Twins Notes: Yankees Crush Bonser

The big lesson to be learned form this game is that the Yankees are a really good team.  Boof Bonser wasn't that bad and against average major league teams he might have escaped without giving up too many runs.  Bonser had some control problems and the strike zone was squeezed by the home plate unpire for the second night in a row. But against the Yankees an off day turns into a nightmare really fast.

The Minnesota Twins really need to start scoring runs or else they just aren't going to do well against good hitting teams.  Mauer, Cuddyer and Morneau can't carry the team; they need people to drive in for runs when they get their doubles.  The Twins looked lifeless in the batter's box today and yesterday.  They might just need some caffeine pills.

Justin Morneau is just barely missing pitches by getting under them.  He's trying to hit home runs instead of just trying to hit and be a good batter whcih means his swing arc is getting a little longer and he's getting a little under the ball.  When he gets more compact and more disciplined he will start crushing the ball again.

Twins defense hasn't looked nearly as sharp as it did last year.  How much of that is actually their fault is only a guess.  When pitchers start to struggle they slow down the game, walk a lot of batters and keep the defense on the field too long you are going to lose some defensive capability.

Rondell White and Jeff Cirillo are on the 15DL.  Alexi Casilla and Josh Rabe were brought up to fill in the roster.  With the Twins  starting pitchers struggling one has to wonder if the better move would have been to bring up Mike Venafro to add an extra arm out of the bullpen.  Dennys Reyes has struggled twice in his last few outings and the Twins need another left hand option in the bullpen and Venafro fills that well.

A-Rod has 6 home runs in his last 7 games.  Andy Pettite had a solid outing against the Twins today.

Twins lose 10-1