Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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Twins No Match For NY


Ron Gardenhire should worry less about what music Ruben Sierra listens to when he comes up to bat and watch the pitches his pitchers throw more carefully.

Who’s Gardenhire’s bench coach anyway?
Grady Little?

Joe Nathan was gassed, it was obvious he had nothing left on the ball when he threw four wide ones, the culmination of eight in a row out of the strike zone, to Derek Jeter.

A Rod who has enough power in this park to do some real damage even though he is often fooled by the pitch, ended the night with a mediocre fly ball double to tie the score and effectively end the Twins night.

Jasse Crain next in for Minnesota is a rookie, but he has a live arm and pitched well down the srtetch.

Why let the game get away?

Only Grady Little and Ron Gardenhire can explain last night’s brain lock.

Click below for more!If you pound A Rod up and in, then go away with a good slider, you’ve got him. The Twins couldn’t do that last night.

I’ve said it before, Minnesota doesn’t hit well enough to scare me and their stay in the ALDS will be short.

Anaheim looks like a frustrated team right now. They know they should be better, but the injuries have completely changed this team.

Garret Anderson finally smoked a ball last night, but it was right at Kevin Millar, causing an inning ending double play.

Frankie Rodriguez tries to do too much and should stay with his fastball until he gets into a slider count. His stuff is so good that he can get away with his breaking stuff even if the batter knows it is coming. Throwing all this junk early in the count only puts him in trouble, then he overthrows the ball like he did last night.

Boston has some thunder in the lineup. They look much the better team right now.

When you go down 2-0, you have to play literally inning by inning from here on out. Last night was the night the Angels needed to hang on, because it gets really hairy in Fenway Park starting tomorrow.

Houston got to the Atlanta pitching staff as I expected. If Carlos Beltran is out today, I’ll be surprised. He is a gamer and won’t let some sore ribs keep him out.

Roy Oswalt is a maximum effort pitcher who has pitched with an oblique strain all year long. The Astros are loaded from the right side and should give Mike Hampton all he can handle.

The Cards just need their usual six innings from Jason Marquis and things should be fine. Jeff Weaver is not what he used to be in Detroit, but he can keep this game 3-3 after six. Can the Dodgers break through on the St. Louis pen?

Perhaps. This game is the Dodger season today and I expect we’ll see more offense from them in this game.

A’s pick up Tim Harikkila from the Colorado bull pen. I hope they know something we don’t because I’ve seen this guy self destruct against the Giants a number of times.

Power pitching that we look for in October? Where was it?

Was Roger Clemens still feeling the effects of the flu or is he tired?

Pedro Martinez can’t consistently throw the ball past the good hitters, but he is an effective number two starter.

If he gets over his “Yankee Daddy” crisis I think the Yankee Red Sox series will be something to see.

Bartolo Colon is what he is. A good pitcher who is grossly out of shape and can’t put hitters away with his fastball. He relies on location and did well until Jason Varitek knocked one out. He got squeezed by the umps last night too.

Jaret Wright is a fourth starter who unfortunately had to try to be a number one yesterday.

Brad Radke laid the ball over the plate last night when he should have been more careful with his pitches. Radke doesn’t have the stuff to throw in a guy’s wheel house in a tight situation. He probably learned what he can and cannot do last night.

Jon Leiber needs five runs to win because a good hitting team will score four off of him.

Yankees very fortunate that Grady Little was Jimny Cricket to Ron Gardenhire last night because they were cooked if any one else comes in to bail Nathan out before the horse leaves the barn.

Dodgers and Braves face up hill battles today.

0 comments

1 Anonymous { 10.07.04 at 12:32 pm }

Thanks for the daily playoff updates Marty!

Nathan’s drop off in effectiveness was quite sudden in that last inning, but after the two walks even my fiancee was yelling for Ronny G to pull him. Unbelievable that he left him in to face Arod.

But how come Jacque Jones gets no grief for that pitiful throw on the sac fly? He may have had to go back on the ball and not had time to get set, or whatever, but it looked like he thought Jeter was bluffing and was just tossing the ball in to LeCroy. The bases are loaded, there’s no reason not to send that throw straight to the plate, not like other runners are going to advance. Horrible!! Gardenhire and Jones saved Posada from being the goat with all those passed balls.

2 marty { 10.07.04 at 1:11 pm }

Good observations. I thought Jones just had a weak arm, but maybe you are right perhaps he looked for the cut off man. Posada’s defense has always been a problem for the Yankees, but somehow they get away with it. His defense bears watching for the rest of the series.
Thanks,
Marty

3 Anonymous { 10.08.04 at 12:10 am }

TWINS VS YANKEES:
Is like a VW vs a Ferrari.
Charles O’Finley once said:
“Money talk and bullshit walks”
And boy was he correct !
Amaury

4 Anonymous { 02.18.06 at 1:51 am }

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