Twins postgame: Goodbye West Coast edition
Posted on August 31st, 2008 – 10:23 PMBy Joe Christensen
OAKLAND — I’m ready to hand the baton to La Velle for the final leg of this four-city road trip. A few leftover tidbits that didn’t make it into my gamer or notebook, which should also be posted shortly:
(*) Scott Baker (8-4) earned his first victory since July 26, holding the A’s to one run on six hits in six innings. He was 0-1 in his previous six starts, despite pitching well in three of those.
(*) Granted it was a 10-1 game, and the adrenaline might not have been pumping for Eddie Guardado, but his third appearance in this incarnation with the Twins wasn’t much better than his second.
After retiring the side in his first appearance, Guardado has allowed eight of the 11 batters he’s faced to reach base.
(*) Boof Bonser, meanwhile, was hitting 96-97 mph on the stadium radar gun, and he froze Eric Patterson with a nasty 85-mph hook to end the eighth. Bonser retired all four batters he faced, just like his last outing, and lowered his ERA to 6.06.
“Boof came in and threw the heck out of the ball,” Gardy said. “The ball was coming out of his hand pretty good. He’s going to be big for us down to the end of the season.”
17 Responses to "Twins postgame: Goodbye West Coast edition"
[…] Originally published by Around the Majors […]
Good bye West be Coast!!! holy boof good thing we didnt trade Boof!! i think hes playin with a chip on his shoulder and its showing!! Eddie will be fine! offense looked good, Scotty threw well! it will be fun to watch the callups in the coming days!! gotta love this time of the year! now take care of buisness in Canada and we should be in good shape!!
oops i dont know why i threw in a Be between west and coast must be time for bed! lol
I think Boof needed that weight to stay back and keep his balance point. I don’t think he’s all the way back to 270 or whatever, but he’s put some of those pounds back on, and he’s throwing harder again. Probably a coincidence. But it’s a good sign.
Regarding Bonser, don’t a lot of pitchers pick up a couple MPH when they go to the bullpen and pitch only an inning or two at a time?
But he’s been pitching in the bullpen for awhile now. My impression from what Joe wrote is that he only just now started hitting 96-97.
Noticed Boof added back his heft from last season. Are the west coast doughnuts that much better?
Not to jump the gun with my observations here, but Guerrier seems to be back to where he was early in the season, and if Boof and the lefties can keep putting good outing on the board, the bullpen might just make it through the season in tact. I’d like to see Gardy use Boof in the 8th of a close game someday…can’t be any worse than using Crain right now. He’s looked lost lately.
Not to jump the gun but Nick Punto for MVP!!
This offseason Boof doesn’t need to be sent off to lose weight.
Instead, he needs to be brought in and taught pitch placement.
He has the potential to have a great career, but he is not getting the coaching he needs.
The offseason is the opportunity for Bonser. Every day should be a coached day. The guy is teachable
Great job Joe. It’s about time LEN3 got back to work (LOL). Toronto has the best pitching in the AL, but we miss Halladay.
Weeks ago in the early stages of the bullpen mediocrity I remember someone posting that Bonser has very good stuff and might he be our answer to set up the 8th . . . that poster was prescient. Oh, wait, that was me! 
Maybe there is something then to the Gophers . . .
but his third appearance in this incarnation with the Twins wasn’t much better than his second.
But everybody wanted Eddie. So SURELY it’s just a temporary thing.
Big win yesterday. Glad to see the Twins leave on a high note. And nice to see Casilla take one deep after nearly getting hit in the head.
Same with Redmond, who got backed off and then laced a double.
And Morneau went deep to end August. Hopefully he can manage at least nine more to keep that 30 HR season thing going.
a 10-1 lead went to 10-4, who cares.
T-Mouse–I didn’t know we had someone on here who is in the clubhouse everyday and knows just what kind of coaching the players receive. I bet Rick Anderson never talks to Boof, never gives him any coaching, and I am grateful for you to point that out.
It might take something as good as 16-9 the rest of the way (93-69) to win the division. With 13 more games on the road, that will be a very tall order for this team. I think the September call ups will be a big advantage for the Twins over the White Sox. They just have to find a happy medium between 12-2 wins and 3-2 losses.
[…] public links >> joe Utility decoupling on steroids First saved by d15m402 | 1 days ago Twins postgame: Goodbye West Coast edition First saved by kBasarab | 2 days ago Comment on guest blogger: jon stewart by Joe First saved […]
