Minnesota Twins: Average Pitching Is All That's Needed

Minnesota had a great offensive night last night, racking up 12 runs against Paul Byrd and the Indians. Livan Hernandez took the mound for the Twins and performed admirably. He went a full six innings while giving up only three runs.

Thanks to the hot offense, the Twins' pitchers aren't asked to pitch seven innings of shutout ball as they wait for Minnesota to score twice in the eighth and hope to win the game. That was the strategy last year.

This year, the Twins' pitchers can, and are, recording extremely hefty ERAs, but are getting the wins.

Livan Hernandez, the supposed "ace" of this rotation, has an ERA of 5.18 to go along with his impressive record of 9-5. Hernandez was signed for this year to take on the veteran role that was left empty after the departure of Santana. While no one can replace Santana, Hernandez has certainly tried.

The 10-year veteran has done a great job in providing a veteran presence on this young, pitching rotation.

The battle for the No. 2 position in this rotation has been between Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey. Both have nearly identical ERAs, and both have the same number of wins in the same number of games. Slowey, at 5-6, has four more losses than his counterpart, forcing me to place Baker as the No. 2 pitcher in this young rotation.

Baker has an ERA of 3.65 posted through 12 starts this season. He had first felt a tweaked groin on his April 26 start against the Rangers, when he was pulled after just four-and-a-third innings. The front office considered putting Baker on the DL, but re-evaluated him and gave him two extra days of rest before his next start.

Again he felt the tweaked groin, not as severely as before, and was again pulled after just three innings. After being re-evaluated yet again, Gardenhire decided to place Baker on the disabled list. He missed all of his next starts until June 5, when he went a solid five innings, giving up just two runs. 

Because of this absence, Baker has pitched just 69 innings. This ranks fourth on the list of total innings pitched from Minnesota starters this year.

Kevin Slowey ranks third on this list with 72.7 innings pitched. He has the best ERA of all Twins pitchers so far this year with 3.47. As I remarked earlier, this is strangely higher than last year. With the decrease in offense this year in the American League, it would be expected that a team's ERA be lower as a result.

Not so with Minnesota, but they still get the job done.

Slowey, after a brief DL-stint on April 4, has been a regular fixture in the rotation. The team is 6-6 when he is pitching, but has won six of his last eight appearances. Slowey will take the mound tomorrow against the Indians. He is coming off a complete-game shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers.

This is his second complete game, his first coming on May 29 against the Royals. Slowey pitched nine innings and gave up only one earned run in a Twins win. He is trying very hard to de-throne Baker and earn that No. 2 spot, and is well on his way.

As usual, Slowey has great, almost scary, control over his pitches. He has only allowed nine walks so far this season through 12 games, making his BB/9IP an astonishing 1.107.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?