By Jon Krawczynski
AP Sports Writer
Boof Bonser is on his second tour of duty with the Minnesota Twins this season, has been wildly inconsistent and is just now showing signs of becoming a halfway decent major-league pitcher.
What does that win him, folks?
Perhaps a spot right behind Johan Santana in the rotation. Twins fans, meet your new No. 2 starter.
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It's not that Bonser has been particularly outstanding. He hasn't even been all that good. He's simply won a war of attrition through the first five months of the season.
Minnesota's pitching rotation is absolutely decimated. Francisco Liriano is on the disabled list, Brad Radke might be on his way there and will miss his next start, Carlos Silva is completely unreliable and Matt Garza was pitching for Fresno State just last season.
And out of that rubble, Boof has emerged.
He hasn't been great, but he hasn't been terrible either, giving up three runs on seven hits in 51-3 innings with eight strikeouts in Wednesday night's 4-3 loss to Kansas City.
Sure, those numbers came against the lowly Royals, but don't laugh too hard. This glorified farm team has been giving the best teams in the American League fits over the last month. The Royals have won 10 of their last 14 games against teams either in first or second place in their division or the wild card race. That streak includes a 2-0 victory over Garza and the Twins on Tuesday night.
Bonser started out like Roger Clemens on Wednesday night but finished like Scott Klingenbeck. He struck out five of the first seven batters he faced and allowed just three hits and no runs before running into trouble in the sixth. After giving up a two-run single to Mike Sweeney and another single to Emil Brown, Bonser left with a runner on third and the game tied 2-2.
Jesse Crain gave up a single to Ryan Shealy on his first pitch of the game to put Bonser (3-5) in line for the loss.
Sadly, the Twins will gladly take that kind of performance from any starter not named Santana these days, especially with their outstanding bullpen coming to the rescue more often than not.
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Right now, if you're relatively healthy, unlike Radke and Liriano, and have an ERA under 6.50 -- that rules out Silva -- you can pitch for the Twins, and very high in the rotation.
Help doesn't seem to be arriving anytime soon, either.
Liriano threw off a mound on Wednesday for the first time since being placed on the disabled list on Aug. 8, but the Twins are going to be very careful with the 22-year-old's recovery from arm problems.
They have good reason. Everytime I see him, I can't help but think of Kerry Wood. The big Texan burst on the scene with the Cubs and was relied upon too heavily as a rookie in 1998, leading to elbow problems that have kept him from ever realizing the great potential he once showed.
The Twins certainly seem more levelheaded than the Cubs, despite finding themselves in a wild-card race with the White Sox that is tighter than Paris Hilton's shorts. The Twins trail the Sox by just a half-game in the playoff race.
The real problem is Radke. The 11th-year veteran has been a warrior all season, pitching superbly considering he has a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
But the bottom appears to be falling out at the worst possible time. Radke left his last start after just two innings because of the pain and received his second cortisone shot of the season earlier this week.
He tried to play catch on Wednesday to see if he could be ready for his next scheduled start Saturday at Yankee Stadium, but the shoulder was still too stiff to throw.
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"That's what we're worried about," manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game.
That means Scott Baker will be recalled from Triple-A Rochester, but try to keep your excitement in check. Baker has been even worse than Silva this season, going 3-7 with a 6.93 ERA in 12 starts with the big club.
Gardy has had to make his share of adjustments to the pitching rotation this season, and he was blunt in his assessment of his contingency plans.
"We have lots of options," Gardenhire said. "None of them good."
Though he didn't specifically mention the chance that Boof would be promoted to No. 2, that certainly would be on the list of options that weren't good.
The fact is that right now Gardenhire knows what he's going to get from Bonser -- five or six decent innings, usually with one rough one sprinkled in there somewhere.
That may not be very inspiring, but it's something. And Gardenhire will take whatever he can get right now.
