M's 12, Twins 3
.
Q. K-Pax gave up runs! And how could this be?
A. Two things ... first, Dr. D agreed with Kreuger who was spot on, attributing "the ebb and flow of pitching." Paxton was coming off an emotional high in his first start back. His biorhythms looked down a tadbit.
Also, it was a case where the results were a skosh worse than the quality of the pitches deserved. Sometimes you deserve 1-2 runs and give up 3. Sometimes you deserve 1-2 runs and give up 0. That's what it sez here. ... in any case, you get a "down" game from K-Pax and he stretches his record to 5-0, 1.69.
Was pretty bummed to see that super cheap 340-foot homer break Paxton's homerless streak though :- )
.
Q. What's going on with Danny Valencia?
A. It's a cliche. But some guys need to stay through the ball up through the middle and let the HR's happen by accident. Valencia has gotten back to that, and WOW when he's doing that he can rake, can't he? His season-long OPS+ is already up to where it was with Oakland last year, .280/.350/.440 for a 115-120.
But that's season-long. Since April 25, that's 33 games, he was .352/.407/.541 and that's before the homer and walk Tuesday. Had no idea he could play first base this well defensively, either. He's giving us pretty much what we hoped for from Adam Lind last year.
Cool how our saber manager moved the hot guy to 2 in the lineup. Saberdweebs talk about moving GOOD hitters up to the 1-2-3 slots. Servais has been moving THAT WEEK'S good hitters to the 1-2 slots. Yay.
.
Q. Taylor Motter is running wild on the bases.
A. He's 7-0 now stealing bases. Did you catch what he said the other day ... we know he does everything pretty well on a diamond, but he sez the part he really loves is going after pitchers and catchers on the bases. He dives in to the base like he's coming off the top turnbuckle ... drops his elbow onto the 2B bag ... flips the hair ... what a joy, watching Taylor Motter attack on the basepaths. Never seen anything quite like it.
.
Q. Another smoooooth catch by Heredia on a line drive up against the railing.
A. If he's a top-3, top-5 defensive glove ... this guy becomes a key club-controls resource too, doesn't he?
He's got a su-PERB rate on fishing and Z-Swing%, that being 22% fish and a hefty 64% on strikes. Did you know his swing-miss rate, SwStr% was only 4.4%? Ichiro's was 5.2%. It's hard to believe he is so early in his career. He could hit better for all we know.
Heredia has got 1.0 WAR in about 30% of a season. In a normal year he would be the rookie "find" of the season. Like K-Swag said after the game, the M's have a Really. Deep. Offense. It's fun to watch it develop. Slap me silly if they could only get enough pitching.
.
Q. Miscellany being:
A. Felix threw 50 pitches "pain free" according to Dutton's twitter feed. Any chance at all the M's consider replacing HWMNBN and leaving Gavigs in there? Whattaya youse mooks think, that the M's will consider a Yovani retraction after the two Rainiers threw so desirably?
They sez Tyler O'Neill hit a glorious 4-run homer on Tuesday. Mebbe Gordon will update us as to where Tank stands as we head into June.
Here's the tragjectory on Robinson Cano's "2 Second Death Punch," also viewable on Divish' twitter:
.
.
.... whoops! The caption sez Boston! We just knew the one Tuesday had a lower apex ... well, it sez 56 feet, 107 MPH. He swatted that one.
We had a statement from Zuuumball that his new stance is for keeps and he feels different. Here's hopin'. He has indeed looked more comfortable and relaxed as the energy comes in. .... Siiiigghhhhhh
We're not sure why Nelson Cruz is limping. What difference does it make. I didn't see the guy making our traveling squad next trip anyway.
Mitch Haniger approacheth. I feel like tearing up the grass hysterically, 1962 Beatles style.
.
Q. Standings?
A. The M's have won 8 of 9, outscoring the enemy by 72-22. That's +50 run differential in six percent of a season? Heh! They're only -2.5 behind Balmer and there's only Cleveland between us and them.
Think we can pilfer a high-scoring win during Gallardo's travails on Wednesday? ;- ) Maybe down 5-3 in the middle innings, win it 9-7. The Twins don't have any Johan Santana up against us, I don't spose.
.
Just kiddin,
Dr D