Last night, the Twins were out-Twinned by Cleveland. That’s why I’m having trouble getting too excited about the Twins ending their losing streak. Cleveland has struggled a bit more than the Twins and is two games behind them in the AL Central with its cast of underperformers.

Perhaps the most blatant example last night were the guys at the end of the bullpen, who have been out-Rinconing Juan Rincon so far this season, although that kind of ineffectiveness reaches a point where you have to ask whether Rincon (2-2, 6.11) is actually out-Borowskiing Joe Borowski (9.00 ERA and injury problems after 81 saves in the last two seasons) or out-Betancourting Rafael Betancourt (1-3, 6.75 and a failure at filling the closer role when Borowski was hurt.

Betancourt (who had a dazzling season as a set-up guy in ‘07) pitched a solid inning last night but, after Cleveland had closed from 6-2 to 6-5, Borowski gave up two runs in the ninth — a rally ignited by Gogomez and Casilla with their bats and base running — to lessen the drama.

In addition, injured Pronk is carrying a .217 average and four homers on the bench and Victor Martinez is .278/0/21. And after hobbling down to first base and getting thrown out on a grounder that even Matty Lecroy would have beaten out, he was pulled from the game — with an inflamed elbow. It’s tough all over for the guy.

Cleveland has two starting pitchers on the disabled list, and on and on and on.

All of this makes the incredible work of Cliff Lee (10-1, 2.52) that much more outstanding. Remember that Lee was booted from the rotation last season because he was terrible and spent a chunk of the season in the minors.

So this is the team that the Twins beat last night, as Gardy tried to give Boof a chance to look good in a set-up role (one hit, one walk, two batters retired) and Dennys Reyes gave Cleveland hope when Grady Sizemore mashed a three-run home to bring his team within 6-5.

Amazing that Cleveland can’t even find a spot for this guy on its roster, isn’t it?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 8:37 am 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.