looks like Mays has returned to form
looks like Mays has returned to form
just wonder if Sedlacek's mini slump is over...
and the probable over ump in this game, Hollowell, has been regressing to the mean with lots of unders of late.
THIS from May's last start:
Posted on Thu, Aug. 01, 2002
TWINS 2, WHITE SOX 1: Mays finds his groove
BY GORDON WITTENMYER
Pioneer Press
Twins pitcher Joe Mays returned from the disabled list more than a week ago.
But it wasn't until Wednesday night at the Metrodome that he returned to form.
Mays was gone from the game by the time David Ortiz drove home the winning run with a bases-loaded single in the 10th inning to beat the White Sox 2-1.
But his longest, strongest start since last September was not forgotten, even after the Twins' second 10-inning victory in four games.
"It all started with our No. 1 guy. He carried us into the eighth inning, and you've got to have that," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Mays, a 17-game winner last season who spent three months on the disabled list this year. "I think he was on a mission tonight."
Mainly, his mission was to believe he could throw his sinking fastball with full extension without causing the same elbow pain that put him on the disabled list in April.
"I just didn't have enough trust in it," said Mays, whose 7 1/3-innings start was his longest since he shut out the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 20. "I made some adjustments tonight. I made some great strides."
That's what Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson talked about with Mays after the right-hander's second start back from the d.l. on Friday, in which he threw 90 pitches in just five innings.
"He figured it out right away," Gardenhire said. "He figured out he could use that sinker anytime he wants to get outs."
The only run Mays allowed scored on a wild pitch in a rocky first inning in which he walked two and gave up the leadoff single that eventually led to the Chicago run. But after the first, he dominated his favorite American League opponent (6-0 lifetime against the Sox), allowing only four singles without walking a batter, and retiring 12 consecutive at one point.
He left a 1-1 game begrudgingly with one out in the eighth and Mark Johnson at second base following a leadoff single and sacrifice bunt.
LaTroy Hawkins struck out Aaron Rowand and Jeff Liefer to put a quick end to Chicago's eighth-inning threat and retired all five batters he faced to lower his team-best earned run average to 1.55.
Luis Rivas started the winning rally with a leadoff double to the left-field gap off reliever Antonio Osuna. And when Jacque Jones followed with a sacrifice bunt, Osuna threw to third, but Rivas slid in safely just ahead of the sweeping tag. Cristian Guzman then popped up for one out, and Corey Koskie was intentionally walked to load the bases for Ortiz.
With the White Sox bringing in left fielder Carlos Lee to become a fifth infielder, and with most of the crowd of 29,478 still there and standing, Ortiz lined a 2-1 pitch to right field for the winning single.
