2007 Game 25: Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers
Posted by ubelmann on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Another lefty for the Twins to face today. (Yay!) For some reason, I always think of this game when I think of Mike Maroth.
2.77 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 3.42 xFIP, 40.6% GB%, 10.2 K/G, 2.0 BB/G, 1.00 HR/G -- Santana 2006
3.44 ERA, 3.27 FIP, 3.19 xFIP, 43.2% GB%, 11.3 K/G, 2.3 BB/G, 1.16 HR/G -- Santana 2007
BabySBG says sweep 'em boys!
How about a quick start, boys? I gotta go work out, then go grocery shopping.
On the Grill in the S household last night -- cheeseburgers. Mmmmmmmm.
Li'l Nicky batting leadoff? Just what we need, MORE LNP plate appearances!
Whoa! Bartlett batting second! Hot damn! Ok. I forgive the LNP leadoff thing.
C'mon, Bart!
This lineup is... different.
Gardy shuffled the dreck.
+10, E-6
I love Dazzle's comment: "It really doesn't hurt anything" to have Punto and Bartlett at 1-2. Would that have something to do with the crap production out of Castillo/Punto at 1-2.
Woo! Bart with the double. Auspicious start for him near the top of the order.
Maroth wanted no part of Cuddy with the runner at third.
And Maroth made the right choice.
Johan needs to be presidential, today.
K
top of first:
LNP: 5-3 GO.
Bart: double down LF line
Baby Jesus: 6-3 GO, Bart advances to 3b
Cuddy: unintentional intentional BB
Morneau: K
Phew. That ball hit by Shef sounded scary.
Whew.
C'mon, Johan!
Tigers broadcast just said Santana has 96 straight starts of 5 innings or longer. Wow, that's certainly impressive.
It's a MLB record.
that streak is in danger today. Pushing 30 pitches here in the first. That's positively Silva-esque.
bottom 1st:
Pudge: K
Polanco: sharp single to CF
Sheff: Warning Track Power FO-8
Ordonez: draws a 10-pitch BB
Guillen: FO-9
Johan with a 27-pitch first.
Hmmm. That was a lot of pitches.
Red Dawg!
Double!
And the baserunning brilliance continues.
Always make the third out at third.
Just a dumb idea for Redmond to try to tag up and advance to third there. After his double I was going to post about how he might be the slowest runner in the league and then that happened. Ugh.
I don't know. Monroe had a perfect throw on that play, I think a lot of the time Redmond is safe on that throw.
A cardinal rule of baserunning: don't make the 1st or last out at 3rd base. Any club that really cares about fundamentals and "doing the little things" shouldn't be laughing off a runner on 2nd trying to tag up on a flyball to LF, particularly with 2 outs, and especially when the runner is as slow as Redmond.
There isn't much advantage in advancing to 3rd on the 2nd out. There's no potential to score from 3rd on a sacrifice anymore, and any clean basehit with 2 outs would score him from 2nd anyway. Taking the base would only make a difference if the pitcher then delivers a wild pitch, or the next batter gets an infield hit. If I'm the manager, I don't want to see my players daring the LF to make a good throw in that situation; if Redmond tries for 3rd, he better be damn sure he can make it.
I was upset, too, when they said Gardy was laughing about that play. I suppose you can make an argument that it's a long season and you need a sense of humor, but the Twins have done a lot of bad baserunning lately. It may be time to stop laughing about it and start doing something about it.
Whiffers said it before, Redmond is a slow guy. Most of the time he makes it to third there. He has a much better chance to score from third on a base hit than second. If you're that upset that they were laughing about it afterward, what can you do?
Fire Ulger?
There was a game last year in which Redmond got a double, and then it took three base hits to get him home. He's that slow. And that's no joke.
He has a much better chance to score from third on a base hit than second.
How do you figure?
With 2 outs, the runner on 2nd will be moving on contact, so any ball in play that gets past the infield should easily score a run. Offhand, trying to tag and advance to 3rd on a flyout to LF, just to get in scoring position in case of a wild pitch or infield hit, seems like a poor risk-reward proposition.
First, it wasn't a super, incredible throw by Monroe. It was a good throw, but one I expect a big-league outfielder to be able to make.
Second, if this was the only time the Twins had made a baserunning mistake recently, I could see not making a big deal about it. But they've made several dumb baserunning moves lately. A team that's struggling to score runs (Saturday notwithstanding) can't afford to do that.
This used to be a team that took pride in doing all the little things right. They say they still do. It isn't showing in their play. They need to show that sloppiness isn't going to be tolerated, and that intolerance needs to apply to veterans as much as it does younger players.
It may be time to stop laughing about it and start doing something about it.
Yeah. Maybe razz him about it tomorrow or sometime later, but in the immediate moment I think the manager should let him and the team know that he expects smart, fundamentally sound play, and silly mistakes like that are not acceptable. The fact that a "respected veteran" did it is all the more reason to give him a kick in the ass as an example to the younger players; but, knowing Gardy, Redmond's seniority probably is the reason he made light of the mistake.
Bone-headed move by Redmond.
top 2:
Mr. Stitches: FO-8
Red Dawg: double to center
Kubelmann: FO-9. Redmond out 9-5 trying to advance. Who the hell does he think he is, Casilla?
Leyland trying to kill the WGOM Hacking Mass squad, benching Casey today.
Since they didn't show a replay, I didn't notice: was Ulger even on the field? He should've jumping up and down and screaming at the top of his lungs,"STAY!!!"
And Dick reports that Gardy was joking with Redmond about it in the dugout. I'll bet that Santana wasn't laughing.
By the way, what in the name of AMR are the Twins wearing the "M" hats for?
Road game = 'M' hat, no?
According to Gameday, Johan's given Inge about 5 pitches right in the middle of the zone. The power of changing speeds.
Torii must not have read that ball very well, there's no way that ball should have fallen in for a hit. Way too many pitches early on for a Twins starter again.
Annnnnnnnd the CF shows leadership.
Maybe the stitches are affecting his urgency?
I'd trade a couple of these K's for a first pitch groundout
I-Rod approaching 2500 hits and 300 HRs. As a catcher. No doubt HOFer.
bottom 2:
Monroe: singles to RF on first pitch
Thames: K
Inge: singles to left-center on a miscommunication between Hunter and his brain.
Granderson: backwards K
Pudge: 6-3 GO with double-pumping flair.
Ok, kids. I'm off to the gym. Which means the offense can show up. Make it happen.
I thought that they wore the TCs on the road.
Nope, you've got it backwards.
Fatherhood is already turning your brain to mush, SBG.
On the road, no one knows what TC means.
Duh-uh. "Twins Cap"
I'm on the cellphone, so if anyone wants to pick up thew inning recaps go ahead.
@@#%! I'd dozed off on the couch and Mags wakes me up.
Oh, phooey.
Someone needs to cut off Ordonez's mullet so he loses his mojo.
Polanco: 6-3
Sheffield: single to right
Oscar Gamble: 2-run HR to right
Guillen: walk
5th President: 6-4-3 DP
Very impressive turn by Rodriguez there, I didn't expect him to get enough on the ball to turn two. Johan needed that one to keep the pitch count down.
Johan needed that one to keep the pitch count down.
relatively speaking...
Big DP.
Maroth is making me sleepy.
Dude Here!
Too bad Kubel can't hit lefties
The Kube is trying to keep you awake. He crushed that one to tie it up.
Redmond has to lead the league in OFPBH (opponent frustration per base hit). Almost every hit something that seems like it should be caught.
Kubes!
Kubelmann.
The Twins refuse to be good baserunners.
WTF?! If a little league team ran the bases like this, there would be no root beer after the games.
A little tardy, but I had to log on to say, "The Dude abides!"
Then he goes and gets picked off....
Ullger: "I was yelling at you to get back"
Dude: "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening"
Thames just about hit that one into the river.
the Allegheny
The lost art of geography humor. Nicely done.
Uhoh, a bunt. Big inning coming.
There's some strange, annoying background noise on MLB.TV audio - an electronic-mosquitoes-buzzing feedback sound.
I tried the Detroilet broadcast and it has the same feedback. Anyone else hear it?
I think it's Mel Kiper.
+1 each future 4th, 5th and 6th round draft picks.
I also hear it during the commercials so it's not from the booth - might be a clogged up socket in some router on the MLB-raised floor.
Dick moaning about the fence to centerfield being deeper than right field. Good grief.
Dick just like the sound of his own voice. That makes one, I guess.
That's three hard-hit balls by JB today.
Anyone else think Maroth looks a bit like Will Arnett. (or see Will Young's avatar.)
He did a nice Gob today.
Bartlett with another double. Can he stay at the top of the order?
Ordonez must be cheating. Somehow.
Oscar Freakin' Gamble. (delayed +10 to Will Young for that one.)
Santana with a foul popup catch. Very rare.
Houston Jimenez vs Dave Stieb in his career: 214/294/357 - two doubles in 14 at bats. Nice try, Dick.
Steve Brye vs Nolan Ryan in his career: 217/333/217 - 5 singles and 6 strikeouts in 23 at bats. Nice try, Bert.
Although to be fair to Bert...
Steve Braun vs Nolan Ryan: 296/474/394 (24 walks! in 95 plate appearances with 17 strikeouts)
Gotta love watching those scrappy guys battling their tails off.
The five inning streak is intact. Not pretty, but he got there.
Thanks, Will. If I was at home, I would have looked that up.
Just doing my best to point out some half-baked crap.
BOOM!
That ball went a loooooooong way.
FOTF!!
Hoo boy. Hunter with a shot! Wow. I guess no ill effects from that beaning.
Today is a sad day for baseball: Cards' reliever killed in a car crash last night. Condolences to the Cardinals.