ANAHEIM 7, MINNESOTA 1
Record - 51-60 (4th in Central, 1.5 games out of 3rd, 8.0 games out of first)
Highest WPA - N/A
Lowest WPA - Liriano (5.0 IP, 7R, 10H, 2 BB) and the entire lineup (6 for 32, HR)
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Another frustrating game in a season that seems to be an exhaustive collection of frustrating games. Knowing the kind of year Dan Haren was having, it was difficult to be optimistic about the Twins chances, but Minnesota left no doubt as to the outcome of this one.
The infield of non-infielders (well, 50% non-infielders anyway) had a very difficult time turning balls in play into outs. Seeing as how this is kind of an important part of playing defense, it's not surprising things turned out poorly. No errors were awarded, but it sure seemed like the Angels got a lot of extra outs.
F-Bomb was not particularly great. Some of that was the defense behind him, some of it was his own fault.
In addition to the defense being subpar and the pitching being subpar, the offense was (say it with me) subpar. While the Angels were building a comfortable lead, the Twins sent 22 hitters to the plate to record the first 21 outs of the game. Jim Thome's 598th career HR leading off the 8th ruined the shutout, and seemed to open the floodgates as the next three hitters singled. Those three singles led to no runs, in fact they lead to an out as Danny Valencia slid into Jeff "The Wall" Mathis and still hasn't touched home plate. Add baserunning to the subpar side of the equation.
Add it all up and the Twins were well under par for the day. Maybe they should take up golf.
Once I heard Cuddy was at second with Mauer at first, I had the feeling that Frankie wasn't going to have a good game. It's probably Valencia's fault.
Liriano had 5 Ks, 2 BBS in 5 IP with 11 ground balls and two fly balls. He was fine. No luck or defense behind him. The first five runs came with two outs in an inning that a double play wasn't turned and should have been. The last two runs scored on a bloop hit and an infield hit. Even the home run came on a decent pitch. It was a down and in slider that the guy pulled his hands in on and hit out. It may not have been exactly where Liriano wanted it but it was on the edge of the strike zone at best and not what you would consider a hanging slider. It was more just good hitting from a strong hitter. And of course, he wouldn't have come up that inning if Cuddyer and Mauer could have turned the double play.
Again, my "favorite" part of the homerun was that it occurred on EXACTLY the pitch Bert was pleading Liriano to throw. It's almost as if Bert would know a thing or two about serving up homeruns.
"Throw this big donkey a slider!"
*Trumbo crushes it*
I told my wife that Liriano has been unlucky this year, but it's the kind of bad luck that even more advanced statistics probably won't show. The hits he gives up are usually weakly hit, but they are honest hits. The big issue is the hits all get strung together, or he walks a guy or two, or an error gives the other team an extra out. His K/BB is at 1.54 right now, which is mostly because he's already given up 57 walks this year, when he only gave up 58 all of last season. Not surprisingly with that lack of control, he's also already thrown 8 wild pitches compared to 10 last year. Other than that, his allowed BABIP is at .278, which was lower than I thought it would be, and hitters are only hitting .237 off him (but getting on base at a .339 clip!), so just like socal says, no luck or defense behind him, just the way it's been for most of the year.
you can expect bad luck when you walk as many batters or fall behind in the count as often as he does.
It's almost as if you are vilifying the team (or golf!!), DG.
Oh, wait. That was yesterday's word.