I like when good pitchers start

After another Sabean Special today, one thing has become clear to me... when we have good pitchers start, that usually goes better than having bad pitchers start.

Groundbreaking, I know. But then again, we are still starting Carlos Silva and Ramon Ortiz for 40% of the games, so this message isn't quite getting through to somebody.

Obviously it's a lot more complicated than this, but since May 12 the Twins are 5-1 when either Johan Santana, Boof Bonser, or Scott Baker starts. Over that same time span they're 0-6 when the games are started by Ramon Ortiz, Carlos Silva, and the recently departed Sidney Ponson.

Already 6.5 games back, we can't really afford to trot out Ortiz and Silva much anymore, can we? I know this is kinda like a broken record, but these guys are just not good starters. That's not even an opinion, that's a fact. Why not give Matt Garza and Kevin Slowey a chance?

I know the Twins are very reluctant to use more service time than necessary, but I really think the change to bring the young starters up has to be made soon. Last year these types of moves propelled the Twins from a .500 team to the division title. Replacing 3/5 of your rotation (already done with 1 part of that in Baker) can have that same type of effect.

Ramon Ortiz got a Win

Honestly, I didn't think I'd be able to say that much this year. I realize I still probably won't, but it was a great to see a great effort from Ortiz in his first game for the Twins. If he can give the Twins 7 IP and 2 ER on any type of consistent basis, well, Terry Ryan is even more of a genius than I thought.

Hitting wise, it was a good team effort. Everyone got on base at least once, and multiple players had 2 RBI. After a 2/4 game, Mauer is hitting .455 (which means nothing at this point, but still fun to point out).

What a great series for the Twins to start the year. On the broadcast they said that the first time the Twins were 3 games over .500 last year was when they were 38-35. That's crazy.

On a final note, I wasn't able to mention The Sabean Special last occurred last night. Boof wasn't able to get the win, but he started the game, and Joe Nathan finished it with the save. Always good to get one of those early on!

The Sabean Special Count: 1

2006 Final Count for "The Sabean Special"

If you're not familiar with "The Sabean Special," you can click on this link. Basically, anytime Francisco Liriano or Boof Bonser started a game and got the win, combined with Joe Nathan recording the last outs of a game... that was a Sabean Special (created in the spirit of this blog). Anyway, here's the final tally and games where it occurred:

Francisco Liriano:
April 25 - Twins beat Royals 2-1
May 19 - Twins beat Brewers 7-1
May 26 - Twins beat Mariners 3-1
May 31 - Twins beat Angels 7-1
June 11 - Twins beat Orioles 4-0
June 16 - Twins beat Pirates 4-2
June 22 - Twins beat Astros 4-2
July 23 - Twins beat Indians 3-1

Liriano Count: 8

Boof Bonser:
June 24 - Twins beat Cuubs 4-0
September 4 - Twins beat Devil Rays 4-0
September 9 - Twins beat Tigers 2-1
September 25 - Twins beat Royals 8-1

Bonser Count: 4

Total "Sabean Special" Count: 12

And hopefully there will be many more to count next season and beyond!

Twins back in the Wildcard lead (with The Sabean Special)

Well I'm back from vacation, and just in time to see the Twins re-take the Wildcard lead with a comeback victory combined with a comeback victory from the Red Sox.

The Twins comeback came in the 7th inning of their game, when Rondell White hit a 2-out, 2-run HR to give the Twins a 2-1 lead, which was all they needed. The Red Sox comeback was complete after Carlos Pena hit a solo HR in the 10th to beat the ChiSox.

But none of this would have been possible without a great pitching performance by starter Boof Bonser. 6.1 solid innings from him, giving up just 1 ER while striking out 6. If we can get performances similar this from the back of the rotation, things will be looking very good.

At the backend of the game, as always, is Joe Nathan. And with Bonser getting the win and Nathan getting the save, we have yet another edition of The Sabean Special. And that's always exciting. Joe pitched a perfect 9th, striking out 2, to get his 29th save of the year while lowering the ERA to 1.74. Meanwhile, Dennys Reyes appears to be firmly back on track, as he got the only man he faced out to lower his ERA to 0.85.

All of this brings up Johan Santana starting against Tampa Bay on Tuesday going against Jae Seo. The Twins really need Santana to bring his best stuff every night, and that's basically what he's been doing all year. Hopefully that trend can continue. With the Twins 0.5 games up on the Sox and still 5 GB on the Tigers, here's the pitching matchups for Tuesday:

Twins: Johan Santana (16-5, 2.95) vs. Jae Seo (D'Rays)
White Sox: Javier Vazquez (11-8, 4.98) vs. Kason Gabbard (Red Sox)
Tigers: Jeremy Bonderman (11-7, 4.01) vs. Jake Woods (Mariners)

Once again, The Sabean Special

We got our 5th example of The Sabean Special as the Twins beat the Indians 3-1 on Sunday, to take 2 of 3 from Cleveland in the series.

Liriano was only able to go 5 innings, as his pitch count got up to 95 quickly, but he did strike out 10 batters while giving up 1 run, to put his ERA at 1.93. Pat Neshek came on after him, and his impressive run continued with 1.2 shutout innings in relief. Dennis Reyes pitched to 2 batters and struck out both of them, Juan Rincon got 2 batters out in the 8th, and then Joe Nathan finished the job in the 9th.

Nathan allowed a leadoff single in the 9th before getting Joe Inglett to fly out. After that, he had had enough, and struck out Ramon Vazquez and Grady Sizemore to end the game.

The Win for Liriano pushes his record to 12-2, while Joe Nathan picked up his 19th save. All in all, when you can take 2 of 3 on the road against a talented team, that's something I'll take anyday.

The Sabean Special Count: 5

I'll have The Sabean Special with that

You can push that Sabean Special Count up to 4 after Saturday night's Twins win over the Cubs.

In the 3-0 shutout victory for Minnesota, Boof started things off right, with 6 1/3 scoreless innings for the Twins. As the Boof Blog mentions, Boof only struck out 1 Cubs hitter in those 6 1/3, but he did get a good number of ground ball outs. To complete The Sabean Special, Joe Nathan worked a scoreless ninth for his 12th save of the year, and 100th of his career.

I saw a stat on ESPN, the Twins are 13-2 in their last 15 games with an ERA of a miniscule 2.43. Of course, much of that is becuase of the Santana/Liriano duo, which is 7-1 with a 1.69 ERA this month. That right there is the best duo in baseball.

On the other side of the ball, the young guys continue to produce. For a change, Monreau did not leave the ballpark, but the others picked up the slack against Mark Prior. Jason Kubel, Terry Tiffee, and Jason Bartlett all had RBI in the win. Joe Mauer also had a hit, though his league-leading average did drop a little bit down to .368. I'll still take it.

On Sunday, Twins go for the sweep at home as they send Brad Radke out to the mound to take on Sean Marshall. Hopefully they can win and get a little bit of help, which hasn't been quick coming, as Detroit and Chicago keep on winning, both in extra innings. As of Saturday, the Twins still stand 11 game back of the Tigers and 10.5 back of the Sox. But as usual, they just need to worry about themselves and keep winning, and things will fall into place.

Hopefully that can continue for another sweep.

Francisco Liriano outpitches one of the top 3 pitchers of all-time

Ok, so it was Clemens first game back from his "retirement." But how many times am I going to get the chance to write that headline?

Anyway, it's all true. In the 4-2 Twins win, Liriano dazzled for 8 innings, giving up only a 2-run HR to Jason Lane in the 8th. Meanwhile, 'The Rocket' was only about to go 5 innings (but threw 100 pitches), and gave up 2 runs in the 3rd, as he got saddled for the loss. Joe Nathan came on in the 9th to finish the game for The Sabean Special.

You know, if it wasn't evident before, it is now: Liriano really needs a nickname. And I think I've finally got it. Considering the focus on this game - which was pretty darn high for a regular season game in the middle of the year - with Clemens return, Liriano's first game on national TV, etc. and the fact that Liriano absolutely did not disappoint, I'm calling him "The Iceman." That's with all due respect to George Gervin.

There you have it - Francisco Liriano = The Iceman.

Look at the confidence he already brings the team. As Batgirl wrote, despite the circumstances, was there any doubt in Twins fans minds who was going to win this game? Not for me. Maybe he's already got unreasonable expectations, but I think The Iceman can handle them all. Oh yes, he's that good.

Maybe my favorite stat of the night was the fact that despite pitching 8 innings and giving up 2 runs, Francisco's ERA actually rose to 2.17. I think we can forgive him for that.

Introducing... The Sabean Special

I got to thinking, and in the spirit of this blog, I found that it is only appropriate that we have a simple nickname for a certain situation - When Francisco Liriano or Boof Bonser starts the game and gets the win, and then Joe Nathan comes on to finish the game.

Hence The Sabean Special.

By my count, it's happened three times so far this year:

5/26 - Liriano pitched 5 shutout innings, Joe Nathan finishes it off with a perfect 9th. Twins beat the Mariners 3-1.
6/16 - Liriano pitched 7 innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 11. Nathan pitches another perfect 9th for the save. Twins beat the Pirates 4-2.
6/22 - Liriano pitches 8 innings, giving up only 2 run on 4 hits, and Nathan pitches a scoreless 9th. Twins beat the Astros 4-2.

So let's start it now:

"The Sabean Special" Count: 3