Spiraling downwards Nationals 3 at Twins 1 June 9th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Coming into this series I really thought the Twins had a legitimate shot at a sweep. Not only were they playing one of the worst teams in baseball, but they were facing three starting pitches who were barely holding onto jobs at the big-league level. Now they’ve lost 2 straight and will be playing Sunday to avoid getting swept themselves.
Johan Santana pitched fine, well enough for a win at least. His only costly mistake came on a third inning 3-run homer by Ryan Zimmerman. After that point neither team would add another run. Justin Morneau, with his 17th homer, was the only run-producer for the Twins.
The Twins offense has hit rock bottom in the month of June. Through 8 games they’re averaging less than 3 runs per game with more than 1/3 of them coming in last Wednesday’s 8-5 win against the Angels. The Twins have lost 6 of 7 after showing some promise with a 5 game winning streak at the end of May and into June 1st. They trail the Indians by eight games now and there’s nothing that leads me to believe they can play well with the consistency that would be needed to close that gap. This offense has too many holes in it and as a result is far too streaky.
Game Notes
- Morneau hit #17 on th year and drove in his 46th hit.
- The Twins had a total of just 5 hits with Lew Ford accounting for two of them.
- Levale Speigner had the best start of his career. He allowd just 2 hits and a run through 6 innings. Until now he had not pitched longer than 4 innings.
- Cristian Guzman continued his assault on the Twins. He went 3 for 5 to raise his batting average to .352.
- Joe Mauer had a hitless night and is 1-9 since returning on Friday night.
- Jason Kubel left the game early with a sprained knee. It’s not the same kneed he severely injured in 2004 and the extent of the current injury is not known. He’ll be re-evaluated on Sunday. He hasn’t been fantastic at the plate, but showed signs of coming around, so losing him for any period of time would be a big blow for a team that already has no offense.
On Sunday it will be Boof Bonser against Mike Bacsik. It’s another game the Twins should win, but I’m making no predictions.
Like what you're reading? Subscribe to our RSS feed.
2 Comments
Kris wrote: June 10th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Nate, that's kind of the pathetic part for the Twins. They should've had a better scouting report on Levale than anyone.
Search
Similar Entries
Partners
Nate wrote: June 10th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Looks like Levale enjoyed his homecoming at least.