Generally people believe that in order to win a baseball game you have to have sound fundamentals:  Pitching, Hitting and Defense. 

Last night the Twins put their own twist on that philosophy.  Trailing 2-1 in the 7th inning the Twins put a 5-spot on the board against Jarrod Washburn.  The inning started with three perfectly executed bunts.  Jason Bartlett’s drag bunt put him on first.  Then came Alexi Castilla’s infield bunt.  Nick Punto finished the job by executing a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd base.  Hometown hero Joe Mauer was walked and Cuddy smoked the ball to the gap to score two runs.

By the end of the inning, Washburn was replaced and the Twins put up 5 on the Mariners. 

At that point, Santana was set up for the win. He was strong again last night where he pitched 7 innings giving up 2 runs on four hits while striking out 7.  Typical night.

Other game notes: 

• Michael Cuddyer continues to swing a hot bat.  He’s batting .339 through the first 15 games.  Add that to his team leading 14 RBIs and he looks to be continuing where he left off last year.  He’s finally turned into a bonafied #4 hitter.  In case you are wondering…  He’s on pace to hit 151 RBIs this season!  I guess we’ll see if that happens.
• Last night Joe Mauer and Alexi Castilla successfully pulled off a double steal.  This was the 15th and 16th stolen base of the season for the Twins.  The Twins as a team have yet to be thrown out while stealing since the start of the season.  The Ellias Sports Bureau has confirmed that this is a Twins record.  The previous record was 7 consecutive stolen bases to start the year.
• Rondell White will be taken off of the disabled list today.  He may play in tomorrow’s game against Kansas City
• Torii Hunter is slowly healing from his bruised shoulder. He contends that he feels good enough to play in the field but did suggest that he’s having some difficulty swinging the bat.  He will likely rest another day or two before returing to the lineup.
• Pat Neshak gave up a three run homerun in the bottom of the 9th last night.  This was the second night in a row where the Twins gave up 9th inning homeruns.

Did you see last night’s game???  I tried my best to watch most of it but I started dozing off around the 5th inning…  Stupid West Coast games!
Even though I did not see every out, I do have some observations.

• Ramon Ortiz will be a a decent pitcher this year for our Minnesota Twins.  Ortiz gives all of his success to Rick Anderson but even so, Ortiz has done a great job in his first three starts.  He has great control of all of his pitches and he is controlling the plate with his hard in, slider away mentality.
• Luis Rodriguez isn’t too bad in the field.  Last night during the middle innings, he put out seven batters in a row.  Most of these were routine grounders but he did make one spectacular play to send Ichiro to the bench after a screaming grounder.  From his knees he threw out Ichiro.  The crowd gave a collective “Oooooh and Ahhhhh” after the play.
• Torii Hunter is seeing the ball extremely well.  He hit his 7th career Grand Slam last night off of Jared Weaver.  This ball was gone from the moment it left his bat.  In the game Torii went 2-4 with the homerun and a double.
• Joe Mauer is also hitting the ball well… Need proof?  3 doubles last night.
• SafeCo Field which is supposed to be a “pitchers” ballpark was seeing many balls off the fence and in the stands.
• Why were so many balls going over the heads of the Mariners outfielders?  From my vantage point (my couch), I would not tell if they were playing extra shallow or if we were just hitting the ball in the perfect spot all night…  I counted 4 balls that went over the head of the Mariners outfielders.
• Back to Ortiz….  In three games he has given up 5 runs.  Last night was another ho-hum start for him…  8 innings pitched.  He gave up 8 hits and only two runs.  Great Work!

Sidney Ponson had one thing on his mind.  He wanted to come back from a less than stellar performance in his last game and prove to the Twins and their fans that he’s worth the $1 million that we offered him out of Spring Training.  Ponson came out of the gate and looked very shakey.  He did not attack the plate and the result of that was two runs in the top of the second.  After the second inning things changed.  Ponson attacked the plate, pitched inside and made it a point to throw first pitch strikes.

Once Ponson got rolling so did the Twins.  The offense strung together hits in the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th.  The most impressive inning was the sixth when the Twins had 4 straight two out hits which put up three more runs that really put the game out of hand.  Things started to get out of control in the 7th inning when the Twins scored another three runs.  Luis Rodriguez went deep over the right field baggie and Jason Tyner (who has never hit a homerun) sent one off the very top of the baggie.

The expression on Justin Morneau’s face was priceless!

Tomorrow the Twins will send Boof Bonser to the mound to try to take 3 of 4 from the hapless devilrays.

The easiest and most obvious reaction to last nights loss against the Yankees is to blame Sidney Ponson for a poor pitching performance.  If you looked only at the box score, Ponson would look horrible.  How could you not be upset when you see numbers like:

8 runs, 10 hits, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts all in only 5.2. innings pitched. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I wish that he would have fared better.  He didn’t do well but I think that his numbers were somewhat skewed (especially his runs and hits).  During the first two innings he gave up 5 runs (3 runs could have been prevented and 3 of the hits were “gifts” from the Baseball Gods…).  The bottom line is this:  The Twins (as a team) came out flat last night.  They made horrible mistakes on the basepaths.  They made errors in the field.  They didn’t hit Carl Pavano (who hasn’t won a game in over a year). 

Many of the usual sports radio hosts around town are ripping Ponson and calling for Garza from Triple-A.  While that might be the eventual move, I think that judging a player based on one outing (when the rest of your team stunk) isn’t exactly a good reason to make a change. 

One of the fun things about keeping up a blog is that I have the luxury of seeing how people found my website.  Many people find my blog by searching google.  There are several searches that occur over and over again.  Today I had the displeasure of having someone find my blog by searching for “Joe Mauer’s St. Paul address”……  When googling that exact phrase, I end up the first result on google.  Normally, i’d relish being first on google but when someone is searching for Joe’s exact location….well….  that makes me more than a little creeped out!

Stay safe from stalkers Joe!

Twins fans everywhere rejoiced last night when news came out about the postponement of yesterdays game. Why the excitement? Pushing Silva’s first start back (of course). Silva was skipped in the rotation to make room for Sidney Ponson.

Ponson will be facing off today against Javier Vasquez. I like this match up much more than Silva vs. the Pale Stockings.

The weather forcast for today is…. cold and windy. I’m not convince that the game will be played but if it is we’ll get a up close and personal view of our 1 million dollar man…. Go Twins!

****This just in…. Silva will start today’s game. Bummer*****

The biggest question mark coming into this season was surrounding the Twins ability to patch together a workable starting pitching rotation. All other pieces to the team seamed to be in tact. The rotation however was the one thing that almost every baseball “expert” predicted would be our downfall.

When spring training started one thing was a given. Johan Santana would be our opening day pitcher. The rest of the team however was nothing more than a roll of the dice. Names like Silva, Bonser, Ortiz, Ponson and Garza to name a few were thrown around like ragdolls. Everyone had their opinion as to who should be #2-#5. While today’s rotation is certainly different than I expected (and to be honest hoped for), we do know one thing after the first three games this season. Our first three starters are set!

Monday night Johan had a so-so night and still was able to pull out the win. On Tuesday, Boof looked unhittable for most of the night. The only mistake he made was to Tejada and that ball landed in the left field bleachers. Last night, Ortiz, one of our newest Twins took the mound.

The word around baseball circles was that Ortiz had lost his ability to be a productive piture. He was suffering from something that I like to call “Bradke Disease”. He would eat up bunches of innings but would always suffer from giving up the “big inning”. He had problems keeping the ball in the park. Brad Radke used to give up the first inning blast. For Ortiz, he wasn’t picky on which inning this happened.

Last night Ortiz showed me (and the rest of Minnesota) something. He showed us that he can still be a very good pitcher at this level. He reminded me of the guy who beat us during the ALCS. He reminded me of “pedro-lite” as many people used to call him (in reference to being a smaller almost mini-me version of Pedro Martinez). While early in the season, his performance (along with Santana and Boof) made me believe that we can make some waves in this division and in the American League.

The reason that I think that we’ll prove the so-called “experts” wrong is because what they didn’t realize is that our offensive production is already in mid-season form. Although we took an early exit from the post season last year, we were one of the more productive teams in baseball for the greater part of 3 months last year. The team took some time last year to gel and we saw the outcome. This year, the team has gelled and we’re already scoring runs in bunches. The Piranhas are once again reaking havok on the basepaths. The M&M boys are doing what they are supposed to… get on base and occassionally hit the ball out of the ball park. Rondell White is hitting the ball hard (considering that we got absolutely nothing from him during the first half of last season….i’ll take what I can get!).

Couple all of these factors with our new found pitching staff and I think that we might have something to look forward to this October. While we’re only three games into the season, and still have Ponson and Silva to go, I think that having solidified the first three starters will go along way in making this season one to remember.

If I had to script an opening day game for the Twins, Santana would have gone 8 innings with 10 K’s and only 3 hits allowed. That didn’t happen but Santana was good enough to get the win tonight against the always confusing Baltimore Orioles.

Santana’s line (and ERA) won’t be as impressive as it could have been if the Twins hadn’t decided to put the O’s away during the bottom of the 6th inning. He ended the game with 6IP, 6k, 4R, 4ER and he scattered 7 hits.

In the category of “Things that never happen”, Torii Hunter got off to a GREAT start. He went 2-4 with a opposite field homerun and 2 RBI. Hunter is about as streaky a player as i’ve ever watched. Let’s hope that he’s learned something from Mauer and Morneau about hitting during the offseason. He’s at his best when he sprays the ball all around the field. He looked great tonight and he even tracked down a gapper in deep left center. It’s good to see him running at full speed and ripping the ball.

What would you expect from the reigning AL MVP? All you Derek Jeter lovers can take a look at Morneau’s performance tonight. He looked as if he was in mid-season form while going 3-4 with a solo homerun and 2 RBI. My only criticism of Morneau is his questionable baserunning…. Since when did he think that he was fast? He was thrown out twice tonight (once at second and once at the plate). Either he is blowing by the base coaches or they have some misconceptions regarding his speed.

Our batting champion went a measley 1-3 all while scoring a run… Very run of the mill game for Mauer. Rarely does he make noise at the plate. He’s always consistent and silent but deadlly.

One strange note from tonights game. Jeff Cirillo started the game at DH. No idea why Kubel wasn’t in the lineup…. Maybe Gardy has saw something from the veteran that he likes. Keep tabs on this. I assumed that Kubel would be the guy but with his spring batting just a few points below Cirillo he rode the bench tonight. Maybe it was the pitching matchup against Bedard?

In closing… Recently retired Twins pitcher, Brad Radke, threw out the first pitch of tonights game. That ball landed safely in the 10th row of the HomeRun porch. Damn those first inning jitters!

The 2007 Major League Baseball season officially starts tonight.  The Twins will kick off the season by opening at home against the Baltimore Orioles. 

I’ve been trying my best not to get wrapped up in speculation prior to the season starting.  Now that the season officially starts, I thought it time to fire up the old laptop and start writing about my favorite team.

A few things worry me about the 2007 team.  First of all, i’m not sold (yet) on the starting pitching rotation.  It’s been well documented that we have the best pitcher in baseball on our staff (in fact MLB might do well to rename the Cy Young award to pay homage to Johan Santana).  I’m honestly worried about three starters on our team…..  I’m worried about Ponson, Boof and scared to death by Silva. 

I’ll start with Boof.  He’s young and while he has some experience he certainly is not as dependable as I would like.  I like what he does on the mound but I fear that in a pressure situation he’ll find a way to give up a game or make a critical error.  He has all the tools to be a quality pitcher but his inexperience in my eyes is what makes him risky.  I would have no issues with him if he was our 4th or 5th guy but when he’s slotted as 3rd in the rotation my palms get a little sweaty.

Now to Ponson….  He had a shaky start to Spring Training but he has seemed to turn it around.  He’s been fairly solid this spring.  He has a modest 4.29 ERA which isn’t great but the key is that he has yet to give up a homerun in 21 innings.  That makes me believe he could be a solid 4th starter in our rotation.  Let’s hope that his “wine with dinner” doesn’t cause him to make local or national headlines.  That last thing we need in the clubhouse is a guy who could cause a distraction.

Last but not least, the guy i’m most worried about is Carlos Silva.  To say that he’s been bad this spring is an understatement.  In 21 innings he’s given up 21 runs (only 20 earned)…  Somehow he beat out Garza for the last spot in the rotation.  He has been struggling with location on every one of  his pitches.  His slider doesn’t slide.  His changeup isn’t slow enough and he is struggling to be precise with his fastball.  The inability to throw those pitches well will make him nothing more than batting practice on his April 10th start against the Yankees.  A word to the wise for all you Twins fans…. Don’t watch that game in HD.  It will be painful enough.  There is no need to make it worse on ourselves by watching Carlos sweating bullets in HD.

(closed circuit to Ron Gardenhire….  Just because Silva is Santana’s best friend doesn’t mean that he should have taken the 5th spot in the rotation.  If he falters as all make sure and send him down to AAA.)

On to better subjects.  Mauer and Morneau can now officially be called the “M&M boys”.  I figure that once you win  the AL MVP and the batting championship those sort of nicknames are well deserved.

*** On a sad note, the Twins announced yesterday that legendary announcer Herb Carneal died at age 83 from congestive heart failure.  Herb had been fighting CHF for some time and my thoughts and prayers are with his family.  The Twins have dedicated the 2007 season in his name***