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Ladies and Gentlemen: Glen Perkins

That was the guy we've been looking for.

On Friday night the Minnesota Twins opened the second half of their season against baseball's most potent offense.  Leading all of Major League Baseball in runs scored, team OPS, hits, doubles and batting average, the Texas Rangers are a formidible ballclub in that on any given night they'll throw up six or seven runs while taking a nap.  Last night however, Glen Perkins just put their offense to sleep.

Staying aggressive for the duration of his six innings of work, Perkins went after the Ranger hitters, big and small alike.  With Texas tied for first in the American League in strikeouts, the former Gopher was the benefactor of some aggression, which led to a number of brief plate appearances.  He averaged just 14 pitches through his first five innings before slowing down in the sixth, where he managed to work himself out of a jam with Michael Young on third base and two outs.

In fact, that was the most impressive part of Perkins' start.  After walking Young on eight pitches with one out, a wild pitch allowed the Texas shortstop to advance to second base.  Josh Hamilton followed that up with a ground out to the right side, moving Young to third.  With the Twins leading just 1-0 at the time, Perkins attacked Milton Bradley with seven consecutive fastballs, largely staying away before finally walking him on one inside.  Marlon Byrd stepped in with runners on the corners, and again Perkins played the predator.  Seven more fastballs were fired through the strikezone, until Byrd finally rolled over on who and grounded out to second base.  It was the type of inning, and the type of reserve, that we haven't seen too often from Glen Perkins--but he stepped up his game last night.

Perkins credit part of his success to a new pitch--a slider.  With his previous breaking ball, which could have been called a bit of a slurve sometimes, breaking 12-to-6, Glen felt he needed to mix in something different.

"There's things I'll try to do now that I wouldn't have tried a month ago," Perkins said. "The biggest thing is throwing the ball inside. I wasn't big on that in the minor leagues — it's a lot easier to miss over the plate. But if you stay in there, you get guys out and make guys uncomfortable."

He worked right-handed hitters inside with fastballs and sliders, recording a few outs on the new pitch.  He also used his slider to break away from left-handed hitters while still using the fastball to jam them inside.  Perkins changed his speeds and mixed his pitches better than I've seen him do it this year, and having that extra weapon in his arsenal certainly didn't hurt.

The offense gave him his support as well, although it took Jamey Wright to enter in relief of Kevin Millwood before the flood doors finally opened.  With Millwood in trouble in the seventh, Wright entered and allowed three inherited runners to score along with one of his own.  All of this before he finally induced a ground ball double play.

Alexi Casilla collected three hits, and Justin Morneau added one of his own--an impressive double.  Once again it was the second half of the batting order coming through however, with Jason Kubel (also with a double), Delmon Young, Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris all notching multi-hit games.  The four combined to go 10-for-16, collecting all six of the Twins RBI.

Stars of the Game

#3:  Delmon Young  (4-for-4, 4 singles, RBI, SB)
#2:  Alexi Casilla  (3-for-5, R, nice defense)
#1:  Glen Perkins  (6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K)

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Delmon

I suppose we should be happy the guy hit the ball somewhat hard. In reality though his 4 hits were mainly due to luck; they all found the holes on the right side, actually one was just mishandled by the 1st basemen. The day he finally turns on a fastball on the inner-half of the plate is the day I’ll finally start being hard on him.

Gardenhire's major league career: Banjo hitting, futility infielder who couldn't lick it.
Rick Anderson's major league career: Strikethrower who never made it happen with his sub 90's fastball.
Really gives a new definition to living vicariously through other people, don't it?

by caseintheface on Jul 19, 2008 12:17 PM EDT   0 recs

It's hard to pull the ball when you're making

contact on the outer half of the plate. Plus, the ball that was “mishandled” by Davis also might have been his hardest-hit ball of the night.

I will agree that a couple of those hits were due to luck…both the chopper up the middle and at least one of his hits to the right side were pretty weakly hit…they just snuck through the defense.

by Jesse on Jul 19, 2008 1:33 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Young and Gomez

It’s going to be very difficult to make a push in the second half if these two don’t start making improvements and becoming the talent we are all hoping they become.

Gardenhire's major league career: Banjo hitting, futility infielder who couldn't lick it.
Rick Anderson's major league career: Strikethrower who never made it happen with his sub 90's fastball.
Really gives a new definition to living vicariously through other people, don't it?

by caseintheface on Jul 19, 2008 1:53 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Otherwise...

The we’ll have to adapt a new Twins moto: “With Lefties Alone”.

Gardenhire's major league career: Banjo hitting, futility infielder who couldn't lick it.
Rick Anderson's major league career: Strikethrower who never made it happen with his sub 90's fastball.
Really gives a new definition to living vicariously through other people, don't it?

by caseintheface on Jul 19, 2008 2:05 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Careful....

Delmon Young

June: 321/341/476
July: 373/389/490

It’d be nice if some of those hits would turn into doubles or homers, but as things stand I think he’s definitely making those improvements.

by Jesse on Jul 19, 2008 2:13 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

lol...

very nice isolated discipline…

June .020
July .026

Sorry, like I said, I won’t go easy on him until he starts turning on fastball on the inner half. They’ll never improve unless they’re pushed to be greater.

Gardenhire's major league career: Banjo hitting, futility infielder who couldn't lick it.
Rick Anderson's major league career: Strikethrower who never made it happen with his sub 90's fastball.
Really gives a new definition to living vicariously through other people, don't it?

by caseintheface on Jul 19, 2008 2:56 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

I'm 100% with you there.

He does need to capitalize on pitches inside. That’s where his power will come from.

by Jesse on Jul 19, 2008 5:17 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Boof

The other encouraging outing was Boof. He dominated. If he can do that on a regular basis in the second half, we won’t have to go out and get that eighth-inning guy.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Jul 19, 2008 12:45 PM EDT   0 recs

Didn't watch

The 95mph and the big curve are definetely weapons. My only concern is that sometimes when he’s been out there it seems like he needs a third pitch. Especially when there’s guys on base and he’s less willing to bury curve-balls in the dirt. Any sign of reviving the slider yet? Then again that’s what made him a better starter too. Major leaguers can tell the difference between a fastball and a curve, but when he was able to mix in the slider everything got a bit hazy.

Gardenhire's major league career: Banjo hitting, futility infielder who couldn't lick it.
Rick Anderson's major league career: Strikethrower who never made it happen with his sub 90's fastball.
Really gives a new definition to living vicariously through other people, don't it?

by caseintheface on Jul 19, 2008 1:32 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

I'd also

be happy if he had a good changeup. Right now it’s sort of fastball/curve…which makes it easy to just sit on one of them. A better changeup would compliment his fastball, and make that good curveball a bit more dangerous as well.

by Jesse on Jul 19, 2008 1:35 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

I'm actually more

worried about a 5th/6th inning guy…which sort of makes me laugh/cringe. But yeah, you’re right—more showings like that will solidify the ‘pen.

by Jesse on Jul 19, 2008 1:37 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

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