The losing streak has hit six, and there's no end in sight for Ron Gardenhire's bunch right now. Even a post-game meeting after Tuesday's loss was not enough to shake up the troops, as Wednesday's defeat was pretty much the same as the previous five losses -- get a lead, blow it, try meekly to come back and end up on the short end of the score. Francisco Liriano pitched another poor game -- he's really had only one or two quality starts this whole season -- and a seven-run fifth inning, capped by a Jermaine Dye grand slam, was the difference in the ballgame.Liriano followed what has appeared to become Twins-on-the-road protocol this season, which is to take a Twins lead and immediately give up that lead and put your team completely behind the eight-ball. Glen Perkins did that in spades on Monday, and was put on the disabled list afterwards as an excuse for his lame effort. Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn did that very well in the two matinees in the Yankee series, and Liriano outdid the rest of the staff on Wednesday. The 2-0 lead that the Twins built (compliments of an Alexei Ramirez error) lasted a whole two batters, when Paul Konerko tied the game with a home run in the bottom half of the fifth. Liriano could have bore down and gotten out of the inning with his team still in the game, but these are the Minnesota Twins we're talking about -- competing in games is gravy to these guys. Winning games is a whole different ballgame. Doesn't it seem like it was a month ago that the Twins swept the Tigers at home?
The inning opened up with two key at-bats by sore thumbs in the White Sox order. Sore thumbs, you'll remember, refers to the weakest spots in an opponent's batting order. For the Yankees, it was Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervilli, whose hits on Friday and Monday were crucial to New York victories. For the Chisox, ex-Twins great catcher Corky Miller doubled and Jayson Nix walked in front of the Dye grand slam. If you expect to beat anybody, you need to get the sore thumbs of the batting order out. Look at it from the other angle -- opponents who play the Twins know that in order to beat them, they've got to get their sore thumbs out (Nick Punto, Carlos Gomez, Matt Tolbert), and it's no surprise that during this six-game slide, those hitters (like any other time of the year) aren't hitting.
We need to revisit the case of Corky Miller to see actually how bad this guy really is. As I mentioned, he was a Twin for a brief time, breaking camp with the team in 2005. He was hitless in twelve at-bats before the Twins jettisoned him, but that cup of coffee was just part of a major-league slump that Miller experienced. Get this: from September 2003 to the end of 2006, Miller had a string where he went 1 for 59 at the plate. Let me repeat that: Miller had one hit in fifty-nine at-bats! That's a .017 batting average! This was with three teams (the Reds, Twins, and Red Sox) and most notably included his 2004 campaign with Cincinnati, when Miller went an astounding 1 for 39. Those are Nick Punto-type numbers right there. Wait a minute -- the Twins signed this guy after he went 1 for 39?!! Amazing how much credit this team gets.On an "elated" note, the Twins lost left-handed reliever Craig Breslow on
waivers to the Oakland A's! Breslow was an absolute train-wreck for the Twins this season, proving to everyone that his stellar 2008 campaign was a fluke. Most of the time Breslow's demeanor on the mound was such that it appeared that Breslow wanted no part of pitching in ballgames, and that was reflected in his 6.28 ERA and 11 walks in 14 innings. To replace Breslow, the Twins called up super-prospect Anthony Swarzak, who'll fill Glen Perkins' spot in the rotation Saturday night against the Brewers. Kudos to the Twins finally calling this guy up, but with Breslow gone from the bullpen, it may mean more innings for slugs like Luis Ayala and Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain. The guy it affects the most is Jose Mijares, now the lone lefty in the 'pen, who has been erratically inconsistent this season. Losing Breslow was no big blow, but the fact remains that the Twins should be desparate for bullpen help and will likely grin and bear it for the remainder of the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment