Rocket Bats

The Twins lost yesterday to Cleveland 8-1. I guess there's one important thing to note about it: Scott Baker fought his inner Rocket Bats (an anagram of Scott Baker) and, well, he lost. Baker kept the Twins relatively close until the sixth, where he let the game get away from him.

If you ever wondered if Scott Baker had something akin to a "wall" that he occasionally (okay, usually) hits around the 6th inning, there is some significant evidence that supports one.



Pretty straight forward numbers. Baker has a wall in pretty much every aspect of his game, with exception given to his K/BB ratio which understandably gets worse as the game goes on, not necessarily a part of the 6th inning problem. His ERA is nearly twice as much as the 5th and 7th inning, and he gives up over twice as many home runs in 6th innings as he does in 5th innings, which contributes to that spike in slugging percentage. I should also note his .937 OPS, a markedly-worse number than his .718 OPS mark in the 5th inning. And of course, his defense inconveniently drops off in the 6th too, with a 50-point spike in BABIP. Altogether there's an inexplicably large dropoff if Baker makes it to the sixth, but relatively clear sailing prevails in the event Rocket Bats survives it.

Anywho, a quick "preview" of tonight's Twins/Royals game:
I'm currently watching the Twins/Royals game, where starting pitcher Gil[ga] Meche needs to keep his pitch count down to give the Royals any hope of keeping the game close. (Spoiler alert: As I'm writing this during the 3rd inning, he's thrown like 500 over 60 pitches in 2.1 innings. That won't work with the epic disaster that Trey Hillman calls a bullpen.)

Delmon Young is out of the lineup in favor of Thome (with Kubel in left) for some reason and Punto is on the disabled list. JJ Hardy is back after taking yesterday off.

Anywho, I'd better stop talking and let you watch before my preview becomes too easy to create. Go Twins!