Twins Win! (With offense!)

Finally, after what felt like an interminable amount of agony (which, in actuality was only 4 games) the Twins put together enough offense to outlast the Angels and pick up their first win of the 2012 campaign. Last night’s game contained everything fans were waiting for from this team. Jamey Carroll came through with two clutch hits (his first two of the year) Chris Parmelee had a fantastic triple (aided by Torii Hunter’s inexplicable face plant in RF while trying to field the ball) and Ryan Doumit even picked up a few clutch hits.

Even with this surge in offense – one player rose above the rest; Josh Willingham knocked home a powerful 2 run home run in the 4^th that (briefly) put the Twins on top. Willingham looks to be the perfect hitter for Target Field’s dimensions. He’s a power hitter who tends to pull the ball to left. Target Field’s shorter porch in left means that any well struck fly ball from Willingham has a chance to be a home run. Willingham already has 2 HRs at Target Field this year and is only a few combined feet from having 4 Target Field HRs (balls on Monday and Wednesday dipped foul at the last minute).

While Willingham’s offense has been stellar, his defense has been…well…ugly. Immediately following his monster homer, Willingham someone managed to badly misplay a fly ball to left field, failing to make the catch (instead crashing into the wall) and the end result saw the Angels Peter Bourjas motoring around the bases for an inside the park home run.

While Pavano was charged with 5 earned runs and received a ‘no-decision’ he pitched much better than his stat line would lead you to believe. I would argue that if it were not for two defensive gaffes, Pavano would have only allowed one run to the Angels offense all night.

Willingham’s wall-crashing disaster in the 5^th turned what could have been a loud third out into a 3 run home run. (Admittedly, it was a tough catch to make, but if you're going to go full power into the wall, you better be coming up with the ball). In the 7^th, Torii Hunter attempted to stretch out a single into a double after a diving Denard Span failed to come up with his fly ball. I have to credit Span for immediately recovering and launching the ball into second in plenty of time to nab Hunter. One small problem, Jamey Carroll couldn’t hold onto the ball and instead of nailing Hunter out at second, the ball rolls harmlessly through his glove and the Angels have a leadoff double that was shortly cashed into another run in that inning.

Josh, we love your bat - but don't ever do THAT again

I’ve been saying it all year and I’ll continue to say it. This Twins team is better than people are giving it credit for. Early indicators are that the starting pitching is going to be at the very least reliable – if not slightly above average. Pavano showed great stuff last night, Swarzak looked very good in his spot start and Blackburn managed to stymie the Angels offense for much of his start on Monday. If Liriano can get back on track and Marquis / Hendricks are able to pitch effectively, one of last year’s biggest woes will be a thing of the past.

The offense finally showed what we all thought it could do; deliver clutch hits and score some runs. Hopefully this was a sign that Carroll, Doumit and Parmelee’s bats are all heating up. If that’s the case, this offense can (and will) be a handful for any pitching staff.

It's worth noting that Glen Perkins' 8th inning efforts were fantasic as he sat down the side in order, including serving up an absolutely filthly slider to Albert Pujols that had him looking foolish as he struck out. Matt Capps came in the 9th (while every Twins fan held their breath) and effectively shut down the game. Great effort from the 8th and 9th inning pitcthers.

One win is in the books, and it feels great. While the Twins are still far from being “back” at least we as fans can take a deep breath. They’re not going 0-162, they’re not going to score only 2 runs every game. They’re a good team and it’s nice they finally played like it last night.

Liriano takes the mound this morning / afternoon with a chance to deliver the Twins their first series win of the young season. Go Twins!