Off to Cleveland for 3

[catman]

Tuesday, Baker v. Huff.
Wednesday, Liriano v. ???
Thursday, Blackburn v. Laffey
This series could be very telling. If the Twins come out and play well, they are still in the race. If not.......

[henks]

Hopefully the pitching staff comes back from their vacation...that last series was embarrassing. The offense was there, which is a good sign.

[catman]

The Indians have absolutely nothing to lose in this series. Their management knows they will not contend with this team and they play without pressure. They are sort of like the '82-83 Twins. Go out, learn what it takes to win and do it in a few years. Just enough excitement to keep fans coming out to the ballpark to pay the bills. They still have Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera to provide offense.

[catman]

If tonight's game is any indication of the way the team will play the rest of the season, things will be fine. Baker had things under control. Crain pitched a very good inning and Keppel came in with no pressure and gave up a run to a pretty good few hitters.
Offensively, the team did very nicely. Mauer was 3/5 with 3 doubles and 3 runs scored. Morneau drove in a couple of runs, giving him 88 for the season.
The Twins raise their record against the AL Central to 21-12.

[mntwinsfan]

Baker pitched one of his better games of the entire year. Maybe this will get the rest of the staff going in the right direction!

[catman]

I got a chance to watch most of the replay last night. It looked like Baker was right on. He didn't miss many spots. Mauer's doubles were typical of his hits. 2 down the left field line and 1 to right. Gomez' homer was a "wall-scraper" but it still counts. The Indians really didn't have a lot of well-hit balls off Baker.

[catman]

Liriano did not have good command of his stuff tonight, allowing 4 runs on 8 hits and 4 walks in 5 innings. Dickey did not retire a batter and allowed 3 runs, Keppel finished the 6th inning, allowing a run. Mijares and Guerrier each struck out the side in their respective innings. Mauer was 1/3 (with a very questionable error charged to the 1B), Morneau drove in his league-leading 89th run, and Cabrera got a hit in his 15th consecutive game.
Aaron Laffey pitched a very good game for the Indians. Much credit for the poor showing by the Twins should go to him. He was in control of the game.