September 2006 Archives

The Twins lost their second straight game to the White Sox as they attempted to move ahead of the Tigers in the AL Central. Fortunately, the Tigers have also lost the first two games of their series with the Royals so the two remain in a tie. The Twins will get their last chance on Sunday and they'll need more help from the Royals. Saturday's game was an early one and the Twins didn't seem to wake up until about 1:30 when they finally scored a few runs on Michael Cuddyer's 9th inning homerun. By then it was too late.

The Twins won Thursday night's series finale in 10 innings by a score of 2-1. The big story of the night was Brad Radke's encouraging start. He needed just 57 pitches to get through five innings and allowed just 1 unearned run. The Twins offense waited until there were 2 outs in the ninth inning to do anything, so Radke didn't get in the win what was likely the final regular season start of his career. Assuming he's healthy enough, it seems likely that Radke will be the Twins' third starter in the playoffs.

Carlos Silva's ineffectiveness on Wednesday night cost the Twins another loss against baseball's worst team. In Silva's final start of the season he saw he ERA jump back over the 6.00 mark. If there's any positive you can take from it, it's that Silva is even more unlikely to win a spot in the postseason rotation. He shouldn't even make the roster. Kansas City has been a much tougher opponent for the Twins than they should've been this year. The Twins have just an 11-7 record against the .373 Royals.

Key Dates:

Scott Baker was coming off a pretty good start at Cleveland, but didn't fair so well on Saturday in Baltimore. Baker didn't walk anyone, but allowed 7 hits in 3 2/3 innings. He didn't get much help from his defense either as Phil Nevin, who was playing first, was unable to handle Jason Bartlett's low throw in the second inning.

For a little less than an hour the Twins felt what it was like to lead the Central division. While the Tiger-White Sox game was in progress the Twins and Tigers had equal records of 90-61. The Tigers finished off a 6-2 victory, so the chase will continue for another day.

Morneau's power numbers have dropped off over the past month (just 1 in September), but he's still hitting the ball. Morneau entered the game batting .354 in September and went on to a 5-5 night with 2 doubles. Morneau may not be a national favorite for MVP, but if his September ends like it started it's going to be hard to ignore him in consideration for the award. Morneau drove in 1 run and scored twice as the Twins won the opener in Boston by a score of 7-3.

A new Twins blog opened it's doors on August 6th and unfortunately I didn't discover it until today. The site is metrodome-memories.com. What's the site about? Steve from Metrodome Memories wrote:

What's most surprising about the Twins being in the playoff hunt after their slumpy start? Is it how well the Twins have played or is it how poorly Chicago and Detroit have played?

With a four gamea lead over the White Sox and just 13 games remaining in the season, the Twins playoff hopes are as good as they've been all year. The Star Tribune accurately reported That if the Twins finish the season just 7-6 the White Sox would need to go 12-1 to overtake the Twins. Considering that 7 of the Twins remaining games are against Baltimore and Kansas City, the Twins hopes look even better. However, it's much too early to be satisfied.

Santana was on the mound for the Twins on Friday night, and for many that's all you need to know to realize what the outcome of the game will be. When Santana pitches, it's usually a win, but not on Friday night. Johan got hit around early. He gave up a 2-run homer in the first and also allowed a run in the second and fourth innings. After that he was back to his dominant self. Santana faced the minimum in the fifth through eighth innings.

The Twins offense had been in a two-week funk that left them playing about .500 ball. They finally seemed to have gotten the offense going again. They've scored 9+ runs in three of the past four games. Nick Punto has 6 hits in the past two games, Joe Mauer is on a 6-game hitting streak, and Michael Cuddyer's 4 RBI on Monday moved his season total to 98. In addition, Carlos Silva put together his second straight good peformance and this time didn't leave early with a tummy ache.

Johan Santana is always a great pitcher, but in big games he somehow manages to step it up a notch. He was virtually unhittable on Sunday against the Tigers as he led the Twins to a series victory over the flailing Tigers. Pitch count knocked Santana out of the game in the seventh. Before leaving he allowed just four baserunners and struck out 11.

Boof is starting to look more and more like a good option for the bottom half of the Twins rotation in 2007 (and the remainder of 2006). He came up with a big start in a big game against the Tigers. Through seven innings he allowed just 1 run as he threw about two-thirds of his pitches across the plate for strikes. The win moved the Twins to within three games of the Tigers and with Johan Santana on the hill Sunday it could very well be 2 games. The White Sox held off a late inning rally by the Indians to stay just a half game out.

The Twins trailed Thursday night's series opener against Detroit right from the start. Scott Baker gave up a homerun to the first batter he faced, Curtis Granderson. The Tiger lead only grew as the game went on the the Twins eventually lost by a score of 7-2. The Tigers only outhit the Twins by 2 and if you add the Twins +2 walk differential, then the two teams had an equal number reach base. Two key things made the difference in the game: The Tigers hit 4 homeruns and turned 3 double plays while the Twins hit just 1 solo homerun and turned no double plays.

The Twins, with some help from Boston, extended their lead over the Chicago White Sox in the AL wild car race. Detroit's loss also moved them to within 4 games of the Central leading Tigers. The Twins open up a 4-game series against the Tigers on Thursday.

Despite having a less than stellar holiday weekend, the Twins have found themselves back in the wild card lead with a 1/2 game margin over the struggling White Sox. After losing the series to New York, the Twins beat Tampa Bay Monday afternoon. Boston came back late against the White Sox to help the Twins move into the lead.

It couldn't have been a good sign for the Twins that Bert Blyleven was cursing before the game even got underway. In a way, the Twins television booth has resembled what's gone on with the Twins over the last month or so—both are battered with injuries personell problems. Bert was away last week due to Ernesto, then Dick missed the weekend series due to his mother's funeral. Now Bert faces a two game suspension for his elicit language in the pre-game show on Sunday.

The Twins picked up Phil Nevin from the Chicago Cubs with just a few hours remaining in the waiver trading deadline. Will Nevin be a difference maker or will he just be another subpar option for the DH spot? Probably a little of both.