September 23, 2002
Slumping into October
The Twins traveled to Chicago for a 3 game series over the weekend.
Game 1: Chicago 10, Minnesota 2
Game 2: Chicago 14, Minnesota 4
Game 3: Chicago 8, Minnesota 2
Ouch.
In addition to getting their butts kicked in Chicago, the Twins have also apparently set their post-season pitching rotation.
For those of you who missed it, I discussed what I thought the Twins should do with their post-season pitching in an earlier entry.
Well, apparently Ron Gardenhire is not a reader of Aaron's Baseball Blog!
The Twins are set to throw Brad Radke in game 1, Joe Mays in game 2 and Rick Reed in game 3.
Back on September 10th, I suggested they start Eric Milton in game 1, Rick Reed in game 2, Johan Santana in game 3 and Brad Radke in game 4.
However, since then, Eric Milton has been pretty bad and it looks like he is not recovered from his knee injury and the subsequent time off.
So, like Gardenhire, I would not be confident with Milton starting game 1.
I would bump everyone up a notch, putting Reed in game 1, Santana in game 2 and Radke in game 3.
Then, depending on the travel days and the pitch counts, etc., I would possibly start Milton in game 4.
But it looks like I'm not in charge.
So lets take a look at what will happen.
As I discussed in the earlier post on the Twins in the post-season, their first round opponent, the Oakland A's, hit right handed pitching a whole lot better than they hit left handed pitching.
Actually, since I wrote that a couple of weeks ago, the difference has become even more pronounced.
The A's currently:
Versus Righties - .265/.344/.443
Versus Lefties - .247/.320/.401
That is why I initially thought they should start Milton in game 1 and Santana in game 3.
And that is why I am less than optimistic about the Twins' post-season hopes now that I know the A's will be taking their swings against righties, at least in the first 3 games.
So, what exactly do we have as far as the post-season preview as it stands right now?
The Twins are struggling big time.
The A's are continuing their winning ways, having won 5 in a row.
The Twins have decided to start 3 straight righties against the A's, even though Oakland hits righties much better than they hit lefties.
And the A's, last time I checked, still have Zito, Hudson and Mulder, two of whom are lefties.
And we all know how bad the Twins are against southpaws this year.
It aint looking good Twins fans.
