Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Game 1 – Advantage… Twins!
The Twins got exactly what they needed in the
first game of the series against the White Sox. Seven strong innings from their
starting pitcher, solid defense, and plenty of runs! Most important, the Twins
got the win. That means that the Twins have cut the White Sox lead to 1.5
games. Of course, the important thing to remember is that it was, in fact, just
one game. On Wednesday, an equally important game will pit Nick Blackburn
against Mark Buehrle. It is another must-win
for the Twins.
It’s always amazing to me how many emotions
must be going through the players and coaches minds. You want players who are
fired up and get up for these big games. But you also want a guy who doesn’t
show it, who is completely poised even if his heart is just racing. It is so clear
that if the Twins really want a good chance at making the playoffs, they have
to sweep this series. At the same time, it is vital that they remember that
they can’t sweep the series if they don’t win today. That old Tom Kelly “One
Game At A Time” philosophy that I used to find so
annoying, I now find is the only way that a team that wants to be good can
think. I guess to summarize, “Players need to be fired up and emotional but
cool, calm and collected, while the fans expect to “see” fired up because they
too are fired up.”
As fans, isn’t this all we can really ask
for? The organization put together a team that has us watching games on the
edge of our seats with just five more games to go.
Here are some of my thoughts on the game:
·
Scott Baker got a lazy fly ball and two strikeouts in the top of the first. I
thought that was vital really. Although just 3/27th of the outs
needed, it did set the tone.
·
Denard Span was called out looking on a pitch that was
clearly four to six inches inside. It was nearly the identical pitch that Scott
Baker had thrown to AJ Pierzynski in the
top of the inning that was called a ball. Now, I am definitely not one to
subscribe to the theory that a veteran team has an advantage over a young team.
However, those types of calls are those “respect” calls that a veteran player
can (and frequently does) get over the course of a game.
·
Baker
gave up two softly-hit singles to lead off the second inning to Jim Thome and Paul Konerko.
That had the makings of a huge inning except that Baker got Ken Griffey to
ground into a double play. Sure, the run scored, but the damage was held to a
minimum. At the time, we knew that it was big. Had we known that it would be
the only run allowed by Baker, it would have been all the more impressive.
·
Baker
was excellent. He had two very long at bats with AJ Pierzynski,
and I worried that he may not pitch more than six innings. But he really bore
down and in the end, go the final seven batters he faced to complete seven
innings and record his 10th win of the season.
·
In the
bottom of the second inning, Javier Vazquez started by throwing four straight
balls to Justin Morneau. He started Jason Kubel with two more. A couple of strikes later, Kubel drilled a long home run well over the baggy in right
field to help the Twins reclaim the lead over the White Sox at 2-1. It was just
the start of a huge game for the Twins DH, a game in which you had to wonder
why he was in the lineup. As Joe Christensen pointed out on his
blog before the game, Kubel came in to the
game having gone just 2-21 (.095) in his career off of Vazquez while Michael
Cuddyer had been 12-35 (.343) against the White
Sox starter. Kubel responded by hitting the two run
homer. His next at bat, he hit a triple beyond the reach of a diving Ken
Griffey. After a ground out, Kubel hit a second
home run, a solo homer that extended the Twins lead. It was his 20th
homer of the season. He also has 78 RBI. (I believe a couple of people owe me
lunches and drinks!!)
·
While
the crowd was cheering Kubel’s second home run, Delmon Young took the next pitch, a hanging
slider from lefty Clayton Richard and hit it well into the left field
bleachers for his 10th home run of the year. In the game, Young was
3-3 with an opposite field single, a bloop double to
right, an intentional walk all before the home run.
·
Morneau batted a
few times with the chants of “MVP! MVP!” in the background. He went 1-3 with
the walk and his team-record 47th double on the year. He also drove
in his 129th run.
·
The bottom
of the order came through too… Nick Punto and Carlos
Gomez each went 2-4 with an RBI and a stolen base. One of Punto’s hits was really supposed to just be a squeeze bunt
to score a run, but it obviously caught the White Sox by surprise as no one
even really played it and he easily beat the play at 1B. Punto
deserves some credit, for sure. If he’s considered the weak-link of the lineup,
and he’s hitting .285 in the 8th hole, I don’t think that the Twins
have a real problem.
·
That said,
this offense can be better, if you can believe it! Denard
Span and Alexi Casilla combined to go 0-10
from the top two positions in the lineup. That normally isn’t going to be an
equation to get many wins. Thankfully Kubel and Young
picked up the slack down in the lineup, but those two guys will have to try to
find their way on base whether with a hit, a bunt or a walk.
·
Really,
the only negative of the game came in the top of the 9th inning when
Matt Guerrier gave the White Sox a little
life. With two outs, he walked Paul Konerko
and served up a long, majestic home run to Ken Griffey. Now, Griffey
struck a pose and watched it go as if it was a Game-Winner or something, which
was ridiculous, but that little bit of life could carry into Wednesday’s game.
I’m not too big on that, but I also think that the Twins need to really be
pretty perfect down the stretch.
·
There
was one thing that absolutely stood out as a major difference between the Twins
and the White Sox… Team Speed. You can see how the White Sox have twice as many
homers as the Twins, but less runs scored. They almost never take an extra
base. You almost wonder how they score runs when they don’t hit the ball over
the fence. It is very much station to station. How about in the Top of the 5th
when Ken Griffey was on 2nd base. There were two outs and Orlando
Cabrera singled to right field. Replays showed that Denard
Span was ready to throw the ball in to second base, until he realized that
Griffey was not even going to try to score. With two outs, Baker got AJ Pierzynski to ground out to end the inning with no runs
scored. Now, that would have only made the game 5-2, but it would have been a
run.
·
Looking
at the incredibly skinny, very free-swinging Alexei Ramirez, how similar
is he to Alfonso Soriano?
·
Seeing Juan
Uribe and that weird orange-ish
goatee made me wonder one thing… I wonder what Ugueth
Urbina is doing these days to keep busy.
·
If you
happened to be at the game on Tuesday night, please comment about the
atmosphere. Just watching on TV, it had to have been loud and full of
excitement the whole night!
·
Finally,
Joe Mauer was 1-4 to drop to .329. Dustin Pedroia went 2-4 to move up to .324. Magglio Ordonez was 0-4 to fall to .319.
I will be hosting a Twins podcast Wednesday night, live at 8:00 at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/SethSpeaks. I've got a couple of guests and we'll be talking Twins, so check it out if you're able to.
With that, please feel free to e-mail me at sethspeaksnet@hotmail.com, or go
to the WordPress site and comment.