From Bad To Worse - Red Sox Sweep Twins

Well, it could have been worse. That’s about all Twins fans have to cling to this morning as we look back at the rubble of a 3 game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox.

Recap:

Liam Hendriks, who had been the Twins most efficient starter, turned in a performance to forget; giving up 7 earned runs over 4 innings of work.

The Twins offense continued its maddening trend of leaving runners in scoring position, leaving 17 runners on base. They managed to load the bases in the 1^st, 6^th and 9^th, but outside of the 5 run 6^th inning; they did very little with those opportunities.

The Twins got to Clay Buckholz early and often; earning 10 hits and 3 walks, but were unable to really damage the Red Sox starter until the 6^th inning. The Red Sox bullpen then did their best to let the Twins back into the game as Scott Acthison, Justin Thomas, Matt Albers, Vincente Padilla, Franklin Morales & Alfredo Aceves gave up another 4 hits plus a walk and an earned run to close out the game. They didn’t look dominate – or even all that impressive at times, however, they did manage to stymie the Twins batters.

The Twins made things interesting in the 9^th by loading the bases for Denard Span, but were unable to capitalize and ended up falling to Sox 7-6.

Notes & Musings:

Ben Revere, in his first appearance in the majors since being sent down on April 14^th, was an impressive 2-5 with a double and accounted for 2 of the Twins 6 runs. He showed better plate discipline and a slightly better eye, lying off of balls that he used to chase. There were still instances of weak grounders up the middle, but those are going to happen with any batter.

Revere’s speed makes him valuable to the team and especially dangerous when he does get on base. His biggest flaw, however, is his defense. While he is an agile and able defender in the outfield, once he has to make a throw, it’s apparent that he isn’t really built for the outfield. In the 2^nd inning yesterday, Cody Ross hit a single to Revere in left. David Ortiz (standing on second to start the at bat) managed to rumble his way around third and score on the play. Revere bobbled the ball when throwing it in to the cutoff man, which ended any chance the Twins had to catch Ortiz.

The Twins couldn’t catch Ortiz because he never hesitated when rounding third. Teams know that Revere’s arm is subpar, and they are going to take advantage of that when the ball is hit to left. One of the slower base runners in the majors didn’t even hesitate to round third when the ball was hit sharply to Revere. That’s a problem.

Chris Parmelee was drilled in the helmet by Justin Thomas in the 6^th inning and had to be pulled from the game. We haven’t heard from the Twins yet as to the exact condition that Parmelee is in, [Update: Twins say there are “No signs of a concussion”] but he was seen in the dugout during the 9^th inning last night laughing and generally appearing to be well and in good spirits. The off day today comes at a perfect time, allowing Parmelee to catch an extra day’s rest before possibly coming back into the game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Morneau at 1B on Friday, simply for the sake of giving Parmelee extra time to recover.

Alexi Casilla, perhaps realizing his job is in danger, went 3-4 last night with a RBI and accounted for one of the Twins runs. Casilla can be frustrating to watch at times as he flashes between very good and down right bad. Last night was one of his good nights, and it may have bought him some more time on Ron Gardenhire’s good side. I still hope to see the Twins bring up Brian Dozier and give him some time at 2B and SS over the next few series – but with Casilla’s good game, they might not give Dozier that chance.

Anthony Swarzak, Jared Burton and Glen Perkins deserve high praise for a fantastic 5 combined innings of 1 hit relief last night. Swarzak came in and stopped the bleeding in the 5^th and managed to take the game all the way to the 8^th without giving the red hot Red Sox batters so much as a sniff of adding to the score.

Glen Perkins appears to be ‘back’ from whatever was plaguing him a few weeks ago. He looked absolutely dominate in the 8^th as he struck out the side. He seems to have a great deal of confidence when he enters the game and the way he attacks the zone seems to overwhelm even the best hitters. If he can continue to pitch like this and Capps continues to be inconsistent, I don’t believe it will be too long before Perkins gets promoted to closer. (That’s likely where he’ll end up next season either way. Why not try him out this year?)

Things Will Get Better…Right?

I’ve sworn up and down that this team was better than last season’s debacle. Simply by watching them you can see that they are vastly better than the 2011 edition. Their offense is able to score runs (something the 2011 edition struggled with greatly) and their bullpen has been very good (2011’s bullpen was the biggest issue, giving away many games late). Those points all may be true, but the fact remains – this team is one game WORSE than they were at the same point last year. (5-14 this year, 6-13 last season).

That’s deflating.

The obvious flaw with this team is the starting pitching. Their starters’ ERA is an alarming 7.09 a full run higher than the Red Sox, who have the second worst ERA at 5.78. This has contributed to the Twins horrid run differential (last in the league) and is why this seemingly better built team is actually worse than last season.

As baseball writer Aaron Gleeman said last night in a tweet following the game “Twins lineup and bullpen certainly did their jobs tonight, but tough to win when starter gives up seven runs. Story of the season so far.” Amen to that.

Movers & Shakers:

The Twins are expected to make a roster move sometime today, likely calling up a utility infielder and sending down a pitcher. (Brian Dozier / Jeff Gray are the names suspected to be coming up / going down respectively).

I wonder if Sean Burroughs will continue to get an opportunity to be the backup to Danny Valencia. While Burroughs has shown the ability to play some solid defense, his bat is almost an automatic out when he enters the lineup. He has little value as a defensive replacement (Valencia’s defense, while slightly worse that Burroughs’, is not that poor) and absolutely no value as a pinch hitter off the bench.

This is pure speculation – but I wouldn’t be stunned to see the Twins call up Ray Chang from AAA (hitting .321 with an RBI at Rochester) and designate Burroughs for assignment. Chang could likely be shifted to 1B in a pinch as well, adding some extra depth to the roster.

Pretend GM:

If I were calling the shots – the next few moves I’d make for the Twins would be:

Call up Miguel Sano to Fort Meyers: Sano is hitting .271 with 6 home runs and 18 RBI. He’s clearly the Twins future at third and I’d like to see how he performs against better pitching. Ideally, I’d put Sano on a path to be on the major league roster come opening day 2013.

Designate Sean Burroughs for assignment, call up Ray Chang.

Designate Jeff Gray for Assignment, call up Brian Dozier.

Option Alex Burnett to AAA, move Francisco Liriano to the bullpen, call up Scott Diamond from AAA.  

Looking Forward:

Pavano takes the mound on Friday for the Twins and can hopefully pitch his way through 7 or 8 good innings and get the Twins back on the winning path. The Royals are the only team in the AL that’s behind the Twins (and that’s thanks to a 12 game losing streak). If there was ever a time that a team needed a sweep early in the season – this would be it.

2 out of 3 is, of course, the realistic goal – but this team needs to ‘WIN’ a series, not just take these “moral victories” and call them good enough. 5-14 is a bad record. There’s no spinning that into a positive anymore. Yes, the schedule has been tough, but the Twins have also lost a lot of games they should have won (game 2 of the Orioles series, game 2 of the Ranger’s series, game 4 of the Yankees series, game 2 of the Rays series, games 1 & 3 of the Red Sox series) That’s 6 wins left on the table. 11-8 is a whole heck of a lot better than 5-14. It’s time to actually win some of these games they’re SHOULD be winning. That starts Friday with Pavano.

I hope.

Go Twins!