5/6/05: Twins/Devil Rays

[Timberwolf]

Twins start a three-game weekend series with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays starting tonight. Twins are coming off a very big win yesterday afternoon against the hated Indians while the Devil Rays are coming off an all-time high for their standards in taking 3 out of 4 against the Yankees.

This is a game that the Twins can't fool around. Devil Rays got some players who can play. They have had rough go at it so far and their manager, Lou Piniella has already shown frustration with his team this season by speaking his mind. With that said, the Rays are a team that no one can take lightly. Twins hitters have to take advantage of the Rays lousy pitching. You can't have the hitters play like they did Tuesday and Wednesday night where they did nothing with runners in scoring position.

Johan is pitching tonight in the first-game series. He is coming off a hard-luck loss to the Angels the other day. Knowing him though, he will start a big winning streak. DG is lucky enough to see him in person as she will be at the game not only tonight, but tommorow and Sunday. I hope she has fun at the game and I hope she can get that sweep or the series.

Santana vs. Brazelton

[Timberwolf]

Great win tonight. This is type of game I love. Great pitching and great offense. Combine those two and you will win a lot of games. That's what happened tonight. Twins put it together and as a result, you saw a blowout.

The offense broke out thanks to a Joe Mauer's three-run HR in the third inning and then the hits started to come. Brazelton was starting to lose control in the third and then he was pulled in the fourth. Everyone in the lineup got a hit. It was really good to hit TB's pitching tonight.

How about Justin hitting another HR? This guy is something else. It's becoming expected of him to hit a HR every game. He did it again. I think he hit 4 HRs this week. That's something, eh. I am so glad he will be doing this for awhile. He is a talent.
Not only am I lucky to watch Johan, but I am very lucky to watch Justin.

I thought Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer was fantastic tonight.

Johan was very good. What can I say? It never gets old saying that. He was fantastic again. He basically made quick work out of the D-Rays. After a rough first inning where he gave up back-to-back triples to Lugo and Huff, he settled down and just was dominating. He was so good that he threw 83 pitches heading to the ninth and that was good enough for him to go for the complete game. It's really good to see him get a complete game. Twins always like to baby his arm so it was good to see him have that rare opportunity for the complete game. He deserved it. It was nice to see the team get a back-to-back complete game from the starters.

Can't complain about this win. I love what I saw tonight. I just wish those punks from the Southside lost.

[LesPaul]

Great to see Radke and Santana provide back-to-back complete games with the bullpen a bit shaky right now.

[Timberwolf]

Couple of things to add:

-- Nice to see people from Johan's country make the trek to Tampa Bay to support their countryman, Johan Santana. Just shows you how special he is for people from Venezeula to make the trip to America just to see Johan is.

-- http://www.startribune.com/stories/509/5390573.html
The Strib mentioned a great point about how our three young players yesterday. It was a good list. Those three are what make the Twins go.