Phil Nevin Topic Page

Scott Baker was coming off a pretty good start at Cleveland, but didn't fair so well on Saturday in Baltimore. Baker didn't walk anyone, but allowed 7 hits in 3 2/3 innings. He didn't get much help from his defense either as Phil Nevin, who was playing first, was unable to handle Jason Bartlett's low throw in the second inning.

The Twins trailed Thursday night's series opener against Detroit right from the start. Scott Baker gave up a homerun to the first batter he faced, Curtis Granderson. The Tiger lead only grew as the game went on the the Twins eventually lost by a score of 7-2. The Tigers only outhit the Twins by 2 and if you add the Twins +2 walk differential, then the two teams had an equal number reach base. Two key things made the difference in the game: The Tigers hit 4 homeruns and turned 3 double plays while the Twins hit just 1 solo homerun and turned no double plays.

The Twins picked up Phil Nevin from the Chicago Cubs with just a few hours remaining in the waiver trading deadline. Will Nevin be a difference maker or will he just be another subpar option for the DH spot? Probably a little of both.

The last time I saw a team play as poorly as the Cubs did on Sunday was in late May when I walked past a little league game. The Cubs made 3 official errors in the game, but also made a number of mistakes that weren't scored as errors. Balls found their way into holes as Cubs players simply looked at eachother in hopes that the other guy would make the play. The Cubs out-hit the Twins 11-10, but the lopsided 8-1 score showed just how awful the Cubs were. The positive is that the Twins took advantage of the mistakes—something all good teams do.

The Twins continue to roll right along as they took Friday night's series opener against the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs sent out unproven starter Carlos Marmol who didn't have good command of his pitches. He fell behind in the count often and the Twins took advantage of it by scoring 7 runs in Marmol's 5 2/3 innings. Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau provided plenty of run production from the middle of the lineup and Johan Santana was his usual self—limiting Chicago to just 1 earned run in 8 innings.