June 2009 Archives

The Twins won the opening game of their series against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. All 7 of their runs came in the first 3 innings, and were helped considerably by Milwaukee errors and miscues in the field.

Francisco Liriano's struggles continued. He got the win, but struggled to get through 5 innings with 117 pitches thrown. He allowed 7 hits and 5 walks to Brewer hitters. He came up with big inning-ending strikeouts in the 4th and 5th innings, which prevented what could have been more damage.

The Twins on Monday designated RHP Luis Ayala for assignment and called up 27 year-old RHP Bobby Keppel from AAA Rochester. In the grand scheme of things, the move is probably pointless. They've basically swapped one bad pitcher for another one. Still, the move raises a few questions in my mind.

I'm not sure what the Twins were expecting when they signed Ayala to a 1-year $1.3 million contract in the offseason. His numbers this year have been almost perfectly in line with his career marks, but apparently Bill Smith and Company have decided that's not what they're looking for. If they expected the 31-year old to somehow defy numbers posted in over 350 career big league innings, they're absolutely insane.

The Pittsburgh Pirates turned the tables on the Twins Wednesday night. One night after they lost 8-2, they beat the Twins by the same score. 5 of their 8 runs came by way of the homerun. For a team that entered the game tied for last in baseball in home runs (37), getting 3 in one night is an unusual accomplishment.

Francisco Liriano allowed 2 of the home runs and took his eighth loss of the season. However, there were some encouraging signs from the start. Liriano had allowed 34 walks in his 13 previous starts this season, which is above his career average. On Tuesday he allowed just 1 walk and didn't get deep into counts with as many hitters. In fact, he was able to get through 7 innings of pitching for just the 3rd time all season, and first time sine May 4th.

The Twins have been shuffling things around a bit the past few days as they deal with injuries and struggling players. Here's a rundown of what's happened.

On Friday the Twins activated Nick Punto from the DL and optioned Alexi Casilla to AAA to make room. It was the second time this season that Casilla has been demoted.

On Saturday the Twins optioned Anthony Swarzak to AAA right after his 7 shutout innings against the Cubs. The Twins recalled catcher Jose Morales to take his place. With several hitters on the DL and the fact that Joe Mauer is often being used as DH on his offdays, Ron Gardenhire wanted to have a 3rd catcher. The move brought the Twins' pitchers down to just 11. Morales has not played in either of the 2 games since being recalled.

The Twins won their second consecutive game against the Oakland Athletics thanks to a 9th inning comeback sparked by the bottom of the Twins' lineup. The inning started with the score tied 3-3 and a Joe Crede triple. 2 singles, 2 walks and 2 wild pitches later the Twins had a 3-run lead with Alexi Casilla (pinch runner for Crede), Delmon Young and Matt Tolbert all scoring.

Jason Kubel had hit a pinch-hit home run for Carlos Gomez in the eighth inning to tie the game. With Denard Span out of the game with illness, it made for an interesting defensive alignment in the final two innings. Delmon Young started the game in LF. Michael Cuddyer had started the game in RF, and was moved over to CF to replace Gomez defensively. Kubel played in RF. Could that possibly be the worst defensive OF the Twins have ever put on the field?

Just about everything went right for the Twins on Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics...until the 9th inning. The Twins scored 10 runs and Scott Baker had allowed just 2 hits and 0 walks through 8 innings. He came back out for the 9th inning, and things fell apart.

Baker loaded the bases with 2 hits and a walk with no outs. Jesse Crain was called upon to relieve him. Crain allowed a hit and a walk, then an Alexi Casilla error allowed another run to score. Crain wasn't able to retire a batter before Jose Mijares had to be called upon. Mijares struck out Jason Giambi, but then walked the next two batters.

Monday night may have been Anthony Swarzak's last start for a while anyway, but his 4th inning meltdown against the Oakland Athletics probably sealed the deal. Glen Perkins is scheduled to pitch his second rehab start tonight and would be eligible to return to the team this weekend againt the Cubs.

In the 4th inning Swarzak couldn't get a ball over the plate. He walked the first two batters of the inning on 8 straight balls. Brendan Harris made a diving stop and threw out Matt Holliday at 3rd, which was a huge play at the time. Unfortunately Swarzak hit the next batter, Aaron Cunningham in the side of the helmet, knocking him out of the game. Swarzak allowed a double, retired a second batter and then walked another before Luis Ayala was called upon to relieve him.

On Friday night Francisco Liriano bounced back with a pretty good start against Seattle. He held them to 1 run through 6 innings. He still threw a lot of pitches and walked 4 batters, but he managed to avoid the disastrous innings that had plagued him recently.

The game headed into extra innings and after the Mariners accurately predicted Ron Gardenhire's squeeze attempt and pitched out trapping Joe Mauer between 3rd and home, Matt Tolbert managed to hit a fly ball to deep left field. The ball was misplayed by Wladimir Balentien for an error and it allowed the Twins to win 2-1.

The Twins managed a 2-1 series victory over the Cleveland Indians with a blowout 11-3 victory on Thursday afternoon.

The most encouraging aspect of the victory was Scott Baker's performance. While he's certainly had some good starts through the season, he's had more poor ones. On Thursday he managed to hold a decent Cleveland offense to just 2 runs over 7 innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters. He walked just 1 and allowed scattered 6 hits.

Joe Mauer hit 11 home runs, batted .414 and had an on-base percentage of .500 for the month of May, which is nothing short of amazing. In his first game of the month of June, he managed to step it up a notch.

Mauer was 3-for-3 with a walk and hit his 12th home run of the season. He's now just 1 shy of his career high of 13 home runs in 2006. What's interesting is that all 3 of his hits came against left-handed pitching, which helps close the large gap in his platoon splits. Coming into the game Mauer was hitting .493 against RHP and .250 against LHP. The 3 hits bring the LHP average to .314.

Nick Blackburn won his 3rd consecutive game and put an end to the Twins' 3-game losing streak on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays. Blackburn allowed solo home runs to Carlos Pena and Matt Joyce, and he was able to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the 5th inning. 4 of Blackburn's 5 wins this year have come following a Twins loss, including his past 3 wins.

His opponent, Matt Garza, seemed to be pitching even better. By the 6th inning, a Brendan Harris solo home run was the only costly mistake he had made. In the 6th inning Denard Span reached on a bunt single and was later driven in by Justin Morneau. In the 7th inning the Twins gave Blackburn the lead when Carlos Gomez blooped a single into shallow right to score Brian Buscher.