Nightly Notes: Game #81

Halfway home. The Twins are still alive -- both in the Wild Card and in the Central Division race -- but, at 42-39, they aren't in a great position either. Here are tonight's notes:

1.) Boof Bonser had some really, really good moments tonight. He threw a few absolutely sick curveballs to strike out Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, and demonstrated that he could hang with Roger Clemens for 5+ innings. There are two significant problems, however: first, he fell apart in the 6th inning; second, he once again was not particularly efficient. Bonser had 90 pitches going into the 6th, so that was going to be his last inning no matter what happened. His ERA is now up to 4.76, and with Matt Garza on the team, you have to wonder if the pressure to perform is going to get to him (for the record, I don't think it will -- I would be stunned if Bonser lost his spot in the rotation). It's frustrating to watch a pitcher who's so obviously talented struggle to put it together.

2.) Speaking of pitchers who have struggled to put it together, how about Matt Garza? He made his 2007 debut tonight, going 2 innings and pitching pretty effectively. I was a little worried, however, by the fact that he still seemed to be picking at the corners a little bit -- although as expected he did just rear back and fire for the most part tonight, which meant we were spared the site of him getting up 0-2 and then throwing 3 straight curveballs around the strike zone to make it 3-2. I was encouraged by his performance, but it wasn't exactly brilliant. Good start, with some room for improvement.

3.) Juan Rincon -- not pretty. Walking in a run? C'mon, Juan. I thought he was turning things around a bit, too. 12 pitches, just 4 strikes today. Yuck.

4.) I don't know, folks -- there are a lot of people who have been clamoring for Jeff Cirillo to replace Nick Punto at 3B, and he did tonight. While I can't argue with those who wanted to see this (simply because of Punto's rather pathetic offensive performance this season), I have to ask this question: based on Cirillo's play at 3B, and his inconsistent performance at the plate, who would you rather see at the position? I'm seriously asking the question, because I'm torn. Cirillo certainly seems to be the better player offensively, but he's defense has not been very impressive at all.

5.) That's it for tonight -- I should get my First Half awards up tomorrow, barring unforeseen circumstances.