Twins 6, Blue Jays 3: Smallball, bullpen help Minnesota upend Toronto
by Jon Marthaler on Sep 7, 2009 4:06 PM EDT
in Game Recaps
23 comments
This season, the Twins have been much more dependent on the home run. For much of the middle of the season, it seemed that if nobody in the batting order hit a three-run homer, the team couldn't score.
Monday afternoon in Toronto, though, Minnesota returned - at least for one inning - to its small-ball ways. Denard Span walked to lead off the game, and that pass was followed by five consecutive hits. Joe Mauer drove in two runs with a single, following Nick Punto's heads-up play to take second after a single sent the outfield throw to third to try to nab Span. Justin Morneau followed with an RBI single to drive home Mauer (killing an 0-19 stretch), Jason Kubel whacked a double to put two runners on, and Michael Cuddyer ended an 0-16 slump with a single that drove in Morneau.
When the dust had cleared (and Delmon Young had driven home Kubel with a groundout), the Twins led 5-0 before Toronto ever came to the plate.
Jeff Manship, given the big lead, struggled to mow through the Jays' hitters. The rookie had to throw 104 pitches just to get into the fifth inning, and after he'd given up a homer, a double, and a single, his day finished short of the five innings required to get the win. Minnesota's bullpen, however, ensured that while Manship would go winless, the team would not.
Bobby Keppel allowed an infield hit to the first batter he faced, but that was all the Jays would get. Keppel (two outs), Ron Mahay (two outs), Jesse Crain (four outs, including three strikeouts) and Matt Guerrier (three outs on just seven pitches) combined to retire the next 11 Jays batters and hand the game over to Joe Nathan, who closed out the save in 1-2-3 fashion. That's fourteen straight batters retired to finish the game. Nice work, bullpen.
The Twins' three stars for Labor Day:
3. Jesse Crain
Retired four consecutive batters, three of them on strikeouts, to bridge the gap between middle relief and the Twins endgame.
2. Joe Mauer
3-5 on the day, increasing his league-leading batting average to .369 and driving in two runs.
1. Jason Kubel
Laced a pair of doubles, the first of which drove in a run.
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It was good to see
Joe pick up a few hits today, but it was even better seeing Justin get ONE. He hit the ball hard again today, so hopefully that’s a sign of good things.
+1
Let’s hope this game ends Justin’s slump
by what_would_gil_thorp_do on Sep 7, 2009 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions
That WAS fast!
We beat the Jays!
Now if only Morneau snap out of it, we’d get this offense really moving again!
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"No, you don't understand It’s a metaphor for A SERIES SWEEP!!!!!!!" -natethejinx
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Sep 7, 2009 4:21 PM EDT reply actions
WSux win 5-1
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"No, you don't understand It’s a metaphor for A SERIES SWEEP!!!!!!!" -natethejinx
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Sep 7, 2009 4:33 PM EDT reply actions
Crain: 7.1 scoreless inning streak over six appearances.
That’s his longest streak all year! Nice work, Crain!
Nice job Crain!
Hopefully he has worked out whatever issues he had earlier in the year. He’s been a great help to the team since around the beginning of August.
by what_would_gil_thorp_do on Sep 7, 2009 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions
I still think
Sending down to Rochester for a while did him a lot of good. Hopefully we can retire the Crainwreck photos.
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"No, you don't understand It’s a metaphor for A SERIES SWEEP!!!!!!!" -natethejinx
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Sep 7, 2009 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Excellent game
Great job by the bullpen, absolutely shutting the door on Toronto. Good to see Mauer go 3-5 and Morneau finally get a hit.
Good game today
Nice to see the Twins aren’t going to roll over in Toronto. Here’s hoping to a couple Detroit losses and a couple more Twins wins :)
Ah, fall magic
Punto, because he is the hottest hitter in the Twins line-up, returns to the #2 hole! Yea!
Nice to see Brian Buscher back!
Visit www.TwinsCards.com and check out "rosters" to see my collection!
that wasn't it...
it was because he was playing SS and our SS usually bats #2. Gardy doesn’t like to move guys around much in the lineup so he’ll usually put the guy subbing into the same spot. Punto will be back at the bottom again next time he’s at 2nd…and that is where he belongs.
Yeah...
At the Rangers-Twins Sunday game last weekend, they actually batted Casilla second, as Cabrera had the day off and Casilla had recently come off that mini-hot streak that brought him back above the Mendoza Line. He proceeded to go hitless and drop back to .198.
That does show a willingness by Gardy to be flexible, though – he will hit any middle infielder second, not just the shortstop.
"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
I thought he figured out how to bat Mauer #2 earlier this year...
I guess he forgot how to do that at some point in the past few months.
And its funny nobody questions Cabrera hitting there. His .277 OBP is the 3rd lowest of any non-pitcher on the roster (ahead of Casilla and Tolbert). Not much of a table-setter. But Cabrera had a good first week on the team so we don’t notice these things.
Fatigue
Maybe we’re just tired of pointing out how stupid Gardy’s lineup construction is.
That's exactly it
I’m tired of criticizing the batting order and lineup. I’ve given up on the #2 spot. The only good thing Cabrera does out of the #2 spot is, in general, he hits the ball to the right side to move the runner over. Makes Gardy excited. I’d give up a few “productive outs” for a few hits in a runner on second situation…having Mauer in the #3 spot and Span’s speed makes the “productive out” a bit less necessary, as Span is more likely to score afterward.
by Adam Peterson on Sep 9, 2009 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions
nah
cause he knows how to handle the bat! Move runners! Etc, etc!
Amazing
Everyone was so excited that the Twins “finally had a #2 hitter!”, and he ends up doing worse than Nick Punto.
Michael Cuddyer has 24 homers with a solid OBP and is batting sixth, while the extra plate appearances from the #2 spot are filled by either Punto or worse-than-Punto.
"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
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