Saturday, August 20, 2005

Guerrier's Loss

Well, Matt Guerrier did have the best ERA on the staff, but not for long after he gave up a 10th inning Grand Slam to Seattle's Richie Sexson. Guerrier, in total, gave up six runs on four hits and two walks in the 10th with out retiring a batter. Terry Mulholland, who's services are needed only in such a situation, managed to end the atrocious inning without being himself. It was a game that begun much like last week's young starter duel, as Kyle Lohse and "King" Felix Hernandez went at it again. Last time, "King" Felix won the doubt, but this time they matched numbers, as Lohse pitched seven innings, striking out three and giving up five hits, while Hernandez struck out nine and gave up five hits in eight innings of work. Each gave up two runs to help send the game into overtime.

Lohse continued his streak of good starts, but didn't get a win for it. He seems to have definitely stepped his game up as of late and its shown well. He may be yet a legitimate 4th or 5th starter. Its just too bad he couldn't get a victory, as the Twins winning streak came to an end in a "grand" fashion.

Guerrier looked terrible in his outing as Seattle's big bats came out from the shadowns to pay divdidends. The Twins hitters had some positive spots, but only scored three runs on a Lew Ford homer in the tenth off Eddie Guardado and a Matthew LeCroy single that scored two. Beyond that, Joe Mauer is the only Twin who had a good night at the plate, as he went 2 for 3 with a run scored and raised his average above .300.

Brad Radke starts tommorow and lets hope the hard-luck loser of the staff can get a win and give the Twins another series win over the Mariners. Its time to start another streak and lets keep Guerrier and Mulholland's work to "mop-up" duty, whenever that comes.

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