Sunday, July 29, 2007

Just Barely

Johan Santana did a lot things right in last night's close victory over the Cleveland Indians. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, he struck out 12 in seven innings of work, and his only real mistake was allowing a two-run home run to Travis Hafner. All things considered, he should have been lined up for the victory, but Twins fans by now have probably learned just how hard Santana has to work to avoid a loss, let alone get a victory, with the pathetic Twins offense.

Based on basic numbers, the Twins' 7-9 hitters going 2-for-11 wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, but rather keeping with their inability to do anything since the break. However, there was one big surprise that Twins fans have been seemingly waiting for since 2005: Jason Tyner hit what was likely his only home run of his career, just getting it over the wall and forever embarrassing Jake Westbrook, a pitcher whom the Twins should have knocked around anyway. Not surprisngly, Tyner's power display (he had a double as well) accounted for most of the Twins offense, as they managed a total of five hits, with Justin Morneau picking up an RBI single, Jason Bartlett going 1-for-4, and Torii Hunter getting a double in the ninth that set up Brian Buscher's game-winning RBI groundout.

Outside of that, the Twins offense was its usual awful self, picking up three walks, but doing little to nothing to support yet another pitching gem from Santana. It's very sad that Santana is on pace for a 17-12 record, considering his 2.92 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 156 Ks (to 35 walks), and .212 BAA. The eight losses are already a career-high for Santana and the only way he won't set a career-high in home runs will be if he allows only one home run the rest of the season. It's feeling a lot more like 2005, when Santana pitched well, but ended up with only 16 wins and saw his rightful Cy Young end up in the hands of the now washed up Bartolo Colon. That year the Twins offense couldn't do much against terrible pitchers like Westbrook, just like they can't now.

The Twins did pull out a win, but it simply wasn't a very convincing one, as it depended wholly on the Twins pitching combined with a power streak that will never return. I'd like to hope that luck is in their favor today as well, but C.C. Sabathia is a significantly better pitcher than Westbrook and he's also had a fair amount of success against the Twins. Here's to Matt Garza pitching another gem and improving that 1-2 record that covers up a sparkling 1.33 ERA. Sound familiar?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Johan coughing up the lead was disheartening - the pitch to Hafner wasn't exactly in a good place.

But the general theme is correct - - the norm for this offense is 'sputtering'; 2006 was an anomaly; we need at least two more real bats in the lineup (preferably three), which means there's a lot of work to do if Hunter's not coming back.

Anonymous said...

Aw man...I see your point totally, but why do you need to be so crabby? They won, Tyner hit a homerun and Johan had 12 strikeouts. It's baseball, it's fun! Gripe about the offense all you want, but it was enough to win the game. As far as giving up that homer to Hafner, well, that's life. Johan isn't the first, and he sure won't be the last to give up a homer to Hafner.

Nick M. said...

Well, you could say I'm crabby, but in my last post, I tried to make a positive post about the future for the Twins, which has plenty of bright spots. My thing is yes we won, but Johan deserved a win and really, it wasn't a convincing win at all. It still felt like the same old story, just that the Twins got somewhat lucky. They should have destroyed Westbrook, who's been awful this year. Of course I'm happy they won, but its disheartening that even when they win, there really isn't offense to speak of. Considering how the last two weeks have gone, its hard to get past that.