Saturday, October 12, 2002

Nok Hockey, Steaks and a 2-1 ballgame

I watched last night's ballgame at my aunt and uncle's (and cousins') house (as opposed to the privacy of my own closet, aka dorm room), so I didn't take the notes that I usually do.

So, instead of a more detailed recap of the game's events (like I did for game 1) I figured I would just do a Larry King style "notes" entry, complete with tons of non sequiturs, just like Larry does himself.

Here we go...

How is it possible that, during my nearly 20 years on this planet, I did not discover the wonders of "Nok Hockey" until last night?!
I've played countless games of "Air Hockey" in my time and I even had my very own miniature Air Hockey table, but my first experience with Nok Hockey came last night.
I think my total record was 4-4 last night, but it should be noted that of those 4 victories, none of them came against anyone older than 12.
Still, not bad for my first day as a Nok Hockey player, I think I am well on my way to becoming a solid player for many years to come.

Speaking of which (oops, so much for the tons of non sequiturs)...
My uncle apparently has a long and successful history of Nok Hockey playing.
Seriously.
He has tons of trophies and he was telling me about tournaments he played in and all sorts of stuff.
It's like a whole 'nother world has been opened up to me!
(I was 0-2 against him last night, by the way)

We had T-Bone steaks for dinner before the game, which brought to mind (as almost everything does) a great Seinfeld episode.
"Hey, we should call you T-Bone!"

The second batter of the game, Cristian Guzman, hit a ball in the hole at shortstop that David Eckstein got to in plenty of time, but his throw bounced a few feet in front of first base, Scott Spiezio couldn't pick it and Guzy ended up safe on first.
On the play, my uncle had two points that he made:
1) "Eckstein has a horrible arm."
2) "What happened to Guzman's speed?!"

Okay, so #2 is a question and not really a point, but you get the idea.
Eckstein does has a very bad arm, especially for a shortstop.
Of course, he wasn't always a SS and was actually switched there in the middle of last season.
That said, he has very good range and he makes the plays the majority of the time.
I would much have rather have him defensively than Cristian Guzman or Derek Jeter.
Although, if you could somehow morph Jeter's arm and Eckstein's everything else, you would have a hell of a defensive shortstop.

And Guzman's speed is way down from what it was prior to this year.
He isn't hitting nearly as many triples, he suddenly stinks at stealing bases and he is just noticeably slower in almost everything he does.
I suspect it is the result of an injury or two, which is sad because I think Guzman was probably the fastest base runner in the American League before this year.

I like Ron Gardenhire as a manager and I think the players really like him too (which is just slightly more important than me liking him).
I think he generally does a good job with in-game managing and he seems to do an excellent job with off-the-field stuff.
However, I think the one area that he is weak is lineup construction, particularly against left-handed starting pitchers.
Not so much the batting order (although anyone that bats Guzman #2 could stand to improve a little bit in that area) but specifically his "platooning" techniques (or lack of).
He refuses to put Jacque Jones on the bench against lefties, which is a huge mistake, despite the double he finally got last night.
Last night he suddenly comes to the conclusion that Michael Cuddyer's defense in right field is too bad to take, so he decides Cuddyer (a right handed hitter) should be on the bench against Jarrod Washburn.
That is bad enough considering we can use all the right handed hitters (especially ones that have a history of clobbering the ball in the minor leagues) we can get against lefty starters, but it is even worse when his new RF is Dustan Mohr and his .203/.293/.338 against southpaws this season.
Of course, Mohr got 2 hits last night, so maybe Gardy had a "feeling" or something.
And finally, as I have talked about numerous times, my favorite Minnesota Twin continues to sit on the bench against right-handers, left-handers and ambidextrous pitchers.
That's right, FREE BOBBY KIELTY!!!!!
.291/.405/.484 should not be on the bench.
Basically, I just wish he would "play the percentages" a little more against left handers.

Corey Koskie had the "golden sombrero" last night (aka 4 strikeouts).
Not a good night for our young Canadian friend.

Is anyone else sick of seeing Franciso Rodriguez?
Now I am just hoping that, at some point, me writing an entry about him earlier will somehow jinx him.
How he ever gave up any runs in the minor leagues is beyond me.
He now has 14 innings pitched in the Major Leagues.
In those 14 innings:
26 strikeouts
5 walks
6 hits
3 wins (all in the playoffs)

Meanwhile Gardenhire has his own Francisco Rodriguez in Johan Santana (whom I also wrote an entry about earlier).
Santana led all of Major League baseball in strikeouts per 9 innings.
But while Mike Scioscia is willing to stick Rodriguez into any close game for 1 inning or 3 innings or whatever, Gardenhire decided to use Johan for 1/3 of an inning in last night's game.

While I am on the subject of Gardy and relief pitching last night...
There was absolutely no need for him to do what he did (use 4 relievers) in the 7th inning.

He took Eric Milton out after 6 innings and brought in Latroy Hawkins to face 3 straight right-handed batters.
Latroy walked Bengie Molina to start the inning, Benji Gil sacrificed Chone Figgins (who ran for Molina) and then Latroy gave a up "single" to David Eckstein.
Okay, so Latroy didn't do very well (although if Rivas catches the Eckstein ball, he easily doubles Figgins off of second base), but bringing him in to face 3 straight righties made sense.
The Gardy brings in Johan to pitch to Darin Erstad, who hits a grounder to second which Rivas throws home to get Figgins at the plate.
And that was it for Santana, as he was lifted and Mike "Heehee" Jackson was brought in to face Tim Salmon.
Jackson walked Salmon and he was then yanked in favor of J.C. Romero.

Gardenhire used 3 pitchers after he took Latroy out, simply because he wanted Mike Jackson in the game to face Tim Salmon?!
Why not leave Johan in to pitch to Salmon, which would allow you to save Jackson AND Romero, because Johan (a lefty just like Romero) could then also pitch to Garret Anderson.
Lefty, righty, whatever, Johan is a better choice than Mike Jackson.

If I were managing last night's ballgame (which is pretty unlikely, just so you know) here is what I would have done with the pitching:
1) Take Eric Milton out of the game after 6 innings, with the scored tied 1-1 (exactly what Gardy did).
2) Bring Johan Santana into the game and treat his appearance as if it were a "start."
That is, leave him in there, basically, until the game is over, one way or another.

I am a huge believer in playing percentages and I am defininitely a fan of brining in a great lefty reliever to shut down a left-handed hitter (and the same with a righty reliever and a righty hitter).
But to bring a guy in to face one batter just because he is right-handed defeats the purpose.
Mike Jackson is right-handed and so is Tim Salmon.
But Mike Jackson is not dominant against right-handed batters (.288/.322/.424) and Tim Salmon is not horrible against right-handed pitchers (.280/.368/.503.
So there is no point in wasting Johan Santana because you need to get Mike Jackson in there to face Salmon.
Santana is a better choice to have face Salmon and the choice becomes even more when it also means you don't have to use 2 other pitchers in the process.
Okay, rant over.

During the regular season, Juan Carlos Romero gave up a total of 3 home runs in 291 at bats against hitters.
Last night, he gave up the game winning homer to Troy Glaus.
That's playoff baseball for you.

I didn't really get a chance to hear much of what Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons had to say during the game last night, but I did catch one beauty.
Steve Lyons (talking about Eric Milton's knee injury): "Milton pitched a long time with the injury this season before he finally decided to have the surgery."
That statement is not just incorrect, it is an absolute lie.
Do they not have any notes in front of them? Do they not have meetings with the teams to discuss details of the season? What the heck is going on?

Eric Milton heard his knee "pop" while warming up in the bullpen a couple of minutes before his August 6th start against Baltimore.
He did not throw a pitch in that game and immediately went to the hospital to have knee checked out.
He had surgery a couple of days later.

If announcers stuck to just saying idiotic things, I wouldn't really mind so much.
But when they say things that just are not anywhere close to being true, I get mad.
Especially because they are the ones that are announcing the Twins game to a national audience, most of whom probably haven't seen the Twins play in about a decade.

Troy Percival looked good in the game last night, but the Twins came real close to getting 2 hits off of him in the 9th inning.
Alex Ochoa (the RF) and Garret Anderson (the LF) each made very nice diving catches to prevent singles (at least).
Ochoa was in as a defensive replacement for Salmon.
I bet that a defensive replacement making a great defensive play must make a manager feel like an absolute genius.
At this point Percival looks a lot more hittable than Rodriguez.

Eric Milton looked great last night.
That is two awesome starts in a row, so he is definitely back 100% from the injury.
If we make it to a game 7, I feel fairly confident having him on the mound.

Of course, he would be facing Jarrod Washburn in that game 7.
Washburn was also pretty awesome last night.
He struck out 7, didn't walk a single person and gave up only 1 extra-base hit (the game tying double to Jones).

Anaheim pinch runner Chone Figgins has got to have the worst speed-to-base running instincts ratio in the entire history of organized baseball.
He should have scored on the Eckstein line drive that Rivas almost caught.
And if he wasn't going to score on that play, he shouldn't have been in a position to be doubled off.
Either a) score on the play and have the possibility of making a double play if Rivas holds onto the ball or b) don't score on the play and do not be in a position to be doubled off if Rivas holds on.
Of course, Chone chose c) which was find a spot that is an equal distance between 2nd and 3rd, stand there for several seconds and then jog casually into the third base.

Oh, I almost forgot...
If you are going to bring Mike Jackson into the game to face 1 right-handed batter, make it Troy Glaus!
Glaus' splits against lefties and righties:
vs lefties - .298/.389/.534
vs righties - .230/.337/.422

Gardy wasted 3 pitchers in the 7th so that he could get Romero and Santana to each face lefty batters and Jackson to face a righty batter.
Okay fine.
And then in the 8th he lets Romero face a right handed batter that absolutely demolishes lefties and struggles against righties.
There is something not quite right with that logic.
And yes, I am still bitter about the home run.

My mom has been watching a lot of this series and last night she made he first big baseball comment to me about the Angels:
Mom: "Their first baseman is a really good player isn't he?"

So my mom watched the Angels play 3 times in a week and the main thing she noticed (or thought she noticed) was that Scott Spiezio is a really good player.
I think maybe the soul patch with the red hair coloring threw her off or something.

If I never hear about Doug Mientkiewicz and Alex Rodriguez going to high school together again, I will be a happy man.
That tidbit of info has been official run into the ground.

Torii Hunter made a hell of a catch on that ball Salmon hit in the first inning.
It looked an awful lot like the one he made in the All-Star Game off of Superman.
And Jacque Jones made an almost equally great catch in the left field corner on Garret Anderson's drive in the 3rd inning.

Anderson came about 10 combined feet short of hitting 4 homers last night.

And finally...
The line of the night didn't come from Thom Brennaman or Steve Lyons.
It came from my cousin Amy.
She likes to mimic people's voices and apparently one of her favorite ones to do is my voice.
So after a little while I said to her (jokingly), "One day someone is gonna beat you up," and I made a fist.
She looked at me for a minute and said, "You have fat fingers."

Game 4 tonight.
Radke vs. Lackey.
This is the game the Twins have got to win.

GO TWINS!

Thursday, October 10, 2002

All tied up

Before I give my thoughts on last night's game, let me first welcome everyone new that is coming here because of Simon Peter Groebner's article on StarTribune.com that mentions this site.

For everyone keeping count (probably just my mom and I) that is this site's first official mention in a mainstream media outlet.
Pretty exciting!

So to all the new visitors, thanks for stopping by and I hope you like what you see.
If you do, please bookmark the page and come back often (we usually have at least 1 new article per day and sometimes a lot more).
Please feel free to check out some of my previous entries, all you need to do is go to the upper left hand corner of this page where it says "archive" and click on a period of time that you want to read entries from.

Thanks to Mr. Groebner for the mention and thanks to all the new readers for stopping by (and bookmarking the page!).

Okay, now to the baseball...

Well, last night's game wasn't quite as fun as game 1 (click here for my complete, play-by-play, recap of game 1).
Rick Reed gave up a homer to the second batter of the game, but managed to escape the first inning with no further damage.
Then in the second inning, some Anaheim hits and some shaky Minnesota defense led to 3 more Angel runs.
So, before the Twins had their first hit of the night, Anaheim was up 4-0.

For those you interested, I actually think that Adam Kennedy getting picked off of 1st base (and Scott Spiezio eventually scoring from 3rd) was a called play from Mike Scioscia, and if it wasn't, it should've been.

Reed gave up another homer in the 6th to make it 6-0 Anaheim.
And that was pretty much the ballgame, although the Twins did score 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th cut it to 6-3.

They couldn't get any closer, because the Anaheim bullpen was just awesome.
Brendan Donnelly, Francisco Rodriguez and Troy Percival combined for 2 2/3 innings in which they gave up only 1 hit and struck out 7.

I wrote an entry about Francisco Rodriguez during the Anaheim/New York series and what I said then still goes.
The kid is just FILTHY!
Smooth delivery, phenomenal fastball and a nasty slider.
The Twins plan with him last night seemed to be to go up there and take the first pitch or two.
It was not a horrible plan really, especially with a young pitcher that might have some control issues, but last night Rodriguez was pumping strikes and getting ahead of hitters, which enabled him to use his breaking stuff.

I am not really sure what the Twins should try to do with him.
From what I saw, it looks like he tends to throw a first pitch fastball to almost every batter, so they might be best served to just go up there hacking and try to drive his first pitch (which was usually right down the pipe).
Obviously much easier said than done, as I would assume it is tough to hit the first pitch from a guy who you haven't faced much before, especially when it is coming in at about 97 MPH.

The Twins were able to get quite a few hits (10 to be exact) off of Anaheim starter Ramon Ortiz, which is a good sign for when they face him later in the series.

They just cannot afford to get down 4 or 5 or 6 runs and try to come back, not against a bullpen like Anaheim's.

Now it is a best of 5 series and Anaheim has homefield advantage and a chance to end it at home with a 3 game sweep.

Obviously the Twins need to win 1 out of 3 in Anaheim in order for them to keep the series going.
I think that despite losing home field advantage, they are still in a very good position to win this series.

Game 3 is going to be very tough, with Jarrod Washburn going for Anaheim and Eric Milton for the Twins.
The Angels hit lefties very well and you never know what you are going to get with Milton since his injury.

Game 4 is the one the Twins have got to win.
They have their "ace" Brad Radke going against Anaheim's #4 guy, rookie John Lackey.

And game 5 is a rematch of game 1, Joe Mays versus Kevin Appier.
So, you have to like the Twins chances in that one.

If I sound optimistic, it's because I am.

A few notes...

Michael Cuddyer looks extremely rough around the edges in right field.
I think he is going to be a star in the Major Leagues with the bat and eventually a pretty good outfielder, but right now, in the playoffs, he scares me quite a bit out there.
His range is good, but he doesn't take great routes to the ball and his arm is strong but very eratic.

I haven't really talked much about the NL playoffs for a few days, mostly because I am pretty obsessed with the Twins right now, and I even forgot to write up my preview for the NLCS.
For those of you wondering, I picked the Giants in 7 because I think their offense is too strong, St. Louis' starting pitching isn't strong enough and, well, they have Superman on their team.

Speaking of which, he is putting on quite a show, hitting .316/.481/.895 so far (check out the "Bonds Playoff Tracker" on the left hand side of this page).
He isn't getting much of anything to hit, but when he does he is making the most of it.
And the guys behind him are driving him in when he gets walked, which is a key for the Giants.

Hmmm...a Twins/Giants World Series wouldn't sound so bad.
My favorite team versus my favorite player.

Did everyone see the "incident" with Kenny Lofton in last night's game?
What exactly is Kenny's problem?
The pitch in question was about 3 inches off of the plate and a little high.
He definitely needs to relax a little bit, especially considering he has done this sort of thing before (with a Randy Johnson slider).
And if he is going to get so upset when he thinks someone is throwing at him, he should probably stop posing at home plate when hits a homer that clears the fence by a few feet.

That said, I always enjoy anything that causes me to hear the words "and here come the relievers running in from the bullpen."
And it was fun to see Dusty Baker and Tony LaRussa have some words.
I think I would pick Dusty in that one, unless Tony knows some kind of karate.

Okay, that's enough rambling for now...

For those new visitors that weren't impressed by today's entry...um...I swear it is usually better than this.
Seriously.
Check out this entry or this entry or maybe this entry if you don't believe me!

Tuesday, October 08, 2002

1-0

What a game!

Joe Mays was absolutely awesome.
Aside from Guzman, the defense played very well.
And the Twins were very patient at the plate, especially against Appier, and they worked some walks, got some hits and managed to get a couple of clutch hits.

Great game.

Since I couldn't find anyone to give me great tickets for free, I watched it on TV.

Here is my (completely unedited) running diary:

This running diary is coming to you LIVE from a 10x12 dorm room on the University of Minnesota campus.
I am pleased to be joined by a Swansons Hungry Man turkey and mashed potato microwave dinner, a half gallon of 1% Milk and a frozen Milky Way bar.

On to the diary...

No lineup surprises, both teams are going with their "expected" lineups against right handed starters.

Bud Selig is in the house!
For some reason I don't think he will be going through the crowd shaking hands and kissing babies tonight.

FOX pregame show host Jeanne Zelasko has one of the worst hair cuts/styles of all-time.
Nice looking woman and everything, but in need of a decent haircut.
The pregame show just *bleeped* the word aberration during a Twins montage, pretty funny.

Remember when I said (in my series preview) that if you listen to most announcers they will tell you that Minnesota has the best defense in the league?
Kevin Kennedy just said Minnesota is "the best defensive team in baseball," and "Torii Hunter is the best CF is the AL."
Like I said in the preview, I think the actual evidence would prove both of those statements wrong, but as a Twins fan, I don't mind that everyone thinks that.

Okay, pregame show over.
Game time...

Joe Mays takes the mound in the first inning.
The stats that they show (4-8, 5.38 ERA, etc) while he throws his warmup pitches have to be some of the worst ever for a game 1 starter in an LCS.

Our announcers this evening are Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons. (Yippee!)
Thom opens the broadcast by saying, "Many believe this (the Twins) is the best defensive team in the major leagues."
He also says, "Many believe Cristian Guzman will win a Gold Glove at shortstop someday."

Who is this "Many" that he is quoting and why doesn't someone show him some defensive stats?

Anaheim's #2 hitter, Darin Erstad, gets the first hit of the night with a bloop single into left field.
Tim Salmon follows by grounding into a Guzman-Rivas-Mientkiewicz double play.

You gotta love those commercials that go from someone smoking marijuana to killing children in under 20 seconds.
Does anyone know what it is a commercial for? I can't quite figure out what they are selling? Insurance? Hamburgers?

FOX just gave us a view of the "Owner's Suite" at The Dome, where we were treated to the sight of Bud Selig sitting with Carl Pohlad, with both of them laughing!

Pohlad: Good crowd tonight, huh Bud?
Selig: Yeah Carl. Did you know the Brewers have a new stadium?
Pohlad: Say, did you ever hear the one about the Priest, the Rabbi and the Minister?

Jacque Jones leads off for the Twins and pops the 2-2 pitch up to David Eckstein at shortstop.
Brennaman says, "Eckstein was really battling the roof on that one."
Meanwhile, Eckstein just had to jog back a few feet and easily caught the ball.

Corey Koskie gets the first Minnesota hit with a single to right field.
During David Ortiz's at bat, Anaheim catcher Bengie Molina makes a snap throw to first base that would have gotten Koskie out, but it bounced in the dirt.
Steve Lyons: "Molina didn't even bother standing up on that throw, he just threw it from his CROTCH."
Feel free to insert your own punchline for that, I don't really have one, but I thought I needed to make mention of it.

Ugh! Ortiz swings at a 3-0 pitch and hits a weak popup to left field for the third out.

Shouldn't Jack Bauer be in line for some extended vacation time before he has to go out on another big adventure?
I mean for God's sake, the man had a very tough day.

Guzman is making the plays at SS, but I just wish he didn't look some damn lazy out there.

Joe Mays looks absolutely sedated out on the mound, drugged even.

Anaheim DH and #6 hitter Brad Fullmer looks like someone who could play the part of the "Feared, Mean, Power Hitting Slugger" in Major League 7.
He's got the big arms, the "I haven't shaved in a few days" look and the spitting brown liquid routine down perfect.

Torii Hunter leads off the 2nd with a double off of the right-centerfield baggy.
Appier bounces a pitch past Molina and Torii scampers to third.
Mientkiewicz pops up the next pitch to Glaus in foul territory.
Michael Cuddyer walks on 4 pitches, 1st and 3rd with 1 out.

The Twins look very patient against Kevin Appier so far, which is a good sign.

A.J. Pierzynski gives a 3-1 pitch a good ride to centerfield, Erstad catches it for the out and Torii tags and scores from 3rd.
1-0 TWINS.

Luis Rivas comes up with 2 outs and Cuddyer on 1st.
Lyons says, "Defensively, it doesn't get much better than Rivas at second base."
While you are getting "Many" those defensive stats, make a copy for Mr. Lyons.

Molina makes another snap throw to first, but Cuddyer dives back safely.
Rivas strikes out on a 3-2 pitch.
Appier has thrown 41 pitches through 2 innings.

Steve Lyons called the simultaneous games tomorrow night a "paradise."
Um Steve, some people might actually think it was nice if we could watch both games, at different times.

Lyons: "Mays looks like he is gonna fall asleep out there."
HEY! I already said that!

Adam Kennedy slaps a single to left field.
The Angels play hit and run with Eckstein, who singles to right field.

UGH! Guzman lets a routine groundball go between hits legs.
WAKE UP GUZY!
Kennedy scores from 2nd.
TIED 1-1.

After the error, Lyons says Guzman is "a potential Gold Glover."
Um...yeah.

By the way, I swear I wrote the thing about Guzman looking lazy out in the field BEFORE he made the error.

Mays manages to get out of the inning without any further damage.

Jacque Jones drives a pitch to deep right field, but Tim Salmon makes the catch with his back up against the baggy.

Several people (possibly trainers?) on the Angels' bench are wearing ear plugs.

Brennaman and Lyons just spent about 5 minutes talking in great detail about the ground rules in regard to the speakers at The Dome, which come into play about once every 100 or so odd games.

Fullmer beats out an infield single on a grounder up the middle that Rivas can't get to first in time.
Mays gets Scott Spiezio to hit a high chopper to first that Mientkiewicz makes a nice leaping grab on, inning over.

Mays is pitching great. 52 pitches through 4 innings. 6 groundball outs and 5 flyball outs.

Will any non-married men in the entire universe watch "Girls Club" (a new show on FOX)? Uh...NO!

Ortiz rips a 1-2 pitch into right field for a leadoff single in the 4th.

Hunter lays down a bunt and is thrown out at first on a nice play by Molina.
Brennaman says, "That is an example of the style of this Minnesota team, the five hole hitter hitting a sacrifice bunt."
About 30 seconds later, after someone actually looked up the numbers on that, Brennaman says, "That was the first sacrifice bunt on the year for Hunter."
Does it count as the "style of the team" if it is the first time they have done something the entire season?

Mientkiewicz walks on four pitches, putting runners on 1st and 2nd with ONE out.
Brennaman says there are "Two on and TWO out."
Thanks Thom.

Torii's attempt at "little ball" doesn't work as the Twins fail to score.

Brennaman, talking about the two teams playing in the regular season says, "These teams went toe-to-toe...and I mean LITERALLY toe-to-toe...nine times this year."
Yes Thom, the Twins and Angels "literally" went toe-to-toe, it was really an amazing sight, although somewhat disturbing.

Rivas starts the 5th with a walk (!?!?).
Everyone but Jacque Jones is talking a ton of pitches so far.

Guzman lines a base hit over the outstretched glove of Eckstein and into centerfield.
Two on and 1 out.

Koskie lines a 2-2 pitch into the right field corner.
Rivas scores, Guzman checks in at 3rd base.
2-1 TWINS.

Ortiz pops a 2-2 pitch up to Spiezio in foul ground for the 2nd out.
Brendan Donnelly is starting to warmup in the pen.
Torii lays off of a tough 2-2 pitch and then swings at ball four, striking out to end the inning.

Joe Mays gets Anaheim 1-2-3 in the 6th and is cruising with only 72 pitches thrown.

Donnelly comes in and gets the Twins 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 6th.

By the way, the reason my recap on the 6th inning was so abbreviated was that I went to the bathroom and on the way back to my room I stopped by another room that had a bunch of people in it watching the game.
I was met with a discussion of whether or not everyone in the room had thrown up yet during their time at the U of M this year.
When the answer to that became way too obvious, the question was narrowed to whether or not they had thrown up inside of the particular dorm that we all live in.
I'll let you guess what the answer to that was.

Koskie makes a great play on an in-between hop from a Spiezio grounder, throwing him out for the 3rd out of the 7th inning.

Mays through 7: 88 pitches (60 for strikes), 4 hits, 2 Ks, 0 BB. 11 groundball outs - 8 flyball outs.
Boy was I wrong about him, he has been great.
I would leave him in to pitch the 8th for sure.

Thom Brennaman LITERALLY has one of the smallest heads on a human being that I have ever seen.

Donnelly stays in to pitch the 7th.
He strikes out Jacque Jones on 4 pitches.
Jacque can have some of the ugliest swings you will ever see on a .300 hitter.

I think if Troy Percival got glasses/goggles like Donnelly or Ben Weber, his ERA would probably go up about a half run per game just because he would stop freaking batters out by squinting in to get the signs from the catcher before every pitch.

Guzman takes one for the team as he gets plunked by Donnelly.
Scott Schoeneweis is brought in to face Koskie.
I am glad to see Donnelly out of the game, he looked pretty good.
Schoeneweis bounces his first pitch and Molina makes yet another snap throw to first base.
Koskie fouls a pitch off of his leg/foot and falls to the ground as I have visions of Jermaine Dye in last year's playoffs dancing in my head.
Koskie ends the inning by flying out to Salmon in right field.

J.C. Romero and Latroy Hawkins begin the 8th warming up in the bullpen.
Mays strikes out Orlando Palmeiro, who was pinch hitting for catcher Bengie Molina.
Kennedy grounds out to Guzman and some moron from the crowd runs onto the field (although FOX doesn't show anything).

Joe Mays is shown shaking his head on the mound.
If he starts getting hit, I am blaming it all on the idiot who ran on the field.
Mike Scioscia just came out of the dugout and looks to be arguing that the guy was running onto the field while Mays was throwing the pitch that Kennedy made the out on.
Good luck with that argument Mike.
I am not a violent person, but with the incident in Chicago last month and everything, I hope security takes this guy somewhere and beats him to a bloody pulp.
Just a thought, by the way, did I mention I am not a violent person?

Mays has now retired 13 in a row after Eckstein grounds out to Guzman to end the 8th.

Should Gardenhire leave him in to pitch the 9th?
He hasn't even thrown 100 pitches yet, has retired 13 straight and considering what Eddie Guardado did in his last save opportunity...YES!

Bobby Kielty pinch hits for Ortiz against Schoeneweis and flies out to right field.

Eddie G is warming up in the pen, so it looks like Gardenhire isn't going to listen to me (again!).

Ben Weber comes into the game to face Hunter and strikes him out on a pinch in the dirt.

And we're heading to the 9th inning (please don't bring in Eddie, please don't bring in Eddie...).

Guardado is on the mound to start the 9th.
Damn.
I would liked to have seen Mays at least start the 9th, more so because of how he was pitching than how Guardado pitched last game.
I probably would have let him start the 9th, had Eddie warmed and ready in the pen, and brought him in if/when someone reached base.

Steve Lyons: "For closers, you can throw the lefty/right matchups out the window."
Really Steve? How about we throw you out the window?

Eddie gets the first out of the inning against Darin Erstad.
So far, so good.

Salmon walks. Crap.

He is the first Anaheim batter to reach base since the 4th inning! (which is why I wanted to keep Mays in there)

Percival is warming in the pen.

A double play would be really nice here (with Garret Anderson up) so we could avoid Troy Glaus, who kills lefties (even though Mr. Lyons doesn't believe in that sort of thing).

Anderson flies out to shallow right field.

2 down.

Glaus comes up with 2 down and a runner (Chone Figgins, who pinch ran for Salmon) on first base.
Quick check of Glaus' numbers against lefties just so I can be even more nervous...uh huh, just as I thought: .298/.389/.534 with 10 homers in 161 ABs.

Strike 1, fastball right by Glaus.
Strike 2, fastball fouled back.
Ball 1, fastball high and outside.
Strike 2 (#2), fouled back.
Strike 2 (#3), fastball fouled straight back.
Ball 2, pitch out. (a pitch out?!)
Ball 3, breaking ball low.
STRIKE 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! breaking ball called 3rd strike!
T-HHHHHHHHHH-UUUUUUUU-HHHHHH TWINS WIN!!!!!!!!

What a game!
Eddie gets the job done (not before making it "interesting") and the Twins take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Final thoughts...

Mays looked absolutely spectacular and he certainly proved me wrong.
He took advantage of the Anaheim hitters' aggressiveness by throwing strikes and letting them beat the ball into the ground (13 groundball outs).
I feel very confident with him starting game 5 (against Appier once again).

1 down, 3 to go.

GO TWINS!

Monday, October 07, 2002

Playoff Preview and Prediction (Round 2: Angels vs. Twins)

Is anyone else still giddy from yesterday's Twins win?
I actually had sort of calmed down somewhat and was focusing on what I wanted to say about the upcoming series with Anaheim.

But then, on the way to class this morning, I bumped into one of my friends and we started talking about the game.
And guess what? Now I am all excited again.

The Twins won!

(Note to self: Calm Down!)

Before we get to my preview of the series and my inevitably incorrect prediction, I have some bad news (at least for Twins fans) to report.
If you haven't already heard (and I suspect this didn't exactly lead the 10 o'clock news in most places), Twins utility infielder Denny Hocking suffered a severe cut on his hand during the celebration that followed yesterday's win.
Denny is apparently out for the ALCS for sure and possibly done for the season.

Now, losing Hocking isn't exactly the most horrible thing that could ever happen to a ballclub, but it is still important.

Firstly, Luis Rivas is having some minor injury problems, which is why Hocking started in his place in yesterday's ballgame.
So we now have a slightly banged up second baseman and we are without his #1 replacement.

Secondly, as Hocking exhibited versus Mark Mulder yesterday, he can hit left handed pitching pretty well.
For the year Denny hit .342/.404/.434 against southpaws, which is pretty darn good, especially when the alternative is a steady dose of Luis Rivas and all the outs that come along with that.
A .400 OBP would certainly be a nice thing to have playing second base against Jarrod Washburn.

Thirdly, Hocking is a fair-to-good defensive player at pretty much every position, so he has value in the late innings because he can basically be the defensive substitute that goes along with any pinch hit appearance by Matthew Lecroy or Bobby Kielty or David Ortiz or whomever.
If it is the late innings and there is a runner on 2nd with two outs and Luis Rivas at the plate, Ron Gardenhire might consider a pinch hitter in that spot, in which case Hocking would be used to replace Rivas at 2B.
Same goes for Cristian Guzman at SS.

But more intriguing than those three paragraphs I just wrote about Denny Hocking (be honest, you didn't think it was possible for someone to write that much about Denny Hocking, did you?) is the story that is coming out about how he sustained the cut on his hand.

According to what I have read so far, Denny's hand was spiked by someone's cleat.

When Denny was initially asked about who the teammate was that stepped on his hand, he declined an answer, saying:
"[It] is someone I'm feuding with, that's why I won't name him."

Hey now!
The journalism school major in me says that there is a little more to this story, and there is.
Some new info came out today that suggests it was Jacque Jones that stepped on Hocking's hand

When asked about it, Jacque had this to say:
"If Denny says I stepped on his hand, I stepped on his hand," Jones said.

(insert mysterious music)

Last night, before the news that it was Jacque Jones that did the damage came out, I had a discussion with James Newburg (from The Newburg Baseball Page, which is listed on the left) about the whole Hocking situation.

I suggested that maybe it was David Lamb (the utility infielder that has been added to roster in place of Hocking) that injured Hocking, to which James had this response:

(Playing the part of wrestling announcer Jim Ross): "Good God, th-that's David Lamb's music! I thought he was in Triple-A! What the hell is he doing here?"

For those of you who are saying, what the heck is he talking about?
Imagine Denny Hocking in a wrestling ring, perhaps talking to the crowd.
Then imagine a sudden blast of sound as David Lamb's theme music came blaring over the loud speakers, followed by an angry David Lamb, perhaps wielding a metal chair (or in this case a baseball cleat) running to the ring.
Okay, you get the point.
Fellow readers of ESPN Page 2's Bill Simmons will recognize that joke and it cracked me up big time.

Anyway, assuming Gardenhire is willing to trust David Lamb out in the field, he should be able to replace Hocking acceptably.
Lamb hit .309/.377/.448 in AAA this year.
Hocking probably would have gotten, at most, 7 or 8 at bats during the series and I suspect Gardenhire will likely give Lamb even less.

Okay, enough Denny Hocking talk (because knowing Denny, the whole thing is probably a joke anyway).

On to the preview and prediction...

Anaheim Angels (99-63) vs. Minnesota Twins (94-67)

Pitching matchups (subject to change):
Game 1: Kevin Appier (14-12, 3.92 ERA, .558 SNPct) vs. Joe Mays (4-8, 5.38 ERA, .461 SNPct)
Game 2: Ramon Ortiz (15-9, 3.77 ERA, .584 SNPct) vs. Rick Reed (15-7, 3.78 ERA, .551 SNPct)
Game 3: Jarrod Washburn (18-6, 3.15 ERA, .658 SNPct) vs. Eric Milton (13-9, 4.84 ERA, .499 SNPct)
Game 4: John Lackey (9-4, 3.66 ERA, .520 SNPct) vs. Brad Radke (9-5, 4.72 ERA, .489 SNPct)
Game 5: Appier vs. Mays
Game 6: Ortiz vs. Reed
Game 7: Washburn vs. Reed

Team stats (AL Ranking):
Runs scored: Anaheim 851 (4) / Minnesota 768 (9)
Runs allowed: Anaheim 644 (1) / Minnesota 712 (6)
Defensive efficiency: Anaheim .7314 (1) / Minnesota .7143 (6)
Team EqA: Anaheim .265 (5) / Minnesota .258 (8)
Relievers adjusted runs prevented: Anaheim 68.0 (1) / Minnesota 51.8 (2)

My thoughts:

Before I say anything, I have to point out that you should take those "pitching matchups" that I have listed with an incredibly large grain of salt.
I don't have any inside information and all I know for sure is that it will be Appier and Mays in game 1.
After that I just filled in the blanks with what I thought each team would likely do.

If that is in fact the correct setup, you have to give the starting pitching edge to Anaheim.
I am sure that if Mike Scioscia had his way, Washburn would be starting games 1, 4 and 7.
However, since Washburn started game 4 against the Yankees, he isn't available to start the first game of this series.
Even without their preferred setup, the Angels should be able to get 2 starts out of Washburn, Appier and Ortiz and 1 start out of Lackey, which is a pretty good situation for them.

The Twins on the other hand, having had one fewer day of rest, are in a less ideal situation.
Their "ace" Brad Radke started game 5 against Oakland, so at the very earliest he would be available to go in game 3.
And unless someone goes on short rest (which I don't think will happen) the Twins are going to be looking at 2 starts each by Reed and Mays and then either 2 starts by Radke and 1 by Milton, or 2 starts by Milton and 1 by Radke.
I am inclined to believe they will go with Milton twice and Radke once, but who knows.

While looking at the two teams last night in preparation for this preview, it struck me just how similar they are to each other.

Right off the bat, they are both managed by young, "players managers."
Beyond that, their team skills are very close to one another.

Anaheim led the AL in batting average at .282, Minnesota was fifth at .272.
Minnesota ranked 10th in the AL in walks, Anaheim ranked 11th.
Minnesota was tied for 1st in doubles, Anaheim ranked 3rd.

Minnesota ranked 1st in fielding %, Anaheim ranked 2nd.
Minnesota's pitching staff ranked 6th in strikeouts, Anaheim's ranked 8th.
Minnesota's staff had the highest ratio of flyballs-to-groundballs in the AL, Anaheim had the 4th highest.

The strength of both pitching staffs are they bullpens.
Anaheim had the best bullpen in the AL this season, while Minnesota ranked 2nd.

To sum up, both of these teams have hitters that go up to the plate hacking and they get a lot of hits and a lot of doubles.
Both pitching staffs get the opposition to hit the ball in the air and then rely on their good outfield defense to run down everything.

So, the question for this series is, which team can be the best at what they do well?

In my preview of the Yankees/Angels series I discussed how I felt the Yankees were especially vulnerable to the Angels because the Anaheim hitters rarely walked and rarely struck out and thus they put a ton of balls in play, against what was during the regular season (and even more so in the post-season) a not-so-good Yankee defense.

In this series, the Angels are going to be putting even more balls in play, because the Minnesota pitching staff doesn't strike out nearly as many batters as New York does.
And the Twins hitters are going to be putting a lot more balls in play against Anaheim than the Yankees did.

Which is a long way of saying that both defenses are going to be huge factors in this series.

So, which defense is better?
Well, you will probably get a different answer depending on who you ask.
Look at the statistics and you will see that Anaheim's defense converted the highest % of balls in play into outs of any team in the whole league.
Listen to scouts or announcers or Baseball Tonight and they will likely tell you that Minnesota is the best defensive team in the league.

Since this is my preview, I will tell you what I think.
I believe that both defenses are very good, but that Anaheim's is significantly better.

Both teams are extreme flyball staffs, which means the centerfielders get a lot of action.
The Twins have the reigning AL Gold Glove winner, Torii Hunter, roaming centerfield.
Hunter was extremely deserving of the award last season, as he had one of the greatest defensive seasons by a CF in recent memory.
However, this season his performance is noticeably (in my opinion anyway) worse than last year.
He appears to be a little bigger and a little slower and he perhaps has been suffering from a minor injury or two that may be affecting him in the field.
Even with all of that, he is still a very good centerfielder.

Anaheim's centerfielder is Darin Erstad.
Erstad doesn't get the attention for his defense that Torii gets, but he does get some (mostly for crashing into walls and stuff like that) and he deserves even more.
I think Erstad is the best defensive centerfielder in the AL right now.
He led the league in Range Factor, Zone Rating and Fielding % and was 2nd among CFs in outfield assists.

So, as much as it pains me to say so, Darin Erstad is a superior centerfielder (at least this season) than Torii Hunter is.

Both teams have very good defenders in the outfield corners.
Jacque Jones and Garret Anderson could both probably handle playing CF are both among the best defensive LFs in baseball.
In right field, Tim Salmon has always been an above average defender with a good arm.
The Twins right field defense is a little less stable.
Michael Cuddyer appears to be the full-time RF in the playoffs, which means Bobby Kielty and Dustan Mohr, each very good defensive RFs, will not be in RF like they were most of the regular season.
Cuddyer appears to be a good athlete, but he is relatively new to RF (he was originally a SS, believe it or not, and has recently been at 3B and 1B).

The infield defense, while not as crucial to these teams as it is to teams with groundball pitching staffs (like Boston for example) shows some similarities between the two teams and also shows some big differences.

Both teams have a great defensive first basemen, in Doug Mientkiewicz and Scott Spiezio.
I think Mientkiewicz is slightly better, but I would certainly consider Spiezio to be in the same class.

At third base, the Twins have Corey Koskie, who has improved his defense over the years to the point that he is now a very serious Gold Glove candidate (although Eric Chavez, last year's winner, is probably slightly better).
The Angels have Troy Glaus at the hot corner and he is also pretty good.

The biggest difference between these two teams defensively is up the middle.

The Angels double-play combo of David Eckstein and Adam Kennedy is one of the best in the league.
Both Eckstein and Kennedy have outstanding range and get to a ton of balls.

On the other hand, the Twins DP combo of Luis Rivas and Cristian Guzman is likely the second worst in the AL, behind only the Yankees (and we saw what Anaheim did to them in round 1).
I constantly read that Rivas and, to a lesser extent, Guzman are great defensive players.
But the actual results simply do not back up those claims.

Rivas has subpar range and it shows in his Zone Rating, which is among the worst in baseball among second basemen.
Guzman often looks lackadaisical in the field and, while he cut down on his errors this season, his Zone Rating is consistently near the bottom of the league.
In fact, if it weren't for Derek Jeter's defensive struggles, Guzman would have ranked dead last in Zone Rating among everyday shortstops both this season and last.

Both teams have solid defensive catchers in A.J. Pierzynski and Bengie Molina.
Molina is the better of the two and is especially good at shutting down the opponents' running game, he threw out a league high 45% of all steal attempts.

So, my personal observations and a look at each individual's numbers add up to exactly what the team defensive performance would indicate.
The Twins have a lot of very good defenders (Koskie, Mientkiewicz, Jones, Hunter) but have a couple areas that are lacking, which results in a defensive efficiency rating in the upper half of the AL (6th to be exact).
The Angels have an above average defender at every single position on the field and several guys who are near the top of the league, which results in them having the best defensive efficiency rating in the entire American League.

Okay, so that covers the defense.
What about the pitching?

The closest thing that either team has a to an "ace" is Jarrod Washburn.

Washburn is very good and a lefty, which makes him especially tough for the Twins to handle.
Beyond him, each team has a lot of what I would consider solid, middle of the rotation pitchers.
And by that I mean guys that are good #2 and #3 starters.

Brad Radke showed in the Oakland series that he is probably the Twins best starter.
Eric Milton also looked very good in his start.
However, neither Rick Reed or Joe Mays did anything that would inspire any confidence in their ability to shut down the Angels in this series.

Washburn is good and a lefty, so he should do pretty well against the Twins.
Anaheim 2, 3 and 4 starters are all pretty good and are all right handed.

The strengths of each team, the bullpens, will play a big role in this series.

Anaheim has more good options to go to in the middle innings, with Ben Weber, Brandon Donnelly, Scott Schoeneweis and now Francisco Rodriguez, whom I wrote about a couple of days ago.
Minnesota is pretty much limited to J.C. Romero, Johan Santana and possibly Latroy Hawkins (if you read yesterday's entry, you know how I feel about Latroy) to bridge the gap between the starters and Eddie Guardado in a close game.

And once each bullpen gets a lead to the closer, Anaheim has an enormous advantage over Minnesota.

Eddie Guardado had a very good season and led the AL in saves with 45.
But, as we saw yesterday and as we have seen several times this season, he is not the kind of guy that can come in and slam the door on a consistent basis (at least not without making things exciting first).
Anaheim has Troy Percival, who has been one of the top closers in baseball for a long time and who absolutely owns the Minnesota Twins.

Check out Percival's career stats against Minnesota:

35 Innings
9 Hits
45 Strikeouts
0.00 ERA

And no, that is not a misprint.
He actually has a 0.00 ERA against them.

So the Twins would probably be best served to do their hitting in innings 1-8.

Which brings me to the hitting...

While both teams are filled with "doubles hitting hackers" (to steal a quote from my self), their splits against lefties and righties are almost completely opposite.

Anaheim crushes left handed pitching to the tune of .292/.351/.451.
Minnesota beats up on right handed pitching to the tune of .282/.339/.449.

Anaheim's hitting drops way off against righties, against whom they hit .278/.336/.425.
Minnesota struggles big time against lefties, hitting only .252/.318/.413.

(check out TwinsGeek.com for a more in-depth look at what each player on both teams does against righties and lefties)

Obviously a big factor will be how many lefties Anaheim sees and how many righties Minnesota sees.

Minnesota is likely to only have two games started by a left handed pitcher in the series (at most).
However, their best three relief pitchers are all left handed, which may be a big problem in the late innings.

Anaheim is likely to have 5 games out of 7 started by right handed pitchers.
And beyond Scott Schoeneweis, their entire bullpen is right handed.

So, instead of seeing Zito and Mulder and Rincon and Lilly (although I wouldn't mind seeing Lilly again) in the Oakland series, the Twins only have to worry about two lefties, Washburn and Schoeneweis.

Okay, let's sum everything up in a neat little package.

The skill sets of both teams likely mean that a ton of balls are going to be put in play during this series, which puts added emphasis on the defense of each team.
And Anaheim has the superior defense, although Minnesota is pretty good too.

Anaheim's pitching rotation is set up more ideally, so that they get 2 starts each from their top 3 pitchers, while Minnesota will likely end up with only 1 start from either Radke or Milton.

Both teams have good bullpens, but Anaheim has a lot more "trustworthy" options to go to in the middle innings and a much more dominant closer to go to to finish a game.

Anaheim hits lefties really well and Minnesota hits righties really well.
Anaheim is only going to see 2 games started by left handed starting pitchers, but will likely face a ton of left handed relief pitching.
Minnesota will face almost entirely right handed pitching, beyond Washburn and Schoeneweis.

So what does it all add up to?

I think the Angels are the better team, on offense, on defense and on the mound.

For the Twins to win this series they are going to have to do 3 main things:
1) dominate Anaheim's right handed pitching.
2) hope to somehow steal a game from Jarrod Washburn.
3) play the best defense of their collective lives.

And avoiding Troy Percival probably wouldn't hurt either.

The Angels just have too many quality hitters and too many good relievers for the Twins.

However, maybe I am just trying to jinx them the same way I jinxed Oakland?
Nah, that would be crazy right?
Yeah, crazy like a Hocking...

Prediction: Angels in 6.

Sunday, October 06, 2002

TWINS WIN!

WOW!

Where do I start?

That was a great game and a great series, made even better by the fact that THE TWINS ARE STILL PLAYING BASEBALL!

As a sports fan, that is the most emotionally involved/nervous/excited I have ever been during a game.

The last time the Twins were in the playoffs, 1991, I was like 8 years old.
So, basically, they have been pretty bad for the majority of my life as a baseball fan.

But, I think I could get used to this sort of thing every year.

I was watching the game in my dorm room and taking a few "notes" so I could write a nice entry about the game for you folks.
In about the 6th inning, the notes stopped as my uncle (also a gigantic Twins fan) called me on the phone.
The phone called lasted until shortly after Ray Durham popped out to Denny Hocking in the bottom of the 9th inning.
There was apparently some sort of ladies/girls bookclub meeting at his house, so he was hidden away in a bunker somewhere, watching the game.

So, he called me up and we both watched the end of the game together, a couple of Twins fans too nervous to watch everything unfold in silence.
He told me that he tends to eat a lot of stuff when he is nervous (which is funny, cause he is about 135 pounds soaking wet) and I confessed that I had been tapping my foot on the ground about a hundred times per minute since the opening pitch.

We both groaned when Latroy Hawkins was summoned from the bullpen to face Miguel Tejada.
And we both let out huge sighs of relief when Latroy got the 3rd strike by Miguel.

Man, that was a lot of fun!
I don't know if my heart can take this type of thing more than once every ten years, but I sure would be willing to risk it.

Ron Gardenhire's lineup for this game played a big part in the outcome.

He chose to leadoff Jacque Jones, who hit .213/.259/.331 against lefties this season.
There is really no excuse for this, as Jones has always been a horrible hitter against lefties and the Twins have good options to replace him in left field.
But, nonetheless, Gardy stuck with Jones, who ended up going 0-5 with 3 strikeouts and 5 men left on base.

There was one place in the lineup where Gardenhire did make a major change, second base.
Luis Rivas is apparently "injured," which is probably good considering the way he has played this series.
Gardenhire went with utility man Denny Hocking in place of Rivas.
Whether Rivas was hurt or not, this was a great decision, as Hocking hit .342/.404/.434 against lefties this season and was 7-18 off of Mark Mulder in his career, prior to today.
Hocking ended up going 2-4 with a double, an RBI and some nice defensive plays.

Gardenhire also had Matthew Lecroy at DH and hitting cleanup, in place of David Ortiz.
This was also a good decision.
Lecroy hit .289/.347/.522 against lefties this season, while Ortiz hit only .203/.256/381.
Lecroy went 2-3 with an RBI and a run scored and having Ortiz on the bench proved extremely valuable in the late innings as he drove in the 5th (and winning) run of the game.

So, Gardy made 1 out of the 2 lineup changes that I have been suggesting for games against lefties.
And he also made a change that I am in favor of, although one I was not expecting, putting Hocking in for Rivas.

All in all, a pretty good job by the manager of putting his team in the best position to score runs.

The game started on sort of a bad note for the Twins, as the second hitter of the ballgame, Cristian Guzman, hit a ball into the right-centerfield gap and got thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.
Jermaine Dye made a tremendous relay throw to Mark Ellis, who got it over to Eric Chavez in plenty of time for the tag.
Not the greatest way to start a ballgame, especially when you are in a situation where runs will probably be pretty hard to come by.

In the A's half of the 1st inning, Ray Durham singled to leadoff the game.
Scott Hattberg then hit a bullet to centefield that Torii Hunter came charging in on and grabbed for the out, in a play that was erily similar to Durham's inside-the-park-homerun in game 3.
It was a great catch and Torii deserves credit for not hesitating or playing it safe.

In the top of the second inning, Lecroy led off the inning with a chopper off of the plate that must have gone about 100 feet in the air.
By the time it landed, Lecroy was already at first with a single, and with Matthew's speed (or lack of) you get a pretty good idea of how high the ball went.
The next batter, Torii Hunter ripped a double to left field and all of a sudden, the Twins had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs.

Doug Mientkiewicz came up with a chance to drive them in and instead hit a hot shot up the middle that was caught in the air by Tejada.
Hunter had started to go to third base on the play, but was able to dive back into second base an instant before Tejada got there to double him up.

The A's then intentionally walked Michael Cuddyer, so they could pitch to A.J. Pierzynski with the bases loaded.
A.J. did exactly what the A's wanted and popped out to left field.
So, they went from 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs to bases loaded and 2 outs, without scoring a run.

But Denny Hocking ended that with a single up the middle, scoring Lecroy with the first run of the game.
The Twins should have scored two on the play, but for some reason third base coach Al Newman decided to give Torii Hunter the stop sign at third base.
During the regular season, Big Al is normally very aggressive sending runners to the plate, but he was extremely careful this time and it probably cost the Twins a run.
With two outs, Hunter was running on contact and had already started to round third base when A's centerfielder Terrence Long picked up the ball.
Hunter has good speed and would almost certainly have scored on the play, especially considering Long's throw ended up about 10 feet up the 3rd base line and shorthopped the catcher.
I think Guzman getting thrown out at third in the 1st inning was probably in the back of Newman's mind, which is a shame.
It was even more obvious that Hunter should've tried for home when the next batter was Jacque Jones, who promptly struck out, ending the inning.

Guzman led off the top of the third inning with a double off the wall in deep left-centerfield.
That made two hard hit balls into the outfield gaps for Guzman in his first two at bats, which was certainly great to see after his struggles all season.
Two batters later, Guzman scored the second run of the game when Lecroy singled to center.

In Oakland's half of the third, Ray Durham drilled Brad Radke's 1-0 pitch over the wall in straight away centerfield, cutting the Twins' lead to 2-1.
RayRay really hit the ball well in this series (except for his last at bat, of course).

With 1 out in the top of the 5th, the following graphic was shown on the screen:
Twins against Mulder today:
Lefties = 0-10
Righties = 8-10

On the next pitch, Lecroy (a righty) struck out and the next batter, Hunter (also a righty) struck out too.

And then, suddenly, my notes stopped.
It was right around this time that I started thinking the Twins might actually win this game!
And it was also right around the time that my extremely nervous and excited uncle made my phone ring.

In the bottom of the 7th, after allowing a single to Jermaine Dye, Radke got David Justice to strike out and got Mark Ellis on a flyout.
Gardenhire then decided to take Radke out of the game and he brought in J.C. Romero.

At the time, I would have liked to have seen Radke pitch the Terrence Long (who was up next) and also to Ramon Hernandez (who was on deck and who struggles big time against righties).
But, Gardenhire's move was definitely an acceptable one, as Radke was up around 100 pitches and Romero has been lights out all season long.
Romero got Long to ground out to first base, ending the inning.

Oakland brought in extreme submariner Chad Bradford for the 8th inning.
David Ortiz was brought off the bench to pinch hit for Lecroy.
Ortiz hit an easy grounder to second base, which led to this classic exchange between my uncle and I:

Uncle: "That fat piece of ----."
Me: (something unintelligble)
Uncle: "He reminds me of Tony Oliva."
Me: "Ortiz?!"
Uncle: "Yeah."
Me: "Tony Oliva was fat?"
Uncle: "Well, no."

Nothing beats nervous chit chat!

Bradford got the Twins 1-2-3 in the 8th.

Romero stayed in for the bottom of the 8th.
Randy Velarde pinch hit for Ramon Hernandez and hit a bullet up the middle that Romero somehow got a glove on.
The ball knocked Romero's glove completely off of his hand, but it was slowed up enough for Cristian Guzman to come charging in on it, scoop it and make a strong throw to first base to get Velarde.

Ray Durham then singled to center (remember I said he was having a great series?).
Romero got Adam Piatt (who pinch hit for Scott Hattberg) to strike out, which brought up Miguel Tejada with a man on 1st base, 2 outs and the Twins leading 2-1.

As if our hearts weren't pumping fast enough at that point, Ron Gardenhire decided that Latroy Hawkins should probably come into the game, so Romero was taken out and Latroy "Aaron Gleeman wouldn't trust me with a lead less than the Gross National Product" Hawkins came into the game to face Tejada.

If you would have been on the phone at that point, here what you would have heard:

Me: "Here comes Donnie Moore."

My uncle laughed for a second and then realized that Hawkins was actually going to pitch to Tejada and said something like "@#%$&!"
Latroy threw 8 straight fastballs (most of which were between 96-98 MPH) to Tejada and somehow (thankfully!) struck him out to end the inning.

Latroy had a really great season (80 IP, 2.13 ERA, .217 Opp BA) and he really has a great fastball, but for some reason (possibly because he has a career ERA of 5.38 in over 700 IP) I just don't trust him in any sort of important situation.

I have to give him credit though, he got a really key out from one of the best hitters in baseball.

And right about here is where it started to get real interesting...

A's closer Billy Koch started the top of the 9th inning.

Before he threw his first pitch, my uncle and I had this exchange:

Uncle: "Koch is coming in."
Me: "I think this is a good move, he's their best reliever and there isn't gonna be a save."

Umm...yeah.
So much for what I know.

Dustan Mohr (who had replaced Cuddyer defensively in RF earlier) led off the inning with a walk.
The next batter, A.J. Pierzynski hit an absolute bullet right over the yellow "home run line" in left-centerfield, giving the Twins a 4-1 lead and causing both my uncle and I to omit a sound that resembled a cross between a 3-year old girl screaming and an animal being shot.

Then, with 2 outs, Guzman reached on an infield single and stole second thanks to a good jump and a bad throw by Greg Myers (who was in the game because Hernandez had been pinch hit for earlier).

Corey Koskie drew a tough walk, which brought up David Ortiz, who doubled to right-centerfield, scoring Guzman with the 5th Twins run.
Torii Hunter struck out swinging and the game went to the bottom of the 9th.

Twins closer (and AL saves leader) Eddie Guardado came into the game and was met with the following graphic:
"Guardado vs. Oakland in 2002: 2.2 IP, 5 H, 1 HR, 16.88 ERA, 0-2"

Uncle: "Oh, that's a nice statistic."

Eddie obviously felt as though a 16.88 ERA against Oakland this year wasn't quite as high as he would like it to be, so he did his best to fatten it up.

Eric Chavez hit a bouncer up the middle, Denny Hocking dove, grabbed it, got up and threw a strike to first base, but Chavez beat it by a step.
Jermaine Dye hit a grounder to Koskie at third and the Twins forced Chavez out at second base.
David Justice followed with a double to deep right-centerfield, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.

Mark Ellis came up, took a strike and two balls and then hit a 3-run homer over the fence in left field.

Suddenly it was a 1-run game.

Terrence Long hit a hard line drive to centerfield, but it held up in the air and Torii Hunter was able to get under it for out number two.

Randy Velarde slapped a 1-1 pitch on the outside part of the plate into right field for a single, which brought the winning run to the plate in Ray Durham, who had already homered once in this game and who hit a combined .333/.417/.762 in the 5 game series.

To say that Guardado did not have his best stuff today was probably the understatement of the season, so we both prayed to the God Of Popups.

And what do you know?
Ray Durham popped the 3-2 pitch up into foul territory right behind 1st base.
Easy play right?
Ah, but you forget, some strange things have happened defensively in this series.

But Denny Hocking, Minnesota Twin since 1993, sprinted over, frantically waving his hands in the air and caught the ball.

If you thought the hybrid 3rd grade girl/injured animal scream was loud before, well, that was nothing!

THE TWINS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About two minutes later, perhaps lacking the proper amount of oxygen in my brain as a result of all the excitement, I said, "So, what do you think about the Angels?"

But that is definitely a question for another day (What? The game is on Tuesday? Okay, so "another day" will be tomorrow).

For now, I will try to calm down.

This was a great day to be a Twins fan.

Check back tomorrow (which, coincidently, will also be a great day to be a Twins fan) for the official "Aaron's Baseball Blog Preview" of the Twins/Angels series, which starts Tuesday night, at The Dome.

Anyone know of anyone looking to donate some really good seats to a young, poor, college student?

GO TWINS!!!!!

Bring on the Angels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am way too pumped up to write anything, but hopefully I will be back a little later with some coherant thoughts.

Great game, great series.
Eddie G almost gave me a heart attack and I am a big Billy Koch fan right now.

Tuesday at The Dome!
Bring on the Angels!