The A's come in for 3

[catman]

The Oakland A's come for their last visit to the Dome starting Friday. The last time these teams met, the Twins had just won 2/3 from Texas in Arlington and looked like they were ready to make a run at the top of the division. Some sloppy play and questionable calls by umpires cost the team at least one win and more likely 2. That series seems to have started the team on its march toward a .500 season.
Friday, Clayton Mortenson starts for the A's against Nick Blackburn.
Saturday, Brett Anderson goes against Jeff Manship.
Sunday, Gio Gonzalez faces Brian Duensing.
Again I have to say it. I hope the pitching continues to be decent and the bats wake up.

[Providence A's]

chalk up a win on Friday for the Twinkies.

[Providence A's]

let's hear it for reverse jinxes...A's 12, Twins 5. A's hit 5 homers that resulted in 10 of the 12 runs. Mortensen got his 1st MLB win.

[catman]

Congrats to the rookie on that. Hope he gets lots more.
My question is this: Does anyone want to win the AL Central? So far, none of the "contending" teams looks very impressive.

[Providence A's]

who the hell is the guy that started for you guys last night? Manship? Is he a meaningful prospect or something lesser? Either way, he took the loss last night giving up 3 hits, 3 walks, and 4 earned runs in 4 innings with 4 k's as the A's won 4 - 2 behind another solid effort from Brett Anderson.

Twins are going the wrong way with 3 losses in a row (5.5 games back now).

[catman]

Jeff Manship is a kid that should be pitching in AAA, not the bigs. He's at least a year away from being ready to contribute at the major league level.
He has a 4-seam fastball that runs in on the hands of righties and can throw a cutter to lefties that does the same thing. If he keeps the ball up and on the inside of the plate, he is tough to hit. He also throws a 2-seamer that sinks and had a decent slider. I'd like to see him work on his change-up though.
Today, another young guy, Brian Duensing, took the mound for the Twins and came away with his 3rd win against 1 loss. Gio Gonzalez doesn't seem to be able to get the Twins out. He allowed 7 more runs today. How can he pitch so well against other teams and look like he's throwing batting practice to the Twins?
Twins win the finale 8-0 with Mauer going 3/4 to raise his average to .366. He hit his 27th homer of the season and drove in a couple of runs. Michael Cuddyer was also 3/4 with 2 RBI. Denard Span was 2/3 with a walk and a couple of runs scored.
The Twins scored all 8 of their runs in the first 4 innings and coasted to the win.

[Providence A's]

I'll take 2 out of 3. And yeah, that's Gio main problem...too inconsistent. He has nothing left to prove at AAA so they're just going to have let him take his lumps. The encouraging thing is that he is striking out batters (89 in 82.2 innings this year and 123 in 116.2 career innings). That's a good sign. It be one thing if he was just getting pounded and not striking guys out.