Home MLB'Weekly' Hit Ground Ball ‘Weekly’ Hit Ground Ball 2008 – Week Thirteen

‘Weekly’ Hit Ground Ball 2008 – Week Thirteen

by Matt Smith

All good things must come to an end

The Twins’ ten-game winning streak came to an end last night as Manny Parra and the Brewers defeated them 5-1.  While logic tells you that the run was always going to be halted at some stage, the confidence that developed in the Minnesota clubhouse must have made them think otherwise. 

Winning is contagious.  It’s an old sporting cliché, but like most sporting clichés it contains a large element of truth.  All sportsmen need to be confident to play at their best and in baseball, more than most sports, the strong performances of one or two players can lift the games of everyone else around them.   

One moment a batting lineup can be slumping, the next it can be firing on all cylinders thanks to a couple of batters getting hot at the plate.  Those extra runs give the pitching staff some breathing space, knowing that they don’t need to hold the opposition to two runs or less to have a chance at winning the game.  And it works the other way too.  Once the starting pitchers find their groove, the batting lineup doesn’t have to press under the pressure of needing to bat in eight or nine runs.

When you look at the stats from the Twins’ winning streak, the offensive numbers look good without making you fall off your chair in shock.  The batting lineup hit .309/.368/.476 with ten homers during those ten games: impressive, yet not suggesting that they tore the cover off the ball.  Overall they scored 63 runs and you would fancy your chances of winning a game if you averaged scoring six in each.

The pitching staff combined had a 2.10 ERA over the ten-game span and limited their opponents to a .240/.275/.343 batting line.  Add in the unearned runs and teams only managed 2.5 runs per game against them.  Again, that’s a very promising position to start from if you want to reel off a number of victories in a row.

These are just averages though; the Twins didn’t coast along winning 6-2 each time out.  So how did they do it?

1) They swept the Nationals. 2-1, 11-2, 9-3.

Heading into the series, the Nationals were 29-42 , dead last in the NL East but having swept the Mariners in a three-game series.  Seven strong innings from Livan Hernandez allowed them to edge a tight opening game 2-1 before the bats broke out in the second in a 11-2 victory, securing the series.  The brooms were waving in the Metrodome as the Twins completed the sweep with a 9-3 win, Glen Perkins getting his third win of the season.

2) They swept the D-Backs. 7-2, 6-1, 5-3 (overall 18-6).

If the Nationals were seen as something of a soft touch, a sterner test was anticipated from the NL West leading Arizona Diamondbacks.  The Snakes had cooled off since their blistering start to the season, but their 39-34 record was still good enough to give them a 4.5 game cushion over the second placed Dodgers and they had just won two on the spin against the A’s.

The Twins struck seven runs off Randy Johnson in the first game of the series, while a six-run seventh inning was all the offense needed to win the second game.  After five wins on the spin, even Brandon Webb couldn’t halt the Twins’ charge.  They landed Webb with only his fourth loss of the year in the finale.

3) They swept the Padres.  3-1, 9-3, 4-3 (overall 16-7 overall).

The Padres were bottom of the West with a 32-45 record, eight games behind the D-Backs and had lost their previous two to the Tigers.

Kevin Slowey and Jake Peavy started in the opener.  With the score tied at 1-1, the Padres brought in Trevor Hoffman only to see Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher hit back-to-back jacks off the legendary closer.  Joe Nathan went three up, three down in the ninth to earn save number 20.  In game two, the Twins faced another future Hall of Famer in Greg Maddux.  Glen Perkins gave up three runs in the first two frames, but the Twins came storming back, drawing level in the top of the third before strolling away with a 9-3 victory.  The Twins once again gave their opponents a 3-0 headstart in the third game.  Justin Morneau homered as they battled back for a 4-3 victory.

4) They beat the Brewers 7-6 on Friday to make it ten.

Maybe those six runs conceded were the sign that this run was about to come to an end?  A batting lineup can’t keep producing all the time and if the pitching staff slips, your luck is going to run out. 

The equation to win a game of baseball is simple: score more runs than the opposition.  Whether the offense or the defense is more important than the other is a matter for eternal debate.  You can’t win without scoring any runs, but you have a much better chance of winning on a consistent basis if you don’t have to score many each time out.  Maybe we should put the Twins’ winning streak down to the pitching staff more than the batters? 

Or maybe we should put it down to them facing inferior National League teams? 

Week 13 wrap-up

It’s as you were in the AL East, as the Red Sox (50-33) lead the Rays by 0.5 games, with the Yankees a further 4.5 games back.  The Twins streak has been counterbalanced recently by the White Sox (45-35) winning three in a row, so Minnesota still trail by 1.5 games in the Central,  The A’s have reduced the gap in the West by one over the week, as they now sit 3.5 behind the Angels (48-33).

The senior circuit as a whole has taken a pasting in interleague play.  So far this season, the AL has won 141 of the 240 games played, but this hasn’t had a big effect on the NL standings.  The Phillies (42-34) lead the Marlins by one game in the East, while the Cubs (49-32) remain 3.5 ahead of the Cardinals in the Central.  The one team on the move are the Dodgers, who have closed to within 2.5 games of the D-Backs (41-40) in the West, which surprisingly has been the least impressive division in the majors so far this season.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.