Sunday’s game kind of sucked the wind out of what had been a nice weekend of recovery in Milwaukee. There was nothing to complain about in the first two games against the Brewers, and a lot to like. Boof’s best start ever on Friday and Scott Baker’s excellent return to the majors Saturday night. I mean, what odds could you have gotten for betting that Baker would have been the first starter of the season to last into the ninth inning? And there was good and timely hitting from Torii and others.

Then came the finale.

Alas, for all the nice things we were saying about him in spring training and in April, Ramon Oritz is continuing his Ponsonian descent. This time, he squandered a 4-0 lead with his insistence on throwing slider after slider after slider after slider — and refusing to come inside with fastballs now and again that would allow him to throw the pitch he loves oh-so-dearly with greater effect. Slideritis was the concern that Terry Ryan had about Ortiz when they signed him during the offseason, and you have to wonder how many chances he’ll get before being relegated to last-man status on the pitching staff.

Ortiz’ numbers aren’t as bad as Ponson’s were, but one of the most sapping things for a team to deal with is a player who can’t take advantage of being put in a good situation by teammates on a consistent basis — whether that’s giving back 4-0 and 5-2 leads or being the lefty reliever who can’t retire left-handed batters (Reyes in the seventh inning, which led to the winning run for Milwaukee).

In this situation, I’m going to suggest more patience than may be merited. My concern is that Rick Anderson and the others on whom Ortiz goes to for advice must be telling him that he needs to pitch inside to be effective. Do the things that made him 3-0.

Assuming he’s not listening, it feels like time to take an easy action step:

Skip Ortiz the next time through the rotation. The Twins are off Thursday, which means that Baker would pitch Friday against Toronto and Carlos Silva, providing he survives Monday night’s start at Texas, would pitch Saturday with Johan on Sunday. Ortiz would have his next turn come up a week from Tuesday against the White Sox. That would keep the other starters pitching every fifth day — and clearly mark Ortiz as the next pitcher on the bubble.

Then, of course, we can hope that Silva doesn’t compete with him for the bubble spot

If Silva does destruct Monday against last-place Texas, then it could be time to give Glenn Perkins a start against Toronto and keep watching the Rochester hopefuls (Slowey and Garza) with a closer eye. Things that can be tolerated as April turned to May because of hope, however slim, that stuff would work out can’t be as readily tolerated  when May gives way to June in baseball’s best division.

As much as the Twins were hoping it wouldn’t happen during 2007, it would not  surprise me right now if the rotation by midseason is Santana, Boof, Baker, Perkins and Slowey/Garza, although I still think it’s better than 50/50 that Silva will make it through the season as a starter.

I’m also wondering if Jeff Cirillo will get more time at third base. He has a track record against lefties and he started Saturday against a right-hander. Nick Punto is on pace to strike out more than 100 times and, in addition to getting two hits Sunday, faltered in two key situations — failing to get Rodriguez home from third with one out in the seventh and taking three called strikes after getting ahead in the count 3-and-0 to lead off the ninth. Cirillo spent a few weeks sidelined with his bad knee and I’m not going to hold his mediocre numbers against him at this point.

And one more thing: There was a time when Gardy and Anderson claimed they wouldn’t keep a lefty in the bullpen just for the sake of having one. Ditching Dennys Reyes would be an extreme move after his extraordinary 2006 performance. But that doesn’t mean he should be an automatic move against lefties at this point of the season. Lefties are 10-for-27 with four walks against Reyes in ‘07 (righties have an almost-.500 on-base percentage against him) after getting only 13 hits off him all last season.

Just like Reyes was challenged at the start of last season by being sent nto the minors to learn how to hold baserunners, he needs to be challenged to figure out how to regain the magic that propelled him through ‘06. At the very least, he needs to be competent enough to enter a close game without sending shudders throughout Twins Territory.

Recovery is tough. The Twins can’t afford a step back for every step forward. Not in the AL Central.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.