Another easy win for the Twins against the struggling Royals, who did not look like the team that the Twins faced earlier in the season. Surprisingly, the Twins pulled off a very successful road trip -- one that included stops in three cities, and the Twins won two out of three in every city. Of course, the Twins could have very easily won every single game on the road trip, but considering the Twins early-season patheticness on the road, a 6-3 road trip is something to praise the heavens for. And perhaps the best thing about the trip is that the Twins did it mainly with pitching. Glen Perkins put in a second stellar start in a row on the road, this time buckling down against the Royals and pitching seven solid innings, allowing ten hits but only one run. The offense again did just enough to get a victory, and again the Royal defense helped them out. Alberto Callaspo botched a routine grounder off the bat of Joe Crede to score the second and eventual winning run in the third inning. Michael Cuddyer hit a home run -- not surprisingly a solo home run early in the game. Cuddyer's stats are padded with such production, either amassed early in games when the hits don't mean a whole lot, or late in routs that do not effect the outcome of the game. Cuddyer's parlayed that hitting strategy into a lot of money, a la Torii Hunter, and he was at it again on Wednesday afternoon.
Three Twins had to leave the game due to injury on Wednesday, but really only one of them might be worrisome for the Twins. Mike Redmond had to leave the game in the fifth inning due to getting a foul ball off his hand. No worries there; Redmond's got no gas left in the tank anyway, and Jose Morales is only hitting .360, and you're not losing anything defensively with the youngster in there anyway. Nick Punto had to leave the game (!!!) in the seventh due to a sore back. I just can't contain my glee -- I'm like a schoolgirl flush with emotion whenever I hear that Nick Punto has to leave a game because of an injury. Now I would have preferred to hear that the ribs were sore again, which probably would have led to another disabled-list stay for Superman, but I'm crossing my fingers that the back and the ribs made Punto a no-go at least for a few days. I've said it before and I'll say it again: any day that I can live without seeing, hearing, or hearing about Nick Punto is a good day. It's a damn good day. Now the one casualty of the Wednesday afternoon victory t
hat might trouble Twins fans was Justin Morneau, who left the game with an injured groin on Wednesday. Not only does Morneau's absence hurt the Twins, but that specific injury does not look promising. Groin injuries aren't the sort of ailments that one day's rest can adequately heal. I've said on this site that both Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel are arguably more valuable to the Twins than Justin Morneau, but the fact is is that you can't go an extended period of time without Morneau and have a legitimate chance of competing. Without Morneau, both Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel are affected because they won't get quite as many fastballs without Morneau sandwiched in between the two. Hopefully Morneau won't be able to go on the disabled list with this injury, but perhaps that's what can explain Morneau's slow month of June. Before hitting home runs in the last three games of the month, he had been struggling for a little bit. Let's hope that Ron Gardenhire was simply taking a precaution by resting Morneau for the last few innings on Thursday and that he'll be ready to go on Friday.
hat might trouble Twins fans was Justin Morneau, who left the game with an injured groin on Wednesday. Not only does Morneau's absence hurt the Twins, but that specific injury does not look promising. Groin injuries aren't the sort of ailments that one day's rest can adequately heal. I've said on this site that both Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel are arguably more valuable to the Twins than Justin Morneau, but the fact is is that you can't go an extended period of time without Morneau and have a legitimate chance of competing. Without Morneau, both Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel are affected because they won't get quite as many fastballs without Morneau sandwiched in between the two. Hopefully Morneau won't be able to go on the disabled list with this injury, but perhaps that's what can explain Morneau's slow month of June. Before hitting home runs in the last three games of the month, he had been struggling for a little bit. Let's hope that Ron Gardenhire was simply taking a precaution by resting Morneau for the last few innings on Thursday and that he'll be ready to go on Friday.The Nick Punto thing brings up another point: Punto started at shortstop and Matt Tolbert p
layed second base and hit second for the Twins. It's the four-billionth time that Ron Gardenhire has put the .170-hitting Tolbert in the second hole, meaning that a guy hitting .170 was protecting Joe Mauer. Talk about an insane move. And why is Brendan Harris getting a day off? Yes, he's been the regular shortstop for about a month now, but this is the second time in a week and a half that Ron Gardenhire has sat a regular player one day before a scheduled off day. He did it inexplicably with Justin Morneau a few Sundays ago. Especially with the Twins playing a day game on Wednesday, why are we sitting a regular player and substituting a terrible player when there's an off-day the very next day? The game got over around 4:30 Wednesday, and the Twins don't play until 7:00 on Friday; that's essentially two days off. But in his demented head, Ron Gardenhire has to get his regular players an adequate time on the bench during games apparently. It's really not surprising, though; we're talking about a guy who loves to sit the best hitter on the planet on a regular basis.
layed second base and hit second for the Twins. It's the four-billionth time that Ron Gardenhire has put the .170-hitting Tolbert in the second hole, meaning that a guy hitting .170 was protecting Joe Mauer. Talk about an insane move. And why is Brendan Harris getting a day off? Yes, he's been the regular shortstop for about a month now, but this is the second time in a week and a half that Ron Gardenhire has sat a regular player one day before a scheduled off day. He did it inexplicably with Justin Morneau a few Sundays ago. Especially with the Twins playing a day game on Wednesday, why are we sitting a regular player and substituting a terrible player when there's an off-day the very next day? The game got over around 4:30 Wednesday, and the Twins don't play until 7:00 on Friday; that's essentially two days off. But in his demented head, Ron Gardenhire has to get his regular players an adequate time on the bench during games apparently. It's really not surprising, though; we're talking about a guy who loves to sit the best hitter on the planet on a regular basis.The Twins now come home for a long home stand starting Friday against the Tigers. Dick Bremer has been overhyping the series as a "mid-season battle for first place," when in reality the only thing that likely will happen is that the Tigers will prove to the Twins that they are starting to put first-place on lockdown. Detroit will end up winning the Central by ten games, mainly because their pitching is far superior to the Twins. The Tigers will send up a rookie, Luke French, in the series opener, but then will counter with Edwin Jackson and Rick Porcello, who have both been outstanding this season. Kevin Slowey will oppose French on Friday night, looking for his eleventh win on the season.
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