I’m pleased to report that my prediction of a post-rout hangover was not the case on Friday night against the red-hot Brew Crew. I’m always glad to be wrong here at the MTRC, but it should also be said that my view of the Twins will not change because of back-to-back blowout victories. It would be easy to speak highly of the Twins today, but considering that you can read the daisies-and-unicorns spin on the team a lot of other places, I feel that it’s necessary for someone to look at the team with a critical eye. I can say this about the team: it’s very nice to win like this, because it takes the manager out of the game. Ron Gardenhire really can’t mismanage games that his team wins 20-1 and 11-3 – wait, I should rephrase that: Ron Gardenhire always mismanages games, whether they’re 2-1 or 200-1, but at least in these games his managing cannot lose the game for the team.Michael Cuddyer produced the second cycle of the season for the Twins, following Jason Kubel’s Herculean effort in mid-April against the Angels, when the Twins actually needed that cycle. Here it’s a classic Cuddyer game, a la Torii Hunter – padding the stats in meaningless ballgames. I’ll guarantee this much – the next time Michael Cuddyer comes to the plate in an at-bat of actual meaning, he’ll fail, and it will likely be with one of those strikeouts where he waves at an outside slider half-way into the other batter’s box. The Twins also got good production at the plate from Justin Morneau and Denard Span, who homered in the sixth for unneeded insurance runs. In a rare instance, the Twins controlled the game from the start, scoring in each of the first four innings to knock out Brewers starter Manny Parra.
Kevin Slowey was again the beneficiary of a lot of run support, as he cruised to 6-1. Of course, Ron Gardenhire refused to save the bullpen, and took Slowey out after 91 pitches in the eighth inning. What are you worried about, Gardenhire? Why take these pitchers out once they get into trouble? It’s as if Gardenhire is that unused to being up by eight or nineteen runs – he just doesn’t know what to do with big leads. It appears that Gardenhire is determined to go yet another season without a nine-inning complete game, as was the case in 2006. Just another sign of the apocalypse.
Gardenhire’s shakeup of the batting order continues to pay quick dividends, as the team has scored 31 runs since Joe Mauer was moved into the two hole. My question is, why did it take so long? One of the major reasons the team got swept in New York was the prolonged suckiness of Matt Tolbert, who seemed to get up to the plate with runners on the entire weekend. Gardenhire’s commitment to untalented slap hitters is bad enough, but what the hell is the philosophy behind hitting one of these guys in the two hole? Hitting Mauer there is the obvious choice and it became apparent once Casilla and Tolbert solidified their status as brutal hitters. Classic Gardenhire – waiting much too long to adapt, and receiving the benefits of that change pathetically too late.
Here’s good luck to Anthony Swarzak tonight as he toes the rubber for his major-league debut. This guy’s certainly been hyped, but considering that the Twins’ starting staff really has no one pitcher who strikes fear in any lineup, we could use a rookie jolt a la Liriano 2006. He faces veteran hurler Braden Looper for the Brewers.
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