Puckett's Pond » the bullpen

The Bullpen Strikes Again

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 03:53:34 +0000

The Twins engineered a nice comeback Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays, just in time for the bullpen to create another utter disaster. Starter Francisco Liriano put the team in a 5-2 hole early, but the Twins clawed back. Alexi Casilla and Tsuyoshi Nishioka led a 5th inning rally to bring the team within one. Micheal Cuddyer tied it in the 7th with a homer.

They shouldn’t have bothered.

The very next inning, Alex Burnett surrendered a walk, two singles, and a squeeze bunt, putting the Rays ahead 7-5. Lest any Twins fans hold out hope of another comeback, Burnett soon allowed a two run homer to Sean Rodriguez. In the 9th inning, Phil Dumatrait served a three run homer to Evan Longoria for good measure. The Rays’ hitters and the Twins’ bullpen combined to turn a close contest into a 12-5 laugher.

Laughter would be the appropriate response to this game – after all, it was just a getaway game against a good team after two satisfying victories - if only it were an isolated incident. Instead, it’s part of an ugly repeating pattern for the Twins. This was the 14th time in 2011 that the Twins’ bullpen has frittered away a game where the team was tied or leading in the 7th inning or later. (more…)

Twins Bullpen Blows Big Lead. Again.

Sat, 28 May 2011 04:28:15 +0000

The Target Field crowd cheered when Jim Hoey induced the final out of the 8th inning Friday night. Perhaps never before in the history of sports has a team done so little to earn applause, as the Twins horrific bullpen gifted the Angels five runs that inning, ruining a solid Twins offensive performance and a brilliant Scott Baker start.

By the top of the 9th inning, when Hoey walked off the field after surrendering the go-ahead run, the cheers had soured to a chorus of well-deserved boos. Friday’s six run meltdown was just the latest in a string of contemptible bullpen performances that have destroyed leads both large and small.

In the past seven games, the Twins bullpen has blown five saves – the only five save opportunities they have been given - and lost all five games. The team has now lost six of seven, but with even a minimum of competence in the ‘pen, they would have won nine of the last 10, with Wednesday’s shutout loss ending an eight game winning streak and a win tonight starting a new one. By all rights, Minnesota should have a record of at least 21-28, and enough momentum to remain in the division race. Instead, the bullpen has all but nailed the coffin on the 2011 season for the Twins, who hold MLB’s worst record at 16-33.

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Three Steps Back

Mon, 23 May 2011 01:26:35 +0000

The optimism the Twins created with their recent three game winning streak has suffered a painful demise. After briefly passing up the Astros for the 29th best record in MLB, the Twins staggered right back to the bottom with three epic fails in the Arizona desert. Unlike the first 27 Twins losses, in which terrible hitting, pitching, and fielding all contributed to the team’s futility, the sweep against the Diamondbacks can be blamed on a single culprit: the bullpen.

Words cannot describe how completely worthless Twins relievers were in this series – at least, not words that I’m willing to use on a website where children might be reading. So I will have to resort to obscene numbers instead, ones so ridiculous they’d give Archimedes an anneurysm.

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