Finding success in the face of failure

Through 21 games the 2009 Twins season is already starting to gain a certain impressive level of disjointedness.

This is nothing new if you’ve followed the Twins at all through this millennium. The 2000’s for the Twins have essentially been one long succession of disjointed successes and failures that have nonetheless allowed the Twins front office to market the image of a successfully rebuilt baseball organization (four AL Central championships) even though they are missing some of the key components of true success in baseball - league championships, world series appearances, playoff series victories, etc.

Basically the Twins have been successful if your definition of success is somewhat tempered.

But, lets get something out in the open: There’s nothing wrong with tempering your idea of success, especially in the Midwest. We can’t all be true-blue success and get our little hands on that huge pile of money that is slowly eroding out there.

I may be able to lie in bed at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and feel okay about myself, but time is running out and the grand successes that I envision coming true are really just slowly amounting to little failures that prove the limits of my ability and the impossibility of my dream-life scope.

It is a slow-process to come to this realization, just as it may be hard to look at the Twins last this decade and see anything to complain about.

Still, in 2009 that pattern of disjointedness is continuing. At 10-11 the Twins are not looking too-bad in the record department. They are flailing a little bit but they are also waiting for one of their two best players to get back from the DL and they have spent the first three weeks of the season trying to figure out a rotation, a bullpen, and a lineup which have all been completely evasive in terms of consistency.

But while they may be succeeding on some fronts, if you pull back for a minute the larger question becomes obvious: How in the hell is this team 10-11?

It’s sort of like the question in 2008: how in the hell did this team, after losing Santana and Hunter, making Livan Hernandez their opening day starter and Mike Lamb their opening day third-baseman and Adam Everett their opening day shortstop, finish in a tie for first place in the AL Central?

Or in 2006: how in the hell did this team catch the Tigers after being 12 games out of first in the middle of July?

Or in 2004: how in the hell did a team that consistently featured Henry Blanco at catcher and Jose Offerman at DH and “Please God anybody but” Terry Mulholland in a role that saw him throw more than 100 innings, finish in first place by NINE GAMES??

It’s just a recurring theme with the Twins, they come into seasons with certain lowered expectations which they always seem to exceed and thus, they are a success.

So, through 21 games lets take a quick peak at the two main types of games the Twins have had this year, and how that has played into their somehow being 10-11 in-spite of being outscored by 28 runs (which is tied for the highest negative run-differential in the majors with the 4-15 Washington Nationals, the 9-13 Baltimore Orioles, and the 8-12 Arizona Diamondbacks).

Getting their asses kicked:

If we can give the Twins credit for one thing this season it is that when they lose they try and make sure they get the living piss kicked out of them. Of their 11 losses here are the drubbings:

Mon Apr. 6 - lose 6-1 to Seattle, this was the opening day somewhat massacre that basically saw Felix Hernandez hamstring the Twins offense for a dominant victory.

Key Moment: Carlos Gomez just misses making a leaping catch which would have potentially kept the Twins in the game in the sixth inning.

Sat Apr. 11 - lose 8-0 to Chicago: Bartolo Colon somehow pitches six scoreless innings as the White Sox pummel the Twins after the series had started with an emphatic Twins victory the night before.

Key Moment: Again, Bartolo Colon pitches six scoreless innings, in 2009.

Sun Apr. 12 - lose 6-1 to Chicago: Ron Gardenhire in a moment of inspiration makes the decision that because he has four outfielders one of them should play first base to give Justin Morneau a day-off. Michael Cuddyer makes two errors on one play in the fifth inning allowing the tying run to score as the Twins were leading 1-0 and Nick Blackburn was pitching insanely well.

Key Moment: Jesse Crain comes in the seventh inning with runners at first and second and one out and throws his patented laser-beam fastball to a few White Sox hitters, lead goes from 3-1 to 5-1.

Wed. Apr. 15 - Thur. Apr 16 - Twins lose two games to the Blue Jays at a combined score of 21-4. These two games were especially priceless because after the first enormous ass-kicking in the third game of the series La Velle E. Neal had a blog note the next day which said:

There are a few times during a season when the media will walk into a clubhouse after a game and find no one to talk to. That was the case last night after Toronto blasted the local nine 12-2.

Other than Scott Baker, who had to speak with us, Nick Blackburn and some coaches, the clubhouse was generally empty. This one ticked the fellas off a little bit.

So it will be interesting to see how they respond today.

They responded by losing 9-2 and as Joe Christensen wrote the next night in his blog after the loss:

Besides playing Bob Marley music, players such as Justin Morneau, Casilla, Mike Redmond and Jose Morales were lined up in front of their lockers after the game, sipping beverages and talking baseball. You don’t see that every night, and both La Velle and I were struck by this old-school move – team building after a night of tension gave way to humiliation.

I just like the fact that after one humiliating loss the Twins go for the silent/solemn approach and after another humiliating loss the next night they go for the get the beer and turn on the reggae approach.

I personally like both options.

Key Moment: The Wednesday night game was basically the apex-moment where Bryant and I both realized that the Twins had a major problem with their pitching staff on all fronts: Scott Baker (four innings, six earned, four home runs), Phil Humber (1.2 innings, three earned), R.A. Dickey (2.1 innings, one earned), Luis Ayala (one inning, two earned).

Wed. Apr. 22 - Twins lose double-header in Boston by the combined score of 17-4, including a 10-1 crushing in seven-innings where Tim Wakefield basically defecated all over the idea of R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball.

Key Moment: Trailing in the 7th inning of the first game the Twins agreed to call the game, even though the rain would most likely pass in a few hours, so that they could squeeze in the second game of the double header. Ron Gardenhire’s explanation for throwing in the towel:

When you’re down 10-1 with two men still on — it’s kind of a little silly there. How many times are you going to wait four, five hours for a rain delay? Waiting around like that, umpires aren’t going to do that. … But definitely the score of the game makes it a little easier to bang this game. What are you going to say?

This is important solely for the reason that Ron Gardenhire introduced the phrase “bang this game” into the season’s vernacular.

Mon. Apr. 27 - Twins lose 7-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays and something named Jeff Niemann.

Key Moment: Jason Bartlett goes 2-4 and in the ninth inning hits his third home run of the year. In three seasons with the Twins, Bartlett hit 10 home runs total. This continues an appalling trend known as the “Kyle Loshe Corollary” where recently departed Twins players have stellar seasons elsewhere.

To recap that’s eight of 11 losses and the Twins were outscored by a combined total of 65-11.

The other type of game the Twins have had this season?

Inched out miracles:

This has become a Twins staple and really the definition of the team as a whole. It isn’t that the Twins are going to crush you in any way, shape or form. What they will do is what happened in the first series of the season against the Mariners: after losing that Hernandez game 6-1 they win the following two nights games 6-5 - so over the course of three games they are outscored 16-13 but they win two of three. Inching it out, by any means necessary.

Tue. Apr. 7 - Twins beat the Mariners 6-5 after trailing 5-3 with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Key Moment: Carlos Gomez coaxes an eight-pitch two-out walk from Brandon Marrow. This is the second time in his career that Gomez (who often appears to only know how to swing) has worked a walk in a key situation to start a Twins rally for a walk-off win.

Wed. Apr. 8 - Twins beat the Mariners 6-5 after falling behind 5-4 early in the game. Twins get two runs in the fifth and the bullpen holds on for the victory.

Key Moment: In the fifth inning Carlos Silva gives up a lead-off walk to Denard Span who advances to second on a fielders choice but is then thrown-out trying to advance to third on a ground ball. So, with two outs and a runner at first-base Silva calmly gives up back-to-back doubles to Morneau and Kubel and the Twins get the winning runs before Silva rests for the evening having thrown 98 pitches in five innings.

Just for fun: Silva’s 2009 ERA: 6.14 - Silva’s 2009 salary: $12.25 million.

Tue. Apr. 14 - Twins win 3-2 over the Blue Jays in 11 innings. This is the Twins only win in a four-game series that saw them get outscored 31-13.

Key Moment(s): Glen Perkins allows a game-tying RBI single in the 8th inning and doesn’t get the win but has his second-straight dominant outing for a totally depleted pitching staff. Jesse Crain has his best appearance of the season going two innings and getting the win after Joe Crede has his first (and so far only?) big hit with the Twins a two-out game winning RBI double in the 11th.

Fri. Apr. 17 - In easily the biggest win of the season the Twins come back from a 8-3 deficit by scoring seven runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Angels 11-9. The Twins sweep the series to get back to .500.

Key Moment: Jason Kubel’s grand-slam, cycle-completing, game-winning home run.

Tue. Apr. 28 - Twins beat the Rays 3-2 after Joe Nathan gives up a solo home run in the ninth blowing his first save of the season.

Key Moment: In a perfect distillation of Justin Morneau’s overall value to the Twins he accounts for three of the team’s four RBI with a two-run home run in the first inning and a game-winning, fielder’s choice, near double-play in the bottom of the ninth.

To recap that’s five of the team’s 10 wins and the Twins outscored their opponents by a combined total of 29-23.

Now, I can’t speak for Bryant, but personally this is why I love the Twins and why I really love baseball.

We walk around in our days and it can feel like sometimes you are just getting the living hell beat out of you. You can’t find enough money, enough time, enough sleep, enough friends. You get fired, you get sick, your car breaks down, you can’t find your god damn car keys, your girlfriend leaves you, you cut your toe open on a rusty nail in your backyard, your mother calls to ask how life is going.

Sometimes it seems to me like the sad days are always sadder than the good days are good, but really that probably isn’t the case. It may seem like you’re constantly getting outscored 10-1 and only eking out the small victories of life by a hair - by a fielder’s choice ground out in the bottom of the ninth - but it’s probably more true that in the end we’re always really close to .500, and if we get a few breaks we may even end up a few games ahead of even.

So I may not have enough money, or enough friends, or enough time or talent to do what I want to do, my dreams may be slowly falling off. But, hey, is that the sun shining? Are the leaves budding on the red oak tree in the backyard? Is that a cute girl walking down the sidewalk? Oh, and oh my, is she looking this way?

It may simply be that if I bend my neck just slightly and look at things through the right prism I can notice that life is starting to get a little better, that I, in many ways, am a success.