July 2009 Archives

On the heels of the Twins' 16-1 loss to Oakland, the Twins made a move to exchange Kevin Mulvey for Jesse Crain. Mulvey, a piece of the Johan Santana trade last year, made just 2 appearances. Mulvey allowed 4 runs on 6 hits in relief of Glen Perkins on Wednesday.

The Twins' pitching staff is in shambles right now. They just got done allowing 33 runs in 3 games to one of the worst offenses in the league. Perkins, who couldn't get out of the 2nd inning, will now visit a specialist after admitting to experiencing some shoulder discomfort while warming up recently.

Monday night's 14-13 loss ended with Michael Cuddyer getting called out at home plate, while replay video clearly shows he was safe. That defeat made Tuesday night's 10 inning victory all the better.

The Twins surrendered a 10 run lead largely thanks to a poor start by Nick Blackburn and an even worse showcase by Brian Duensing, Bobby Keppel and Jose Mijares. This has to be the lowest point of the season so far.

Joe Mauer didn't embarrass himself Sunday night in the home run derby, but he didn't have enough to advance into the 2nd round. He ended up bopping 5 homers in the first round, which landed him in a swing-off with Carlos Pena and Albert Pujols to advance to the 2nd round. Pujols advanced, but Mauer proved he can keep up with the more notable long ball hitters in baseball.

With more notorious home run hitters like Justin Morneau, Mark Teixeira and Josh Hamilton declining their invitations to participate in this year's home run derby, the door has opened for Joe Mauer to participate in his first derby.

Mauer has certainly shown an increase in power, already amassing a career-high 15 home runs on the season, but throughout his 5+ year career he's been more of a single & double hitter. A common thought has always been that Mauer could hit more home runs if he chose to sacrifice some average and on-base percentage. He'll now get a chance to prove that.

The Twins fell by a score of 6-4 in the 3rd game of the series and the final of 7 games against the Yankees this year. They never led for a single inning in the series, and are now a demoralizing 0-7 against the Yankees this year.

The string of losses puts the Twins in 3rd place in the AL Central--4 games behind Detroit and 1.5 games behind Chicago. They also fell a game below .500 for the first time since June 24th.

The Twins were swept by the Yankees in a 4 game mid-May series at Yankee stadium. They lost the 4 games by a combined 5 runs, so the hope was that they'd be able to get over that hump while playing on their own turf. That was not the case. The Twins' bats were shut down by CC Sabathia and Twins' pitching backed themselves into corners with 7 walks in the game.

The Yankees scored 3 runs early, with the help of some bloop hits and control problems from Scott Baker. By the end of the 3rd inning, Baker had already surpassed the 50 pitch mark. Brian Duensing relieved Baker in the 4th, with bases loaded. Carlos Gomez robbed Alex Rodriguez of a grand slam with a leaping catch in dead center. For a moment it prevented the Yankees from busting the game open, but they would still add a couple runs to their lead.