Brian Buscher Topic Page

Justin Verlander tallied 13 strikeouts as he cruised through 6 1/3 innings of scoreless ball on Thursday afternoon. After a Brian Buscher single and a Nick Punto walk, the game was handed over to the Detroit bullpen, who proceeded to blow it all in that one inning.

Jason Kubel delivered a double that, if it hadn't bounced over the OF wall, would have tied the game at five. Instead it left Justin Morneau trapped at 3rd base. Joe Crede, who started off the inning as Verlander's 13th strikeout victim, delivered the game winning 2-RBI single.

Scott Baker's season had been a disaster coming into Friday night's series opener against the Seattle Mariners. He started the first 2 weeks on the DL with shoulder soreness and then gave up 4 or more runs in each of his first four starts, not making it out of the fifth in two of those. On Friday night, he finally had a good start, going 7 full innings while allowing 0 runs on 5 hits and no walks.

The Twins have had a few blowout wins this year, but a majority of the lopsided games this season have come at their expense. On Wednesday night, I was a little worried with Scott Kazmir on the mound for the Tampa Bay Rays. The Twins usually don't fair well against left-handed pitching, and Kazmir has had success against the Twins in a limited number of past starts.

The Twins came out attacking Kazmir early though, with 4 runs right away in the first inning. They added 1 in the third and 3 more in the fourth, which finally ended a rough night for the starter.

Whenever the Twins got something going offensively on Sunday, a double play was right around the corner. In the 2nd inning Michael Cuddyer drew a walk, which was following up by a Delmon Young inning ending double play. Jose Morales led off the 3rd inning with a single, and that was following by a Nick Punto GIDP.

The worst came in the ninth when the twins had worked to within 2 runs and were facing closer Kerry Wood. Morales again got a leadoff single, and then Brian Buscher walked on 4 pitches. Denard Span then grounded into a no-out double play to kill the rally and the game for the Twins.

Things were looking good when the Twins got to Blue Jay starter Jesse Litsch early. They knocked him out of the game in the fourth inning after scoring 4 runs, and then added a couple more runs in the fifth.

Although Kevin Slowey left the game in the sixth inning with the lead, he got roughed up for 13 hits and 5 runs in his second consecutive bad outing. Slowey has allowed 4 deep balls and 22 hits through 2 starts--in other words, he's been throwing batting practice. Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn't hold the lead that the offense created, and the Twins lost by a score of 8-6. It's the team's 3rd straight loss and drops them to a record of 3-5.

The Twins came just shy of the postseason last year, however made very little moves in the offseason to make the team better. It's clear that they're counting on growth from within to make this team contend in 2009.

Looking to improve this year.

Michael Cuddyer struggled through injuries last season. While he was rehabbing a hand injury, he was struck by a ball and broke his foot. The string of bad luck limited him to just 279 plate appearances, hafter surpassing 600 in each of the previous two years.

Compared to last season, not a lot changed for the Twins this past winter. Last offseason saw the loss of Johan Santana and Torii Hunter as well as a trade that sent Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett to the Tampa Bay Rays for Delmon Young and Brendan Harris. This offseason's biggest move was the signing of Joe Crede, who comes into the season still trying to shake off any doubt about his health.

Let's take a position-by-position look at where the Twins stand in 2009 compared to 2008.

Ron Gardenhire brought the team a little bit closer to its opening day Roster this morning by naming Jose Morales the opening day backup catcher to Mike Redmond. Drew Butera, thought to be the favorite for the job because of his defensive superiority, was cut from camp.

On the pitching side, Jose Mijares, was cut from camp. The move was expected after Mijares showed up to camp overweight and didn't perform well this spring. The Twins' bullpen is a major question mark this season, so it's almost a sure bet that he'll be in the majors by mid-season.

The power went out in more ways than one Tuesday night in Kansas City. The Twins offense was again stifled by a mediocre pitcher--this time it was Brian Bannister holding the Twins to just 6 hits and 1 run through 7 innings.

Paul Byrd handed the Twins their 10th shutout of the season and 5th since July 1st. The offense scattered 4 hits with the low point coming in the third when Jason Kubel led off with a double and Brian Buscher, Nick Punto and Jason Tyner all failed to bring him in.