The Dream is Over! Win Streak Ends at Six

Scoreboard - Sun, Apr. 17, 2005
Final - Jacobs Field		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
	Minnesota (8-4)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	5	1
	Cleveland (5-7)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0		2	7	0
	W: B. Howry (1-1) L: J. Romero (0-1) S: B. Wickman (4)
Hafner's hit by pitch pushes pitchers' duel in Tribe's favor Box Score

Well, the winning streak is over. The Twins lost today due to what was basically an error by Cuddyer and some wild pitching by Mr. JC Romero. The innacurate arm of both players ended up wasting a great performance by Joe Mays, who looks to be in for a great comeback season.

All credit to Cleveland though, they made our offense look anemic. C.C. Sabathia, a Twins "hater" if there ever was one was, had his pitches working. They even struck out the buzz-saw that is Terry Tiffee. The Indian bullpen even managed to pitch well! Whenever Bob Wickman (who I swear is Matt LeCroy's fatter clone) makes you look bad you know it just isn't your day.

My one question throughout the end of the game was one that I thought I would never hear myself say: "Where is Jacque Jones!?" Now I am one of the bigger JJ critics out there in Twins country but he should have been in the game with Wickman on the mound. Ron Gardenhire, and almost all managers for that sake, makes decisions I really scratch my head at. With Sabathia out of the game, we could finally insert some of the lefty bats that weren't starting. I commed Gardy on sitting Jones against a left handed power pitcher since I hit them about as well as Jacque does (hitting .062 points lower against lefties than righties in the last three years). But he has been hitting the ball very well for us this year and Matthew LeCroy shouldn't be DH'ing in a close game when there are right handers on the mound (about .160 lower OPS against righties in the last 3 years). Once a Sabathia left the game, Jones should have been inserted into the lineup. This is especially critical in a road game against a divisional opponent with the score tied 1-1. Ron Gardenhire's gave us a lesser chance to win that game.

In other news, Corky "The Turtle" Miller is quickly becoming my least favorite Twin. Not a lot of this is his fault, it is just that situation surrounding his prescence in the lineup. First, whenever I see him in the lineup I am frustrated that Mauer is not in there. Second, he is one of four catchers on our roster which is completely insane. Lastly, keeping him cost us Michael Restovich. The other day Resto had as many hits as the entire Twins team did. Another thing not helping Corky is that he has as many hits as I do this season. Hopefully Corky will be sent down when ma' boy Justin Morneau returns. This way we can keep Tiffee on our 25 man roster.

Up next this week are two, two-game series in Chicago and KC. Hopefully we can start getting some hits and win three of those games.