Tuesday,
September 29, 2009
Tigers Take Game
2
SethSpeaks.net
NIGHTLY Minnesota Twins Podcast Live Tonight at 10:00!! Listen Live! And don’t
forget that I will be holding a call-in contest, with one trivia question.
First person to call-in with the correct answer gets two signed Twins rookie
cards. It should be a good show!
As expected, the
Tigers and Justin Verlander
were able to win the night game of the day-night double header. Verlander was simply incredible. For the first seven
innings, he was using pinpoint control of a fastball that ranged from 97-99
mph. He also showed a great curveball, but I was most impressed by the drop and
the movement of his changeup that was 14-15 mph slower than his fastball. He
kept hitters off balance really until the 8th inning. Verlander threw nearly 130 pitches to get through eight
innings. Here are some other notes from game two:
·
Brian Duensing just didn’t quite have
it tonight. It is not unusual for Duensing, even when
he was throwing well, to give up plenty of base runners. He gave up seven hits
and three walks in just 4.2 innings. He just wasn’t able to get the big outs to
strand runners the way he had in other opportunities.
·
I know some question the decision to go to Bobby Keppel with two outs in the 5th
inning, primarily because on his first pitch, Brandon Inge singled in two more runs to
make it 5-0. I think the move to Keppel is excusable for a couple of reasons.
However, with Jon Rauch having
thrown 40 pitches in the first game, he was not available. If Rauch was
available, then it would have made sense to go to Jesse Crain that early. I can understand that move. After the
single on the first pitch, Keppel was fine.
·
The Twins battled back and cut the Tigers lead to 5-4 in
the top of the 8th. Then I don’t know how to justify not bringing in
Jose Mijares,
who had only thrown a handful of pitches in game one, to pitch the Curtis Granderson.
There is a reason that Granderson was hitting 7th
in the Tigers lineup… because he can’t hit lefties. It was just not a good
matchup for Matt Guerrier,
who was fine after the leadoff home run made it a 6-4 deficit.
·
Orlando Cabrera went 3-4 in the game.
·
Denard Span was 2-5. He added a double.
·
Jason Kubel was 2-3 with his 34th
double and a sacrifice fly.
·
The bottom five hitters in the lineup combined to go 2-20
with nine strikeouts. One of the hits was the Nick Punto RBI double in the top of the 9th,that was kind of a Granderson
gift.
·
Jesse Crain was impressive again
with a scoreless inning. He has now not given up a run in 16 appearances, since
two runs in August 22nd.
·
Jim Leyland let
Justin Verlander throw 130 pitches. He has thrown
a ton of pitches in the last couple of months. That’s good for the future… of
the Twins! The White Sox have Jake Peavy. The Royals have Zach Greinke. The Tigers… will likely
lose Verlander to injury at some point in the near
future. Like some of those Marlins pitchers (see AJ Burnett) from those year, Leyland is
letting his top starters rip up their arms down the stretch!
·
Hey, Twins fans, let’s not get too down with this loss.
The goal coming into the series was to win at least three. Now that goal should
be to win three. If there was a game that we felt would be most difficult, it
was this one. So, I feel pretty good about where the Twins are still. Obviously
I would prefer they would have won and been tied going into tomorrow, but I
would also rather they be up by seven games and resting starters at this point.
So, it will be fun again tomorrow night. It will be fun watching it and the JustinMorneau.com and JoeNathan.com outing at Champps in Richfield. Maybe see you there! Click
here for details!
NFL “Expert” Picks (Week 3) – Well, sometimes I forget to
mention who from our panel had the best week in terms of correct picks made.
Well, that’s not going to happen this week because, well, I took led the way
with 15 wins. Hey, it isn’t going to probably happen again, so just accept it,
ok?! HA! Anyway, I should also mention that Jeff Manship and Steve Blevins also went 15-1 on the week! With a 14-2 week, Dan Slowey (Blogonoscopy)
takes over the overall lead with a 39-9 overall record.
That’s a nice 81.3% which isn’t too bad. Anyway, if you would like to see how
everyone on the panel did this week, or how they are doing overall, click here.
Feel free to leave
your comments.