CapitalBabs – Page 27

GameChat – White Sox @ Twins #2, 7:10pm

Posted on 14 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Given my well-announced nerves for the games following nights of double-digit run explosions, I’m hopeful that Correia can keep the White Sox in line just in case we aren’t hitting as well as we were yesterday.

It’s HOT in Minnesota for the record – it hit 95 at the airport today tying a record high for this day set back in 1932 [correction: NEW record high of 98 at MSP & higher elsewhere] – and who knows if that hot weather will help the ball carry a bit more …

I laughed at a tweet from Chris Parmelee earlier today in which he claimed it’s finally baseball weather! Yeah, if you say so Parmesan. Glad I don’t have to wear all those layers and a cup and go stand in the sun of Target Field.

Chi White Sox	@	Minnesota
De Aza, LF		Dozier, 2B
Ramirez, Al, SS		Mauer, C
Rios, RF		Willingham, LF
Dunn, A, 1B		Morneau, 1B
Viciedo, DH		Parmelee, RF
Gillaspie, 3B		Plouffe, 3B
Keppinger, 2B		Arcia, DH
Wise, CF		Hicks, CF
Flowers, C		Florimon, SS
Peavy, P		Correia, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chi White Sox	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	4	12	1
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	6	0

Every TIME!! I swear.. *sigh* I think there is something called a Run Hangover that means they aren’t in “performance ready” shape the night after they get a lot of runs. It just hasn’t been scientifically/statistically examined… yet.

The White Sox win one… Correia wasn’t on that roll that we would need to have to match up against Jake Peavy. We needed to have him keep the Sox batters as off balance as we expected ours to be.. that didn’t happen so much.

The good news is that at least Willingham got a timely, great hit – maybe he’s breaking HIS streak?

GameChat – Orioles @ Twins #3, 1:10pm

Posted on 12 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! … unless you’re a guy and then you just have to wait.

Another day of cool but sunny weather for the boys in Target Field – game time start should be a little over 50. Considering it’s going to be 90 on Tuesday, they should all just count their lucky stars…

I’m going to miss the start of the game again since I’ll be off lunching with my mama but we all eat fast.. 😉 JC is also off to be with his mother. Who knows who will be around to chat baseball but I will be later. See y’all soon!

Baltimore	@	Minnesota
Markakis, RF		Dozier, 2B
Machado, M, 3B		Mauer, DH
Jones, Ad, CF		Willingham, LF
Davis, C, 1B		Morneau, 1B
Wieters, DH		Doumit, C
Pearce, LF		Plouffe, 3B
Hardy, SS		Parmelee, RF
Casilla, A, 2B		Ramirez, W, CF
Snyder, C, C		Escobar, E, SS
Chen, W, P		Diamond, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Baltimore	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	11	0
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	1

Not much offense today. Only one Twins hitter had more than one hit and only one Twins hitter had an extra-base hit. It should come as no surprise that, in both cases, the hitter was Joe Mauer.

The Twins had been scoring 5-6 runs a game for a while so I suppose we shouldn’t whine too much about just the second shutout they’ve suffered this season. Just don’t make a habit of it, boys. – JC

Sunday Morning Comic Relief

Posted on 12 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

I looked around for to see if I could find anything especially entertaining with a Mother’s Day theme but .. not so much. So Happy Mother’s Day to all those who are!

And for you Sunday morning amusement, if you haven’t seen some of the latest Twins commercials, you should – and in honor of the Willinghammer Bobblehead they put out on Friday.

GameChat – Orioles @ Twins #2, 6:10pm

Posted on 11 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

So JC & I had an entertaining lunch today before going our separate ways – me off to more family stops & more shopping (sheesh) and he, off to the game. Let’s hope that since the weather is not nearly as nice as yesterday, hopefully the baseball will actually be better. It’s still sunny but significantly cooler and a LOT windier. I’m curious as to whether that will effect the game. Let’s hope Worley has great stuff tonight since I think our bullpen could use the break – but I’m not holding my breath.

I’ll be in and out (honestly still trying to take advantage of what outside weather we have to try to catch up to the months of backlog on yard work) but don’t leave if I don’t answer right away – I’ll be back!

Baltimore	@	Minnesota
McLouth, LF		Dozier, 2B
Machado, M, 3B		Mauer, C
Markakis, RF		Doumit, DH
Jones, Ad, CF		Morneau, 1B
Davis, C, 1B		Plouffe, 3B
Wieters, C		Parmelee, RF
Hardy, SS		Arcia, LF
Flaherty, 2B		Ramirez, W, CF
Reimold, DH		Escobar, E, SS
Johnson, S, P		Worley, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Baltimore	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	5	12	0
Minnesota	0	0	2	4	0	2	0	0	x	8	10	1

YAY! They certainly did a better job at giving JC a reason to want to come back to MN later on this season. And the game was entertaining enough that I didn’t fall asleep in the 7th inning! This is also a good measure of a baseball game for me lately.

At any rate, it’s amazing the kind of win you can get when the top – heart of the order is getting on base or clearing a base with every AB. Mauer, Morneau, Doumit and Dozier all seemed to come through at the right moment tonight. And then Burton came in for a ground-breaking appearance in his recover/rehab/return but had told Gardy he felt good and could give him an inning – given our bullpen right now, that was VERY GOOD and he nailed down the save at the end. It was a good game with some great effort all around.

And just because in our discussions, we couldn’t really decide which was better: Mauer’s 3 Runs (+some) or Morneau’s 3 RBI but eventually we decided to give the BOD to Mauer just because he was really making it work tonight and that IBB just went to prove that the Orioles pitching really didn’t want to give him yet another opportunity. So Mauer is BOD!

GameChat – Orioles @ Twins, 7:10pm

Posted on 10 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Ok, it’s finally absolutely GORGEOUS in MN for a baseball game!! Seriously, our boys aren’t going to recognize Target Field!

JC made the trip up from Cedar Rapids in order to snag himself a Willinghammer bobblehead – glad he gets a nice night to watch baseball. Of course, I am not going to see it since we have a bunch of running around to – at least we’re doing all that on the motorcycle!

At any rate, with Pelfrey on the mound, I might have a chance to catch the second half when we get back around.. oh… 9’ish. But I’m going to hope that he will maintain the improved pace he showed on Sunday. *crosses fingers*

Baltimore	@	Minnesota
McLouth, LF		Carroll, 2B
Machado, M, 3B		Mauer, DH
Markakis, DH		Willingham, LF
Jones, Ad, CF		Morneau, 1B
Davis, C, 1B		Plouffe, 3B
Wieters, C		Doumit, C
Hardy, SS		Arcia, RF
Dickerson, RF		Hicks, CF
Casilla, A, 2B		Escobar, E, SS
Hammel, P		Pelfrey, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Baltimore	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	3	9	18	0
Minnesota	1	2	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	6	11	2

I know this isn’t something I should admit but … yeah, I fell asleep somewhere around the 7th. It was still tied last I saw the score but things weren’t headed in the right direction. Of course, given the lead that they had had when I got home, it hadn’t been going the right direction for some time. Granted, they didn’t lose the game until overtime play in the 10th inning but still.

Let’s just say that the later innings last night were just not impressive for Twins baseball fans – either on the mound, at the plate, or in the field. There were LOTS of mistakes and sloppy play from a lot of players – whether they have an excuse or not. And that’s just what I SAW! I didn’t even see the end where we allowed the Orioles three more runs, the lead and the win! That tells me 9 unanswered runs came out of the Baltimore lineup … ouch. It might have been gorgeous weather for baseball but the baseball part of it sure wasn’t pretty. Sorry JC.

GameChat – Twins @ Red Sox #4, 6:05pm

Posted on 9 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

The final game of the series – almost here since it’s hard to give you guys much notice with these 6pm games! – but I have to say that as much fun as the Green Monster has been for us, I’ll be glad when we’re away from these BoSox-paced games. Yeesh.

Let’s hope that Correia can continue what he’s been so good at this year so far in getting deep into the game and keeping it moving. I would really love that and I’m pretty sure our now completely over-worked bullpen feels the same.

Minnesota	@	Boston
Dozier, 2B		Ellsbury, CF
Mauer, C		Victorino, RF
Willingham, LF		Pedroia, 2B
Morneau, 1B		Ortiz, D, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Napoli, 1B
Doumit, DH		Nava, LF
Arcia, RF		Middlebrooks, 3B
Hicks, CF		Drew, SS
Florimon, SS		Ross, D, C
Correia, P		Lackey, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	0	5	6	1
Boston	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	3	9	2

WOOHOOO!!! It feels good to take a series on the road against an east coast team – especially one that can hit like that BoSox lineup. Considering that pitching is still likely our weakest element, I’m pretty pleased with how the majority of the pitching staff has done tonight… not to mention the whole series. I was a little worried about the freshness of what was available given the heavy use they have had this week. I wasn’t alone in that concern in the chat. So we voted that the bullpen all gets a treat after hanging in there and holding the line tonight. Given their location, they all get a nice Boston Lager!

The offense started off well early and then we fell behind again but thanks to young Oswaldo Arcia, we retook the lead and held that through the end of the game! (which came far earlier tonight than it had previously in this series) So for an outstanding offensive performance and honestly, very good timing, we voted Arcia as tonight’s BOD! Oh yeah, it just happens to be his 22nd birthday today so Happy Birthday as well!

GameChat – Twins @ Red Sox #2, 6:05pm

Posted on 7 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Ok, guys, I’m putting this up and then running off to build my puppy a sandbox. But then I will be back to catch up with the game. We can always hope that this is a bad night for Dempster but regardless I hope it’s a good night for Diamond.

Minnesota	@	Boston
Carroll, SS		Ellsbury, CF
Mauer, DH		Victorino, RF
Willingham, LF		Pedroia, 2B
Morneau, 1B		Ortiz, D, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Napoli, 1B
Doumit, C		Gomes, J, LF
Parmelee, RF		Middlebrooks, 3B
Ramirez, W, CF		Drew, SS
Dozier, 2B		Ross, D, C
Diamond, P		Dempster, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	4	0	6	8	0
Boston	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	4	3

That was, overall, a very professionally executed ballgame by the Twins. Not perfect, but we would take about 100 more games like that without a complaint.

We’ve kind of been waiting for Ryan Doumit to step up his game (though, admittedly, he’s been getting less regular playing time since Oswaldo Arcia’s promotion), but tonight Doumit certainly made a case for more at-bats. 2 for 4 with a double and a home run absolutely warrants some BOD support.

But Scott Diamond threw seven shutout innings and gave up only three hits in the process. He also called it a night after sitting down the last 15 hitters he faced. For Twins fans who aren’t familiar with seeing that kind of performance, that is called PITCHING. In fact, around here it’s called BOD pitching. – JC

GDJHK

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #3, 12:05pm

Posted on 5 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Apparently Justin Morneau showed up at the ballpark feeling a little stiff and asked to DH today. Ironically, he may have improved the defense behind starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey in the process as Chris Parmelee moves to first base and Oswaldo Arcia moves in to right field.

Pelfrey will need all the help he can get today as the Twins attempt to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Indians this weekend.

TWINS	@	INDIANS
Carroll, 2B		Brantley, LF
Mauer, C		Kipnis, 2B
Willingham, LF		Cabrera, A, SS
Morneau, DH		Swisher, DH
Parmelee, 1B		Reynolds, Ma, 1B
Plouffe, 3B		Santana, C, C
Arcia, RF		Raburn, RF
Hicks, CF		Chisenhall, 3B
Escobar, E, SS		Stubbs, CF
_Pelfrey, P		_Kluber, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	4	6	0
Cleveland	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	6	0

So.. yard work took a little longer than I thought it was going to so I ended up missing the first half of the game.. I knew it was a Pelfrey start though so a) I figured that they would probably be on the 3rd inning at 1:30 and b) wasn’t sure that I would have missed anything good anyway. Imagine my surprise when I cam in and found we had the LEAD! And we never gave it up! Glad that we were able to pull a win out.

And just because it was such a great surprise, I give BOD to Pelfrey with hopes he’ll keep it up!!!

Sunday Morning Comic Relief

Posted on 5 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Due to the issues we have been having with broadcast in the home area because the Wild made into the playoffs, I thought would amuse you..

GameChat – Twins @ Indians, 6:05pm

Posted on 3 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

[Just in case you’re lost like I was – broadcast is on FSN+ again.. damn hockey 😉 ]

Ok, quick getting the post up – yes, it’s still flipping snowing/raining in Minnesota – so I’m glad we’re still on the road.

Here’s the setup!

Minnesota	@	Cleveland
Dozier, 2B		Brantley, LF
Mauer, C		Kipnis, 2B
Morneau, 1B		Cabrera, A, SS
Doumit, DH		Reynolds, Ma, DH
Parmelee, RF		Santana, C, 1B
Plouffe, 3B		Raburn, RF
Arcia, LF		Aviles, 3B
Hicks, CF		Gomes, Y, C
Florimon, SS		Stubbs, CF
Hernandez, P, P		Masterson, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Minnesota	1	1	0	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	6	11	0
Cleveland	0	0	2	0	2	1	0	1	0	1	7	13	0

So Cleveland is a roll right now. This is their 5th straight win if my count is correct. That being said, it was a really close, well-fought game on both sides. There was also some interesting late-inning roster manipulation on both sides – a scorers nightmare for keeping track of who is in for who and where they went. Sadly, we just came out on the losing end of things at the end.