Written by *crossing fingers* Hendriks has definitely been struggling again since coming up. Here’s hoping that he will be able to follow Liriano’s example from last night and kick some butt from the mound.
yeah, here’s hoping…
| Minnesota |
@ |
Pittsburgh |
| Span, CF | Presley, LF | |
| Revere, RF | Walker, 2B | |
| Willingham, LF | McCutchen, A, CF | |
| Morneau, 1B | Jones, G, RF | |
| Plouffe, 3B | McGehee, 1B | |
| Doumit, C | Alvarez, 3B | |
| Dozier, SS | Barajas, C | |
| Casilla, A, 2B | Harrison, SS | |
| Hendriks, P | McDonald, J, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| Pittsburgh | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | x | 9 | 12 | 1 |
At least the Twins were able to catch an early flight out of town, with the game not quite lasting two and a half hours.
James McDonald wasn’t really even challenged much by the Twins in his complete game win. Liam Hendriks, on the other hand, gave up all six runs to the Pirates. Then again, only half of those were earned runs, since three of them were scored after Brian Dozier’s error in the second inning gave the Pirates an extra out.
Justin Morneau managed a pair of hits off of McDonald, while Trevor Plouffe and Ryan Doumit worked together to account for the sole Twins run. Otherwise, the Twins’ offense was just that… offensive.
Ah well, on to Cincy! – JC
JC: on May 14, when the Twins were 10-24, you held out hope that the Twins might become “competitive within the division” over their next 34 games, providing some fun for fans and giving Terry Ryan a reason not to pull the plug on this team. So, here we are. The Twins have been 17-17 since then to put them at 27-41, dropping from 8 games back of the Indians to 9 games back of the still-leading Tribe (and now 8.5 games behind the White Sox). Although the Tigers continue to slog through a disappointing season (for them), the Twins have picked up just a half-game on them.
A .500 stretch is better than .294 ball, of course, but then this part of the schedule was supposed to be a big opportunity for the Twins to make up ground in the standings, too.
So, what’s your verdict? Have these past 34 games changed your outlook on the team and what Terry Ryan should do, at this point?
I won’t give a full reply now, frightwig, because there’s a post on the subject brewing. In short, though, I think the past month has crystallized the situation, Terry Ryan needs GOOD starting pitching. Sure, there are other positions that could be improved with a move here or there, but none of that will matter until the rotation is vastly improved.
For a number of reasons, I don’t think TR will be able to get GOOD starting pitching in a mid-season trade. If he can’t, then the only reason to trade players would be to slash payroll further and I don’t believe the Twins need to make trades to do that. They’re still going to sell 3 million tickets this year, so there’s no reason to trade good position or bullpen pieces if they won’t bring quality SPs in return. It’s not like I’m seeing a bunch of guys in Rochester looking so good that he needs to clear out veterans to make room for someone.
TR should be listening to any offer, but only pulling the trigger when a deal is clearly in his favor. You don’t get presented with a lot of those offers.