Joe Crede makes his Spring Training debut tomorrow.  Brian Buscher is taking that time to set the benchmark for the new third baseman’s production.

Buscher started at first base against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, perhaps giving him another avenue to make the roster.  At the plate, he went 2-for-2 with a two-run homerun.  He’s gone without a hit in only one plate appearance so far this spring.  With so much talk about pitchers being far ahead of hitters this time of year, Buscher seems locked in.  His replacement, AAA Rochester first baseman Brock Peterson, didn’t do too bad either with a grand slam in the eight inning.

I read reports when players were first arriving at camp that Buscher looked like he had hit the weight room hard during the offseason.  Early on, it seems like he has taken that motivation to a new level.  It’s understandable, considering he went from a platoon-but-promising role at third to quite possibly a full time starter at Rochester.  And let’s keep in mind, just as I’m sure Buscher has:  Rochester, New York can be just as cold as Minnesota during the early parts of spring.  And they don’t have a dome.  

For me, this just adds to the quality of the Crede signing.  The bench gets deeper and a determination to stay on that bench follows.

Go Twins!

The Minnesota Twins came from behind with three runs in the eighth inning to beat the Seattle Mariners 6-5 as the two teams finished up a three game series. The Twins snapped their four game losing streak and avoided the three game sweep with the victory. It is now time to go on a winning streak and overtake the White Sox for the division lead!

Jason Kubel had a rbi double to get the scoring starting in the eighth inning and then pitch hitter Brian Buscher added a two run single to finish out the scoring. Delmon Young had a rbi sac fly for the first run of the game in the second inning and Denard Span had a two run ground-rule double in the fourth inning. Good balanced scoring for the Twins as they kept the pressure on the Mariners pitching staff.

Glen Perkins pitched seven innings and allowed four runs as he started for the Twins on the mound. Perkins improved to an awesome 12-3 on the season with the victory. Matt Guerrier, Eddie Guardado, and Joe Nathan all seen action out of the bullpen. Guardado was charged with one run in the eighth inning but Nathan made the one run lead hold up for his 36th save of the season.

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Kevin Slowey pitched six strong innings and limited the New York Yankees to only three hits as they Twins went on to beat the Yankees by the score of 4-2. With the victory on Wednesday afternoon, the Twins took two out of three games from the visiting Yankees. Great job by the Twins in the series!

Slowey improved to 9-8 on the season with the win and now has a 3.94 era. The bullpen pitched good as well as they only allowed two more hits to the Yankees over the final three innings of the game. Both of those hits came in the seventh inning as Craig Breslow gave up both hits. Dennys Reyes, Jesse Crain, and Joe Nathan all seen action out of the pen as well. Nathan picked up his 32nd save of the season as he finished off the Yankes in the ninth inning.

The big hit in the game came in the fourth inning when Delmon Young hit a three run home run to get the Twins on the board. After that the Twins scored another run in the sixth inning on a Brian Buscher rbi sac fly. That was all the offense would need to do as the pitching staff was that good on Wednesday.

As of right now the Twins and White Sox are tied for first place in the division. The White Sox will take on the Royals this evening so everyone sit back and hope the Royals can beat up on the Sox.

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What a way to start off my first blog! The Twins shut out the Ranger 6-0 to start off the second half and continue their hot streak. Thats now 21 out of the last 28 games that they’ve won. Once again, the story tonight has been the starting rotation. As I mentioned, Glen Perkins got the call tonight and he was virtually untouchable. He pitched 6 strong scoreless innings, gave up 3 hits, 3 BBs, and recorded a strikeout. Better yet, he lowered his overall ERA to less than 4, its now down to 3.84. Three relievers combined to pitch the last 3 innings giving up no hits.

The offense wasn’t that bad either. Delmon Young had a great game, going 4-4 with an RBI and a stolen base. He started the offense in the 4th, getting an infield single to drive home Justin Morneau. Others that did well today, Brian Buscher and Jason Kubel each went 2-4 with 2 RBIs. Alexi Casilla pounded out 3 hits and 1 run scored.

Carlos Gomez continued to struggle at the plate, he went 0-5 today with a K. The Twins let him off a couple games before the All Star brek, hoping he’d break out of his funk. Tonight though he didn’t give them much confidence. I like the guy, don’t get me wrong but just witnessing his swings, one has to wonder if he needs to go back to AAA. Once Michael Cuddyer is healthy again, what will happen? Denard Span has been swinging a hot bat as of late so perhaps there will be some changes. Who knows. I just think that all pitchers have this guy figured out. Heres the sequence: low and away, low and away, low and away and hes gone. He needs to be more selective at the plate and not just swing at anything in, or out of the zone. But hey, we won, and keep pace with the White Sox. They need to start losing!

Thats it for me tonight, hope you enjoyed the recap and what you heard. And hey, feel free to send me some comments on the board. I’d love to know what i can improve on! Good night everyone, GO TWINS!

The Minnesota Twins used a balanced offense on Wednesday afternoon as six different players recorded rbi’s in the game and th Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 7-0.  With the victory, the Twins won another series as they took two out of three games from the Tigers.

Nick Blackburn was outstanding on the mound for the Twins as he pitched seven inning and only gave up three hits to pick up the win.  It was Blackburn’s best outing of the season and he improved his record to 7-4 on the year.

Jesse Crain pitched a scoreless ninth inning and then Boof Bonser pitched a scoreless ninth inning to finish up the game.

Joe Mauer went 2-3 with two rbi in the game to lead the Twins at the plate.  Mauer is now batting .327 with 36 rbi on the year.  Alexi Casilla, Jason Kubel, Delmon Young, Brian Buscher, and Nick Punto all chipped in with one rbi each as well.  It was a very good showing by the Twins offense as almost everyone had a rbi in the game.

The Twins will now be off on Thursday before starting a three game series with the Cleveland Indians on Friday.

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The Minnesota Twins continued to play very good baseball as they beat the San Diego Padres 4-3 on Thursday afteroon.  With the 4-3 victory, the Twins swept the Padres in the three game series and have now won nine games in a row and are only .5 games behind the league leading Chicago White Sox.

Scott Baker earned the victory and is now 4-2 on the seaseon.  Baker threw six innings and gave up six hits and three runs.  Baker did walk two batters, struck out three, and gave up one home run.  After the third inning, Baker really settled down and got into a grove so that was nice to see.

Jesse Crain, Dennys Reyes, Craig Breslow, Matt Guerrier, and Joe Nathan all pitched in relief and all did a great job as they did not allow the Padres to score in the late innings.  Nathan was able to secure his 21st save in the ninth inning.

At the plate for the Twins, Justin Morneau went 3-4 with three rbi.  Morneau hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and then had a two run single in the fifth inning.  Brian Buscher singled in Jason Kubel for what would be the game winning run in the sixth inning.

The Twins are playing red hot baseball right now and they will look to continue doing that as they welcome in the Milwaukee Brewers for a three game series starting Friday evening.

Twinshomeplate is currently looking for a Twins fan that would like to blog on the site and write some game recaps similar to this during the week.  If that sounds fun to you, please use the contact us link at the top of the site or leave a comment here and we will get back to you!  Go Twins!

Now that is an exciting victory for the Minnesota Twins as they hit to two solo home runs in the ninth inning and defeated the San Diego Padres 3-1 to open up their three game series.  Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher went back to back off of Padres closer Trevor Hoffman to get the win for the Twins.

The Twins first run of the game in the first inning when Michael Cuddyer singled to right field and Alexi Casilla scored.  It was then eight more innings before the Twins scored again with the two home runs. They were lucky to come away with the win as they really need to figure out a way to score in the middle innnings of the game.

Dennys Reyes ended up picking up the win and is now 2-0 on the season.  Joe Nathan recorded his 20th save of the season in the ninth inning.  Twins starting pitcher Kevin Slowey pitched six innings and only gave up four hits while striking out seven Padres.  Jesse Crain gave up one run in the seventh inning on a groundout.  Other then that the Twins pitching straff did a pretty good job.

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The Minnesota Twins completed a three game sweep of the Washington Nationals with a 9-3 victory on Thursday night.  The game was never really in doubt for the Twins as they took the lead in the third inning and never looked back.  Great series for the Twins!

Michael Cuddyer and Brian Buscher both had two rbi in the game to lead the Twins at the plate.  Alexi Casilla, Joe Mauer, and Jason Kubel all helped out with one rbi as well.  It was great to see the Twins have such good production as they scored nine runs without hitting one home run in the game.  That is how you manufacture runs!

On the mound, Glen Perkins tossed eight inning to pick up the victory and improve his record to 3-2.  Perkins gave up ten hits but only three runs scored off those ten hits.  Craig Breslow was called on to come in and finish off the Nationals in the ninth inning and that was exactly what he did without any problems.

The Twins will now take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three game series over the weekend.

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The Minnesota Twins smoked the Washington Nationals 11-2 on Wednesday evening.  It was the second straight win for the Twins over the Nationals and they will be going for the three game sweep on Thursday afternoon.

Justin Morneau went 2-4 with three rbi to lead the Twins at the plate.  Delmon Young and Brian Buscher both had two rbi in the game as well for the Twins.  Carlos Gomez, Jason Kubel, and Brendan Harris finished the game with one rbi each.

Kevin Slowey threw six innings to pick up the victory and is now 4-6 on the season.  Slowey gave up seven hits but only one run scored.  He never allowed the Nationals to get a big rally going and that is why he stayed in the game even though he have up seven hits.

Jesse Crain tossed the seventh inning without allowing a run and then Brian Bass threw a scoreless eighth inning.  In the ninth inning, Boof Bonser allowed one run to score.  That run came across the plate on an error by Harris at shortstop.

So now will the Twins get the sweep on Thursday?  I sure like their chances!

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The Minnesota Twins got their butts whooped by the Oakland Athletics as the two teams played Thursday afternoon.  On a day where starting pitcher Francisco Liriano gave up six runs and didn’t even make it out of the first inning, the Twins were pretty much doomed from the start.

Liriano’s six runs in the first inning but the Twins in a huge hole that they were not able to come out of.  Following Liriano, Brian Bass gave up four more runs (three earned) in 3.1 innings.  Jesse Crain also gave up an earned run in one inning of action.

Carlos Gomez did put the Twins on the board first with a solo home run in the first inning.  The Twins did not score their second run of the game until the fifth inning when Brian Buscher singled in Mike Redmond.

The Twins were hoping to get back to .500 but now they are two games under .500 with a 10-12 record.

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