Two Plays

I watched the first half of the Twins game last night which turned out to be most of the scoring. It's amazing how you notice things when paying attention. I think this is one of the reasons I don't like watching sports like I used to. I've mentioned in the past that one or two plays a game determine the outcome of most games. In the same way, one or two official calls a game can have the same effect. Once you realize that, most games just aren't as much fun to watch.

Case in point last night: The Twins had runners on second and third with Luke Hughes batting. He had two strikes and whiffed at a ball low and outside to strikeout and end the inning. IF he had gotten a hit there the Twins would have had a 3-0 lead.

A couple innings later, Anthony Swarzack, who pitched a great game, tried to field a ball hit to his left and effectively killed an easy double play ball to Luke Hughes. Instead of two outs and the bases empty, there were two on and nobody out. The Rangers then scored 3 runs and basically won the game right there.

I'm not blaming anybody. That's just an example of how two relatively minor plays turn games around.

It would be foolish to think that good teams always get those breaks and that bad teams get them less. The better teams get those breaks because they play better. Before he struck out last night, I told The Casually Viewing Wife that the pitcher was going to throw Hughes a ball low and outside and that he was going to swing at it and strike out. THEIR pitcher was good enough to throw that pitch, and it was the right pitch to throw in that situation. Luke Hughes wasn't good enough to know what to do with it.

Which brings me to the philosophy of the two teams. There's a reason that Texas is one of the best teams in the league. Nolan Ryan, a grizzled veteran of the major league wars KNOWS what teams need to win and his team reflects that.

He grew up in a era when teams had a four man rotation and when 250 innings a year was expected of each of them. He's conceded the five man rotation, but he still expects his starters to go seven innings. He's loaded his ball club with pitchers who can do that. Because of that he has FIVE very good starters. Actually, two of his guys in the bullpen would also make very good starters for most teams. In effect, he's made it almost impossible not to get a good pitching performance every night from his rotation.

The reason that Texas won last night wasn't just Luke Hughes striking out in a critical situation. It was because every one of those Texas starters could throw that very same pitch to Luke Highes in that same situation.

Good teams win more games than bad teams because they are just plain better.

So how did the Twins beat Texas 9 out of the last 10 times at Target Field before last night?

This column is long enough for today. We'll tackle that question some other time.