A much-needed win.
This strikes me as the way the Twins are going to have to win games, when they do. Just enough pitching, just enough offense. Kris Johnson apparently read in this space yesterday that the Twins were in trouble once they got past their first three starters and decided to show us differently. He didn't exactly blow everyone away, but he got through five innings and only gave up two runs.
Unfortunately, the Twins were not able to get Johnson his first major league win. You and I may know the win stat is quite flawed, but it still means something to people, and it would've been nice for Johnson to get one. It wasn't to be, however, as Casey Fien gave up the lead in the eighth. As it turned out, Fien was rewarded with the win for doing so when Josh Willingham homered in the bottom of the eighth. Kris Johnson was rewarded by being sent back to Rochester, which we'll talk about below.
When you hit a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the eighth, you by definition are an offensive star. The other offensive star, though was Kurt Suzuki, who continues to defy expectations. He got three more hits last night, raising his average to .311. He has never hit anywhere close to that over a full season--his highest average is .279, in 2008, and his lifetime average is .257. I suppose it's possible that he's figured something out at age 30, but it seems more likely that he's simply having a career year. This would be the ideal time to trade him, really. His value will never be higher, and the Twins ought to be building for the future. Granted, the fact that he can become a free agent after the season cuts his trade value. On the other hand, there have to be teams trying to make the playoffs who'd want a .300-hitting catcher with a good defensive reputation. As we've said before, though, it seems more the Twins speed to sign him to a two-year extension at a substantial increase in salary and then wonder why he can't hit .300 again. I guess we'll see.
Tonight the Twins send Yohan Pino to the mound. They needed to make room on the roster, so they sent Kris Johnson back to Rochester, which is kind of unfair after he pitched well last night. But baseball can be unfair sometimes, and I don't know who I'd have sent out instead. However, it does mean that they've got a spot open in their rotation. Perhaps Nolasco will be ready to come off the disabled list, perhaps Trevor May or Alex Meyer will be brought up, or perhaps we'll see Samuel Deduno and His Magical Zoomball. Unless it's Deduno, another roster move will have to be made anyway. It's something we can speculate on for the next few days.
In the meantime, last night's win was the first of our season-ending sixty-five game winning streak. We're still on track for 109-53!
LEN3 was speculating that Logan Darnell will be called up when they need a fifth starter, which looks like it won't be until Saturday. Since May was hurt, he needs a few more starts to be stretched out fully and Meyer is being held to about 85 pitches per game. Gardy also said that Nolasco might not need a rehab assignment depending on how quickly he comes back, but I think it's foolish to throw him out there without a rehab after how poorly he's pitched.
Darnell hasn't pitched badly this year, either. It looks like he walks a few too many and gives up a few too many home runs, which of course isn't a good combination, but he's done okay.
If either Gardy or Francona complains about their overworked bullpens, they should have this box score stapled to their heads. A 4-3 game should not require 8 relief pitchers!
I had no problem with how Gardy used his bullpen. It was time to take out Johnson and Thielbar was a good choice because of how much the Indians struggle against lefties. He only made one mid-inning pitching change, and that was to get the Indians' only real threat against a lefty (Yan Gomes) with the tying run at third. The only change I might have made was to bring in Fien in that situation instead of Burton, but Burton struck out Gomes to end the inning and Fien has been almost exclusively used in the eighth inning and rarely for more than three outs. That was just Thielbar's fourth outing this month, and he hasn't pitched in consecutive days since May 14. Can't see how the bullpen is overworked anyways.
But now Gardy can panic and yell "Oh No!!! Burton has pitched in 3 of 4 games since the All Star Break" because he refused to bring in Fien one batter earlier. Sure the end result was fine, but the process was stupid (and it's not like saving Fien for the eighth got him through unharmed).
I'm okay with a little less Burton now and again
Divin' Dozier doubles!
RECAP dude, RECAP!
Yeah, saw that too late - the Padre had a lot of pre-game (Tonight the Twins send Yohan Pino to the mound) in the pre-amble. Like a high fly ball hitting the speakers.