Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Monday, May 28, 2012
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Monday, May 28, 2012 Tom Powers: Twins’ P.J. Walters wriggled well enough to deserve win. Pioneer Press (Powers) p. 2 Twins’ fate turns on one Matt Capps pitch. Pioneer Press (Shipley) p. 3 Tigers 4, Twins 3: Miguel Cabrera’s two-run homer off closer Matt Capps gives Detroit a sweep. Pioneer Press (Shipley) p. 4 Minnesota Twins need pitchers, and Komatsu caught in crossfire. Pioneer Press (Shipley) p. 4 Capps blows save as Twins fall to Detroit 4-3. Star Tribune (Christensen) p. 5 Walters passes another test. Star Tribune (Christensen) p. 6 Postgame: Perkins, Mauer, Dozier and Revere. Star Tribune (Christensen) p. 7 Twins face tough draft decision. Star Tribune (Christensen) p. 7 Hartman: Ryan says Twins have to put pitching and hitting together. Star Tribune (Hartman) p. 10 Capps blows first save, Twins drop fifth straight. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 12 Mauer Makes wish come true for young fan. MLB.com (Garretson) p. 13 Soldier surprises daughters at Twins game. MLB.com (Garretson) p. 14 Twins recall Manship; Komatsu designated. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 15 A’s, Twins open set with Memorial Day clash. MLB.com (Toman) p. 16 Numbers game: Twins pitchers on pace for historically bad season. 1500ESPN.com (Mackey) p. 17 Cabrera’s ninth-inning homer off Capps spoils gritty effort by Walters. 1500ESPN.com (Mackey) p. 18 Twins pregame race ends in happy surprise. FSNorth.com (Mason) p. 20 Walters passes first test of repeat opponent. FSNorth.com (Mason) p. 21 Twins recall RHP Manship, designate Komatsu. FSNorth.com (Mason) p. 23 Twins make reliever Manship their 8th call-up from Triple-A this year; Komatsu let go. Associated Press (Campbell) p. 23 Cabrera’s ninth-inning bomb does in the Twins. Associated Press (Campbell) p. 24 Twins, A’s each seek to end lengthy skids. Associated Press (Staff) p. 25 Twins suffer sweep to red-hot Tigers. Associated Press (Staff) p. 26 Top Twitter Mentions p. 27 ~ 1 ~ Tom Powers: Twins’ P.J. Walters wriggled well enough to deserve win By: Tom Powers, Pioneer Press – 5/27/12 It was like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands. Even if you grab it, the fish will wriggle and twist and most likely swim away. Watching P.J. Walters wriggle and twist and otherwise frustrate the heavy-hitting Detroit Tigers was simply amazing. The Tigers had so many runners moving around the bases that it looked like one big conga line. Yet the dance always ended at third base. When in trouble, which was pretty much always, Walters gave them the looping curveball. Sometimes it looped a little less. Sometimes it looped a little more. And he kept squirting free from their grasp. So despite giving up seven hits, five walks and hitting a batter over six innings, he left with a 3-2 lead and the Twins seemingly in good shape. Matt Capps coughed it up in the ninth, however, taking away some of the luster from what I thought was one of the grittier performances by a Twins pitcher in awhile. Walters simply would not give in. "I was kind of all over the place and falling behind guys," Walters said. "That leads to hits, walks and everything else. Just built my own trouble, and we were able to turn a few double plays there and get me out of it." He threw 93 pitches, and just 50 were strikes. And he always seemed one pitch from total disaster. But he never made that one pitch. After being touched for two runs in the first, he went five more innings while putting out fire after fire. The Tigers could not score again off him. "That's a good-hitting baseball team over there, and you have to be very careful," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "There's certain situations you can't give in to them, and he didn't. He kept using all of his pitches: slider, that big looping curveball, he changed speed with it. He got enough fastballs in. It definitely was one of those battles for him, that's for sure. He had to really work his way through some things today." If Capps hadn't given up a two-run homer to Miguel Cabrera in the ninth to secure a 4-3 Tigers win, Walters' old-fashioned gutsy effort would have been the talk of the day. But the homer came like a thunderclap, rocking the Twins after almost 3-1/2 hours of scratching and clawing in the heat. "Kind of one of those that knock the sail out of your wind ... knock the wind out of your sails, something like that," Gardenhire said. Walters, like many of his teammates, still seemed in shock afterward. He acknowledged that he was able to work out of all those jams but basically said he wished it hadn't come to that. "Not one of those things you want to do too often," he said. "One swing of the bat and you're basically out of the game early. It can be done; guys do pitch out of trouble. But it's not something you're going to get away with too often." After scoring twice in the first, the Tigers had two on and no outs in the second before Walters wriggled away. Then they had a man on in the third, three on in the fourth, three in the fifth and two in the sixth. They had at least one runner in scoring position in five of Walters' six innings. Yet he held firm, throwing that big bender in dire times. The Tigers hacked and whacked but simply couldn't break through against him. When he left with a lead, it just felt like the Twins were going to win. Here's another thing about Walters: He drilled Jhonny Peralta in the leg in the fourth inning. Of course, pitchers never admit to such things, but it was a pitch with a purpose. In the bottom of the third, with two outs and first base open, Tigers starter Rick Porcello hit Josh Willingham. That happened right after Joe Mauer had lined a shot off Porcello's shin. Perhaps Porcello was letting off a little steam because Mauer really nailed him and had him hobbling around the mound. But the key was that first base was open, and he probably was going to walk Willingham anyway. So, boom, a first-pitch plunk. ~ 2 ~ In the top of the fourth, the Tigers had runners at the corners with one out when Brennan Boesch stole second. That called for a walk to Peralta to set up a double play. No worries; Walters just nailed him with the next pitch. Oh, and then Don Kelly hit into a double play. Sunday's game marked the second time in 10 days that Walters had faced the Tigers. He beat them in Detroit. "I think they had a better idea of what I was throwing," Walters said. "They knew the pitches I had." Yes, but not well enough. It was a shame that such a determined effort was wasted. Twins’ fate turns on one Matt Capps pitch By: John Shipley, Pioneer Press – 5/27/12 Although starting pitching undoubtedly has betrayed the Twins most this season, it has become clear after nearly two months that the rotation can't account for all the team's sins. On Sunday, May 27, it was the bullpen that failed in a 4-3 loss to Detroit. "It seems that it's a different part of our team," reliever Glen Perkins said. "Every time we lose, it's a different bunch of guys." Handed a rare lead, closer Matt Capps blew his first save of the season, giving up a long, loud two-run home run by Miguel Cabrera in the ninth inning. Estimated to have traveled 414 feet to straightaway center, the homer came on an 0-2 pitch with a man on second. "I blew it," Capps said. "That one's on me." Cabrera hit a belt-high, 94-mph fastball that was supposed to have jammed him. Instead, he got the barrel on it and sent it over the center- field fence, sending the Twins to their fifth straight loss and an 0-3 start on a six-game homestand that continues Monday with a holiday matinee against Oakland. " 'Tough loss' is an understatement," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We battled pretty hard through that ballgame." The sweep, the sixth against the Twins this season, was a major disappointment after a 5-3 road trip through Detroit, where they swept the Tigers in two, Milwaukee and Chicago. "To lay an egg like that is not what we were trying to do," Perkins said. Starter P.J. Walters worked in and out of trouble, giving up just two earned runs on seven hits and five walks, one intentional, in six innings. With the help of four double plays -- the Twins lead the majors with 66 -- Walters left with a 3-2 lead, and relievers Jared Burton and Perkins pitched scoreless innings to put the ball into the hands of Capps, who was 9 for 9 in his previous save opportunities. Quentin Berry led off the ninth with a single and stole second before Capps got Andy Dirks to fly to left for the first out. Capps then got two quick swinging strikes on Cabrera, but instead of throwing his new forkball in the dirt or something away to try to induce a strikeout, he and catcher Joe Mauer went with a third fastball.