Thursday, August 17, 2006

Missed Opportunity

After two fantastic nights, the Twins let a hard loss in on Wednesday afternoon. Going into the game, I figured the Twins would end up 2 games back of the Sox. I figured this because I couldn’t believe that the White Sox could lose 3 straight to the Royals, and with Garza on the mound, I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

However, the problem wasn’t Garza, as he pitched fair, going 5 innings and giving up on 3 runs. The bullpen even did well, keeping the Twins in the game and not giving up any more runs. However, the offense couldn’t capitalize, and we couldn’t stage a good enough rally. We almost had another prolific 8th, but starting the inning with two outs didn’t help.

I think two things are evident after Garza’s second start. First, he’s no Liriano. Second, he needs more work. The Twins have shown that they know how to manage good young pitching talent in the success that has occurred with Santana and Liriano (sans injury). I think the same approach should have been used with Garza. But I understand that this season didn’t go quite as planned, and who could have predicted Baker and Bonser blowing up right after giving up Lohse.

Next season I hope they keep Garza in AAA for a while. And I also hope that if Liriano does come back this season, that he takes Garza’s spot in the rotation and leave Garza to either start in AAA or throw out of the bullpen after September callups.

All in all, I think we have a great chance this weekend against Chicago. This is a big opportunity for them to show how good they are. A win from Bonser will help immensely as Radke and Santana will follow. Every win counts right now.

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