Thursday September 18, 2003

BIGGER SERIES à Twins 4, White Sox 2

He walked to the mound, and for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t even nervous.  Eddie was coming into the game, and I was confident the Twins would win. Then he threw his first pitch to Magglio Ordonez, and it was up and away. Uh oh! But, that’s alright. He’ll come back. Second pitch… up and away.  No worries! Eddie’s been tough the last month or two. Pitch 3… up and away, again!  OK, Eddie, just THROW THE BALL OVER THE PLATE!  OK, strike one, here we go. But then on pitch 5, another fastball up and away. At that point, I still wasn’t nervous. I knew that the Twins would find a way to win it in either the bottom of the 9^th, or in extra innings!

When Guardado got behind 1-0 to Carl Everett, Rick Anderson and AJ came to the mound. In my mind, the next pitch was going to be deposited by Everett into the left field bleachers. What happened? 92 mph fastball right by him.  Then a foul for strike two!  Then, the big pitch, a riding fastball that Everett topped into the ground, right at shortstop Cristian Guzman who fielded the ball, flipped to 2B Luis Rivas who quickly turned and threw to the stretching Doug Mientkiewicz in time for the double-play!

Seeing Eddie Guardado get all jazzed up after a huge play like that gives me chills!  He wears his emotions on his sleeve and sometimes that hurts him. But last night (and really most of the last couple of months) it has been to his advantage! He now is third in the American League with 37 saves.

He is called “The Gambler” for obvious reasons. His name is the same as a certain country musician who had a number of hits, including a song of that name. But, I have a new nickname for the pitcher… “The Battler.” Why? Kenny Rogers fastball comes to the plate between 83-88 mph. He has a big, slow curveball that you would think would be easy to pick up. He gives up a lot of hits. But, as he did last night, he battled out of some tough situations for 6 innings. In the 7^th, Joe Crede finally came through for the White Sox with a 2-run home run that hit high up on the ‘foul’ pole! He always seems to keep his team in the game, and he did that again last night.  He went 6 1/3 innings, he gave up 6 hits, but walked no one to improve his record to 12-8!

They continue to be great!  It was the plan from the start of the season; get 6 or 7 innings from the starting pitcher and get the game to JC Romero and LaTroy Hawkins. Last night, Kenny Rogers pitched 6 1/3 innings. Romero finished the 7^th inning. Hawkins dominated the 8^th inning. Eddie closed the door in the 9^th! Add the improved Juan Rincon, and the Twins bullpen is as good as any in baseball!

He isn’t even really a prospect. He was called up to be a left-handed hitter off the Twins bench. He sat on the bench for three weeks before getting a start. And now, Mike Ryan has 4 home runs and 4 doubles, in just 40 at bats, and all have been pretty important. None probably as important as the home run Ryan hit in the 3^rd inning last night off Sox starter Jon Garland. Just a solo shot, it gave the Twins the important 1-0 lead. Please check out Ben Jacobs’ posting “Roy Hobbs Indeed” on Michael Ryan from yesterday. It’s one of the most thorough analyses on Ryan I’ve read!

He is frequently bashed because he isn’t an All-Star caliber hitter. He’s not a Gold Glove caliber player on defense. But at home, Luis Rivas hits the ball into the turf and gets a lot of singles. Last night, he was 2-3 with a walk, a couple runs and an RBI. Although he doesn’t show a lot of range (although, as fast as the MetroDome turf is, I will look past that), I think he turns the double-play as well as any 2B in the American League, with the possible exception of Bret Boone.

He was 0-1 with a strikeout. You would assume that means he didn’t do much, right? Well, Corey Koskie was 0-1 last night, but he walked 3 times. So, yeah, he was on-base 3 out of 4 plate appearances AND made the pitchers throw extra pitches. Not only that, but he made a couple of great defensive plays, including a diving catch down the third base line that could have scored a White Sox run, but instead, ended an inning. It was a big night for Koskie. Before the game, he was named the Twins nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, an award which used to be simply called The Man of the Year Award. Check out the above link to see all of the charities and other community activities that Koskie involves himself in. Congratulations Corey!

On July 28, the Twins were 6 ½ games behind the Kansas City Royals and 2 ½ games behind the Chicago White Sox. I wrote a rant entitled “It’s OVER”, and vented many of my frustrations on how bad the Twins were at that point. Well, today, let me be the second person to tell you that IT’S OVER!  And this time around, that’s a good thing!  With last night’s win, regardless of what happens when Kyle Lohse and the Twins take on Bartolo Colon and the White Sox tonight, the Twins have all but officially won the AL Central Division. It’s over!

One more Twins thing, be sure to check out one fan’s Johan Santana Fan Page.

 

OTHER BASEBALL THOUGHTS
The other day, I was perusing the Atlanta Journal Constitution sports page, looking for information on Greg Maddux, who with his next win, as you know, will have 15 wins on the season. That would be his 16^th consecutive season with 15 or more wins. Well, the other day I read an article written by Furman Bisher, who seems to be the paper’s version of Sid Hartman, entitled “Maddux Great, But No Cy Young”. When I opened the link, and saw the picture of Mr. Bisher, I wondered if maybe he had any first-hand account of seeing Cy Young pitch (Bisher is in his 50^th year with the paper, by the way). As I read his column and looked at the numbers he compared between the two pitchers, it came to a point when Bisher actually wrote that he had seen Cy Young pitch! Wow! Bisher must have received plenty of e-mails on his article, because in his article yesterday, he found the need to write the following:

Of course Greg Maddux is no Cy Young, as the comparison refers to records. They pitched in vastly different eras, Young when the ball was "dead," Maddux when the ball has a heartbeat. My point is that too often our resident historians search too hard and deep for inconsequential comparisons, and since I don't write heads for my columns, that's just how it came out. . . . By the way, when did the term "break it down" replace "analyze" in the sports vernacular?

I’m glad he wrote that as I’m one who believes that you can’t compare current eras to the ballplayers at the turn of the 20^th century. The game was different. Cy Young’s numbers were amazing, but with how much pitching he did, there’s no way he threw hard or breaking pitches with bite or anything. I just don’t think it’s fair. Greg Maddux hits 90 from time to time, so he’s not a dominant pitcher in the way Randy Johnson is or Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson were. That’s why I believe that Greg Maddux is one of the best “Pitchers” in baseball history!

Be sure also to check out David Bloom’s D-Rays Blog! Yesterday, he linked to my posting “Rays of Hope.”

And, if you enjoy baseball trivia, be sure to check out Yard: The Blog today. He’s got 16 baseball questions that are all rally interesting!Welp, I’m keeping it short today!! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to tell all your friends! If you have any thoughts on what you’ve read today, or anything else, send me an e-mail. If you’ve never written to me, I’d love to hear where you’re reading this site from (state, country), and how you came to the site!

Have a great Thursday!  Tomorrow is Friday! Be sure to check back for Week 3’s Expert Football Picks!!

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