June 2006 Archives

The Twins won the first game of the Milwaukee series in convincing fashion. Back-to-back homeruns from Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter in the second inning gave the Twins an early lead that they only added to throughout the game. Terry Tiffee added a third homer in the sixth. Brad Radke continued to pitch well and he's now improved his record to 7-7 and dropped his ERA to 5.11. He's only 2 wins shy of his 2005 win total.

The Twins are riding their second longest winning streak of the season (7 games) which is separated by only 1 loss from their longest winning streak of 8 games. Milwaukee is a mediocre team, so I expect the Twins to keep things rolling through the weekend. The pitching matchups will be as follows:

The Twins completed their fourth series sweep in the month of June. They've swept half their series in the month and won 6 out of 8 after losing the first two series in the month. The Tigers also completed a sweep Wednesday—against the Astros, so once again the Twins will gain no ground on them. Interleague play can surely result in some bizarre things, and when the leagues are so obviously unbalanced the results are even more strange. The Twins have 9 games remaining until the All-Star break and then they'll get back into some games against their division rivals in late July.

Mauer topped his hit total of Monday night's game with 5 singles on Tuesday night against the Dodgers. I wish I could say I was surprised, but Mauer had proven over the past three month's that he's among baseball's best pure hitters. He may be on a June tear, but he was no slouch in the other months of the season.

Joe Mauer had been slumping (only by his standards) the past couple weeks, but he busted loose for 4 hits in Monday night's series opener against the Dodgers. Joe Mauer's 5 RBI led the Twins to an 8-2 victory setting up a pretty good opportunity for a series sweep with Liriano and Santana taking the mound for the next two games. The 5 RBI were a career high for Mauer and the 4-5 night pushed his batting average up to .377.

Over the past few weeks more people have arrived at this site with the search phrase "chelsea cooley joe mauer" than any other phrase. Other than a snippet that appeared in the clubhouse section recently I don't really have any content that covers the topic. It's not something I'm too concerned about, and I don't really understand people's fascination with celebrity couples, but I aim to please. So, here's a rundown of all I know about Chelsea Cooley, who according to the Pioneer Press is dating Joe Mauer on a "semi-regular basis".

The Twins continued their winning ways by taking 5 of 6 games in interleague play last week. Impressively, they beat pitchers Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens and Mark Prior. The Twins outscored their opponents 31-15 as their pitching was solid and they continued to get timely hitting. The only bad thing to say about week 12 was that the two teams in front of the Twins—the Tigers and White Sox—did just as well as the Twins.

The last time I saw a team play as poorly as the Cubs did on Sunday was in late May when I walked past a little league game. The Cubs made 3 official errors in the game, but also made a number of mistakes that weren't scored as errors. Balls found their way into holes as Cubs players simply looked at eachother in hopes that the other guy would make the play. The Cubs out-hit the Twins 11-10, but the lopsided 8-1 score showed just how awful the Cubs were. The positive is that the Twins took advantage of the mistakes—something all good teams do.

The Twins pulled off a Saturday night victory against the Cubs in the game I thought the cubs had the best chance of winning in this series. In front of a crowd of over 42,000, half of which was made up of Cub fans, Boof Bonser was able to pitch shutout ball for 6 1/3 innings. Reyes and Rincon also held the Cubs scoreless in relief and Joe Nathan picked up his 12th save with a scoreless ninth.

The Twins continue to roll right along as they took Friday night's series opener against the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs sent out unproven starter Carlos Marmol who didn't have good command of his pitches. He fell behind in the count often and the Twins took advantage of it by scoring 7 runs in Marmol's 5 2/3 innings. Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau provided plenty of run production from the middle of the lineup and Johan Santana was his usual self—limiting Chicago to just 1 earned run in 8 innings.

Roger Clemens was the talk of baseball coming into his Thursday night season debut against the Twins. However, once the game started Francisco Liriano became the true star of the game. Roger Clemens struggled with his pitch count—he left the game after 5 innings with 100 pitches. The Twins managed 2 runs in the second off Clemens, and that was all he gave up. In total, he allowed 6 hits and 2 walks in the five innings he pitched. While Clemens was pretty good for a first start of the season, Liriano was better.

The Twins 8-game win streak came to an end with a 5-3 loss on Wednesday night in Houston. Carlos Silva put together another quality start, but the lack of run support and a shaky outing from Kyle Lohse combined for the loss. Silva gave up a solo homerun in the 1st inning but then put together 4 scoreless innings before allowing 1 run in the 6th and walking the only batter he faced in the 7th. Juan Rincon came in and threw a wild pitch and gave up a double which tied the game.

The Twins won the first game of the series against Houston and extended their season best win streak to 8 games. The win didn't come easy though as Brad Radke was back to his old antics of allowing homeruns. He gave up a solo homer in the first and Lance Berkman hit a 3-run shot in the 3rd to put the Astros up 4-1. The score would remain at that until the 7th inning when the Twins mounted a 3-run rally to tie the game.

The Twins have roled off 7 straight victories and improved to .500 for the first time since April. Due to the success, some fans are surely starting to dream of a playoff run. I decided to give a look at just how realistic the thought of the Twins making the playoffs would be. Obviously what's going to make it tough is the two teams that are ahead of the Twins, Detroit and Chicago. Both continue to win game after game, so all the Twins have been able to do is try not to lose more ground.

Week 11 was a good week for the Twins. They got good pitching from their starters and bullpen and the offense came up with big hits when they needed them. The week started off with a sweep of a pretty good Boston ballclub and ended with the sweep of a not so good Pittsburgh team. The biggest positive from the weekend series was the Twins ability to win 3 straight on the road where they have struggled mightily this year.

The Twins pulled off their second straight sweep and improved their record to 34-34 with a late inning offensive rally against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon. Johan Santana, as usual, was strong—allowing 1 run through 7 innings. It looked like he might again fall victim to a lack of run support, but the Twins rallied for 4 runs in the top of the 8th inning.

The Twins won their 6th straight game on Saturday night in Pittsburgh. Most impressively they did it with Boof Bonser, Kyle Lohse and Jesse Crain pitching 8 of the innings for the Twins. Those pitchers each have been among the worst for the Twins this season.

Francisco Liriano's only troubles came in the 2nd inning when he walked Ian Snell, the Pittsburgh pitcher, and then gave up a 2-run homer to Jack Wilson. Liriano was brilliant through 7 innings as he struck out a career hight 11 batters and became the first Twins pitcher that isn't Johan Sanana to strike out double digits since Eric Milton in 2002.

Nobody could've guessed that the Twins would sweep the Red Sox, but they pulled it off Thursday night as they continue to play their best baseball of the season. The sweep was a crushing blow to the Sox who came into the series neck-and-neck with the Yankees. This week has by far been the biggest week of the season for the Twins. They have not only won 4 straight and 6 of their last 7, but they've also ridded themselves of Tony Batista and Juan Castro. Juan Castro was traded Thursday to the Cincinatti Reds for a low-end prospect. Also, young players like Jason Kubel, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau have shined and Jason Bartlett is now getting his chance.

Boston's pitching pretty much handed the game to the Twins on Wednesday night. Boston issued 10 walks and hit a batter in the game. The Twins had at least one baserunner in every inning but the eighth. The Twins could've actually scored a few more runs in the game. Matt Clement walked the bases loaded in the 3rd and was showing that he had no control. Hunter, for some reason, opted to swing at the first pitch he saw and hit into an inning-ending double play.

The Twins post-game show just reported that Tony Batista has been designated for assignment and Jason Bartlett is being called up. This came much sooner than I had expected, and I'm quite pleased with it. I'm a bit surprised that White wasn't the first to go, but his day is coming soon.

Hitting grand slams has become commonplace for the Twins over the past week. Michael Cuddyer did it last Wednesday and Saturday. Tonight it was Jason Kubel—in dramatic 12th inning fashion. After Jesse Crain gave up the lead in the top of the 12th the Twins entered the bottom of the inning down by 2-1. Joe Mauer struck out to start the inning, but Michael Cuddyer was hit by a pitch to start a 1-out rally. Justin Morneau hit a drive that bounced over the outfield wall for a ground-rule double, preventing Cuddyer from scoring the winning run. Hunter was walked to set up a double play, but Kubel ruined Boston's plans by hitting a game-ending grand slam.

Jason Bartlett has probably attracted more attention and more emotion from the Twins blogosphere than anyone since his late March assignment to AAA Rochester. I have a feeling that Bartlett may get the call pretty soon, so I wanted to write once more about Jason Bartlett before it happens. I believe Bartlett deserves (and has earned) a shot to play on this team. I'll be the first to admit that his addition isn't going to radically turn the team around, but it will make a difference. Bartlett may not be a long-term answer at SS, but he's the answer for the rest of this season and probably next season. Maybe he'll even be suitable for the Twins long-term plans; we'll never know unless he's given the chance.

In week 10 the Twins lost a series in Seattle and won a home series against Baltimore for a record of 3-3. After a week of no offense, the Twins bats began to show some life by scoring a total of 36 runs through the 6 games. The offense was led by two grand slams from Michael Cuddyer, 3 homers from Justin Morneau and of course the hitting tear that Joe Mauer has been on the past month.

Francisco Liriano had his best start of the season as he pitched 7 shutout innings and allowed just 1 hit and 2 walks. Liriano struck out 6 Oriole batters and more importantly went deeper into the game than he has all season. Liriano's performance set up the perfect pitching situation for the Twins with Rincon coming in for a solid 8th inning and Nathan finishing up the game in the ninth. Overall the Orioles were held to just 3 hits and 3 walks.

The Twins found themselves down 8-0 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning. Carlos Silva struggled in the first inning by giving up 3 runs, including a 2-run homer to Miguel Tejada. Silva then pitched 3 scoreless innings before allowing Baltimore to extend the lead by a run in each of the fifth and 6th innings. The recently recalled Kyle Lohse came on for the 7th and looked terrible.

Twins fans haven't had much opportunity to witness how valuable the home run can be at times; on Friday night Justin Morneau gave us a showing of the difference a longball can make. Morneau hit a 3-run homer in the 4th inning to put the Twins in the lead 3-1 and those were the only 3 runs scored in the first 7 innings of the game. Walks and a Tiffee error cost the Twins the lead in the 4th inning, putting the Orioles up 5-3.

Thursday afternoon's game wasn't televised, and I only caught the last couple innings on the radio, so there's not much for me to comment on as far as the game goes. Johan Santana was good, but struggled with pitch count as he only went 5 innings. On a positive note, the Twins were able to score in 4 separate innings and totalled 7 runs on 10 hits. Mariner starter, Joel Piniero, shut down the Twins the last time he faced them, so it was positive to see them get some runs off him this time.

I started writing this entry at about quarter to midnight Wednesday night. It was the top of the 8th and the Twins were down 9-4. I assumed the game was lost (I know—bad Twins fan) and I was going to start writing about everything that went wrong in the game.

The Twins picked up 10 hits in the Tuesday's game, but 7 of them came from two batters—Mauer and Kubel. Let's start out with the postitives. In the 5th inning the Twins scored their first run. Jason Kubel singled and Joe Mauer doubled to drive him in. That was the only run until the 8th when Jason Kubel hit a solo homer.

The MLB draft draws very little attention compared to the draft of other professional leagues (NBA, NFL), for good reason. Most of the guys drafted today won't be seen on a major league field for a few years, if they ever make it. Experts are calling this draft class the weakest in a number of years.

With Shannon Stewart due to come off the DL in the next week, a decision is going to have to be made as to who will go down. Jason Kubel was called up to fill Stewart's roster spot, so an obvious option would be to send him back to Rochester, but is that the best decision?

Week 9 comprised of the first 7 games of a 10 game road trip out West for the Twins. The week, as a whole, can best be described as underachieving. Ron Gardenhire himself had the following to say in his Sunday morning interview with Sid Hartman:

On May 17th 700 content sites, including Twins Nation, applied to join the 9rules network. On Saturday the list of the 111 sites that were preliminarily selected was released. I'm proud to announce that Twins Nation made the cut. It's not official yet, we still have to go through the process of accepting the member agreement, but I don't forsee any roadblocks.

Through the 4-game series in Oakland the Twins scored just 4 runs, so it's no surprise they came out of the series with just one win. What's the cause of the offense slump? It's likely a number of things.

After the worst start to a season of his career, Brad Radke has put together two pretty good outings and the Twins have still lost both of them. Baseball is a funny game; for two months we cursed about how the starting pitching has let us down. Now we've entered June and seen three good starts but have only managed three combined runs in those games. The worse thing though, is that we're losing games that we should be winning. Errors and situational blunders have piled up this season and have played a partial role in the lack of success in the win column.

Friday night's victory can almost entirely be credited to Johan Santana's performance, with an assist going to Justin Morneau for his 8th inning homerun. Johan gave up a solo homer to Frank Thomas in the 2nd and also gave up a single in the inning. After that he was literally perfect. Not a single Oakland batter reached base in the third through eigth innings. Johan simply dominated, yet remained down by 1 run until the eigth inning.

Boof was hurt by the 3 homeruns he gave up in the game, but overall he pitched pretty well. He gave up just 2 other hits and didn't walk any batters. Zito, however, shut down the Twins offense, allowing just 4 hits and no walks.