Sunday, June 10, 2007

Now That's Bad

This Twins' offense has had some ugly moments this year. But last night's game was BY FAR the lowest of all lows. Washington starter Levale Speigner entered last night's game with a 9.10 ERA on the season, including 14.45 as a starter. In four starts this season, he had never lasted more than four innings and never given up fewer than four runs or seven hits.

Not until he met the Twins lineup.

The Twins managed ONE RUN on TWO HITS last over SIX INNINGS last night. Let those numbers sink in for a minute. Speigner entered last night's game with 14 strikeouts and 19 walks over 28 2/3 innings on the season. The Twins struck out three times and walked just once over six frames. Opponents had pieced together a .355/.432/.500 line against Speigner prior to this game; last night the Twins batted .100/.142/.250 against him.

I've been standing behind this offense through all of its slumps, continually claiming that these players are too talented to be playing so poorly and insisting that the runs will start coming. Games like this cause me to lose a lot of faith. Levale Speigner is a Rule V draftee who is only in the majors because the team has no choice but to keep him there or lose him. At no point during this season has he looked like he belongs in the big leagues, but that changed last night. Last night it was the lineup he was facing that looked like it had no right to be playing in a major-league ballpark.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somehow the "offensive ineptitude" tag seems complimentary given tonight's performance. What a joke.

Nick M. said...

I have to agree here Ubelmann. The last two nights have nearly brought tears to my eyes. Then again, you can't have much of an offense when Lew Ford and Jason Tyner are your last hopes while Mike Redmond sits on the bench. (Granting, Ford and Tyner went 3-for-6 on the game, but they weren't exactly hard hits, like Ford's late Texas leaguer) Its even worse when Mauer, Hunter, and Castillo combine to go 0-for-12.