Glen Perkins Topic Page

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.

The Twins have been shuffling things around a bit the past few days as they deal with injuries and struggling players. Here's a rundown of what's happened.

On Friday the Twins activated Nick Punto from the DL and optioned Alexi Casilla to AAA to make room. It was the second time this season that Casilla has been demoted.

On Saturday the Twins optioned Anthony Swarzak to AAA right after his 7 shutout innings against the Cubs. The Twins recalled catcher Jose Morales to take his place. With several hitters on the DL and the fact that Joe Mauer is often being used as DH on his offdays, Ron Gardenhire wanted to have a 3rd catcher. The move brought the Twins' pitchers down to just 11. Morales has not played in either of the 2 games since being recalled.

Monday night may have been Anthony Swarzak's last start for a while anyway, but his 4th inning meltdown against the Oakland Athletics probably sealed the deal. Glen Perkins is scheduled to pitch his second rehab start tonight and would be eligible to return to the team this weekend againt the Cubs.

In the 4th inning Swarzak couldn't get a ball over the plate. He walked the first two batters of the inning on 8 straight balls. Brendan Harris made a diving stop and threw out Matt Holliday at 3rd, which was a huge play at the time. Unfortunately Swarzak hit the next batter, Aaron Cunningham in the side of the helmet, knocking him out of the game. Swarzak allowed a double, retired a second batter and then walked another before Luis Ayala was called upon to relieve him.

If there were a way to put a positive spin on a 4-game sweep, I'd probably mention that 3 of the 4 games were lost by just 1 run and the other one was lost by 2 runs in walk-off fashion. Considering they're outspent by the Yankees $201 million to $65 million, the Twins put up a better fight than one would logically expect. It's fun to dream about how good just an extra $25 million well spent would make the Twins.

Monday's game seemed finished almost as soon as it got started. Although the Twins put a couple runs up right away in the first, Glen Perkins allowed 6 runs to the Yankees in the bottom of that inning before leaving with just 2 outs. R.A. Dickey did a marvelous job keeping the Yankees bats at bay as the Twins slowly pecked away at that lead. Dickey pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

The Twins enter the series at Cleveland with a 7-9 record, which puts them just 1.5 games behind Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City for the division lead. Cleveland is just a game behind the Twins. The Twins are fortunate to have the record they have, considering they've played much worse than that in terms of runs scored (66) vs. runs allowed (97).

The pitching matchups for the weekend:

Friday: Nick Blackburn, RHP (0-1, 5.71) vs. __Fausto Carmona, RPH (1-2, 7.88) Saturday: Kevin Slowey, RHP (2-0, 5.89) vs. Carl Pavano, RHP (0-2, 9.69) Sunday: Glen Perkins, LHP (1-1, 1.50) vs. Aaron Laffey, LHP (1-0, 2.19)

The Twins finished off their sweep of the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday with another stellar outing from Glen Perkins. The win moved them to 7-7 and just a game back of the trio of leaders in the division; Kansas City, Detroit and Chicago are all 7-5.

Glen Perkins needed just 84 pitches to complete 8 innings for the 3rd time in 3 starts. He gave way to Joe Nathan in the 9th. Two consecutive good starts combined with an off day on Monday will lead to a well rested bullpen when the Twins open a 2-game series in Boston.

Up to this point, Glen Perkins has been the only pitcher that has given the Twins truly good starts. Last week he didn't get the win as the Twins lost 2-1 after Perkins pitched 8 innings of 1-run baseball. On Tuesday night it looked like Perkins might again become the victim of an offensive sleeper. With a 2-1 lead in the seventh and bases loaded, the Twins had a prime opportunity to separate the score a little bit. Unfortunately, Michael Cuddyer struck out and Joe Crede grounded into an inning ending double play.

The Blue Jays tied the game on Perkins in the eighth, and the game was ultimately not decided until Joe Crede redeemed himself with a walk-off double that score Justin Morneau in the 11th.

The Twins open the regular season in just a week and it won't be long before we have a clear picture of what exactly the team will look like at the Metrodome on March 31st.

Glen Perkins is next on the list for 2008 projections. First, the stats:

The Twins lost their 4th straight game on Saturday and dropped 2 games under .500 and 6.5 games behind division leading Detroit. The Twins also have now lost 4 straight series and have just 2 wins to show in the first 8 games of their 9 game home stand. Justin Morneau suffered a broken nose in the eighth inning when an errant throw by Nick Punto bounced up off the dirt around 1st base and hit him square in the nose.