Riddle me this: Did that team that lost on Saturday and Sunday in Oakland look like a club that is 7-3 over its last ten games (counting the two weekend losses)?
Hardly. It’s weird how quickly momentum can dissipate over the course of a major league season. Just as the piranhas are heating up (at the top and bottom of the order Castillo, Punto, Kubel, Bartlett, and Tyner were on base twelve times on Sunday), the guys is the middle of the order pull a vanishing act. You’re gonna see this stat everywhere, but it’s a dead horse worth kicking: Cuddyer, Morneau, and Hunter were a combined 1-12 on Sunday, and 4-43 in the Oakland series.
What, really, makes the little engine run? It apparently ain’t the piranhas; the Twins scored a grand total of five runs in three games. Getting on base is a fine thing, but it doesn’t mean anything if the big boppers aren’t doing their jobs and smacking the ball around the yard –and out of the park. With four runs the magic number anymore, Earl Weaver’s old standby, the three-run homer, is more important than ever. The Twins are going to go as far as their pitching and heart of the order can take them; small ball really isn’t going to win enough games in the AL Central.
The disappearing act in Oakland was especially painful given the rock ’em-sock ’em series between Detroit and Cleveland. With the crazy unbalanced schedule it’s more possible than ever for a team to shave away at a division deficit, and in scuffling on Saturday and Sunday the Twins blew a chance to truly climb back into the fray with the Tigers and Indians.
Finally, I find this modestly alarming: with just two months of the season under his belt, Johan Santana is one loss away from equaling the total losses from all but one of his ML seasons to date. He’s at 6-5 now, and lost just six in each of his Cy Young years. His career high for losses was seven, in 2005 (when he was 16-7).
How about Kevin Slowey, though? That was fun to watch, and he looks like a guy (knock wood) who’s going to be consistently fun to watch for a long time.
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