Red Sox 9, Twins 3: Joe Nathan Leaves Game With Elbow Soreness
by Jesse on Mar 6, 2010 4:59 PM EST
in Game Recaps
21 comments
Joe Nathan left the game in the third inning, after striking out Mike Cameron and then walking Bill Hall and J.D. Drew back-to-back. Over at his Strib blog, Joe C has a few choice quotes from Nathan, including this:
"Until we get that evaluation, I don’t want to come to any assumptions that I’m going to be fine or not," Nathan said. "But like I said, some tightness and achiness that they didn’t want to take a chance right now."
The "soreness" and "achiness" was in Nathan's surgically repaired right elbow, so it will be interesting to see what the doctors say when it's checked out tomorrow. Hopefully this is just one of those things where Nathan's elbow was simply sore, and we can simply be glad that the Twins did the right thing in removing him from the game. If it's something a bit more serious, well...we'll burn that bridge when we get there.
One the plus side, Francisco Liriano looked great in his two innings of work. He started the game, striking out three while allowing one hit and plunking Drew. Only one of the six outs he recorded was hit in the air.
The only other bright spot on the mound for the Twins was Jose Mijares, who struck out on in a perfect inning. Glen Perkins struggled, allowing Boston to get on the board and take a 2-0 lead in the fourth, while both Jeff Manship and Jose Lugo got battered in the seventh and eighth when the game got out of hand.
At the plate, Wilson Ramos picked up a double and an RBI in two at-bats. Daniel Valencia picked up an RBI single as well, in his only at-bat. Juan Portes picked up a couple of hits, with Jacque Jones and Brendan Harris picking up the other two hits for the Twins. Chris Parmelee tallied the team's only base on balls. In his first start of the spring, Ben Revere went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts.
Spring training is all about the process, but in that process you want to avoid injuries. Let's hope Nathan's all right.
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Nathan
Oooooooooh boy…
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
Liriano
3 K’s is nice, but frankly I need to see Liriano’s fastball with my own two eyes, for several innings, on separate days, before I’m convinced of anything there.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
I'm sure that's how a lot of folks have felt.
But every single one of them that HAS seen him this winter/spring has been impressed, so I am pretty well convinced. Let’s hope he keeps it up this spring.
We heard
We heard very positive things about him coming into the last couple of seasons too, to be honest. I don’t know if it’s media-driven echo chamber of comments, or scouts wanting to be too optimistic, or what, but I’ll remain skeptical for at least a couple more weeks.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
I agree mostly
I think people should be cautiously optimistic about Liriano and nothing more. We still don’t really know which one will show up. Unless he gets lit up in spring training, I think the fifth spot has to be his by default. Duensing would be my second choice.
The only difference I see is that this year the national media (ESPN and such) is saying he’s throwing very similar to his 2006 self. I don’t remember the national media saying it in previous seasons, just Twins scouts. Once he arrived to ST in previous years the Twins noticed that the scouts were wrong. It was pretty easy to see and quickly reported. This year, the Twins and now national media haven’t stopped with the “we think he’s back.”
Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD
But he didn't light up the Dominican league in previous years
And then strike out 3 guys in his first outing of the spring, while throwing 23 of his 35 pitches for strikes, did he?
I get it though. It’s probably good to be skeptical at this point. But I’m on the Liriano bandwagon.
I agree with you
That’s kind of what I was saying, or trying to. We haven’t seen this in previous years and now the national media is hyping him too. That didn’t happen before. I’m on the bandwagon, I’m just cautiously on it.
Things could turn at any moment. He has to keep his confidence up, that’s the biggest problem. I don’t think Liriano was used to being terrible and ever since that surgery that’s all he was. You could tell by the look on his face, like someone just killed his puppy. And by the things he said, “I don’t know what to throw anymore” or something like that. Keep his confidence up and I think we’re good to go.
Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD
I was going to say
Umpires call strikes in spring training the same way they do during the season. Last year, he threw more balls than strikes. His strike-to-ball ration is very encouraging.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
FYI
FYI last year he threw 911 balls and 1407 strikes, or about 61% strikes. His 65% strikes thrown today aren’t all that far from that.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
2 innings, really?
Really, we’re going to learn something from two innings at the start of spring, really? First of all, the strikeouts are meaningless of nearly meaningless. Second, he would OFTEN pitch very well to start a game last year, but I could easily tell by the fifth inning he was going to get hammered. It was very plain to see when he was struggling with his fastball early and relying on his offspeed stuff by the second inning to navigate through the order. It would alsoways just get worse from there and the opposing hitters would sit on the offspeed stuff.
I’m just saying, there’s lots of guys who dominate winter leagues. It’s encouraging, but it doesn’t mean much. The first two innings of spring training are almost entirely irrelevant when it comes to determining success that year.
Liriano is all upside, so I’m hopeful too, if the Twins can get anything whatsoever out of him it’s huge, but I’m not buying into all this pretty unsubstantiated hype.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
National Media
I have probably less than zero trust for something like this coming from their mouth. It’s a simple fact that they don’t have the time to do anything resembling full research on every team. This is the kind of story they just pick up from local media and basically dress up and run with. And even still, they are all just reporting other reports, it all remains entirely speculative.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
I'm talking about
the national media that has watched him live. Not the guys that are just regurgitating what they heard from our local guys. There are several national media people who have actually watched him throw and then reported that he looks close to 2006 form.
Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD
and the last time
the Twins scouts were saying “he’s throwing like ’06” the national media said absolutely nothing. They didn’t even repeat what the local media said. And after he reported to camp, even the Twins didn’t agree with the scouts.
Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD
"Let's hope Nathan's all right."
Amen.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Confidence? How 'bout a slider
Color me prayerfully optimistic. However, I don’t really buy the fragile psyche/confidence shtick that’s currently being parroted. If one’s arm feels strong and that sinful slider is back, that will lead to confidence. All the confidence in the world won’t keep mediocre pitches from getting whacked.
His slider has always been good
even last year
His fastball suuuucked though. That is apparently not the case anymore.
Video
Check out the video of Nathan pitching today. It’s very obvious something was wrong.
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"All morons hate it when you call them a moron." -Holden Caufield
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Mar 6, 2010 11:09 PM EST reply actions
I don't
I don’t really see what said that to you. DId you mean the pitches, his demeanor, what?
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
Seriously?
Starting at about :37 you can clearly see him twinge on both pitches, which were way off target. It is pretty obvious to me anyway.
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"All morons hate it when you call them a moron." -Holden Caufield
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Mar 7, 2010 2:09 AM EST up reply actions
I can see
I can see what you’re looking at, though I think it could be a bit of editorializing on your part that he is making those little motions over his elbow discomfort and not because he is annoyed with the pitches. Especially with the second pitch where he shrugs his shoulders and moves his neck instead of doing something like shaking out his arm.
We’ll just have to keep watching, nobody knows exactly what the deal is.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
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