Jose Morales Topic Page

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.

Anticipoinment has to be the official word of the Twins-Royals weekend series. The series brought much anticipation for the return of Joe Mauer, and let me be clear, Mauer had nothing to with the latter half of the portmanteau. In his first at-bat on Friday night, he took 2 pitches for balls before hitting an opposite field solo home run. Mauer also had a double and a walk, and with the help of a 3 RBI night from Justin Morneau the Twins won the first game of the series, and all was right in the world again.

Joe Nathan blew his first save of the season by giving up a leadoff home run to Ben Zobrist in the ninth inning. Gleeman suggested that perhaps Nathan isn't getting enough work. It's hard to disagree. Nathan has pitched just 7.0 innings all season. The only player that's been on the active roster all season and pitched fewer innings is Craig Breslow. Nathan is the highest paid member of the bullpen, and should be used more often.

Although Francisco Liriano couldn't get his first save of the season, he had his best outing of the season, allowing 2 runs through 6.2 innings.

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.

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.

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.

For the second straight night, the Twins bullpen can be given a lot of credit for the win. Kevin Slowey got a bit roughed up, allowing 5 runs through six innings. He allowed 9 hits, 2 of which were homeruns, but walked none. The bullpen has been good the past couple nights, but Twins starters can't keep forcing them to pitch 3 or 4 innings a night. Last night Craig Breslow, Jesse Crain and Joe Nathan combined to allow just 1 hit and 1 walk in 3 innings.

Justin Morneau busted out of his 2 game funk and drove in 3 RBI. He homered in the first inning to drive in two, and later doubled to tie the game in the fifth. Jason Kubel drove him in for the game winning run the next at-bat.

Down 5-3, and with Carlos Gomez at the plate with 2 outs and 2 strikes, it seemed clear that the Twins were headed to an 0-2 start against the Seattle Mariners. However, Go-Go drew a walk from Seattle Closer Brandon Morrow and Kubel and Buscher followed up with walks themselves. Denard Span brought the Twins within a run with his third single of the night and then Casilla poked a single into center field to score the tying and winning runs, in walk off fashion.

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.