Twins Top Tigers In Ten, Valencia's Single Wins It
by Jesse on Sep 2, 2010 10:09 AM EDT
in Game Recaps
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PrintTwins top Tigers in B-Squad lineup's matchup against ace pitching.
You know who's not fast? Michael Cuddyer. But he didn't let a little old thing like that stop him!
Let me set this up for you.
Through a majority of Wednesday night, Francisco Liriano and Max Scherzer traded zeros. They combined for 16 phenomenal innings, 16 strikeouts and just one run. A double by Delmon Young eventually led to the Twins run in the fifth, but it was Matt Guerrier who allowed an inherited runner (bummer, Jesse Crain) to score by allowing a two-out walk and single in the eighth.
After three double plays by the Tigers, two more by the Twins, each outfield scoring an out by taking advantage of base running mistakes and a game that wouldn't be decided in the allocated nine innings, the Twins manufactured the winning run.
Cuddyer singled to lead off the tenth against Ryan Perry. After an eight-pitch plate appearance where Perry eventually struck out Young, Cuddyer stole second base on the strikeout pitch. He'd been going on pitches six and seven (which had been fouled off), so when Young swung and missed on pitch number eight there was no stopping him. He was safe at second, putting the Twins in scoring position with just one out.
Danny Valencia made sure the Twins wouldn't have to use that cushion. He extended Perry to six pitches, looping what will be classified as a line drive into center field. Austin Jackson came up throwing as Cuddyer rounded third, but the ball had seemed to float into center more than scorch, and the throw came a split second too late as Cuddles skipped past Alex Avila to plate the winning run.
Considering the lineup last night, even with Liriano on the mound I'm more relieved that we escaped with the win than anything else. Chicago also won, keeping Minnesota's lead at four games.
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HEY. YOU GUYS. LOSE A GAME.
GARGGHGHHGHGHHHHHH
OzzieOzzieOzzie: What's the first thing you're gonna do when you get there?
MannyTheTorpedoes: play rly good then stop, hate u an take ur monies
by ScottyPods Ver2.0 on Sep 2, 2010 10:30 AM EDT reply actions
I'm hoping that Hurricane Earl settles in off Nantucket for a few days...
most of the Red/White Sox series gets rained out, and they have to play a few doubleheaders later this year. In cold weather. With jet lag.
"'Over'? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!"
by rubberbiscuit on Sep 2, 2010 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions
Why give them excuses that they can complain about?
Let’s just beat them fair and square. We are entirely capable of winning this division without something like that happening.
They wouldn't need to play the games anyway
The games would only need to be replayed if there is an impact on the playoffs.
I think you're entirely underestimating the ability of people
to alibi!
"'Over'? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!"
by rubberbiscuit on Sep 2, 2010 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions
My Name is Earl
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"Dude, grit+hustle > 'the dark side'." -LNP
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Sep 2, 2010 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Its supposed to accelerate as it goes north
The Friday night game in BOS might wash out, but it’ll be long gone by saturday evening.
Anyone else think the bullpen got a little over managed in the 8th?
I realize this could be a hindsight’s 20 20 thing but I was even thinking during the game that dang Crain has been so good just let him pitch the whole inning. A guy on 1st isn’t the end of the world with Crain up there.
Twins are lucky it didn’t go longer than 10 since they had burned through their top bullpen guys after 9. I think the only guy left was Manship since Fuentes is out for a day or two.
Peyton's good but have you ever heard of Jeff George?
That is not hindsight
I was watching the game with my wife and I pretty much freaked out when Gardy brought Flores in. Crain is the best we have out there and to burn two righties because of one mediocre lefthanded bat in between is ridiculous. It was Johnny Damon, not Papi, not Hamilton, not Cano, it was Damon. Regardless of burning an extra arm (we’ll see how that plays out today) I would rather have Crain face Damon than Flores face Rayburn in that situation. Horrible move.
Hopefully having it come back to bite Gardy will temper his late game tinkering/matchup machinations, especially when the drop off from Crain to Flores is about as steep as opur bullpen poses. Very frustrating.
by PinkiePinkerton on Sep 2, 2010 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions
I wasn't a big fan of that.
You don’t want Flores to be the guy your one-run lead depends unless you have to, or unless it’s a really teed up lefty-on-lefty situation, which this clearly wasnt’ with the Rabrun pitch-hit option. My only thought is that Gardy didn’t anticipate Damon being called back. That said, we got the win, and I can’t really complain too much about the bullpen coughing up 1 run in 3 innings.
Damon doesn't even have much of a platoon split
His AVG is the same, OBP is higher against lefties, SLG is lower.
Agree
I thought Gardenhire overmanaged in the eighth, especially since he had only one lefthander with Fuentes out. As good as Crain has been going, and as mediocre as Guerrier has been, I would think the team would be better off with Crain facing Cabrera in a game situation.
by Alexi Casilla All-Star on Sep 2, 2010 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions
I think the Texas series got Gardy thinking...
… about doing ‘play-off style’ bullpen management.
Personally I think some teams can succeed with a ton of pitcher changes based on matchups, but I’m not sure the Twins can. They have only 1 traditional splits LHP now (injured) and frankly I just don’t have a lot of faith in some of these arms. Guerrier seems like the early season Crain now – it looks like his good performances now are due to good fortune or defense, and that is playing with fire in a 1 run game. Even if a small 7 AB sample size showed Damon owned Crain, that might have been the old ‘easily hittable’ Crain, not the new near unhittable Crain.
good move
leyland was going to PH damon, who is 3/7 with a hr against crain. gardy must have anticipated this because he had flores warmed up in time. instead, leyland left ryan rayburn in to face flores, which was a mistake because flores has reverse platoon splits. good managing by gardy, poor managing by leyland.
and you can put it on the boaaaaaard YES, HELL YES
Like I've said,
pulling a pitcher based on 7 freaking at-bats of history against a hitter is the absolute height of overmanaging.
you dont have any choice but to work with small samples
if crain doesn’t put jackson on, then i think yes you could let him pitch to damon with the bases empty regardless of the matchup history. but with a runner on in a tie game, and that runner is a leadoff man, i think you have to give maximum weight to 1v1 matchup statistics, even with a small sample like 7 ab’s. i mean, by your logic, guerrier should pitch to a-rod in the playoffs as long as he faced teixera before him, because there is only 7 ab’s of history there too, with the game on the line? i dont think you will see guerrier ever face rodriguez again in his career.
its not like that inning didn’t go about as well as it could have possibly gone, considering crain put the leadoff runner on. gardy clearly outmanaged leyland.
and you can put it on the boaaaaaard YES, HELL YES
*it wasn't a tie game, it was a 1-run lead
which makes holding the runner on 1st all the more imperative and adds even more weight to the 1v1 history
and you can put it on the boaaaaaard YES, HELL YES
When did he face Crain
Was Damon good against Crainwreck or Craintrain? He hasn’t exactly been the most consistent pitcher.
If you read the game thread,
People (including myself) were getting really annoyed. Not hindsight, and it wasn’t just a little overmanaged. Gardy was a dud.
How about Matty G's "few at bats" against
A-Rod?
Would pulling Matty G in that situation count as over-managing?
I always loved that one.
Not because it's A-rod
I would do it if it was Teixeira, Pujols, Votto, Cabrera, you get the picture. I don’t trust Matty G in high-leverage situations, period. Especially against HoF caliber hitters. A-rod’s small sample size may have gotten in his head, but it’s way overstated.
We won
Gardy 1
TT 0
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"Dude, grit+hustle > 'the dark side'." -LNP
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Sep 2, 2010 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions
:(
.
My life's goal: to force fischean itno using her moderator powers or, at the very least, using her witch magic to impoove my spelling.
by montanatwinsfan on Sep 2, 2010 5:35 PM EDT up reply actions
My bigger concern is Guerrier
I think it’s time to relegate him to games when we’re behind by a few. I’d rather have Capps Crain, Fuentes, Rauch, and even Flores on the mound with a lead (in that order). So I don’t mind putting Flores in for one batter, but bring Rauch in to end the inning. Don’t use Gurreier there.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Not Flores
He’s not good. Guerrier has a much better track record and he does need work to stay sharp.
Lately Guerrier has looked like Matty circa late '08
And his numbers confirm that: The last 14 days he has a .989 OPS against while having a .200 BABIP. His track record is good, except when he goes into a slump, then it’s awful. Right now, he’s in a slump.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
I thought this was kinda cool.
ESPN.com measures the 40 top single-game pitching performances of the year for AL pitchers here: http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/topperformers/_/type/pitching/league/al
Scherzer’s game yesterday is now the only performance listed there (they list the top 40) that resulted in a loss. (Liriano’s on the list twice, but not for yesterday.)
Wow, a lot more Twins games on that list than I had anticipated.
That’s nice.
"To tell the truth, I'm not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to. If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying." -Ichiro
Minnesota pitchers are on that list 7 times.
Baker 2, Liriano 2, Pavano 1, Blackburn 1, Duensing 1.
That’s actually pretty awesome. All of our (current) starting rotation has at least one appearance on the list. And you could make an argument for Kevin Slowey’s 7 no-hit innings being on there too. (Based on their scoring system, Slowey’s performance was 3 points off of making the list.)
Another thing that’s really awesome? Only ONE of those pitching performances has come against us, and that was last night, against possibly the weakest lineup we have run out there all year, sans Morneau, Kubel, Thome, Hudson, etc.
One clarification
It was not a looping line drive. Even though Jackson was playing no-doubles defense, it almost carried out to him on a line. Valencia hit that ball hard.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
I don't know.
Watching the replay now, all I know is that I wouldn’t categorize it as a scorching line drive. Looping probably makes it sound weaker than it was, though.
OK, how's this
If he hits it any harder, it’s an out.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Just watched the replay
It was a low sinking liner. Definitely not smoked by any stretch. I think he hit it off the end of the bat. So perhaps looper is appropriate.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
I would
If I was calling the game, I would have classified it as a “soft liner.” I don’t think I’d quite say it was ‘looping’
"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
Jeez, I know...who cares??
The beard abides.
by Jason Kubel's Beard on Sep 2, 2010 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions
A sinking liner with moderate loop factor?
"'Over'? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!"
by rubberbiscuit on Sep 2, 2010 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions
A nonblooping looping liner
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"Dude, grit+hustle > 'the dark side'." -LNP
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Sep 2, 2010 1:42 PM EDT up reply actions
a looper, a caddy, a looper
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Another thing to note that is encouraging.
Jim Thome’s makes a pinch-hitting appearance after being scratched as a starter. Hopefully we will see him back in the lineup soon. We need it.
i know
all the sudden the twins cant hit RHP at all
and you can put it on the boaaaaaard YES, HELL YES
Matt Serra is a great choice for MMA favorite. He's pretty likeable.
I’m pretty partial to the Dean of Mean, Keith Jardine. He just keeps his head down and his mouth shut and takes care of business.
My life's goal: to force fischean itno using her moderator powers or, at the very least, using her witch magic to impoove my spelling.
by montanatwinsfan on Sep 2, 2010 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Good baserunning
Not only Cuddyer stealing second, but he got a good jump on Danny’s single. A perfect throw probably would have had him, but with Repko and Morales due up, it was the right thing to send him. I didn’t think Jackson was in “no-doubles” defense (and he shouldn’t have been) and he caught the ball on the second or third skip running mostly in.
by Alexi Casilla All-Star on Sep 2, 2010 11:27 AM EDT reply actions
Good throw gets Cuddyer
But, that’s why you send him: Make them make the play.
And, I agree with CMath, Valencia hit that ball hard. Kid has a lot of forearm strength. You see the swing from CF and you think looper but it was stroked.
Twins are struggling to score runs. They are extremely lucky to be winning these games. Right now the pitching is carrying them.
by Old Twins Cap on Sep 2, 2010 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
Taking your three biggest LH power threats out of the lineup does that to a team.
Morneau, Kubel, Thome. Here’s hoping we have all three back soon.
Great win.
My favorite part was the time when Frankie struck out Miguel “Don’t Drink and Argue” Cabrera."
I always loved that one.
by FoulJack on Sep 2, 2010 12:51 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Valencia jerseys?
I don’t think it would jinx him at this point. He’s killing Detroit.
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