Dozier and Bullpen

The Twins won again last night even though Kyle Gibson is starting to look more and more like Vance Worley when he pitches. Gibson looked awful again, so awful that he left after just three laborious innings.

The Astros and Twins are both horrible ball clubs, but the Twins have a couple of things going for them the Astros do not. The Twins have an unbelievable bullpen (just ONE earned run given up in the last two games over THIRTEEN INNINGS of relief) AND a guy who hits over .300 when runners are in scoring position.

Oddly enough, Joe Mauer doesn't qualify for that last designation. Brian Dozier, who may be playing the best second base in baseball right now has also become Mr. Clutch at the plate for the Twins. He did some amazing late inning heroics in Friday night's game that was documented in yesterday's blog.

He did it again last night. He drove in the tying run in the seventh last night and then scored the game winning run later in the inning. The Astros and their $13 million roster (it was $25 million when the season started but they reduced those costs once it was apparent that they weren't going anywhere this year) are a very, very bad ball club. The Twins aren't THAT bad. We all know they aren't good, but at least they aren't that bad.

And the Twins fans are unbelievable. The Twins drew over 100,000 with the KC series. They SOLD OUT last night against the Astros. Attendance is down from the first two seasons at Target Field, but the their total attendance still ranks pretty high among American League ball clubs.

I'm still watching, though Gibson made me turn the game off for awhile in the top of the the third.

The Twins have rearranged their roster again. Arcia is back up. Hicks is back down. Diamond has proven himself incapable and he has been sent down as well. I'm no longer optimistic about theis club's future. We got rid of last year's poor pitchers ro make room for this year's even worse starters this season.

And let's not forget that the Twins didn't even protect Deduno on the 40-man roster before the season started. ANY team could have had him, so it's not like the Twins have been good and selecting. noticing, or evaluating any of their current starters. Pelfrey gets the nod today. I'm not sure what to expect from him, either. He's obviously better than he was at the beginning of the season when Gardy used him poorly, but those last couple outings have not shown great promise.

And the Biogenesis scandal continues to brew. Suspensions are to be announced tomorrow and I'll have more to say then. The scandal is far more fascinating than the actual games right now. And what develops from that scandal will affect (and most likely haunt) baseball for a good long time.