MVN - Most Valuable Network

Tigers know how to beat Twins’ bullpen

It’s rare that the Twins blow leads, but their locked-down bullpen has had a hard time protecting leads against the Tigers this season.

Prior to Monday night’s game, they blew the lead twice against the Tigers this season, and it resulted to losses.

Monday night, the Tigers got to them for the third straight time this season. The Twins had a 4-1 lead, but Jesse Crain, Dennys Reyes and Matt Guerrier could not get it done as they got hit in this game. The Tigers came from behind to defeat the Twins, 5-4, at the Metrodome to start a crucial three-game series.

This was disappointing because the Twins needed to send a message to the Tigers in the first game of a series with a win. They not only blew a lead, but they wasted a good performance by Glen Perkins, who started for the Twins.

The other two bullpen implosions came in April.

On April 14th, Guerrier and Pat Neshek gave up six runs in the eighth inning as the Twins blew a 9-4 lead and at the end, they took a 11-9 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park.

On April 15th, the Twins pen did it again. Crain blew a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning. The Tigers scored three runs in that inning to take a 6-4 lead. The Tigers defeated the Twins, 6-5.

In sports, everyone looks at trends.

The trends are that the Twins bullpen just don’t know how to get the Tigers out. When the Tigers find ways to beat the Twins late in the game, it says something and it does not become an accident anymore after three times.

The Tigers always do well against Crain so this was no surprise.

Then again, Crain struggles often. He is great at times, but he is unreliable way too often. It’s a given that he will screw it up. That’s just how it is. The last three years, he tends to get hit hard to the point that he implodes.

There must be better options in the seventh inning. Maybe it’s time for Craig Breslow to get a chance to pitch in the seventh. He has been good. He can’t be any worse than Crain.

Of course, it’s a moot point because Gardenhire has an affection for Crain like he does with Nick Punto so Crain will get the ball at the seventh inning no matter how unreliable he is. It’s too bad.

Guerrier has just not looked good against Detroit all season. The Tigers know how to beat him when he is on the mound. He just does not look confident whenever he faces the Tigers on the mound, and it showed Monday night.

He is going to have to find a way to get it done against them because that’s his role. If the Tigers are in his head based on his frustration on the mound in this contest, then he and the Twins have a problem whenever he faces up against the Tigers.

Of course, it says something about the Tigers’ hitters that they get it done against the Twins’ relievers. It shows how good they are, and how smart they are.

They just know how to ignite an run when they have to. They are dangerous at any inning. They play all nine innings, and they are never out of a game.

It’s not just their stars, but it’s role players like Marcus Thames, Clete Thomas, Ryan Raburn and Matt Joyce that just know how to get the hits that they need.

They have figured it out after starting off bad, and that’s why they have the best shot of dethroning the White Sox.

Still, good pitching beats good hitting, and the Twins pen need to figure it out against Detroit if the Twins want to win the division or the wild-card.

With the way things are going, the Tigers should feel like they got a chance everytime they face a Twins reliever that is not named Joe Nathan.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 10:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.