Nightly Notes: Game #64
Unbelievable! After eight innings of doing absolutely nothing offensively against Tim Hudson, the Twins pulled off their 20th comeback victory of the season to earn a sweep against the Braves. Too bad that it was too late for Johan Santana, who gets a no decision despite pitching great tonight. Here are tonight's notes:
1.) As I already mentioned, Johan Santana pitched really, really well tonight, going 7 innings and giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 9. That drops his ERA to 3.19 on the season, and it looks like he's starting to find that Cy Santana form again. Now, if the Twins could just figure out how to score some runs for him, maybe he could pick up some wins to go along with the solid ERA and strikeout numbers.
2.) Dennys Reyes returned to the team tonight, and the Twins handed him a welcome-back win. I'm a little disappointed that Carmen Cali was sent down to make room for Reyes, because he hadn't done anything to deserve the demotion -- but them's the breaks, as they say. If there's a need again this season for a lefty replacement out of the 'pen, Cali's going to be the guy.
3.) We saw tonight why Ron Gardenhire wants to have a third catcher around. Joe Mauer didn't need to come out of the game after getting hit (for the second straight day!) by Andruw Jones' big, looping backswing -- but if he did need to come out, Mike Redmond would have had to move into the Catcher's spot, and a pitcher would have hit in Mauer's place for the rest of the night. Interestingly, it wouldn't have made much of a difference tonight -- Mauer went 0-for-4 anyway.
4.) The Twins are now just 3.5 games out of the Wild Card lead -- not bad for a team that seemed lost just a few days ago. Timely, clutch hitting and strong pitching will pretty much do it every time.
5.) There are some Mike Lowell rumors bouncing around right now, and all I have to say is "Yes, Please!". I highly, highly doubt that this would happen in reality -- I just don't understand why the Red Sox would feel compelled to mess with what has been a solid core of players. That, and the cost would probably be very high. But, hey, if it's possible -- then I say go for it. He'd add a significant threat to the team and make the lineup look a whole lot better top to bottom.
1.) As I already mentioned, Johan Santana pitched really, really well tonight, going 7 innings and giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 9. That drops his ERA to 3.19 on the season, and it looks like he's starting to find that Cy Santana form again. Now, if the Twins could just figure out how to score some runs for him, maybe he could pick up some wins to go along with the solid ERA and strikeout numbers.
2.) Dennys Reyes returned to the team tonight, and the Twins handed him a welcome-back win. I'm a little disappointed that Carmen Cali was sent down to make room for Reyes, because he hadn't done anything to deserve the demotion -- but them's the breaks, as they say. If there's a need again this season for a lefty replacement out of the 'pen, Cali's going to be the guy.
3.) We saw tonight why Ron Gardenhire wants to have a third catcher around. Joe Mauer didn't need to come out of the game after getting hit (for the second straight day!) by Andruw Jones' big, looping backswing -- but if he did need to come out, Mike Redmond would have had to move into the Catcher's spot, and a pitcher would have hit in Mauer's place for the rest of the night. Interestingly, it wouldn't have made much of a difference tonight -- Mauer went 0-for-4 anyway.
4.) The Twins are now just 3.5 games out of the Wild Card lead -- not bad for a team that seemed lost just a few days ago. Timely, clutch hitting and strong pitching will pretty much do it every time.
5.) There are some Mike Lowell rumors bouncing around right now, and all I have to say is "Yes, Please!". I highly, highly doubt that this would happen in reality -- I just don't understand why the Red Sox would feel compelled to mess with what has been a solid core of players. That, and the cost would probably be very high. But, hey, if it's possible -- then I say go for it. He'd add a significant threat to the team and make the lineup look a whole lot better top to bottom.
Labels: Nightly Notes
posted by JST @ Thursday, June 14, 2007
2 Comments:
At Thu Jun 14, 11:50:00 PM ,
Marty said...
I wonder if a AAA rehab assignment would have been the better move for Mauer considering he's batting .182 (4-22) since he got back in the line up.
Hindsight
At Fri Jun 15, 08:11:00 AM ,
JST said...
It's hard to disagree with that position. He hasn't looked particularly comfortable at the plate, and he had missed a significant amount of time, so I was a little surprised that a couple of days in Florida was the closest he came to a rehab stint. I think the Twins were so intent on getting him back into the games that they brought him back as soon as he was physically healthy, without troubling themselves with how he would perform. Hopefully he finds his stroke during the Brewers series.
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