Plastered

The Twins were nothing short of horrible in dropping an ugly 9-0 decision on what was otherwise a gorgeous day at Christie Pits – I imagine the day at the ballpark was close to ideal for most Leafs’ fans, but I had a tough time stringing out the last few innings. But I did, and as a result you’ll all get to read coach Calcagni’s verbatim thoughts on the slaughter early this week.

It was really one of those games where nothing went right. Brian Speck, who was supposed to start Saturday in Meadowvale but was rained away, got the ball, and he didn’t help himself very much – a handful of wild pitches led to a bunch of runs scored, on actual steals of home and due to the ease with which the Leafs’ baserunners advanced on a few of them.

That said, his defence wasn’t there for him – three errors in the second, and six on the day, made it very tough for him, and no doubt if the defence had been there his line wouldn’t be as ugly as it wound up being. The Twins were behind by a 6-0 count after two, and it was tough to believe that they had much of a chance against Leafs’ ace Matt Taylor.

I’m not sure what Speck’s future holds – he started the season as a starter, was sent to the ‘pen to work a few things out, earned another start and blew it today. Coming to think of it, coach C did indicate Speck would get a start next weekend, and it would be a bit silly to demote someone to the ‘pen on the basis of today’s game, when absolutely nothing went right, so I think he gets at least another shot as a starter.

The Twins’ offense wasn’t there either. They had their chances early against Taylor – they got their first two men on in the top of the first and couldn’t do anything, and they hit a few balls very hard in the top of the second when they were only down by 3 and could have made a game out of it, but nothing fell for them. It was all downhill after that as they put together very few solid at-bats – there were, it seemed, a lot of disinterested-looking fly balls that came off their bats, and they swung at a ton of pitches they shouldn’t have and let a few go right down the middle.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Not pretty at all, all things considered. It was a tough game to drop after firing on all cylinders against Kitchener the right before.

Baseball, of course, is a very redeeming sport – and the Twins have an unscheduled shot at redemption on Wednesday night when they play a make-up game against Barrie. From what I have heard about the mighty, mighty Baycats, the Twins don’t even need to win the game to redeem themselves – although none of them will tell you that, obviously. If they keep it close and prove they can at least play with Barrie – you know, furthering the whole ‘play with any team in the league’ thesis – it’ll be a huge moral victory and they’ll be fine for the back half of the season.

Even though they’re 0-2 against the Leafs this season, I think they would be very competitive in a best of seven series, should the Battle of the GTA (as dubbed by Roger Lajoie) resume in the playoffs (it resumes next Saturday at Meadowvale first, though). I’m told that the Leafs have very, very little pitching depth after Taylor, and the Twins have run into him in both games. He pitches Leafs’ Sunday home games, and with the Twins not playing anymore Sunday games at Christie Pits we’ll get a chance to see how they fare against Leafs’ starters not named Matt Taylor, which is what they would get a shot at about five times in a playoff series.

I’ll probably add some further thoughts on how the Twins match up against the top of the league in a hypothetical-but-probably-likely first round series after the Barrie game. Look for my pieces on MississaugaTwins.ca in the next couple of days and check out my blogging after the Barrie game!