Attacked by Cats

The Twins were absolutely mauled by the Barrie Baycats in Meadowvale tonight – it felt like it would be a ballgame for a while, it really did, but the first place team opened things up against Mickey Campeanu in the middle innings, plastering him for six runs over three innings of work. The final wound up being 14-6; minus Campeanu’s horror show, it would have been a two run game and the Twins’ final at bats would have meant something, with them being within striking distance.

Shane Cole got the start, and his line wasn’t pretty either – he gave up six runs over four innings, but I really thought he pitched a lot better than those numbers suggest. He was hit hard – and I mean hard – a few times, but at the same time a lot of the hits the Baycats put up against him were just well placed. He had very good stuff, and I think that in a parallel universe his start tonight could have yielded far better results than the baseball gods chose to give it.

A few other Twins really, really impressed me. Jon Amendola was spectacular, smacking a solo home run early in the game, crushing an RBI double later on, and also drawing a walk before coming around to score. He struck out – looking pretty bad in doing so, I might add – later in the game with the bases loaded, but he was facing a lefty (he’s a lefty himself) and his earlier offense more than afforded him an excellent night at the dish despite the K.

Darryl Pui was spectacular – and I mean off-the-friggin-charts-brilliant – in right field tonight. Ironically, he didn’t even wind up with an outfield assist or anything flashy like that, but nonetheless three plays come to mind: in the third, Barrie DH Todd Betts ripped a single to right with runners on first and second, and Pui came up throwing, somehow preventing the lead runner from scoring – from where I was, it looked like a sure runner-scores-from-second kind of single, but Darryl’s arm held him at third. In the seventh, Jeff Cowan smacked a double into the right field corner, and even though it was a clear double off the bat, Pui tracked it down and came up gunning for second, somehow getting the throw there within a split second of the runner. Cowan was definitely safe, but the play had absolutely no right even being close to close, and it’s entirely thanks to Pui’s effort that the Twins almost stole an out. Later in the seventh, with Ryan Spataro on second, Dave Latour poked another base hit to Pui in right, and again, even though Spataro wound up scoring, Pui’s gun came within inches of nailing him at the plate. It was a fairly slowly hit ball that Pui had to charge, and it was another play that shouldn’t have been close by the wildest stretch of the imagination, but Pui made it as close as close gets with an awesome throw.

That’s baseball for you: zero outfield assists for Pui, but three absolutely out of this world plays that made all the real baseball people watching the game’s jaws drop. Awesome.

I suppose it’s tough to argue that Twins won any sort of victory – moral or otherwise – in a game they lost 14-6, but as I wrote earlier, minus Campeanu’s six run disiaster when the game was still within reach, the Twins would have been there, playing with the league leaders, the whole way.

Bench coach Ian Held provided some enlightening insight during the post-game media scrum: due to the absence of a couple outfielders and a couple position players, a couple of pitchers (that’s a lot of couples) had to play positions – and thus hit. Luis Castillo subbed in in left field, and Benson Merritt was also playing the field – at first base, I think. Anyways, as Held pointed out, correctly, both of those guys struck out with the bases loaded a couple of times. Neither of them have hit at a competitive level in years and years and years, being pitchers and all, and if the Twins had had a full roster there would have been actual hitters hitting in those slots, and who knows how a two run single or a bases clearing double at the right time would have changed the complexion of the game.

So, we have two different causes for optimism the Twins can bank on after being – according to the scoreboard, at least – taken to the woodshed by the league leaders: a relief pitcher imploded in a manner that was far outside the norm of what one might expect from any bullpen, and several of the Twins’ biggest at-bats, with the bases loaded, were taken by pitchers who simply were not qualified as hitters. It’s true – the game is played on the diamond and not on paper, but on paper those are both compelling reasons to think that on a happier day, the Twins just might be able to hang with the Baycats.

That happier day could potentially come on Friday, when Barrie is back in town for a regularly scheduled game (tonight’s was a make-up of an earlier rain out). If the Twins can avoid giving up one of those big innings that always seem to kill them, we could have a very exciting game and a far better gauge of where they stand relative to the rest of the league.

I absolutely must say a couple of things about the Baycats before I wrap this up, though. I was a little more than surprised to see that they had a player-manager – actually a player-starter. Their starting pitcher, Angus Roy, is also their manager. Strange, beyond strange even. Someone told me that he was recently released as a player – presumably on his own advice – and only re-signed with the team as a player, in addition to keeping his duties as manager, before the game tonight because the ‘cats were in dire straits as far as personnel goes.

As shocked as I was to see a player-manager, it was nothing compared to when the Baycats put in their mop-up guy in the ninth – and he didn’t have a right hand. I know, I know, it’s bad to stigmatize and point these things out, but it was pleasant shock: the man, who is named Jake Hines, was absolutely spectacular, flawlessly and, it seemed, effortlessly flipping the ball from his stub to his throwing hand and his glove from his stub to his fielding hand (which was the same as his throwing hand, obviously). My God, he was good. He fielded a comebacker to the mound and threw the runner out at first like it was absolutely nothing; the throw, stub-to-hand transition and all, easily beat the runner by thirty feet. Wow.

Anyways, my pieces from the weekend’s games are up on MississaugaTwins.ca, and, as always, you can look for my piece about tonight’s game in a day or two! I need to finish some academic research in the next couple of days, but I’ll try to squeeze in some time tomorrow to hammer out the story on tonight’s game.

Check back for more blog coverage after the Friday Barrie game; the Twins also host the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, and I’ll be covering – and blogging – that game as well.