Game Recap: Pirates 6, Twins 2

I have no doubt the Twins will turn things around.  The only issue will be, how deep is the hole they're going to have to dig themselves out of.  With tons of Central Division games left, they have the opportunity. Let's see, if they can take advantage of it.

Though I am not a fan of "the shoe", he pitched well enough to win today. I'm almost ready to give up on Garver but we don't have much else. He looks hopeless at the plate in most instances. Maybe he should concentrate on hitting the other way most of the time and look for those pitches. Maybe when the others get healthy, Austudillo (God forbid) should catch. At least he is hitting the ball. Kiriloff will get going soon. The talent is there. It's just a matter of time. But the team is starting to run out of time unless they can turn this around. If we can't beat the Pirates........

Something is incredibly rotten with this team. Lifeless performances. Have to wonder how much longer the window is open.

I’m not convinced the window is even open. Too many hitters built a reputation off a juiced ball, and now without it half the lineup looks very pedestrian. Buxton, Arraez, Cruz, and Donaldson are the only really positive hitters. And most of those guys are injury risks. Everyone else is league average or replacement-level at the plate. Polanco is looking toast ever since he and the ball were both de-juiced.

Rotation is competitive, which is a nice development from years past. But Maeda might be struggling to prove last year was legit and Berrios has never quite proven he can be a stopper or bury a good team being going 6-7 strong. The bullpen is a mishmash of failed starters and junk ballers that are good enough for regular season matchups but get exposed in the playoffs.

No fight, no passion, no emotion.

Like their manager.

This will not end well.

These games are sure hard (boring) to watch. Even Dick Bremer struggles to come up with something positive to talk about and he is usually very good at that.

It's a real shame that just as it seems that Byron Buxton has figured things out and we have productive vets like Donaldson and Cruz, the rest of the team with few exceptions is dragging.

Garver is completely lost at the plate. I think Roy Smalley said it best last night when he said "When you are going bad and all you do is go up there and try to hit the ball out of the ballpark, it only gets worse". And it just floors me that Rocco has plugged Garver into the leadoff spot on more than one occasion this season.

I loved how Derek Shelton forced one of his slumping players into having an aggressive AB by sending the runner, no one particularly fast, on a hit-and-run early in the game. The player go a base hit. It doesn't always work out that way, but you could clearly see the differences in management styles in this series--play for the home run or get creative and try to make things happen in other ways.

I tend to give Jake Cave a pass. He is who he is. A good guy to have as a backup outfielder. Plays hard, good defensively, runs well. He is just not a starter and is struggling in that role. Earlier in the season Dick and Justin would say what a luxury it was to have Cave, a player that would be a starter for many teams. That has never been true. He could be a backup for handful of other teams just as he is with the Twins, that is who he is, but I like him and root for him all the same.

The bottom line is that with only 3 games played in the division so far, there is more than enough time to turn it around and take this division. But they need to get away from the 3-outcome approach to hitting (walk, strikeout, homerun), it is not a recipe for long-term (or post-season) success.