Early season surprises- Part 2
April 30, 2009
This is the second part of three part look at the good, bad and ugly of the 2009 series.
The Bad
With the exception of Span, the out fielders don’t seem to be producing. Young has not been disciplined at the plate and was striking out in three pitches. Gomez has looked much better as it appears he is more patient and is falling down less after big swings. He has been hitting the ball to the opposite field like they have worked on in the off season, but he is not finding the gap as of yet.
The bullpen has not had any consistency. The starting pitching is averaging over 6 innings pitched, but in relief, the club is inconsistent. Humber was sent back to down to Rochester and just recently cleared waivers.Matt Guerrier, Luis Ayala and Craig Breslow have had their ups and downs so far this year.
The two starting aces for the Twins have had their fair share of disappointment as well this year. Scott Baker was first hit by the injury bug before the start of the season causing him to miss a start, and his first three starts have been far from his form of 2008. Gardenhire has expressed his concern with Bakers mechanics, but Baker disagreed. Gardenhire can not be happy with Bakers slow start to the season.
Francisco Liriano has struggled as well. Liriano is giving up many more hits then in the past and although he looks stellar for several innings, he is letting some pitches go across belt high and the opponents are taking full advantage.
In the infield Brian Buscher seems to be the odd man out. Although his numbers are better then Crede and Casilla he is not seeing a lot of time at third base or as a pinch hitter. Crede is struggling at the plate, batting only .210, but he does have three home runs which would suggest he still has the power to get the job done.
The team overall offensively is finding it hard to repeat last years success with runners in scoring position. In 2008 the Twins owned the league by batting .305 with runners in scoring position. 2009 is proving to be much more “average” for the piranahs, hitting a middle of the league .265 with runners in scoring position. The problem has appeared worse recently as the Twins are just 1 of 18 (.056) with RISP in the last two losses (prior to Tuesdays win over the Rays).
Game 22: Twins defeat Rays 8-3 to take series
April 29, 2009
Tampa Bay @ Minnesota (Game 3 of 3)
The Twins batted around the order and put four runs on the board in the first inning to set the tone for the final game of the series as the Twins beat the Rays by a score of 8-3. The game is one that the Rays would most likely want to forget.
With the bases loaded Scott Kazmir threw a wild pitch that scored Denard Span and advanced the other base runners. Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer hit singles to knock in a couple of runs before another wild pitch from Kazmir cost the Rays yet another run, which made for a long first inning for the Rays.
The problems wouldn’t end there either, as a passed ball would advance Joe Crede to third in the third inning. Crede would score on a sacrifice fly from Delmon Young. In the fourth, Span would leg out a triple and score on a line drive from Brendan Harris. Justin Morneau connected for a double that would score Harris and a fielding error would allow Jason Kubel to get on base and a throwing error would allow Morneau across the plate.
The victory gave Nick Blackburn his second win of the season as he pitched the Twins to seven solid innings, giving up only two runs off of eight hits and striking out three batters. Craig Breslow pitched to five batters in the eighth and gave up one hit, one strike out and one walk. Luis Ayala also faced five batters in the ninth and gave up one run off of one hit and one walk.
Attendance: 21,715
Early season surprises
April 29, 2009
With the start of the 2009 season, I would not have expected that twenty games into the season, Toronto would be leading the AL East, Seattle would be leading the AL West and their would be four way battle between Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City and Minnesota for the AL Central.
The Twins have had a few surprises of their own. Many including myself, expected the Twins to be at the top of the central division, but so far, they are a game behind Kansas City and Chicago and two behind Detroit.
This is a three part post which will go over the good, the bad and the ugly of the current season.
The Good
With the loss of Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond’s uncanny ability to get injured in every game he plays, it was a relief to see catcher Jose Morales play well. He has been behind the plate for the majority of games and as of late seems to have found his stroke with the bat.
The in-field of Morneau, Casilla, Punto and Crede has seen some success, but the real surprise has been Brendan Harris. Harris has found his way onto the field in a large portion of games and is hitting .317 with a .457 slugging percentage.
In the outfield, there have not been many surprises. Many were reporting that Denard Span would be a complete bust this season, but Span has been stellar in his first 20 games. Leading off, Span has been at the plate 76 times and is hitting .303.
Offensively the biggest surprise has been the performance of Jason Kubel. I have to admit that when Kubel squeezed out a 7.2 million two year contract from the Twins, I thought he got a great deal from an extremely frugile ball club. Now it appears to me that the Twins may have gotten the better of the Belle Fourche, SD native.
Kubel is batting .310 with a slugging percentage of .592. Kubel highlight was April 17 when he hit for the cycle, topped with a 7 run 8th inning when Kubel hit a Grand Slam to put the Twins ahead 11 to 9 against the LA Angels.
In regard to pitching, the nicest surprise has been Glen Perkins and R.A. Dickey.
It is hard to believe that someone who pitched the first three games that Perkins did would have a record of one win and two loses, but that is the way it goes in baseball. Perkins has had great control and has pitched 29 innings in 4 starts. He went 8 innings against the LA Angels and only had 85 pitches when Nathan came in relief in the 9th.
Having secured his position on the team do to the Scott Baker injury, R.A. Dickey showed may Twins fan that he has game. The knuckleballer won his first start with the Twins against the Chicago White Sox. With Baker back, Dickey is transitioning to the middle reliever roll, but should be able to move into a starting pitching roll if needed.
The Twins brought back up Jose Mijares and recently signed Juan Morillo off of waivers. Mijares was brought up beacause of an injury to Jesse Crain. He has dropped some of the weight he gained and has pitched effectively for the Twins. Morillo has some heat in his fast ball and has looked good, but the knock on him is control. It will be up to pitching coach Rick Anderson to help Morillo fine tune his delivery and become a more accurate fastballer.
Game 21: Morneau lifts Twins over Rays
April 28, 2009
Tampa Bay @ Minnesota (Game 2 of 3)
Justin Morneau put the Twins on the board with a two-run home run in the first and knocked in the go ahead run in the ninth to lead the Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Rays. Morneau, in the DH spot, hit his two-run shot into left field off of James Shields to jumpstart an offense that only scored one run in their previous game. The Rays came back and plated two runs of their own in the sixth but Alexi Casilla would score in the bottom half after Brian Buscher was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Going into the ninth inning with a 3-2 lead, the Twins sent closer Joe Nathan to the mound to seal the victory, however, a pinch-hitting Ben Zobrist would take the first pitch fastball over the wall for a home run to tie the game. Nathan would pitch out of the predicament without giving up any more runs but would earn his first blown save of the season.
With the score knotted at 3, the Twins loaded the bases on a single by Jose Morales, a single from Denard Span and a walk from pinch-hitting Brendan Harris. With three on and only one out, the Rays moved Zobrist from right field to make a five-man infield as Morneau came to the plate. Morneau hit a grounder to Akinori Iwamura, who wasn’t able to field it cleanly, and Morneau legged out a potential double play as Morales scored the winning run from third base.
Attendance: 18,974
Twins with three catchers?
April 28, 2009
With argueably one of the best catchers in the league and a well liked veteren backup catcher, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has hinted that he would like to keep Jose Morales once Joe Mauer returns to the club from the DL.
Jose Morales- catcher
Morales seems to have found his bat as of late and Gardenhire would perfer to keep the young catcher.
“I’m not sending him down anywhere right now,” Gardenhire said when asked about Morales possibly going back to Rochester. “He’s going to catch all three games of this series [against the Rays], and then we’ll see where he’s at when Joe Mauer comes back up here.”
The Twins like many teams has had to deal with a large number of pitchers on the roster. With Jose Mijares back with the Twins and pitching well, the Twins are hoping to bring the number of pitchers from 12 to 11.
Morales ability to catch for the Twins has been highlighted, with the young catcher behind the plate while R.A. Dickey takes the mound. Morales has been working at getting better thows to second as both he and Redmond have struggled to throw out base runners stealing 2B and 3B. The Twins think they identified the issue (some sloppiness behind the plate that he developed while battling through an ankle injury last season) and bench coach Steve Liddle has spent time with the catcher working on his form.
With Morales future not certain the catcher is hoping to keep improving his game in hopes he can find a spot on the roster.
Game 20: Rays over Twins in 7-1 victory
April 27, 2009
Tampa Bay @ Minnesota (Game 1 of 3)
Scott Baker was able to strike out seven batters and kept the ball inside of the park, but still allowed four runs off of six hits to pick up his third loss of the season as the Rays beat the Twins 7-1 at the Metrodome. The Rays put up a pair of runs on the board against Baker in the first and fifth innings but Baker contained the Rays offense with 9 consecutive outs in the innings in between.
As has been in the past, run support from the Twins offense was sparse with their lone run coming off of a solo home run from Joe Crede in the bottom of the sixth. Crede’s home run, his third of the year and first in the Metrodome as a member of the Twins, wasn’t the only ball that sailed into the outfield seats. Carlos Pena hit his ninth home run of the season against R.A. Dickey in the eighth and Jason Bartlett sent one into the lower left field seats in the ninth off of Juan Morillo.
Although Baker is winless and picked up his third straight loss of the season, he pitched four solid innings of the six complete innings pitched. He also dropped his high ERA from 12.46 to 9.82 after this last outing.
Attendance: 17,988
The Week That Was: April 20th – April 26th
April 27, 2009
It was a weird and short week for the Twins, partly because of two scheduled off days and partly because of the weather. The Twins got a two game break on Monday and Tuesday and got to play a two game series against the Boston Red Sox in a one day doubleheader. The hot Sox made the Twins look like a bunch of amateurs as they scored a total of 17 runs to the paltry 4 runs the Twins put on the board.
The Twins tried their best to wipe the slate clean as the team traveled to Ohio for a three-game weekend series against the division rival Cleveland Indians. The Indians, who have gotten off to a bad start, didn’t hit too well against Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey and scored a total of two runs against the Twins. The Indians did manage to salvage one game against the Twins to avoid being swept at home.
The biggest news of the week, in my opinion, is the state of Twins pitching – both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen.
It is not hard to see that aside from Glen Perkins, the Twins starting rotation has had a rough beginning to the 2009 season. Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey, while not quite in last year’s form, had two great outings in Cleveland to help bring down their bloated ERAs.
Blackburn, who had given up 12 runs over 17 1/3 innings in his first three starts, held the Indians to a run and struck out four on his way to his first win of the season. Slowey, who was also sitting at 12 runs over in 18 1/3 innings, struck out seven while giving up one earned run in his near shut out gem of a game against the Tribe.
What is concerning, though, are the performances of the cornerstones of the rotation, Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano. Both pitchers have gotten off to a slow start this season and were roughed up on Wednesday at Fenway Park against the Red Sox. The two pitchers gave up 13 runs off of 14 hits and five walks. This, along with their other rough outings, added to their high ERAs of 12.46 for Baker and 7.06 for Liriano.
If their starting pitching wasn’t already in enough trouble, the bullpen took a hit with Jesse Crain being put on the 15-day disabled list due to an inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Taking his place on the roster was Jose Mijares, who had been pitching week in Triple-A after a disastrous spring training. Since being called up, Mijares has pitched two solid innings giving up a hit while striking out two.
Finally, also in the pitching realm, Philip Humber, whose skyrocketing ERA led to him being designated for assignment, cleared waivers and is back in Rochester with the Twins Triple-A affiliate. This is good news for the club as many felt that another team would claim him as he was out of options. Humber has been moved back into part of the starting rotation that will hopefully give him more innings to work things out.
The Twins have had their fair share of pitching problems already this season, especially for a team whose pitching is top-notch, but it could always be worse. None of their starting pitchers have reached Chien-Ming Wang levels of a 34.50 ERA as of yet.
Game Results
April 22: Boston 10, Minnesota 1
April 22: Boston 7, Minnesota 3
April 24: Minnesota 5, Cleveland 1
April 25: Minnesota 7, Cleveland 1
April 26: Cleveland 4, Minnesota 2
Game 19: Indians win 4-2 to avoid sweep
April 26, 2009
Minnesota @ Cleveland (Game 3 of 3)
Glen Perkins had his first rough outing on the mound as the Indians defeated the Twins 4-2 to avoid a series sweep. Perkins, who has held teams to just four runs total in his three starts, gave up four runs to the Indians over five innings. The third inning was the tough spot for Perkins where he gave up four singles and a walk that plated three runs before striking out two batters in a row to end the inning.
The Twins grounded into three double plays and couldn’t get much going offensively during the day game. The Twins threatened in the seventh inning when the bases were loaded by singles from Delmon Young and Jose Morales and a walk from Nick Punto. Denard Span followed by driving in two runs and Brendan Harris again loaded the bases with a walk, however, the Indians sent in Tony Sipp who struck out Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel to kill the rally and end the inning.
Kerry Wood pitched for the Indians in the ninth and held the Twins to one hit, one walks and a strike out to pick up his fourth save of the season. The Twins return to the Metrodome on Monday to take on the 2008 American League Champions, Tampa Bay Rays, in a three game series.
Attendance: 20,153 (Progressive Field)
Game 18: Slowey stops Tribe
April 25, 2009
Minnesota @ Cleveland (Game 2 of 3)
Kevin Slowey was nearly flawless on the mound in Cleveland as he led the Twins to a 7-1 victory at Progressive Field. Slowey held the Indians to five hits while striking out seven and took a complete game shutout going into the ninth inning. Slowey returned to pitch the ninth inning but quickly gave up three hits before being taken out of the game. Luis Ayala came in and gave up one hit allowing one run to score before getting the three outs needed to end the game.
Jason Kubel led the Twins offense with two solo home runs, one off of Carl Pavano in the fifth and the other off of Masa Kobayashi in the ninth. Joe Crede followed Kubel and homered off of Kobayashi in the ninth to give the Twins back-to-back home runs. Delmon Young, who went 3-4, Justin Morneau, and Mike Redmond also had RBI singles and Denard Span knocked in a run on a sacrifice fly.
The win against the Indians brings the Twins back up to .500 and a half game out of first place in the AL Central.
Attendance: 23,186 (Progressive Field)
Game 17: Twins win on the road against Indians
April 24, 2009
Minnesota @ Cleveland (Game 1 of 3)
After a frustrating one-day series at Boston, the Twins started off on the right foot against the Cleveland Indians on Friday night. The Twins put up five runs against the Tribe and pitcher Nick Blackburn was able to contain the Indian’s offense to only one run as the Twins beat the Indians 5-1.
The scoring started early for the Twins as Jason Kubel knocked in Denard Span with a double to left in the first inning. The Indians scored a run in the third inning but the 1-1 tie would be broken on the first pitch of the fourth inning with Justin Morneau hitting a home run to right field, his fourth home run of the season. The Twins would score another run in the fourth and a pair of runs in the seventh to seal the deal.
The starting rotation for the Twins has had their share of problems at the beginning of the season, Nick Blackburn, however, was solid in this outing, giving up one run of off six hits, striking out four and picking up his first victory of the year. The bullpen was also solid with a returning Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan holding the Indians to two hits while striking out three in the final two innings.
The win marked the first time this season that Minnesota did not trail at some point in the game. After the game manager Ron Gardenhire said with a laugh, “It was more fun the other way. We love being behind.” This win was also the second road win for the Twins of the year.
Attendance: 20,219 (Progressive Field)
