June 24, 2007 - June 30, 2007

Bully!

Filed under: Twins

OK, now that was a good game. You had Frank Thomas (The Tank Engine) blasting his 500th home run, and the Twins won anyway. Our boys fell behind quickly in the first and then, nonplussed, shut the lid on the Blue Jays in commanding fashion, playing small-ball and Earl Weaver style basher-ball to come back and win 8-5. And that's just awesome.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I've been a grouch about this Twins team. They have failed to live up to my always excessive expectations and probably will continue on this path no matter what they do shy of a World Series triumph. But games like today's do raise my spirits considerably, and that's because there's hope. A well played game is a joy forever in this sport, but if your team's the Kansas City Royals and the season's over by June, well, a good game goes only so far. Grim reality comes crashing down after the last out, just as sure as the sun disappears every day. That the Twins have a chance this season--and they do, in spite of all my pessimism--makes today's comeback that much more exciting.

It looked bad from the start, though. Carlos Silva gave up Thomas' historical blast, which put the Jays up 4-0 right away. The Twins scored a run quickly in their half, put two more on with one out, and then the heart of the order stranded them. Uh-oh, I thought, and remembered that Silva was in his usual mess--no pitcher in the AL has worse run support than poor Carlos. Four runs seemed daunting.

But the Twins shook off the first inning and went to work. The Jays made errors and we took advantage of them. Jason Bartlett smacked a surprising home run, was hit by a pitch, reached base every at-bat, stole a base and scored a pair of runs. Torii, not to be outdone by the Big Hurt (or Bartlett for that matter), cracked a pair of homers himself, and knocked in three RBI. Outside that first inning, Silva threw six full and gave up only three hits, a walk, and struck out five in that time.

My favorite moment came in the fifth, when Minnesota, down by a pair, opened up the game and went ahead 7-5. Tyner began the rumpus with a sharp single, and then Bartlett stepped to the plate. Now, it seems to me that Gardy would typically let this pirahna lay down a sacrifice bunt, a strategy I absolutely hate, but one that's popular (the Twins are tied for fourth in this category). Now, I don't know if Gardenhire was still stunned at Bartlett's sudden power surge just two innings earlier, but the guy never even showed bunt. Instead, he belted a liner into right which sent Tyner to third and got the ball rolling on what would be a four-run inning.

Homers, stolen bases, key hits, great pitching... oh, yeah, and in the ninth, with the game out of reach and Joe Nathan working his magic, both Frank Thomas and manager John Gibbons were ejected. So the Big Hurt started the game making history, and ended it by getting tossed on his ear. What more do you want?

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at June 28, 2007 12:02 PM | Comments (30)

Battle of the Also-Rans

Filed under: Twins

The Toronto Blue Jays and The Minnesota Twins, wrestling for possession of fourth place in the Wild Card race (with the mighty Oakland Athletics), were like a pair of samurai this evening, each desperately trying to push the other out of the chalk ring without success. Behold: Scott Baker and Shaun Marcum pitched very good games and watched as their respective clubs could only score a run apiece. Baker's was a particularly impressive performance, going seven full innings, giving up a run and striking out nine. This type of performance should be rewarded with a Win for the young hurler, right? Not in Twins Territory...

You can get all thrilled to pieces that the Twins have their seventh walk-off victory of the season, after Jeff Cirillo, pinch-hitting in the twelfth fucking, inning looped a single into center to score Mike Cuddyer from third. You could roar with delight when Jason Kubel drew a tenth inning walk that amounted to nothing. When your team's not scoring, when the opponent's not scoring (and you know in your gut they should), you'll take what you can get. You may marvel at the pitcher's duel unfolding on the field, but deep down you're feeling cheated.

I say the duel was decent, nothing more. True, Baker was magnificent. When Vernon Wells (a Twins killer if ever there was one) doubled to open the fourth and end a no-hit bid, Baker never lost his composure. With Wells standing at the keystone, the kid from Shreveport induced a pop-up and struck out the next two. So that was good.

If only we could've scored. Because this Shaun Marcum, who is excelling as a starter for the Jays (3-0, 2.26 as a starter), seemed to be given some help with his dubious magic by some serious hacking on our part. No Twin saw more than five pitches per at-bat through seven innings, and none took a Jay pitcher to a full count until the tenth inning. Granted, there weren't many strikeouts, so at least we got some wood on the ball. But that's cold comfort.

The Twins can't ask guys like Scott Baker to do a whole heck of a lot more. If they insist on playing small ball, well, that involves piranhas nibbling on opposing pitchers with plate appearances swollen with high pitch counts. Instead, we get an extra-inning game that should have been finished in the regulation nine. Neither team looked like a contender tonight.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at June 26, 2007 7:18 PM | Comments (2)

Night Of A Thousand Blunders

Filed under: Twins

The heroes of tonight's game were Vernon Wells of the Blue Jays (a homer, three hits and three RBI) and Mike Redmond (two hits and a pair of RBI) for the local nine in the Twins 8-5 loss. As for the goats, I say, what goats? Tonight, we got slapstick all over the place!

Yes, it was the Marx Brothers against the Keystone Kops, as both the Twins and Blue Jays duked it out to see who would make the most errors and outright blunders through nine. Both teams could have worn Keaton's big shoes and goofy hat, leaned precariously on Chaplin's cane, and bugged their eyes out with all the verve of Harold Lloyd dangling off a clock face. It was that kind of night. Consider:

Second inning and Torii Hunter has yet another of his baserunning exploits, bolting for second before the Jays Roy Halliday threw to his catcher. For whatever reason, Halliday didn't turn quickly enough, fired to first instead, and Torii had a stolen base in spite of himself. He would later score on Redmond's single.

In the third, Mike Redmond couldn't hold onto a called third strike and then fired to first base for the easy out... where Jeff Cirillo, having just announced yesterday that this season would be his last, let the ball carom off his glove, as Toronto's John McDonald sped to second. He was sent home by a long, long homer on the part of Vernon Wells, and the score was 2-0.

Fourth inning and Torii races to deep center on an Aaron Hill blast. In typical Mack Sennett style, he overruns the ball, pirouettes, stabs at the pill as it falls and catches the damn thing at his waist. It could only have been better if Torii fell into a trough of wet concrete or plopped onto giant cake or custard pie.

The topper in the top of the fifth: Matt Stairs lines to Cuddyer, who then tries to catch Vernon Wells off first. But the throw is off by a few inches, and it bounces recklessly past Cirillo. Now, in a normal game played by the professionals of Major League Baseball, the batter will advance only if there's no one backing up the throw, yes? That's the plan, but the best laid plans of mice and Twins often fall prey to some terrific hijinks, as the ball then squirted past a fumbling Kevin Slowey, and then dribbled under the glove of a diving Mike Redmond before resting innocently against the backstop. How often do you see a throw go on past three players? Only in the comedies, my friend, only in the comedies.

In the bottom half of the same damned inning, Roy Halliday threw a wild pitch that scored not one, but two Twins while Halliday looked on, helpless. In his dive to score, Castillo looked as though he landed on his cup first and skidded past home on the thing before he came to a grinding halt and grabbed at his crotch.

Think you can get these laffs at Vikings or Wild game? Hell no! Baseball is the sport of kings and clowns. Always has been, always will be...

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at June 25, 2007 8:38 PM | Comments (0)

Taking Care of Business

Filed under: Twins

Here's a question for you: what do Jason Bartlett, Jeff Cirillo, Nick Punto, Lew Ford, Jason Kubel, Luis Rodriguez, and Jason Tyner all have in common?

Answer: They're all hitting worse than Johan Santana!

B'dum, dah! Hey, all right, well, that's more of a lame joke than a collection of statistics that actually mean anything. Really, who knows how well our ace would hit if he were batting every day, or even every fifth game. But Santana, as if thinking, "Hell, this is my opportunity to actually give myself a 'W'", drove in a run on a triple in the second inning of today's 7-4 victory over the Florida Marlins. 'Twas his first triple ever, it was, and with that one hit in three at bats, Johan brought his average to .286, which bests the regulars listed above. More importantly, at the time the game was locked at a single run and the way things have been going this season, and that might have felt a bit daunting. But Santana did not need to exert himself in the turgid Miami heat, as the rest of the Twins, and especially Mighty Joe Mauer (who belted a pair of homers, increasing his total 200%), pushed enough men across the plate to give Santana yet another win. Ten more to go, and the guy might actually win the Cy Young.

The heat was stifling, or so they said on the radio, so much so that Michael Cuddyer became incensed over a call and was tossed. Later, the ump seemed a bit discombobulated by the humidity, and his calls were being questioned by the guys in the booth--and many players as well when the game was over. Joe Nathan commented on this, saying in essence that it's not up to him to determine balls and strikes, but he acknowledged that it was pretty steamy out there.

So now the Twins return to the air-conditioned splendor of the Metrodome for a four game set against the Toronto Blue Jays, currently but a game and half behind us in the Wild Card race. With today's win we're 38-35, exactly the same record as one year ago--and yes, I'm aware that we're but six and a half back of the Tigers instead of ten behind (as last year). But I'll feel a lot better if the wins start coming in bunches, instead of scattered about. It's not enough to say the Blue Jays are a team we have to beat... at this point, we have to beat everyone as often as possible. That's what championship-calibre teams believe.

Posted by Peter Schilling Jr. at June 24, 2007 3:31 PM | Comments (0)

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