Twins need to adjust for Cleveland’s Scott Lewis
Posted on September 15th, 2008 – 8:52 AMBy Joe Christensen
BALTIMORE — Before flying to Cleveland this morning, I studied up on Scott Lewis, the 24-year-old lefthander the Twins will face tonight at Progressive Field.
Last Wednesday in Baltimore, Lewis came three outs from becoming the first Cleveland pitcher to toss a shutout in his major league debut since Luis Tiant blanked the Yankees on July 19, 1964.
Indians manager Eric Wedge pulled Lewis, who had thrown 96 pitches, with a 7-0 lead in the ninth inning. The Orioles had managed three hits and no walks.
From what I’ve read, Lewis doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he had such great command Wednesday he reminded some of 22-game winner Cliff Lee.
Lewis threw 67 of his 96 pitches — 70 percent — for strikes.
“That’s an incredible performance when you’re talking about a guy making his major league debut,” Wedge said. “But he never looked nervous. He pitched with a lot of confidence and poise.”
A DIFFERENT CHALLENGE FROM SUNDAY
The Twins will have a thorough advanced scouting report on Lewis, and the hitters will be studying the video.
I’d look for them to be pretty aggressive early in the count.
It will be much different than their approach Sunday to Baltimore’s Radhames Liz, who has overpowering stuff but is known to have fits of wildness.
A closer look at the Twins’ at-bats on Sunday showed how Liz foiled their best-laid plans by throwing strikes.
The first time through the order, eight of the nine Twins hitters took the first pitch. (If you guessed Delmon Young as the one who swung at the first offering, you’d be right, and he grounded to short.)
Liz threw first-pitch strikes to seven of the first nine, however.
Also, he fell behind Denard Span and Alexi Casilla 3-1 to start the game. They each took a called second strike before making outs.
After that, several players, including Justin Morneau, started swinging at Liz’s first pitch.
One of the most glaring at-bats was Brian Buscher’s to start the third inning. The Twins already trailed 4-0, and Buscher worked Liz to a 3-1 count before swinging at two fastballs — ball 4 and ball 5.
“We tried to be aggressive after [those early at-bats] and never really got anything going,” Morneau said. “We missed a lot of balls, and you’ve gotta give [Liz] credit. He throws hard enough, where if you’re just looking for that fastball, it makes everything else that much more effective, and he threw everything for strikes.”
A BIG-PICTURE VIEW
Look, I’m not trying to let the Twins off the hook for getting baffled by Liz and failing to sweep a team that was 2-10 heading into the series. But at least they went to the plate with a plan. Most of them anyway.
Late in Liz’s outing, it wasn’t pretty. Carlos Gomez took swings so big in his final two at-bats, it looked like he was trying to hit a seven-run homer. Casilla (1-for-8) in the series took some big swings, too.
The first four hitters — Span, Casilla, Joe Mauer and Morneau — combined to go 1-for-14 against Liz.
Aaron Gleeman has another good post this morning that talks about how the Twins have exceeded preseason expectations, but how that doesn’t make it easier to stomach that they’re missing a chance to take command of a very winnable division.
He points to their many ups and downs. The only thing I’d add is that when you field one of the youngest teams in baseball, you’re asking for a roller coaster ride. You know that going in, and you just hope the highs exceed the lows.
Note: Check back this afternoon for tonight’s starting lineups.
46 Responses to "Twins need to adjust for Cleveland’s Scott Lewis"
The new stadium was just announced as named Target Field. What should the nickname for it be?
Target Field doesn’t have a great ring to it. Now if they had gone with Target Park, the “ar” sound in both would have rolled off the tongue a little better.
Target feild “the Bullseye”
TaFi?
I like “Tar-Pit” (as in pine tar).
But I just read Gleeman’s post from Joe C. link above. Looks like we finish the season three and half back of the White Sox. We needed to sweep Baltimore and Kansas City the past week.
But it ain’t over.
Casilla is killing us. He is a shell of the player he was before the injury. Set him on the pine and play Tolbert at second. Also does LNP HAVE to play every game? Harris is adequate at short and Macri can play 3rd when a lefty pitches if you aren’t going to play Buscher.
Are the Twins going to change their uniform colors to red tops/khaki bottoms?
Here’s the only story I trusted about Chris’s 9:06 post:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/09/15/targetfield/?refid=0
I wonder if Gleeman still thinks that Denard Span wasnt among the top 40 Twins prospects going into this season?
We still need a catchy nick name. I found this:
“Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus
Main Entry: target
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: One that is fired at, attacked, or abused.
Synonyms: butt, mark”
Butt Mark Park? ? ?
I hope the Twins aren’t “One that is fired at, attacked, or abused” on the new field!
How about calling it Discount Diamond?
Sums up the Twins and the sponsor.
We just do that in the Strib Blogs, Mrs. AgateHunter.
I have a nickname for the new stadium.
“Friggin’ Field”….as in its too friggin’ cold or too friggin’ wet to go to the game.
Twin’s new Mascot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Target_dog.jpg
I did not know his name was not Spot. It always says “See Spot Save” in the store!
If we meet the WS at 1 back, and win two of the three, we would be tied, correct?
Win - tied
lose- 1 back
Win tied?
If it comes down to that WS vs Detroit game, how motivated will the Tigers be to beat the WS in the last game of the season?
I think i’m going nuts. I want the Twins to win so bad!!!! Go Twins Go!
Or too friggin’ hot
If the title comes down to the Detroit make up game, I like our chances. MLB players seem to always enjoy being spoilers and play relaxed while the pressure is on the other team. But I doubt if Detroit would pitch their Ace or use their top closer in the game.
Does Detroit have an Ace or Top Closer after last night?
Champ de Target (tar-jeh)
“The Twins will have a thorough advanced scouting report on Lewis, and the hitters will be studying the video.”
Do the Twins’ hitters really do this?? Watching the Twins’ clueless at-bats I would never have imagined they look at scouting reports or look at film on pitchers they are about to face.
Hey people just wanted to say that the Twins are a joke just like every other team in state of Minnesota
I’d take the Twinkies and MLB any day over the NFL or the Vikings. Thugs, drugs, gangsters, boat cruises…how can people be fans of that league and not bother them. The NFL is the lowest end of the food chain. Baseball has had its issues too - but pale in comparison to the NFL. And Gardy vs. Childress - don’t even get me started….
I’m sticking with baseball and never will never watch a down of the NFL anymnore ~
The NFL needs more class acts like Dungy and Manning…
The Lewis kid had a nice performance for his debut but to start comparing him to Lee who is a Cy Young candidate just because he is on the same team and pitched a good game? WAY to soon for that imo.
Am with you Fry Dog - boycotting NFL this season due to inspiration of Pat Reusse giving up golf. Didn’t watch a down yesterday and feel SO GOOD about not wasting my time and getting frustrated w/Vikes. When they bring back Page, Eller & Marshall I’ll be back.
What will be worse? Not making playoffs or watching Gardy signal for Guerrier in Fenway during ALDS?
“The …Jzay” (”Tar-get’”)
As in
The Twins play at ‘The …Jzay’
Bat Day at ‘The …Jzay’
“Jzay” Night Doubleheader
I get tired of people complaining after every single loss. Expecting a sweep is silly and the Twins didn’t “need” a sweep. It certainly would have helped, but the Twins just need to continue to win series (or in the case of the four games with the Rays, split) and they’ll probably win the division going away.
Also, just because a pitcher has a bad record doesn’t mean he can’t pitch well in any one game (and the reverse is also true, right Blackburn?). Liz’s problem was he hadn’t been throwing strikes. He fixed that problem and suddenly he’s a much better pitcher. How is that the Twins’ fault? Maybe they could have had some better at-bats, but would that have mattered after the bombs that Blackburn allowed?
The Jemmer says:
“What will be worse? Not making playoffs or watching Gardy signal for Guerrier in Fenway during ALDS?”
The former. If this ragtag bunch of youngin’s can make the playoffs, it will be the icing on the cake to a wonderful baseball season for me. I would love it if they can go on and win in the playoffs, but for me the Twins will be big winners already. jmhop
Could be worse, like ‘Petco Park’. I was in San Diego when it was built, my pet name was ‘Kitty Litter Coloseum’. I do like the sound of Target Park rather than field.
I do like Derrick’s name of “The Bullseye”.
Friggin’ Field - too friggin’ hot, cold, wet, snowy - I’d say your to friggin’ soft. The Dome is a dump for baseball and I would much rather be sitting outside in the elements than cooped up in that place. Suck it up already. The weather during the summer is really nice 80% of the time.
Was it 2 years ago that the Twins played the Yankees in the ALCS playoff and I rode from Sioux Falls to MPLS in the snow? The roof should be a retractable.
consider it sucked. I would love to see the Twins play in their new stadium. I’ve been to Safeco field in Seattle a couple of times and boy is that nice. (to see the Twins of course) They do have a retractable roof though
A retractable roof would have been ideal especially during April and during the post season, but seeing how neither the Twins nor the public/state would pony up the dough for it….
I look forward to not having to make my annual trip to KC or St. Louis to get my fix of outdoor MLB baseball. I have yet to make it to Miller Park, but plan to this coming summer.
Miller Park is a great place. Twins should have taken notes on that place.
SoCal,
While I didn’t get too upset about the loss yesterday, I do disagree with the notion that the Twins didn’t need a sweep. The O’s quite frankly stink and the Twins need to be burying teams like this (like on Saturday).
If the Twins did get the sweep sure they would be 1.0 game out instead of 1.5, but I have seen nothing of this team which suggests they could run away with the AL Central. Anytime they get into 1st place, the immediately fall out. Plus, the White Sox just have match what the Twins do and win the series in MN and they take the division. The Twins really have wasted a chance to run away with things since the White Sox haven’t exactly been world beaters recently.
Cal,
Miller Park is nice-been there about 40 times. Safeco is still my fav since the roof just covers the place, so when it’s open it’s very open air, unlike Miller Park.
Shaun,
i was at that beatdown yesterday. I just have a feeling that Blackburn is gassed… he has pitched a ton of innings this year.
Having said that… being at Camden Yards made me realize i would rather sit in 40 degree weather to know i also have a shot to sit in sunny and 80 than 72 and gray in the dome.
Stop whining about the roof less stadium. It’s outdoor baseball, like it should be! What more can you ask? Look around the league at how many games were rained out Saturday? This is supposed to be the “nice” time of year. Are we going to whine every time a game is rained out now that we have an open air stadium, so Sid can lobby for another dome that we all hate?
Joe thinks he knows it all.
I hate corporate stadium names. It really sucks.
But “Target” has a sports connotation to it.
So not so bad. Go Twins!!!
Shaun, could the reverse be said for the White Sox, when the Twins undertook a 14 game road trip and did not look very good doing so, but White Sox could not get any further ahead of the Twins then they are now. Even a team that ’stinks; like KC and the Orioles are capable of winning one game esp. when they are at home.
Chicago, Detroit, NY and other placves don’t have roofs and have survived, how about we do the same? Suck it up, I say.
Looks like the Brewers FO isn’t satisfied with the status quo.
Take notice Gardy.
No matter who is the manager somebody will find a reason to not like him. That is the way it goes.
Yeah. 93 then 94 MPH fast balls aren’t that easy to take. Of course, you wouldn’t know…….
“No matter who is the manager somebody will find a reason to not like him. That is the way it goes.”
well apparently the Front Office found plenty of reasons to not like him!!
