Who ARE These Guys? (Twins score 10 to rally)

Well, I can honestly say I didn’t see that coming. After starting the season looking absolutely anemic on offense, the Twins’ bats roared to a 10 run, 20 hit outing yesterday against Dan Haren and the Angels (surprisingly poor) bullpen.

Fransisco Liriano started for the Twins yesterday and continued his Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde bit by absolutely imploding in the 2^nd inning, giving up 5 runs and quickly burying the Twins from the outset. Thankfully Liriano did calm down and manage to go 5 innings before being pulled (only giving up one more run) but when your supposed ‘ace’ is the starter that keeps getting dinged for the most runs, you have to be concerned. (Marlins fans can vouch for this too – Josh Johnson seems to be extremely hittable in the early season)

The Good:

From the 6^th inning on, it was like someone stole the Twins’ cookie. They were angry and swinging the lumber like they had something to prove. Mauer, Morneau and Willingham all hit long balls and Valencia, Parmelee, Span and Hughes (two important RBI in the later innings) had big contributions as well.

20 hits, 10 runs and a whole bunch of clutch at bats (despite leaving the bases loaded TWICE) were just what the doctor ordered for this team. It was nice to see the offense perform like we all knew it could on Wednesday. It was even better to see them repeat such a performance on Thursday afternoon.

The Bad:

Any time your team rallies from a 6 run deficit to win, you can’t really complain. That being said, there are still some things that are concerning me about this team. First and foremost, the defensive gaffes that put them into bad positions. Wednesday night saw the Twins give up 4 runs that could have been preventable with solid defense. Thursday afternoon the defense gave up another unnecessary run (Casilla missing Mauer’s throw to 2^nd). While they were able to overcome these errors for wins, that won’t be the case all season. Preventable runs are the bane of bad teams. Conceding runs that you SHOULD turn into outs is a certain way to play yourself right out of contention. While it’s entirely possible that these errors are simply early season rust – I’m nervous that they will be a season long issue.

Also of concern is Matt Capps. Given and 3 run lead going into the 9^th, Capps sure tried his hardest to blow his first save of 2012. Granted, he had a bit of bad luck with a bad bounce of the second base bag that allowed Hunter to reach safely or a horrendous call at first during the Vernon Wells at bat that should have been (I.E. WAS) a double play. Still, when your closer nearly lets a 3 run lead go to waste (especially when that closer is coming off a season where he gave quite a few games away) you begin to get a little nervous.

Worth Noting:

Justin Morneau (home run notwithstanding) has had some very poor at bats over the past few days. In Wednesday night’s game he had two bad strikeouts including one strikeout in the 4^th that was painful to watch. Morneau has shown flashes of returning to his former self (especially with yesterday’s no-doubt-about-it homer to right) but he has also had instances of really poor plate discipline.

Alex Burnett pitched two great innings of relief yesterday. Last season Burnett wasn’t the most reliable reliever, ending the season with 5.51 ERA and 5 loses. In 2 innings of work yesterday, Burnett struck out 3 while only giving up 1 hit. Kudos to Burnett.

Jeff Gray seems to be on a path to throw only the number of pitches he needs to register that particular win. (1 pitch to get win #1, 2 pitches to get win #2 – etc.) It’s a great trend that will see Gray rack up wins early and easily if it continues. (Please note, this is a joke) Seriously though, only in baseball can Jeff Gray have 2 wins while Justin Verlander (who took a shutout into the 9^th in Wednesday’s game only to lose) has 0. Gotta love it!

Denard Span went 4 for 5 and greatly contributed to the win yesterday. Those are the numbers you like to see from your leadoff hitter.

Looking Forward:

The Twins open a 3 game series with Texas (seriously, who made this schedule? It’s brutal) and hopefully can continue swinging the bats as well as they have over the past two days. In a perfect world, the Twins would end Sunday with a 5-4 record and a whole lot of momentum. Frankly, I’d be ecstatic to see the Twins take 2 of 3 and continue their solid pitching and offensive output.

It’s sure to be a fun weekend of baseball. Go Twins!