second straight inning, Francisco Liriano
got the second out. Gardy came out to ask the lefty
how he was doing. Immediately, he called for Matt Guerrier to come into the game. I
questions Liriano for not saying, “It’s my game Gardy. Let me get this one more out.” Guerrier
came in and got the third out. In the top of the 7th, with two
runners on and two outs, Ozzie Guillen went out to the mound and likely asked his
starter, Gavin Floyd, if he wanted
to stay in the game. Floyd stayed in the game and gave up a three-run homer to Jason Kubel,
who he had owned the first three AB of the game. Meanwhile, lefty Chris Sale was warmed up in the bullpen
and came in one batter later to get Michael
Cuddyer out.
·
Also in the 7th
inning, with Casilla at second after a leadoff double,
many would want Denard Span to sacrifice bunt Casilla to 3B. Since Span is left-handed, and has been
really good at grounding out to 2B and 1B the last few weeks, I don’t care if
he bunted or grounded out. The goal of the end of his at bat was for Casilla to be at 3B.
·
Consider this:
Before tonight’s game, Jason Kubel had played in 64 career games against the White
Sox and had 216 at bats. His line was .301/.347/.606 (954 OPS) with 11 doubles,
17 home runs and 59 RBI. Make that 18 home runs, and
62 RBI.
·
The Twins bullpen
was definitely short-handed. It would have been great to have Liriano go deeper into the game. But he didn’t, and the
bullpen did a terrific job of being good and efficient. Matt Guerrier got four outs and threw
just 12 pitches. Jesse Crain pitched
a scoreless 8th inning and threw just nine pitches. Matt Capps, who threw six innings a
night earlier, pitched a scoreless ninth frame and threw just 16 pitches. That
was big.
·
The lone negative
was the at bats of Danny Valencia.
He was 0-4, and he twice grounded into tailor-made double plays. He is now 5-45
(.111) since August 2nd which has dropped his average from .400 to
.312. It will be quite interesting to see what happens when Nick Punto
comes back. Will Gardy stand by a struggling rookie,
as Ozzie Guillen
did with Gordon Beckham, or will he
hand the job back to Punto?
·
Did everyone note
that Jesse Crain’s season ERA is now
2.98? He has been incredible.
·
The Twins head
home, but the schedule just might get even more difficult. The Oakland A’s, who
have a terrific young pitching staff, comes to Target Field for three games.
Then next week, the White Sox come to Target Field for three more games. Then
three games against the Angels followed by three games against the Rangers. We
could experience a lot of intense games the rest of the season. Should be a lot
of fun!
So what were your thoughts and
emotions throughout the game? Comments.
Here is a quick glance at what
happened on Thursday in the Twins minor league system (plenty of extra
baseball:
Red Wings Report
The Red Wings got great pitching
and beat Gwinnet 2-0. Nick Blackburn
made his third start for the Red Wings. He was solid. In five shutout innings,
he gave up four hits, walked three and struck out three. He got nine ground
outs to just one fly out. Tim Lahey came in and threw two more scoreless innings. Rob Delaney got the save with two more
scoreless innings. He struck out three. He now has one walk and 23 strikeouts
in 16 innings since the All Star break. Brandon
Roberts and Brian Dinkelman each went 2-4. Dustin Martin was 0-1 with three walks. Brock Peterson knocked his 17th home run of the year.
New Britain Notes
The Rockcats
lost 6-1 to Erie on Thursday night. Chris
Province started again and gave up five runs on six hits in 4.1 innings. He
walked three and struck out two. Mike McCardell came in and threw 2.2 scoreless innings. He
gave up just one hit, walked two and struck out four. Steve Hirschfeld gave up a run in his
inning. The Rockcats managed just seven hits. Joe Benson went 2-4, and Chris Parmelee
drove in the lone rone.
Miracle Matters
Nate Hanson has been terrific for
the Miracle. On this night, he was 3-5 with a triple and a stolen base. But it
wasn’t enough as the Miracle fell 8-6 to Charlotte. Angel Morales went 2-4 with a walk. Jonathan Goncalves went 2-4 with his
eighth double. Dan Osterbrock
has been terrific, but on this night, he had allowed four runs before recording
an out. However, he came through for the team and gave them seven innings. He
gave up five runs on 12 hits. Shooter Hunt got two outs and walked six batters.
Blake Martin got the final out.
Snappers Snippets
The Snappers got two great pitching performances and held
on for a 2-0 win in Peoria. The Snappers managed just five hits. Lance Ray and Wang-Wei Lin each drove in a run. In his second Midwest League
start, Pedro Guerra threw seven
shutout innings. He gave up four hits, walked three and struck out four. Nelvin Fuentes came out and got the final six
batters out, all on strikeouts.
E-Twins Talkers
Down 5-4 going into the bottom of the ninth, the E-Twins
mounted an impressive comeback. Brian
Burke singled in Nate Roberts to
tie the game at five a piece. Daniel Ortiz came up with two on and drilled a
three-run homer to end the game and give the Twins the win. It was Ortiz’s
seventh home run of the year. Roberts went 2-2 with three walks and his third
home run. Manuel Soliman
started and gave up three runs on six hits in four innings. He walked two and
struck out four. Ryan O’Rourke then
came in and gave up two runs on four hits and a walk in three innings. Dallas Gallant made his professional
debut. He pitched the final two innings and gave up just one hit. He struck out
two for the win.
GCL Twins Topics
The GCL Twins and Orioles had their game postponed by
rain.
Any thoughts on the Twins or the
minor league system? Feel free to leave
your questions and comments here.