After the visitors half of the third inning last night in Seattle, Minnesota had a 4-0 lead. Then Seattle scored one in the third, two more in the fourth, and tied the game in the fifth. The offense for the Twins continued to sputter. Jesse Crain walked in the winning run in the eighth and the Twins lost 5-4. Another game got away. More frustration. It even came on a day when the White Sox lost to Yankees, which would have allowed the Twins to gain a game on Chicago. It came on a day when the Angels and A's were off, meaning a missed opportunity to gain a half-game on them. Grrr....

Now, nobody can say that the Twins aren't trying. They're going out, pitching, swinging the bats, and playing defense, but that isn't enough - they need to get angry! Last year at this time, the Twins were sputtering offensively as well. Their lead in the AL Central was dwindling quickly and the whole team was in a funk. They were getting their asses beat on a road trip to Seattle and Cleveland. Losers of 8 of 10, their lead over the Indians was down to only one game following a 7-1 loss to Cleveland on August 14. Things weren't looking good. Then it happened - Corey Koskie got pissed. In the second inning of their game against Cleveland on August 15, his throwing error set up Cleveland's second run. In the fourth inning, he struck out with the bases loaded and one out after being ahead in the count. After that strikeout, he walked back to the dugout and down the hallway, where he slammed a bat against a pole and smashed a chair. Using that same bat, he got hits in his next three at-bats: a double, a single, and the game-winning two-run homerun in tenth.

That wasn't the end of it! Koskie went on a friggin' tear! Over the next two weeks, Koskie went on a 14-game hitting streak. During that streak, he hit .359 with 7 homeruns, 3 doubles, and 14 RBIs. It didn't finally end until he got spiked by Curtis Pride of the Angels on August 28. Playing dirty was the only way that anybody was going to stop Koskie.

That's precisely what the Twins need right now. They're a team that's down, but definitely not out. They have six more games against Oakland, thirteen more games against Chicago, and six more games against Cleveland. They also have a lot of games left against Detroit, Kansas City, Seattle, and Texas. This thing isn't over by a long shot, but they need a spark. They need someone to get angry. They need Lew Ford to put his head through a wall or Jacque Jones to drop-kick a water cooler or Justin Morneau to step up to the plate with a friggin' telephone pole for a bat. Something. Anything. They don't just need guys to play hard, they need guys to get pissed. They need to get frustrated to the point where they take matters into their own hands and go on a huge winning streak. It can happen, but time is ticking, and they need to do it now.

» Twins 4, Cleveland 2 [startribune.com]
» Evaluating Koskie's injury [twinsbaseball.com]

06:37 PM | (0)
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