Minnesota Twins Sweep White Sox

The start of the third Twins vs. Chicago White Sox home series looked a little rough. I almost felt bad for all of the Twins fans that brought their old straw brooms out the Metrodome. Pitcher Scott Baker turned in his first poor start of the season when he gave up 6 runs in three innings, putting the Twins at a 6-1 deficit in the third. Not only were his pitches all over the place, he made a mental error by forgetting to cover first base on a routine ground ball. That play cost him two runs! I am sure Ron Gardenhire will have a long talk with our friend Scott Baker and we should look for much improvement on his next outing. Luckily for Baker, lady luck reared her pretty head at the HHH Metrodome yesterday afternoon and the Minnesota Twins came back to beat the White Sox, 7-6, when reliever David Aardsma threw four straight balls to Torii Hunter in the bottom of the ninth to walk in the winning run. Hunter said he can't remember drawing a game-winning walk since playing in high school.

While the Twins' bats scored the runs to get them back into the game, it was the impressive six innings of scoreless, hitless work by the bullpen that made it all possible. Jason Miller, Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan gave up no hits and just three walks to the Sox for the remainder of the game. Nathan, who has now thrown 11 consecutive scoreless innings, was rightly credited with the win. The Twins make shift bullpen has definitely been firing on all cylinders and should take most of the credit for the Twins recent success.

With the win, the Twins move into third place in the American League Central and sit five games behind the Indians. Up next is a game in Oakland when the Twins take on the Athletics. Kevin Slowey will make his major league debut for the Twins as he takes on the Oakland A’s mediocre Joe Kennedy. Let’s hope Slowey starts off his career with a bang and the Twins can keep on their winning streak! Go Twins!

Twins End Long Road Series

This Minnesota Twins Fan is happy to see the Twins nine game road series wrap up this afternoon. Starting pitcher Boof Bonser is trying for his third straight win against the Texas Rangers. So far so good as the Twins lead 5 -2 in the fourth and they are looking strong.

Since I last wrote (the Detroit Tigers Series) the Twins have managed to disappoint me and surprise me many times over. I knew the series in Cleveland was going to be tough, but I thought the Twins could come away with at least one win over the Indians, but no such luck. The Twins managed to lose all three games in Cleveland losing 7-15, 1-7 and 0-2. The Twins definitely rebounded in Milwaukee when they stunned the Brewers at Miller Park winning the first two games 8-1 and 5-2. The Twins lost to the Milwaukee Brewers by a hair on the third game of the series when they went down swinging losing 5-6. Monday was an embarrassment for the Twins as the Texas Rangers stomped them 4-14. Besides the tough loss, the Twins are also feeling the strain of losing some of its bullpen talent due to injury.

The club placed left-hander Glen Perkins on the 15-day disabled list yesterday after he left Monday night's game against the Texas Rangers in the eighth inning when he strained a muscle near the back of his left shoulder. Perkins is expected to miss two weeks. Also missing from the Twins relief corps is husky lefty Dennys Reyes, due to a sore left shoulder. Furthermore, right-hander Jesse Crain will have season-ending surgery next week to fix a right shoulder injury. The Twins pitching staff is scrambling to fill the gaping bullpen holes and without solid pitching, the Twins will be doomed.

Twins vs Tigers Series Review

The Minnesota Twins vs. Detroit Tigers baseball series was filled with headlines. Twins get spanked, Sidney Ponson gets fired, Justin Morneau breaks his nose and Torii hunter has a magic bat!

The first game vs. the Detroit Tigers was on Friday night and Johan Santana pitched a good game giving up only two earned runs on six hits in six innings. Despite the solid starting pitching, a Michael Cuddyer RBI single in the first inning and a Justin Morneau two-run homer to make it a two-run game in the eighth, the Twins fell short losing the game 3-7. Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, Juan Rincon just couldn’t hold the Tigers batters off and the Twins just couldn’t hit the ball when they really needed to.

The second game vs. the Tigers was Saturday afternoon. It’s odd for the Twins to have a 2:45pm game on a Saturday, but the schedule was changed by the power that be and the start time was only the beginning of odd things to happen. Justin Morneau broke his nose in the eighth inning after a Nick Punto throw from third base bounced off a seam in the turf and struck Morneau in the face. Morneau exited the game and the Twins lost 2-8. Sidney Ponson had pitching problems from the start, allowing each of the first four batters he faced to reach base. Two runs would score during that span on RBI singles by Gary Sheffield and Magglio Ordonez. Ponson managed to escape the first with just that damage, but more trouble was on the way and the game was definitely his season ender with the Minnesota Twins.

The third game of the series was Sunday May 13th, Mothers Day. The evening game was sure to be well attended by mothers from around the state and the Minnesota Twins did not want to disappoint. Boof Bonser pitched an OK game for the Twins, but the real stars of the game came at the plate. The Twins pulled in a season-high 22 hits and 16 runs. It was a night of banging the ball around like the Twins had not seen in some time. The Twins club knocked the Tigers around in a 16-4 victory at the Metrodome. A few of the Twins players used special pink bats in honor of Mothers Day and to support Breast Cancer Awareness. Perhaps the pink bats added enough magic to the moment, but most of the Twins victory had to do with Torii Hunter delivering some big hits. Just a few nights after Hunter made what he called one of the top five catches of his career, he followed it up with one of his best offensive career performances. Hunter delivered a career-high seven RBIs as part of a two-home run night. Torii has been hot at the plate and he has been key to keeping the Twins ballclub from sinking into oblivion.

Next up the Minnesota Twins face the Cleveland Indians on the road. The Indians are playing solid baseball and the Twins will be lucky to escape the road trip with a victory.

Twins need to put White Sox behind them

The Twins vs. White Sox series is always one of my favorite of the season. The teams are big rivals and the Sox always give the Twins a run for the money. This weeks’ series at the Metrodome was no exception. The White Sox caught the Twins sleeping at home. The White Sox won the series 2-1. It was a good thing the Twins won the first game or it would have been an easy White Sox sweep.

The first game on Tuesday May 8th went into overtime and after hitting a solo homer early in the game, Justin Morneau blasted a three-run walk-off homer to beat the White Sox in the 10th inning. Good thing my boy Justin was ready to go the extra mile to win a game for the Twins. Other stars of the game included Jason Bartlett, Luis Castillo and Torii Hunter as they led a three-run eighth inning that dug the Twins out of a three-run hole and forced the overtime innings. The Twins ended the game with a 7-4 victory.

On Wednesday night, the Twins couldn’t dig out of the hole set by pitcher Ramon Ortiz when he allowed four runs on four hits and two walks, including one with the bases loaded, in just the first inning! Ortiz dropped his third straight game and is now 3-3 for the season. Besides Torii Hunter extending his hitting streak to 23 games, the Minnesota Twins just couldn’t get moving offensively and lost the game 3-6.

Last night was a real downer when the Twins didn’t even get a run losing the game 0-3. The Twins weren’t even tackling baseball fundamentals with their usual prowess. Their hitting was terrible and the White Sox pitcher looked like he was on fire and hardly had to do any work. Poor baserunning caused an unnecessary out, an inability to lay down a bunt to move a runner over looked pathetic and the Twins made mistakes when trying to get an out on a steal attempt. "It was a frustrating game today," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We made too many mistakes. We talked about this in our little meeting. You talk about being fundamentally sound, and doing this right and playing the game -- well, you have to do it out on the field. You can't just do it talking about it and talking about it in the press; we have to do it out on the field. Obviously we're making too many mistakes out there."

I have a message for my Minnesota Twins, put the White Sox series behind you and get back on track. I am sure if the Twins could just get one big hit or a super strong pitching performance they could get back to the kind of Minnesota Twins baseball us fans love and have to come to expect.

Santana is pitching on the mound tonight vs. the Detroit Tigers, maybe our ace can inspire the team to win the big ballgame! I try to get to as many Twins baseball games as I can and I especially like to go on Santana pitching nights! There are still great Twins Tickets out there for fans that want to make the trip to the Metrodome and if you go to the Dome on Mothers Day you get to see some Twins players using pink bats to support the breast cancer cause! Go Twins!

Sidney Ponson gets the Win

This Minnesota Twins Fan was starting to think Sidney Ponson was not a good fit for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins signed Ponson to bring a veteran presence to the rotation and to fill the void left by Brad Radke and Francisco Liriano. Yesterday was the first time that Ponson showed why the Twins took a chance on him, tossing seven strong innings in a 9-1 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The strong showing was a do or die situation for Ponson and the win very well might have saved his job. The embattled veteran pitcher now has two victories this season, both coming against Tampa Bay. I am a big Matt Garza fan and I was half expecting him to switch out with Ponson in the next few weeks, but if Ponson can continue to prove himself, Matty may have to wait.

The pitching wasn’t only thing that looked great yesterday. The Minnesota Twins bats were swinging and the base running was solid. I am sure many Twins fans saw the Michael Cuddyer gymnastics roll as he caught a toe running to the base, but all in all the Twins looked like a very solid ball club getting a victory on the road. Torii Hunter's seventh-inning double extended his career-high hitting streak to 16 games and I know Torii will be gunning for another hit tonight when the Minnesota Twins face off against the Devil Rays again. St. Petersburg native Boof Bonser will be on the mound for the Twins as he tries to pitch his way to another Twins victory.