Clutch.
First, let's hear it for Anthony Swarzak. He hadn't started a game since 2012. His longest outing of the season was four innings, and that was over two months ago. He'd only pitched as many as three innings once since then. So what does he do? He throws five innings and gives up one run on two hits and a walk. That's a lot better than anyone had a right to expect. He deserves a lot of credit for coming through like that, and it's nice that he got rewarded with the win.
And let's hear it for the bullpen, too. Yes, Gardy used five relief pitchers, but they combined to pitch four shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk with six strikeouts. That's pretty darn good.
As for the offense, well, they did just enough. Fuld delivered an RBI single to score Santana, who had tripled. Dozier came through with a two-out double to score Santana again, giving the Twins the lead. And Arcia hit a two-out homer to give the Twins an insurance run. Dazzle suggested that might be what Arcia needs to get going and, well, I guess we can hope. But I seem to remember Dazzle saying that after Arcia's last homer, about a month ago, and it didn't happen. Unfortunately, the fact that the pitcher happened to throw one where Arcia was swinging is probably not a sign of much. But, as I said, we can always hope.
We say a sad farewell to Matt Guerrier, who was designated for assignment yesterday. He was 0-1, 3.86, 1.43 WHIP in 28 innings (27 games). He wasn't horrible, but he wasn't particularly good, either, and at age 35 (36 in nine days) he wasn't going to part of the Twins future. Still, it's sad to see him go. I suspect he'll get another chance somewhere, either this year or next spring training. He'll be replaced by Ryan Pressly, who has pitched well in Rochester and is deserving of the call-up.
Having taken two of three from Cleveland, the Twins now host another division rival in the Chicago White Sox. Phil Hughes goes for the Twins, and the Twins really need to have him start pitching like the staff ace again if they're going to avoid what has become their annual second-half free fall. The White Sox will use Hector Noesi, who quite frankly isn't very good. On the other hand, the Twins offense isn't very good, either, so it may be a case of the movable object meeting the resistible force. Still, yesterday was the start of our season-ending sixty-three game winning streak! We're still on track for 108-54!
Neither are they very bad. The Twins are 8th in the AL in runs scored. They aren't as good now as they were at the beginning of the season, but still, they are 8th despite having been decimated by injuries most of the season and playing home games at Target Field. The media seems to focus on the "struggles" of the offense despite the pitching staff being 12th in runs allowed and pretty much last in starters' ERA. Maybe the worst thing to happen to the Twins is the drop in offense league-wide, which has colored management's eyes into believing the pitching has significantly improved.
Actually, the pitcher threw it exactly where he wanted to and right where he threw it to strike Arcia out earlier, which was a fastball up and in. Bruno has been working with Arcia on making an adjustment in his swing so he can get to those pitches. The Indians announcers were impressed that he was able to keep that ball fair and they didn't know (or didn't mention) that, that was a pitch he'd been struggling to get to.
The runs the Twins scored in April have very little to do with how their offense is right now. If you can look at that lineup and see a good offense, more power to you. I can't.
As I'm not sure which was the "moveable object" and which was the "resistible force," it appeared to me that the "isn't very good" was at least marginally better than the "isn't very good, either" last night. No hits through four innings, a couple of singles, a walk and late blast from The Sparkplug along with a first inning of relief with a zoomball that didn't zoom necessitated by an injury to one of the few bright spots in the rotation = soup sandwich.