Saturday, June 02, 2007

Slowey's Fine Debut

Since being drafted, Kevin Slowey has made fairly quick work of each minor league stop, most recently dominating Triple-A hitters for two months. Thus, when it was confirmed he'd be starting last night, many Twins like myself were quite excited to see just what kind of pitcher Slowey was.

Last night, Slowey showed up and did the job much better than the guy he replaced. He got through six innings for a quality start, struck out three, walked two, gave up five hits, and he nearly picked up his first major league win is his first career start. The two walks doesn't seem Slowey-like, considering the great control he exhibited in the minors, but this is the Oakland As we are talking about. All things considered, it was a fairly impressive start.

Slowey did not absolutely dominate the Oakland lineup, but thats hardly a reason to see his first start as negative. He did well and he pitched enough to get the game to the great Twins bullpen. Although Joe Nathan gave up a run in the 10th, the bullpen threw four innings, gave up two hits and two walks, and struck out three.

Juan Rincon and Carmen Cali did their jobs and Pat Neshek continued his absolutely dominant year. For those not paying attention, Neshek is 3-0 now with a 1.33 ERA, a 0.81 WHIP, a .133 OBA, and 32 Ks in 27 innings. In other words, there have been few, if any, set-up men as dominant as Neshek this year.

As for the offense, the Twins didn't do much against As starter Joe Kennedy, but they managed a run against him to stay in the game before getting two runs in the 10th against Kiko Calero. Mike Redmond and Jeff Cirillo provided the RBI and Michael Cuddyer had another good game, going 1-for-3 with two walks to continue his hot streak.

Today, the Twins take on Joe Blanton, who is 4-3 with a 4.28 ERA this year, with Carlos Silva on the mound for the Twins. Silva was good his last time out and if he continues that today, the Twins may have yet another pitching duel on their hands, as Blanton has had a year much like Silva. Blanton started off very quick, but has gotten knocked around lately. Good thing for the Twins that Blanton has a 5.92 ERA against them in his career.

2 comments:

Ray Felix, III said...

Gaudin won't start until Sunday against Santana, today is Joe Blanton v. Silva.

also, neshek got the win last night, although Slowey certainly deserved one.

Nick M. said...

Your right and I noticed that this morning. I'll change it. I should know better anyways, since Blanton is on my fantasy team. Funny that I missed the Neshek thing as well, since I wrote about Neshek. Thanks!