Big Homer From Mauer
Brian Duensing had another strong outing on Wednesday only this time they produced some runs to back him. Duensing’s biggest contributions came from Michael Cuddyer and from Joe Mauer’s first home-run of the season in the Twin’s 7-2 win over the Rangers. Mauer has been heating up at the plate lately as his homer sparked the Twins offense and on Tuesday he also provided a game-winning pinch-hit RBI double. Mauer demolished a Colby Lewis fastball early in the first inning, his first since September 15 of last season.
Michael Cuddyer later belted his team leading 15th homer in the fourth inning, these two would also deliver big again in the fifth inning where Mauer drove in a run on an RBI single. Mauer would advance to second on the throw home, and would later score in the inning on a single from Cuddyer. Now that the Twins bats are starting to heat up, the pitching seems to be coming together Twins fans would seem to have optimal reason to be excited. But there are still factors that remain that are hindering the Twins return to the playoffs. The first of which being that their disappointing 20-6 loss against the Rangers Monday leaves the Twins six games back of the AL Central leading Tigers. The Twins need to take a huge step forward from this point on if they want to make the playoffs, because winning a few games then dropping a few will not get them anywhere.
Big Setback
On Sunday the Twins suffered another huge setback as Francisco Liriano only lasted 2 and 1/3 innings and had considerable control problems. With this loss, again to the Tigers, the Twins have now dropped back to seven games under .500 and seven games back of the first place Tigers. The start of this eleven game home-stand had a small amount of hope for the Twins as eight of their twelve games came against division rivals, Detroit, and Cleveland. The chance to push themselves into contention and possibly take over first place in the AL Central. Seemingly that’s the way the Twins would’ve liked it to play out but as everyone knows, not all things happen according to plan.
This was surely not the time for the Twins to take a step back, time is definitely not on their side and they now must make up considerable ground in a short amount of time. Playoffs are surely not out of the question as the Twins have made late season runs to propel themselves into the playoffs in the past. But if anything such as this is going to happen the picture must start to form now. The Twins need to step up and start to make things happen because sitting back and just enjoying the view so to speak is not going to get it done. I know that every player on the Twins wants to make the playoffs it’s what every player strives for at the start of the year, that and winning the World Series, but at this point in time it seems like nobody on this Twins team cares, and that surely poses a problem.
Deja Vu 11 Times Over
In what seems like a regular occurence now the Minnesota Twins lost on the Friday to the Detoroit Tigers. This marked the eleventh straight time that the Twins have lost to the Tigers and it has now dropped the Twins seven games back of the AL Central lead. The starter for the Twins, left- hander Brian Duensing pitched well with a season high of seven strikeouts but was banged up pretty bad as he only lasted 4 full innings and some of the fifth before he was pulled. It seems like every time the Tigers play the Twins something happes where the team does not click and chaos ensues.
The Twins could not do anything right on Friday as their pitching was horrible and so were their bats. Right now the Twins have been put in a very dire situation as losing any more games to the Twins on this homestand would put their playoff hopes on thin ice. Losing three in a row to the Tigers would put them ten games back and needing somewhat of a mircale to achieve what they set out to do. What the Twins need right now is to take chances, they need to take the sort of chances that only teams that are 40 games out of first would take. Such as stealing often to get men in to scoring position, or not pitching around anyone to try tp get a double play. Ultimately the Twins need to be desperate, beacuse at this point in time, desperate, is the only chance the Twins have.
Valencia Delivers
The twins racked up another win Wednesday against the Indians after Danny Valencia delivered again with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth. The Twins were down one when Valencia came up and delivered a go- ahead single that started a three inning for the Twins. On Tuesday Valencia delivered with a walk- off single that gave the Twins another win. With the win Wednesday the Twins are now five games under .500 and are now five games behind the Indians for first place in the NL Central. They did not make up any ground though as they are in the same position that they were before the series with the Indians started. They split the series with the Indians after losing both games of a doubleheader on Monday.
Thursday the Twins will look to make up significant ground as they start a four game series with the first- place Tigers. The Twins have not yet beaten the Tigers this year, and the last time they faced the Tigers they stood sixteen and a half games out of first place after their loss to the aforementioned Tigers. Valencia is now 10-for-18 with 22 RBIs with the bases loaded in his career, and he also now has 21 RBIs in the seventh inning or later. The Indians played considerably well to lose, but did make a few mistakes that in the end to proved to be costly, the Twins as well made a few sizable mistakes that they happened to get away with. Twins starter Nick Blackburn only allowed four hits and one earned run in six innings of work. The bullpen kept pace after that only allowing one run, which was by closer Joe Nathan, and kept the Twins in the game long enough for Danny Valencia to once again bail them out. With their second win in a row the Twins hopes to make the playoffs stay alive as they are still within striking distance with only 58 games left in the season.
Twins Skip Regualr Scheduled BP
On Tuesday Minneapolis saw record heat that caused the Minnesota Twins to skip their normally shceduled batting practice. The Twins instead decided to head to the cages before the game and get some practice in before they took on the Cleveland Indians. According to multiple news sources the St. Paul area reached a dew point of 82 degrees, which also set a new record. Many Twins personnel realized it was hot including manager Ron Gardenhire who also commented on the situation.
The Twins were advised to keep ice cold towels, cold water and plenty of other fluids handy to avoid any injuries. Meanwhile Joe Mauer got another start at first, and he seems to be getting used to the position and is excelling at it. In the last few weeks Mauer has brought the Twins hgreat defense and has also been consistent at the plate. On Monday Mauer delivered with six hits in eight at bats which raised his batting average to .290. in the month of July Mauer is hitting .393 with a .485 on base percentage. Mauer has said that he is feeling a lot better at the plate now, and is just trying to get a good feeling and hold onto it.
