Saturday, June 11, 2005

Turnaround Victory

After two straight nights of close games and bad loses, the Twins pulled it together tonight. And good thing, because the White Sox lost. Justin Morneau, who's been kept quiet as of late, was the driving force in the win, driving in four runs with a home run off of Dodgers starter Derek Lowe in third and a two-run single in the first. It was a classic Twins victory in all forms; the Twins had two double plays, got a quality start from their starting pitcher (Carlos Silva), good fielding, and of course, a few timely big hits. There wasn't any real negatives in this game, as everyone did what they were good at in order to gain a victory.

Here's a summary of the game in full:

* Joe Nathan picked up his 18th save this with a great ninth in which he struck out two dodgers and threw 11 strikes out of 15 pitches. That's a large improvement in control over the past few weeks and seemingly a return to the All-Star form of Nathan we've grown so accustomed to in Minnesota

* Torii Hunter also had a homer, giving him 10 on the year and the lead on the team. Hunter now has a .277 average, 10 HRs and 39 RBIs. The vast improvement in June has been exciting to watch and has been a big boost for the Twins, who despite being behind the White Sox, have one of the best records in the majors

* Recent call-up Glenn Williams went 2 for 4, giving him three hits so far in his five major league at-bats he has had. Williams seems to have appeared out of nowhere to provide the Twins with some help off the bench when they desperately needed it. It just shows the incredible depth of the Twins' farm system, as most fans had never really heard much about Williams until he was called up to replace Terry Tiffee this week

* Luis Rodriguez also continues to swing a hot bat since his call up, going 3 for 4 tonight and bringing his average to .367. He has been a significant upgrade over Luis Rivas and has shown the ability to make consistent contact in the toughest situations. I just hope the Twins keep this guy on the team, cause he has certainly earned his spot

* J.C. Romero also looked very impressive in relief, going two innings with four strikeouts and an all-important no walks. His breaking ball has been simply nasty this year. Now its just a matter of consistent control for Romero. Maybe he should talk to his fellow pitchers, who happen to have the best control in the majors (Or maybe he did. Now that would be a smart move!)

2 comments:

Nick N. said...

Hey Mr. Mosvick, glad to see you are keeping up with things well. Nice to see the Twins were able to bounce back from what seem to be a couple of tough losses. It's weird, because in Hawaii time a game that starts at 7 in Mpls starts at 2 pm here. Anyway, keep up the good work, and go Twins!

Nick M. said...

Yea, well, as I mentioned, the weekend was full of missed opportunities. We should have swept the Dodgers because, honestly, Hee Seop Choi is not that good of a hitter at all. Why else would he be traded around so much?