4/22/05: Twins/Tigers

[Steak]

Twins are coming off a sweep against the lousy Royals. Now they build on that two-game winning streak by going to the Motor City to play the Tigers. Twins had to struggle to get those two wins against the Royals so I hope it won't be that difficult beating the Tigers.

The Tigers haven't been the same since Dimitri Young opened his mouth about how it's going to be between his team and the Indians for the AL Central. That statement proved to backfired as the Twins swept the Tigers at the Dome last week. Still, I expect Detroit to play the Twins tough as they did last year.

The theme of this week has been the bases loaded. Twins have struggled with the bases loaded this week. Let's hope they can come through like they did yesterday. With Justin Morneau coming back and playing tonight, I hope he can remedy the Twins lack of situational hitting.

Carlos Silva will be on the mound tonight. It's great to see him back. I am glad he recovered from his injury real quickly. It could have been really worse. For him to come back quickly as he has done, that's darn good. I hope he can continue to be effective. Twins are going to have to need him this year.

It's so good to see Justin and Carlos back.

Maroth vs Silva

[Steak]

Great game, but the wrong team won. TM gave up a pitch for Pudge to hit and he hit out of the park with the walkoff HR in the tenth inning. I gotta question Gardenhire's judgement for letting TM pitch in the tenth inning. TM was shaky in the eighth and ninth so why in the world he got to pitch the tenth. This is as stupid as having Joe Nathan pitch the 14th inning in Game 2 of the ALDS after laboring in the previous inning of that game. What in the world did Gardy think Terry would did deep and get it done in the tenth? Terry is not a young man anymore and he does not have the arm strength. He should have used Matt Guerrier or even Jesse Crain. I am really amazed Jesse was not used in that spot. This shows me that Gardy has zero confidence in Jesse. How the hell Jesse will learn if he is not being used in that spot? If Jesse stunk it up in that inning, so what. I rather go with him. He needs to learn especially when he has to pitch in big games later in the year. This decision to use TM in that inning and not go with Jesse in that inning was really stupid.

Twins scored some runs, but again they still have problems with runners in scoring position. They stranded another one last night and grounded into a Double Play. They blew it in the seventh. When the Teamster was at-bat, I knew he would stink it up in the seventh and that's what he did. He grounded into a DP. That was disgusting. There was a stat that FSN North showed in which the Twins lead the majors in grounding into a DP 14 times. That's not very good. I have saw that way too often this week. That has to change.

It was so nice to see Justin and Carlos back as I said in this game thread. Justin had a great game as he got a big base hit and then he tied the game in the ninth with a HR off Troy Percival. Just seeing Justin is great. I gurantee you that if Justin was here, Twins would be 4-1 against She-ca-go. That's how good he is. As for Carlos, he was fantastic. He had a rough inning in the third, but overall he was great especially as the inning went along.

Lew had a great game. He has been great so far.

Jacques was fantastic too.

Michael Cuddyer is scuffling right now, but he has to work his way out of it. That's the only way he will get better.

As far as I am concerned, Gardenhire lost this game last night not Terry Mullholland. Gardy should have picked Guerrier or Crain in that spot.