The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Three in a Row for the Twins

The day off didn't stop the Twins' momentum in the AL central. They clubbed the Tigers 11-1, repaying the team who stunned them twice in mid-April.

The majority of the damage was done to the Tigers' bullpen. The Tigers' rookie starter, Armando Galarraga, pitched reasonably well; he left with his team behind, but much like Minnesota's bullpen gagged away the two games at Comerica Park in Detroit, the Tigers' pen put this one out of reach. 

The Twins scored four runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth off of Aquiano Lopez and Denny Bautista. Lopez gave up four in just 1/3 of an inning of work.

Everyone seemed to be playing well. Carlos Gomez had a perfect 1.000 OBP before leaving the game after taking a throw to the head in fifth, including a walk. 

The core of the lineup hit well too. The 3-7 hitters combined to go 12-23 with 8 of the Twins 9 RBI. Brendan Harris hit his second homerun of the year, and even light hitting Adam Everett hit a double in his return from the DL.

Livan Hernandez worked seven innings of one run ball to earn his fourth win in five decisions. Hernandez allowed eight hits  and two walks, but the only run to cross the plate was Magglio Ordonez. He hit a long solo homerun in the second inning, which led to what appeared to be a huge inning for the Tigers.

After Mag's bomb, the Tigers loaded the bases on a double, a single, and a walk, with no one out. Hernandez then got Ivan Rodriguez to fly out to shallow right and induced a double play to escape almost entirely unscathed.

The Tigers would rue their lost opportunities. They will look to Justin Verlander tomorrow to help slow the Twins' new found offense.

The Good: Carlos Gomez: 1-1, BB, HBP, 2R, 2SB.

Gomez was forced to leave the game in the fifth, and his replacement (Nick Punto) scored in his stead, so Gomez really should have three runs scored in three PAs. He led off the bottom of the first with a walk, and his game just got better from there. Hopefully his head injury won't be serious and he will be able to play tomorrow. 

Gomez has strung together back to back very good games, so hopefully this portends real growth, not just a flash in the pan.  

The Middle of the Order: 12-23, 8 RBI, 6R, 4XBH.

The Middle of the order takes the brunt of the blame for the Twins offensive ineptitude, but tonight, they were on their game. Hopefully, with Michael Cuddyer back, the Twins will have better luck scoring runs consistently. Nights like tongiht are great, but if they happen over the course of 3 2-run nights, they aren't as useful. 

The Bad: Mike Lamb: 1-5, 1K, 5LOB.

On a night when every Twins starter got a hit, Mike Lamb mustered just one total base; even his partner in crime Adam Everett did better than that. Lamb needs to start to hit soon or he should lose his starting role, even Nick Punto has a higher average than Lamb does, and Punto certainly has better defense.

The Ugly: No One. 

Yes, Livan Hernandez surrendered too many baserunnesr, and Mike Lamb needs to get more hits, and yes, the Twins left nine men on base, so there is room for improvement.

The reality of this game is that the Twins beat the team tipped by many to win the division, a team that had just swept the Yankees in the Bronx for the first time in nearly 50 years, by 10 runs. The pitching was good, the hitting was great, the only bad thing about this game was the potential loss of Carlos Gomez, if in fact he sustained a true concussion. This was just a good old fashioned beat down; there isn't an ugly thing about it.