Twins Vacation

So, I’m coming off of a weekend-long vacation of sorts and I start getting into the Twins and what they’ve done over the weekend…I am completely shocked. I really feel that this team decided to take a vacation with me. They went 2-5 on this west coast road trip and I have no clue how. They played 3 games against the punchless Oakland Athletics and then 4 against a pretty hot LA Angels team. I’m going to break down a few of the low-lights…and maybe a couple highlights too as a top-off to the end of their first 100 games of the season.

On Monday, July 20th, the Twins blew a 10 run lead they had in the 3rd inning. It goes down as one of the biggest blown leads in Twins history and I feel it’s the worst when you consider the opponent. Nick Blackburn, who has arguably been the team’s best starter, went just 5 innings and gave up 7 ERs. I have no idea how they let that happen. The big controversy was the play in the top of the 9th in which Michael Cuddyer was clearly safe at home yet the umpire called him out. It was definitely a blown call but the Twins should’ve never been in the spot where that play mattered. When you’re up 10 runs on a ratty team, you put the game away. You don’t put the offense on cruise control and let them catch up. I was disgusted with it to put it lightly and I think that was portrayed while I Tweeted during the game.

On Tuesday, July 21st, Anthony Swarzak pitched a great game going 7 innings and only giving up 2 ERs. He has quickly become our 2nd most reliable starter behind Blackburn. He’s the only starter besides Blackburn that can give up two runners with no outs and not get flustered. Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano both get extremely stressed when they give up a couple hits to start an inning and it throws their whole groove off. I really like Swarzak, in fact, he also pitched a great game last night going 6.2 innings with just one ER to give the Twins another win.

I don’t think I want to even talk about July 22nd’s afternoon debacle. The Twins lost to the Athletics 16-1. Enough said?

Then, we get to LA and play a red hot Angels team. They had won 5 games in a row prior to the series and were leading the AL West. I was hoping for 2-2 against them and 3-1 would have been great. Well, the Twins had a chance to take the first game. They got the ball in Joe Nathan’s hands with a 2 run lead in the bottom of the 9th. He then proceeded to get only his 3rd blown save of the season, but it was in a bad spot. The Twins needed this game badly and you can’t ask for much more from the team than to get the ball in Nathan’s hands with a lead in the 9th. He’s one of the top 3 closers in the game today and he just didn’t get it done.

Both the Friday and Saturday games were just icing on the cake of disappointment for the Twins. The lost 6-3 and 11-5 with only a couple bright spots. Mauer showed off his power from May again by hitting two HRs on Friday. Jason Kubel went 3 for 4 with a HR on Saturday. Other than that, it was pretty ugly. Blackburn gave up 6 ERs in only 3.2 innings, which is to be expected. Blackburn is not a number one starter and he’s carried more than his fair share of weight this year. The rest of the rotation needs to start doing their part if the Twins want any chance of contending for the AL Central title.

I think this team needs to make a trade this week. There’s a lot of speculation around the 2B Freddy Sanchez out of Pittsburgh. He’s a decent fielder and he his hitting .296 right now with 34 RBIs. That would be a drastic improvement. I also think the Twins could use some bullpen help and maybe they could look at Matt Capps for that. It’s funny how the Pittsburgh Pirates always seem like they’r eunloading all their talent right before the trade deadline. It’s like they’re a Major League ball-club that is a farm system for other Major League teams. Lately, I’ve also heard some speculation surrounding SS Orlando Cabrera from the Athletics. He’d be a nice addition as well. We will see what Twins GM Bill Smith does this week, hopefully it’s something drastic.

Watch the Twins tonight as they go head-to-head against the hated Chicago White Sox. Should be interesting, that’s for sure. Oh, look…Baker goes against Mark Buehrle who just pitched a perfect game last week. Should be…fun?

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Tags: angels, anthony swarzak, athletics, bill smith, jason kubel, joe mauer, joe nathan, mlb, nick blackburn, Twins