Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Late night: Angels 4, Twins 3

C.J. Wilson allowed just six baserunners in 7.1 innings,
but three of them scored.
Box score here

Game story here

Nick Blackburn was pretty good for Nick Blackburn -- three runs in six innings, one of them the result of Josh Willingham losing a ball in the lights -- but C.J. Wilson was better. As he should be; Wilson is simply the better pitcher.

I keep expecting Wilson to get hurt -- his delivery displays what is known in some circles as an "inverted W," which is thought in those circles to put undue strain on the elbow -- but he has survived two full seasons in the rotation plus extended playoff runs.

More significant, perhaps, than the outcome of Monday's game was the mid-game departure of Justin Morneau with wrist soreness. How serious it is, is unknown. Ron Gardenhire said Morneau will fly back to see a hand specialist.

A handful of other points:

*Chris Parmelee got his first start since his beaning. He didn't play against Kansas City, in part because the Royals started a pair of left-handers, and Gardenhire is limiting Parmelee's exposure to southpaws. But he started against Wilson, one of the tougher lefties in the league, in no small part because Joe Mauer finally sat out a game.

Parmelee got hit by a pitch to open the three-run seventh inning rally against Wilson, which is probably a good sign in that it suggests that he's not flinching away from lefties. He did go 0-for-3 against Wilson and lefty reliever Scott Downs.

* Alexi Casilla doubled Parmelee home, and earlier had a single and two steals. He singled with two outs in the ninth. After the game of April 22, he was hitting .227; since then he's 8-for-16 and he's at .300.

* Jared Burton relieved in the eighth and blew through the inning on just nine pitches. He now leads the team in appearances with 11, although there are three others with 10 and another with nine. Gardenhire has generally avoided using his relievers on consecutive days, although Burton did so Sunday-Monday.

Ex-Twins in the news: Luke Hughes, axed by the Twins a bit more than a week ago, played in four games for Oakland and now has been designated for assignment by the A's. He went 1-for-13 and committed three errors, so it's difficult to defend his play there.

Still, Oakland gave him the boot to make room for Brandon Inge, and I see this as going with the the guy they know can't play rather than the guy they think can't play.

* Delmon Young was suspended seven games by MLB for his New York arrest.

The Tigers put Young on the restricted list after the incident, a move apparently forced by the new collective bargaining agreement.. It's definitely different from the way the Tigers handled Miguel Cabrera's drunken arrests (2009 ans 2011). Of course, Cabrera is a star; Young is not.


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