Twins valiantly lost to the Blue Jays last night on a Johan Santana outing that probably ranked in the bottom 10% of his career. Two notes from me, both predictably about Tony “The Evangelist” Batista.
- If The Evangelist is going to be the Twinkie’s most patient hitter this season, we are in for a long, long ride.
- The absolute worst scenario I could think of would be the Twins losing while The Evangelist knocked out a solo home run. In the past few years the Twins brass have severely weighted early season performance. Michael Cuddyer had a horrendous April in 2005. So bad, according to management, that he wasn’t even given a chance to practice fielding ground balls at third base in 2006, let alone compete for a job against The Evangelist. Jason Bartlett was sent down after a tremendous Spring Training, and I have to believe it was in part due to the sour taste remaing from his so-so run as the starting shortstop in early 2005. Also in 2005, Jacque Jones had a wonderful month of April, showing patience at the plate and hitting nicely versus left-handed pitchers. I remember this same sinking feeling right off the bat in 2005. In the opening game of the season, Jones went 1 for 3 with the only extra-base hit the Twins could muster off of lefty Jamie Moyer. In the second game, LOOGY Matt Thornton came in from the bullpen to face Mr. Jones and Jacque promptly went yard, knocking in two runs. Both anomalies were completely inconsistent with his career tendencies. As dictated, management never chose to platoon Mr. Jones through the entire season even when he had reverted to his career norms.
(As an aside, Juan Castro, sadly, had a hit tonight as well. shudder)
Comments (2)
Today, it was Punto at second, Castro at short, and Batista at third. Hide the knives!
My favorite was late in the game, with runners on, Gardy couldn’t pinch hit for Punto with Cuddyer because, well, he claims Cuddyer isn’t playing the infield this year, or because Ryan claims he hits better when focusing on the outfield, or because it’s more important to have Punto’s defense at SS (Castro was already out) over Luis Rodriguez’s than it is to actually score some runs. That was a brutal line-up card and it performed as expected.
I will say if they can get home 2-4 and somehow go 4-2 in the next two series I’ll be more than happy.