Twins edged by D-Backs in finale
PHOENIX -- Those darn National League rules.
A big inning was in the offing for the Twins against the Diamondbacks on Thursday. With two on and one out and his team trailing by three runs, it was pitcher Kyle Lohse's responsibility to move the runners over with a bunt. In the American League, Lohse would have been represented at the plate by a designated hitter.
Lohse's first attempt to square one went foul. Another bunt rolled promisingly down the third-base line but had enough English to hook foul. He struck out on his final bunt attempt.
The Twins would go on to lose their shot at a sweep of Arizona in a 4-3 loss before 22,139 fans at Bank One Ballpark.
"Shoot, I get to [hit] once a year," Lohse said. "It's hard to do that."
"It is National League rules, you can't do anything about it," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That's just where we are and the way it is. [If a] pitcher comes up early enough in the game, you have to give him a chance to bunt him over and see if the next guy gets him in."
Had there been runners on second and third, a single from the next batter Shannon Stewart would have scored two runs. But he nearly got them in anyway. Stewart launched a long fly ball to the deepest part of the park in rjght-center field. Center fielder Jose Cruz Jr. robbed him with a difficult running catch over his right shoulder at the warning track.
"A nice Willie Mays catch over his head," Gardenhire said. "He smacked that ball pretty good. A couple more feet, maybe it's off the wall or something like that. It wasn't quite there."
Not quite there was the story of the night.
Despite a solo homer by Justin Morneau in the fifth and Jacque Jones' two-run blast in the sixth, which gave them seven long balls in three games, Minnesota sputtered against Diamondbacks starter Javier Vazquez (6-4).
Vazquez gave up three runs on just three hits over six innings, but used up a gaudy 112 pitches in the process.
"We kind of let Vazquez off the hook a little," Gardenhire regretted. "We hit some balls right on the screws at people. He wasn't spectacular by any means. We should have been able to get to him I thought. We got people out there. We just didn't finish him off."
Lohse (5-4) battled with his command but kept it well within reach. He could have used some of the synergy Johan Santana had with his lineup one night earlier in a 10-0 shutout.
"We could have switched that around and given Johan three runs and give me nine or 10," joked Lohse, who allowed four runs and seven hits over six innings. "That would have been nice."
Lohse left a first-pitch changeup up for Cruz leading off the fourth. He launched it a home run to right field. Two singles followed by Chad Tracy and Chris Snyder. A sharp grounder to the mound by Craig Counsell was hard to come up with by the pitcher and allowed a run to score. Alex Cintron's hard RBI single to center field made it 4-0.
"I had nothing today," admitted Lohse, whose streak of four straight quality starts ended. "My fastball was all over the place.
"Things got away from me that one inning. I battled to keep us in the game. I did what I had to do to keep us close."
A big inning was in the offing for the Twins against the Diamondbacks on Thursday. With two on and one out and his team trailing by three runs, it was pitcher Kyle Lohse's responsibility to move the runners over with a bunt. In the American League, Lohse would have been represented at the plate by a designated hitter.
Lohse's first attempt to square one went foul. Another bunt rolled promisingly down the third-base line but had enough English to hook foul. He struck out on his final bunt attempt.
The Twins would go on to lose their shot at a sweep of Arizona in a 4-3 loss before 22,139 fans at Bank One Ballpark.
"Shoot, I get to [hit] once a year," Lohse said. "It's hard to do that."
"It is National League rules, you can't do anything about it," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That's just where we are and the way it is. [If a] pitcher comes up early enough in the game, you have to give him a chance to bunt him over and see if the next guy gets him in."
Had there been runners on second and third, a single from the next batter Shannon Stewart would have scored two runs. But he nearly got them in anyway. Stewart launched a long fly ball to the deepest part of the park in rjght-center field. Center fielder Jose Cruz Jr. robbed him with a difficult running catch over his right shoulder at the warning track.
"A nice Willie Mays catch over his head," Gardenhire said. "He smacked that ball pretty good. A couple more feet, maybe it's off the wall or something like that. It wasn't quite there."
Not quite there was the story of the night.
Despite a solo homer by Justin Morneau in the fifth and Jacque Jones' two-run blast in the sixth, which gave them seven long balls in three games, Minnesota sputtered against Diamondbacks starter Javier Vazquez (6-4).
Vazquez gave up three runs on just three hits over six innings, but used up a gaudy 112 pitches in the process.
"We kind of let Vazquez off the hook a little," Gardenhire regretted. "We hit some balls right on the screws at people. He wasn't spectacular by any means. We should have been able to get to him I thought. We got people out there. We just didn't finish him off."
Lohse (5-4) battled with his command but kept it well within reach. He could have used some of the synergy Johan Santana had with his lineup one night earlier in a 10-0 shutout.
"We could have switched that around and given Johan three runs and give me nine or 10," joked Lohse, who allowed four runs and seven hits over six innings. "That would have been nice."
Lohse left a first-pitch changeup up for Cruz leading off the fourth. He launched it a home run to right field. Two singles followed by Chad Tracy and Chris Snyder. A sharp grounder to the mound by Craig Counsell was hard to come up with by the pitcher and allowed a run to score. Alex Cintron's hard RBI single to center field made it 4-0.
"I had nothing today," admitted Lohse, whose streak of four straight quality starts ended. "My fastball was all over the place.
"Things got away from me that one inning. I battled to keep us in the game. I did what I had to do to keep us close."
