Two days, 39 hits, 29 runs and most importantly, two wins. Playing the bottom-feeders of the American League can be a great confidence boost, as can a 19-1 rout. I have to say, it was great to watch, it's been awhile since the Twins had that big of a laugher. I thought the most encouraging and impressive performance of the night (aside from Liriano's dominant outing) was Joe Mauer going 5 for 5 with 7 RBIs. For a guy who's been having an off year by his standards, it was a great step in the right direction. It was also a night of 4s for young Danny Valencia who hit a grand-slam with 4 runs, 4 RBIs and 4 hits. Since Liriano's 1.2 inning debacle against Detroit on July 9th, he has only give up 2 runs in 21.2 innings, striking out 22 while only walking 6.
Congratulations to Matt Garza, former Twin pitcher who threw the 5th no-hitter in the Major Leagues this year and first in Tampa Bay Rays history. After having been no-hit 3 times in the past two seasons, it's good to see the Rays get one, too bad there were only 17,000 people there to see it...
Twins trade news has become almost non-existent lately. Roy Oswalt said yesterday that he doesn't care which team he goes to, as long as they are a contender and are will to pick up his $16MM option in 2012. I still doubt the Twins land him, mostly because of that high price tag. Dan Haren was traded to the Angels over the weekend and promptly proceeded to get beat AND get hurt in his debut last night. Doesn't look too serious though.
The Twins are now 8-4 since the All-Star break which is encouraging. They've scored an average of 6.6 runs over those 12 games and given up an average of 3.6 which is a solid recipe for winning baseball. Twins starting pitchers have been the eventual game winners in 5 out of the last 6 games and came within mere outs last night of a 3rd shutout in their last 6 games. Tonight is Carl Pavano v. Bruce Chen, hopefully the hot hitting continues.
No comments:
Post a Comment