Monday, August
16, 2010
Controversial but Clearly Correct
The Twins won 4-2 on Sunday to complete a three game sweep of the Oakland
A’s. Kevin Slowey picked up his 11th
win of the season, but that is just the start of the story about Sunday’s game.
You see, Kevin Slowey threw seven shutout
innings when he was replaced by Jon Rauch. As you know by now, it wasn’t
just seven shutout innings, it was seven no-hit innings. Most managers would
keep the pitcher in the ball game. Most fans certainly would. But this was a
different situation, a different set of circumstances. Kevin Slowey was making his first start in over a week
because he had been pushed back a turn due to elbow tendonitis. Soreness in the back of his elbow. When it comes to
pitching, the elbow is pretty important.
When it comes to the Minnesota Twins, Kevin Slowey
is pretty important to their success this year and for years to come. Through
seven innings, he had already thrown 106 pitches. He had walked three batters
and hit Mark Ellis with a pitch with one out in the 7th
inning. If he had so much as given up a bloop single
earlier in the game, that likely would have been the end of the road for Slowey. Gardenhire stood by him,
and he got a ground ball to 3B to start an inning-ending double play. With a
1-0 lead, an elbow issue, Slowey being uncharacteristically
wild, and wanting to win games and a division title, Slowey
was removed from the game. Ron Gardenhire made
what was probably a very difficult decision. He made it definitively, and he
answered questions about it perfectly. But in the end, when really thinking big
picture, he made the easy decision, the right decision.
Now, as much as I loved the decision to remove Slowey
from the game, I think that there was also some obligation to continue going
after the no-hitter. Again, that’s not a big deal to the big picture, but it is
a nice event. Bringing in Jon Rauch is the part of the decision-making
that I would question. I would have wanted him to go to Jesse Crain at
that time. Of course, hindsight is always 20-20. Crain could have come in and
given up a hit too, but I’ll take my chances. Two runs later, Crain had to come
in to clean up another Rauch mess. Matt Capps came in for the 9th
and put the leadoff runner on, but he got a double player before getting the final
out for the save and the Twins win.
But again, the game is the most important thing, and the Twins won the game
4-2. Coupled with yet another White Sox bullpen implosion, the Twins go into
their Monday off day with a three game lead over the White Sox.
The Twins should feel fortunate to have had a sweep against this Oakland
team. Their starting staff may be young, but it is incredibly talented. The Twins
had to work for every run they got. The Twins scored four, two and four runs in
this series. On Sunday, it was a 1-0 game until Jim Thome
was green-lighted with two runners on in the bottom of the 7th and
hit a laser over the right field fence to give the Twins a 4-0 lead, and
insurance they would need.
The Twins get a day off before playing three games at Target Field
against the Chicago White Sox. The Twins will send Scott Baker, Francisco
Liriano and Carl Pavano
to the mound against John Danks, Gavin
Floyd and Mark Buehrle in what should be
another fun, exciting series.
Here are some notes from Sunday’s games, followed by the minor league
game highlights, and some other notes:
·
Danny Valencia
had gone 5-45 since August 2nd coming into the weekend, but he was
6-13 in the series to get his batting average up to .329 again.
·
Following the
game, Nick Punto
was activated and Jose Morales was
sent back to Rochester. It will be interesting to see how Gardy
uses his infielders at this point. The starters are Valencia, JJ Hardy and Orlando Hudson with Punto and Alexi Casilla
ready when called upon.
·
Speaking of
infielders, Matt Tolbert’s rehab
stint ended. He was activated and optioned to AAA Rochester.
·
The Red Wings won
the first two games against Lehigh Valley, but on Sunday, they lost 5-4. Matt Macri
was 2-3 with two walks. Brendan Harris
went 2-4 with his 12th double. Dustin
Martin and Roberts were both 2-5. Martin hit his 22nd double. David Bromberg started. In 4.2 innings,
he gave up three runs on five hits and two walks. Matt Fox got four outs and
gave up one run on four hits. Pat Neshek gave up one hit, two walks and hit a batter but
did not allow a run in two innings. Anthony
Slama took the loss. He gave up one run on two
hits and a walk in his inning.
·
New Britain lost
7-0 to Akron. Chris Parmelee
went 2-3 with a walk and his 23rd double. Steve Singleton went 2-4 with his 38th double. Bobby Lanigan
started and gave up five runs on eight hits in five innings. Carlos Gutierrez went the next two
innings and gave up no runs on one hit and three walks. Billy Bullock gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in one
inning.
·
Ft. Myers beat
Jupiter twice on Sunday. In game one, the won 5-4 in nine innings. Santos Arias
gave up four runs on 12 hits and a walk in eight innings for the win. Dakota
Watts struck out two in the ninth for the save. Angel Morales went 3-5 with his seventh double and eighth stolen
base. Brian Dozier was 2-4 with his
tenth double. In the second game, the Miracle won 3-2. Steve Blevins made his first professional start. He gave up one run
on three hits and a walk in four innings. Jhon Garcia gave up one run on two hits and three walks in three
innings. He started the seventh inning with runners on second and third and
nobody out, but he got out of the inning without a run scoring. The Miracle
managed just six hits. Brian Dozier
was 2-3. The other four hits were doubles.
·
The Beloit
Snappers lost 6-3 to Clinton. Tom Stuifbergen started and gave up four runs on ten hits
in 6.1 innings. He walked none and struck out 11. Andrei Lobanov came in and gave up two
runs on three hits in 1.2 innings. He struck out two. Matt Tone struck out two in a scoreless inning. Michael Harrington went 2-3 with a
homer. Steve Liddle hit his 9th
home run.
·
Elizabethton lost
8-3 to Greeneville. Logan Darnell
started and gave up five runs (4 earned) on eight hits in four innings. Dallas Gallant came in and gave up one
run on one hits and two walks while striking out four. Michael Tonkin gave up two runs on two hits and a walk in 1.2
innings. Ryan O’Rourke got the final
two outs. Nate Roberts went 2-4 with
his fourth and fifth home runs. Kyle
Knudson went 2-4.
·
The GLC Twins did
not have a game on their schedule on Sunday.
Finally, here are a few more
quick notes:
·
I am driving down
to the Twin Cities for Tuesday night’s Twins/White Sox game, so there is will
be no SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota
Twins Podcast tonight.
·
Knowing that, you
will want to listen in to last
night’s SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins podcast.
Travis
Aune co-hosted the show with me. We were
joined by Phil Mackey of 1500espn’s Reusse & Mackey Show (12-2 weekdays) to discuss
several Twins topics. Later, JJ Stankevitz, the White Sox writer for Examiner.com,
joined us to discuss the White Sox. Other than that, we took questions in the
chat room and had a few people call in, so it was a ton of fun.
·
I wrote an
article for John Sickels’
excellent MinorLeagueBall.com blog. John
told me that it will be posted on Monday, so be sure to check there throughout the
day for the new article.
Any questions or comments on the
Twins or the minor league system? Feel free to leave
your questions and comments here.