Puckett's Pond » Clay Buchholz

A Tale of Two Twins

Sun, 08 May 2011 22:22:22 +0000

For the Minnesota Twins, Charles Dickens could sum up their last two weeks easily. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” Dickens wrote that to open “A Tale of Two Cities”, and it has been exactly that for the Minnesota Twins. Two weeks ago the Twins started a series against the Tampa Bay Rays, fresh off their first three-game winning streak of the young 2011 season. It seemed that the then 9-12 Minnesota Twins were about to turn things around and play the baseball they were capable of playing.
The Twins were then promptly swept on the road by the Rays and the Kansas City Royals. The Twins bandwagon had finally ground to a halt. The Twins were 9-18 and sporting the worst record in Major League Baseball. And the Twins were not only the worst team in baseball, they had the worst April in franchise history and were at the bottom of most hitting and pitching statistics. They were not just losing games; they were being blown out of the ball park. During their six-game losing streak the Twins gave up 10+ runs 3 times and were outscored by 40 runs (14-54)! It was ugly baseball to watch. The Twins were seemingly out of every ball game by the time the 4th inning began. (more…)

2011 Series Preview: Twins vs Red Sox (5/6-5/9)

Wally Fish — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:50:04 +0000

Tonight the Twins open up a 4 game series with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. They took 2 games from the equally anemic White Sox, but Minnesota’s bats are still MIA. They outscored Chicago 4-3 in their latest series and are now 20 runs behind the Athletics and 31 runs back of the Seattle Mariners in the AL rankings. San Diego has scored 97 runs, though they have played 2 more games, leaving the Twins dead last in all of baseball when it comes to crossing home plate.

Boston can relate to getting off to a slow start. On April 15th they were just 2-10 but they’ve gone 12-7 since. The Red Sox found the switch and flipped it. The Twins are still stumbling around upstairs in the dark, a fuse has blown and the fuse box is in the basement. I still believe in this team, but with every passing day the part of me that wonders why grows just a little bit.

Anyway, helping me out on this preview are BoSox Injection Staff Writer, Derek Stykalo, and Puckett’s Pond staffer Adam Krueger. Derek is obviously tackling the Red Sox side of things while Adam was kind enough to answer Derek’s 3 Twins questions. He also provided the content for the pitching matchups.

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24-16: Clay Buchholz is Good

Thu, 20 May 2010 04:48:30 +0000

I’m gonna make this brief, since I am studying for an accounting final. Yeah, the strikezone was a bit inconsistent, but let’s face it, Clay Buchholz was on. Scott Baker pitched pretty well too, but in the end, it just wasn’t enough. Oh well, these things happen, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow.

Best hitter:

Denard Span: .102 WPA. DSPAN2 went 2-4 with a pair of runs scored. He was pretty much the lone bright spot in the lineup.

Best pitcher:

Clay Buchholz: .358 WPA. 8 IP, 2 runs, 1 BB, 7 Ks, just 5 hits. Give it up, people.