Nightly Notes: Game #141

That's more like it. Thanks to a White Sox victory over the Angels tonight, the Twins aren't going to gain any ground -- but staying 1.5 games back is a lot better than falling to 2.5. Here are some notes:

1.) Like Ron Coomer said, Liriano is starting to look a lot more like The Franchise than he has for most of the season. Even with his struggles in the eighth inning, he still finished with a line of 7 innings and 2 runs allowed on just 5 hits and a walk with a whopping 9 K's. If he really is heating up, it's at a great time -- if the Twins make the playoffs, I'd love to see him leading off a series as a legitimately overwhelming ace.

2.) What I'm about to say has nothing to do with the fact that Liriano struggled in the eighth. I frankly have no idea why Gardy left Liriano out there. I understand the bullpen had just struggled the night before. I understand that Liriano had only thrown 86 pitches. Nonetheless, I would have turned the ball over to Jose Mijares. It seemed to be the perfect time for him to make his big league debut -- a 9 run lead (at the start of the inning, remember), little pressure, and an opportunity to go two innings if he succeeded. Now, I watched the game with the sound off, so perhaps Dick & Bert revealed that Mijares wasn't able to go tonight -- but I'm pretty sure I saw him warming up. I am just frankly baffled that Mijares didn't debut tonight unless there was something physically wrong.

3.) Why use Matt Guerrier in the eighth? If Bonser was going to pitch tonight (and of course he did in the 9th), why not bring him in right away? Guerrier made no sense in that spot -- he's not a garbage man. In fact, despite his August struggles, he's much too valuable to be used in that situation. I don't usually rag on Gardy too much (I disagree with some of his decisions, but not vehemently). Tonight, though, I was utterly baffled by what I see as some serious bullpen mismanagement. You have got to take advantage of games like this, because they don't come around all that much.

4.) I'm loving the college football season so far. I don't know if it was really an upset for Ball State to beat Navy tonight, especially since the game was in Muncie. However, it felt like an upset to me (maybe I just don't have faith in Ball State). Add that to last night's great win by Vandy over South Carolina and last weekends losses by Michigan, Virginia Tech, and especially Texas A&M, I'm thrilled to see that upsets are still the order of the day.

5.) Delmon looked great tonight at the plate. I would love to see that Delmon show up for a full season next year.

6.) Justin Morneau only picked up one hit tonight, but it was of course the Slam. It was nice to see him catch hold of one, because for awhile on the road trip he seemed to be pressing just a bit (understandable, since no one else seemed interested in contributing offense in key spots).

7.) I'm not ignoring Brian Bass, I just didn't feel he warranted his own post or an early note. Bass was going to be leaving the organization as a free agent at the end of the year, and was no longer on the 40-man roster. I'm glad the Twins will get something for him from the Orioles (although it's not likely to be much), but this really isn't a significant piece of news. I wish Bass luck in Baltimore, where it sounds like he might get a chance to earn a place in the rotation. Hopefully things work out for him.