Games 4-6: the Royals pay a visit; a digression on coffee
The Royals series featured many things Twins fans can fully appreciate: giving us hope for the future while simultaneously driving us to despair. As always, the issue is consistency: Morneau homered twice, breaking out of his funk...but only one of those two times was the offense able to put runners on in front of him. Gomez struck out more than everyone else on the team combined...but started figuring out how to lay down a consistent (and near-unbeatable) bunt. Kubel hit the damn cover off the ball...only to have hits taken away by Joey Gathright. (B)Oof(!) learned how to pitch with two pitches when he couldn't throw his curve for strikes...and saw 3 earned over seven go for a loss. On that note, Santana threw seven innings of one-run ball Sunday...can you guess what happened? The Mets lost. Ah, memories...
The biggest hole this team has (and has had, for several years) is situational hitting. An example, this one from Monday's painful loss to Chicago: after Neshek gives up a broken-bat(!) grand slam to Joe Crede, the Twins trail by four runs. Denard Span walks to lead off the inning. Mauer taps one back to the pitcher, Span advances. Morneau and Young both single - Delmon's single scores Span. Note the complete lack of extra-base power up to this point.
Here's where things get uncomfortable...Kubel lines a ball into the left-center gap, for what looks to be a bases-clearing double. Jermaine Dye finds some gas in his tank and robs Kubel with a nice running catch. Two pitches into the next at-bat, Brendan Harris grounds out to second, ending the inning.
Occasionally doing this would be frustrating. Doing it, as a team, at least once a game, must be maddening. According to Gordon's radio call, Kubel expressed some of that frustration by tossing a few things around the dugout before he sat down. Honestly, I think that's healthy...this team is younger and healthier than last year's, and I am far more pleased with the lineup from top to bottom. While we can expect some regression to the mean (especially on GIDPs...ouch), this team must find ways of getting clutch hits from every player.
The promised note on coffee: there's a relatively new joint (and by new I mean about two-and-some years old) called Kopplin's over in St. Paul, off the corner of Hamline and Randolph. I got over there with Katie this morning and was suitably impressed with the high-class, dare I say European approach to coffee and espresso. This gent Kopplin sports the best gear and seems to have a team almost as knowledgeable and talented as he is. Another point in his favor? He works his own bar weekdays and pours some mean latte art. Oh, did I forget to mention they're a bit surly behind the counter? Ring me up if you'd like to go, I'd be more than willing to make many, many return trips. Or just venture out on your own, but make sure to leave enough time to sit down and enjoy the ambience.
The biggest hole this team has (and has had, for several years) is situational hitting. An example, this one from Monday's painful loss to Chicago: after Neshek gives up a broken-bat(!) grand slam to Joe Crede, the Twins trail by four runs. Denard Span walks to lead off the inning. Mauer taps one back to the pitcher, Span advances. Morneau and Young both single - Delmon's single scores Span. Note the complete lack of extra-base power up to this point.
Here's where things get uncomfortable...Kubel lines a ball into the left-center gap, for what looks to be a bases-clearing double. Jermaine Dye finds some gas in his tank and robs Kubel with a nice running catch. Two pitches into the next at-bat, Brendan Harris grounds out to second, ending the inning.
Occasionally doing this would be frustrating. Doing it, as a team, at least once a game, must be maddening. According to Gordon's radio call, Kubel expressed some of that frustration by tossing a few things around the dugout before he sat down. Honestly, I think that's healthy...this team is younger and healthier than last year's, and I am far more pleased with the lineup from top to bottom. While we can expect some regression to the mean (especially on GIDPs...ouch), this team must find ways of getting clutch hits from every player.
The promised note on coffee: there's a relatively new joint (and by new I mean about two-and-some years old) called Kopplin's over in St. Paul, off the corner of Hamline and Randolph. I got over there with Katie this morning and was suitably impressed with the high-class, dare I say European approach to coffee and espresso. This gent Kopplin sports the best gear and seems to have a team almost as knowledgeable and talented as he is. Another point in his favor? He works his own bar weekdays and pours some mean latte art. Oh, did I forget to mention they're a bit surly behind the counter? Ring me up if you'd like to go, I'd be more than willing to make many, many return trips. Or just venture out on your own, but make sure to leave enough time to sit down and enjoy the ambience.