#-1: Twins (Last Week: -1). A 2-3 screening week. Dropped the midweek series at Pittsburgh. The Pirates have been better this year, but in seasons past the Twins would have had a good shot of sweeping, even on the road, so the series loss owes a lot to the bad state the club is in right now.
The first game of their series against Cincinnati was highlighted by the continuing lights-out relief pitching by Glen Perkins. I remember seeing him when he was hurling for the U. Quite possibly the best Gopher baseball game I've ever seen was him going the distance in beating Iowa 2-1. He struck out 13, the last of which was a called third strike on a change-up (?) with the Hawkeyes in scoring position.
I know that he was groomed to be a starter when he was drafted by the Minnesota Nine, but after a few seasons, and for some unknown reason, he was told he was going to be converted to a reliever. Perkins didn't like that, so much so that he was very pissed at the organization. I read one reporter almost guaranteeing that Perkins would be moved. But, for some reason, Perkins stayed. And apparently he cooled down and accepted his new role. And probably like the front office believed, Perkins blossomed in his new role.
For the past few seasons Perkins was the set-up man, holding down the fort for Joe Nathan and now Matt Capps. But since Capps started to get shaky, Perkins has shown that he has the gas to slam the door shut. And now that Capps is on ice for a while, he has the potential to show that he could be the team's closer, which would allow the squad to trade Capps to a contender around the trade deadline. The reason the Twins may be reluctant is what I saw when I went to their loss to Philadelphia a couple weeks ago: He committed an error trying to catch the ball while covering first. His attitude became totally negative, and he allowed it to affect him to the point where he started throwing wild and put runners on base. But then he got back-to-back strikeouts and all was well -- at least for now. And he helped the Twinks hold on for a 5-4 victory over the Reds Friday. Why not make Glen Perkins the closer? He could be the best pitcher on the roster.
On the other end of pitching performances was a play committed by Nick Blackburn in Saturday's 6-0 Redwash. There was a runner on third. The batter, pitcher Johnny Cueto (?), bunted. Blackburn picked it up and lazily threw underhanded to get him at first. The runner on third hesitated about halfway to home, but once he saw that Blackburn didn't even look him back, he ran for home. Manager Ron Gardenhire apparently was livid at allowing the run.
I don't know who's at fault here. It could be Joe Mauer, who was playing at first, for not shouting at Blackburn, "Runner! Runner!" It could be the fault of Catcher Ryan Doumit, who didn't make the defensive calls in case a bunt was put down. But I have to blame it on Blackburn, a man who's doing all he can to lose his job in Major League Baseball. It was the throw, man. At the very least, the very least, zip the ball to first so that Mauer has a chance to make a play at the plate. But tossing it underhand like you're throwing it to your nephew? Come on!
The last interleague game is Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. They then immediately come home and face American League clubs, starting with the White Sox Monday. Kansas City comes in for the weekend, and the series will include a doubleheader Saturday, necessitated because of a rainout of a game I was about to work. In a coincidence, I should be working the makeup game as well.
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