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When your starting pitcher walks five batters, you expect it to be a rough night out. Especially when it's done in just five innings. But in spite of the setbacks, Kevin Correia found a way to get through his five frames without giving the game away. His final line included six hits and five walks in five innings, but it all led to just two runs. Here's how he escaped the two perilous situations he faced.
- In the second inning, Josmil Pinto showed us all why he's in the driver's seat to eventually replace Joe Mauer. He gunned down Josh Reddick trying to steal second base, and then was the finishing blow in the inning when Seth Smith tried to score from first base. Oswaldo Arcia took his time playing the ball off the wall, but Brian Dozier made a good throw home and Pinto knew exactly where he was in relation to the plate. He caught the ball, spun, and got the runner inches from the plate.
- In the fourth, Correia had a little luck on his side. In an inning where everything the Oakland bats touched found grass and where nothing didn't look like a beach ball to their hitters, Correia escaped the inning allowing just two runs in spite of three walks, a single, a double, and a wild pitch. That sounds like four runs, not two.
The Twins, meanwhile, drew first blood in the third, retook the lead in the sixth, and then tied it up in the eighth before Shairon Martis gave up a two-run bomb to Coco Crisp to give us our final score. It was the only hit Martis gave up in 1.2 innings, but it was the dagger. Oswaldo Arcia homered in the effort, and along with Pinto and Chris Parmelee was one of three Twins with a multi-hit game.
Bullet Point Highlights
- Trevor Plouffe tripped over the bullpen in foul territory while chasing a ball in that battle of a second inning. He hit the ground hard and later left the game due to a sore left wrist, but as of right now it sounds like he'll be good to go for tonight's game.
- Not all the blame for that loss should go to Martis, even if he did give up what were essentially the winning runs. After Correia departed, Brian Duensing and Anthony Swarzak combined to allow four runs in 0.2 innings.
- Dan Straily was good but not unbeatable. At times he looked really sharp, and ended up striking out six in five and two thirds. Arcia and Ryan Doumit each whiffed twice against him.
- Alex Presley's chopper up the middle scored the first run of the game, when a play at the plate wasn't in time to get the runner. The Twins took the lead for the second time in the game on an infield single by Pedro Florimon, when Josh Donaldson backhanded the ball behind third base but couldn't get Florimon at first. Two big runs that nearly weren't.
- Crisp's homer was positively demolished.
- Oh and of course the Twins were still terrible, although not as bad as they've been in the past, with runners in scoring position: 3-for-11.
Studs
Brian Dozier
Oswaldo Arcia
Chris Parmelee
Josmil Pinto
Pedro Florimon
Caleb Thielbar
Duds
Kevin Correia
Brian Duensing
Anthony Swarzak
Shairon Martis
Trevor Plouffe