Twins and the Home Stretch
Wow was that a crap in a bucket last night. Let's not talk about it because if I do I might want to slap Gardy in the mouth. Injuries are gonna be a killer. Sorry, not much to say on this other than that.
But this will make you smile. (Click here)
5 Comments:
I thought we had that one won about about 4 times last night. I crashed after the 8th. Why are you putting it on Gardy? I know he got tossed but what else.
Last night was the mecca of TV watching. The Twins were on MLB TV, Gophers were on ESPNU, I was flipping to Iowa St/ NIU on CSS, S Miss/ SC (gamblor pick) on ESPN and Utah / Pitt (gamblor pick) on Versus. I choose not to watch OSU vs Marshall or Indina vs Towson on the Big Ten Networks. I had to draw the line somewhere.
September 3, 2010 at 9:20 AM
I pin it on Gardy because of how he manages his bullpen. I have no idea how other teams go about it but when Baker goes down after 2 innings why does he pull a guy like Manship after 4 innings of scoreless ball and only 65 pitches? Why then only have Rauch pitch 1 f'ing inning when he knows he doesn't have Capps or Fuentes for the night and that Guerrier is struggling? I get going after the "match-ups" but it seems like a formula that gets us to winning the AL Central. Sooooo sick of pitch counts.
September 3, 2010 at 9:47 AM
Jan is absotively right on. Gardy f'ed up his bullpen deployment by burning through all his arms in the 8th the night before, too, leaving him with no one but Rauch for extra innings because he'd used 5 guys through 8 after getting 7 full innings from Frankie. We were lucky as shit to win that game Wednesday. And, on Tuesday, he put in Guerrier to bail us out of the 7th when the situation was screaming for Crain (side note - how bizarre is it that right now Crain, yes, Jesse Crain, is the guy who should be pitching the highest leverage at-bats in late innings for us?). Lucky to get out of that, too. So now, last night, Manship looks fine through four but because for some dumb reason Gardy decides to pull him we end up burning through Blackburn, too. Now we're forced to start a fucking call-up, who just hopped on a plane late last night, against the Texas Rangers to start the most important series of the season.
This team is like the walking dead right now. Morneau's not coming back, Hudson's been out for a week because of a freak ankle twist, Thome's back is back, Kubel got clocked on the wrist the other night and I would not be shocked if he hits the 15-day, Hardy's still ailing, Punto's still on the DL. Baker and Slowey are both out. Liriano and Blackburn are fighting dead arm issues. Fuentes has faced four batters for us and now can't throw. JFC. If we don't get swept this weekend, I'll consider it a miracle. Our lineup is atrocious at the moment. Winning these last two series against Seattle and Detroit is the very definition of whistling past the graveyard. We're in serious health trouble right now and a good team should destroy us and let the White Sox right back in this thing.
Go Boston? Yuck.
September 3, 2010 at 2:41 PM
Wow...after reading these comments I am suddenly very afraid. Very afraid.
I didn't see the game last night, so I had NO idea that Gardy mismanaged the bullpen so badly. Did Baker come out after two innings because of injury? Yikes...we really could not be more banged up right now.
C'mon Red Sox. I know you're all but out of it, but let's dig deep and take at least 2 of 3 from Chicago.
September 3, 2010 at 4:01 PM
Well, I guess miracles do happen. Somehow this Matt Fox kid went 5 2/3 and gave up just two runs, and then some not very good relievers and Capps got us the rest and a 4-3 win.
Oh, and Hudson played and Thome batted. And Kubel had an MRI that showed nothing weird, so they're expecting him back by Monday or Tuesday. All in all, my perspective is infinitely sunnier today than it was yesterday.
Yes, bg, Baker stepped out because of tenditis flaring up. The good news is that Slowey should return next week at some point, so even if Baker misses time, we should at least have 4 starters healthy, plus Blackburn. And you can't dis Blackie right now, given how terrific he was in his first start back.
Last night was the perfect "Little Engine That Could" win, the kind that makes outsiders say "how the hell do they keep doing this year after year?" Two callups pitch the first 7 innings, two guys in the lineup weren't even close to the big league club at season's opening, they play a rightfielder at first base, and they beat a playoff team they're battling for home field in the ALDS.
At this point, I think it's time to openly root for the Rangers to lose a lot. For awhile, it looked like a crapshoot - I think goal No. 1 for the Twins was to avoid the Yankees in the first round, even if that meant we'd rather have a worse record than Texas and get Tampa without homefield if they won the East. But it seems clear to me at this point that the Yankees are going win 102 games and the East. So we need to beat the Rangers and claim homefield against the Wild Card. Tampa doesn't scare me that much, anyway.
September 4, 2010 at 1:53 PM
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