First and foremost, my apologies for the utter silence on these pages over the past few days, my sister was graduating from high school and I was away from the computer for the past five days.
While I was away, the Twins had themselves a nice little win streak. For the first time this season, the Twins won 4 games in a row, beating Detroit twice and taking two of three from the Brewers in Milwaukee.
The Good:
Things started looking up on Wednesday in Detroit. Nick Blackburn took to the mound for the Twins and continued to look absolutely inept, giving up 6 runs over 2 innings. Thankfully, the bullpen did a great job in cleanup duty, holding the Tigers to 1 more run while the offense continued to swing the big stick. The Twins took game one in Detroit 11-7.
***
Thursday afternoon, new call-up PJ Walters showed that his strong start against the Blue Jays last week was not an anomaly as he held the Tigers offense in check over 6.1 innings. Walters only surrendered 4 hits (unfortunately, 3 of those 4 were for home runs). Walters walked 3 and only struck out 2, but he managed to do exactly what the Twins needed him to do. Keep the ball in play and keep the game in control.
Walters was aided by Justin Morneau’s hot bat (and the Tigers bad defense, who committed 7 errors over the 2 game series) in route to a 4-3 Twins win.
***
The Twins took their two game win streak into Milwaukee on Friday night to face the Brewers, who have struggled just as much as the Twins early on this season. Scott Diamond showed once again that he is the Twins’ best pitcher as he threw another solid outing. Diamond did surrender his first runs of the season, giving up 3 earned over 5.1 innings. Diamond allowed 8 hits and walked 1 batter while striking out 3.
Diamond’s outing was still great by Twins starters’ standards and was made even better by the offensive explosion that Denard Span (4/5, 3 runs, 3 RBI) Joe Mauer (3/5, 2 runs, 3 RBI) Josh Willingham (2/5, 1 run, 2 RBI) and Justin Morneau (2/4, 1 run, 3 RBI) delivered. The Twins pummeled the Brewers 11-3 and had their first 3 game win streak of the season.
***
I don’t want to be guilty of over sensationalizing any one game, but Saturday’s 5-4 win in extra innings may have been the best all around game the Twins have put together this season.
Carl Pavano took to the mound and looked to be cured of whatever issue was ailing him over his past two starts and finally returned to the reliable innings eater the Twins needed. Pavano went 6 innings, yielding only 2 runs and 5 hits while walking only 1 and striking out 6.
The offense struggled to capitalize on a few opportunities throughout the game, but managed to do just enough to back up Pavano’s strong start. When the game went into extra innings, the pitching picked up the slack for long enough to allow Trevor Plouffe (who is currently operating on the ‘hit it out or go sit down’ mantra that Morneau seems to be using this season) jacked one over the left / center fence and into the Brewers’ bullpen. Matt Capps pitched a solid 3 up, 3 down 1lth and the Twins extended the streak to 4.
The Bad:
Riding a 4 game win streak and looking like they finally have things figured out, the Twins sent Jason Marquis to the mound on Sunday.
He was promptly blown up by the Brewers’ bats. Marquis lasted only 1.2 innings but still managed to surrender 8 runs, 8 hits and 1 walk.
The pitching staff as a whole looked horrendous on Sunday as Anthony Swarzak gave up an additional 2 runs over 2.1 innings, Alex Burnett added 1 more earned run over 2 innings but the real dud of the bullpen was Jeff Gray who didn’t manage to record an out but still gave up 4 hits and 5 earned runs (that’s hard to do).
The best arm from the ‘pen on Sunday was actually Drew Butera, who channeled his inner Michael Cuddyer and took to the mound in the 8th inning of the blowout. Funny thing – Butera threw one strong inning (consistently hitting 90-94 MPH on the gun) and held the Brewers hitless (and he even struck out a batter!).
Alas, Butera’s Cy Young quality effort was not enough and the Twins took an embarrassing loss, 16-4.
Trending Up:
I have to be fair to Drew Butera, who I like personally but not so much professionally – he has earned his spot on this roster so far this season. Last season, many Twins fans remember Butera hitting for a lower average than most National League pitchers and (rightly) expected that sort of offensive output from him in 2012. Butera has looked much, much better than expected, however, hitting .360 with a .429 OBP in his first 9 games.
Butera appeared in 4 of the last 5 games, collectively going 6/10 with 3 doubles (3!) and earning two walks. For the backup catcher, that’s a pretty good showing. Heck, for a starter, that’s a good showing. Butera will likely settle back into a lower average as the season wears on, but if he can keep his average in the .200s rather than .100s, he’ll have earned back a great deal of respect from Twins fans.
Last week, I was wondering if Trevor Plouffe had played his way off of the roster as he continued to struggle at the plate. I did note that a complete lack of at bats was hurting Plouffe, however. The Twins responded by giving Plouffe playing time (oddly in RF, a position that, with 3 other OFs on the bench, didn’t look like Plouffe would see again).
Plouffe appeared in all 5 games over the weekend and only managed to go 4/19. Funny thing is, when 3 of those 4 hits are home runs (driving in 4 RBI) you get to keep getting hacks at the plate. Plouffe needs to improve his hitting, but if he can continue to make up for strikeouts and balls hit right at defenders with monster home runs, the Twins will certainly keep giving him a chance. With his ability to play nearly every position on the field and his natural power at the plate, there is no way he would make it through the waiver process to be sent down to the minors. So Twins fans (and the Twins front office) should hope Plouffe continues to get opportunities to get his average to a more respectable point.
Trending Down:
What are the Twins going to do with Jason Marquis? After getting obliterated Sunday, Marquis’ record fell to 2-4 and his ERA swelled to Francisco Liriano-esque 8.47. Marquis has not looked good over his past 3 starts, but his last two were especially horrendous. I said last week that he simply looks like a pitcher who does not have elite stuff any longer and he is continuing to support that theory with each bad outing.
With the success of Scott Diamond and PJ Walters, the Twins may be willing to give another young arm a shot at the starting rotation. Rochester is not lacking in decent arms to send up and Marquis has shown very little that could compel the Twins to keep him on the roster.
The obvious hope is that Marquis will turn things around and build trade value for himself by July, but his horrid pitching may make a roster move a necessity prior to that trading deadline. I’d imagine Marquis will get one last shot at the starting rotation when the Twins take on the Tigers on Friday. If he gets blown up again, I’d suspect the Twins and Marquis would simply part ways and Cole Devries or another AAA arm would get the call to the big leagues.
When your ERA is so bloated that an 8.47 ERA can be easily compared to it, there’s an issue. Francisco Liriano, the ace of the staff during spring training and the expected key to the starting staff this season has been abysmal in 2012 – so bad that he lost his starting spot to PJ Walters and was demoted to bullpen duty. In Friday’s blowout of the Brewers, Liriano was sent out in the 9th inning to mop up - earn 3 outs and send the team home.
Even with an 8 run lead, Liriano labored through the 9th, allowing 2 hits and walking one more batter before finally closing out the game. Dick & Bert on the FSN telecast were quick to point out that Liriano’s mechanics continue to look terrible. He’s flying open on many of his pitches resulting in him facing LF at the end of his delivery. His mechanics are so distorted and convoluted that he can’t keep control of his pitches.
Maybe Liriano simply doesn’t have the work ethic to fix what’s wrong. Maybe Pitching Coach Rick Anderson cannot coach Liriano well enough to fix these issues; maybe Liriano simply forgets the basics when he takes the mound. Whatever the reason – Francisco Liriano will not be the pitcher the Twins need him to be until he fixes the obvious mechanical flaws with his game.
At this pace, I don’t see Liriano making a return to the starting rotation this season. At best, maybe Liriano looks reliable as a reliever and the Twins can move him at the trade deadline for a low level prospect or two. At this point, a change of scenery may be the best thing for both team and player.
No comments:
Post a Comment