August 2007 Archives

The Twins avoided a 4-game sweep with their 8-4 victory against the Mariner's on Wednesday afternoon. The first inning saw 11 batters come to the plate for the Twins and the 7-run inning was highlighted by Michael Cuddyer's grand slam. Alexi Casilla also tripled in the inning. Jason Kubel added an eighth run in the second inning with an RBI single that drove in Torii Hunter.

The Twins may be realistically be out of the playoff hunt, but Johan Santana demonstrated on Sunday why it pays to keep watching this team anyway. Johan struck out 17 Ranger batters through 8 innings on Sunday. Interesting notes about the event:

The Twins' offense tried it's hardest to lose Friday night's series opener against the Texas Rangers, but ultimately the Rangers proved to be the worse of two bad teams.

Doug Mientkiewicz is the last Twin not named Torii Hunter to win a gold glove. That came in 2001. Hunter has taken home 6 straight gold gloves running form 2001 to last season and may very well win the prize again in 2007, if for no other reason than reputation.

I sort of feel like I'm living in Bizarro World with the Twins offense managing 17 runs in a 2-game span and the recent news of Ramon Ortiz being traded to the Rockies (I'll post a link when I find one Denver Post, MLB.com: Rockies add veteran pitcher Ortiz).

The Twins played their 10th 1-run game since the All-Star break (a remarkable 36% of 28 games played since then) on Saturday night and this time the result was another disappointing loss. They're 5-5 in such games, which isn't so horrible, but you can't help but wonder where that record would be with a league-average offense? 7-3? 8-2?

The power went out in more ways than one Tuesday night in Kansas City. The Twins offense was again stifled by a mediocre pitcher--this time it was Brian Bannister holding the Twins to just 6 hits and 1 run through 7 innings.

71: Runs scored by the Twins offense since the All-Star Break (24 games)

Paul Byrd handed the Twins their 10th shutout of the season and 5th since July 1st. The offense scattered 4 hits with the low point coming in the third when Jason Kubel led off with a double and Brian Buscher, Nick Punto and Jason Tyner all failed to bring him in.

The Twins' 1-0 victory on Sunday over Cleveland put them within 4 1/2 games of the Indians for the AL Central lead and within 4 games of Wild Card leading Detroit. It's the closest they've found themselves to the lead since May and Sports Club Stats gives them an 11.4 14.6% chance of making the playoffs.

Lew Ford was optioned to AAA Rochester after the game Saturday to make room for Carmen Cali in the bullpen. Lew emerged with the Twins in 2003 and was an every day player in 2004 and 2005, but has declined dramatically from the mediocre numbers he put up those two year. Lew has been a fan favorite, if for no other reason than his name, so the move is surprising in that one aspect--you don't expect a guy that's been around for 4 years to get sent down.

The Twins' extra innings loss to the Royals is hardly relevant considering what was happening just a mile away after the 35W bridge collapse. I was in attendance at the game, and I must say it didn't feel right trying to enjoy a baseball game on such a somber evening.