twins/mlb
La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts. Mark Rosen borrows him occasionally for WCCO-TV.
Three Twins postgame thoughts from LEN3: De Vries decision. Bullpen blues. Dozier watch
Posted by: La Velle E. Neal III Updated: July 24, 2012 - 11:56 PM
Three thoughts after another bad night for Twins baseball.
1. The De Vries decision. Cole De Vries is finding a way to compete. I was very curious to see how he would do facing the White Sox for the second time. But he pitched fairly well. He shouldn't have given up a run in the first inning (more on that later) making Paul Konerko's home run his only real mistake. I was wondering if De Vries was going to start the seventh after throwing 95 pitches. When he admitted that he was a little tired in the sixth, I could see why Gardy went with the lefty - but I think Gardy wanted to do that anyway. People exploded on twitter (that's what twitter is there for) but I didn't think it was that bad of a decision. He doesn't know De Vries, and De Vries was a little tired. And a lefty should get the job done there.
2. Bullpen blues: If this was early May, Glen Perkins would have started the seventh, Jared Burton would have pitched the eighth and Matt Capps would have pitched the ninth - and the game probably would have been locked up. But injuries and role-changing has led to different, more inexperienced pitchers trying to protect leads. Tyler Robertson set up that seventh inning with the four-pitch walk to Kevin Youkilis. Then he lost the battle to Dunn. So far, Robertson is 1-for-3 in key battles with lefty sluggers. He's lost to Dunn and Prince Fielder and won against Jim Thome. Then Casey Fein could not retire a single batter. Ugh.
2a. A stat related to Thought No. 2: Twins starters have gone at least six innings in six of the last seven games. The Twins have gone 2-5 in those games.
3. Dozier watch: Last night I pointed out how well he played, Tonight, the White Sox were gifted a run because Dozier turned a routine play into a throwing error. The Twins want more consistency and aren't happy that Dozier is struggling right now.
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