Metrodome Memories

I hate this.  The Twins clawed their way to sit atop the Wild Card pack and then gave it up after losing two games to the worst team in baseball.

Matt Garza may have had his best start in his young career.  Unfortunately, he walked away with the loss.  He gave up two runs on five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings.  The Twins didn’t score a single run and they were held to five hits.  Jason Bartlett had two of those.

One bad inning cost Boof Bonser a win yesterday.  He gave up three runs in the sixth after five shutout innings in the 4-3 loss.  The Twins made things interesting with a run in the ninth but they came up short.  Michael Cuddyer homered twice and he drove in all three Twins runs.  He also had three of the Twins’ six hits in the game.

Finally the Twins picked up a win today.  Johan was Johan and he won his 16th game.  He struck out eleven in seven innings and gave up a single run on five hits.  Rondell White hit his fourth homerun and Mike Redmond had three hits and a run in the 3-1 win.

Talk about going from one extreme to another.  We go from the Royals to the Yankees.  Not good.  Hopefully we can sneak out of their with two wins.

Alright, the Twins got the job done.  They rolled into Chicago and left with a half game lead over the White Sox for the Wild Card. 

Torii Hunter and Jason Bartlett were the heroes on Friday.  Hunter hit a huge three run homerun in the sixth to give the the Twins a 4-3 lead.  The White Sox tied the game up in the bottom half of that inning, but in the ninth, Bartlett singled home Lew Ford for the game winner.  Brad Radke lasted only two innings and it was Jesse Crain who picked up the win with two shutout innings.

The pen really tried to blow a fair start by Johan Santana yesterday, but Nick Punto’s RBI single in the eleventh gave the Twins the win.  Joe Nathan gave up a two run homerun in the ninth to Jermaine Dye and that sent it into extra frames.  Punto, Rondell White and Jason Tyner all had two RBIs in the 8-7 win.

The winning ended today wit Carlos Silva.  He gave up three more homeruns over six innings and he dropped to 8-12.  The only Twins’ run came in the first inning when Michael Cuddyer singled home Punto.

The Twins are off tomorrow and then they have three against the Royals.  It’s imperative that the Twins take care of business against Kansas City.  The Twins have only a half game lead so there’s very little margin for error here.

One half of a game seperate the White Sox and Twins for the Wild Card as the two teams head into a huge three game series in Chicago.  It’s put up or shut up time.

Tuesday, it was shut up time as rookie Nick Markakis took Carlos Silva to task.  Silva gave up five homeruns in 5 1/3 innings and he took the loss.  Joe Mauer had two hits and an RBI in the 6-3 loss.

Fortunately, the Twins picked it up and rookie Matt Garza had his best major league start to date.  He gave up only one unearned run in six innings in his first major league win.  Michael Cuddyer had three hits and two RBIs and Torii Hunter hit his 18th homerun of the season in the 4-1 win.

Yesterday, the Twins just blew out the Orioles.  Joe Mauer and Cuddyer both drove in four runs and Justin Morneau and Hunter both homered in the 11-2 win.  Boof Bonser picked up the win.  He gave up two runs on seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.

Now, it’s time to beat those White Sox.  It’s Brad Radke against Javier Vazquez in the opener tonight.

The Twins are back to being down by a single game in the Wild Card mix.  Everytime the Twins come close, they falter and fall back a bit.  Hopefully it won’t happen this time around.

Boof Bonser wasn’t great, but he kept the Twins in the game on Friday.  He left with the score tied 3-3 and the bullpen really picked him up.  Nick Punto had three hits and two runs while Justin Morneau singled twice and drove in two.  Hunter hit his 16th homerun in the 7-3 win.

On Saturday, the Twins couldn’t figure out Jon Garland.  Nick Punto singled home Justin Tyner in the third inning, and that was the only Twins’ run of the game.  Brad Radke was solid but he took the loss and dropped to 12-9 in the 4-1 game.

Johan Santana set the stage yesterday.  He improved to 15-5 with seven solid innings. Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer and Mike Redmond all drove in two runs while Torii Hunter hit his seventeenth homerun of the season.

Next up is three against the Orioles, so hopefully the Twins can keep things going while the Tigers and White Sox beat up on each other.

Two games are all that seperates the Twins and White Sox heading into their three game series beginning tomorrow.  The Twins picked up half a game this week by winning two of three over the still struggling Indians.

Johan Santana got the job done on Tuesday.  He pitched eight shutout innings and gave up only three hits with three strikeouts.  He needed only 99 pitches to make it through eight innings.  Michael Cuddyer had two hits, two RBIs and a run in the win.  Torii Hunter went two for four with an RBI in the 4-1 win.

Carlos Silva pitched five solid innings yesterday but he left with the game tied.  Pat Neshek ended up picking up the win and man has he been a lift out of the pen.  In 20 innings, he’s struck out 30, walked three and he’s given up only six hits.  Two of those have been solo homeruns.  His batting average against is an inhuman .092.

The score of the game was 2-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth when the Twins exploded for five runs.  The inning was capped off by a three run shot by Michael Cuddyer.  Joe Mauer singled and drove in two runs in the 7-2 win.

Matt Garza had a much better outing today then he did in his debut.  Unfortunately, the Twins didn’t give him much support.  Garza gave up three runs on five hits and two walks with five strikouts in five innings.  Justin Mourneau hit homerun number 31 and Joe Mauer singled and drove in a run in the 3-2 loss.

Huge weekend.  If we win the series, we keep up with the Sox.  If we lose two of three, we’ll be three back.  I’m hoping for a sweep and we blow right by them.

I guess the Twins couldn’t build on that series win over the Tigers.  In the first three games in the series against the Blue Jays, the Twins scored a grand total of one run. I had hoped their offensive struggles were behind them, but apparantly not.

A poor outing by Carlos Silva and only four singles by the Twins resulted in a loss on Thursday.  Silva dropped to 8-10.

Matt Garza was awful in his debut on Friday.  He gave up runs in each of his first three innings before getting pulled.  When it was all said and done, he was dinged for seven runs on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings.  A.J. Burnett held the Twins offense down but we finally scored when Jason Bartlett doubled home Luis Rodriguez in the seventh inning in the 7-1 loss.

Yesterday was the second shutout of the series.  The Twins got seven hits in this one but nobody scored.  Boof Bonser didn’t have a horrible game but he took the loss.  He gave up three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings in the 4-0 loss.

Man, has Brad Radke been good the last couple of months.  He and two relievers combined for a five hit shutout and the Twins actually put some runs on the board.  Jason Tyner had three hits and two RBIs while Michael Cuddyer hit his seventeenth homerun of the season.

The good news is, the Tigers have hit the skids so we’re still on the fringe in the AL Central, eight games back.  Unfortunately, the White Sox are winning so the Twins trail them by 2 1/2 games in the Wild Card race.  Next up is three against the Indians with Johan Santana on deck.  I like our chances.

Unfortunately, the Twins aren’t quite yet in the drivers seat.  They’re a half game ahead of the White Sox, but it’s in the win column so the Sox can make that up.  Regardless, with the way this week has gone with Francisco Liriano going down for an extended period of time, I’ll take whatever good news I can get.

Monday was that beating.  Liriano left after four innings and he’s now on the disabled list.  Rookie Zach Miner held the Twins in check and most of the offense came from Joe Mauer’s two run homerun.  Final was 9-3.

Brad Radke got the Twins back on track on Tuesday.  He gave up two early runs in the second inning but then was awesome the rest of the way.  He ended up going seven innings with only the two runs coming across on nine hits.  Joe Nathan got into trouble in the ninth but he held on to pick up his 24th save of the season.  Joe Mauer led the way again.  He went three for five with two RBIs in the 4-2 win

The Twins took the rubber game behind a mortal outing as far as Johan Santana goes. He had a shutout through five innings but then gave up leads in the sixth and seventh inning respectively.  Fortunately Justin Morneau had his back and hit a two run homerun in the top of the eighth to make it 4-3.  This time Joe Nathan had no problems in the ninth and he picked up his 25th save.  Luis Castillo was four for four with a walk, and RBI and a run in the win.

The White Sox and Tigers will now duke it out this weekend.  In the meantime, the Twins square off against the Blue Jays beginning today.  The Jays have been struggling in the second half so hopefully we’ll be able to catch them while they’re down.  Matt Garza will make his major league debut on Friday.

Kevin Goldstein, who writes the fantastic column Future Shock at Baseball Prospectus, highlighted Twins prospect Matt Garza.  Garza was the Twins first round draft pick last year and it sounds like he’s going to get called up to help out this week.  Scott Baker hasn’t lived up to his billing so I can see Garza stepping in for him.

This was just what the doctor ordered.  The Twins looked like they were sliding until they made a trip to KC.  The end result was four consecutive wins and the Twins are now a half game back of the Wild Card leading White Sox.

These days, you never know what you’re going to get out of Brad Radke.  On Thursday, we got eight quality innings.  He gave up only two runs on four hits and Radke is now 10-8.  The team really hit for him too.  By the end of the third, the Twins had seven runs.  Justin Morneau led the way with three RBIs and Joe Mauer and Jose Rabe each scored two runs in the 8-2 win.

The Twins needed ten innings on Friday.  Down 5-3, Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer hit back to back homeruns in the top of the ninth to tie it up.  In the tenth, Jason Bartlett scored the go ahead run on a wild pitch and then Torii Hunter drove in two insurance runs with a single.  Dennys Reyes picked up the win and Joe Nathan picked up the save.  For the second straight start, Johan Santana looked good but mortal.

Yesterday was the first of two blowouts.  Luis Castillo, Nick Punto and Morneau all drove in three runs.  Oddly, Punto drove in three without getting a single hit.  He drew a bases loaded walk for one and hit two sacrafice flies for the other two.  Carlos Silva coasted to an easy win.  He’s now 8-9 and he gave up three runs on ten hits over 6 1/3 innings in the 14-3 win.

This afternoon was another beatdown.  Jason Bartlett had a career day with five hits, two runs and two RBIs.  He’s now hitting .377.  Cuddyer scored three times six different Twins had at least three hits.  The Royals actually kept pace for a while, but one run in the seventh and five in the eighth opened the game up.  Final was 11-5 and the Twins racked up 22 hits.

Next up is a pretty big series against the Tigers.  If we can turn the tables and pull out a sweep, the division title won’t look too far out of reach.  Although with less then two months left and a nine and a half game deficit, the wild card is looking like the more realistic option.

It’s funny how blogs start sometime. I’m sure most of you read the Hardball Times, and most Wednesday’s, they post a Business of Baseball Report by Brian Borawski. Earlier this year, one of the hot topics being covered was the Twins stadium bill and during that time, I began corresponding with Brian. That turned into a debate on his dislike for the Twins back in the late 1980s because of how the Twins dismantled the Tigers in the ALCS in 1987. I also began picking his brain about the 1984 Tigers diary he put together back in 2004 and at that point, I was slowly getting hooked.

In my mind, the Twins blogging community is one of the best and most established.  From Aaron Gleeman to Seth Speaks to Bat Girl to the semi retired Twins Geek, you have some of the best bloggers out there all covering the same team.  My goal is to do but a fraction of what they’ve done.

So what’s this site going to be about?  First off is the Twins current race for a Wild Card spot.  We’ll be looking at that pretty closely over the next couple of months.  Then next season, I’m going to do a 1987 Twins diary in a similar caste that Tigerblog did for the 1984 season.  I’m also going to be part of a secret project which I’m not allowed to divulge at this point in time.  Let’s just say if you were teenager in the late 1960s, you’re really going to enjoy it.

I put up some links to the Twins’ sites I frequent.  If your site isn’t up there, it’s not a snub, I just don’t know who you are yet so feel free to drop me a line for a link exchange.

Go Twins.