Couldn't Pull the Trigger

So the Twins couldn't yet again pull off a series sweep of a team.  This time the team that lucked out and seemed to capitalize on this was Cleveland. For some reason the Twins just couldn't pull the trigger and get anything done yesterday.  I'm not going to lie and say that I was a champ and sat through that game (listening mainly, watching only a little bit)...I didn't. I went home for lunch, watched about a half hour of the ass whopping and then decided that a nap was more enjoyable to the game.  When I went back to work (when the Indians had the bases loaded with no outs), the Twins did not go back on the radio.  I left it up to Twitter to tell me the final score (and when runs were scored in general).  It was hard to look at the box score and see that the Twins only had 4 hits in the entire game, two coming from Justin, one from Drew Butera (his first MLB hit! So congrats Drew!!) and one from Denard.  From our offense I would have expected a bit more.  Is that being greedy or having too high of expectations?  No, I don't think it is.  I think the Twins have set these expectations that every one is placing on them.  They are excelling more than most would have thought possible.

 

I still love you Timmy! (Scott Baker)

Wednesday night however was a different story.  Sure they only had two more hits than yesterday's game, but Wednesday night their walks seem to haunt a little bit more and hit the Indians where it counted.  You don't necessarily need an abundance of hits, you just need the clutch hits, the run scoring hits (or walks) to win the games.

As much as I loved J'Michael Cuddyer getting a home run to give the Twins a 4-0 lead (at that time), I didn't like that he was in the lineup that my fantasy team was playing this week.  With Kubel hitting poorly right now (a mere .180 after Thursday's game) and being on my team.  Currently I'm sitting at the very bottom of 10 teams in the standings.  Kubel's ass is going on the bench now for a while, and I'm going to give someone else the opportunity to raise some hell, since he can't do it.  Thankfully, Colby Rasmus was a bad ass the same night as Cuddy went deep.  Rasmus went deep twice in the game, so that helped the blow I took from Cuddy.

I'm glad that the Twins already had the series win in the bag before Thursday's game.  It marked the first time that the Twins have won 5 series in a row.  This year is really starting to become the year of firsts (obviously with the new field that opens up a lot more firsts).  What else will the Twins be able to make a "first" of?

In honor of them winning yet another series, I present:

The 3 Stars of the Series:

3. Justin Morneau (Justin kind of has sat under the radar in these few games.  He's gotten some clutch hits that we've needed and seems to be one of the guys that's been quite consistent with getting hits back to back games.)

2. Francisco Liriano (Fran exceeded all of my expectations of how he might pitch and went 8 innings allowing no runs.  I'm not the biggest fan of his, but I will give him credit.  He pitched a great game and got out of jambs that could've have been quite lethal.)

1. Kevin Slowey (am I partial by selecting Kevin as the number 1 star? Probably a little, since I love him so much, but I don't care!  Kevin pitched an outstanding 8 innings only allowing 1 run.  I think Gardy should've brought him out for the 9th, but at 97 pitches he turned it over to Brian Duensing.)

It sounds like the series this weekend against the Royals could be difficult to play due to rain threatening.  I won't be able to catch tonight's game if played (due to a conflict that will keep me away from TV and radio until probably around 10pm).  I will however be checking Twitter and ESPN for constant updates about the games' progress!  I think Carl Pavano has what it takes to dominate the Royals.  Thankfully this road trip will keep the Twins in our time zone (or ahead of us) so that no one has to stay up until late in the night just to catch the full game.  Plus they will be facing division rivals, which will give them a chance at gaining more of a lead in the AL Central Division.  I look forward to seeing how many games they can inch ahead.