Torii Claus

I give Nick Punto all the credit in the world for the bomb he smoked off Justin Speier in the top of the 12th inning last night, but Torii Hunter catches that ball 99.79 times out of 100, folks. Lemme give you a quick recap: Hunter is a seven-time Gold Glove center fielder. He had p-l-e-n-t-y of time to find the ball, get to the spot and make the grab. Yet he doesn't, and the epitome of our franchise - Nick Punto - ends up with a "triple" with nobody out. Hunter would like to wish you and yours an early, yet equally Merry Christmas. 

As you probably know, Denard Span went the other way for a single down the left field line that ended up being the game-winning hit. But that wasn't even the story of the night.

Did I mentions that Scott Baker is my freaking hero? I don't use the word "freaking" a lot in my writing (I save it for emphasis in speech), but he was dominant last night. It makes me wonder if he's once again locked in, and ready to bring his "A" game every night the rest of the season. Because in eight innings against the Anaheim Angels (best lineup in baseball), Baker was virtually untouchable. He gave up just one run - a solo shot to Mark Teixiera in the bottom of the first inning - and five hits while walking two and striking out six batters. He went toe-to-toe with a top-five AL pitcher in John Lackey, and while he didn't win the decision, he certainly didn't look out of his league. Impressive, yet somehow, not the story of the night. 

If you stayed up to watch the entire game, you know who I'm talking about. Matt Guerrier stepped onto the mound in the ninth inning, and what followed was something we hadn't seen for weeks... a full inning of scoreless work for our "setup" man. Two, actually, and it came at the perfect time. This, from a guy who had given up 14 runs over his past 6 1/3 innings (nine appearances, 19.90 ERA) and recently received four days off due to absolutely horrid pitching. I savored every pitch he threw last night, and maybe - just maybe - this road trip is what he needed to get back on track.

Of course, if you look at the appalling numbers our bats came up with, you'd probably have a big-time negative spin on last night's event. For me, good pitching was enough... there's no way we go an entire series stranding 18 base runners a game. It was disheartening to see Morneau and Casilla come up empty time and again, but I'm going to forgive and forget - we face Cy Young candidate Joe Saunders tonight, and there's no time for sulking.  

Twins Notes: With another two-hit night last night from Nick Punto, the utility infielder now has a nine-game hitting streak. What's more impressive is that he has eight multi-hit games over that span, and moved his batting average back up to .282 from .256 on August 11... Denard Span's on-base percentage finally creeped over .400 on the year last night - Carlos Gomez' remains quite a bit lower, at .287... Jesse Crain pitched a scoreless 11th inning as the bridge to Joe Nathan, who picked up his 34th save of the year... For all the talking up we did, Delmon Young's bat sure hasn't backed it up lately - he's batting .056 over his past four games (1-for-18)... Last, Matt Tolbert busted out the lumber last night with two hits in four ABs for New Britain. He's now batting .300 for the Rock Cats and will be up in 10 days or so. 

Minor League Notes: 

• Rochester's Luke Hughes lined two singles in five at bats, and Alejandro Machado boosted his batting average up over .350 with a three-hit night last night. Unfortunately, starting pitcher Tommy Shearn got destroyed for six earned runs in just five innings of work. 
• The double-A club had quite a night... four hitters (Ramos-4, Portes-3, Woodard-3, Ovalle-3) totaled 3+ hits and starter Alex Burnett threw six dominant innings, striking out 10 batters while giving up five hits and just one earned run. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day... another late-night game tonight!

Three in a Row!

Win the 7-6 late-inning comeback win over Seattle yesterday afternoon, the Twins set themselves up to sweep the Mariners today as Glen Perkins faces Ryan Feierabend. What's even more impressive is that the team is now a season-high 16 games over .500, a mark they never hit in 2007 with the likes of Torii Hunter and Johan Santana gracing the field. It's been an exciting ride, and to be in the division hunt is something that we, as fans, should be thankful for after such a disheartening offseason. And the fact that we did all of this in spite of Livan Hernandez is all the more awe-inspiring.

What hasn't been inspiring of late, however, is Scott Baker. He came off the DL in June and absolutely baffled hitters, but in his past five starts - including yesterday - Baker has seemed to lose his sense of the strike zone and is allowing hits at an alarmingly high rate with a 1.674 WHIP (34 hits, 14 BB) and 5.96 ERA in 28 2/3 innings. Baker has failed to get into the sixth inning in three of those starts, so not only is he hurting the team, he's also taxing the bullpen whenever he starts. Baker throws again on Friday in Los Angeles as the team starts a massive 14-game road trip, and there'll be no better time this season (barring playoffs) for him to start pitching well again.

We got some good news about Alexi Casilla and Matt Tolbert this weekend - both could play with the team in the coming weeks. Casilla took grounders, threw and hit off a tee Friday night and pounded some soft toss Saturdsay and is vying to return to the Twins at some point during this next road trip. Probably near the end of the month. Tolbert, on the other hand, will probably be a September addition to the team... no word on when, exactly, that will happen. Update: Alexi Casilla will begin a rehab assignment Monday, and should be back with the Twins on Wednesday.

Sunday Twins Notes: With four straight multi-hit games in a row, Delmon Young continued to slowly march his batting average upward - he's at .294 now and hasn't cracked .300 yet... Joe Mauer is 4-for-9 with a home run and 3 RBI ... found out that the new stadium is going to ROCK ... After batting just .136 so far in August, Justin Morneau came through with two hits yesterday to break a three-game hitless streak ... Just when you thought it was safe to put Jesse Crain on the mound, he gives up two earned runs on a hit and a walk - we need to rely on Crain, but he's making it awfully difficult ... Dennys Reyes, however, hasn't allowed an earned run in his past 10 appearances (since July 27), and has a 0.546 WHIP, 8.1 K/9 IP and incredible .111 BAA over those 7 1/3 innings.

Minor League Notes:

• Rochester OF Jason Pridie went hitless on Friday to end his 20-game hitting streak. Pridie got the night off Saturday as well. In his stead, 2B/3B Luke Hughes belted his third homer of the year for the Red Wings, and continues to look quite comfortable at the Triple-A level.
  
• With two home runs in his past three games, New Britain's Daniel Valencia has nearly matched his power output from high-A Fort Myers in the first half of the season. His .275/.320/.412 hitting line as a Rock Cat is decidedly worse, however. Teammate David Winfree now has 17 home runs on the season and has bashed three in his past seven games (11-for-30, .367 BA, 9 RBI).
  
• 24-year-old SP Yohan Pino has a 13-game scoreless streak for New Britain, and has two straight wins over that span, including an eight-inning shutout performance on Friday night.
  
• Elizabethton center fielder Angel Morales has caught fire of late, slamming eight hits - four for home runs - in his past 14 at bats (four games) for a team-leading 15 homers and .329 batting average in the process. This kid is only 19 years old, so keep an eye on a possible quick rise through the organization.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the noon game today... SWEEP!!!

Fresh Bake(r)d Victory

On a day when the Twins absolutely needed it, Scott Baker came through. Pitching five solid innings, Baker allowed the Twins bats enough time to amass a 9-3 lead and get him his seventh victory of the season. Too bad the team couldn't have gotten anything going in his two 1-0 defeats over the past couple of weeks.


And it can't be overstated that the bullpen did a pretty nice job in closing it out. Brian Bass and Craig Breslow pitched scoreless innings before giving way to Jessie Crain, who in typical Jessie Crain fashion, allowed the Indians to plate a runner. Of course, the score was 11-4 at that time, so the run didn't matter. Still, Crain has now given up runs in three of his past four outings. Thankfully, Matt Guerrier closed out the win with a scoreless ninth.

Aside from Baker's streak-busting performance and bullpen efficiency, Brian Buscher gave the Twins' brass pause in their search for a new 3B-man. Buscher went 3-for-5 with his third round-tripper of the season, and drove in a career-high five runs. While it wasn't spotlighted in any of the game summary articles, it has to be mentioned that Delmon Young also had a three-hit night with two RBI. Young's batting average is up to .297, good for fourth on the team. Going further, he's batting .342/.364/.479 in July and is becoming a rock-solid no. 6 bat for Minnesota.

Carlos Gomez worked out in a pool yesterday, and is feeling better, according to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune.

In other Twins-related news, Francisco Liriano is pitching today vs. Scranton/Wllkes-Burre. Listen here at 5:05 CST today! Wilkes-Burre is a considerably more patient team than Toledo, Liriano's previous opponent, as they rank second in the International league in walks. The call-up could come any day now...

Minor League Notes:

• Double-A third baseman Daniel Valencia ripped two more hits last night for his third multi-hit performance in a row. He's now 7-for-11 (.636) in his past three games.
  
• Fellow Rock Cat Dustin Martin also banged out two hits to raise his average up to .292 on the season. In fact, Martin now has seven home runs and 18 stolen bases (T-5th in Eastern League) on the season.
• Garrett Olsen hammered a homer last night for Single-A Fort Myers, snapping an ugly 1-for-18 skid. Since moving up to A+ ball in June, Olsen has struggled quite a bit, hitting just .172 in 32 games.
• After his recent call-up from the Elizabethton Rookie League team where he allowed just one earned run in 19 innings while striking out 34 batters, 21-year-old Steven "Shooter" Hunt had an excellent debut for Beloit, striking out nine men in five innings of work. Hunt allowed a run and walked two batters, but all-in-all, the Tulane graduate is still golden. Certainly an arm to keep an eye on.
• Last, Elizabethton first baseman Jonathan Waltenbury has pounded out four multi-hit games in a row, and has nine hits in his past 20 at bats (.450 BA). He's just 20 years old, and could soon be ready for a call-up to Beloit as he's batting .326/.388/.545 in 35 games this season.
  

Thanks for reading... have a great day!