October 2009 Archives

The Twins 2009 season and the Metrodome era finally came to an end on Sunday night with the Yankees completing the sweep of the Twins with a 4-1 victory. Carl Pavano pitched his best game as a Twin, but was ultimately tagged for 2 solo home runs in the 7th inning. Nick Punto made a costly out on the basepaths, running through Scott Ulger's stop sign, but in the end the Twins just couldn't muster enough offense to compete with the Yankees.

The Twins defied expectations by making it to the playoffs this year. With 87 wins, the team played up to their potential, but sub-par years from Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland allowed the Twins to become a playoff team. The Team played its first month without Joe Mauer and its last month without Justin Morneau. Kevin Slowey was lost for the season and Francisco Liriano failed to return to his pre-inury form. They lost on the bet they made with Joe Crede's health and failed to see any improvement from Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez. Despite all that, they made the playoffs for the first time since 2006, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

The Twins enter game 3 of the AL Division Series down 2 games to none to the high powered Yankees. They'll try to leave the controversy of Friday night's game behind them and hope that the Metrodome magic can, once again, propel them to victory with their backs against a wall.

The Twins will send mid-season acquisition, Carl Pavano, to the mound. Pavano spent 4 injury plagued seasons in New York before the team cut ties with him. His mound opponent will be 38 year-old lefty Andy Pettitte. It seems like the Twins always struggle against left-handed pitchers, but the team, as a whole, has actually hit left-handed pitching slightly better than right-handed pitching this year.

• 2009 Twins vs. LHP: .285/.344/.441
• 2009 Twins vs. RHP: .269/.345/.423

Since Joe Nathan's 9th inning meltdown last night, I've seen numerous claims of Nathan being bad under pressure, or bad in the postseason. I'm not convinced there's enough evidence to support such a claim.

I feel like calling Nathan a postseason choker is about as valid as when Alex Rodriguez was criticized for not being clutch (look at him now). The postseason is a small sample size that's intensely magnified.

Looking at Nathan's postseason record, I see just 2 games out of 5 since he's become a Twins that couldn't be considered good outings. In 2004 he allowed 2 runs through 2 1/3 innings in a game the Twins lost by 1. That outing, however was surrounded by a perfect inning of pitching in a 2-0 Twins victory and a scoreless 1 2/3 inning in the game 4 loss. In 2006 he through a wild pitch allowing Juan Rincon's baserunner to score, but completed the inning without further damage in a game the Twins lost by 3.

Friday night's game 2 of the ALDS was every bit as disappointing as Tuesday's tie-breaker game was satisfying. For multiple reasons the Twins lost the game by a single run when Mark Texeira hit an 11th inning walk-off home run down the left field line. Prior to that the Twins had a couple opportunities to seal a victory.

In the fourth inning Carlos Gomez was caught off second after a Matt Tolbert single to center. Delmon Young was coming around to score easily, but Gomez was tagged before Young crossed the plate, ending the inning with no runs for the Twins. Gomez had no business rounding second on that play, but even after making that mistake he should have kept going, allowing Young enough time to score.

The Twins were beat handily in the opening series of the ALDS by a few of the biggest names on the team. C.C. Sabathia pitched almost 7 strong innings. The Twins got to him for 8 hits, but Sabathia got the big outs when he needed them and didn't walk any Twins.

The Twins scored first with 2 runs in the 3rd inning, but the Yankees struck back immediately in the bottom of that inning with a 2-run home run from Derek Jeter. Jeter reached base in all 4 of his plate appearances, getting 2 hits and drawing 2 walks. Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui also had 2 RBI a piece.

Less than 24 hours after a spectacular tie-breaker victory against Detroit the Twins have to fly to New York to take on the Yankees, the best team in baseball.

With no other options, they'll send rookie Brian Duensing to the mound for the opening game today. Duensing, of course, was scratched from Sunday's start by Ron Gardenhire, who instead opted to go with Carl Pavano on short rest. Duensing will have to face the 2007 Cy Young winner and 2009 Cy Young Candidate C.C. Sabathia.

I might just be caught up in the excitement of the moment, but it's hard for me to remember a Twins game since 1991 that's more exciting than what just took place in the Metrodome.