Thread: Article: Red Sox 6, Twins 5

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I felt it was questionable leaving Marquis in for the 6th and absolutely the wrong decision to let him go out for the 7th. The bottom of the 8th was incredibly frustrating. The breaking ball Mauer grounded out on was a good one. The ball Willingham hit was smoked, and Doumit popped out on a first pitch fastball up and away. The ball that Ross hit in the 9th was a low and away fastball and I can't believe he was able to hit that out to the opposite field.

That roar you speak of outside of the stadium is a great thing. On the one hand you're pissed that you left early and missed something, but on the other hand you know something good just happened and can't wait to get home to see the highlights.

Capps now has four strikeouts in seven innings, which is under the league average, especially for relievers, but about average for him.

This is not only misleading, but blatantly wrong. Capps has two strikeouts in seven innings. He has struck out two of 28 batters this year, or 7 percent. That's a huge reduction from his 18 percent career rate, and a sizable drop-off even from last year's 12 percent rate.

That is a sizable drop off and I have to think it will go back up as he pitches more innings over the course of the season.

Originally Posted by Nick Nelson

This is not only misleading, but blatantly wrong. Capps has two strikeouts in seven innings. He has struck out two of 28 batters this year, or 7 percent. That's a huge reduction from his 18 percent career rate, and a sizable drop-off even from last year's 12 percent rate.

They had that game - shameful loss against a team whose bullpen could not be any more in shambles right now.

Maquis should've been pulled after 5. He was lucky his defense bailed him out numerous times with Span's catch and the DP. Maquis is a TERRIBLE pitcher and shouldn't be on any MLB roster. What a horrible signing to give this guy anything more than a minor league deal with a ST invite.

I'm sure Dick, Bert, and Gardy (3 stooges) will say that he is a bulldog and has kept his team in the game but he cannot induce any weak contact, does not have impeccable control, and cannot K anyone so what value does he have???? Cut this BUM now and bring up Diamond or some other pitcher from AAA that has a chance to be with this team in the future.

Capps is not a very good pitcher, but Ryan compounded Smiths mistake by keeping him around.

It is all your fault! I stayed the whole game... Fun game to be at, sucks we lost though. And as for pulling Marquis early, there was no reason to. He had 4 scoreless innings going, and the way the bullpen has been overused already we really needed those 7 innings from him. Cody Ross just had some crazy good game that is so not like him

As for Mauer's at bat with Carroll on 3B, to quote myself: "Is it bad that Mauer is the last guy I want up when #Twins need a fly ball?!". In my opinion, and I might be being harsh, but Mauer has to change his approach in that at-bat, and make sure he hits something in the air. Instead, he does the same old and takes some pitches he could get under, and isn't able to get it done. Situational hitting has been lackluster (to put it lightly) thus far on the season.

Originally Posted by Gernzy

It is all your fault! I stayed the whole game... Fun game to be at, sucks we lost though. And as for pulling Marquis early, there was no reason to. He had 4 scoreless innings going, and the way the bullpen has been overused already we really needed those 7 innings from him. Cody Ross just had some crazy good game that is so not like him

But we didn't get "those 7 innings" from Marquis. The bullpen (predictably) had to get 2 outs in the 7th anyway. Only now they're in a tie game instead. If an 8 man bullpen is "overused" to the extensions you can't get 9 outs well got problems.

Morales just owned Mauer in that at bat. Actually watch the pitches and then tell me what could have been done. A couple inside fastballs at 94-95, some off-speed garbage and then one low and away that he at least pulled to the right side instead of tapping to short. If that ball goes 10 feet to the right, Carroll probably scores.

I don't blame Gardy for trying to get an extra inning from Marquis. The bullpen has been overworked already with all the short starts. Didn't work out but sooner or later a starter needs to go 7 innings or the relievers will be burnt out soon enough.

I didn't mind Marquis going out for the 7th, but feel it was a stretch. But I would've had someone ready to go and pulled him with the 1st baserunner. Marquis did get through the 6th on 9 pitches.

Post deleted- didn't have my facts together enough to be spouting off about this.

Originally Posted by @_2244

Completely disagree that Mauer should have changed his approach with that AB. Mauer came up with runner on third and nobody out trailing by one in the eighth inning. Mauer shouldn't change a single thing about his "approach" in this AB. In this spot, Mauer should be trying to do what he does best and that's spray a line drive, maybe even hit a double somewhere.

Let's look at it another way, and instead of bringing the local lightning rod into the converstation let's use the number of their spot in the batting order. Same situation, bottom of 8, tying run on 3rd, nobody out. #3 hitter coming up. If I'm on offense, I want #3 hitter to take a good at-bat trying to do what he does best. With nobody out, and that's the key here- I want him to go for a hit and potentially set up a multi-run inning to try to win the game. I don't want to settle for a fly ball to the outfield to tie the game. I let #3 hitter take his hacks and give my team a chance to win the game. After all, we should be able to bring a guy in from third with nobody out and #3 & #4 coming up. If it doesn't work out, then #4 hitter comes up with 1 out and now the main objective has changed as must now ensure that we are able to tie the game by any means possible, including a fly ball to the outfield.

I'm well aware that Mauer-bashing is very fashionable here, but in this case the critical "situational" at-bat came in the bottom of the eighth with one out.

The score was tied. That was the go ahead run on third. A patented lazy fliner to the left field corner puts the Twins ahead. Do try to pay attention.

shanewahl - For me, it's all about the approach that needed to be taken (aggressive), which is different from his usual (uber-passive), and he didn't do it. He watched 5 pitches go by before swinging. I was bothered by it. If you weren't, great. Would he have done anything better if he swung at any of the earlier pitches? Who knows, but I'd rather he take a cut at a borderline fastball earlier in the count than a 3-2 curveball heading for the dirt.

@_2244 - The game was tied, you need that run to win. I'd tell Mickey Mantle to try and hit a fly ball there. If something falls for a hit, great, but a "hit" wasn't needed to get the go-ahead run across the plate -> situational hitting.

My apologies, Steve. My post was out of line, especially considering I had the sitch completely wrong.

I mean it to the Twins, who seem to think that once a random team sprinkles a guy with Magic Closer Dust (capital MCD), they’re forever a different guy.

Small point: As an organization, and one with a tremendous amount of continuity over the past couple decades, I have to object to the MCD comment. Going back almost 30 years to the days of Ron Davis and Keith Atherton, all of the the Twins' team leaders in saves came to the team with fewer than 10 career saves until Jon Rauch and Matt Capps popped up on Bill Smith's watch. (And Rauch was covering for Nathan and wasn't intended to be a closer.)

This organization typically doesn't believe in the Dust. Capps was kept on because they had the money, he was a known commodity and it saved them a trip to the open market. But trading a talented young catcher for him was awful, and Mr Smith has had his keys taken away from him as a consequence. (OK, there were other things too, but the mindset has been rejected.)

Originally Posted by Kneelb4zerg

I don't blame Gardy for trying to get an extra inning from Marquis. The bullpen has been overworked already with all the short starts. Didn't work out but sooner or later a starter needs to go 7 innings or the relievers will be burnt out soon enough.

They needed 2.2 innings from the bullpen anyway, which wasn't hard to predict, with the added bonus of a 2 run gone. They do have an 8 man bullpen, no?