Good Pitching Beats Bad Hitting

Twins 2, Athletics 1

Twins 0, Athletics 1

Twins 3, Athletics 5

5 runs in 3 games.

I know the A's have good pitching. Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez and Brandon McCarthy are all former top prospects who look poised to make good on their promise. The A's relief corps was a strength last year, and they used free agency to add a prominent member from each of the Twins' (Brian Fuentes) and Rays' (Grant Balfour) dispersed bullpens. Despite the slew of errors they committed in the 1st week of the season, the A's have a solid defense, with average or better defenders at just about every position. It was tough to score on them last year, and it looks like it's going to be even tougher this year.

However...

That doesn't account for the magnitude of offensive ineptitude we saw on display this weekend. The Twins were already in a horrific funk from their opening road trip, and the A's excellent run prevention merely exacerbated was already a big problem. Now, through 3 series, the Twins rank 2nd to last in the AL in BA, OBP, SLG% and WAR, and dead last in HR, IsoP, SB and BB%. That means they aren't getting on base, and when they do, it's only to 1B, and then they stay there.

At the end of Saturday's game I was stewing a bit to have allowed only 2 runs in 2 games and yet lost one. (And those 2 runs! BB, WP, E on a pickoff attempt, SF was how the damage was done on Friday. The next day, it was a 2-out single, WP, E6. Those are 2 excellent illustrations of how to give away a run to the other team.) But by the end of the weekend, I was just happy the Twins had managed to get through their home opening series without being swept.

Why is this happening to the offense right now? I have a theory. It may be a bit simplistic, but check this out:

Guys who had 60+ PA in Grapefruit League games:

Danny Valencia - .194/.265/.290, HR

Luke Hughes - 1 for 7

Denard Span - .286/.342/.400, HR

Jason Repko - 0 for 2

Jason Kubel - .300/.323/.367

Tsuyoshi Nishioka - .208/.269/.250, SB

Alexi Casilla - .167/.211/.278, SB

Total: .224/.278/.317, 6 2B, 2 HR, 2 SB

That's lousy. Though, in fairness to Repko, what are 2 AB? And to Hughes, that was a loud out in the 8th inning on Friday night. Valencia deserves to have a better line - he's been robbed a few times already. Nishioka was struggling with the MLB strike zone - lots of called 3rd strikes - but when he put the ball in play he was 5 for 16. Casilla should get about 200 more AB before we decide whether he can hit or not. You'd like to see more power from Kubel, but the average is there, and he's come through against some tough LHP. Span is doing fine. They're off to a slow start; as a group, their OPS should be at least .100 points higher.

Guys who had <60 PA in Grapefruit League games:

Matt Tolbert - 1 for 5

Delmon Young - .188/.212/.219

Justin Morneau - .258/.303/.355

Jim Thome - .167/.250/.444, HR

Drew Butera - 1 for 4

Michael Cuddyer - .107/.194/.107

Joe Mauer - .233/.303/.267

Total: .203/.258/.270, 7 2B, HR

Now, at a glance, that may not seem to be too much worse than what the other guys are doing. But, with the exception of 9 decent (for them) AB from Tolbert and Butera, this is the heart of the order. On a day when Thome is the DH, they hit 3-7 in the lineup (or 2-6 now that Nishioka is on the DL). Their combined OPS should be more than .300 points higher. They're struggling to hit line drives. Most of them are having trouble getting the ball out of the IF. They look out of sync at the plate. When several of those guys were being held out of the spring lineups for various injury reasons, we kept hearing that the goal was to get them ready to play on April 1st. It doesn't appear that they accomplished that goal.

They will break out eventually, of course. It may not happen this week - Kansas City is off to a hot start and Tampa Bay has good pitching and defense, too. But the Royals have a terrible lineup, and the Rays are the only team in the league hitting worse than the Twins. There will probably be a bunch more low-scoring games, but the Twins should win a few.

Just What We Needed

Twins 4, A's 3

Carl Pavano had a pretty shaky game, allowing 10 H and a BB in 6.1 IP. He was just about constantly in a jam, and the A's were able to take advantage of his slow delivery to steal 3 bases. But he made good pitches when he had to. Also, the A's are terrible at hitting. Some combination of those elements enabled the Twins to hold them to 2 ER.

The A's have a rotation full of talented young pitchers, most of whom came into the series on a roll. The Twins could muster only 5 H off Gio Gonzalez and a pair of relievers. But they took advantage of some giveaways by the A's. A leadoff E and 3 BB led to two 1st inning runs - it should have been at least 3, but Jason Kubel was thrown out at 3rd before Michael Cuddyer could score on Danny Valencia's 2-out single. Another leadoff E in the 4th enabled Delmon Young to advance to 2nd - from there he could score Valencia's ground-rule 2B. Gardy then called for back-to-back sacrifices from the bottom of his order - Alexi Casilla got Valencia to 3rd, and Drew Butera brought him home with a squeeze.

That was it - 4 R on 5 H and 5 BB - but it was just enough. The Twins even had enough margin to survive a 9th inning E from Casilla that extended the inning and produced an unearned run. Credit Gardy for recognizing in the 4th inning how dear runs were going to be in this game. The 2 straight bunts were also a good, honest assessment of how to get a run in from 2nd base with 3 relatively weak hitters due up. Good managing.

Twins 2, A's 0

Runs were at a premium again on Saturday with the Twins facing Trevor Cahill, one of the top ERA pitchers in the league. This time, Gardy zeroed in on the importance of a single R in the 3rd inning. After Casilla led off with a 2B, Gardy had Denard Span bunt him over to 3rd, putting him in position to score on Orlando Hudson's SF. It's normally a sequence you'd expect to see much later in the game, especially since Span singled in his first AB. But the Twins basically never had another threat off of Cahill, so it was crucial to make that one count.

Brian Duensing made it stand up. He pitched his best game at the major league level: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 104 pitches. Also, the A's are terrible at hitting. The only runner who got as far as 2nd base was promptly picked off. That was the closest Duensing ever came to being in trouble. He also got 2 DPs, meaning he was able to complete the game having faced just 2 batters over the minimum.

The Twins got an insurance run they didn't deserve off Craig Breslow in the bottom of the 8th. Span led off with a ball that should have been caught, the ump should have called Span out advancing to 3rd on Hudson's grounder, and Mauer's fly to LF should have been caught. For the season, Breslow has a 3.23 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 53 IP. He's held lefties to .214/.276/.386 and righties to .195/.277/.341. It still amazes me that the Twins allowed him to slip out of the organization last spring.

Twins 4, A's 2

Once again, runs were at a premium, though in this game the Twins had plenty of chances. They finished the day with 10 H and 5 BB, leaving a total of 12 men on base. Jason Kubel got one big hit - a ground-rule 2B to finish a string of 3 straight H with 2 out in the 3rd. Jim Thome got the other - a 3-run HR in the bottom of the 7th. Giving the veteran Thome the green light on 3-0 against a LHP with 2-out, rather than letting him try to work a BB to load the bases for the rookie Valencia, was another astute decision by Gardy. (Though Valencia ripped a 2B in the subsequent AB.)

That was it, but it was enough. Kevin Slowey had one of his best days as a big leaguer. I won't say it was his best - he walked 3, and he's pitched CG shutouts before. But 7 no-hit innings is a pretty good effort, to be sure. Also, the A's are terrible at hitting. The most memorable part of Slowey's performance was when he picked up Casilla, who air-mailed a routine play leading off the 5th for a 2-base E, by striking out the next 3 hitters.

There was some inevitable controversy when Gardy lifted Slowey after 7 innings and 106 pitches. But, like just about everything else Gardy did this weekend, it was the right move. Had this been an ordinary trip through the rotation, I'm sure they would have sent Slowey out for the 8th, just to see how it would go. But when a guy just got held back 4 extra days to rest his elbow, you don't leave him out there to throw more pitches than he's ever thrown in a game in his career. Slowey has been pitching well over his last 5 GS, averaging nearly 7 IP with a 2.10 ERA and 0.70 WHIP. If he gets hurt, we're into Nick Blackburn/Glen Perkins territory. Gotta think of the big picture: win the game, keep Slowey healthy. Done and done.

The Twins managed to sweep the A's despite scoring all of 10 R over 3 games. They were able to do so because of a combination of poor play by the A's, terrific work by the Twins' pitchers, and timely execution by the offense. If things keep going the way they are, Gardy will get some consideration for manager of the year, as he does almost every year. When that talk surfaces, remember this series. From the small ball strings he pulled to the way he used his players, Gardy did his part to make the Twins successful.

Meanwhile, the White Sox' bullpen blew late leads against the Tigers on Saturday and Sunday, extending the Twins' division lead up to 3 games. The Sox had won something like 21 of 24 home games, but they lost 4 of 6 this week. Could it be a sign that some cracks are beginning to show? The pressure is squarely on them as they come to play the Twins this week. A series loss for the visitors will push them 4 games back with 41 to play, and will clinch the season series for the Twins. Those will be difficult obstacles for the Sox to surmount over the final 1/4 of the season.

The B Team

Twins 5, Athletics 4 (11 innings)

This game was moving along quite well for a while. Joe Mauer drew a 2-out BB in the 1st, followed by Justin Morneau's 13th HR of the season for a quick 2-0 lead. The Twins padded that with a couple of 2-out RBI hits from Jason Kubel and Delmon Young in the 6th. And Scott Baker was absolutely soaring, allowing just 1 ER on 3 H with 3 K through the first 6 IP, and needing only 65 pitches to get there.

We've seen Baker come unraveled from stellar beginnings with shocking quickness, and that was the case again here. He issued his only free pass of the game with 1 out in the 7th, then promptly served up a 2-run HR to bring the A's within 1 at 4-3. He finished that inning with a couple of lengthy AB, bringing his pitch count up to a still very reasonable 87 to start the 8th. 3 pitches later he had surrendered a line-drive HR to Rajai Davis that just cleared the wall down the LF line, and the Twins' offense had to get back to work.

They finally broke through in the 11th, thanks to a leadoff 2B from Morneau and Young's 2nd RBI H of the game. The bullpen combo of Jose Mijares, Matt Guerrier and Jon Rauch allowed 0 R on just 1 H and 2 BB in 3.2 IP.

Twins 4, Athletics 3

Things got challenging on Saturday. Already without Michael Cuddyer for the weekend (Bereavement List) and Orlando Hudson for the whole road trip (wrist), the Twins had to scratch Morneau (flu) and JJ Hardy (wrist) from the starting lineup. That forced them to place Matt Tolbert at 2B, shift Nick Punto to SS, and put Brendan Harris at 1B. Jim Thome got to start at DH and went 1 for 2 with a 2B and 2 BB.

That motley lineup got 3 R on the board in support of Francisco Liriano. Thome was able to advance to 3rd and then home on consecutive outs from Jason Kubel and Young. In the 6th, they cashed in a bases loaded chance with a 2-run single from Young. Liriano got off to a shaky start, as the first 2 batters doubled and singled, but he got the next guy to ground into a DP - scoring the only R he would allow. He completed 7 IP, giving up just 3 more H and 2 BB against 10 K. Hopefully that's an indication that he left his BABIP woes behind when the calendar flipped from May to June.

Enter Jesse Crain to protect a 3-1 lead. He'd been stellar recently, going 8 straight appearances without allowing an ER, with a 7/1 K/BB ratio in those 8 IP with 4 H. He allowed a couple of 1-out singles, but appeared poised to escape the jam when he got Kevin Kouzmanoff to fly out, then got ahead of Adam Rosales 0-2. The next two pitches were fouls from the top of the strike zone. Perfect time for the curve ball. Or waste a slider off the plate. Nope. They went with a fastball down, which could have worked if Crain had hit the glove. Instead, the ball found the middle of the plate, and Rosales raked it into left center for a game-tying 3B.

The critical sequence occurred in the top of the 9th. With one out, the Twins sent sickly Morneau up to pinch hit. The A's elected to intentionally walk him. I know the guy has a nearly .500 OBP, but putting him on makes it 1.000 for that PA. It appeared to take Brad Ziegler out of rhythm, as he followed it with an unintentional BB to Nick Punto. After Denard Span grounded into a force out, Tolbert delivered the game-winning single. The A's put the winning on base, and the Twins made them pay.

Twins 4, Athletics 5

All the lineup carnage from Saturday recurred on Sunday, plus Mauer had to DH after catching the night before, meaning Drew Butera had to get some AB. That left just 4 good hitters in the lineup, one of whom (Span) came into the game in an 0-21 slump. Even so, the Twins managed to scrape enough runs together to stay in the game. Brendan Harris got his first H in ages on a play that should have been made by Kouzmanoff. Span got off the schneid with a 3B and was immediately brought home on a SF from Tolbert. Late in the game, Young hit a 2-run HR, followed by a PH 2B from Thome. Harris took a called 3rd strike to leave PR Hardy in scoring position.

That effort wasn't quite enough to make up for Nick Blackburn's 2nd straight short start. He was not good in this game: 10 H, 5 ER, BB, HBP and 0 K in 2.2 IP. But he wasn't that bad. The HBP was a missed call by the ump on a check-swing foul that should have been strike 2. The first inning was sustained by a broken-bat liner that found grass behind 2nd base - when a pitcher cuts a guy's bat in half, he deserves to get an out, and that could have been the 3rd of that inning. The 2nd run of that inning scored on an IF single to SS - a high chopper just out of Blackburn's reach over the mound. The 2-out RBI 2B Blackburn allowed in the 2nd was a weak fly ball into no man's land down the LF line, and Young got leather on it after a long run. The 2-run rally in the 3rd began with an IF single to the out-of-position Harris at 1B, a play that Morneau probably makes. So Blackburn allowed 12 baserunners in 2.2 IP, but he pitched well enough to have had only about half that many. Which is still way too many in 2.2 IP, but if some of those are outs, maybe it's 7 baserunners in 4 IP, or something like that. Not good, but not as bad as it looked.

Thankfully, the bullpen kept the damage to just 5 runs, and the Twins were down by just 1 in the 9th. Morneau PH again, and this time the A's elected to pitch to him. It reminded me of my softball game last Thursday: I was late, and when I walked into the dugout was told I was in the hole. I put on my batting gloves and maybe swung the bat twice before finding myself at the plate, stone cold. The first pitch missed, and I thought, "Maybe they'll do me a favor and walk me..." Which they did, and I got to warm up running the bases. I expected the still sickly Morneau to be thinking the same thing when he got ahead 2-0. But he started hacking away, eventually striking out in a PA in which he basically saw nothing but breaking balls below the knees. I don't think they threw him a strike - he got himself out.

As depleted as they were, it was a remarkable feat for the Twins to pull out a series win in Oakland, especially when each of the wins required some late-game heroics. Though they went just 3-4 on the road trip, it's still better than they've typically done in Seattle and Oakland in recent years. They should come home confident and ready to kick some interleague butt.

Catching Up

A lot has gone on since my last post, so I'll try to hit the highlights quickly:

Despite allowing just 7 R in 28 IP vs. the Mariners, the Twins dropped 2 out of 3 games, thanks to scoring only 5 R themselves. That can happen when Denard Span, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau combine for just a handful of hits in the series and the rest of the lineup is weak.

Another tough outing for Anthony Swarzak as he lost all control on Monday night in Oakland. Meanwhile, Glen Perkins pitched 7 shutout innings in his last rehab start with Fort Myers, so it's a foregone conclusion that he'll be recalled next week. However, since Perkins' scheduled game was rained out on Monday, it looks like Swarzak will get one more chance on Saturday against the Cubs. I'm sure he'll fare better than he has in his last 2 outings. Either way, I don't think it's been any worse a first stint in the Majors than what Kevin Slowey was able to do in June of 2007, and he's turned out OK.

Alexi Casilla has surely banished himself to the minors again with his shaky fielding in Tuesday night's horrible 9th inning. It makes more sense for him to get regular playing time in Rochester and have Matt Tolbert be the bench guy when Nick Punto returns on Friday anyway. It looks as though Punto will slide over to 2B in order to keep Brendan Harris' bat in the lineup. It should be an upgrade over Casilla or Tolbert, so I guess we can live the limited range.

I hope Span isn't out too long with his dizziness. There is no obvious replacement for him at the top of the lineup.

Carlos Gutierrez was promoted to New Britain last week, the third high-profile promotion within the system after Rob Delaney and Steve Tolleson moved up to Rochester. There are still others that need to move, however: Anthony Slama and Danny Valencia ought to get the call to AAA, and Spencer Steedley and Joe Testa should advance a level as well. A lot of these names are relievers who are old for their levels - they ought to be placed in a league that challenges them, moving through the system more aggressively than some of the younger guys.

There is a dearth of middle-infield depth in the Twins' system, especially at SS, but the Twins used their 4 early-round draft picks on college pitchers. Most analysts were keen on the picks, particularly first-rounder Kyle Gibson, a top-10 (if not top-5) talent who slid to #22 because of a stress fracture in his forearm that cost him significant velocity in his final college starts. The Twins' doctors believe that he will make a full recovery in just a few weeks. (Of course, they also didn't initially think that Francisco Liriano or Pat Neshek would need surgery, and look what happened there.) Still, if all goes well, the Twins could wind up with the steal of the first round. The other guys have the potential to move quickly through the system. And the Twins drafted plenty of MI on day 2, including Gopher 2B Derek McCallum.

...and Down and Up

A's 3, Twins 2
Twins 12, A's 4

As I began watching Saturday night's game, I thought to myself, "4 runs ought to do it." I think that the Twins' pitching ought to be able to hold a pitiful offense like that of the A's to 3 or few runs, particularly with Francisco Liriano on the mound. Denard Span's 4th HR brought them halfway to the threshold of runs which would have made me feel comfortable. But from there, the offense stopped, producing no hits from the 7th inning on. You probably gulped audibly, as I did, when Matt Guerrier was brought in to pitch the 8th. But this time he was his old self, retiring the side quietly in order. Phew! On to Joe Nathan, who couldn't possibly blow 2 saves in one week, right?

Wrong. Not only did Nathan blow it, he Blew it, falling behind Bobby Crosby 3-1 before giving up a leadoff single (tying run on first), hitting Emil Brown with a pitch (winning run on first, tying run on second), then throwing his force attempt at 3rd base on the ensuing sac bunt into the Coliseum's expansive foul territory, allowing the tying and winning runs to score. You can't lose a game much more single-handedly than that!

But where was the offense, which had pounded out 20 H and 12 R the night before? More specifically, where was Brendan Harris, who 3 times came up with Jason Kubel on 2nd and Delmon Young on first, and went force out (would have been a DP had the second-baseman not double-clutched), DP, K looking. The only hit the Twins received with RISP all night was Span's HR, which was also their lone XBH.

No such troubles on Sunday, when the Twins used 10 H (6 XBH) and 9 BB to once again put up 12 R on the A's. They had 4 H with RISP, plus 2 SF. Overall, the Twins outscored the A's 28-12, yet only managed to split the series. They are 5-6 on this looooooong road trip, despite outscoring their opponents 57-37. A lot of that has to do with getting 33 of those runs in just 3 games. The Twins have been held to 3 or fewer runs in 6 of the 11 games, and are 1-5 in those games. Couldn't they spread it around a little bit?

Down and Up

Mariners 3, Twins 2
Twins 6, Mariners 5
A's 3, Twins 2
Twins 12, A's 2

I missed most of the last 4 games while burying myself in research on childhood vaccinations (my daughter will be 2 months old next week) and the Democratic National Convention (mostly boring, though I really liked Bill Clinton's speech). Looks like I missed out on a whole bunch of excruciating Twins baseball!

What's most frustrating is this: thanks to tonight's blowout, the Twins actually outscored their opponents 32-29 over the last week, but went just 2-5. Couldn't they have had just one of those 12 runs tonight moved to last night, when Joe Nathan could have pitched the 9th inning instead of the reeling Jesse Crain (who has been on the mound when the winning runs scored in 3 of the 5 losses this week)? How about moving one of them over to Monday, giving Joe Nathan enough cushion to overcome Adrian Beltre's leadoff double? If you've ever wondered how the Indians could be (until very recently) so far under .500 despite having a positive run differential, this past week is your answer. What a drag to have to endure that for 5 months instead of just one week!

Thankfully, Denard Span came up with a big throw to the plate on Wednesday afternoon, or this road trip would already be a total disaster. As it is, the Twins are still running uphill at 4-5. But the A's are a terrible offensive team, and the Twins' starting pitching has been solid (2.78 ERA in 58.1 IP on the trip so far), so it shouldn't take too many runs to get a couple more wins this weekend.

One of the reasons the Twins struggled to score runs earlier in the week was the disappearance of Joe Mauer. Coming into Friday's game he was just 6-28 on the road trip. He busted out with a career-high 5 hits, knocking in 4 runs while he was at it. He's got to be productive for the offense to work. The other key is Justin Morneau, and he appears to breaking out of the slump that bewitched him for most of the month. He's hitting .443 over the last 6 games, with at least one double in each.

One very encouraging sign: despite their troubles over the past week, the Twins remain just 0.5 games behind the White Sox, who have an identical 30-36 road record. That means that, for all the time away from home the Twins have to spend the rest of the season, the White Sox will match them game for game. They also have to play the Angels - baseball's winningest road team - at home. It's been a bad week on the road for the Twins, but it's not a disaster yet.

Stand and Deliver

Athletics 3, Twins 2
Twins 13, Athletics 2
Twins 3, Athletics 1

OK, not too shabby. The Twins won the rubber game with the A's yesterday to finish their 11th straight series win at home. Overall, they were 7-2 on the home stand. They must dominate like that at home if they're to stay close to a playoff spot. And not only are they just 1 game behind the White Sox for the division lead, they're now only a half-game behind Boston for the Wild Card. 2 teams to keep track of over the final 36 games.

Nick Blackburn, as usual, bounced back from a rough start against the Yankees with a very good start against the A's. He completed 8 IP, allowing 3 ER on 6 H and 2 BB. Unfortunately, he got touched for a leadoff HR for the 2nd straight game, and he allowed one hit with RISP. But, mostly, he did his job, and just didn't get the run support he needed. The Twins caught a tremendous break when AL ERA star Justin Duchscherer had to leave the game in the 3rd inning with an injury. But they failed to do any better against recent AAA call-up Kirk Saarloos.

The offense more than made up for it on Tuesday night, launching a 13 R, 16 H, 5 BB onslaught led by Brian Buscher and his career-high 5 RBI. Those RBI came on 3 different hits for Buscher, capping a game in which the 6-9 hitters combined to go 8-15 with 6 R, 2 HR, and 11 RBI. Even Carlos Gomez connected for his first HR in over 2 months (funny, it was the same crazy swing he always takes - the one where he falls down when he misses - but if you throw the ball right into it...).

That was plenty for Kevin Slowey, who delivered his 4th start out of the last 5 of at least 5.2 IP and only 1 ER allowed. What stood out in this start, of course, were the strikeouts, a career-high 12 of them. The A's are terrible, so we probably shouldn't read too much into that - Slowey isn't going to suddenly turn into Johan Santana. However, his season WHIP is down to 1.06, and he's giving the Twins easily as much as Francisco Liriano right now. He'll need to keep it up down the stretch if the Twins are going to hang in there.

Speaking of Liriano, he didn't look all that great on Wednesday. However, as much as he didn't have the command he wanted, I should mention that I thought home plate umpire Brian Knight had a very small strike zone. An ump who calls pitches on the black or at the bottom of the knees balls can turn even a low scoring game into a tedious affair. That's particularly true when one of the offenses involved is full of guys who like to take walks. Anyway, in spite of allowing a baserunner or more in every inning, Liriano left the game without having allowed an ER. That's one of the things that makes him better than, say, Boof Bonser. (The ineptitude of the A's offense undoubtedly helped.)

The bullpen was actually rock solid, for once. In 7 IP over the series, they allowed 0 R on 2 H and 3 BB. That included back-to-back 2 IP scoreless stints from Brian Bass and Boof Bonser (has that ever happened before?). Bass' effort wasn't enough to keep him from being outrighted to AAA, as the Twins finally elected to reduce the staff to 11 pitchers when Alexi Casilla was recalled yesterday afternoon.

Why Bass and not Boof? Well, Boof has allowed just 3 ER in his last 7 appearances (spanning 9.2 IP) with 9 K, despite allowing 10 H and 3 BB. Bass had allowed 3 ER in his last 9 appearances (spanning 10.2 IP) with 7 K, despite allowing 11 H and 3 BB. Basically, Boof's stuff is much more overpowering, so even though he's recently been just about exactly as hittable as Bass, Boof stays with the team. And I'm fine with that - I've been saying for awhile that the Twins could afford to have one or the other in the 'pen, but not both. Only took them 2-3 months to come to the same conclusion.

One thing that was particularly disconcerting in this series was the defense. 5 errors led to 3 unearned R (3 of the 6 total runs!). If the Twins are going to have any hope of coming home from this gigantic road trip in decent shape in the standings, they're going to have to play tighter defense. The Angels will tear them to pieces if they give them extra outs.

A lot's been written about how this 14-game trip will be a defining moment for the Twins, and I can't disagree. The only place they've struggled since the middle of June is against non-divisional opponents on the road. That's what they're going to get in every game of this trip. They're also going to get it in 7 of 10 games on the subsequent trip. 24 of the last 36 games are on the road now, and the Twins have to outplay Chicago and Boston by at least one game over that stretch to make the postseason. I'm hoping they can go at least .500 on this monster trip.

Going Down

Athletics 11, Twins 2

Yeaaah, I had a bad feeling about this one. A pitcher struggling to regain his command matched up with one of the most institutionally patient teams in all of baseball was a recipe for disaster. Francisco Liriano couldn't get himself out of the 1st inning Thursday, the shortest start by a healthy Twins pitcher since the mid-1990's. Sensibly, the team has elected to send him to the Minors until he gets it together.

Carlos Gomez led off the game with a home run. Swinging as hard as he does, it was probably just a matter of time before someone left a pitch up to him where he could park it. He added a single later, raising his 2008 hitting line to .242/.258/.352. Denard Span got a pinch-hit single late in the game to raise his line to .258/.324/.258. Insensibly, the team elected to send him to the Minors until...I don't know. I guess until Gomez stinks it up for another couple of weeks.

The Twins will try to get well this weekend vs. Texas. They'll be sending out their most consistent starters against the worst pitching team in the AL so far. Hopefully, a few more guys will break their HR droughts (Mauer? Lamb? Young?). If they can win the series, this could still turn out to be an OK road trip.

No Support

A's 3, Twins 0

Poor Boof Bonser. Last night he gave the Twins his 4th quality start in 5 appearances, yet dropped to 1-4 on the season. The team has produced 7 runs in the 29 innings Bonser has pitched so far.

With Chad Gaudin doing a terrific job of keeping the Twins' hitters off-balance all night, this game was a perfect time to work some counts and elevate his pitch totals. Not in the game plan, apparently. Gaudin needed just 84 pitches to complete 7 innings. He threw only about 50 through the first 5 IP.

Denard Span didn't contribute much to Gaudin's stress level. He saw only 6 pitches in his three ABs, reaching on an infield single to start the game. Gardy sensibly pinch-hit Brendan Harris vs. LHP Alan Embree in the 8th, so Span didn't get another chance to reach a second time. That creates this interesting comparison as Cuddyer prepares to come off the DL tomorrow:

Gomez: .230/.247/.310 = .557 OPS
Span: .233/.303/.233 = .536 OPS

At least one of them will get a few more ABs with which to influence matters this afternoon. But if you had to have one of those guys as your CF/leadoff hitter, who would you prefer? Joe C. has made his choice, and Aaron Gleeman and Nick are also accutely aware of the problem. Hopefully the Twins will do something about it soon.

Better to Be Lucky

Twins 5, A's 4

I had house guests last night, so I didn't get to watch/listen to the game. I was able to check in on Gameday periodically. My thoughts based on that, the box score, and the write-up:

Sounded like a lot of the Twins' hits were well-placed. Those can be the ones that get slumping guys going sometimes. Hopefully that will be the case for Mike Lamb.

Craig Monroe absolutely owns Joe Blanton. I wonder if he can say that about any other RHP. Great to see him raise the SLG% and join the HR parade (such as it is).

Livan Hernandez continues to pitch well enough to keep the Twins in the game, but he's showing signs of cracking. He allowed just 5 ER in his first 3 starts, allowing no HR and walking none with 7 IP in each game. These starts were against the Angels and Royals, who rank 12th and 13th in the AL in team walks, respectively (guess who's #14!). His last 2 starts, he has allowed 7 ER, 4 HR and 6 walks while pitching 6 innings each. He's crafty enough to get away with allowing just over a H/IP, but not if the H is a HR, and not if there's a BB right in front of it (as was the case in the 6th last night). If Monroe didn't have Blanton's number, Livan's pitching performance would have resulted in a loss.

Solid work again by the bullpen: Rincon, Neshek and Nathan combined for 3 IP, H, BB, 5 K. Keep that up.

Span vs. Gomez

I haven't been able to make any comparisons recently, since Span has been out of the lineup following his atrocious performance in the final game of the Rays series (0-3, K, 2 E). But surely Gomez surpassed those depths of suckitude last night (0-5, 4 K, E). Since one of Span's errors was the result of the poor design of the Metrodome (no one doubts that he can catch balls that he can see), I'm calling the Error category even between those two. Gomez gets extra points for the game saver on Sunday. But at least we can say that Span has not played markedly weaker defense than Gomez (Span gets extra points for playing out of position).

Offensively, Span is hitting .222/.300/.222 through 30 PAs. He has 3 BB, 6 K and 3 SB. Gomez is hitting .230/.247/.310 through 89 PAs. He has 2 BB, 24 K and 9 SB. In 1/3 the playing time, Span has 3/2 the BB, 1/4 the K, and 1/3 the SB of Gomez.

It sounds like Span will get a start tonight against RHP Chad Gaudin. If he can reach two times, it should be enough to warrant serious discussion as to which young OF the Twins send back to Rochester when Cuddyer is activated from the DL on Friday.