It wasn't just Correia that was bad yesterday. Even though he gave up 5 earned runs in 5 innings, he was not the losing pitcher. The problem wasn't just relief pitching either, though it stunk up the joint. The problem was a combination of bad pitching AND not thinking on defense. Though there were no official errors by the Twins in the game, the Twins defense made a mockery of fundamentals. You NEED to hit the cutoff man when runners are threatening to score. A bang-bang play at the plate and an easy out is the difference between ignoring your cutoff or doing the thing every player is taught at every level.
Taking your time to throw out a speedy runner heading to first is also a no-no. Hurrying a throw when he is the SLOWEST (Butler) runner in baseball is equally stupid. Three mental errors. Three earned runs that did not have to score led to a 9-8 loss.
David Lough had a great game for the Royals going 4-4 with three doubles and a home run. But we didn't have to lose just because he had a great game. We lost because fundamentals were absent. That and the pitching was just terrible.
A cool thing? Justim Morneau passed Kirby Puckett on the all-time Twins home run list. He now has 208.
The telling stat? The Twins left NINE runners stranded. Again.
No comments:
Post a Comment