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If one team actually played the game perfectly (which would mean the other team couldn’t, quite), baseball would be dull. Tonight, in the first of a weekend series against the Royals, the Twins produce a dull second inning and eight other exciting ones as they hoist themselves over .500.
Kevin Slowey starts for the Twins. In his last outing against the Indians, he was masterful and he has assembled a pretty 3-0 record, though the journey there has required some nail biting.
But the big high hope in the Metrodome is the long-awaited return of Joe Mauer. Mauer’s back woes kept him from spring training, let alone the regular season, so he arrives tonight after a relatively brief limbering up in the minors.
When Mauer comes up to bat for the first time in this month-old 2009 season, the happy Twins fans flash welcome back signs all over the Metrodome. My theory is that Mauer is the secret sauce in our lineup. He gets on base, Morneau et alia drive him in. The singles hitters lower in the order get on base, he drives them in. The hitting flow hinges on Mauer.
My theory has to wait tonight, because Mauer decides to demonstrate his value a tad more directly. Sidney Ponson disposes of the first two Twins hitters easily, then faces Mauer. His first swing of the year is a homer to left. It doesn’t, it absolutely doesn’t, get any better than that.
Mauer is a marquee player but not for his power—he hit all of nine homers last season. He is a pure average guy, with a batting eye that spares him from strikeouts and allows him to outfox the average pitcher. Tonight it’s as if he wants to say he’s glad to be home in the most convincing way possible.
We go to the second, the Twins ahead 1-0. According to Baseball Prospectus, the fewest runs are scored in the second inning. It’s your best bet for getting to and from the concession without missing a score. The only reason not to take the extra time to get the nachos along with the beer is that the second is generally over very quickly.
Now, why should this be so? Even if the first inning included a hit or two, we’re in the heart of the batting order or at least safely above the very bottom. Both the record books and observation show that starting pitchers often stumble in the first, searching for a groove.
Do they invariably suddenly find it by the second? So much so as to become Terminator-like?
If the reason lies in the batting order, it may expose the hard-to-prove interdependence of a hitting sequence. It’s not unusual for the cleanup man to lead off the second, or his protector, the number five hitter.
Both are supposed to be capable of power; both should be RBI hounds. With no one on base ahead of them, it’s like the light goes off. They are hitting machines who power down when the circumstances don’t remind them of why the hits are needed.
If the reason lies in the pitcher’s intensity, it suggests that the first inning is some kind of practice swing. The average game in the middle of the average season shouldn’t inspire too much in the way of jitters, but perhaps pitchers really need a little ritual of first-inning stress.
I don’t have access to the type of data that would frame the question, but it would be interesting to know if a low-scoring second follows a messy first, or if the second is just the Zen-trance pause on the way through the game.
If they needed to audition, the second inning is what most pitchers would put on their highlight reel. Here is what Sindey Ponson does with his: throws 10 pitches, gets a strikeout and two groundouts. Wait—Slowey tops him. Six pitches with a strikeout.
Slowey’s second is positively gorgeous. He faces the Royals’ toughest bats and mows them down. Jose Guillen, the cleanup hitter, pops out on the first pitch, swinging so greedily and foolishly that he has to walk back to the dugout in cloud of gloom.
Billy Butler, the burly DH the Royals have elevated to first baseman, takes a ball. It seems to be a little experiment on Slowey’s part; he’s toying with Butler. The next pitch Butler grounds harmlessly over to shortstop Nick Punto, who makes the throw with time to spare. Basic baseball.
Slowey has used three pitches so far when Mike Jacobs, batting sixth as the DH, steps in. A humming fastball grabs the right edge of the plate as the lefty Jacobs absorbs the news: control pitcher. Mauer sets up a little more inside and the ball rides up a little higher and tighter.
Strike two and all Jacobs can do is stare at these things. I assume we’ll go to the changeup, but Mauer and Slowey keep it simpler still. It’s another fastball running just a bit more inside. Jacobs was paralyzed the entire at-bat. You would think Slowey might have a hypnotist act in the offseason.
It was about the most perfect second inning a pitcher can pitch, particularly coming right after the pure high of Mauer’s home run. Beautiful but, strictly speaking, boring. Between them, Slowey and Ponson toss 16 pitches and collect their outs so briskly they look lazy up there. For the game to be great, struggle must be part of it.
And this game has some struggle for both teams. The Royals are hardly out of it with a one-run deficit, so they erase it in the third. David DeJesus singles to drive in two runs and maybe Mauer’s feel-good return will be marred.
In the fourth, we get the M and M boys in their classic formation: Mauer doubles to lead off and Morneau drives him in. And the rest of the lineup gets into the act, pounding on Ponson to the tune of four runs to put the Twins up 5-2.
We end up with a typical Slowey outing: shimmering control, no walks, a handful of strikeouts, and too many hits too close together. Slowey generally looks terrific tonight, but he once again has a brief Mr Hittable funk, coughing up four hits in the fifth that turn into three runs to let the Royals tie the game.
He completes only five innings, gives up a total of eight hits and five runs. It’s enough to bring him to 4-0 after we get another dose of the Mauer-Morneau reunion. In the fifth, Mauer walks and Morneau cranks his homer to put the Twins up 5-7.
The bullpen keeps the Royals 1-2-3-you’re-out quiet for the rest of the game. Joe Nathan gets the save, Mauer the happy headline.
Slowey has perfect second and a sloppy fifth. They’re just innings, the highs and lows within a win.
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