Baby Watch

Twins 7, Angels 2

The due date for my 2nd child was Thursday. That took even my mind off baseball for most of the weekend. On Friday, my wife decided to go to the mall for one last pre-natal outing. We saw "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," which I thoroughly enjoyed. By the time we got back to the house at quarter after 7:00, this game was already just about over.

Brian Duensing seems to know what he's doing. Did he figure something out last year? Were his so-so numbers at AAA a fluke? We'll have to wait and see, but he's been a revelation in the rotation for 2 straight summers. He followed his 3-H shutout from last weekend with this line: 8 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. That brought his season ERA down to 1.92.

The offense came from a 2-out, 3-run HR from Jason Kubel, some hits strung together in the 4th, and a couple of SF. The pitchers worked quickly, the hitters put the ball in play - a tidy little well-played game.

Twins 3, Angels 9

Unlike this game. Angels starter Trevor Bell had no command. On top of that, umpire Jerry Layne had a rather small strike zone. Bell walked 3 in the bottom of the 1st, the first 2 scoring on Michael Cuddyer's 2-out single, and the 3rd moving Cuddyer into scoring position for Delmon Young. In keeping with a couple of the games from the White Sox series, that big 1st-inning lead was immediately given back by the Twins' starter. Kevin Slowey allowed all the hits he should have given up last Sunday in the 2nd inning. The Angels batted around and scored 4 times. Slowey would have to leave with a sore triceps after pitching out of another jam in the 3rd.

The Twins had an opportunity to immediately equalize in their half of the 2nd. JJ Hardy led off with a BB. At that point, Bell had thrown 38 pitches, only half of which were strikes, while walking 4 of the first 9 batters he faced. For me, that puts the lineup into "take 2 strikes" mode - anything less risks letting a wild pitcher off the hook. Denard Span and Orlando Hudson didn't do that. Span was hit in the foot on the 2nd pitch while showing bunt, but the pitch was ruled a strike because he failed to draw the bat back. There's no sacrificing when a pitcher is this wild! You'll get the lead runner to 2nd base when the pitcher puts you on. Hardy was able to move up on a WP, and Span's fly out moved him to 3rd with 1 out. Still a productive PA, I guess. Ahead 3-1, Hudson reached for an outside pitch and grounded out to SS, holding Hardy at 3B. Had those two come to the plate with the idea of taking 2 strikes firmly in their minds, the Twins could have the bases loaded with no outs for Joe Mauer. That's what Bell gave them, but they didn't take it.

The game got worse from there. Jeff Manship and Glen Perkins combined to pitch 4.2 of the last 6 innings, allowing 3 ER on 8 H and 1 BB. The other 2 runs came as a result of Span dropping the 3rd out of 6th inning on the warning track for an E. That forced Ron Mahay to face one more batter. While attempting to field the squibber behind the mound that resulted from that AB, Mahay slipped and hurt his shoulder - he'll go on the DL. 3 1/2 hours to play 9 innings, 2 E, 2 unearned R, 2 guys on the DL. That's a forgettable game.

Twins 4, Angels 0

No doubt fearing another appearance from evil Scott Baker, the Twins wisely chose to squander their early scoring opportunities. By the time they broke out with a 4-run 5th, good Scott Baker was safely entrenched in a groove of effectiveness - he allowed only a BB in the 2 innings following the outburst.

That included Danny Valencia's 2nd career HR and a 2-out, bases clearing 2B from Michael Cuddyer. Another clean, crisply played game in under 3 hours. I hope our impending labor goes more like this game than Saturday's. (If you don't hear from me after the Texas series, you can guess why...)

Notes:

• The Twins finish the season series with the Angels at 5-2, and have gone 11-1 at home so far vs. the AL West.
• This concludes a 7-2 home stand, and lifts the Twins to 14-6 in August. They have gone a full month since their last series loss. You're savoring that, right? It won't always be like this...
• Meanwhile, the Sox went to extra innings in all 3 games in Kansas City, and came out on the short end twice. That brings the Twins' division lead to 5 games, and lowers their magic number to 34 with 38 games left to play.

SoCal Series

Twins 3, Angels 6

Were you frustrated at the end of this game? I was. It felt too similar to the futile portions of 2009 (you know, April-early September). Scott Baker was still unable to pitch deep into the game, the bullpen served up a couple of HR, the offense couldn't quite string enough hits together to get a lead.

But I took a step back, since it's only one game. It really was very close to being a good one for the Twins. Baker's BBs to 2 of the first 3 hitters could be forgiven as opening day jitters. They both scored on 2-out singles, but he was pretty good after that. The HR he allowed in the 2nd was on a decent pitch, and it only cleared the wall by a foot or so. The bullpen was good outside of 2 flat breaking balls from Jose Mijares.

The Twins didn't quite get the bounces. Orlando Hudson's 2B came about a foot short of being a HR - that could have been another run. The 1st pitch to Delmon Young with the bases loaded in the 6th bounced well in front of the plate, but C Jeff Mathis threw his shin guard at it and stopped it cold - that easily could have been a WP and another run. Justin Morneau lined out to 1B to leave the bases loaded in the 7th - a bullet like that hit a few feet to either side could have brought in 1-3 runs. Some nights things just don't go your way - the Twins will play games like that at least every other week all season long.

Twins 5, Angels 3

Like Baker, Nick Blackburn had opening night jitters, walking the first 2 batters he faced. After that, he was typical Blackurn: 6.2 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, HR, 2 BB, 4 K the rest of the way. Lots of baserunners, but only 2 XBH, 11 ground ball outs, and he was stingy with RISP. I was amused to discover that his ERA after this game is 4.05 - essentially identical to where he finished up in each of the last 2 seasons.

The Twins still have a powerful lineup. Great to see Morneau hit a HR so early in the season after he scuffled the last couple weeks of spring training. It was important for JJ Hardy to get off to a fast start after his struggles last year - he's well on his way to resuming his power pace from 2007 and 2008.

The bullpen combo of Brian Duensing, Matt Guerrier and Jon Rauch threw 2.1 perfect IP. Rauch had 2 K in his first save opportunity. Joe Nathan couldn't have done any better.

Twins 4, Angels 2

Another strong all-around game from the pitching staff. Carl Pavano led the way with 1 ER in 7 IP. He allowed just 7 baserunners, 1 2B, and struck out 6.

Morneau and Hardy each homered for the 2nd straight game. Nick Punto got it going offensively with a 3B and a SB. Mike Napoli, though a better hitter than Mathis, clearly gives a lot away defensively behind the plate, as Cuddyer was also able to steal a base. Hardy made a sick play deep in the hole in the 9th inning to highlight another night of steady defense.

Rauch was touched for a run with 2 out in the 9th. He has apparently studied at the Fernando Rodney school for closers: give up your runs in the games where you have a 3-run lead.

Twins 10, Angels 1

I was disappointed that Kevin Slowey wasn't able to go deeper into the game, but once again the bullpen showed up, allowing just 1 H over 3.1 IP. For his first game back since last summer, it was a good enough showing, and his run support picked up right where it left off.

So much power! Brendan Harris and Jim Thome hit their first HR of the year, and defensive replacement (yes, you're reading that right) Delmon Young hit his 2nd. Young is still swinging early in the count, but he's at least looking for something offspeed: it was a changeup the he walloped in the 9th last night. After 10 scoreless IP to begin the season, I had a feeling the Twins would get to the Angels' bullpen in the finale. I think 7 ER in 3 IP qualifies.

What a start to the season, winning 3 of 4 from a playoff team on the road. The White Sox offense was pretty anemic against Cleveland's less than stellar pitching staff, so I'm hopeful that the Twins can pull off a series win in Chicago this weekend and come into the Target Field opener with at least a 5-2 record.

Notes from the first week:

• The Twins didn't get an RBI hit with RISP until Jason Kubel's 5th inning single on Thursday. All their runs in the first 3 games scored on HR or SF.
• Impressive that the Twins were able to win this series while getting such poor production out of their table-setters. Denard Span and Hudson combined to go 4-33 with 1 BB and HBP (.167 OBP). Just goes to show that this lineup can score runs in lots of different ways.
• Hudson took quite a beating during the series. He was beaned in the kneecap, fouled a ball into his wrist, took a hard slide at 2B, and finally came out of the game late Thursday after wrenching his neck on a head-first slide of his own. I'm guessing he'll get tonight off.
• That neck-wrenching slide came on a 2B off the glove of Howie Kendrick into short CF. Hudson legged that out, but laid back on his 1st inning hit that Torii Hunter cut off in the right-CF gap. Jim Thome later legged out a 2B on a ball hit to basically the identical spot. I know you don't want to give away outs in front of Mauer, but Hudson needs to be going for 2 on balls like that. If he had, the Twins might have scored a run that inning.
• Glad to see that the Twins finally pulled away enough on Thursday to give Alex Burnett a major-league debut in front of his family. I think he'll get one or two more appearances like that before heading to AAA to make room for Ron Mahay.
• Erick Aybar looks like the player Alexi Casilla is supposed to be.
• I have no words for this play.
• Established closer Jose Valverde has already blown as many saves for the Tigers as Fernando Rodney did all of last year. This increases my satisfaction with Rauch - sure, he'll blow a few, but almost everyone does - and also solidifies my expectation that the Tigers will be lucky indeed to match last year's win total.
• There has been a lot of talk since last season about shortening games. Fewer mound visits? Grant fewer timeouts? The Red Sox and Yankees are the worst culprits, and umpire Joe West called them out. But an umpire can do more than anyone else to increase the speed of the game simply by calling more strikes. I can't tell you how many times in each game of the Twins-Angels series, for each team, I saw a pitch called a ball and went, "Huh? Where did that miss?" If borderline pitches were inclined to be strikes, you'd get more pitcher's counts, more defensive swings, more Ks, fewer BBs, shorter PA, fewer hitters per game. I'll bet the umps could cut 30 minutes out of a game just by calling letter-high strikes. If the catcher doesn't have to lift his mitt above his head on a ball over the plate (unless it's Mauer catching and Dustin Pedroia batting), it should be a strike.
• Shooter Hunt's line from opening night in Fort Myers: 0 IP, 1 H, 5 ER, HR, 3 BB, HBP, 0 K. That's HBP, BB, BB, WP to score a run, BB to reload the bases, GS. Still some work to do there, I'd say.

Kuuuuuuuuuuuubel!

Twins 11, Angels 9
I made carrot soup Friday night (from scratch, thank you very much). The recipe said, "bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 25 minutes." I got the boil going right around the start of the 7th inning, and turned off the burner and the game as Matt Guerrier came onto the field. In the time it took the carrots to soften, the bullpen had suffered another interminable inning, and a 3-3 game had turned into a lopsided affair. Again.

And how frustrating, after Nick Blackburn had pitched a pretty good game. The first 3 runs he allowed in the 5th came on a grounder up the middle, a sinking liner just in front of Denard Span in CF, a 4-hopper through the right side to load the bases, and a grounder just past a diving Nick Punto at SS to score 2 runs, plus an RBI groundout on what would have been a DP had Span thrown to the right base on the previous play. Once the first couple hitters reached, Blackburn needed to induce some grounders, which he did, and the runs came home anyway. Arrgh!

The 7th was even worse. Blackburn allowed a 1-2 single up the middle, SB (because the Twins can't throw anybody out right now) and a sac bunt, ending his night at 6.1 IP and 106 pitches. Jesse Crain, the only good reliever in the bullpen up to that point apart from Joe Nathan, got the next hitter on a pop-up, keeping the game tied. The Twins wisely elected to intentionally walk Bobby Abreu (who was constantly on base all weekend) and pitch to Torii Hunter. Crain quickly got ahead 0-2, but Hunter was able to spoil some tough pitches, particularly a 2-2 curveball that just barely found the tip of his bat. He would eventually walk, setting up a bases loaded grounder through the right side from Kendry Morales for a 2-run single. Crain's next pitch was the only mistake of the inning, a hanger that was lined into CF for an RBI single. Then he suffered another lengthy AB, only to walk Juan Rivera on a full count.

I could see where it was going - the same place it had gone all week long vs. Toronto. Another night, another bat-around inning for the opposition, another rough loss for the Twins.

An hour or so later, I got a call from my mom. When she calls after 10:00 during the season, I know something good just happened. I went back to the game, having last checked just after supper with the Angels leading 9-4 in the 8th, and got myself caught up.

The principle differences between this series and the Toronto series were that the Angels were far below full strenght (Maicer Izturis batting 3rd, really?), their bullpen was in an even worse slump than the Twins', and Jason Kubel was en fuego. I had seen him collect an opposite field RBI double, solid single, and stand-up triple (thanks to a fortuitous carom along the baggie) earlier in the game. The best was yet to come.

Every crappy swing that had been taken against the Twins this week had seemed to result in a hit. Where's our BS infield single? Ah, there it is, thanks Michael Cuddyer. And where's our pathetic jam-shot flair over the IF? Ah yes, thanks Mike Redmond. (Credit should also be given to Joe Crede, who hasn't done a lot with the bat yet, but has found a way to be in the middle of some key Twins rallies already. It was his 3-2 BB that forced Morales to hold him on at 1B, too close to the plate to catch Redmond's soft liner.) After a BB, double and K had brought the Twins within 2 runs with 2 outs, Mike Scioscia elected to put the winning run on base by walking Justin Morneau. Kubel waited for a breaking pitch up, crushing it into the upper deck in right center for a go-ahead, cycle-completing grand slam. I remember seeing Kent Hrbek hit a couple of balls up there when I was a kid. That's in the neighborhood of 440 feet. Awesome.

A determined Joe Nathan came in and dispatched the shell-shocked Angels on just 6 pitches for the save.

Twins 9, Angels 2
I got an unhappy sense of deja vu when Kevin Slowey served up a 2-run bomb to Hunter in the second, followed immediately by a drive high off the baggie in right-center. Will he never learn to keep the ball in the yard? Well, yes, I guess he did learn, because he allowed only 3 H and a BB the rest of the way, completing 7 IP for his first QS of the year.

As for the Angels, their pitching depth is so thin right now that they were forced to start Darrin Oliver, who couldn't be expected to throw more than 50-60 pitches. This one night after Shane Moseley had to leave the game after 3 IP with elbow stiffness. That gave the Twins a lot of AB vs. the Angels' 'pen, whose ERA was over 8.00 coming into the game. You know you're facing a bad bullpen when they manage to walk Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young in the same inning. Kubel kept on raking, collecting another 4 H in 5 AB, and the Twins cruised to their 2nd straight win.

Twins 3, Angels 1
I hope the rest of the Twins pitchers are studying Glen Perkins. They all have better stuff than him, but he uses what he has so well. He only allowed a run today because Hunter's exploding bat still managed to produce a single in the 2nd inning. Otherwise, Perkins was dominant, retiring 13 in a row through the middle innings and needing just 84 pitches to complete 8 IP. If Nathan had thrown more innings over the previous 2 weeks, or had there been a game tomorrow, or had the Twins scored 2 more runs, Perkins would have certainly been given an opportunity to complete the game.

I hope everyone has noticed how long Gardy's been leaving the starters in. If you're like me, and you don't believe it's fair to take a QS away from somebody who gives up the disqualifying run in the 7th inning or later, then you'll see that the Twins have had QS in 5 of the last 6 games. The upcoming road trip vs. Boston and Cleveland will be tough, but should give a pretty good indication of whether or not the Twins have managed to right the ship, or are still searching for consistency from the starters.

Juan Morillo claimed, Philip Humber DFA
Just days after dismissing Brian Duensing from the roster, the Twins have done the same with Humber, risking 1/4 of the return for Johan Santana to the waiver wire. Of course, the highest priority for the front office has to be to put a winning team on the field, and there was little indication that Humber was prepared to help with that. He made the least of his 4 appearances in the first week and half, allowing 6 ER on 11 H and 3 BB in 4.1 IP with 4 K. Will he be claimed? On the one hand, he hasn't shown a lot lately. On the other hand, some teams have Darrin Oliver and Shane Loux in their starting rotations, so we'll see.

To replace Humber, the Twins claimed Morillo off waivers from the Rockies. At his best, in 2007, Morillo allowed 54 H, 3 HR and 32 BB with 74 K in 70.2 IP between AA, AAA and the Majors for a 1.22 WHIP and 9.4 K/9. At his worst, last year, he allowed 54 H, 3 HR, 56 BB and 55 K in 60.2 IP between AAA and the Majors for a 1.81 WHIP and 8.2 K/9. The gamble seems to be that pitching coach Rick Anderson can get Morillo to throw strikes, which would make him into a passable middle reliever. If that doesn't work, I suppose the long innings will continue. He had an efficient inning in his Twins debut, so we'll hope for the best.

That Darned 8th Inning

Angels 5, Twins 3

You know how some old buildings superstitiously avoided putting in a 13th floor? The buttons on the elevator skipped from 12 to 14. Bad luck to do anything on the 13th floor.

Sometimes I wish the Twins could just skip over the 8th inning. You know, have Dennys Reyes come in with a 2-run lead and 2 RISP and get a couple of ground balls, getting out of the 7th with only 1 scoring. And let's go straight to Joe Nathan for the 9th vs. the heart of the Angels' order!

I can't really fault Gardy for any of the moves he made. Mark Teixeira had been tearing up the Twins' staff from the right side all weekend. His HR off Kevin Slowey in the 6th was like a rerun of his HR off Scott Baker on Thursday: decent pitch, low and outside, just muscled out to left of CF. Why not turn him around to the right side? Reyes tends to get ground balls - how bad could it be? Well, Teixeira once again came up with the perfect swing on a well-executed pitch, lining a fastball knee high on the outside corner down the opposite foul line for a leadoff double.

Should Joe Nathan have come in at this point? I can understand why one would want him to, with Vlad Guerrero coming up next as the go-ahead run. But recall that Guerrero and Torii Hunter were 2 of the 3 batters that Jesse Crain dispatched in a matter of 6 pitches to earn the win on Thursday night. He showed then that he was capable of getting those guys out with the game on the line. He nearly retired Vlad on a foul pop on the first pitch, but the ball dropped in the perfect spot (for the Angels) between Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla and Denard Span for strike one. Crain's next pitch was supposed to be low and inside, but instead it was just low, and Vlad mashed it to CF.

There's something about the way Vlad hits the ball that makes Carlos Gomez, normally the most confident of fielders, suddenly look like Delmon Young. As with Saturday's 2-run "double," Gomez misjudged the ball, beginning to square up too early and winding up a step short when he had to leap. The ball hit the CF wall on the fly and took the worst possible carom, allowing Vlad to just make it into 3rd with an RBI triple.

Crain got a badly needed strikeout of Torii, and worked the count to 2-2 on Gary Matthews, Jr. The sequence went 3 fastballs up and in (the first a swinging strike, the second 2 balls) and one low and away for a called strike. Having shown him an outside strike, Mauer and Crain decided to go back to the location Matthews swung threw on the first pitch. This time he started his swing early enough and lined an RBI triple into the RF corner. He would score the 5th run on a SF.

3 XBH, only one of them coming on a mistake by the Twins' bullpen. Teixeira and Vlad are scary hitters to be facing while trying to protect a 1-run 8th inning lead, especially with Teixeira as hot as he's been. Would Nathan have done better? Or a healthy Pat Neshek? Maybe. But those hitters are definitely good enough to beat good pitchers every now and then.

Anyway, the late inning loss overshadowed another solid pitching performance from Kevin Slowey. He left a few too many pitches up, and I was very disappointed that he allowed the pinch-hit single to light-hitting catcher Mike Napoli that chased him from the game after just 91 pitches. But his overall line was 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 8 H, 0 BB, 5 K. He definitely gave the Twins a chance to win. He's allowed just 5 ER total over his last 4 starts, averaging over 6 IP/start.

Justin Morneau finally had a big game vs. his nemesis. He went 3-4 with a double and a HR, driving in a run with each hit. The out he made was a liner that nearly carried over the head of RF Matthews. These were merely his 7th and 8th XBHs of August - just his 2nd HR. Hopefully the big day will carry over into a good last week vs. the Mariners and A's.

It's easy to be disappointed that the Twins failed to win the last 2 games - one because of poor defense and the other because of an inability once again to hold a late-inning lead. But coming into this series the hope was that they'd be able to split the 4-game set with the AL's winningest team, and they accomplished that. Now they need to focus on winning at least 4 of the next 7 against 2 of the teams that have struggled the most over the past few weeks. The test continues...

No Defense for No Defense

Angels 7, Twins 5

The Twins suffered their first setback of the road trip Saturday night, just their 7th loss in the month of August. As with at least 3 of those other losses, they only have themselves to blame for this one. The offense succeeded in scoring 5 runs and knocked the Angel's starter in the 5th inning. The pitching staff allowed only 4 ER, thanks in part to a solid 1 R in 3.1 IP from the bullpen. But the defense didn't show up, at least in the 3rd inning, and that's where the game was lost.

It began when #9 hitter and catcher Mike Napoli chopped a grounder right to the 3rd base bag. Brian Buscher sailed his throw over Justin Morneau, allowing the leadoff man to reach. Chone Figgins had a terrific night at the plate, simply serving Nick Blackburn's pitches into CF or LF in each AB - his 2nd single of the game put runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs. Erick Aybar sacrificed, setting up 2nd and 3rd with one out. Gardy elected to walk hot-hitting Mark Teixiera (probably a good idea) in order to set up a DP with Vladimir Guerrero. Instead, Guerrero lined the first pitch to deep CF. Gomez misjudged the ball, took a bad route, and let it hit off the top of his glove for a 2-run "double." The next batter, Torii Hunter, smashed a grounder that slipped behind Buscher for another error and run. Garrett Anderson followed with a SF for one more run.

So, basically, the Twins gave the Angels 3 extra outs in that inning, and what do you know? The Angels came away with a 4-0 lead. I feel bad that Blackburn was saddled with even 1 ER in the inning. That came from a double-standard in official scoring that I've had a beef with for a while. Why is it that when a bullet is hit straight at an IF (as with the Hunter ball to Buscher) and he botches it, it's almost always scored an error, but when a bullet is hit at an OF (as with the Guerrero ball to Gomez) and he botches it, it's almost always scored a hit? It should have been obvious to the scorer that, had Gomez taken a clean route to the ball, he easily would have made the catch. Most scorers are too easy on the outfielders.

Anyway, Blackburn's outing wasn't nearly as disappointing as the box score would make it seem. One of his walks was intentional, set up by the first Buscher error. One of the 10 hits he allowed was the "double" to Guerrero; another was a bunt single by Hunter. Give him credit for the 3 extra outs he earned in the 3rd, and he would have had 5.2 IP with no more than 3 ER allowed - just one out away from a quality start. He allowed a bunch of hits, but they were all singles, and the last 3 he gave up were just grounders that found their way through the infield. His only glaring mistakes were walking the #9 hitter with 1 out in the 4th, and the pitch that Aybar lined for an RBI single 2 batters later. Yes, a lot of baserunners, but it wasn't like he was getting slammed all over the field.

Seeing that, and with his pitch count still in good shape (79), I have to question Gardy pulling him in the 5th. He did this in Blackburn's start in NY last month as well - when it was mainly poor defense that had caused Nick to suffer a big inning. The guy has been solid all season long. I'd love to see him get the same confidence from his manager that Livan Hernandez got.

Big Night at the Big A

Twins 9, Angels 0

I had a bad feeling about this one early. The Angels kept giving the Twins gifts, and the Twins kept rudely refusing them:

1st inning: Denard Span led off the game with an infield hit when Angels pitcher Joe Saunders failed to cover first base on a grounder to first. Span moved to second when catcher Jeff Mathis failed to catch a low pitch on which Alexi Casilla bluffed a bunt; it hit Mathis in the foot and rolled away for a wild pitch. RISP, 0 out. Casilla failed to advance Span to 3rd, where he easily would have scored on Joe Mauer's deep fly ball to left. Justin Morneau once again couldn't get the ball out of the infield.

2nd inning: Randy Ruiz reached on an error by shortstop Eric Aybar to lead off the inning. The next three batters flied out, and Ruiz never left first base.

3rd inning: Carlos Gomez led off with a single to right. While stealing second, Mathis airmailed his throw into CF, allowing Gomez to move to 3rd. Runner on 3rd, nobody out, top of the order coming up. Except Gomez overslid the bag and was tagged out, so there was no one to score on Span's subsequent grounder to second.

4th inning: Joe Mauer led off with a HBP. Morneau and Ruiz couldn't advance him. But then, Delmon Young worked himself ahead 2-0 and mashed a low fastball over the high wall in right-center field for a 2-run HR.

Things started to go the Twins' way pretty quickly after that, although they still had a gift to give back to the Angels: after Adam Everett and Gomez started the 5th with a single and double to put runners at second and third, Span lined an RBI single to left. Gomez stopped at third, the throw to the plate was cut off, and Span got himself caught rounding first base too far and was run down for the first out. That made Joe Mauer's sizzling liner to right the 3rd out of the inning instead of the second, which would have brought Gomez home with a SF.

A 3-0 lead is hardly comfortable, especially on the road or with the way Perkins has allowed runs in the 6th/7th inning in some recent starts. So it was great to see the Twins break it open in the 6th. With 1 out, Ruiz singled, Young boomed an RBI double over the head of Garrett Anderson in LF, and Nick Punto grounded an IF single to deep short, chasing Saunders (nice read on that grounder by Young, who advanced to 3rd on the play). Everett greeted reliever Shane Loux with an RBI fielder's choice (thanks to some big-time hustle from Punto, who beat the throw to 2nd). After Gomez had one of his better looking strikeouts of the year (7 pitches, and he fouled off some tough ones, almost checked in time on strike 3), Span put the game out of reach with a 3-run HR over the high wall in RF.

While all this was going on, Glen Perkins was his typical, effective self for 5-6 innings. He allowed only 2 H and 2 BB through the first 5 IP. It was the 8th time in his last 10 starts that Perkins allowed 1 or fewer runs in the first 5 IP. It's the 3rd time through the order that can do him in. But, tonight, Perkins never let up. He scattered 3 singles over his final 3 innings, finishing the night with 8 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 3 K. For the month of August, he's allowed 9 ER on 29 H and 6 BB in 28.1 IP for a 2.86 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. And 8 of those ER have come in 2 bad innings and 4 HR vs. the Mariners. He'll get another chance against them next week.

Since completing that shaky Seattle sweep last weekend, the Twins have gone 4-1. The pitching staff has allowed 5 ER in 48 IP over those 5 games. The starters have completed 7 IP in 4 of the 5. The bullpen hasn't allowed a run in 12 IP. This last trip through the rotation has lowered the Twins' team ERA for the month of August to 3.33, best in the league. No wonder they're 14-6 so far this month.

The defense has come together with 2 errorless games to begin the road trip. Casilla has been disappointing at the plate so far, but I love his glove out there at second base.

I've talked a lot about how important it is to catch teams at the right time. As well as the Twins are playing right now, especially pitching-wise, the Angels are definitely in a slump. Two weeks ago, I doubt the Twins could have gotten away with the sort of blunders they made in the early innings. But now, the Angels are making fielding mistakes, taking bad ABs, and making life as easy on the Twins as it can be (considering the Halos are still a first-place team playing at home). May their funk continue for 2 more games.

Gomez Woulda Had It

Twins 2, Angels 1 (12 innings)

Whew! I don't know about you, but I don't think I could have handled another 12 inning loss. Thank goodness the Angels finally opened the door for a run in the top of that inning, courtesy of our old buddy Torii Hunter. Nick Punto's drive to the wall in right center ticked off his glove for a leadoff triple, setting up Denard Span's game-winning RBI single through a drawn-in infield. Torii actually slightly overran the ball, definitely a play he normally makes - definitely a play that Carlos Gomez makes. Ha!

That gift triple allowed the Twins to redeem a night of magnificent pitching from Scott Baker and the bullpen. For Baker it was the 5th time this season he's allowed 2 or fewer runs in 7 IP without earning a win. As with the Cleveland game in June, his only blemish came in the first inning, when Mark Texeira reached down and practically one-armed a good low, outside fastball over the wall in CF. Not even a mistake by Baker, really. Still, this was the effort the Twins needed to combat Anaheim's ace, John Lackey, and Baker showed himself to be every bit our ace, actually out-doing Lackey's line by one hit in an otherwise almost identical performance. Great way to kick off the road trip.

The bullpen will need to be solid on this trip, and they got off to a good start as well. Matt Guerrier managed to avoid the Oakland series, so he'd had 3 days off to get his game back together. He was asked to pitch the 9th, and escaped allowing only a walk. I considered that to be the positive outing he needed to get his confidence back up, so I was a little alarmed to see him back out there for the 10th. He got himself into immediate trouble, giving up a leadoff single, but the Angels helped him out by popping up their sacrifice attempt. Guerrier still allowed another baserunner in the inning on a walk, but he was able to finish the inning unscathed. Jesse Crain followed with a most expedient 11th inning, needing just 6 pitches to march through the heart of the Angels order. Joe Nathan, as usual, was nails in the 12th.

(By the way, isn't it amazing how much more quickly the game flows along when the plate umpire has a liberal strike zone? Yesterday's 9-inning game took 2:56 to play; tonight the 2 teams needed just 20 minutes more to play 12 innings. Granted, the Angels aren't nearly as patient as the A's, but there were a ton of pitches (namely the first strikes of the 10th to Gomez and Span) that would have been called balls yesterday. Think the games are too long? Tell the umps to call more strikes!)

Torii's gift also absolved the Twins offense of a mostly ineffective night at the plate. John Lackey is among the best pitchers in the league, so scoring on him was never going to be easy. But when you have runners at second and third with nobody out and your 2-4 hitters coming up, you gotta be able to come away with something. If I had to blame one hitter for tonight's low run total, it would have to be Justin Morneau. Three times he came up with RISP with less than 2 outs, and he went K, DP, K (awesome turn by the Angels on the DP in the 8th, though). I'm just so used to seeing him come through in those situations, it was disappointing to see him struggle. If I had to blame 2 hitters, the other would be Alexi Casilla. He came up in the 8th and 10th with first base open and less than two outs and failed to put the ball in play. In the 8th, he flailed at a pitch over his head. Obviously, his rehab assignment wasn't long enough to get his plate discipline back up to the level it had been.

Anyway, it was a very important win for the Twins. They need to at least split this series in order to get this monster road trip off to a good start, and now they only need to win 1 of the next 3 in order to accomplish that. Also, they've moved within 0.5 games of the idle White Sox, and tied the Red Sox for the Wild Card lead. Keep up the good work, fellas!

Last Year's Model

Angels 5, Twins 4

Greetings from my spiffy new (refurbished) Intel Macbook. I heard a quip on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" a few weeks back to the effect that the only person more smug than a Mac-using Obama supporter is a Mac-using Obama supporter who listens to public radio. I guess that pretty much makes me the smuggest person in the world. I knew I would be.

Anyway, all of this magnificent Leopard-ness is almost enough to make me forget the the disappointment of this opening series between the Twins and Angels. I felt that the Twins had an excellent chance to win these last two games. Two 1-run losses. The tying run aboard in each case. How to make sense of it? Well...

I hope Slowey is OK. I'm counting on him to be perhaps the most consistent member of the rotation this year, so he needs to be healthy. And no more home runs. That goes for the bullpen as well.

As Bass went out for the start of the 7th inning, I thought back to his spring training start a couple weeks ago, when he was great for 3 innings then got whacked in the 4th. When he took the mound for the 7th today, he was at 2.2 innings. I might have brought in Rincon there. Anyway, he was tired, and he fell behind Torii and Napoli and gave back the 2 runs the Twins had scrounged so hard (for 3 days) to produce. Note for the future - let's try to keep Bass to under 3 innings.

I was pleased to see Reyes succeed in bailing out Rincon in the 8th. 3 appearances, 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K, 0 R. Not too shabby. Then he came out for the 9th to face Torii. I was surprised to see him in there against a righty, but he struck him out. Hah! 2 quick strikes on Kotchman, and I was thinking about how good he looked, when he hung an 0-2 slider and gave up a double. Note for the future - when the batter swings and misses at a filthy slider out of the zone, do not throw the next pitch in the zone.

Guerrier came in and bailed out Reyes, but he threw a ton of balls doing it. Walked one and was 3-2 on the #9 hitter before he got out of it. I hope he finds his command soon. For all that drama, Reyes and Guerrier escaped the series without allowing any runs.

Offensively, it was all the same as the previous 2 games through 5 innings. Particularly early, when Santana needed only 19 pitches to get through the first 2 innings. He cruised through 5 shutout innings. This is a pitcher who came into the game with a career road ERA over 7.00.

Finally, in the 6th, the Twins ground out some productive ABs, Mauer following a Gomez hit with an RBI double, Cuddyer grounding him over, Morneau hitting a SF (a ball out of the infield!). In the 7th, against Darren Oliver, Mauer delivered a SF. In the 8th, Kubel hit the Twins' first HR of 2008. Base runners every inning. This is why the Twins should have been working harder to get to the Angels' weakened bullpen.

In the 9th, pinch-hitter Matt Tolbert once again showed considerable discipline by drawing a walk as the potential tying run (though he should have taken the 1-0 pith in that situation). Gomez showed he had no better chance swinging away against K-Rod than bunting. Then, with 2 out, and first base open, Angels manager Mike Scioscia did a remarkable thing: he intentionally walked Joe Mauer, thereby putting the winning run on. Cuddyer worked the count full, ensuring that both baserunners would have a running start and would certainly tie the game on a single, win it on a double. But Cuddyer struck out swinging.

The Twins pitchers allowed 15 ER to the Angels, a 3.75 team ERA for the series. That was only good for one win, because the offense took 26 innings off in the middle of the series. The undisciplined, quick ABs, the DPs, the lack of power, the solid pitching performances wasted. Despite 5 new faces in the lineup, the 2008 Twins bore more than a passing resemblance to last year's model in this series.

Shooting Blanks

Angels 1, Twins 0

Well, crap. As much as I don't mind blowout losses like Tuesday night, I can't stand to lose well-pitched games.

I want to start by accentuating the positive:

Nick Blackburn had a stupendous debut, everything the Twins could have asked from him. He showed more calm in the early-going than Bonser did last night. He settled in and retired 11 in a row through the middle innings. If not for an unfortunate carom from a curveball in the dirt, he might have matched Saunders' performance. If Blackburn can back this performance up with another good one against the White Sox next Monday, he'll give the Twins the luxury of easing Liriano back up to the Show at whatever pace the situation dictates. Extra pressure on Slowey now to deliver, but I think he's up to it.

The defense was very good tonight. Everett had to skip the game to deal with a family emergency, but Tolbert was solid in his place, and Punto did what he does best: play solid defense. And each of them picked up one of the 4 Twins hits. It was great to see Tolbert have the discipline to take a strike leading off the ninth - I might have been tempted to bat Mauer right there, but the kid got himself on base with a 4-pitch walk.

The bullpen, despite a dicey 8th inning, held the Angels scoreless. Tonight, brought in once again to face a lefty with runners in scoring position, Reyes got the ground-ball double play. Neshek was perfect in his inning.

The bad news, of course, is the offense (or lack thereof). If Batgirl were here, I'm sure she'd be saying something about Ass-bats. 4 runs in 26 innings of batting against the Angels 3rd, 4th and 5th best starters is disconcerting to say the least. Tonight, the Twins managed to get only one batter past first base, promptly grounding into DPs in the few occasions they put someone on. Morneau and Monroe remain hitless in the series. Carlos Gomez failed to advance Tolbert in the 9th when he bunted foul three straight times.

Most upsetting to me, Saunders needed only 80 pitches to complete 8 innings. When a pitcher is on his game, the best defense is to make him throw a lot of pitches. Work counts, foul balls off. With Scott Shields and Chris Bootcheck on the DL, the Angels' middle relief is particularly weak in this series. Getting to them should be an integral part of the game plan. Grounding out on the first, second or third pitch offered isn't going to make that happen.

Ervin Santana had lousy road splits for the Angels last year, and the Twins' offense has to get it going eventually. Mauer, Lamb and Kubel will likely be back in the starting lineup, so I still like the team's chances tomorrow. But it wouldn't have taken very much more tonight to make Thursday's game into a series win instead of a split.

Everybody Hurts

Angels 9, Twins 1

Great game to turn off last night. My laptop battery mercifully ran out of juice in the top of the 9th.

I can't remember the last time the Twins played a series against the Angels in which there wasn't at least one game where everything fell in for the Halos. I'm not suggesting they didn't earn most of their hits, but there were a couple of 50-foot bleeders mixed in for good measure. That's fine - they'll almost certainly collect fewer than 15 hits tonight and Thursday.

I was glad that the lineup (minus Delmon Young), defense, and every member of the bullpen chose last night to suck. If you're only going to score 1 run, you might as well give up nine and throw in a couple of errors. I would expect everyone who pitched last night to be more effective their next time out.

Boof, in particular, was pretty good anyway. He needed 4 batters to get through his first-start-of-the-year jitters. After that, he allowed 1 ER on 5 hits (one a cheapie) with 4 Ks and no walks in 5.2 innings. Hopefully, in his next start, he won't give up so many extra-base hits.

The Twins will face a left-handed starter tonight, and I'm interested to see the lineup that Gardy puts together. In his brief career so far, righties have hit Mr. Saunders considerably better than lefties, so I'm sure Monroe will DH. I'd like to see Redmond catching tonight and Friday night, when KC is scheduled to start a LHP. With day games on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it would seem to make sense to put Mauer on the day schedule anyway. Will Lamb still be in the lineup? Punto historically has been weaker (gulp) against lefties. Maybe Tolbert will get the start.

I like the Twins' chances the rest of this series. Blackburn and Slowey have at least as much potential as the Angels' starters. And with only 4 runs (and 0 HRs) in two games, there's plenty of room for the Twins' lineup to get hitting - especially Morneau (0-7). The Twins are very fortunate to be facing the Angels at a time when their pitching staff is so weakened by injuries. The Twins should be able to at least pull off a split against a stronger team, though they will probably be outscored in the process.