Jeremy Bonderman Topic Page

Winning the series against Cleveland was certainly not expected the way the Twins limped into Cleveland after being clobbered in Toronto. With C.C. Sabathia on the mound for Cleveland it seemed even less likely the Twins could win the rubber game of the series.

The bats woke up from their slumber on Sunday night and salvaged one game in the Detroit series. Torii Hunter led the offense with 7 RBIs on 2 homers and a double. The 7 RBIs were a career best for Torii and also set an MLB season high. Torii wasn't the only producer, however as the Twins scored 16 runs on 22 hits and 7 walks while managing to put a run on the board in every inning but the second (and the non-played bottom of the ninth).

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.

The Twins and Tigers will be shown on National TV for two of the three games. They'll be on FOX Saturday baseball and then will be the Sunday night game on ESPN. The Tigers will come into the Dome just as hot as the Twins are cold. The Tigers have won 9 of 10 and have amounted a healthy 4.5 game lead since the Twins took their first series of the season by 2 games to 1.

Johan Santana is always a great pitcher, but in big games he somehow manages to step it up a notch. He was virtually unhittable on Sunday against the Tigers as he led the Twins to a series victory over the flailing Tigers. Pitch count knocked Santana out of the game in the seventh. Before leaving he allowed just four baserunners and struck out 11.

Sunday's game was a tough one to watch. I can't remember a time in recent history when Johan appeared to be laboring so much for an entire outing. He gave up 9 hits and 4 walks in 5 1/3 innings, but amazingly still only gave up 3 runs. The month of July has not been a good one for Johan, by his standards anyway. He has a 3-1 record, but it's his 4.74 ERA that's unusual. I'm not worried though.

The Twins set out to prove that they are capable of beating the Detroit Tigers, and they did just that -- barely. The Twins scored 2 runs right away in the first inning off starter, Jeremy Bonderman. Luis Castillo started off the rally by beating out the throw on a chopper up the middle. Joe Mauer then reached on a walk and Torii Hunter came through with a double down the 3rd baseline. The hit scored Mauer and Castillo and Hunter made it to 3rd on a Craig Monroe Error. It was quite dissapointing that the Twins couldn't score with Hunter on 3rd and no outs. Michael Cuddyer lined out to 3rd, Justin Morneau walked and Batista grounded out to end the inning.