Joe Crede Topic Page

The Twins won their second consecutive game against the Oakland Athletics thanks to a 9th inning comeback sparked by the bottom of the Twins' lineup. The inning started with the score tied 3-3 and a Joe Crede triple. 2 singles, 2 walks and 2 wild pitches later the Twins had a 3-run lead with Alexi Casilla (pinch runner for Crede), Delmon Young and Matt Tolbert all scoring.

Jason Kubel had hit a pinch-hit home run for Carlos Gomez in the eighth inning to tie the game. With Denard Span out of the game with illness, it made for an interesting defensive alignment in the final two innings. Delmon Young started the game in LF. Michael Cuddyer had started the game in RF, and was moved over to CF to replace Gomez defensively. Kubel played in RF. Could that possibly be the worst defensive OF the Twins have ever put on the field?

Joe Mauer hit 11 home runs, batted .414 and had an on-base percentage of .500 for the month of May, which is nothing short of amazing. In his first game of the month of June, he managed to step it up a notch.

Mauer was 3-for-3 with a walk and hit his 12th home run of the season. He's now just 1 shy of his career high of 13 home runs in 2006. What's interesting is that all 3 of his hits came against left-handed pitching, which helps close the large gap in his platoon splits. Coming into the game Mauer was hitting .493 against RHP and .250 against LHP. The 3 hits bring the LHP average to .314.

Anthony Swarzak put together a decent start, allowing 3 runs through 6 innings, but the offense couldn't get much going against Josh Beckett on Thursday. Jason Varitek's 2 solo homers against Swarzak and a close play on a sacrifice fly in the seventh were enough for Boston to win this one.

Beckett struck out the first 4 batters he faced, before Joe Crede hit his 9th home run of the season. Crede had just returned from missing 3 games with a bruised hand. The Twins ended up with just 5 hits and struck out 10 times on the day.

The Twins returned to Minneapolis after their 20-1 blowout of the White Sox and handily swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the first weekend of interleague play. The streak of wins was thanks to a combination of good starting pitching and a pretty dangerous offensive lineup.

Ron Gardenhire moved Joe Mauer to the #2 spot, which makes for a typical middle of the lineup of Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede. Considering Denard Span is a quality leadoff hitter, it's pretty tough to go 1-6 through this lineup.

Joe Crede hasn't had the most spectacular start with the Twins, and is recovering from a string of illness and injury that caused him to miss 6 of the first 10 games of May. Last night though, he got his biggest hit of his Twins career--a walk-off grand slam in the 13th inning. The home run was his second in as many games since sitting the previous 3 games.

A 2-run home run from Jason Kubel in the eighth inning made the extra innings possible after the bullpen failed to hold a sixth inning lead.

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.

After failing to score a run on Thursday afternoon, the Twins bats came alive on a cold Friday evening in Chicago. Neither starter was great. R.A. Dickey and Jose Contreras lasted just five innings, but Dickey was just a little bit less hittable and was credited with the win. The Twins' record improved to 3-2, enough for first place in the division.

The Twins scattered single runs through 4 of the first 5 innings as Chicago tried to keep pace. Things got out of hand for the Sox in the seventh inning when the Twins posted 7 runs, more than they had scored in any of the previous 4 games. Justin Morneau led off the inning with his second home run of the season. Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede were all then walked. Singles by Jose Morales, Nick Punto, Denard Span and Alexi Casilla helped provide the scoring, and then Justin Morneau added his second RBI of the inning with a sac fly.

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.

Where would the Twins be in this series without their abundance of homeruns? 10 of the 11 runs scored in the last two games are from the five homeruns they’ve hit. While Chicago has matched the Twins in the number of homeruns, the Twins’ homers have been more damaging in terms of runs. Jason Bartlett and his 3-run homer were the difference in Tuesday night’s game.