On his way to notching his second consecutive complete game, Vazquez retired the first eight Twins he faced. He got in a jam in the fifth inning, when he gave up singles to Jeff Cirillo and Nick Punto, who advanced on Luis Castillo's sacrifice bunt. Vazquez responded by getting Jason Bartlett and Joe Mauer to strike out looking, ending the inning.
The called strikes, it was clear, seemed questionable to Gardenhire. "(With) Joe, I don't know if you saw that pitch, but Joe's a pretty good hitter, I'll tell you that much," Gardenhire said, his gestures suggesting the pitches weren't exactly in the strike zone. "There you have it.
Two strikeouts in a row off pitches that are, whether they are there or there, they're there. That kind of takes you out of an inning." In 88 games, though, the 45-43 Twins have had bigger problems than questionable calls.
Player after player echoed the word "consistency" as the team's biggest second-half need. It was something starting pitcher Carlos Silva lacked Sunday. After retiring the side in order in the first two innings, Silva, 10-6 with a 4.
58 ERA, bombed in the third, coughing up five runs on seven hits, including three home runs. "Even one pitch can hurt the game," Silva said, "and the whole inning, that was a very bad inning. I missed my spots a lot of times.
" With 41 games remaining against the American League Central Division in the second half - 13 against Cleveland and nine against Detroit - the Twins can't afford to miss any more spots. "Tough way to end the first half," Gardenhire said, "but it seems like that's the way it's been going for us. We have to find a way to get better in the second half.
Hopefully a little more consistent pitching from some of the young guys and everybody, more consistent offense, and we'll see if we can plug away. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. We all know that.
" Kelsie Smith can be reached at ksmith@pioneerpress.com. Return to Top The Pioneer Press is pleased to let readers post comments about an article at the end of the article.
Please increase the credibility of your post by including your full name and city when commenting. Please note: It may take several minutes before your comment appears. On his way to notching his second consecutive complete game, Vazquez retired the first eight Twins he faced.
News RSS