Mike Smith Topic Page

On Sunday the Twins completed a four game sweep over baseball's worst team, and it probably came at a time when that team was playing even worse than it usually does. On Monday the Twins had to play baseball's best team in Detroit where they're 0 and 6. Nothing came easily for the Twins on Monday night. Jason Bartlett, who was 5-5 on Sunday, was 0-3 on Monday and hit into two double plays. A team that got 22 hits just a day before, had just 8 hits on Monday. They also only got the aid of one walk in the game. To make matters worse, Francisco Liriano was roughed up and lasted just four innings.

There were a lot of hits in Sunday's series finale in Kansas City. The Twins totaled 22 hits in the game, but no one had more than Jason Bartlett's 5. In the past week, since July 31st, Bartlett has had 5 multi-hit games and he's seen his average rise to .377. He of course, has only about half the plate appearances required to qualify as a league leader, but he's no doubt been extremely valuable at the bottom of the order. On Sunday he drove in the Twins first run of the game with a bloop single just past Royal first baseman Ryan Shealy.

It's really pretty sad to watch the Kansas City Royals play. Their pitching has walked 34 batters in three games so far which has allowed the Twins to come within a game of sweeping the 4 game series, despite the Twins not playing so well upon coming to Kansas City. The Royals also don't seem to have a bright future. They don't have a good core of young players that they're looking to to bring them out of the cellar in the next couple years. Of course, playing the Royals couldn't have come at a better time for the Twins.

The Twins won the opening game of the series on Monday night by a score of 15-2 yet they still managed to get outscored in the series by a score of 21-17 as they dropped Tuesday's game 9-0 and then lost on Wednesday afternoon by a score of 10-2. Boof Bonser showed us again that he's not ready (and may never be) for the major leagues. Sure, he didn't get much help from his defense as Justin Morneau and Nick Punto each made errors in the ugly fourth inning, but Bonser still gave up 6 hits and 2 walks in 4 innings.