Another glorious spring day in the Twin Cities. The garden will consume most of my day, but I will take a break this afternoon to see if the Twins can sweep KC with a win today.They have won all four series so far this season, something that Twins fans haven't ever seen before. To say I'm pleased with that and their 9-3 record is an understatement.
Across the board, pitching, hitting, defense, this team has come out charging this year.
Hitting: The Twins are tied with the Yankees in AL runs produced with 64(though the Yankees have played one less game). They are scoring with power like I haven't seen in a long time. Their 15 home runs so far are third in the AL. They are also third in batting average, slugging, and OBP, and lead the AL in total bases. The result is they are providing an average of 5.33 runs per game for their pitchers.
Pitching: Overall, the pitching staff has an AL second best 3.08 ERA. You average 5.33 runs per game and only give up 3.08...well there you go. Looking a bit deeper though, the starting rotation has come through for the most part. Outside of Scott Baker's 4.2 innings in the season opener, the Twins have gotten at least five inning in each start. Seven of twelve have been quality starts, defined as going at least six innings and giving up no more than three runs. Since that first game, Baker has delivered two. Both Pavano and Liriano have delivered quality starts in each of their two appearances so far.
On the down side, Blackburn is 1-2 now in that department so far after his sloppy game yesterday and Slowey is 0-2. To be fair to Slowey though, he came close in his last start, going five innings and giving up three runs. His problem has been wasting pitches and getting up to the 90 pitch range to get through five innings. Blackburn's nemesis has been the long ball. He has given up a team high six home runs. I think the issue for both pitchers is mental, though the word this morning is that Blackburn also has a sore elbow and may mis his next start. They need to bear down and focus better. I know they have the talent.
The bullpen has been doing better than expected after the loss of Joe Nathan. They lead the league in holds with ten and are tied for saves with six. Jon Rauch has been a little shaky as the new closer, but he has yet to blow a save opportunity. The bullpen has given up only eight runs in 12 games. You take out Mijares'(now on the DL) poor appearance in the opener where he gave up two runs and the otherwise solid Jesse Crain's disaster against Boston(3 runs) and you have 3 runs over ten games. I'll take that.
Fielding: All I need to say is one. As in only one error in 12 games. That's the best in all of MLB and the next closest teams are the Yankees and Indians with four each. The Twins have yet to give up an unearned run this year. The only other team that can say that is the Mets as far as I can tell. Outstanding fielding behind the pitching goes a long way to explaining why a staff with no real stars can be pretty solid.
This is Twins baseball. Power hitting on top of manufacturing runs. Pitchers throwing strikes and letting the defense do its thing. And that defense coming through. It's a long season and wear and tear will start to come into play soon, but I haven't had this much fun at the start of a season in...maybe ever.
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