Chris Capuano Topic Page

As much as my old-fashioned baseball loving mind hates the idea of inter-league play, I must admit it provides me with a convenient opportunity to see the Twins on the road in a real stadium. I'll be heading to Milwaukee with a couple friends for Friday and Saturday nights' games at Miller Park. I've never been to Miller Park (or really Milwaukee for that matter), so I'm definitely excited about the trip, despite how the Twins are playing heading into the weekend.

MLB's globalization efforts are turning baseball into a year event. March brought us the World Baseball Classic and November will see the inaugural Japan All-Star Series featuring a team of MLB "All-Stars" against Japan's best players. Taking a look at the MLB roster, it's clear that the term All-Star might be an exaggeration, but what more can you expect after a long regular season has just ended?

Jose Contreras has declared himself unable to play in the All-Star game after throwing 117 pitches and getting hit in the elbow on Sunday. This has created room for Francisco Liriano, and at 22 years old Liriano will attend his first All-Star game. A lot of credit should be given to Contreras for opting out and allowing Liriano to get a chance. Tom Glavine did the same thing for the NL and allowed Chris Capuano of the Brewers to make the team.

Milwaukee starter Chris Capuano had been able to shut down Twins' offenses in the past, but on Saturday night the bats managed 6 runs over 4 innings off Capuano. Normally, those runs would've been enough, but Silva struggled through 4 1/3 innings while giving up 7 runs (5 ER). It took the eighth inning collapse of Brewer closer Derrick Turnbow to give the Twins their 9th straight victory.

The Twins started off the week with four straight losses including a sweep by Detroit. They finished the week with a 2-1 series victory in Milwaukee. While the week's record was pretty discouraging, the Twins did make some good roster moves and we did see encouraging starts from a couple newcomers to the rotation. Carlos Silva went to the bullpen after his bad start last Sunday making way for Francisco Liriano. Kyle Lohse headed to AAA after his start on Tuesday and was replaced by Boof Bonser. Both Liriano and Bonser had quality starts and had it not been for the bullpen's failures on Sunday they both would've picked up wins.