I got everything set up. The layout is different, but it’s still on WordPress so everything else should be the same. I will not make another post on this site. The new link is: twinsnottwinkies.wordpress.com. You can just click on that and it will take you there. PLEASE ADD THE NEW LINK TO YOUR FAVORITES AND DELETE THIS ONE. I should’ve done this from the beginning, but didn’t think I’d get 50+ hits a day. Thanks guys!

Johan Santana was ace-like, throwing 7 strong innings, giving up just 4 hits with 3 runs. He walked 2 and struck out 10. Justin Morneau, though, was the hero of the day. He delivered a two-run homerun, his 30th of the year, in the top of the 8th to put the Twins ahead and put Santana in line for the win.

The top of the order had been doing it all, and if you take away Morneau’s hit, there was only one hit below the 1-2-3 hitters.

Luis Castillo has made an impressive run lately, as he’s raised his batting average 11 points in the past 10 games. He went 4-for-4 last night with a run, an RBI, a walk, and 3 stolen bases.

Joe Mauer went 2-for-3 with a key walk that led into a run thanks to Justin. His average is now up to .369.

In the top of the 8th, before Justin’s bomb, Michael Cuddyer struck out right before that. Although, I don’t want to call it a strikeout. I want to call it a…give up-out, because Cuddyer watched the 100 MPH fastball go down the heart of the plate, and walked off to the dugout not a split second after the ball was in the glove. He knew it was a strike, so I’m curious as to why he didn’t swing. Maybe it was one of those freeze moments where you don’t know what to do? I hope so, because that was bad.

As most of you know, Matt Garza makes his major-league debut on Friday. If anyone is going to the game, it would be sweet if you could save your ticket stub and send it my way.

I’m in the process of switching URLs. I will stay at WordPress.com, but it won’t be frymaster.wordpress.com any more. The new name will be about the Twins, not me. I will post more when the move is complete.

I’d also like to say that I half-called Morneau’s homer last night. He came up to bat, and out loud I said “C’mon Morneau.” In my head I was thinking homerun. I followed that up with a call for Josh Rabe to also hit a dinger, but that telepathic connection failed.

I think the win could be contributed to Ron Gardenhire and his pep talk going into the top of the 8th. He knew Johan had pitched well, so he told the boys they better score some runs so he could get the win.

Boof Bonser was also called up today, and he’ll start in place of Francisco Liriano.

Brad Radke had a better-than-quality start night last night, going 7 innings while giving up 9 hits and just 2 runs. Joe Mauer highlights the Twins’ offense, going 3-for-5 with a double and 2 RBIs. He raised his league-leading average to .367.

Luis Castillo and Nick Punto each had good nights as well, going a combined 5-for-10 with 3 runs and an RBI (Punto).

Jason Tyner and Jason Bartlett each struggled though, with neither of them recording a hit, although they both walked once. Bartlett scored from that.

Joe Nathan got his 24th save of the year last night. Before he came in, Dick and Bert were saying that Joe was the July DHL Delivery Man of the Month. Dick said “It’s a great honor for Joe, and I’m sure it would be even greater if he knew what the award was.” Leave it to our announcers to come up with the best stuff in baseball.

Francisco Liriano’s diagnosis as of right now, with no MRI (tomorrow), is inflammation of the muscles near his elbow. He admits he was pitching in pain on Monday night, and says he should have told the coaches.

Matt Garza was called up today. I hope this kid can play. His minor league stats this year (in all three levels): 23 games started, 14-4, 1.99 ERA, 135 2/3 IP, 154 K, 32 BB. Certainly great. The worry with him now is that he’s already pitched a little more than 135 innings this year. If he starts 10 games the rest of the regular season, he’d be up around 180-190 in innings pitched. Probably not much left in his gas tank if we make the playoffs. By that time though, Liriano should be back to give the Twins a rotation of Liriano-Radke-Johan Santana.

Liriano will go on the DL and Scott Baker or Boof Bonser will be called up.

Luis Rodriguez came in to pinch-hit last night. Not surprisingly, he didn’t get on base. The last time he had more than one at bat in a game was August 2nd, when he played second to give Luis Castillo a break. The last time before that was July 17th. Gardenhire cannot expect this guy to give good pinch-hit at bats if he doesn’t play more than he has. But, he’s up here to give Castillo a break, so I guess we need him on the bench.

I want to point out that I’ve added a link to another Twins blog, Twins Territory. He added my page on his links too, so please check him out.

Also, about the Twins stadium. I’m only going to say one thing, and it’s a question to all my readers: Would you be willing to go to a game in April, early May, or September when the game does not decide anything important, when there is no roof? I wouldn’t.

One last thing, with the win tonight the Twins are now in second place in the Wild Card standings. They are a half game behind the White Sox who pulled off an extra-innings win last night.

Francisco Liriano did not pitch his best, getting pulled after just 4 innings of work. He gave up 10 hits, 4 runs (all earned). FSN North reporter Ron “Coomdog” Coomer says he thinks there is something wrong with Liriano still. EDIT: Francisco Liriano, Minnesota’s rookie All-Star, is out indefinitely with what appears to be a left elbow injury. This comes from the Star Tribune.

Pat Neshek came in in the 5th to pitch 2 solid innings, giving up 0 hits and striking out 3. I think he should’ve went in for the 7th.

As it turns out, that probably would’ve been best; Jesse Crain came in to pitch it and had a really tough outing. He walked 4 (one intentional; he had 10 non-intentional walks coming into the game), gave up just 2 hits, but allowed 4 earned runs. He did not strike anybody out.

Earlier in the year I said that I thought Willie Eyre would be a fine reliever; boy was I wrong. His ERA is still above 7, he gives up more than 1 hit an inning, and has 15 walks but just 17 strikeouts this season.

To things not relating to yesterday’s game:

I will share my views on the Twins’ stadium plan in tomorrow’s post.
In the month of July, according to stats, the Twins’ lineup looked like this (6th and 7th spot determined by most at bats in the month):

Luis Castillo – 102 AB, 16 R, 30 H, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .294 AVG

Nick Punto – 99 AB, 19 R, 37 H, 0 HR, 15 RBI, .377 AVG

Joe Mauer – 82 AB, 12 R, 24 H, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .293 AVG

Michael Cuddyer – 105 AB, 18 R, 28 H, 3 HR, 21 RBI, .267 AVG

Justin Morneau – 100 AB, 22 R, 41 H, 8 HR, 23 RBI, .410 AVG

Rondell White – 51 AB, 9 R, 19 H, 3 HR, 10 RBI, .373 AVG

Jason Kubel – 52 AB, 3 R, 12 H, 2 HR, 6 RBI, .231 AVG

Jason Tyner – 67 AB, 12 R, 22 H, 0 HR, 7 RBI, .328 AVG

Jason Bartlett – 83 AB, 15 R, 27 H, 1 HR, 10 RBI, .325 AVG

Also, I want to try something new and different. (Hopefully) from here until the end of the season, I will post a trivia question relating to the Twins each Tuesday post (talking about Monday’s game). Readers have one guess at it, and can guess by commenting here and stating what your guess is. Guessing ends on Friday night at 11:59 PM central time. If someone gets it right, they get to make a guest post about Sunday’s afternoon game (all the games are in the afternoon). To do this, just write about the game like I do and then you can email me what you have and I’ll post it here for everyone to read. I will not make a post, I won’t write in anything that day (unless nobody gets the question right). All questions will be about the Twins in some way, and some may be trick questions. And feel free to use Google, books, whatever. One last thing, if more than one person gets it right, the winner will be whoever posted the answer first. So, the first ever Minnesota Twins Talk trivia question is: In Sunday’s 11-5 win over the Royals, the Twins had 6 players record 3 or more hits; when was the last time this was done by a Twins team? Good luck!

The Twins had 56 hits in the series, along with 41 runs. 5 HRs, 12 doubles, and 23 two-out RBIs also helped them get the sweep of a central division rival.

Jason Bartlett and Michael Cuddyer both had 14 total bases during the sweep.

Justin Morneau led the team with 10 RBIs.

Bartlett also led the team with 11 hits, and Luis Castillo had 10. Castillo’s batting average went up 9 points during the series.

Joe Mauer, not playing today, led the team with 8 walks (two intentional).

Mike Smith did not pitch great by any means. I personally don’t think he even pitched good. But, he pitched good enough to keep the Twins in the game. He pitched 3 innings, faced twice as many batters as he needed to, and walked 3 while striking out 1. He gave up 4 runs, two of them coming from a homerun.

Tomorrow is Francisco Liriano’s chance to show that his elbow is in no pain.

Also, I just thought I’d share my “jinxes” with you guys for this sweep:

After the first game, and the Twins scored 8, I was thinking about the Rangers game and how they scored a bunch the first game but didn’t score much the rest of the series. I chose not to post about it, and they scored 8+ runs in every game of the series

I decided to post about how many times the Twins have been walked in yesterday’s post. In that afternoon game, the Royals walked just two men

The Royals’ pitching staff has walked 34 batters in 3 games against the Twins. Only 3 are intentional. I’m checking into whether or not there is a record for most walks given up in a 4 game series.

Royals pitchers tonight combined for: 9 IP, 12 hits, 14 runs (13 earned),  14 walks, and just 3 strikeouts.

Twins pitchers tonight combined for: 9 IP, 11 hits, 3 runs (all earned), 1 walk, 5 strikeouts.

I can’t really praise the Twins hitters too much if the Royals pitchers suck that much. Although, my boy Justin Morneau hit his 29th homerun of the year. A 3-run shot to give him 97 RBIs this season.

Nick Punto went 0-for-1, but had 3 RBI. You won’t see that very often.

9 of the Twins’ runs came with 2 outs. They continue to smash it with the inning on the line, and that’s pretty sweet. I would assume that teams get…maybe a bit overconfident with 2 outs, and they slip a little and they can’t do that against the Twins.

Tomorrow’s probable starter is Mike Smith, with a record of 0-0 and an ERA of -.–. Remember, the game is at 1:10 in the afternoon, so be sure to watch it.

It was 5-3, in favor of the Royals, heading into the top of the 9th. Their closer, Ambiorix Burgos, was brought in. His stats coming into the game: 51.2 IP, 31 ER, 10 HR, 27 BB, and 53 K. His stats after he was done pitching: 52.2 IP, 33 ER, 12 HR, 28 BB, and 56 K.

Burgos gave up back-to-back homeruns to Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer to tie it up in the 9th. If Jesse Crain hadn’t given up a run in the bottom of the 8th, and things went well with Joe Nathan, that would’ve been the game. But it wasn’t, and Juan Rincon combined with Dennys Reyes to pitch the 9th. Reyes was credited with the win.

The top of the 10th went like this (a new pitcher): Jason Bartlett singles. Luis Castillo bunts him over to 2nd, 1 out. Nick Punto strikes out, 2 outs. Joe Mauer intentionally walked to fill first base. Michael Cuddyer walks. With Justin Morneau at the plate, the pitcher throws a wild pitch and Bartlett scores without contest. After that, he intentionally walks Morneau. Torii Hunter then hit a single to left, scoring both Mauer and Cuddyer. Morneau tried to advance to third, but was thrown out to end the inning.

Joe Nathan struck out a guy in the bottom of the 10th, along with a ground out and a line out to get the save.

Johan Santana pitched 6 innings, walking 3 while striking out 8, and giving up the 4 ER. He had a great game going into the 4th, having just 1 walk and 6 strikeouts.

Matt Garza pitched 7 innings for the Red Wings tonight, striking out 11 batters. It’s a possibility he will be called up tomorrow, to start Sunday’s afternoon game. If he doesn’t, Mike Smith will start.

An interesting note about Boof Bonser’s day, the night/early morning before his last start (courtesty of Charley Walters and the Pioneer Press): “arrived in Minneapolis at 1:45 a.m. from Raleigh-Durham, N.C., where his Class AAA Rochester team played Tuesday night. He didn’t get to bed until 2:30 a.m. for that day’s noon game.” What kind of routine is that for a starting pitcher? That’s absurd.
Apparently, someone came to my blog via Google’s 82nd page on an Angelina Jolie search. Although, it appears the search was performed in German, so the person probably didn’t enjoy MN Twins Talk to the fullest.

Two errors, two wild pitches, and 8 walks from the Royals’ pitchers allowed the Twins to get an 8-2 victory tonight. Kind of how the first game against the Rangers went; Twins score a lot, opposing team doesn’t score much. We all know how that series ended.

Brad Radke apparently wasn’t throwing from the right angle in his last start, and he must’ve fixed that. 8 very good innings, allowing 4 hits with 2 ER, a walk and 6 strikeouts. He didn’t give up a homerun, either. And no runs in the 1st or 2nd inning. Radke’s first inning stats this year: 23 innings pitched, 40 hits, 17 runs (16 earned), 5 homeruns, 5 walks and 16 strikeouts.

Justin Morneau went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs, bringing his season total up to 91. His average is now at .320. I think he’ll hit .330 on the season.

Joe Mauer’s batting average is now at .366, after going 1-for-2 last night with 3 walks (none intentional).

Josh Rabe showed power that he didn’t have in the minors, hitting his 3rd homerun of the season in just 29 at bats.

Interesting note: Jason Bartlett, although he didn’t get hit last night, has been hit by a pitch 7 times this year; he’s tied with Craig Biggio, who is the king of getting hit (280 times in his career).

The Twins continue to put runs on the board with 2 outs. They got half of their runs last night with the inning on the line. Since the All-Star break, Morneau, Mauer, and Michael Cuddyer have combined to go 29-for-78 (.354) with 79 RBIs while there are 2 outs.

Today’s game is Johan Santana (12-5, 3.11) against former Twin Mark Redman (7-6, 5.40).

It isn’t known who will start Sunday’s game. Pitching coach Rick Anderson thinks that Francisco Liriano will start Monday, not Sunday. That leaves it open for….Mike Smith. That’s the general consensus, anyways.

Sorry for the delay, the internet was bad again today. It doesn’t make me happy to report about games where the Twins flat out suck, so I’ll make today’s post short and simple.

Both Scott Baker and Boof Bonser proved they are not fully ready for the big leagues, giving up a combined 15 runs (4 unearned) in 7.1 innings pitched. I believe that Scott will be a great starter, when he’s ready. I don’t really know about Boof.

Yesterday’s game was an afternoon game, not televised, but I didn’t know anything about it until about 6 PM. Bonser pitched poorly, going 4 innings and giving up 6 hits, while walking 2 and striking out 5. He also gave up a homerun to slugger Mark Teixeira.

Some sad news and some probably expected news: Terry Tiffee was sent down to Rochester, along with Scott and Boof.

Mike Smith, a 28-year-old minor league veteran, was called up by the Twins today. He doesn’t have good stats, at all. They aren’t even decent, they’re subpar. He was brought up to provide insurance for Brad Radke, in case his shoulder goes kaput. For God’s sake, get that guy a cortisone shot. He doesn’t have much of a career left, anyways.

A lot of people feel that stud young gun Matt Garza should be brought up to finish the season with the Twins. Well, I can see reasons for both bringing up and keeping him where he’s at. Here are those reasons.

In favor of bringing him up:

• He probably can’t pitch worse than a mix of Baker, Bonser, or Mike Smith can.
• It would be nice to get him some experience as to what it’s like, before next season when most likely he will be called up for a good chunk of the year.

In favor of keeping him in the minors:

• Twins’ GM Terry Ryan has been saying, for about the past week, that Garza needs to develop his changeup more. He uses too many fastballs. What better place to develop a changeup than AAA, where the coach there taught Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano how to use theirs.
• If he doesn’t  pitch well in the bigs, he could be sent down to AAA again. I’m not in favor of playing merry-go-round with players between the Twins and the Red Wings.

Scott Baker pitched decent until he the start of the 4th, where, when it was all said and done, he gave up a grand slam and a solo homerun, among other things, to give the Rangers an 8-0 lead. My gut feeling is that he’ll be sent down to AAA, again. It’s not right to send players around so often, like the Twins have done with both Baker and Boof Bonser. They did it earlier this year with Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett, and now look at ‘em.

Some bad news: Francisco Liriano has some elbow pain, and WILL NOT pitch Wednesday’s game. Boof is getting called up to start. Liriano wanted to pitch, but they don’t want to risk anything. A good move by the Twins.

I don’t know where they got the idea that trying to steal second two pitches after your teammate got thrown out trying to steal second is a good move. Luis Castillo tried to steal second, was unsuccessful, then Nick Punto got on base and tried to steal right after Luis, and was thrown out for the final out of the inning.

The Twins only got 5 hits tonight, coming from Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter, Jason Kubel, and Jason Bartlett, with Mauer’s being a triple.

Pat Neshek came in and pitched 2.2 solid innings. 0 hits, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts. Jesse Crain and Dennys Reyes both pitched good as well, going a combined 2 innings with 0 hits and walks, and 3 strikeouts (all by Reyes).  Juan Rincon gave up a homerun in 1 inning of work.