Saturday,
October 10, 2009
Uggh!
Yankees 4, Twins 3
Hey ya’ll, remember that I’m
the positive Twins blogger, right? It’s been awhile since I’ve been as
frustrated in a game as last night. If you listen to last
night’s podcast, you will get to hear a couple of rants. That doesn’t
happen too often. For 8 ½ innings, that was a great baseball game. It stayed a
great baseball game, just not for Twins games, starting with the bottom of the
9th:
Joe Nathan
was named the Rolaids Relief Award winner earlier yesterday. The award goes to
the top closer in the league based on some formula. Nathan had a team record 47
saves on the season. But is there anyone in Twins nation that had any
confidence when Joe Nathan took the
mound with a 3-1 lead for the 9th inning in Yankees Stadium last
night with Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui coming to the plate? My only confidence was this… I
was so sure that Joe Nathan was going to blow the save, that I assumed I must
be wrong, that just maybe Nathan would actually step up and get the final three
outs without coughing up the lead. That’s right, my only confidence in Nathan
was that I had no confidence in him, so maybe just this one time he would come
through.
But instead, he started
nibbling. Sliders just off the plate. Fastballs just off the plate. Falling behind because the
Yankees hitters are disciplined enough not to swing at pitches that aren’t
strikes. Here’s an idea for Joe Nathan.
Hey, you throw 95-96 mph, try throwing one of those
over the plate earlier in the count, not after you’ve nibbled your way into a
2-1 or 3-1 count. See, then they know a fastball is coming, and hitters like Alex Rodriguez… they like those kinds of pitches. Fastballs right down
the middle travel a long ways. So really, I get that you’ve got like 14
pitches, and that they work for most of the league. But this isn’t most of the
league. It is the Yankees, and this is the playoffs.
But again, it was no surprise
to see Joe Nathan blow a save in Yankees Stadium. That’s what he does. The
Little Engine That Could (as the media loves to portray the Twins) played a
great game. They outplayed the Yankees. The Twins had 12 hits, seven walks and
were hit by two pitches in the game. They were not overmatched. People can
point to the play where Carlos Gomez
ran past second base and was tagged out by Derek
Jeter before Delmon Young scored. Not a good play by
Gomez, obviously a mistake. But honest, if the Twins had a 4-1 lead going into
the bottom of the 9th, that would only have meant that Nathan would
have given up three runs instead of two. Twins fans can play the LF umpire for
missing the Mauer should-have-been double in the 11th,
a ball that was clearly fair. But it never should have got there.
The Twins lost. The Twins did
not choke. No, one player choked, and he’s been doing that in Yankees Stadium
regularly since 2004. Some Twins fans look to Ron Gardenhire and his 5-27 record against
the Yankees. Or they mention that the Twins are 0-9 against them this year.
Well, that can’t all be put on him. Last night, he made all of the right
decisions, including replacing Nathan with Jose
Mijares in the 10th.
It’s really unfortunate that
the game turned out like it did because a lot of very good things happened in
this game.
·
Nick Blackburn
was awesome!! He didn’t give up a hit until the fifth and pitched into the
sixth. Had it been a normal regular season game, he would have lasted much
longer, I’m sure. He got ahead (with this crazy thing called a fastball, even
if it only was 89-91 mph!). He threw a lot of strikes. He had good movement on
his pitches. He looked in control. Nick Blackburn again pitched big in a big
game!
·
The bullpen was
good. Jon Rauch and Ron Mahay
were terrific. Matt Guerrier
had an excellent inning of work.
·
Nick Punto was on base three times. He drove in a run with a
single and walked twice.
·
Brendan Harris
will likely be the team’s 3B for the near future. He came in for Matt Tolbert at 3B and hit the big
triple that gave the Twins as 1-0 lead. He also mad
an incredible diving play at 3B, got up and made a good throw to 1B which Michael Cuddyer
was able to pick up on the short hope for an out. Tolbert left the game with a
strained oblique.
·
Michael Cuddyer had three hits. Denard Span and Joe Mauer each had two. Mauer
also walked twice. Nick Punto went 1-3 with two walks.
How many times this year did I count the Twins out? I
believe at last count, it was 49 times that I said the Twins 2009 season was
over, that there was no way that the Twins could make the playoffs. The Twins
backs are up against the wall again. This time, instead of playing another AL
Central foe, they are taking on the best team in baseball. They are down two
games to none in a best of five series. Things certainly look bleak.
And once again, I have to think, logic tells me, that
this is over. Even though the Twins are coming home for Game 3, the effects of
the Joe Nathan blown save can’t help
but linger. That one was hard to swallow for Twins fans and would have to be
even harder for the players in the clubhouse.
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