Monday, August
15, 2010
Duensing
Deals a Dandy
Sunday’s Lineup
Scott Baker’s near-perfect
game might have been better. The timing of Jack Morris’s 10-inning
complete game shutout in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series was impressive. But
what Brian Duensing did last night may have
been one of the most impressive starting pitching performances I have seen from
a Twins pitcher in my life time. (Note – Eric Milton’s no-hitter wasn’t
on TV) They left-hander pitched the first complete game shutout of his career.
He gave up just three hits and two walks in the game. In fact, he never had two
base runners on at the same time. Less than 58% of his pitches were strikes and
yet, he threw just 103 pitches in nine innings. He kept his entire defense on
its toes because he struck out just four A’s hitters. He got nine ground ball
outs, and nine fly ball outs. He picked off the one base runner that got to
second base. Admittedly, the Oakland A’s
have a terrible offense, but in a game against Trevor Cahill, quietly one of
baseball’s best pitchers this year, it was a great performance. Most important,
however, was the timing of the performance. Before the game, Ron Gardenhire told media that he would not use Jesse
Crain, Matt Guerrier or Matt Capps
because of overuse. Duensing took care of that
concern all by himself. You have to think this start earned him some points
with his manager, the coaches and his teammates!
On the season, Brian Duensing is now 6-1
with a 2.00 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. In his five starts, he is 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA.
As a reliever, he held opponents to a .591 OPS. In his starts, opponents’ OPS is .592.
Brian Duensing has had an incredible year, and he has
proven a lot of people wrong (myself included). Last
night’s amazing performance was the culmination of all of it, and yet, with six
weeks left in the season, and hopefully a postseason run, hopefully he’ll
continue to have moments as great as last night.
As mentioned above, Trevor Cahill has been one of the best
starting pitchers in baseball this spring. The 22 year old is now 12-5 with a
2.50 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. It’s hard to believe its
sustainable since he strikes out just 5.2 innings. But we could see last night
that the movement his pitches get means there is not much solid contact against
him. Sure, Joe Mauer had three hits in the
game, but he’s on one of the more amazing tears of his career (which is saying
a ton). Other than that, the Twins didn’t do a lot against him. But they did
just enough. In the third inning, Alexi Casilla
led off with a double. Denard Span
sacrificed him to third, and Orlando Hudson hit a deep fly ball to left
field to drive in the team’s first run. The other run came in the 8th
inning off of former Twins lefty reliever Craig Breslow.
Denard Span blooped
a double to left field. Then Hudson grounded to shortstop and Span continued
his horrible base running trend by attempting to achieve third base. The Steve
Tolleson throw to 3B was true, but somehow Span
got around the Kevin Kouzmanoff tag, and the
most incredible thing is that 3B umpire Adrian Johnson made the difficult
and correct call. Span was safe. Mauer followed with
an RBI single (off the wall) that gave Duensing and
the Twins a little insurance.
But the story of the night was Duensing who,
along with Cahill, helped complete the game in less than 2 ½ hours, not long
before a major storm hit Target Field.
Also, a big THANK YOU to Tigers catcher Alex
Avila who hit a two run home run in the top of the 9th inning
against JJ Putz and the White Sox. The homer gave
the Tigers a 3-2 win over the White Sox, and it gave the
Twins a two game lead over the White Sox.
Here are some notes from the Twins minor league games:
·
Rochester topped
Lehigh Valley for the second straight night. This was a bullpen game, but they
came through. Jose Lugo started and
gave up one run on four hits (including a solo homer) in 4.2 innings. He walked
none and struck out five. Then Tim Lahey came in and gave up two runs on one hit (a homer)
and one walk in 2.1 innings. Kyle
Waldrop threw the final two innings. He gave up a run on a hit (yes, a solo
home run). Brandon Roberts led the
offense. He was 3-4 with a walk, his second double and he stole a base. Erik Lis has
been terrific since his return from New Britain. In this game, he was 3-5 with
two more doubles (his 4th and 5th of the year). Matt Macri
went 2-4 with his 18th double. Dustin
Martin and Brendan Harris each
went 2-5.
·
New Britain had a
bullpen start as well, and it showed in a 12-2 loss to Akron. Cole DeVries
started and gave up nine runs (5 earned) on 11 hits and a walk in three
innings. Mike McCardell
went the next four innings and gave up three runs (2 earned) on eight hits and
three walks. Loek Van Mil pitched a scoreless 8th
inning. Jeff Howell went 2-4. Joe Benson was 1-3 with a walk and his
18th double. Chris Parmelee hit his 22nd double.
·
The Ft. Myers
Miracle lost to Charlotte 7-1. Bruce
Pugh got the start and gave up three runs on six hits in four innings. He
walked three and struck out four. Matt Schuld was promoted from the GCL team to the Miracle.
The 2010 non-drafted free agent from St. Thomas gave up one run on three hits
and two walks in two innings. Blake
Martin went two innings and gave up three unearned runs on one hit. But
that hit was a three run homer. Nick
Romero remains on fire. He went 3-4
with his 20th double.
·
The Beloit
Snappers beat Clinton 7-2. Martire Garcia’s
second Snapper start was a big improvement. The lefty gave up one run on six
hits and three walks in 5.1 innings. He struck out eight. Brad Stillings came in and got two outs
to end the sixth inning. Miguel Munoz
then gave up one run on one hit in two innings. Sam Spangler struck out two in his inning. Danny Rams went 3-4 with his 14th home run. Lance Ray went 3-4 with his fifth
double. James Beresford had a
two-run double, his 15th double.
·
Elizabethton beat
Kingsport 5-2. 2010 3rd round pick Pat Dean threw six shutout innings for his second win. He gave up
four hits, walked none and struck out three. Michael Tonkin threw a scoreless inning. Adrian Salcedo gave up two runs on two
hits (including a homer) in his inning. Jose
Gonzalez recorded his fourth save with a scoreless ninth. Oswaldo Arcia, Jamaal Hawkins, Gunner Glad and Kyle Knudson
each had two hits.
·
The GCL Twins
lost to the Red Sox 8-3. Ricardo Arevalo gave up six runs (5 earned) on five hits and
two walks to fall to 0-6 on the season. Tyler
Herr threw two shutout innings. Hein
Robb gave up one run on three hits and a walk in his two innings. Brett Carroll gave up a run on two hits
in his inning, although he did strike out two. Matt Tolbert was 2-4 with a stolen base. Eddie Rosario walked twice and stole his 22nd base.
NOTES FROM THE RON
GARDENHIRE SHOW
The Ron Gardenhire Show is on 1500ESPN every Sunday morning at 9:30 throughout
the season. Here are some of the things I noted from the show this morning.
·
“Duens” or “Deuce” (Brian Duensing)
hides the ball well, is left-handed and hides the ball well. Thinks he could be
a #2 or #3 type of pitcher.
·
If Nick Blackburn
came up, it would be in the bullpen, which he said always needs arms and
options.
·
Glen Perkins is an option against
lefties because he added a slider and he is throwing hard.
·
Good to have Jon Rauch
back because they had to over-extend Crain and Guerrier.
·
Kevin Slowey just needed a few extra
days, says he’s ready to go.
·
Nick Blackburn and his wife Alicia had a baby last night, Peyton. Congrats to them!
·
Has a lot of confidence in Denard Span, not sure what to call his lapses on the bases. He’s putting
a lot of pressure on himself, and trying to do the right things, but he’s
thinking speed alone can do it. Trying to remind him of situational. He needs
to work through this and is so important at top of order.
·
Will take NO chances with Justin Morneau. Morneau
has been feeling a lot of pressure and anxiety is not good for his situation.
He wants to play and be a part of it.
·
Mauer had three hits in four at bats
and saw 10 pitches. Again a great pitcher like Cahill, you don’t want to fall
behind. Cahill has three above average pitches. Fastball lots of movement, slurve unreal, and great changeup.
·
Kubel can’t try to get to 3B on that
play in front of him. Cuddyer ran hard, but Casilla, as on deck hitter needs to be waving in Cuddyer, telling him to hurry up.
·
JJ Hardy will not play today,
will be playing on Tuesday. Nick Punto will work out today, activate him, and make a
move after the game, “probably a catcher.”
·
Sunday Lineup:
o
Denard Span, CF
o
Orlando Hudson, 2B
o
Joe Mauer, C
o
Jason Kubel, RF
o
Michael Cuddyer, 1B
o
Jim Thome, DH
o
Danny Valencia, 3B
o
Jason Repko, LF
o
Alexi Casilla, SS
o
With Kevin Slowey Pitching.
Any questions or comments on the
Twins or the minor league system? Feel free to leave
your questions and comments here.