Hooray for starting pitching!

We wrote Sunday that, because the Twins are not likely to score very many runs, they're going to have to get good starting pitching if they're going to avoid yet another late-season collapse.  They got it Sunday, and they got it even better last night.  The Good Kyle Gibson most definitely showed up.  He gave up only two hits, both of them singles, walked two, and struck out seven in seven shutout innings.  The Twins offense managed to score only two runs.  Most nights that won't be enough, but it was last night, and last night that was all that mattered.

The Twins could've scored more, of course.  They stranded eight and went 2-for-9 with men in scoring position.  One aspect of this that I haven't heard talked about much is that the Twins don't hit very many home runs.  When you don't hit home runs, it takes at least two hits, and often three, in the same inning to score even one run, and of course more hits than that to score multiple runs.  It's not that easy to get three or more hits in the same inning off major league pitchers.  You're only going to get eight or nine hits in a typical game, so it's going to be hard to pile three or more of them into the same inning.  So, if you're not hitting home runs, you're not going to score a lot of runs and you're going to leave a lot of men on base.  The solution is to hit more home runs, but that's not likely to happen this season.

Provus and Dazzle said that, because the Twins aren't scoring many runs, they need to use the running game more.  The Twins tried to put that into practice last night, stealing two bases in three tries.  I understand the theory, that it makes no sense to sit around waiting for the three-run homer if you're not likely to hit a three-run homer, and if you can steal second you put yourself into scoring position, so it only takes one more hit to score rather than two.  I'm just not sure the Twins have the players to do it.  The stolen bases last night came from Plouffe and Nunez, who have combined for five stolen bases this season.  Stealing bases is great when it works, but if you're constantly running into outs, you're just going to make it harder to score, not easier.

Glen Perkins came in and was a bit shaky, but got the job done.  He's been a bit shaky in his last three appearances, giving up six hits and a walk in his last three innings, although he's only allowed one run, so it hasn't hurt the Twins yet.  Nobody's perfect, after all, and it could very well be that this is just a coincidence or a minor blip that will soon be forgotten.  It's not really a great trend, though.

Announcers always tell us that good pitching is contagious, that if you get one or two guys pitching well, it inspires the others and makes them pitch better, too.  The Twins could really stand it if that happened for Phil Hughes, who's had one good game out of his last eight.  The Royals are scheduled to pitch Danny Duffy, who has been pitching well but has gotten very little run support.  The Royals have scored a total of twelve runs in his last seven starts, and six of them came in one game.  Perhaps the "no run support" trend will continue tonight.  We're two games into our season-ending fifty-nine game winning streak!  We're still on track for 105-57!