Twins hand out 11 walks en route to 9-4 loss

I turned off Trevor May's Major League debut. I mean, he was done pitching by that point, but still. After Samuel Deduno's second walk in the third inning - already the eighth of the game - I had to ask myself: what's in it for me? And other than appreciating the machine that is the Oakland Athletics, I came up empty. And I wasn't wanted to appreciate the opposition last night.

Coco Crisp led of the game for the Athletics and swung at Trevor May's first pitch as a Major Leaguer. He fouled out as Trevor Plouffe chased the ball towards the distant seats behind third base, ultimately making a nice over-the-shoulder catch, but it was an auspicious start. Swinging on the first pitch from a pitcher making his debut probably isn't what you would anticipate, and it turns out there was a good reason for that.

Everything in the strike zone looked hittable. And if it wasn't in the strike zone, nobody swung. Well, okay, somebody swung at one pitch outside of the strike zone, but them's ain't good odds, kids.

After getting Crisp on the first pitch of the game, May's opposition went single-double-walk-walk, with the second walk forcing in a run. Josh Reddick then flew out to medium-deep left field, and Josh Willingham made an on-target throw to Eric Fryer, who put down the tag on Josh Donaldon. The Twins came out of the first tied at one.

May got the first two batters of the second inning to fly out, and then imploded once again. He walked three consecutive batters on a total of 13 pitches (yep) before Donaldson pushed through a two-run single. Brandon Moss was the fourth walk of the inning, re-loading the bases, and then Derek Norris walked, forcing in a run on a free pass for the second time in as many innings.

Danny Santana scored on a fielder's choice in the fifth, but Deduno served up a two-run homer to Stephen Vogt in the bottom half. Norris added a three-run shot off of Anthony Swarzak in the seventh. The Twins got a couple back in the eighth but it was far too little, far too late. It was a 9-4 drubbing, and to be honest I'm surprised to have caught the highlights when I got home and saw it was as close as it was.

May faced 15 batters in his two innings of work, walked seven of them and gave up four hits on top. His four runs, and Deduno's five runs in three innings, gave Oakland the easy victory.

The Twins, obviously disenfranchised with the efforts of the game's pitchers, then traded a pitcher who wasn't responsible for the humiliating performance. More on that coming up this morning.

Studs

What? Oh, fine...

Duds