The Twins can clinch a series win over the Orioles with a victory tonight in the 3rd game of the 4 game set. Francisco Liriano goes to the mound for our guys and please excuse me for just hoping he doesn’t do anything to screw up his trade value. I’m not saying I necessarily “want” Terry Ryan to trade Frankie, but I’m convinced it’s probably going to happen. That being the case, you just don’t want to see anything happen that would make it tougher to get something of value in return. Of course, trade value aside, another good performance by Liriano also would improve the Twins’ chances of winning the game, and that would be nice, right?
Speaking of trade possibilities, it’s not too late to let us know who you think is most likely to find his way in to another uniform before the end of the summer. Just scroll down to the next post and cast your vote(s).
If you were hoping to see Jim Thome DH for the Orioles again tonight, you’re out of luck. He’s sitting out against the lefty, Liriano.
| ORIOLES |
@ |
TWINS |
| Markakis, RF | Span, CF | |
| Hardy, SS | Revere, RF | |
| Jones, Ad, CF | Mauer, DH | |
| Wieters, DH | Willingham, LF | |
| Reynolds, Ma, 1B | Morneau, 1B | |
| Pearce, LF | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Betemit, 3B | Dozier, SS | |
| Teagarden, C | Butera, C | |
| Tolleson, 2B | Carroll, 2B | |
| _Hunter, T, P | _Liriano, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Baltimore | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
I really didn’t think that first inning home run that Frankie gave up would end up being enough to beat the Twins, but that’s exactly what happened. It’s not that our guys didn’t have opportunities to put more runs on the board because they certainly did. Just couldn’t get the run pushed across when those opportunities presented themselves. Still, Liriano had a good game and so did the bullpen. So it wasn’t a total disaster.
Moral victories don’t count much in the standings, bottom line is that they lost the game. The only thing that counts is adding to the “W” column.
Ordinarily, I agree with that. But when you’re completely out of contention, other things besides wins and losses do matter. It’s not really “moral victories,” but it matters if players you may be trying to trade perform well, even in a loss. You’re also evaluating guys with an eye toward whether they should be part of your team on Opening Day 2013 when wins and losses once again become what really matter.