Quality Pitching

Joe Mauer hit an inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the 8th inning, knocking in three runs and sealing the victory and the series for the Minnesota Twins. Angles centerfielder Gary Matthews slammed into the fence trying to make a play on the Mauer drive but missed and Mauer ended up back at home where he started and the three runs that came in gave Joe Nathan enough of a cushion as he finished the Angels off in the 9th.

The game was 0-0 until the bottom of the 6th when Jason Bartlett took Jered Weaver deep to make it 1-0. Torii Hunter did the same one inning later, making it 2-0. It was only one inning later when Mauer had his monumental achievement and that was all the run support that the Twins needed on Saturday.

The 5-2 final is not very indicative of what you saw if you only watched the first 6 innings of this ball game. Both pitchers, Weaver, and his counterpart Boof Bonser pitched extraordinarily well and dominated the game for the first 6 innings allowing only a handful of hits given up all tolled.

Weaver gave up the first 2 runs to make it a 2-0 shutout for Bonser, who had never pitched the 8th inning in the Major League’s before this game. Bonser had a career game but lost his shutout when Maicer Izturis singled and Chone Figgins hit a triple to send him home. Pat Neshek than came in and gave up a game-tying RBI single to Orlando Cabrera to give Boof Bonser yet another No Decision.

Jered Weaver was the main reason for me to check out this game and he didn’t disappoint. Aside from two solo homeruns to Bartlett and Hunter, he was fantastic and allowed only 5 hits through his seven innings. He has been lighting it up lately and yesterday was no different.

Since June 4th, a span of seven starts, Weaver has been pitching to his potential and showing signs of the dominant arm he was last year. He has thrown 41.1 innings and allowed only 10 runs for a blistering ERA of 2.18. With John Lackey struggling a little bit with inconsistency lately and Ervin Santana being sent down to fine tune his mechanics, Weaver has been a god-send for the Angels and Mike Scioscia.

The Angels, with their loss Saturday, have now lost 5 of 6 to teams like Tampa Bay and Texas and now 2 in a row to Minnesota. They could use a win and a solid outing from the freshly recalled Joe Saunders on Sunday. Saunders pitched well in his previous stints with the club and will be looking to assure himself a spot on the roster long-term with another quality start. The only problem? He’s facing Twins prospect Matt Garza who has been phenomenal since being called up this season. Garza has started two games and has not allowed an earned run in either.

The Angels will be looking to break that streak early if they can get some run production going.

Crapshoot

Joe Mauer hit his 1st career grand slam and after that it was essentially academic. The Twins rolled, scoring 11 to Detroit’s one, and put a sound beating on Justin Verlander, giving me reason #356,098 why I’m not a gambler. Verlander had been the hottest pitcher in the Major’s coming into this game, having only allowed four runs this entire month for an obscenely low ERA of 1.24 in June.

He started terribly in the 1st, allowing 2 runs on sheer wildness before pitching coach Chuck Hernandez came out to calm his nerves. He then promptly retired 11 straight (as did opposing pitcher Johan Santana during the same timeframe) before giving up the aforementioned slam to Mauer.

The Tigers bullpen compounded the issues, allowing 5 runs on their own to give the Twins the easy win. Johan Santana pitched well, but not awe-inspiring.

The Biggest news for the Twins was the return of Justin Morneau after missing 5 games with a bruised lung. Morneau added 2 RBI on 3 hits to help salt away the game.

The Twins have to be taken seriously with a rotation that is led by Johan Santana, and a bullpen featuring Pat Neshek, Matt Guerrier and Joe Nathan. The offense is so-so but the pitching is pure quality. Add to that the fact that they just called up Matt Garza (highly regarded prospect 1) and may soon call up Nick Blackburn (highly regarded prospect 2) from Rochester, this team looks poised to push hard in the second half.

The loss by the Tigers, combined with a 2-1 victory by the Indians over the Devil Rays, allowed the Indians to take a .5 game lead in the Central for at least one night. This one could go to the wire.