Friday, April
30, 2010
Gibson’s Gem
Normally here at
SethSpeaks.net, I am able to post things every day, but last night, I was
exhausted, so I went to bed a little after 9:00 p.m. I know nobody really cares
about that, but for me, it was likely three to four hours earlier than normal.
And although many of you tell me that it is OK for me to occasionally take a
day off, I happen to think that the performance of Kyle Gibson yesterday afternoon warrants mention, so although this
may not be a real long posting, it is something.
April has been a
struggle for most of the Twins minor league affiliates. That is true in Ft.
Myers as well, but the final April start for Kyle Gibson has to be the team’s highlight. Morning games are
fairly unusual, but that is exactly what the Miracle were
up against. So, on a high level, the Gibson outing looks very impressive. Nine innings. Zero runs. One hit. One
walk. Six Strikeouts.
A complete game
shutout at any level is impressive, but a few more things:
·
Gibson was perfect through five innings.
·
The one hit, was an infield hit. The Isaac Galloway single was a grounder back to Gibson that tipped off
of his glove. Nick Romero made an
attempt to bare-hand the ball, but the hitter was safe.
·
How did Gibson respond? He picked Galloway off of 1B.
·
He then walked the next hitter, but he induced a ground
ball double play to end the 6th inning.
·
That was it for base runners, meaning that he faced just
27 batters, the minimum number possible. It was the first time in his life he
has done that.
·
Speaking of ground balls, Gibson recorded 16 ground balls
in the game.
·
Two of his four ‘fly-outs’ were actually liners to
infielders.
In other words,
Gibson pitched a pretty incredible game. Did I mention that he also got a Win
as the Miracle beat Jupiter 2-0. Nick Romero was 3-4. Evan Bigley went 2-3 with a walk. And Gibson’s catcher on
the day was Dan Rohlfing.
Rohlfing went 1-2 with a walk and a double as well as
helping Gibson to such a strong pitching effort.
Rohlfing later told me, “Gibson was absolutely
dealing. He threw all his pitches with good command and was hitting his spots.
It was a real fun game to catch. The hitters had no idea what was coming all
game.”
Other Minor Notes
New Britain and
Beloit each had scheduled days off on Thursday. Rochester lost 5-3 to Lehigh
Valley. Glen Perkins had his best
start of the year. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on nine hits in five
innings. He walked none and struck out six. Kyle Waldrop gave up one run on one hit in an inning. He struck out
two. Tim Lahey
and Anthony Slama
each pitched a scoreless inning. Dustin
Martin went 3-4 with a double and two RBI. Jason Repko and Trevor Plouffe each went 2-4 with a
double. Matt Tolbert went 2-5 with a
double.
The Twins start
a three game series in Cleveland. Joe
Christensen reported yesterday that Nick
Blackburn was leaving the team for a bit for family reasons and missing a
start. (Jeff Manship
will start on Saturday in his place) Obviously we hope that everything is
alright with him and his family. Any questions? Leave your
comments here.