Keeping it simple today: The Twins can leave Detroit at the end of the weekend anywhere from 1 1/2 to 7 1/2 games behind the Tigers. If they play like they have the last two days in Cleveland, you know the number will at the large end and enthusiasm for the rest of the season will be hard to come by. Thursday’s game was best played out of our sight, given the pathetic performance with runners in scoring position and some of the whining about Fausto Carmona and the umpiring afterward.

The Twins are paying right now for their personnel choices and their inability to execute. If we were in 2007 — Carmona’s bright, shining moment in baseball — it wouldn’t be ludicrous to complain about having to face him.As it was, to read Mike Redmond’s comments to Joe C. after the game was just sad. Not to mention Alexi Casilla contention that he had to swing at a bad pitch because he thought the ump missed an earlier one.

On the Redmond situation, if Gardy and the Twins thought there would be big problems with the Carmona-Redmond matchup (and Redmond has been struggling this season against most right-handers), it would have made sense to stay a step ahead of the action and start Redmond against the lefty Aaron Laffey on Wednesday. In the manager’s defense, however, choosing between starting Redmond at DH or keeping Kubel there and starting Delmon or Gomez in the outfield is hardly a strength vs. weakness choice. (Of course, it may have been a day to liberate Brendan Harris and give him a shot.)

Don’t believe any of the gushing you may here about the Tigers right now. They’re 8-11 since the All-Star break,  including their own one-out-of-three against Cleveland, as well as the same against Texas and Seattle.

This weekend, the Twins will be overmatched only if they allow themselves to be.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 9:15 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.