Slowey To Be Traded Soon

"The Kevin Slowey relief experiment has ended, and a change of scenery appears to be in order. The 27-year-old control artist told Twins manager Ron Gardenhire he doesn't think he can continue as a reliever, according to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Slowey is headed back to Triple-A to get stretched out as a starter, but Gardenhire implied on ESPN 1500 that the right thing is to find the righty a starting opportunity with another club. After Sunday's game, Slowey had this to say to Neal:

"I understand our situation here. I understand the starters we have here, and I understand that, even given past successes as a starter, this might not be the right fit for me anymore (MLBTradeRumors)."

We talked about this before the season even started, but it looks like it finally might happen. There are certainly going to be some teams that are interested (Yankees/Royals?), but I don't think you have to worry about the Red Sox getting involved. In my opinion that's a good thing. Slowey is a guy who would be a good pitcher in a large ballpark. As this site says "He's a righty with a 90 mile per hour heater. He's hittable, and his high flyball rate makes him prone to the longball." Those are not things you want to hear if you are playing at Fenway. Unless something really bad happens like Dice-K or Lackey getting shut down for the year I don't see them getting involved.

2 Red Sox, 1 Twins

Clutch Crawford won the game for the Sox.... Again.

After Jonathan Papelbon blew the save and Josh Becketts 7 inning performance. Carl Crawford hit walk off in the 11th and The Future aka Jose Inglesias scored from first base.

I was happy for Carl and for Jose as one has been struggling and one is a new comer.

Worth mentioning is Beckett. He seems to have got it back. 7 innings, 5 hits, 5 ks and lowered his era is now at 1.99.

Also the Sox are back to 1 game under .500.

A theory of mine is that Marco Scutaro will never be in a Sox uniform again.

Box Score

Twins @ Red Sox Preview

Red Sox offense seems to be waking up, as they once again close in to .500. Tonight we get Beckett vs. Nick Blackburn. Blackburn is 2-0 with a 3.20 ERA in three career starts against Boston, but he really is nothing special. On the season he is 2-4 4.41, so Boston should be able to pound him into submission.

Beckett looked good last time out, but the rain got in the way and he was only able to play 4 1/3 innings. Overall Beckett has been great. He hasn't lost since his first start April 5, allowing 7 runs with 31 strikeouts in 33 1/3 innings since that lose. The Twins can't hit anything right now, and have a bunch of guys on the field that I really don't know at all.

This should be an easy win for Boston. I think Ellsbury and Gonzalez are going to keep rolling and Boston wins big.

Red Sox 8-2
Player of the Game: Gonzalez
Game starts at 7:10

9 Red Sox, 5 Twins

Again, Dice k is proving to everyone why he is the best pitcher on the staff. He is able to deal with adversity of errors and early missed calls by Varitek and still give a gutty performance for the win.

But other than Dice k the 2nd most impressive thing of the day is from the batting line up. We got on Carl Pavano early and often chasing him out of the game after 5 innings when he gave up 7 runs.

Adrian Gonzalez continues to mash as he hit another home run, Youk is shaking off his bad early start and the Sox in my eyes have officially turned it around.

Also, something to note is that Jose Inglesies is up with the team.

Twins @ Red Sox Preview

Well, last game was ugly. The Red Sox aren't hitting, they aren't pitching, and now they have guys hurt (Lowrie/Youk). At least the Twins have been worse (11-18), and the last 7 times they have come to Fenway they have lost.

Tonight we get Scott Baker against Tim Wakefield. Last game the Wake started he was surprisingly good going 5 2/3 innings allowing just 1 run, but as we have seen with Wake throughout his career you can't put much stock in the last game as he pitched. You just really never know what you're going to get.

Baker has been kind of a hard luck pitcher this year. His record is 1-2, but his ERA is only 3.16. He is really the definition of average, and one would think the Sox would be able to hit him.

I am hoping the Sox can pull this out, because I am really sick of writing about how they fucking suck, but I just don't feel it tonight. But you shouldn't put much into that since every time I pick against them they seem to win.

Twins win 7-5
Player of the Game: Kubel
Game starts at 7:10pm

Liriano Throws A No-Hitter

A day after I threw Liriano under the bus saying that he might lose his rotation spot to Kevin Slowey he promptly goes out and throws a no-hitter against the White Sox. In one for the oddest no-hitter you will ever see Liriano walked 6 guys, only threw 2 strikeouts, and threw 125 pitches to get through 9 innings.

I really don't know what to think. We all know Liriano had the talent, and although what he accomplished last night was impressive I really don't think that his season is suddenly going to turnaround. Maybe I'm wrong, like I said I thought he was going to be making a trip to the DL just 24 hours ago, but you have to look beyond just this game. Even with the no-hitter Liriano still has an ERA of 6.61 ERA (it was 9.13 coming in), and even in this game he had the same kind of struggles that have plagued him all season walks (24 BB in 32.2 inning only 20 Ks).

This game just highlighted how bad the White Sox have been. This is a team I thought could challenge for a World Series, now they are sitting at 11-20 (last place in the AL Central) and 10 1/2 games behind the Indians. I really don't understand why they aren't hitting with a lineup of Dunn, Konerko (who's doing his job), Rios, and Quentin.

Well congrats to Liriano, no matter what they can never take a no-hitter away from you, and I actually hope this does turnaround his season, but I doubt it.

Liriano Out Of Twins Rotation?

Liriano has looked terrible this season (1-4 with a 9.13 ERA) it has gotten so bad that the Twins are starting to think about mulling him out of the rotation. This is pretty shocking for a guy who was so good last year (14-10 3.62 ERA 201 Ks in 191.2 IP), but it seems his arm is hanging by a thread, and it might be the best option to sit him down for a while and figure out what the hell is wrong with him.

Kevin Slowey is making his way back, and it is getting pretty obvious that he is going to take Liriano's rotation spot, unless some dramatic turnaround happens soon. Either way this is all terrible news for the last place Twins, who are currently riding a 6 game losing streak.

Joe Mauer to the DL

Never good to hear that your catcher in the 2nd week of the season has to be put on the DL for leg weakness. Mauer had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in the offseason. With that he had a very light spring. But I have a bad feeling about the Twins all together this season.

If the White Sox could close a game they would be running away with this division. The Royals are a surprise team and the Tigers are always in the hunt. But with the loss of Mauer and the overall shittiness of Fransisco Liriano it could be a long year in Sota. I have a gut feeling this will be 1 of many injuries that slows Mauer down all season.

At least the Wolves have a shot at the number 1 pick in the NBA draft.