After recording impressive victories on Friday and Saturday night, the Twins fell to the Indians 4-2 in yesterday's series finale to leave Cleveland with a series victory rather than a sweep. It was a good weekend for the Twins, but it's not too difficult to see why they were unable to pick up a win yesterday against left-handed starter Aaron Laffey.
Coming into the game, here were the numbers for the Twins' right-handed middle-of-the-lineup hitters against southpaws:
Michael Cuddyer: .188/.272/.385
Delmon Young: .188/.235/.375
Joe Crede: .286/.333/.500
Only Crede has been having any success against lefties so far in this young season. In total, the three hitters were 2-for-11 in the game, with both the hits being singles. The Twins need these three to step up their performance against left-handers so the offense won't be completely screwed on days where the big lefty bats -- Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel -- struggle as they did yesterday.
Of course, the impetus also falls on the team's other right-handed hitters, such as Brendan Harris (hitting .267 vs. LHP), Carlos Gomez (hitting .143 vs. LHP). The team's regular switch-hitters, Nick Punto and Alexi Casilla, have gone a combined 1-for-36 against southpaws.
Struggling against left-handers is nothing new for the Twins, but it's really not excusable given with the number of right-handed batters they can trot out against any lefty. Joe Mauer's return should provide an overall jolt to the lineup but shouldn't be expected to help them specifically in this area. Instead, the responsibility falls on guys like Cuddyer and Young to do their job and step up when left-handed pitchers are suppressing the team's big lefty bats.
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- That'll Work, For Now
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2 comments:
Not only that, but if a couple of the right-handed hitters would actually start hitting, then Morneau and Kubel wouldn't have to hit back-to-back. Morneau and Kubel are mediocre at best against left-handed pitching and would ideally hit 4th and 6th (respectively) when a southpaw takes the mound. Against a righty, I can see the allure of putting them 3-4, but (as long as Mauer is out) it would still probably be ideal to put them 3-5 with a right-handed hitter between them.
With a decent right-handed hitter between Morneau and Kubel, opposing managers would actually have to consider the downside to putting a lefty pitcher in to face Morneau and Kubel, since there currently is no downside to that move.
And if Gardenhire bats Mauer-Morneau-Kubel in order when Mauer gets back, that's really going to make it easy for our opponents to manage their bullpen in the late innings. At the very least, if none of our right-handed hitters are hitting, Gardenhire should consider making it Mauer-Kubel-Morneau, since he can conceivably pinch-hit for Kubel whereas it's not really an option for Mauer or Morneau.
Anyway, I guess I'm getting a little carried away here. The main problem, as you pointed out, is that the right-handed hitters haven't been hitting.
I think the whole team will start hitting better when Mauer comes back. He seems to have the ability to "solve" any pitcher.
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