Whew! I wrote four different stories as the game twisted and turned during the final innings. I hope I made sense in the paper tomorrow (I know Ken The Star Tribune Copy Editor has my back!)

I also wrote a final gamer that will put published (online only) sometime during the next half hour.

The one thing I wanted to get into is how Joe Nathan will be used the rest of the season. For those of you who have been clamoring for Nathan in the eighth, expect to see more of him earlier in games. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire seems to be at wits end with the late-inning work of some of his relievers. And Matt Guerrier’s arm is going to fall off if he keeps getting run out there.

He tried to get five outs out of Nathan on Tuesday night but it didn’t work out. But there will be more opportunities.

“`I’ll take my chances with Nathan,” Gardenhire said after the game. “We’re going to have to be able to do those things. We’re struggling. Nathan is going to have to come in and get some outs in the eighth. That’s the way it is going to be from here on out.”

I know many of you wanted to see this earlier in the season, but I’m going to give Gardy a break here. You start piling up the two-inning saves early in the season and you’re risking not having Nathan strong down the stretch. Now that it’s August, Gardenhire can lean on Nathan knowing he can handle the load from here on out. I know other closers have been used for more than one inning - I think Mariano Rivera is simply genetically engineered for such duty.

Ultimately, this in an indictment on the Twins for not adding another relief option before the July 31 trade deadline. I’m sure they tried.  It’s going to be hard to swing a deal now for someone good.

Note: Not that I’m ignoring it, but it looks like I got bad info on Livan Hernandez clearing waivers. The Rockies appear to have won the claim. Sorry about that. I was told tonight not to expect anyone in return who can help the major league club.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 1:44 am and is filed under Game threads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.