Category Archives: 2014 Twins Game Recaps

2014 Twins Game Recaps

2014 Game 27: Orioles 3, Twins 0

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This is exactly why the Twins brought Ricky Nolasco to Minnesota. He's not going to dominate too much, but they need him to be the veteran presence they can count on to keep the bullpen from falling apart.

The Twins spent three days waiting around to play a game, then played three games in 27 hours and were suddenly so desperate for bullpen help, they actually added a 14th pitcher to the staff.

Gardy is certainly a man who knows how to expect the worst. Even with Logan Darnell in the bullpen, he was sweating it out knowing how worn out the other eight relievers were following an exhausting 15 innings of work the previous two days.

However, Nolasco said, "I got this," and pitched all nine innings and held the Orioles to 1.5 runs below their average, although his task was made a mite easier by facing Twins castoff Steve Pearce four times instead of Chris Davis.

Of course, since baseball is a crazy game, the Twins couldn't do anything against Ubaldo Jiminez, who has been terrible this season mostly because of very bad control. The Twins lead the world in walks, so of course Jiminez only issues 1 while striking out 10.

The lone bright spots on offense were hits by Sam Fuld and Eduardo Escobar, who are trying to solidify themselves in the lineup in place of the struggling Aaron Hicks and Pedro Florimon, although it is hard to say if Florimon is struggling since he's never hit in the first place. Fuld will be playing every day for at least the next week while Hicks recovers from a concussion. Meanwhile, top shortstop prospect Danny Santana was just called up after Mike Pelfrey pulled a groin while watching Dodgers' hits flying off their bats. Santana should be in the lineup instead of Escobar to see how he handles it, but Twins assistant GM Rob Antony has indicated that Escobar will continue to play and Santana will be mostly on the bench. That might be better for the Twins for the next few weeks, but it won't help Santana's development and will just be a waste of his service time.

In the past, Gardy has tended to play the prospects even when they are up for a short time. Hopefully, he will stick to that. In the meantime, the Twins have three shortstops and no true backup center fielder. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Twins trade Florimon for a veteran center fielder to back up or even platoon with Fuld if Hicks' concussion symptoms persist or if the Twins decide that Hicks needs to figure things out in AAA.

If only Byron Buxton hadn't gotten hurt.

2014 Twins Game Recaps

Game 10: Twins 10, Royals 1

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That was easy.

You score 10 runs in a game, you should win rather easily on most nights, but the big story for this one was Kyle Gibson, who was the first Twins pitcher to throw a pitch in the seventh inning. He wasn't allowed to finish it after allowing a hit and a walk and with the top of the lineup up, but I would have liked to see him allowed to work out of that jam for at least another batter or two.

It looked pretty easy, but Gibson will need to avoid so many walks and miss some more bats before we can get real excited about it. It looked like he was having trouble locating his fastball tonight and was having to go offspeed a lot to get strikes. If so, it's encouraging that he was able to make that adjustment and pitch well without his best stuff.

The Twins still haven't hit a home run with anyone on base, which is stunning because they were second in the AL in OBP coming into this game, so it's not like they haven't had plenty of chances. The Twins are second in the AL in runs scored despite being near the bottom of the AL in slugging and very little production from Mauer. They'll also be without two guys they are counting on for a lot of production as both Oswaldo Arcia and Josh Willingham have been placed on the DL. Of course, the Twins took this opportunity to bring up another pitcher in Michael Tonkin so when Florimon is batting in a key spot in the game, most games the choice for pinch hitter will be between Chris Herrmann, Darin Mastroianni and Eduardo Escobar. If you use Herrmann or Maestro, then you'll have to also use Escobar to play defense after that, meaning whoever is not used will be the last guy on the bench and will only be used in an emergency. If you use Escobar, then you have to ask why Escobar didn't start for Florimon in the first place since Escobar is known for his excellent glove. Maybe not quite as good as Florimon, but not enough to make much difference.

Oh well. Twins win, so it's not a time to focus on negative things. The Twins are now 4-3 in non-home openers and they don't play anymore home openers this season.