Sunday, April 30, 2006

Disgusting

On Friday night, the Twins got slaughtered 9-0 by the Tigers. It was an embarrassing loss. So how did they respond? By coming out and getting absolutely obliterated on Saturday afternoon, 18-1. A truly pathetic performance on a number of levels. The Twins were absolutely dominated in every facet of the game. All of their pitchers were crushed -- the Tigers scored multiple runs in every inning except two.

Carlos Silva followed up Brad Radke's Friday night dud with an even worse performance. Silva was crushed for 9 earned runs on 9 hits in just 2.1 innings. It seems like batters have finally figured out he and Radke are going to be throwing strikes almost all the time and they're jumping on them. Both of their stuff has been extremely hittable, as evidenced by the astronomical number of home runs that both have given up. Francisco Liriano followed Silva's ugly performance with his first truly bad outing of the year, getting knocked around for 5 ER on 8 hits in 3 innings. Check out Jesse Crain's outing from the FoxSports.com play-by-play:
- Crain pitching.
- Gomez singled to center, Monroe to second.
- Inge doubled to center, Monroe scored, Gomez scored.
- Granderson lined out to left fielder Stewart.
He has been laughably bad this year. The pitching is an absolute wreck.

It is getting past the time for niceties. Up to this point, there has been a lot of, "Well, it's early," and, "He's just off to a slow start." The fact is that Torii Hunter is SUCKING. He posted another collar yesterday and is now hitting .184 on the season. He's really earning that salary. Rondell White is SUCKING. He did not start yesterday, but failed in a pinch-hitting appearance late in the game to drop his batting average down to .141. Justin Morneau's nickname until further notice will be Justin Mendoza, in honor of his batting average which now sits just three points above .200.

Ruben Sierra, who had a horrible game, got hurt late in the game and could be done for the year. It should be interesting to see what the Twins do to replace him. Will they recall Jason Kubel, who has hit well in Triple-A? Will they bring up an additional pitcher (Dennys Reyes perhaps), since the ineptitude of the starting rotation has caused the bullpen to be so overworked? We'll see.

It's difficult to get overly upset with Ron Gardenhire regarding the team's performance. While his management certainly hasn't been spectacular, there's really just not much you can do when the majority of the players on your team are playing at an incredibly poor level. Still, Gardenhire must do something. No season can be lost at the end of April, but right now it's starting to feel dangerously close. The Twins are the worst team in baseball right now and have been thoroughly outclassed by nearly every team they've played. Things need to be seriously shaken up, because right now the Twins' play is totally unacceptable and very difficult to watch.

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