Thursday, June 08, 2006

Once again, Boof (and the Twins) burned by the long ball

The Twins finally found their offense. Unfortunately, it came the same time they lost their pitching. The offense put 9 runs, but the pitching gave up 10, 5 of them from rookie Boof Bonser, who gave up 3 homeruns in his 5 innings of work, as the Twins lost 10-9 in 11 innings.

This was the second straight game Boof gave up 3 homeruns, as he also completed the feat against Oakland last week. Bonser gave up a leadoff homer to Ichiro in the 1sty, a 2-run HR to Sexson in the first, and then a 2-run HR to Yuniesky Betancourt in the 2nd, which was the source of all 5 ER.

Bonser gave up 7 hits total, while striking out 3 and walking 3. This raised his ERA to 5.48. With the late grand slam from Cuddyer, he got a no-decision out of it. For a more complete summary, you can always check out the Boof Blog.

But there were plenty of bright spots. Joe Mauer continued his torrent pace with a 2/4 day, raising his average to .371. How would this stack up against all-time great seasons by Twins hitters? Find out for yourself here.

Lew Ford was 4/6 from the plate. Torii Hunter was 3/5. Mike Cuddyer was 2/5 including a game-tying Grand Slam in the 8th. Mike Redmond had 3 hits. Unfortunately, this was all wasted when Carl Everett hit his solo jack in the 11th off Jesse Crain, with Joe Nathan still in the bullpen. As Aaron Gleeman says, we've seen this before. I thought the point of having a great relief pitcher like Joe Nathan was to use him? I guess not. Twins Without Spin saw this coming before it even happened.

Johan on the mound tomorrow night looking to salvage a game here. I wonder if Juan Castro will be the player to watch again?

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