{"id":480,"date":"2008-06-29T11:54:40","date_gmt":"2008-06-29T10:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=480"},"modified":"2009-09-26T11:47:49","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T10:47:49","slug":"weekly-hit-ground-ball-2008-week-thirteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"‘Weekly’ Hit Ground Ball 2008 – Week Thirteen"},"content":{"rendered":"

All good things must come to an end<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ten-game winning streak came to an end last night as Manny Parra and the Brewers defeated them 5-1.\u00c2\u00a0 While logic tells you that the run was always going to be halted at some stage, the confidence that developed in the Minnesota clubhouse must have made them think otherwise.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winning is contagious.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an old sporting clich\u00c3\u00a9, but like most sporting clich\u00c3\u00a9s it contains a large element of truth.\u00c2\u00a0 All sportsmen need to be confident to play at their best and in baseball, more than most sports, the strong performances of one or two players can lift the games of everyone else around them.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

One moment a batting lineup can be slumping, the next it can be firing on all cylinders thanks to a couple of batters getting hot at the plate.\u00c2\u00a0 Those extra runs give the pitching staff some breathing space, knowing that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to hold the opposition to two runs or less to have a chance at winning the game.\u00c2\u00a0 And it works the other way too.\u00c2\u00a0 Once the starting pitchers find their groove, the batting lineup doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to press under the pressure of needing to bat in eight or nine runs.<\/p>\n

When you look at the stats from the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 winning streak, the offensive numbers look good without making you fall off your chair in shock.\u00c2\u00a0 The batting lineup hit .309\/.368\/.476 with ten homers during those ten games: impressive, yet not suggesting that they tore the cover off the ball.\u00c2\u00a0 Overall they scored 63 runs and you would fancy your chances of winning a game if you averaged scoring six in each.<\/p>\n

The pitching staff combined had a 2.10 ERA over the ten-game span and limited their opponents to a .240\/.275\/.343 batting line.\u00c2\u00a0 Add in the unearned runs and teams only managed 2.5 runs per game against them.\u00c2\u00a0 Again, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very promising position to start from if you want to reel off a number of victories in a row.<\/p>\n

These are just averages though; the Twins didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t coast along winning 6-2 each time out.\u00c2\u00a0 So how did they do it?<\/p>\n

1) They swept the Nationals. 2-1, 11-2, 9-3.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heading into the series, the Nationals were 29-42 , dead last in the NL East but having swept the Mariners in a three-game series.\u00c2\u00a0 Seven strong innings from Livan Hernandez allowed them to edge a tight opening game 2-1 before the bats broke out in the second in a 11-2 victory, securing the series.\u00c2\u00a0 The brooms were waving in the Metrodome as the Twins completed the sweep with a 9-3 win, Glen Perkins getting his third win of the season.<\/p>\n

2) They swept the D-Backs. 7-2, 6-1, 5-3 (overall 18-6).<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the Nationals were seen as something of a soft touch, a sterner test was anticipated from the NL West leading Arizona Diamondbacks.\u00c2\u00a0 The Snakes had cooled off since their blistering start to the season, but their 39-34 record was still good enough to give them a 4.5 game cushion over the second placed Dodgers and they had just won two on the spin against the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n

The Twins struck seven runs off Randy Johnson in the first game of the series, while a six-run seventh inning was all the offense needed to win the second game.\u00c2\u00a0 After five wins on the spin, even Brandon Webb couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t halt the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 charge.\u00c2\u00a0 They landed Webb with only his fourth loss of the year in the finale.<\/p>\n

3) They swept the Padres.\u00c2\u00a0 3-1, 9-3, 4-3 (overall 16-7 overall).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Padres were bottom of the West with a 32-45 record, eight games behind the D-Backs and had lost their previous two to the Tigers.<\/p>\n

Kevin Slowey and Jake Peavy started in the opener.\u00c2\u00a0 With the score tied at 1-1, the Padres brought in Trevor Hoffman only to see Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher hit back-to-back jacks off the legendary closer.\u00c2\u00a0 Joe Nathan went three up, three down in the ninth to earn save number 20.\u00c2\u00a0 In game two, the Twins faced another future Hall of Famer in Greg Maddux.\u00c2\u00a0 Glen Perkins gave up three runs in the first two frames, but the Twins came storming back, drawing level in the top of the third before strolling away with a 9-3 victory.\u00c2\u00a0 The Twins once again gave their opponents a 3-0 headstart in the third game.\u00c2\u00a0 Justin Morneau homered as they battled back for a 4-3 victory.<\/p>\n

4) They beat the Brewers 7-6 on Friday to make it ten.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe those six runs conceded were the sign that this run was about to come to an end?\u00c2\u00a0 A batting lineup can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep producing all the time and if the pitching staff slips, your luck is going to run out.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The equation to win a game of baseball is simple: score more runs than the opposition.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether the offense or the defense is more important than the other is a matter for eternal debate.\u00c2\u00a0 You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t win without scoring any runs, but you have a much better chance of winning on a consistent basis if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to score many each time out.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe we should put the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 winning streak down to the pitching staff more than the batters?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or maybe we should put it down to them facing inferior National League teams?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Week 13 wrap-up<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as you were in the AL East, as the Red Sox (50-33) lead the Rays by 0.5 games, with the Yankees a further 4.5 games back.\u00c2\u00a0 The Twins streak has been counterbalanced recently by the White Sox (45-35) winning three in a row, so Minnesota still trail by 1.5 games in the Central,\u00c2\u00a0 The A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s have reduced the gap in the West by one over the week, as they now sit 3.5 behind the Angels (48-33).<\/p>\n

The senior circuit as a whole has taken a pasting in interleague play.\u00c2\u00a0 So far this season, the AL has won 141 of the 240 games played, but this hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a big effect on the NL standings.\u00c2\u00a0 The Phillies (42-34) lead the Marlins by one game in the East, while the Cubs (49-32) remain 3.5 ahead of the Cardinals in the Central.\u00c2\u00a0 The one team on the move are the Dodgers, who have closed to within 2.5 games of the D-Backs (41-40) in the West, which surprisingly has been the least impressive division in the majors so far this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All good things must come to an end The Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ten-game winning streak came to an end last night as Manny Parra and the Brewers defeated them 5-1.\u00c2\u00a0 While logic tells you that the run was always going to be halted at some stage, the confidence that developed in the Minnesota clubhouse must have made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-hit-ground-ball","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4598,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/4598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}