Matt Tolbert 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?

On Friday night Francisco Liriano bounced back with a pretty good start against Seattle. He held them to 1 run through 6 innings. He still threw a lot of pitches and walked 4 batters, but he managed to avoid the disastrous innings that had plagued him recently.

The game headed into extra innings and after the Mariners accurately predicted Ron Gardenhire's squeeze attempt and pitched out trapping Joe Mauer between 3rd and home, Matt Tolbert managed to hit a fly ball to deep left field. The ball was misplayed by Wladimir Balentien for an error and it allowed the Twins to win 2-1.

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.

Before Wednesday's series opener in Baltimore, the Twins optioned struggling Alexi Casilla to AAA Rochester. Casilla hasn't been able to rebound at the plate since returning from the DL late last year after tearing a tendon in his right thumb. His defensive play has also been spotty, and his costly error in Detroit on Tuesday was probably the last straw.

Matt Tolbert was recalled to replace Casilla on the roster. Tolbert and Brendan Harris are expected to split the time at second base.

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.

For the second straight night the bullpen gave up a late Twins' lead. Three runs in the eighth inning were enough to put Detroit on top and hold off a small ninth inning rally from the Twins. The Tigers swept the 2 game series and doubled their win total on the season. At 4-10, they're not just 2 games behind the 6-8 Twins.

First, Francisco Liriano has been recalled to pitch on Sunday against the Royals. Slowey has been placed on the 15-day DL, retroactive to April 4th. After Thursday's rainout, that comes as a surpise to me, but I suppose they would've had to make a move at some point by early next week.

A quality start from Boof Bonser wasn't enough to overcome the continued offensive struggles of the Twins. Through seven games their offense is averaging only 2.7 runs per game and they've been limited to 1 or less run in 3 games.

Justin Morneau's slump has possibly come to end. He hit his first home run of the season, a 3-run blast in the 4th inning, and later provided an RBI double. That gives him 3 hits and 5 RBI in the past two games.

The speculation of the weekend culminated in Monday's official announcement by the Twins that they have signed Joe Nathan through 2011 with a team option for 2012. For a team who's recent history has been to let star players go when they enter their most expensive years, this should come as a pleasant surprise. It's really hard to get too upset over this; every fan wants their team to retain its best players.