Devil Rays Sting Back

For the second time this season the Twins have allowed promising starts to road trips to fall apart. On the last road trip against Seattle and Kansas City it was the sweep of the Mariners followed by a series loss to the Royals. This week its a 2-1 series victory over division rival Detroit followed by a series loss to the pathetic Devil Rays. But the one thing both series' have in common is that the Twins have been woefully inconsistent in almost every facet of the game.

Before I delve into yet another rant, allow me to begin by saying how pleased I've been with the Twins rotation. Even with the failures of Sidney Ponson, and the disappointing start by Boof Bonser, the staff has held it's own, giving the Twins a chance to win almost every night. Guys such as Ramon Ortiz, who had his first (and surely not his last) rough start of the season tonight, and the much maligned Carlos Silva have more than held their own. If not for their performances the Twins would be 5-6 games from first place, or worse.

On to the ranting phase...

Over the course of this entire season, be it home or away, the Twins offense has been unable to put together strong innings and the past two nights are just another example. Wednesdays game will mostly be remembered for Joe Nathan's ninth inning collapse, but its a collapse that would never had had the opportunity to happen had the Twins converted on any of their multiple chances to drive home runners in scoring position earlier in the game. I know I've been a broken record about this issue but its the single most glaring problem this team has, and last night just further proves the point as the Twins went just 1-10 in that situation. Its perfectly conceivable that had they recorded just one more hit, we win last night game. What makes that loss so tough to take was that it was also Boof Bonser's best start since his first outing of the season against the Orioles.

While many of the Twins early failures this season could be attributed to the lack of hitting coming from the likes of Nick Punto and Jason Bartlett, they're bats have really seemed to come alive of late, but the problem is the bats of Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, and most notably Justin Morneau have gone comatose. Morneau in particular has been nothing short of a complete miserable failure. With all due respect to his decent .275 batting average and his (tied) team leading six homeruns, his inability to produce in run producing situations has become a running joke at my household, and there is no way to make the comedy more bearable. In 36 at-bats this season he has exactly six hits, all but one of which was a single. This off-season and spring Justin turned down the Twins contact extension offers. While I was disappointed at the time, I'm thankful now as he's fallen right back into his old impatient, try-to-do-too-much self. Hopefully he'll have another mid-season epiphany, but I wont be the one holding my breath.

The good thing is that the bats of players like Nick Punto and Jason Bartlett have finally started to come to life after an extended winter slumber. With both of their averages back up near the .250 mark I'm hopeful for another good season from the left side of our infield. While it would be nice to have any power from our 'Piranha's' they can be effective if they all consistently hit at or above .280.