July 3, 2008
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Ack
That was certainly forgettable. Eddie Bonine has now learned the same lesson that his teammate down in Toledo (Virgil Vasquez) learned last year at the Metrodome: You have to keep the ball down. Casey Fossum gave up a couple runs, but considering the amount of time he was in the game, he wasn’t too shabby. And I feel that I have to address the style of the Twins, which, with the addition of guys like Gomez and Casilla, is rapidly approaching that of the Angels. Throughout this series, they kept on harping the notion that “speed kills.” And that seems to be a valid strategy in the regular season, as evidenced by the numerous division titles for both the Twins and the Angels in the past seven or eight years. However, it seems to mean diddly squat once you enter the postseason. Minnesota has won most of the Central Division titles this decade, and yet they always seem to be eliminated in the ALDS. The Angels won their division last year, but they were no match for Boston. You can even take that a step further to the World Series. I may be wrong on this, but from what I can tell, traditionally, National League teams rely a lot more on speed, stolen bases, and manufacturing runs (due to the fact that they have to bat their pitcher), while most American League teams are built for power. However, over the last ten years, the American League has dominated not only the All-Star Game, but the World Series itself (I believe they’ve won seven of the last ten). I don’t know why that is, but I guess it’s a pick your poison kind of deal.
Not a whole lot of offense to speak of, that’s for sure (although the newspaper this morning provided the interesting tidbit that throughout this season, Nick Blackburn has fallen into a pattern of being lights-out in his starts following a rough outing, and he had definitely had a rough outing in his start before yesterday’s, so make of that what you will). The Tigers really only had two good scoring opportunities, and both times the Twins made good defensive plays. The first was Nick Punto’s play on Polanco’s ground ball, and that was downright unbelievable. The other was the Carlos Gomez diving catch, and for whatever reason, Carlos Gomez just rubs me the wrong way. I know he said some things about Justin Verlander that could be construed as a little insulting (He said that he and Casilla kept trying to bunt against Verlander cuz they thought Verlander “wasn’t right in the head” and they supposedly were trying to make him mad by bunting. He failed to mention that both of them try to bunt against EVERYBODY).
I’ve got another screenshot for you (actually, a couple). It’s not the usual Amusing Things Behind Guys Being Interviewed feature, but it’s just something I noticed during the eighth inning. It would be more effective on video, but You Tube is so anal about MLB broadcasts that it wouldn’t be up for very long. Sorry about the graininess:
Take a look at Pudge (in the middle of the shot). Is he SLEEPING? I swear, he did not move during the entire shot (and it was a long one). If he is, I can’t really say I blame him. This was a good one to nap through.
Well, it sucks to drop two of three, but as it stands right now, there’s not much of a problem, BUT…it’s now up to Justin Verlander to make sure this doesn’t become a problem. Let’s nip this thing in the bud. I keep thinking it’s an off-day, but in fact it’s a late-nighter to herald the last west coast trip of the season. He’ll take on Carlos Silva and the Mariners. Silva’s gotten hammered twice by the Tigers, but reports indicate that he was much better in his last start.
