Milwaukee Topic Page

The Twins won the opening game of their series against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. All 7 of their runs came in the first 3 innings, and were helped considerably by Milwaukee errors and miscues in the field.

Francisco Liriano's struggles continued. He got the win, but struggled to get through 5 innings with 117 pitches thrown. He allowed 7 hits and 5 walks to Brewer hitters. He came up with big inning-ending strikeouts in the 4th and 5th innings, which prevented what could have been more damage.

Scott Baker picked up his first victory since his season debut on May 19th in Milwaukee. He was pulled after five innings in favor of a pinch hitter after pitching two scoreless innings. The pinch hit move ended up paying off as the Twins expanded the lead from 3-2 to 6-2 in that inning.

Scott Baker's start was going along just fine through the first three innings. It looked like he might repeat the success he had in his season debut in Milwaukee last month when he came just shy of a complete game. It all fell apart in the fourth inning though when Geoff Jenkins hit a grand slam over the baggy to put the Brewers ahead 4-1.

In Milwaukee there was hardly a thing to complain about on Friday and Saturday night. The Twins seemed to be turning a corner. Sunday's loss was disappointing, but could largely be blamed on Ramon Ortiz and Dennys Reyes. Things got ugly on Monday in Texas which could lead to the conclusion that the Twins just happened to catch the Brewers at a good time.

The lack of posts over the past few games are a result of me being in Milwaukee for the series. Unfortunately, the Hilton didn't offer free wifi, so I was able to use that as an excuse to completely stay away from computers for a couple days.

As much as my old-fashioned baseball loving mind hates the idea of inter-league play, I must admit it provides me with a convenient opportunity to see the Twins on the road in a real stadium. I'll be heading to Milwaukee with a couple friends for Friday and Saturday nights' games at Miller Park. I've never been to Miller Park (or really Milwaukee for that matter), so I'm definitely excited about the trip, despite how the Twins are playing heading into the weekend.

The Twins won the first game of the Milwaukee series in convincing fashion. Back-to-back homeruns from Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter in the second inning gave the Twins an early lead that they only added to throughout the game. Terry Tiffee added a third homer in the sixth. Brad Radke continued to pitch well and he's now improved his record to 7-7 and dropped his ERA to 5.11. He's only 2 wins shy of his 2005 win total.

The Twins are riding their second longest winning streak of the season (7 games) which is separated by only 1 loss from their longest winning streak of 8 games. Milwaukee is a mediocre team, so I expect the Twins to keep things rolling through the weekend. The pitching matchups will be as follows:

The Twins started off the week with four straight losses including a sweep by Detroit. They finished the week with a 2-1 series victory in Milwaukee. While the week's record was pretty discouraging, the Twins did make some good roster moves and we did see encouraging starts from a couple newcomers to the rotation. Carlos Silva went to the bullpen after his bad start last Sunday making way for Francisco Liriano. Kyle Lohse headed to AAA after his start on Tuesday and was replaced by Boof Bonser. Both Liriano and Bonser had quality starts and had it not been for the bullpen's failures on Sunday they both would've picked up wins.

The Twins jumped out to an early 6-0 lead off Milwaukee starter Ben Hendrickson. Hendrickson gave up 6 runs in the first before he was pulled without retiring one Twins batter. The Twins also put together a 5 run fourth inning which included triples by Michael Cuddyer and Juan Castro. The Twins also added runs in the 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th. The Twins have had a handful of high-scoring games this year, so clearly this offense is capable of scoring more runs than it could last year.