8 April, 2013 – Knuckleballs

Minnesota Twins Podcast – Talk to Contact – Episode 32

Posted on 8 April, 2013 by Eric Pleiss

Episode 32 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.

This week Cody and Eric forge ahead without Paul who is now out to sea with the United States Coast Guard. The two of them talked about the first place Minnesota Twins, surprisingly decent starting pitching, and the hitter (Justin Morneau) and pitcher (Kevin Correia) of the week. After a quick run down of Twins news from the first week of games Eric and Cody are joined by Andrew Walter, the Twins Fan from Afar. Following a quick break Cody and Eric go Down on the Pond, talk about beer, and take a look around the league. Join us for an enjoyable 90 minutes of Twins talk.

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes (ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help Wilkin Ramirez get playing time).

You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!

– ERolfPleiss

GameChat – Twins @ Royals, 3:10pm

Posted on 8 April, 2013 by CapitalBabs

I really do have to admit that I’m looking forward to the point in the season where I might actually be able to WATCH some baseball instead of wish I was somewhere other than work….

The only roster notes I have kept track of for today are that Gardy would rather not use either Swarzak or Roenicke – being careful. And Scott Diamond is supposedly still “on target” for a Friday appearance.

Minnesota	@	Kansas City
Hicks, CF		Gordon, LF
Mauer, C		Escobar, A, SS
Willingham, LF		Butler, DH
Morneau, 1B		Moustakas, 3B
Doumit, DH		Perez, S, C
Plouffe, 3B		Hosmer, 1B
Parmelee, RF		Francoeur, RF
Dozier, 2B		Cain, CF
Florimon, SS		Getz, 2B
Correia, P		Santana, E, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	8	0
Kansas City	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	x	3	9	0

Sadly, or perhaps luckily, I missed the last two innings while trying to get my butt out of the office… We had a good thing going until Correia hit the wall. Then things didn’t go so well. I will give Kevin credit in the fact that his wall came in the 8th inning which I think is pretty darn good at this point of April.

After some craziness at the plate involving a blocked stolen base by Florimon, he got a spike to the thigh but says he’s ok. The official call about DeVries appears to a strained pronator – supposedly nothing terribly serious – but as Seth Stohs pointed out: the last two Twins players to have that injury were Anthony Slama and Kyle Gibson. :/

Since we haven’t yet been able to win the first game of a series but then followed up with wins enough to follow, let’s see what the boys can do for us tomorrow!

Kernels Opening Series a Success

Posted on 8 April, 2013 by Jim Crikket

The Cedar Rapids Kernels won three of four games over the Beloit Snappers in their first series of the 2013 season and there was no shortage of drama in the process.

The Kernels won their season opener 8-6, then recovered from a 2-1 ninth inning deficit to claim a walk-off 3-2 win in game 2 of the series. The Snappers managed to hold their 2-1 lead to completion in claiming the third game of the series. In the finale, three Kernels pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter at the visiting Snappers.

Outfielder Byron Buxton gave the locals a good look at what all the fuss is about as he hit .563 for the series, including plenty of power.

The game stories are widely available on the web, but this morning, I thought I’d share a few (OK, much more than a few) of the pictures I took over the course of the past week, since the Kernels arrived in Cedar Rapids.