MINNESOTA SPORTS ROCKS

MINNESOTA SPORTS ROCKS

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Twins break drought in Baltimore


The Twins come into Baltimore for the first road trip of the year. The Orioles were a playoff team last season and expected to be tough again. How will the Twins fare?

One of my disappointments of the Twins was trading JJ JHardy to Baltimore after the 2010 season. Friday he was presented a Golden Glove award for his play at shortstop last season.  The power he displayed as an Oriole is tough to watch as well.

Friday I came home from work and the Twins were up 4-1 and I thought this was awesome and what a way to start the road trip.

One of the areas of strengths in the Detorit series was the bullpen. Friday Casey Fien and Tyler Robertson did not fare so well. The Twins got to watch history as Oriole’s slugger Chris Davis hit his 4th home run of the year off Robertson. A grand slam and a dagger in my heart as he becomes the 4th player in baseball history  joining Willie Mays, Mark McGwire and Nelson Cruz to hit a home run in the first four games of the season.

It is only one game and the Twins are still in first place. A bright spot was the bottom of the order had a good day. Hitters 7-9 went 5 for 12 with Chris Parmaleee, Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar doing the damage.

Game 2 of the series Twins jump out to a lead but once again the Orioles come back to tie it up again. The hero of this game in my eyes goes to reliever Josh Roenicke pitching 3 innings of 1 hit ball.

Parmalee after having a nice day Friday provides the Twins with a big home run early in the game.  This could be a future great asset to have with a player in the lower part of the batting order with power.

The Twins although early in the season are able to get runs late in the game. Today Justin Morneau comes through in the 9th to help with the win.

Roenicke pitched great but now add on new Twins closer Glen Perkins comes in and mows the Orioles down 1-2-3. Game over, Twins win!!!!

A Twins win was the first in Baltimore since April 21, 2011. Minnesota teams of late are very good at breaking bad streaks as I refer to the Wild breaking long losing streaks on the road in Vancouver, Detroit and Dallas. Way to go Twins!!!

Sunday’s game once again this young team finds a way to win the game. The Twins come from behind then 2 relief pitchers for the Twins come in and dominate. Jared Burton and closer Glen Perkins both came in and threw nasty pitches making the Orioles hitters look foolish.

Two big plays today late was the bunt by Brian Dozier successfully advancing the base runners and pinch hitter Parmalee sacrifice fly.

Rookie Aaron Hicks comes in with his last at bat of the game with a 1-25 start. What does he do? He gets a single and an rbi.

One coincidence in both series with the Tigers and now Orioles is Hicks gets a hit in his last bat of the series and each hit has provided at least one rbi. His struggling is hard to watch but the guy just does not quit. I am pulling for him to get out of this awful stretch to start.

The Twins won a series over Detroit at home for the first time since 2010. Sundays win gave the Twins their first series win in Baltimore since July of 2010.

It is only 6 games but 3 firsts have occurred already with first win in Baltimore and first series win over Detroit and Baltimore in 2 years.

Do we have something brewing? It is not the name Morneau, Willingham, Mauer yet consistently. It is Parmalee, Dozier, Burton, Perkins and the rest of the team. Batters 1-9, who will be the next hero as the Twins move on to Kansas City?

Thanks for reading

Purplestick

 

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