Twins Morning Doinks

Written by: Josh Johnson on 23rd April 2009

Twins Morning Doinks | read this item

• The Twins took a bashing in Beantown yesterday, losing both games of a day/night double-header by a combined score of 17-4. The Red Sox crushed both starting pitchers for the Twins. Scott Baker took the hill in game one and delivered his second consecutive poor start since coming off the disabled list. Francisco Liriano, on the other hand, was feeling good coming into the game after coming off of his best start of the season last week vs. the Toronto Blue Jays. Baker gave up three two-run home runs before leaving the game in the bottom of the fifth inning, leaving the Twins down 6-0. They eventually lost 10-1. Liriano didn’t even make it to the fifth inning, giving up seven runs in only four innings of work. The Twins lost that game by a final score of 7-3. Game One Recap. Game Two Recap.

• One familiar face that pitched well was Jose Mijares. In his first appearance with the Twins since being called up in the wake of Jesse Crain’s inflamed shoulder sending him to the D.L., Mijares threw a shutout inning of relief last night for the Twins. He touched 94 MPH on his fastball and threw all seven of his pitches for strikes. The Twins could certainly use a reliable bullpen arm, maybe Mijares is it? We certainly could use more 14 mph consecutive-pitch differentials.

• Both John Bonnes of Twins Geek and Josh Johnson of Josh’s Thoughts have taken a deeper look at Scott Baker’s starts. While both agree his velocity is a plus but that his location needs a lot of improving.

• When he’s not throwing 8 innings per start, Glen Perkins has been blogging at his blog “Perk’s Place.” On Tuesday, he gave us both a humorous post and one that lets us know what we can expect from his site in the future.

• Manager Ron Gardenhire addresses his reasons for benching Brendan Harris despite sporting a .860 OPS. According to Gardenhire, Harris’ defense is what is holding him back from starting and he would rather see him as a role guy. On the flip side, Alexi Casilla has an OPS of .455 and Nick Punto’s OPS is .652. It shouldn’t be too long before the “Free Harris” campaign begins. The teams problems thus far have been mostly poor pitching and lack of offense. The defense has been fine. The team is tied for 9th in the Majors with a team fieldin percentage of .987 and are tied for 11th in the Majors for the fewest errors with 11. On the flip side, they are 18th in the Majors in runs scored, tied for 22nd in hits, and tied for 24th in home runs.

• La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis-Star Tribune gives us some updates from around the Twins Minor League affiliates.

• The Twins have an off-day today before traveling to Cleveland on Friday to face off against the division rival Indians. Nick Blackburn is scheduled to face Fausto Carmona in game one.

Off Day Notes « SethSpeaks.net says:

April 23, 2009 at 4:16 pm

[...] At the Twins BaseballDigest.com page, you will want to check out Morning Doinks each and every morning, including Thursday morning’s version from Josh [...]

Latest Headlines

In The News

Around The Horn 2010: Part 7 – The Pitching Staff

Part seven of a seven part series, we will throw it "Around the horn" and look at the 2010 St. Louis Cardinals one position at a time. Today, take a look at the pitchers.

My Three Sons: The Three Keepers who’ll make my Family

In the actual show, My Three

Around The Horn 2010: Part 6 – The Outfield

Part six of a seven part series, we will throw it "Around the horn" and look at the 2010 St. Louis Cardinals one position at a time. Today, take a look at the outfield.

Murray Chass: MILLER NOT IN HALL BUT IN VINCENT BOOK

The third and last volume of

Baseball Tradition

Prince Fielder and the Brewers are becoming known for their celebrations that are outside the traditional baseball fare. Barry Zito and the Giants waited six months to show their disdain.