Twins postgame: The bunt debacle edition
Posted on August 31st, 2008 – 1:02 AMBy Joe Christensen
OAKLAND - As you can imagine, the Twins’ clubhouse was whisper quiet after their 3-2 loss Saturday night.
Joe Nathan sat by his locker and answered every question the media asked. Then he walked across the clubhouse and sat by Brendan Harris’ locker to discuss the woulda-coulda-shouldas of that disastrous last play.
After doing the postgame interviews, I came some conclusions:
1) Nathan made the right decision going to third. With a good throw and catch, Bobby Crosby is out.
2) It’s a tough play for Harris because a third baseman’s first step on a bunt is toward the ball. He has to read it quickly, and retreat to third the instant he realizes Nathan’s got it. Nathan’s fastball is 94-mph, so you can imagine what it’s like catching that from 45 feet.
3) Nathan needed to make a better throw. It was knee-high and to Harris’ backhand side. The play was scored Sacrifice, E1 — the right call.
4) With quicker reflexes, Harris could have made a big catch. He reached awkwardly for the ball instead of turning his glove to the backhand side. But he was also off-balance, and Bobby Crosby was bearing down on him with his spikes.
HOW RARE WAS THIS?
Someone reminded me this was Nathan’s first loss since July 19, 2007 against Detroit.
Nathan said next time, he hopes the team isn’t in that situation. He said he wasn’t sharp against the first two hitters. Bobby Crosby singled on a 3-2 pitch. And Nathan hit Emil Brown with a 1-1 fastball.
“Very tough loss after getting to the ninth with our closer,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said.
HARRIS’ BAD DREAM
As bad as Harris felt about the last play, I think he felt worse about his night at the plate. He left six on base. He grounded into a double play and struck out looking twice. Oakland probably should have turned two on Harris’ first grounder, too.
“I was sitting out there in the ninth,” Harris said, “going, ‘Well, I left a small village on base, but at least we can close it out with a win.’ “
It wasn’t to be.
LIRIANO NOTABLES
Francisco Liriano didn’t allow a walk for the first time in six starts since returning from Class AAA Rochester, and this was just the second time he completed seven innings.
He is 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA in this six starts.
MORE ON THE SEPTEMBER CALLUPS
With Boof Bonser moving into more of a late-inning role, I think Philip Humber will become the long man.
Jose Mijares is a very interesting choice. Terry Ryan has been scouting Class AA New Britain and supported the decision to promote the hardthrowing lefthander.
Bobby Korecky gives the bullpen another righthanded option, too.
Jason Pridie can play all threeoutfield spots. The Twins could use Jason Kubel to pinch hit for Carlos Gomez, for example, and then use Jason Pridie to run and play either center or right, interchangeably like Denard Span.
Matt Macri is another rigthhanded hitting option at third base and he could also play first base, allowing Justin Morneau to DH.
Ryan Jorgensen, I don’t know much about, but he’s a third catcher, which will make Gardy more comfortable about using Joe Mauer as a DH on his scheduled days off.
More on those guys Sunday, as the Twins try to salvage a split.
28 Responses to "Twins postgame: The bunt debacle edition"
Good job as always Joe. The bullpen losses are getting beyond annoying… They could easily be 6-4, 7-3, 8-2 or even 9-1 on this road trip if the bullpen performed better — and if they could manage more than two runs per game.
As bad as Harris’ day was, it wasn’t nearly as bad as when Jason Kubel left something like 10 men on base, striking out twice with the bases loaded. Joe wasn’t sharp obviously and our elimination number whittled down a bit more. But there is hope: the Twins still have the largest E number in MLB and I hope after today’s game, the White Sox will have the largest E number in MLB.
Go Twins!
Also, I think that putting a number on how many wins a club ’should’ have had is a little foolish because I could easily say that the Twins could have been 162-0 if the offense performed better…
[…] Originally published by Around the Majors […]
at least the twins bullpen problems aren’t as bad as the mets…
I live about 4 hours from Oakland and had a chance to go to only one of these four games. I sure am glad I drove down and back FRIDAY instead of for this one. We all knew this road trip would be tough (although maybe not this tough). I still think they can do it. September callups will, I hope, rejuvenate everybody and get the offense going again. And the bullpen a little more solidified, I hope. Go Twins!
The worst part about tonight is that Harris is probably not going to be able to redeem himself anytime soon, and from what I have seen of him from his days in Cincy and this year he seems to feed off of his frustrations, remember when he had the back to back home run nights, he was frustrated and slamming helmets around in frustrations….. he was almost there after tonight so he might have been close to a hot streak but Macri and Tolbert and tonight’s game is going to bench him for some time….
Twins have an odd dilemma. They have so many INF that are OK, not great, who have to platoon. It’s got to be tough to sit on the bench for a few games and then be put into the lineup and not be cold at the plate. After all, when the club wants a player who still has options to work out his problems at the plate, he gets sent down to get more, not fewer, at bats.
Harris was supposed to replace Bartlett and offensively other than BA he has better numbers than Bartlett. Even defensively as a SS he has better fielding pct., range and fewer errors. The Rays and baseball analysts rave about what a defensive upgrade Bartlett has been and yet ironically Harris has also been better this year than last year with the Rays.
You wonder if Gardenhire being a former middle infielder doesn’t tinker too much with the infield. Then there’s always the LNP factor. Whenever there is something less than perfection in the infield, he trots him out. As much as I’ve cringed along with everyone else at some of the throws etc. by Buscher, Harris and even Everett, would the team have been better served if Gardenhire could just stick with the same infield for extended periods of time? Stop babying Buscher when LHP start. Give Harris more. not less at bats. He was hot just a few weeks ago and then all of a sudden he’s back on the bench.
As much as Nathan has to shoulder all or most of the blame for the bunt fiasco, since he pitched poorly to get the team into that situation to begin with, Gardenhire continues to be a contributing factor to both the good and the bad accomplished by the team in this weird and wonderful season.
Oops, just remembered — Everett was supposed to replace Bartlett. Harris ended up being a de facto replacement because Everett got hurt and Lexi became a star when recalled for 2B duty.
Ah yes, the “could-haves” & “what-ifs” - all in I’d say they have balanced out in the team’s favor especially with the play of Span and Casilla. But I still say Gomez should have been dropped from the leadoff spot earlier, a better on base average from the leadoff hitter would have resulted in more runs and probably at least two wins, and come the last day of the season perhaps a playoff spot or not. Who out there agrees or not on this last point?
Oops, just remembered — Everett was supposed to replace Bartlett.
Everett was never going to replace Bartlett. Everett was going to hold down SS for a year because they didn’t like what they had seen from Casilla thus far.
Our cheer is WIN TWINS !
Go Twins is lame.
Old guy, I am an old guy also, and I agree with you.Gomez should never have batted leadoff after April.
These pennant race losses are hard to stomach - but I believe this has been the most exciting season in Twins history. Every game now, I have faith that the starter can deliver and there’s not the “surrender” attitude when we’re down by three runs early like other years. I’ll take a very tough “pennant race loss” over a meaningless “spoiler” win any time. WIN TWINS!
At this point, it doesn’t matter whether the Twins win the division or not. If they play like they have been, it will be another crushing at the hands of an AL East team again, so who cares? The Twins need to WIN the division, not back in after choking a little bit less than the Pale Hose.
The Twins have won the division 4 times in the last six years and were only a threat to win the World Series once. Since 2002, with all the moves the team has made, our defense is worse, our offense is worse, and our bullpen is worse. About the only way we’ve improved since we last won a playoff series is our pitching depth, but in a short series, that advantage is negated somewhat.
season ticket holder…
this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. saying the offense, defense, bullpen is worse? that’s a little unfair to this young team that is having a phenominal year, whether they win the division or not. the defense doesn’t look that bad compared to last year, and the overall offense is a lot better than last year. pretty much every single person in the baseball world had them in 4th or 5th place in the central.
“The Twins need to WIN the division, not back in after choking a little bit less than the Pale Hose.”
Hear, hear!
This team is playing like it positively does not WANT to make the playoffs.
I’d disagree Michael- I think they’re playing like they’re scared of the playoffs. No one expected them to get this far, and now that they have, they’re nervous, somehow.
I have a question I’m sure any one of you could answer for me. I thought I’ve heard something about call ups being limited to teams who are in contention. So if you’re not in contention you can’t call up players? (And who determines whether a team is in contention or not?) Or do you just choose not to because of the extra salaries?
To start the 9th, Punto should have been at 3rd and Everett at short. Play to win and put the best people in END GAME situations.
Yeah, I was surprised last night to not see any defensive changes made in the ninth.
The “Torii” is a famous pitch designed to strikeout stubborn hitters who refuse to lay off low, outside pitches. Of course, swinging might be necessary due to ridiculous calls by umps on the “Glavine” or its cousin, the “Mussina” which is never called against a Yankee. The point of this is whether Joe’s throw to 3rd should be called the “Crain” or the “Boof”. Well, it is the “Crain” because it pins the loss on a reliever, because it is part of a continuing trend(ie several poor relief outings - see Blown Saves)
Call ups,
All MLB teams can call up 40-man-roster players in September, regardless if they are in contention or not.
In fact the teams that are out of contention play those players more frequently, for evaluation purposes.
Thanks, sane!
I think every young sportsfan in Minnesota, at the age of 10, should get to pick one non-minnesota professional team that they can cheer for and call them their “home team.” It just seems fair, the only 2 championships that have ever been won or will ever be won were already won by the Twins…I don’t care who you put on what team in Minnesota, it’s a losing mentality here, it’s like all teams expect to eventually lose.
That’s the spirit, Johnny Sunshine.
Johnny, before your time, I am sure, but the Lakers won 6 championships here.
But, I feel your pain.
And it’s currently 8-1 with your 16-games-over-.500 Twins in the lead…You’re right, I am so sick of all this losing! (mid 1990’s anyone?)
Joe loses 1 game a year. He got it out of his system.
