“Everything was working for me,” stated Liriano. Clearly, he also feels that things are certainly going the right way, and after spending a twenty to thirty minutes in the dug-out, waiting for his chance to stun the Rangers into submission. Clearly, something was working; “I felt better today. Way better.”

A thrilling game to watch whether you’re a hardcore baseball and Twins fan or someone who had the game on while playing online poker, it was certainly one that needed to be highlighted given how Liriano had recently not been playing as well as he could do.

The Rangers were certainly reeling from his performance, but this could have also been due to the injury of their starter, Matt Harrison, and to some degree this was certainly a boost to the Twins’ chances, though they appeared not to need the extra luck given the prowess of Liriano from the moment he stepped up onto the mound.

It’ll be interesting to see how he performs when he’s given his next opportunity to step up, especially as it’ll be the moment in which Twins fans can see if it was a one off, or if Liriano really is back to his old self. The Twins perform admirably regardless, but having someone like him firing balls across the field the way he does certainly can’t help. Matching an earlier season high when he struck out nine in eight innings, he’s definitely going to put the fear of Liriano in anyone he faces in the near future if he can keep this up.

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 kick off Spring Training tonight at 6:00 CDT and to the satisfaction of many, including myself, it will also be televised on the MLB network.  Glen Perkins will be on the mound and here’s a look at the good guys’ lineup:

1. Alexi Casilla, 2B  2. Nick Punto, SS  3. Justin Morneau, 1B  4. Michael Cuddyer, RF  5. Jason Kubel, DH  6. Delmon Young, LF  7. Brian Buscher, 3B  8. Mike Redmond, C  9. Jason Pridie, CF

They’ll have the pleasure of facing knuckleballer Tim Wakefield in their first game.  Not the best way to get your timing down as a hitter.

Aside from Perkins, we should see Joe Nathan, Jesse Crain, Ben Julienal, and Bobby Keppel pitch as well.

Third baseman Joe Crede will make his Spring Training debut on Friday as he eases in.  The much hyped acquisition has said he likes to take as many swings as possible during the spring, so hopefully once he gets started we’ll get to see exactly what we’ve got. 

Stay tuned for more after the matchup.

Go Twins!

Gardenhire has a 622-512 record as Twins manager and almost managed the team back into the playoffs in 08 despite falling one game short.

Great idea by the management to give Gardenhire the extension, now they just need to make a trade or two so we have some more Twins talk here on the blog!

Twins Blog

You can’t blame Blackburn for this loss as he pitched very well. He lasted 6 1/3 innings and only gave up four hits and the one run which was the solo shot off the bat of Thome. The offense should have been able to score atleast one or two runs off of Danks but they were only able to get two hits as they struggled during the blackout in Chicago.

The one shot that the Twins had to score came in the fifth inning. Michael Cuddyer attempted to tag from third base on a short fly ball to center field but he was tagged out by A.J. Pierzynski to end the inning. Cuddyer tried to knock the ball loose as he rolled through Pierzynski but he held onto the ball to record the out.

It just wasn’t meant to be for the Twins in 2008 I guess. Now we will have a long off season that is for sure.

Twins Blog

Scott Baker gave up four runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings as he started the game for the Twins. Baker struck out five batters but also gave up two home runs. Matt Guerrier gave up a couple more runs out of the bullpen as he ended up taking the loss for the team.

Justin Morneau led the Twins at the plate with two rbi’s but it wasn’t enough for the victory. Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez both had one rbi each at the plate. Gomez hit his seventh home run of the season in the game.

So now the Twins remain 2.5 games behind the White Sox. Twins Blog

Kevin Slowey fell to 12-10 on the year as he took the loss on Monday night. Slowey threw six innings but gave up seven hits and all three runs that the Indians scored. Slowey gave up two home runs and that counted for all three of the Indians runs. Two bad pitches and that was the game pretty much.

The one run that Twins did get came in the in the ninth inning when Joe Mauer hit a solo home run. It was just the ninth home run for Mauer on the season. The struck out seven times and left 11 runners on base in the game. Now that is a big letdown if there ever was one in my opinion.

Twins Blog

David DeJesus knocked in the winning run in the top of the tenth inning off of Twins relief pitcher Dennys Reyes. Reyes was not charged with the run however as Matt Guerrier was. Guerrier took the loss and is now 6-8 on the season.

Twins starting pitcher Francisco Liriano pitched pretty damn good as he went eight innings and only allowed six hits and two runs. He struck out six Royals and did not walk a batter. A very good quality start for Liriano it was just too bad that the offense couldn’t have scored more runs.

Justin Morneau and Carlos Gomez both had rbi’s for the Twins. Morneau had a rbi double in the first inning while Gomez had a rbi single in the second inning. The Twins were held scoreless the last eight innings of the game as the offense struck out nine times and left 18 runners on base.

The Twins will now hope for a White Sox loss on Thursday night to the Toronto Blue Jays. Currently the Twins are 1.5 games behind the sox in the division.

Twins Blog

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.

Twins Blog

Joe Nathan allowed a run in the ninth inning when the bases were loaded and he got a double play off the bat of Jeff Clement. Adrian Beltre scored on the double play and the game then went to extra innings. In the 11th inning, Beltre then ended the game in walk off fashion as he hit a two run home run off of Jesse Crain.

Crain took the loss whle starting pitcher Francisco Liriano got a no decision. Liriano tossed six innings and gave up six hits but only run run. Too bad the bullpen coudln’t hold the lead so he would have been able to get a win.

The only offense the Twins could muster up in the game were rbi singles from Alexi Casilla and Delmon Young. Hopefuly the Twins will bounce back and play better on Tuesday and come away with a victory.

Twins Baseball Blog