A really odd 10th inning for the Twins Friday night in Seattle — Jason Kubel robbed of a three-run homer, Joe Mauer caught in a rundown on a busted squeeze bunt, and the Seattle LF, Wladimir Balentinen, fielding as well as his parents could spell. (That's Balentinen above chasing the ball to the wall after muffing the game-winning fly ball.)
Ron Gardenhire is irked that Mighty Matt Tolbert didn't get credited with a hit on Balentinen's misplay, which is silly. Tolbert has the far more mature attitude.
* Incidentally, since I gripe a lot about the quality of the Twins broadcasters, I should note that Dick Bremer mentioned while Kubel's drive was headed over the fence and into Franklin's Gutierrez's glove that Mauer was tagging up at second base. Normally the Twins broadcasters figure we can see the baserunners, which is particularly irritating from the radio guys. Bremer did a good job on that play, checking the baserunners while the ball was in flight and telling us something useful.
* A few days ago, there was talk about shifting Francisco Liriano to the bullpen so that Anthony Swarzak could stay in the rotation when Glen Perkins returns. Then Swarzak got raked on Wednesday by Cleveland, and Liriano had six innings of one-run ball Friday.
Liriano continue to put up odd stat lines. This time ... 101 pitches, 60 of them strikes, not a horrid ratio — but he still walked four hitters. He didn't really pitch that well against a weak offense.
Swarzak, meanwhile, has had three starts, getting progressively worse in each, at least in results. Nothing in his major league stat line, brief though it be, shouts out that this man is superior to Liriano or Perkins.
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