Twins postgame: Owned by Rowland-Smith edition
Posted on August 27th, 2008 – 12:51 AMBy Joe Christensen
SEATTLE — One run in six innings against Miguel Batista? Two runs in seven innings against Ryan Rowland-Smith?
Looks like the Twins hitters are squeezing the bats into sawdust here at Safeco Field. Winning the first two games of this road trip was supposed to take the edge off, but now the Twins are 2-4.
“You can pick it how you want to pick it,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “You can say we’re pressing, or they’re pitching good. You know what? Probably a little bit of both.
“They’re throwing the ball good against us, and we’re fighting it a little bit, trying to do too much. That normally happens, but you’ve just gotta work your way through these things.
“Hopefully [Wednesday’s] a day where we’ll come out relaxed a little bit and swing the bats a little better and have a better performance.”
Thirty games to go. The Twins can ill-afford to get swept here. They are 1-4 at Safeco, the home yard of a team on pace to lose 100 games.
“We’d like to pull these games out,” Twins starter Scott Baker said. “I wouldn’t say they’re must-win games yet, but they’re getting pretty close.”
ROWLAND-SMITH?
“Rowland pitched against us well,” Gardy said. “He’s effectively in and out of the zone. His ball’s surprising. He’s got some zip. He’s learned to throw breaking balls.
“We saw him a few years ago. We Rule 5′d him, and you know what? He’s come a long way as a pitcher. He’s a big-strong pitcher, and he kind of shut us down.”
ONE POSITIVE
Baker allowed three earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. It marked the 17th time in his 22 starts he’s allowed three or fewer earned runs.
(Remember, he started 15-for-17 in that category but allowed four or more runs in 3-of-4 starts. Add this to his one-run, eight-inning performance in Anaheim, and he’s having a solid road trip.)
Tonight, the Mariners put two runners aboard to start three different innings against Baker, but he’s pretty good at damage control. This was the third time the Mariners had seen him this month.
“I felt like I had really good stuff, probably the best in a half-dozen starts,” he said. “I never felt like the game was out of control or I wasn’t able to get out of the innings.”
“I’m starting to feel like not necessarily a finished product, but back to where I want to be.”
99 Responses to "Twins postgame: Owned by Rowland-Smith edition"
only two games back with less than 20 percent of the season to go. nothing wrong with that.
[…] Originally published by Around the Majors […]
Hey Billy Smith - The “Smith” in the other dugout ate your boys lunch last night. Speaking of eating, how’s the $10 million plus of wasted salary this year tasting?? And that Beltre guy?? He really does stink. He’s only batting about .650 against us this year. Guardado is the answer, Billy. Keep sitting on your hands while watching your putrid offense do nothing against the worst team in baseball. Nice to see that Young fanned 3 times last night. It’s only 1 game right??? Well, your boys are “only 1 game-ing” us right out of the post season. Forget about the waiver wire - you need to be looking at the washed-up has-been about-to-retire veterans list and sign a few more of those guys to multi-year, multi-million $$ contracts. Seems to be working real well.
Who the heck spiked Morneau’s coffee at the beginning of August? He knows teams aren’t pitching to him (well, weren’t pitching to him) so he started swinging at garbage.
This offense is stone cold right now, and that’s WITH the same 7-8 guys in the lineup every night.
It’s early enough that they can still bounce back (not like the 06 cold spell that hit just as the playoffs were starting), but still….yeck.
Pathetic.
There’s really no other word for it. Shut down by Batista, dominated by Rowland-Smith…just straight-up pathetic.
Speaking of pathetic (or just stupid)
Can somebody tell me what makes baseball think that it’s smart to try and implement instant replay midseason?
And then even dumber…only implement it in a few games at a time to start out.
You can’t have a handful of teams playing by one set of rules, while another is doing something different.
Why not change switch up the required number of balls and strikes midseason? Or even better, let’s try out a a fifth base.
The NFL experimented with replay in the preseason and went into the first regular season with full implementation.
NHL implemented rule changes following the lockout and came into the first regular season fully adopted.
If I were any of the teams being “guinea pigged” this weekend by the replay testing, I’d file a protest with the league. And I’d make sure it was BEFORE the replay affected the outcome of a game.
T,
I think instant replay is available for all teams.
Only 3 or far teams start series on Thursday, the rest of the league starts a new series on Friday. The will be able to use instant replay when their new series starts.
maybe all those MLB experts that said Twin’s could not maintain this absurd avg W/RISP and would eventually come back to earth were right? I love how Twin Rube Nation ripped them for that and now rube nation is screaming how bad the offense stinks..
La, la, la, la…..I hear a large lady warming up
Only 3 or far teams start series on Thursday, the rest of the league starts a new series on Friday.
I’ll have to have a word with the local sports media then, as they’re coverage did a poor job of differentiating (which I’m sure I spelt wrong) that it wasn’t because they were “testing it” elsewhere.
However, I am still disappointed that this is being added midseason.
I love how Twin Rube Nation ripped them for that and now rube nation is screaming how bad the offense stinks..
Somebody likes to listen to 1500 in the mornings.
But that’s beside the point. I suppose it would just be easier to never expect failure at every corner, never see anything but the downside, and to always hate the team you choose to watch.
Because then you can never be wrong. You can just be “pleasently surprised” that the team is doing well, but at the same time can say “I told you so” when they stumble.
It’s the perfect win/win safety net.
Kinda reminds me of those people that predict the world will end every Decemeber 31st. One of these times something’ll happen, and they’ll all gather round and say “SEE! I wasn’t crazy!”
For as much as people rip the FO with accusations of hiding behind “Wait and see…”, there sure seems to be a lot of them that apply the same philosophy regarding predictions of failure.
“Somebody likes to listen to 1500 in the mornings.” not sure what that means?? FYI - I don’t live in the Metro
I dont know why you all are making such an issue about this!! yes they have lost two, to a team that they have to beat, but if you think about it when this road trip started we were all worried about the pitching holding up, whether the starters could go 6+ and if the bullpen could come in and get a few innings of hard relief, and other than a fluke inning by the BEST closer in the league, and a few defensive mis haps that led to the loss the other night, both of those things have been “pretty” good. the problem right now is the timely hitting isnt there, but what are we kidding we have seen this all season they will go through a cold couple days where they will score only 2-3 runs but most of the time our starters give up 1 or 2 and get the win, and you are all praising god for having a great team.. moral of the story A. Chicago is also Human and cant keep up their pace with their ‘pen issues. B. Give the offense a break as they have deserved a little slack by the way they have performed this year. and finally C. Give the bulpen a little credit as they have proformed pretty well on this trip, example: matty g has really looked like hes back to where we need him to be to take over the central!! we talk about the twins pressing too much you people are just as bad!!! 
While the offense has been cold, at the same time the defense hasn’t been doing the team any favors either
Errors be Casilla and Punto cost the team Monday. While errors by Buscher and mental mistakes by Gomez played major contributions to losses over the weekend.
Two nights ago could’ve just as easily ended 2-1 even WITH Nathan still struggling in the 9th.
I don’t know if offensive woes are starting to affect play on the field, or if people making misplays in the field are leading to guys trying harder at the plate.
Morneau DEFINATELY looks to be trying to force something to happen. He had a couple of swings last night at pitches that were so far out of the zone that I couldn’t believe he was swinging.
And then just when the offense gets a mini rally going (2 runs last night) Baker goes out there and surrenders that run before the first out.
It’s almost a teamwide funk, with everybody putting too much pressure on themselves to be “that guy” that finally breaks them out of it.
not sure what that means?? FYI - I don’t live in the Metro
Your excessive use of the term “rubes” strikes me as very similar to the morning show on AM 1500. Where a rube can be anything from a Twins fan ignoring the current cold streak to a guy who puts mustard on his hamburger.
4 in a row.
looks like the mariners are making the twins walk the plank. 7 more road games this needs to turn around quick or it could be fatal.
i will only do this once (calling gardy a name), i hope, but gardy is an idiot for allowing his players to slide into first. actually his coaches seem to enjoy it from what can be seen on replays. now mauer is doing it, there is no way it is faster than running and the risk of injury is great. many other teams don’t allow it and gardy needs to sit his players down and stop it before we lose a mauer or other key player to a broken hand or dislocated shoulder. totally uncalled for.
T - don’t you mean KFAN 1130? (or any affiliates they have)
o.k.
Well the other day I said Twins will Sweep Seattle. Yesterday I said let’s take 2 out 3. Today Im hoping they just win! Our guys look tired. Lately, I have been thinking, perhaps MLB should cut back on the number of games played during a season. Twins have an active 25 man roster with an xtra 15 players in the minors that could be called up when needed. With injuries and hitting slumps taking it toll. And our FO not feeling the need not to call players up as needed(said players may not be ready) then that places a hugh burden on our 25 man roster! Maybe playing less games is an option. Another way would be if MLB increased the rosters by three players and still have 12 players left to bring up as needed.Comments anyone?
Cut back on the number of games played during the season??? HUH? Is this just because the Twins are struggling now? I don’t see every team struggling now so the number of games must not be affecting them.
I am all for cutting down the number of MLB games!!! the season is wayyyyyyyyyy too longggggggggggg zzzzzzzz…
how about a 100 game season!
Wally
I doubt MLB is going to change its schedule or roster rules just because the twins stink right now. The season is long for a reason; it allows the cream to rise to the top. all teams play 162 games. It’s not just the twins that are tired. But the better teams find a way to fight through it. They just have to keep getting after it, and keep battling their tails off. Right now they are scuffling a little bit. Hopefully they right the ship today.
Twins are struggling because they are not grinding it out enough! the slide by Mauer into 1st base last night is a start! if every player would do that even on extra base hits and HRs they would surely rise to the top!!
Next year MLB should stop the season and start the playoffs as soon as the Twins qualify for the playoffs.
Maybe, the World Series will be the “April Classic” next year.
Of course the NFL team will have to move up the start of football season to May, but that’s all do-able.
Mauer’s slide was ugly. If LNP is the standard 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give mauer a 3.5. It looked like more of a belly flop. LNP should work with mauer before games to increase mauer’s headfirst slide into first base skills.
Baker did not pitch as good as he says he did nor as good as his line looked. The ball was flying all over the park, especially in the last couple of innings. Luckily, it was staying in the park and more often than not finding an outfielder, but I winced every time anybody swung the bat. Really, I’ve been optimistic until this point but with the Evil Sox and Evil-er Sox manhandling higher quality competition - those jokers on the south side are seemingly beating teams by 10 runs a night on a regular basis now - I’m concerned to say the least.
maybe he could give mauer some battling tips too.
Instead of another apocalyptic post because the Twins are 2 GB, I have a question from the article today:
Do any teams employ both RH and LH batting practice pitchers? Why don’t more do it?
Tom Kelly throws left handed BP to the Twins when they are home, i think.
The End is near! Repent, headfirst-sliders! Pray for forgiveness, all ye who strike out 3 and 4 times peer game! MVPs and Batting champions rejoice, for you are the chosen few!
That’s apocolyptic.
I just want Punto out of the line-up before it’s too late. He had a great run, but reality is finally catching up to Mr. Bat Flinger After Popping Up. It’s time to put our best potential to score runs in the line-up, and Harris is the man for SS. Seriously, how many bunt-hitters do we need in a line-up? I think 3 is plenty. We need some potential for homeruns. Harris has the potential.
Yahoo.com reported today that 3B Melvin Mora and DH Aubrey Huff cleared waivers. Why are we not going after either one of these guys? Preferably Melvin Mora, we all know that Buscher is alright, but he’s not the answer at 3B he’s making errors when the games on the line, and his bat is not backing it up either, at least with Mora you have a decent 3B and what is this 96 RBI’s so far this season he will make it over the century mark again. Why the heck are we not going after that this guy. Please Please tell me why?
I think the turning point in last night’s game was when the Twins scored in the sixth; then Baker comes out in the bottom of the inning and gives it right back. You could tell that just sucked the life right out of the team, because they went down on about five pitches in the seventh with some really poor at-bats.
Through the whole game, it looked like the Twins’ hitters were in a fog. They weren’t going to the plate with a plan. It was pretty tough to watch.
Mora is a little sketchy… he’s torn it up the last month but not done much else the last couple years, although I gotta say, I’d rather see the Twins take a flier on somebody like him for once as opposed to chops/(no)bat-ista/senior smoke free for once.
Mora won’t slide into 1st base and doesn’t battle his tail off enough..
mora isn’t known as a battler, doesn’t slide into first and only drives in runs which isn’t enough (i.e. harris) to stay in this lineup. secondly i don’t think he plays the game the right way.
we don’t need him!!
i wonder what kind of reaction there would be if young threw his bat the way nicky did last night?
“i wonder what kind of reaction there would be if young threw his bat the way nicky did last night?”
Nikki was just getting after it.
BTW, what is IT?
You said it DDaz, P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C. Good teams have got to take series from bad teams. No excuses, no whining, no “they’re tired,” …. Right now, the Twins look like pretenders, not contenders. The Whities are demonstrating what a contending team needs to do.
Baker thought he pitched good? Was there any inning where he didn’t put runners on?
mora has a contract for 9m next yr, the reason he cleared waivers and the twins wouldn’t pick that up even though for some reason they would pick up the contract of a washed up pitcher who would be 6 or 7 on our depth chart.
i’m getting confused by this front office. feels like i’ve been talking to yogi!
ggg, Gardy would say that Young is still young and has some maturing to do, but LNP is showing his passion for the game.
Please make the players aware that the Chicago Tribune has started publishing a magic number for the whities. I suppose it has been decided that now it’s a matter of time. That should fire them up.
ggg - I am thinking Twin’s picked up claim on Washburn and then offered nothing in trade back to the drunken sailors just to block another contender from picking him up..
Nice bench in the 9th brainwizards!! You have Punto batting with a runner on, down by one. I have said this 47 times in my comments, lights out game over. “Twins baseball” I guess is chinking three hits together and praying for a run or maybe putting someone up there that has a remote possibility of hitting a homerun.
I guess we will sink when we hitch our hopes to LNP and gardy playing the percentages on righties and lefties.
How about this line-up once, regardless of who and what way the pitch. Best hitters always will do better.
RF Span
2b Casilla
C Mauer
1b Morneau
DH Kubel
LF Young
3b Busher
SS Harris
CF Gomez
NO LNP, until late innings for defensive replacements, actually think about redmond as a ph.
chalk up another L due to line-up!
That was disheartening. Gardy brings Kubel in to ph for Harris but then leaves Punto in with a runner on and we’re down to our last out. Pathetic.
We need more offensive #’s. Why are we losing the series to the worst team in baseball right now.
“chalk up another L due to line-up!”
Gardy can’t make silk out of a pig’s ear!! the players have to perform obviously they didn’t last 4 games
Do you not know the combination to your locker. Here let me help you. You have to spin the dial around twice to start out. Where is Cher? Where is my trip to the great outdoors? Where is Punto?
how old is melvin mora?
I would take melvin mora in a heartbeat. He’s far superior to anything we have right now, and if he repeats his success next year, great. Keep him if your contending next year, trade him if your not, or let him walk and take the 2 draft picks, as he will almost certainly be a type a free agent.
*you’re
if Mora is that good then O’s will want way to much for him like a starter out of the rotation..
put players out there that can perform is my point….
chalk up another loss due to the line-up.
right now none of the hitters are performing you can’t bench the entire lineup they will have to battle through it until their tails fall off
T,
I agree with you that instant replay should be implemented at the start of the season.
They just voted on it last season and couldn’t get it implemented before the start of the season. The main reason they are starting now is because they want to get the kinks out before postseason.
Their main reason for implementing it anyway is for postseason play.
Fire
I don’t think the Orioles would want one of our mlb guys. Macphail has shown himself to be reasonably intelligent in the past, and would probably be ok with one of the top AAA guys (Humber, Deunsing, Mulvey) and maybe one of our 1500 outfield prospects.
Could we please pitch inside and back both Ibanez and Beltre off the damn plate today. Perkins will do it. He’s the only one that has no fear to come in.
Referring to macphail, by reasonably intelligent i mean he knows that he is not going to be able to squeeze the twins for a rotation guy with the twins in the middle of a pennant race.
Hey, haven’t you all heard? No need to worry! Howard’s trotting out an all-new lineup today of the various miscreants that frequent his blog… I hear Plunkton is unveiling his splitter.
After watching two games against the Mariners, I find myself cringing every time Adrian Beltre steps to the plate as I imagine him in a Twins’ uniform. He may have been the piece of the puzzle that would have elevated us from also-rans in the AL Central to potential threat in the ALCS. At least we got Everyday Eddie back!
Bobby Randall: I like your lineup. You are also right when you say you have to put the players on the field that have the best chance to win. by now, all players should be known quantities so Gardy should go with the guys that give you the best opportunity to win.
The main reason they are starting now is because they want to get the kinks out before postseason.
I don’t think a playoff chase is a much better place either though.
actually mora has better #’s than beltre and would cost 75% of his contract next yr. just older and more likely to fall off next yr.
but funny how players find a little extra when approaching the end of their contract, i’m not talking about punto’s late surge, well maybe a little.
I don’t think punto has contract surges. I just think he is a wildly inconsistent player, who happens to have years where he gets lucky more often than not.
So it’s the bottom of the 9th & Kubel comes in for Harris making a defensive sub at 3rd necessary, then Everett runs for Kubel giving Gardy the choice of Punto playing 3rd or batting his LEFTY third basemen that’s already on the bench & has nearly 40 RBI in 53 games. WHY WAS PUNTO BATTING AT THAT POINT!!!!!
Saving Buscher to bat in game three didn’t help in game two! In general I like Gardy but WHAT WAS HE THINKING!!?!?!?!
Sorry for shouting,
Shannon
It’s ok shannon, let it all out. It’s unhealthy to cage up your anger/frustratiion.
Shannon-
Did you really want Butchers D at 3rd at the end of a tight game?
I think Gardy mentioned that they tried hard to get Beltre. Would have been nice.
Sometimes its best to enjoy the ride instead of just anticipating the destination. And boy, have I enjoyed watching the Twins all summer long. They have been great fun. I hope they can bounce back today, (i’ll be at the game) but if it’s “over” now, I loved it all. Reading this blog has been part of the fun.
Thanks all you blog poster guys.
fcmlefty says:
August 27th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Shannon-
Did you really want Butchers D at 3rd at the end of a tight game?
Uh… Yeah. Assuming buscher would have come through, having buscher play defense in the bottom of the ninth would have been better than what we got, which was NO BOTTOM OF THE NINTH AT ALL!
i need some cock!
Are y’all really advocating slides into first base? You do realize, that unless you’re avoiding a tag, sliding into first is pretty dumb…
Really funny, moron. I’m assuming it’s fcmclefty that’s so intelligent he posts idiotic comments under my name, since he cannot articulate himself well enough to make a point.
kidding -
woah.
oh, that was a saboteaur? I didn’t know that was possible on here….. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……..
yeah, that wasn’t me. some other moron.
And the Twins are starting to go down for the count. They are going down like a rock being thrown into a lake. Sinking and sinking, faster and faster. This fans is why down the stretch the tightwad Pohlad effect proves money has to be spent in certain areas to compete
JustinCB says:
August 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am
oh, that was a saboteaur? I didn’t know that was possible on here….. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……..
Yup, its possible, see?
Uh oh.
Kidding:
It wasn’t me that posted under your name. I come here for intelligent baseball conversation, not to act like a 10 year old.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Alarm! Alarm! Call in the Army. Same old. Same old. Every time they lose a game or two, a bunch of you hit the panic button. It’s so predictable. However, I do agree they could use a bat for the stretch run. My issue is with Mauer. Morneau has over a hundred rbi’s. Shouldn’t your 3-hitter have more than 62 or whatever it is? There’s way too much pressure on Morneau.
bob - we lost 4 in a row. 2 to a team that is going to have 100 losses. In those 2 losses the Twins scored 4 total runs. Of those 4 total runs none came on homeruns. None came on homeruns because we only have 1 guy in the line-up that can hit homeruns. And that guy is getting bad pitches. Sky falling? You damn right it is, because the Chi Sox and Red Sox are doing what playoff teams do: WIN.
Me and Mick was thinking about switching over to root for and NL team. The Twins is done for the year. Even Paully won’t take a bet on em’
If sliding into head first into first base works so well why didn’t Usain Bolt do it in the 100m????
AJ, Actually 1 of the 4 came on a HR. Ruiz hit his 1st career HR last night.
not to mention, twins are in the midst of a 26 out of 30 stretch of games on the road or whatever and we all know how well they play on the road. At least we could blame losses on the bullpen before, but now they’ve found a way to lose the last 4 games and have a different culprit every night. I’m not going to quite give up on a team thats only 2 back with a month to play, especially when the Twins still get 3 at home against the white sox, but you just can’t compare these teams with the way they are respectively playing their games right now.
ask tolbert how well sliding into first works. and gardy didn’t care, shows something about how gardy thinks.
ggg- you saying Gardy doesn’t think?
its called choking… plain and simple. thats why nothing is working hitting, relief pitching etc. its contagious. hope they snap out of it soon
I do not think the sky is falling but I think it is starting to crack. No way should a playoff team lose to a team the caliber of the Mariners. If the Twins are truly playoff caliber, they need to step up right now and it is the stars (M&M) that need to lead them. Too late in the season for losing streaks. Gardy also needs to manage each game like it is a “must” win,
I think we all have to admit this is a different team on the road. There isn’t the same fire or focus and that’s just inexcusable from mlb’ers. The split w’anehymen was almost acceptable, but to drop the first 2 against the m’s is truly embarrasing. maybe these guys aren’t ready for primetime after all.
JustinCB at 9:13 is trolling. He’s a Baker hater.
Last night he said Baker made the M’s look like the 1927 Yankees — while Baker was on his way to a quality start.
This morning, Joe C pointed out that the M’s have now seen Baker 3 times this month. Didja read that, JustinCB?
I hope Baker was up a little — and in the dirt a little — last night. He had to come up with SOMETHING to keep them offguard.
Besides, he always pitches up some — but still stays on as an established, very good starter in the AL. Probably in the top 15 in the AL (not counting his fellow Twins pitchers).
The sky is falling. The sky is falling. I tell you the sky
pathetic!
Ooooooooh waaaaaaah (singing)
Baker is by far our best pitcher, imagine if we could consistantly give him more than 2 runs a game, these losses are not on our pitchers but our inept approach at hitting
Baker: “I’m starting to feel like not necessarily a finished product, but back to where I want to be.”
This after giving up 10 hits and 3 walks in 6.2 innings - 2 baserunners per inning? When he exited, the bases were full and the opponent’s best hitter was up to bat. He was lucky to have escaped with three runs - could’ve easily been 5 or 6. Apparently “back to where I want to be” is the minors Scott? I think he’s one of the Twins best pitchers, but when you have a bad game, own up to it. They were lucky they weren’t blown out! (Anybody see Breslow’s stats with RISP? Apparently not Gardy!)
I sure hope Gardy gives Pridie a chance after Sept 1 call-ups and doesn’t fear that he’ll outshine Gomez so badly it’ll make his April decision to choose Gomez over Span and Pridie appear foolish. It’s quite possible that Gomez looked better then, but both Span and Pridie are now ahead of GoGo-to-the-minors-and-polish-your-game in my opinion.
2 games down with 20% of the season remaining and nothing wrong with that? When you are close to be swept by the worst team in the AL and your schedule no cake-walk the rest of the way….Yeah there’s something wrong with that…
Should Cuddyer be traded this offseason? Good discussion and debate… along with other Twins talk:
http://media.myfoxtwincities.com/livestream/webcast/archive.htm
im kidding it wasnt an imposter that said that. it was really me i am gonnna be openly gay now. no more hiding it
Ryan Rowland-Smith just posted a fantastic new blog where he talks about the transition to starting and how he stays in shape between starts (really interesting actually), his mullet (too funny!), pitching in Yankees Stadium, and answers a bunch of fan questions:
http://www.prolebrity.com/youth-revolution/
Go Hyphen!!!!
Shaitin…Unless they’re throwing 90-95 and some good sliders in BP it won’t matter if they throw with their feet…Instead of Mora, why not Huff…He’s cheaper, has more power and can play 1b,3b or the outfield….Or maybe Wigginton from Houston…Same deal there…..
