I know this is way early but I have a family wedding today and won’t be around for the game. If one of our other Knuckleballers happens to be free over this fantastically gorgeous weekend, then they can throw the lineups in. If not, then at least whoever wants to chat, CAN!
EDIT: Just jumping in to throw up the line ups. I’ve made a last minute decision to go to Target Field this evening, so I may not be around for the chat.
The win last night was the kind of win that reminds you why they play all nine innings. The Twins came back from an early hole, chipping away, and finally took the lead for the first time in the bottom of the 9th. Anything even half that exciting this evening will be excellent.
Ryan Doumit is back from the DL, and to make room for him the Twins optioned Chris Colabello, who never really looked like the AAA slugger he was early in the year, back to the Minor Leagues.
Nine hits seems like a pretty high number to just generate two runs. Going 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position is no way to try to win a ballgame. – JC
So today’s big news definitely not about a series between the bottom two teams in the AL Central.. LOL It’s all about the replay recommendations put forward by Bud Selig today. If you want to read all about it, HERE you go.
I gotta admit, I’m not a fan of coaches challenges – I’m still in favor of expanded replay but I think it should be between the umps and they should WANT to use it or face the consequences of bad decisions.. putting challenges in the hands of coaches just makes things even more antagonistic in a bad situation.
Anyway, funny how when the White Sox are in Minnesota, the rosters are up way earlier.. I don’t think getting the lineups any sooner will give Pelfrey a head start – he’s just going to have to pitch well.
While I was covering the walk-off win by the Kernels tonight, it seems the Twins were celebrating a walk-off victory of their own!
It looks to me like Mike Pelfrey did fine and the bullpen did well and Trevor Plouffe went deep.
But, while it’s not often we would hand out a BOD award to a guy who only played a few minutes of a game, Chris Herrmann’s walk-off pinch hit RBI single to beat the Bitch Sox certainly seems to warrant it. – JC
Episode 49 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
This week Paul returns from the wilderness to banter with Eric and Cody about Andrew Albers who continues to impress and pitch well with his 86mph fastball, Brian Dozier and his silky smooth hair, the loss of Jamey Carroll, the return for Drew Butera and other happenings surrounding the Minnesota Twins.
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 us become warlocks and spread the word about our podcast.
So… while the rest of us and the team wait to hear if anything is going to happen with Morneau as the waiver claim phase passes at noon today, he is in today’s batting order. Keep in mind that even if a team did claim him, they have 48 hours to work out a deal. All in all, I’m sure he’s likely to be playing a little tense today and trying to put it out of his mind.
Let’s see if Gibson can repeat what was a pretty good showing last time.
well… that was… frustrating. A lot of exciting offense from the Twins but a lot of weirdness and struggling from the bullpen. I was really unhappy with the management early on in the game thinking “this could come back to bite us” and sure enough it did.. Extra innings shouldn’t have been necessary and just gave the Indians enough opportunities to come back.. but yeah, there was still some really great Twins offense – just not enough to win.
oh yeah, Morneau cleared waivers so we’re back to the “are they going to trade him and to whom” discussions..
and lastly, Morneau, Mauer, Ramirez & Florimon all wore Tall Socks! Betsy Bissen MADE MY DAY because she happened to have a photo pass on THIS day of all days and sent me a few pics so I could actually see it since I was stuck on the gameday at work. Here’s one of HER pictures so all rights belong to her. Considering Mauer went 5/7 with a HR and 4 RBI, I think he should consider wearing them all the time.
Joe Mauer in Tall Socks! Photo Credit: Betsy Bissen
From Andrew Albers’ controlled soft-tossing last night to Sam Deduno’s hard, dancing fireballs tonight. It should be quite a contrast for Indians hitters to adjust to. On the other side, the Twins will face Zach McAllister. McAllister’s a big guy, but the Tigers knocked him around pretty good in his last start, scoring five earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings.
The Twins completed the trade that sent Drew Butera to the Dodgers back on July 31. They received 19 year old Miguel Sulbaran as the “player to be named later.” Sulbaran is a smallish lefty pitcher from Venezuela. His numbers don’t scream, “can’t miss prospect,” but he was MLB.com’s #14 ranked Dodger prospect, so that alone makes him more of a prospect than I expected the Twins to get in return for Butera.
Sulbaran is reportedly going to be assigned to the Cedar Rapids Kernels, so I’ll likely get a close-up look at him in the coming days. He’s been a starting pitcher for the Dodgers’ Midwest League affiliate, the Great Lakes Loons, this season. Like many of the Kernels’ starting pitchers, Sulbaran has seen his innings cut back recently as he approaches the 100 inning mark for the season, so it will be interesting to see how he’s used by the Kernels.
Cedar Rapids can certainly use some starting help. Jose Berrios was placed on the Disabled List today (likely just as a cover to allow them to replace him while he skips a start to limit his innings down the stretch) and David Hurlbut was promoted to the Fort Myers Miracle.
I didn’t really follow the game much, but just from the looks of things, it doesn’t appear that there was much good going on for the Twins. Five hits. Two errors. On the other hand, I guess the Tribe only had five hits, as well. But they got five runs and that’s what matters.
Wilkin Ramirez got the call to replace Jamey Carroll on the Twins’ roster. I bet there are a few guys in Rochester and New Britain wondering how the hell hitting .172 in your seven rehab games earns you a spot with the Big Club. I know Clete Thomas needed someone who could spell him occasionally in CF with the Twins, but jeez… .172? Really?
Aaron Hicks has been bad in AAA and so has Darin Mastroianni during his rehab and apparently they both claim to still be hurting a bit. If anyone ever tries to tell you that being the guy who is already on the 40-man roster doesn’t really mean much, don’t believe them for a second. The fact that Ramirez is on the expanded roster is the ONLY reason he’s wearing a Twins uniform tonight.
Two young pitchers on the mound in tonight’s game. Andrew Albers gets his second start and his first home start for the Twins and Danny Salazar goes for the Indians. Salazar, for those who may not be familiar, is a 23 year old fireballer. Look for mph readings in the upper 90s. Look for a lot of Twins to be walking back to the dugout shaking their heads.
Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe provided what little offense the Twins generated with home runs in the first and second inning, respectively. Babs pointed out that this is seven straight games that Dozier has an extra-base hit and he apparently trails only Killer and Tony O for the club record of eight straight, so that’s kind of cool company to be in.
But let’s be honest, the big news tonight was Andrew Albers.
What do you do for an encore when you pitch 8 1/3 shutout innings in your Big League debut? Of course, you follow that up with a complete game shutout in your debut before the home fans at Target Field.
I wonder how many times this guy’s been told he doesn’t throw hard enough or doesn’t have enough “stuff” to ever make it to the Big Leagues. Just goes to show what perseverance can do. I don’t know if he’ll have a short MLB career or a long one and right now I’m not all that concerned about it. I know he’s giving Twins fans a reason to pay attention and something to smile about and that’s not nothing.
I also know this makes two BOD awards for Mr. Albers.
There may not be much to play for the rest of the season, but taking a series from the BitchSox at the (Prison) Cell in Chicago would still be nice. Yes, I realize that there isn’t a lot of optimism when Kevin Correia is on the hill, but one can hope, right?
The Twins are an even 3-3 on this road trip, so they also could record their second straight winning road trip with a W today.
It’s easy to tell this game was played at the bandbox of a ballpark they have in Chicago and not Target Field. Brian Dozier got the Twins on the board first with a three-run home run and two hitters later Joe Mauer added a two-run dinger. Casey Fien gave up a couple of solo home runs in the Sox’ ninth inning. No way all those home runs happen if this game is in Minneapolis.
Despite the one inning of heroics by a couple of Twins hitters, the BOD award goes to Kevin Correia, who went seven shutout innings while giving up just five hits and 1 walk. He even struck out seven Sox hitters. I’m not sure where Correia found this performance, but I hope he remembers how he did it!
So I have noticed something after a few years of putting these chats up.. The White Sox are SERIOUSLY slow with their lineups. It’s always games in Chicago that the lineups don’t come out until the very last minute. Just about every other game, they are out about an hour or so before game time.. never in Chicago. (btw, this trend seems to transcend the management individuals – it’s just what they do here.) Anyway..
So Pelfrey is back.. let’s see if that goes as well as Liam coming back for a game..
Getting shut out thoroughly by the Sox bullpen that way was disappointing.
Somehow, we need to find a way to get Pelf to start the game the way he pitches from the third inning on. If we can do that, he would go much deeper in to games. It’s those slow (figuratively and literally) starts that are frustrating for all concerned, himself included, I’m sure.
