Sunday, August 3, 2008

First-Place Twins

The Twins completed their series with the Indians by beating them 6-2. Couple that with a White Sox loss to the Royals and the Twins are now in sole possession of first place. Not bad.

Three Stars:
Francisco Liriano - 6 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 5 K. He wasn't the Liriano of old. He also wasn't the Liriano of April. Today's performance, though, was better than I expected. (If I have time, I'm going to re-watch today's game and comment more thoroughly on Liriano's performance... if I have time.)
Mike Lamb - 1 for 3, 3B, RBI, R. Lamb's defense wasn't great, but he did make a good play on a bad throw. He made up for it with a triple that scored Kubel. He's expensive for a left-handed situational player, but he's been alright lately.
Nick Punto - 1 for 4, 3B, RBI, R. First of all, the head-slide into first base was unnecessary. For that, I would sit him a game. I would call him into my office and say something like this, "Are you an idiot? How many players on our team are hurt because they've slid head-first into bases? I'm not saying don't slide head-first ever, but don't do it just to do it. Take some time - tomorrow's game - to think about what it would be like to hurt yourself unnecessarily as you watch the game from the bench." With that being said, Punto did make some nice defensive plays (and one bad one which cost Harris an error). He also added a nice triple. Of course, the pattern of him batting second is becoming somewhat annoying. BUT, as long as he continues to get on base, I'll zip my lip.

The Twins head to Seattle in first place. The White Sox have tomorrow off and then welcome the Tigers for three and then the Red Sox for four.

I'm hoping for a solid week, at least solid enough that when the Yankees come to town, the Twins have a 2 or 3 game lead.

Let's hope anyway!

3 comments:

Jeremy said...

Tim,

I know you're going to comment that the throw from Harris was bad and it wasn't Punto's fault.

Blah, blah, blah.

As it's the 1st baseman's job to scoop up bad throws from the 3rd baseman, it's also the 2nd baseman's job to catch bad throws from the shortstop. Yeah, it was a bad throw, but it was a throw that should have been caught.

Anonymous said...

I guess because of the situation, I guess I'll have to agree with you. It shouldn't have been Punto's fault.

It was a bad throw. Yes, it should have been caught...BUT...

The play shouldn't have been at second base. If you're throwing it to second, you have to get it close to the bag.

;)

Jennifer said...

baseball...baseball...bla, bla, bla... Can I get a new pic of baby Cade and maybe Marin too?? Thanks!! and PS: Go Twins....