The Twins came up with two runs in the tenth to win 3-2, their fifth straight victory and eighth in their last ninth. Anyone notice that the Twins are now 1-1/2 games out of second place in the division?

Joe Mauer’s workout went well. He said he felt good and will try to do more on-field stuff before Saturday’s game. He said he hopes he won’t have to go out on a minor league rehab assignment. Gardy said before the game that a setback was inevitable, but it’s unfortunate that it happened when Mauer was so close to returning.

The Twins bullpen has a 1.42 ERA over its last nine games.

Redmond has a nine-game hitting streak.

Now….onto Mr. Slowey.

He said the Twins really made him feel welcome in the clubhouse. He actually walked around town with Joe Nathan and Matt Guerrier during the day to just relax.

“When we got here I kind of went outside and walked around and tried to soak it in and have my, `Oh my gosh moment before the game started,” he said. “I thought  it helped a lot to have Redmond behind the plate, a guy who has been around and knows the game.”

As you saw, Slowey’s sinker is the truth. It breaks down and in on righthanded hitters. Slowey stays away from the fat part of the bat with it.

“He definitely has stuff to work with,” Redmond said. “He’s got a little bit of deception with his delievery too.”

What Slowey found out was that major league hitters, especially the A’s, know how to keep at-bats alive. He had a 11-pitch at-bat with Dan Johnson. He had a 10-pitch at-bat with Eric Chavez. But Slowey kept pumping fastballs in on Oakland.

“He did something tonight I’ve never seen - a guy throw that many fastballs inside to Chavez and have him not hit him,” Redmond said. “I’ve never seen a guy sneak that many fastballs by him. And he got him out.”

That’s a testament to the movement. Slowey gave up one run over six innings on five hits, two walks and three strikeouts.

“He was about what we expected,” Oakland manager Bob Geren said. “He kept the ball down in the zone and put up good numbers.”

Mark Kotsay: “He threw strikes, and that was the scouting report.”

The thing is, Slowey could have been a lot better. He was up in the zone a little too frequently. And Rick Anderson said he had to tell Slowey to stay on top with his delivery when he went to the mound with the bases loaded in the first inning. Slowey was getting under a little bit, which leaves pitches up.

Check out these stats: 99 pitches, 66 for strikes

73 fastballs, 12 sliders, 9 change ups, 5 curveballs

Of the 26 non-fastballs, 9 were strikes, 17 were balls.

“He did a great job throwing a lot of fastballs for strikes,” Redmond said. “He didn’t have great command of his breaking stuff but he wasn’t afraid to challenge them inside.”

Slowey: “I felt like I was making pitches to get guys out. These guys are major league hitters for a reason. They know what it takes to foul a ball off. They know exactly what’s a strike and what’s not. Certainly there are a lot of great things about today’s outing, but there are a lot of things I have to work on and try to eliminate some of those 20-pitch at-bats.”

My opinon: Very encouraging from the standpoint that he was able to compete without having command of his breaking stuff. Exceptional movement on his sinker. I’ve seen a lot of pitchers come up and need a few starts to settle in before you can really see their, `stuff.’ I didn’t see Matt Garza’s stuff until his third/fourth outing. Boof Bonser’s curveball and slider are way better now than last year when he came up. It happens a lot - pitchers are a little tight when they first come up. Heck, Julio DePaula went back to Rochester on Thursday and hit 94 on the gun. 

Once Slowey gets comfortable, we’ll see better breaking balls, which will make him even tougher. Both Andy and Redmond agreed with me on that one. And we know Slowey has the smarts. It was a very promising debut.

 

 

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