Willie Eyre Topic Page

Early in the week I did a player-by-player rundown of the 2006 season. Now it's time for the pitchers.

The last two nights have been perfect indications that the playoff race is heating up. Two of the most exciting games of the season came back to back, and best of all, the Twins won both. The Twins jumped out to an early lead against Jose Contreras, scoring five runs in the first three innings and knocking Contreras out of the game after 2 2/3 innings. Santana wasn't as dominate as he usually is, but he managed to get through 7 innings allowing just three runs (two earned) and it looked like everything was going well—the Twins were cruising to victory and the bullpen was going to get some rest. Then things got interesting.

It's become a common story for the Twins in 2006: shut down by a mediocre pitcher. Adam Loewen entered the Baltimore rotation on June 3rd and has never managed to complete 7 innings. He came into the game with a 3-4 record, a 6.12 ERA and a .369 opponent batting average. The Twins managed just four hits and one run through 8 innings against Loewen, but managed to tack on two runs against Latroy Hawkins in the ninth.

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.

A month ago Jeremy Sowers wasn't even in the big leagues. Since being called up and making his debut start on June 25th he's also been less than spectacular. He came into Saturday night's game with an error of 5.56 and a 1-3 record. He was also just coming off a bad start against the Twins earlier in the week. He was a different pitcher on Saturday night. He allowed just 4 hits and a walk in the complete game shutout and he got plenty of run support.

Carlos Silva threw batting practice to a pretty good Texas lineup for the first 1 2/3 innings of Friday night's series opener. It was actually pretty incredible that he only allowed two runs in the first inning; he left two runners in scoring position in the innings. Silva had three more runs charged to him in the 2nd inning, and left with a strained right knee. Whether it was an injury or an "injury" isn't much of a concern for me. As long as it keeps him off the mound for a while, I'll be satisfied. There were some grumbles earlier this week over Kyle Lohse being the likely candidate to take Boof Bonser's spot in the rotation instead of Bakers. Sooner or later they might both be there.

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 found themselves down 8-0 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning. Carlos Silva struggled in the first inning by giving up 3 runs, including a 2-run homer to Miguel Tejada. Silva then pitched 3 scoreless innings before allowing Baltimore to extend the lead by a run in each of the fifth and 6th innings. The recently recalled Kyle Lohse came on for the 7th and looked terrible.

After dropping the first two games of the series, the Yankees set out to remind the Twins just who they were, and that's exactly what they did on Sunday at the Metrodome. Brad Radke gave up 3 runs in the 2nd inning including a deep homerun for Jason Giambi. Radke also gave up 2 runs in the 5th and 1 run in the 6th. Radke gave up 3 homeruns in the game after neither team hit any homeruns in the first two games of the series.

Spring Training.