Alex Rodriguez Topic Page

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.

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.

Heading into Friday's series opener at the new Yankee Stadium, the Twins found themselves with a share of the AL Central Division lead as well as a record above .500 for the first time since the infant days of the season.

A few days later the Twins find themselves 3 games behind the division leading Detroit Tigers, after suffering from 3 straight walk-off losses to the Yankees, who have no won 5 straight.

Johan Santana entered Tuesday's game against Texas coming off his most dominate start of the season last week in Cleveland. On Tuesday night he did even better. He had 7 strikeouts through three innings and left the game after the seventh with a season high 13 strikeouts. His only run allowed was on Sammy Sosa's 598th career homer.

The Twins went into extra inning for the first time of the season on Monday night against Cleveland. Carlos Silva held Cleveland scoreless until the fifth, but he managed to rack up a high pitch count before that point. Early in the game Silva was pulling the same stunts as his past three starts--he was stranding base runners. Things finally caught up to him when Victor Martinez came to bat with 2 outs and 2 on in the fifth inning. He hit a no-doubter to give the Indians a 3-run lead. Silva completed five and allowed 7 hits and 2 walks. He did strike out 6.

The Twins will open up a short two game series against the Cleveland Indians on Monday night at the dome. The Twins will be fortunate enough to miss C.C. Sabathia by one day and they'll have Johan Santana going for them on Tuesday.

This was an ugly night for Twins pitching. First, the Sidney Ponson experiment might be nearing an end. I'd give him one last chance before turning to Matt Garza. Ponson gave up 10 hits through 4 1/3 IP and was charged with 6 of the 11 runs scored by Kansas City. The Twins bullpen also continued its early season struggles. Glen Perkins took over for Ponson in the fifth and allowed3 hits and walk through 1 2/3. Perkins has had inconsistent playing time since being called up, so I'd be curious to see how he does once he gets more innings.

Sidney Ponson had pretty much everything going against him in his Twins debut on Monday night. First, he hadn't pitched in a game in a week and a half and second he was pitching against the high powered Yankee offense. When the game started he also didn't get a lot of help from his defense. There are plenty of excuses to make for Ponson, but the truth his he didn't pitch that well either.