Game Recap #61: Slammees 5, Slammers 14

No magic in the zoomball.

The thing about throwing a pitch you can't control is that, well, you can't control it.  That means sometimes you'll have a game where you walk four batters and hit two in three innings.  It also means you might give up a home run sometimes.  When you do all those things, you're probably not going to succeed that particular day, and Samuel Deduno didn't, putting the Twins in an early 5-0 hole.

The Twins, to their credit, did come back.  Swarzak allowed three inherited runners to score but none of his own, giving the Twins the chance to come back to 5-3.  But then Duensing came in, quickly gave up a grand slam, and the game was gone.

As you know by now, we are in the process of saying good-bye to Jason Kubel.  It's a necessary move, but a sad one.  I like him, he has a South Dakota connection, and i really wish he could still play.  Unfortunately, things don't happen just because you wish for them, even when you wish really hard.  So it appears Kubel will be gone to make room for Kendrys Morales.

I hope that's not the only roster move the Twins make.  I assume the Twins signed Morales to play, not to sit the bench, and since he has played mostly first base and DH, with eighteen games of outfield, I assume he'll become the regular center fielder.  No, seriously, I assume he'll be primarily the DH, perhaps seeing an occasional game at first base or outfield.  That will impact the playing time of several players, but primarily Josmil Pinto.

What I'd really like to see is Pinto become the mostly-regular catcher, but I know that has zero chance of actually happening unless Suzuki gets hurt.  So, in keeping with my belief that you get better by playing and not by watching, I'm hoping Pinto goes back to Rochester and Eric Fryer or somebody like that comes up to be the backup catcher.  Keeping Pinto as the backup would simply waste his year, and at age 25 he doesn't have a year to waste.  Again, I'd rather he was playing in Minnesota, but if the only options are sit in Minnesota or play in Rochester, I'd rather he play in Rochester.

It was a disappointing weekend.  I know Houston is playing better, but you really figure you should win at least two out of three playing in your home park.  But that's not the way it was, so we hit the road and go to Toronto, where Ricky Nolasco will take on ex-Twin R. A. Dickey.  Tonight we begin our one hundred one-game winning streak.  We'll just have to settle for 130-32!