Last night's 9-1 Twins win is the perfect example of how box scores do not tell the entire story of a game. If you didn't watch last night's dominate win, you could simply look at the box score and see PJ Walters' incredible stat line: Complete game, 2 earned runs, 5 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts - and think that Walters was lights out all night.
If you watched last night's game, you'd know that Walters looked erratic at times and even downright sloppy during the middle innings. At or around the 4th inning, Twins fans watching the game had to be wondering just how well that 8 run lead was going to hold if Walters continued to struggle with his location.
That being said, Walters was "effectively erratic" while his fastball seemed to have a mind of its own in the middle innings, Walters leaned heavily on his breaking pitches. He compensated for early mistakes (the leadoff batter reached for three straight innings in the 4th, 5th and 6th) with ground balls to induce double plays.
Moving into the 7th inning, Walters discovered his fastball again and then turned into a strikeout machine. He stuck out the side in the 8th and at one point had 4 consecutive k's on the scoreboard.
Lots of credit goes to Joe Mauer, PJ Walters and Pitching Coach Rick Anderson for continuing to work with the fastball, even after it looked like Walters did have it last night. The end result was a great performance and the Twins' first complete game this season.
Bright Future For Walters?
Walters is one of those "where did he come from" MLB pitchers that pop up every year on the major league stage. A journeyman for most of his career, Walters was always viewed as a 'good but not great' pitcher who had a tendency to walk too many batters. Walters moved through the Cardinals and Blue Jays system before being picked up by the Twins last offseason. In AAA Rochester, he started to show flashes of something more. His walks went down and strikeouts went up. Suddenly, Walters looks like a diamond in the rough and the Twins look brilliant for signing him this offseason.
Twins fans shouldn't expect these outings every week from Walters, however. He still has a tendency to leave pitches over the heart of the plate (that's why 5 of his 7 earned runs are solo home runs) and his control can ebb and flow during a game. However, when your fastball touches 92 and your breaking pitches drop as low as 75, you're going to have decent success. For much of last night, Walters had the White Sox swinging wildly at breaking pitches that took wicked turns before breaking the plate. If he can continue to command those pitches that well, he'll find major league success.
Swarzak Gets Another Shot
The Twins announced yesterday that Carl Pavano's next start will be pushed back a day or two due to shoulder soreness. He's likely to get a cortisone shot and work some longer bullpen sessions until he feels like his arm is back to 100%. In his place, Anthony Swarzak will be getting a spot start. We theorized yesterday that he could be on the short list for a pitching promotion. If he pitches well, he just might earn another shot at the rotation.
Good Offensive Outing
Last night, the Twins offense continued a recent trend of hitting with runners in scoring position. LOB was a stat that plagued the Twins offense for much of the start of the season, however, over the past week, Twins batters are finally delivering in clutch situations. Josh Willingham and Justin Morneau had the biggest hits of the night, as their two out at bats put the game out of reach. Jamey Carroll, Alexi Casilla and Denard Span also had nice at bats throughout the game as well. Even though Ben Revere and Brian Dozier struggled last night, the rest of the offense stepped up to carry the load.
Things Are Looking Up
The Twins have now won 5 of their last 6 games and have looked like the competitive team we all thought they could be at the start of the season. The offense is hitting well in the clutch, the pitching staff is finally keeping the team in the game (mainly due to the fact that the pitching staff as it is currently constructed: Diamond, Walters, DeVries, Swarzak, Pavano - has only 1 of the opening day starters left) and the defense has continued to be a surprising bright spot.
In a very bad AL Central, this Twins team has the ability to compete. Even if this nice win streak is just an illusion and the team does settle back into .500 baseball the rest of the season, at least Twins fans can take solace in the fact that the team is no longer the worst in baseball. With their loss last night, the Cubs now hold that title by 1/2 game. The Twins are now tied with the Padres at 15-27 and are only a few games behind the Brewers in W/L as well. If we can't take anything else from this season, at least we as fans can say we weren't the worst team on the field.
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