Kuzul

Coming into this week’s series against the Chicago White Sox, it was a do-or-die situation for the Sox. They needed to take at least two from the Twins to stay afloat in the American League Central pennant race.

The Twins went ahead and stepped on the head of the White Sox. Race over.

Even though the Twins haven’t technically won the AL Central, it’s now just a matter of time before the Twins officially clinch the Central with a “magic number” of eight combined Twins wins and White Sox loses.

However, now is not the time to shift into neutral and coast to the finish. There is still a lot at stake.

It’s no secret that the Twins have struggled mightily against the New York Yankees in both the regular season and the playoffs in the past decade. This year hasn’t been any different. The Twins need to do everything possible to avoid playing the Yankees.

Avoiding the Yankees will not be easy if not impossible. With that being said, the Twins need to bring the Yankees, or any other team to them.

The Twins need home field advantage.

As of Friday morning, the Twins are tied for the best record in the American league with the Tampa Bay Rays. Having the best record in the league equates to home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Coming in second means possibly having home field advantage only in the first round.

If the season were to end right now, the Twins would have the Yankees in the opening round at Target Field and the Rays and Rangers would match up with the Rays gaining home field in that series. If the Twins and Rays were to both advance, the Rays would have home field advantage in the American League Championship Series.

What does that all mean?

Even if the Twins do have the central under their control, they still have to play for playoff positioning. 

Although resting the ever-day players is a must, there has to be a happy medium between resting the starters and still being competitive. Luckily, the Twins are done playing competitive and will finish the season playing the Oakland A’s (3 games), Cleveland Indians (3 games), Detroit Tigers (3 games), Kansas City Royals (3 games), and the Toronto Blue Jays (4 games). Ten of the 16 games are at Target Field, as well.

In other words, the Twins are in prime position to still win games with their “B” squad in the game against these much lesser opponents. You couldn’t draw it up any better for the Twins to end the season.

Jason Kubel will have a chance to get his wrist to 100%, Mauer can get a few more days off, and the rotation can get an extra day or two to rest. All of which and more is very much needed to have a good playoff run.

All in all, the Twins need to keep on fighting in effort to lock up great positing for the playoffs. Let the Yankees, Rays, or Rangers come to Minnesota and deal with the hottest team in baseball at their brand-new stadium.

Joe Mauer hitting an opposite field double; Jim Thome crushing hanging sliders out of the yard; Francisco Liriano baffling hitters with his slider.

All of that and hopefully more fireworks has to happen at Target Field as much as possible during the playoffs.

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After the acquisition of closer Matt Capps, the Minnesota Twins had a consistent bullpen. Every reliever knew what his job was going to be. Every reliever had his inning.

It was organized. Peaceful.

Flash forward a month.

The Twins acquired two more relievers: Randy Flores off of waivers from the Colorado Rockies and Brian Fuentes via trade from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the United States in North America.

Now, everything is a complete mess and it’s evident by the pen’s performance as of late.

Starting with Thursday’s absolutely terrible loss to the Tigers in 13 innings, it became quite evident that Ron Gardenhire and the Twins’ coaching staff is too inclined on using the deep bullpen.

What do I mean by that?

Since the Twins acquired Flores and Fuentes, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire seems to be too keen on “playing the match-up.”

Instead of letting his reliever pitch his inning, Gardy is now using the one-and-done strategy where he brings in a pitcher to get an out, then goes to another reliever to get another out or the final two outs.

In Friday’s game, the Twins went through three relief pitchers in just one inning. Three. This is coming off the heels of a game that required the use of two starting pitchers, Brian Duensing and Nick Blackburn, as relievers.

It’s one thing if it’s a 17-inning game and you have no other choice to use a starter. However, if the starter is coming in during the 11th inning, something is wrong.

Now, the Twins entire pitching staff, sans Francisco Liriano and Carl Pavano, is in utter disarray.

What happens if Friday’s game goes into extra innings? You just burnt three pitchers in the eighth inning trying to get three outs and a handful of your previous relievers were taxed in the previous game and probably unavailable. 

Does Gardy send in Michael Cuddyer to toe the rubber? How about seeing what Denard Span has?

Before we had this depth, the bullpen had a rhythm. It was effective. Now, the bullpen seems disorganized and that may be leading to the inefficiencies we’ve been seeing over the past couple weeks.

Now, I’m not against playing the match-ups if you have the players. However, those match-ups should be in the eighth and the ninth, not the sixth or seventh or when your entire pen is available to throw. Two pitchers in an inning should be enough unless, of course, one flounders and needs to be yanked.

Also, it’s September. That means expanded rosters. More pitchers are available to use. However, for some reason, these pitchers weren’t with the team for Thursday’s marathon. 

Even with the expanded rosters, I’ll still want Crain, Guerrier, and Flores in the game before Alex Burnett and Rob Delaney. These pitchers should only be used when the game is out of reach or the bullpen in completely taxed like Friday’s game.

Hopefully, Gardenhire is taking a long look at his pitching staff and will rethink his strategy and going back to how things were before. 

Stick with what works. Now is not the time to experiment with a new bullpen strategy.

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