Game 51: Twins @ Royals

And made Bannister show his fastball, cutter, cyrveball, and slider (according to gameday). That is a good leadoff PA even if he didn’t make it on base.

with a seven pitch PA. Pretty good despite the two outs.

with a three pitch inning! How rare is that!?

Well, it’s more or less a given that Boof has earned a demotion, despite being an integral part of the Twins’ plans two months ago. After Cuddyer strikes out with the bases loaded on a pitch three feet outside, I have to ask: can he PLEASE be the next surprise demotion?

In conclusion: ugh.

but did you see the Royal’s 2b, ss combo? Batting .132 and .167 those numbers make Cuddyer look good! ; )

“Casilla is showing that he deserves to be up here.”

Apparently in a similar fashion to the way Mauer “showed” he needed to be demoted when he started the season 0-19?

But hey, how about Nick Blackburn tonight?

sounds like we dodged a small bullet there in the 8th with Lamb’s double play catch / throw to end the inning.

He’ll probably stay in to start the ninth. Go Blackburn!

he is getting better. Young on the other hand…

batter hit by pitch, then a hit…

or at least in the picture that is focused on the team rather than the player those last two outs are no more meaningful coming from Blackburn than they are by Nathan, but I bet Blackburn sure is disappointed that the balls in the 9th didn’t bounce his way so that he could get a complete game shutout.

Teahen 0-7 against Nathan until tonight!

Delmon Young and Joe Nathan combine to waste a great start from Blackburn – with just one pitch. That’s an impressive blown save right there.

on that inside the park homerun?

what’s more interesting:

- a 3 run blown save on a single pitch from the reliever by an in the park homer; or
– a single half inning in only three pitches?

according to Gordon and Gladden. Misjudged the balls break, tried to dive for it at the last second and missed it.

Young apparently argued that it was foul.

Who saw the replay?

Looks like Gardy’s waving the white flag here….

Ron Gardenhire is strategically retarded. Like, literally, he is mentally challenged when it comes to making stratgic decisions. Joe Nathan, after having a bloop played into a home run by his left fielder, got the last two outs of the innings, one via strikeout. He only threw ten pitches. So you’d think the best pitcher on the team would have plenty enough gas to go out and throw the tenth.

But no, here comes Dennis Reyes, the Loogy.

Sigh. Every time Gardenhire does something this stupid with his pitchers I relive my agony and fury from the 2004 ALDS.

Breathe deep and repeat after me, at least he’s not dusty, at least he’s not dusty, at least…

if there is any justice Gomez will hit a home run here (inside the park would be the best) Hah!

Gladden and team just mentioned that Greg Gagne hit 2 inside the park home runs in 86

so does Jon Marthaler pinch hit for Michael Cuddyer?

is he out of options? I’m not sure if I have seen him hit anything except a ground ball this entire season, including the ones that made it through the infield for hits.

MINNEAPOLIS—On the day he signed a three-year, $24 million contract extension back in January, Michael Cuddyer heard that Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was contemplating moving him from right field to center field to replace Torii Hunter.

Cuddyer simply let out a little chuckle and shrugged it off, saying he thought Gardenhire was joking.

Cuddyer

It was no laughing matter Monday night as the Twins opened a four-game series with Texas at the Metrodome. With Carlos Gomez still nursing a sore wrist and veteran Craig Monroe getting a day off after three straight games in center field in Colorado, Gardenhire moved Cuddyer into center field.

“Did I really think I was going to go out there? Probably not,” Cuddyer said, recalling scenario that played out in January. “But I’m not unaccustommed to switching positions by any means. It’s not like I’ve only played one position my whole life and now I’m switching. There’s no shock factor.”

With the start in center field, it means that the fifth-year veteran has played every position in the field for the Twins at least once except for pitcher and catcher.

“It completes my tour around the major league baseball diamond,” Cuddyer said, jokingly adding that he doesn’t consider pitchers baseball players and catcher doesn’t count either because “they’re idiots.”

He was then asked if he remembered the last time he played center field at any level.

“Yeah,” Cuddyer said. “Never.”

...is where we learned not to dive for balls when your team is ahead and the tying run cannot score on a hit. It is one of things that irritated me about T. Hunter. He always was thinking about making the highlight reels on ESPN even when the Twins were nursing a small lead late in the game. This is the kind of error that RG needs to take Young to task for but likely won’t. Mental errors are killers!!