A Bunch of Dogs.

P.M. Update: Carlos Quentin may be done for the year!

On a night when I couldn't have cared less whether the Twins won or lost, they played so poorly that it ruined the NFL's opening night for me. And that's hard to do, considering I have Brandon Jacobs (21 car., 116 yards) and Plaxico Burress (10 rec., 133 yards) on a few fantasy teams, and they played pretty well. What a bunch of quitters. We'll need more fight than this to overtake the White Sox, who are now 1.5 games up on our beloved baseball club.

Quick stats:

1. Minnesota pitchers tossed just 2/3 of an inning that didn't scare me.
2. Twins batters combined for just four hits against Jesse Litsch, who has a season WHIP of nearly 1.300. That means we should of at least gotten 6-8 hits over nine innings, because our hitters are relative underachievers. Four hits? Barf.
   
3. The team scored 4.71 runs per night during the 14-game road trip, but scored zero runs yesterday.
4. After notching runs vs. such prominent pitchers as John Lackey, AJ Burnett and Ervin Santana, the Twins allowed Litsch to baffle them. Unbelievable.
5. Justin Morneau and Alexi Casilla both left a total of three men on base.
   

Here's how it happened: Kevin Slowey gave up 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings while striking out three. He only gave up three runs, which - in theory - gives the team a chance to win, especially after Craig Breslow (good 1/3 inning) struck out Toronto's Joe Inglett to end the inning. Thing is, Slowey was ineffective. Ten baserunners in less than six innings? That means he got lucky, folks. But with the way he's been pitching lately, I can't be all that mad. Of course, Jesse Crain came in and gave up a homer - that's 5 ER in his past 3 2/3 IP (uh, oh). Then came the other solid 1/3 of an inning from Dennys Reyes, who got Adam Lind to ground out. From there, Bobby Korecky (3H, 1BB, 4 ER, 1/3 IP) and Phil Humber (3H, 1 ER, 2/3 IP) brought us home with an abysmal five-run eighth inning to give Toronto a comfortable 9-0 lead. Hopefully that wasn't as frustrating to read as it was to write.

Of the Twins' four hits, Denard Span accounted for half of them, including a leadoff single that was completely wasted by Casilla's follow-up double-play ball. The team didn't even manage a baserunner after the fifth inning. That's right, Jesse-freaking-Litsch retired the final 13 batters.

And with that, the 5-9 road trip comes to an end. A bitter, trying end. And the Twins return home with their tails between their legs, beaten to a pulp by a middle-of-the-road team.

But the great thing about baseball is that you move on to the next day, the next team, the next series. The team needs a clean slate and some familiar scenery. Maybe the Metrodome will cure what ails. Minnesota faces Armando Galarraga (12-4, 3.17 ERA) Friday, Justin Verlander (10-15, 4.74 ERA) Saturday and Chris Lambert (0-1, 6.75 ERA) Sunday. For the Twins, Francisco Liriano (4-3, 3.45 ERA), Scott Baker (8-4, 3.66 ERA) and Glen Perkins (12-3, 4.08 ERA) will try and keep the Tigers at bay until the bullpen collapses in eventual Twins losses. Please guys - Joe Nathan, Crain, Reyes, Bonser, Breslow, etc. - prove me wrong.

Thanks for reading, and have a nice weekend! I'll try to write once, but it's no guarantee with the first Sunday of the NFL season + another college football Saturday coming up. I'm pretty much comatose from 11 a.m. Saturday to 10 p.m. Monday every week.

Series win... Sox looming

It was a nice end to a crappy road trip, but we'll gladly take our two wins at "the Jake". Nick Blackburn looked great for seven innings, then Dennys Reyes promptly gave up the lead before the bats roared back and Nathan nailed it down for his 28th save. A win's a win...

It's not so much that I don't care about yesterday's win - it's more that the next four games are extremely important in comparison. Consider: The Twins are 4-7 so far this season against Chicago, and thankfully they won't have to play them at U.S. Cellular field again. However, Minnesota only gets seven more opportunities to take full game chunks out of "pale" Sox' lead from this point forward. It starts tonight when Kevin Slowey (6-7, 4.41 ERA) faces off against Mark Buehrle (8-8, 3.56 ERA, and killed the Twins his last time out). 

It figures to be a tough series for a few reasons: 

1. The Sox are sending lefties to the hill just about every night; our best hitters are left-handers
2. Chicago is scoring an unbelievable 6.8 runs per game over their past 11 outings. They average 5.04 a game for the season, so we know the bats are hot.
3. Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins and Livan each had pretty spotty outings last time they pitched.
4. Jim Thome. The guy has a lifetime .315 batting average against Minnesota and hits a homer every 11.8 at-bats against the Twins. He ALWAYS gets his.
   
5. The Twins' bullpen has been awful lately. Never good against an offensive powerhouse. 

Other than all this, I'm pretty confident going into this pivotal series. To be honest, I'd feel a lot better if Liriano were up. Speaking of...

Francisco Liriano pitched yesterday, and I finally caught a radio broadcast! He pitched wonderfully through 5 2/3 innings before giving up a three-run dong to Scranton/Wilkes-Burre in the sixth. He finished with nine Ks and gave up four runs on eight hits overall. If you look at the box score, it really doesn't do him justice. He was in complete control for most of the day, but missed on some pitches and Scranton made him pay. I still say the kid is ready, and it looks as though the Twins need him now more than ever. 

Other Minor League notes: 

• My guy Jason Pridie smoked another home run for Rochester last night, his 12th of the season. He continues to be one of the favorites for a call-up this September. If not for the sub-.270 average, he'd get more press.
• After coming up big in his previous outing with a seven-inning, 8K performance, Cole Devries was swatted back to earth by Dunedin, who tagged him for eight hits and five runs in just five innings of work. 
• Another Elizabethton pitcher is on the radar - Daniel Osterbrock. Despite some up-and-down outings (given up 6 and 4 runs before last night), he's managed to strike out 52 batters in 40 1/3 innings thus far. Last night, however, Osterbrock was downright filthy as he punched out 12 batters in a seven-inning stretch of shutout mastery. He'll likely be up in Beloit or Fort Myers next year. 

That's all for now... thanks for reading!