Category Archives: 2014 Twins Game Recaps

2014 Twins Game Recaps

Game Recap #76: Trombones 2, Big Paraders 6

Well, let's see.  The bullpen pitched really well.  Joe Mauer had two hits.  Oswaldo Arcia hit a home run and kept his average (barely) above the Mendoza line.

That seems to be about it for the positives.  Danny Santana got hurt, and at this writing I know nothing about how serious that is.  If it is serious, one assumes we'll get a lot of Escobar at short and Fuld and/or Hicks in center.  That's better than the days when we were using people like Rene Tosoni and Luke Hughes, but losing Santana is still going to hurt if it happens.  Not that I think he'd hit .324 with an .806 OPS all season--he'd never done anything close to that in the minors--but he does look like a major league ballplayer, and he's succeeded while spending part of his time learning a new position.  Perhaps he'll be back soon.  We can hope.

Yohan Pino did not have a good game.  It appeared that he simply threw too many pitches that were about belt high, and like many pitchers, he can't get away with doing that.  I doubt he could get away with doing it at AAA, either, so he may have simply had a bad game, which happens to everyone sometimes.  As they don't seem ready to bring up Trevor May yet, and as they don't have a lot of other options, one assumes Pino will get at least a couple more chances.  It's too bad they sent Pinto down--perhaps at some point will get a Pino/Pinto battery, reminding us of the days when Allan Anderson pitched to Andy Allanson.  It's just too bad we won't have Gordo around to announce it.

The Twins play an afternoon game today, so this is the last of the games that start about when I go to bed.  Why these West Coast teams can't start their games at a civilized time is more than I can understand.  Come to think of it, that's probably why we lost these last two games--the Twins players had to stay up way past their bedtimes and were tired.  At any rate, the Twins are going to send Ricky Nolasco out there, still looking for that elusive actually good outing rather than the almost good ones he's been giving us.  He's due!  Today we start a season-ending eighty-six game winning streak!  We'll just have to settle for 122-40!

2014 Twins Game Recaps

2014 Game 72: Twins 5, White Sox 4

Brian Dozier to the rescue.

It was just over a year ago that most Twins fans were wondering if Dozier would ever be anything more than a replacement-level player. Now, I don't think there's much question that he's the Twins' Most Valuable Player, or at the very least, most valuable position player. He came into Saturday's game 8th in the AL in rWAR for position players at 2.7, which puts him on pace to possibly be worth 6 WAR by the end of the season.

His value comes from his all-around great play and that was on display Friday night in the ninth inning. First, he made a heady, split-second decision to go for the double play with the bases loaded and one out in a tie game in the top of the ninth. It was heady because he and Danny "AK47" Santana turned it, but it was by no means routine.

Then, in the bottom of the ninth after Eduardo Escobar and Sam Fuld walked, Dozier singled to left field to bring home the winning run.

Dozier's heroics rescued Glen Perkins, who blew a two-run lead in the ninth and was credited with the win after Dozier's big hit. Amazingly, that was the first double play turned behind Perkins this season. It shouldn't be surprising that Perkins hasn't had many double plays turned since he puts few runners on base, he strikes out about 30% of the batters he faces, and those that do put the ball in play, usually do so in the air instead of on the ground.

The only real victim of the blown save was Ricky Nolasco, who struggled with his command but managed to hold the White Sox to 2 runs in 5 1/3 innings. It didn't qualify as a quality start, but I think I'd rather have a line like Nolasco's than the minimum of 3 runs in 6 innings for a quality start, especially with 8 relievers in the bullpen, including two long relievers.

Nolasco continues to be disappointing after signing the largest contract in Twins history for a free agent outside of the organization. What makes him more frustrating is it just isn't much fun to watch him pitch. He throws a bunch of offspeed stuff and it just seems like he's always trying to get batters to chase, which has meant a lot of early exits even when he wasn't pitching all that bad. It's not like watching Mike Pelfrey, perhaps the least fun pitcher to watch in the history of baseball, but it's still not much fun. Maybe this is because we've never really seen him at his best. Hopefully, when that happens he'll be more fun to watch as well. Otherwise, it could be a long 4 years.