Twins at Royals (8/3 - 8/6)

[Lynch]

Last night, the Twins opened up a can in the first of 4 games in KC. Radke, who sucked the big fat boobie in his last game, threw 8 strong innings giving up only a couple of hits (and no home runs) while fanning 6.

Rabe had a good game at the plate and picked up his 3rd HR of the season. Morneau went 2-5 at the plate and knocked in 3 guys. Mauer also had a good day at the plate only picking up one hit (in 2 recorded at bats) but picked up 3 walks. The guy has a pretty damn good eye and a game like this shows it.

Radke picks up win #10 on the season in a good Twins win.... 8-2.


Next up: Santana (12-5) vs former Twins and league journeyman Mark Redman (7-6).

[mntwinsfan]

Not a bad game overall. Mauer is in a slump. average has dropped almost 30 points. I would like to see him get hot again! Morneau has FINALLY developed into the player I expected him to become. I see 36 homers and 110 rbi's. We finally have a power hitter this team needs.

To damn bad we never made the PUSH for Soriano like we needed to do.

[Lynch]

Game 2 summary and highlights:

What a fun game tonight. Started out nice with the Twins taking a 3-0 lead in the 3rd and Santana was pitching well up until the 4th inning where he gave up a couple of walks and a handful of hits, losing the lead giving up 4 runs. Other than that one inning, Santana went 1-2-3 in the other 5 innings he pitched, other than the 2nd were he gave up one walk but fanned the other three batters. Johan fanned 8 batters in all and really had a good game, other than that one inning. Santana gets no decision.

Crain gave up a run in the 8th and it wasn't looking got for the Twins, being down 3-5, but in the top of the 9th, with the meat of the order up, Mauer and Cuddy both hit solo shots tying the game. Mauer had a nice homerun and Cuddy's was a frozen rope over the outfield fence, just a straight shot.

The twins held off the Royals in the bottom of the 9th and then had a great top of the 10th again, getting all the way back through the order to our meat-and-potatoes guys. I can't even remember how the 10th inning went down because it was really kind of crazy. Bartlett singled, Castillo sac flied and Barlett got to 2nd. Punto went down swinging and they walked Mauer intentionally. Then Cuddy walked..... bases loaded.. Morneau at the plate. Me and my buddy were both sitting on the edge of our seats talkng about the possibilities and how well Morneau has been swinging lately. Next pitch went wild, fast and furious in the dirt, and Bartlett easily scored. Mauer at third and Cuddy at second. Then they intentially walked Justin hoping to take advantage of Hunter's wild swinging and not very accurate bat.

It blew up in their face. Hunter singled to left scoring both Mauer and Cuddy. The inning would have continued but Morneau tried to head to third, realizing halfway he was doomed, he turned and pretty much gave up, ending the inning. Nathan then cleared the side 1-2-3 and the game was over.

Hot bats? Just like the players of the game, the 3-4-5 in the Twins order were all hot as a unit together. The combined stats for Mauer, Morneau and Cuddy were 4-10 with 8 walks (yes, I said EIGHT walks!), 5 RBIs and 5 Runs scored.



Fun game to watch tonight. As I said, it's too bad for Santana who really had a great game other than that bad 4th inning.

Twins win 8-5 in 10 innings.

[Lynch]

Twins had another fanatatic offensive performance tonight, destroying the Royals 14-3!

Castillo had one of his best games of the year (if not THE best), going 4-6 at the plate, picking up 3 RBIs and 2 runs.

Punto had 2 sac flies and picked up 3 walks and 3 RBIs.

Mauer picks up 3 walks and went 1-3 at the plate and picks up 2 RBIs

Morneau gets 1 hit, but it was a 3-run shot in the third inning that gave the Twins a 3-0 lead and the squad never looked back. Morneau also picks up 2 walks

Bartlett goes 3-5 at the plate and 2 RBIs


Overall, the Twins picked up more walks than hits tonight (14 walks and 12 hits). KC was in trouble pretty much from the 3rd inning all the way through the 8th. They couldn't figure out what to throw the twins and that dipstick manager of theirs somehow continues to be employed in the majors. In 8 years, he's had one season over .500, most being in the .300's. Thankfully he's in our division (for now).

Silva also pitched a decent game with one rough inning.




Twins win 14-3. Tomorrow the Twins put Mike Smith on the mound for his first big league start since 2002 and he'll be facing off against Odalis Pérez (4-4) who hasn't pitched in a Royals win since May 14th (in summary, he's started or been in 14 games of which he picked up 3 losses and was involved in 11 other losses).

[Molina00]

The Twins have definately gotten back on track after getting beat by the Rangers. Again, I thank you for not getting hot until after Texas leaves.

Even though it is the Royals they have had a pretty good series. Only a game and a half out of the wild card now.

As for Mauer being in a slump, you can't expect a guy to hit .450 every month like he did in June. His .293 in July and .294 so far this month isn't too shabby. He's just coming back down to earth.

[Lynch]

Twins beat the crap out of the Royals again today, in a come from behind win, sweeping the series with a final score of 11-5. Smith, making his first pitching appearance since 2002 didn't look too good, giving up 4 runs in the first 3 innings and that's as far as he got.

The Twins bats started out slow but picked up pace throughout the game and the team ended up picking up 22 hits. The big bats today were Cuddy, Bartlett, Hunter, Tyner, Redmond and Castillo, each of which had 3 or more hits. The biggest, to me was Cuddy who hit a HR and picked up 2 doubles and also Bartlett who went 5-5 picking up 2 doubles himself.

Good win for the Twins. They sweep the series outscoring the Royals 41-15.