It's one thing to get clobbered by Detroit. They have a flat out good team. But, tonight, the Twins took it on the chin at home. The blow was delivered by the Seattle Mariners, who improved to 12-15 on the season. The Twins hit the ball a lot harder tonight, but nevertheless, Joel Pineiro gets a complete game 9-hitter. I mean Pineiro was far from impressive and the Twins should have chased him early.
No matter, though, Seattle pounded 20 hits tonight, including two home runs and five doubles.
No Cuddyer again tonight. Lew Ford had two hits, so we probably won't see Cuddy for a while. Hunter had two hits, but he made a boneheaded play and tried to take second on a deep single that Ichiro cut off. Ichiro threw him out by plenty. Of course, it wasn't a "bad play," because he was being aggressive. Why can't Dick and Bert say, hey he shouldn't have done that?Â
ScruFi get tossed in the eighth arguing whether a ball was fair or foul. Castillo was called out, but the ball looked foul. I doubt that he was looking to argue that call for it's sake. I think he wanted to get tossed to fire the team up.Â
Rondell White hit a few balls hard, but no hits and no walks. That makes 94 plate appearances without a walk. In fact, no Twins had a walk. And I kept thinking Pineiro doesn't have good control tonight. But, in the end, no walks and 107 pitches, 77 of them strikes. So, I guess his control was pretty good.
I think he wanted to get tossed to fire the team up.
That would be the smartest idea he's had in, oh, about 6 months.
Too bad it's the only same bright idea he tried just two weeks ago (4/18 to be exact), and we've seen how effective that's been. The team is 3-9 since that outburst near the end of an 8-2 loss to the Angels, a game in which Gardy sat on his ass and watched Silva ride his luck all evening, until the score finally got way out of hand in the 9th, because Silva had a low pitch count going and a chance to pitch a complete game.
Doncha know that back in Gardy's day, they liked to finish what they started?
I actually didn't mind Hunter trying to stretch that single to a double. There were two outs and, come on, did you really think the Twins' hitters were going to be able to bring him around from first? Granted there was very little chance he'd reach second against Ichiro's arm, but I can't blame him for trying to move into scoring position because having him on first with two outs doesn't do us a whole lot of good.
Did you see how far he was out by? There's a fine line between clever and stupid.
I read in the Strib Punto is just about healed up, "oh great that will help a bunch having him on the field". Looks like we might be in the fight of our lives with Kansas City at the bottom.
Castro got a triple last night, but he had two balls go off his glove for hits. I'm liking Punto over Castro in that Sophie's choice.
.674 against SEA
Rondell must pounce
We wait.
I only saw one of those grounders. Castro didn't have any errors? That's ridiculous based on the play I saw.
Nope, no errors for Castro last night. He should have been charged with two in my opinion. He was there on both balls.
Those two balls that skipped off Castro's glove should have both been errors. The spinning liner up the middle just bounced off the top of his glove - he took like one step to his left and just missed it. Of course, one step to his left is just about the extent of his range.
The ball in the hole that scored two was scored a double, and it was a joke. Castro should have at least knocked the ball down, to prevent that second run from scoring. Of course, you heard none of this from the talking heads Bremer and Blyleven. I find myself cheering against the Twins sometimes, just because I CANNOT STAND that blatant homerism.
If Cuddyer had made that baserunning mistake instead of Hunter, he'd have been savaged by Ron Coomer in the postgame. If Morneau had booted those two balls instead of Castro, that's all we'd have heard about. The Fox announcers are nothing more than mouthpieces for the gardenweasel. Spewing the company line. I get more objectivity from Hawk Harrelson.
Should we all start chanting "SIEVE, SIEVE, SIEVE" any time a ball gets through the left side of the infield or when Stewart turns an out into a double?
That side of the field is laughably bad at times. Even with Castro's magic glove.
Castro should be taking that "magic glove" with him when he rides the "magic bus" in the minors.
I'll still take Magic Glove over Scrappy Punto. That's who I think should be sliding head-first into a AAA first base bag.
That’s who I think should be sliding head-first into a AAA first base bag.
If you need someone to slide into first, Punto's your man, that is for sure.
Instead he's sliding right into the lineup, baby!
Gotta get guys like Punto and Sierra at-bats ASAP. Screw Cuddyer, he's had his shot, time for fresh meat.
I wonder if ScruFi actually uses a whip on Cuddy's back.
Does Gardy have a daughter? Maybe Cuddy hooked up with her before he got married/engaged or whatever he is. Or maybe Gardy's wife.
I just don't get it.
On the bright side, Santana leads us to a much-needed win tonight.
You add Punto and get this:
Minnesota Twins - now with 100% more scrappiness & grit