Category Archives: Twins baseball

Still no Mauer – and this is why I never understood all those people who said they needed to move him to 1B to protect his playability. Physical issues/injuries happen no matter what position you’re playing so he’s still going to have down time now that he’s moved over. Just about every guy on this roster is going to have downtime like that at one point or another – some every season but let’s hope not many.

Anyway, here’s tonight’s lineups:

I admit, I gave up even following this game after the Tribe jumped out to that 4-0 lead. Looks to me like Sam Deduno figured something out after those first two innings. And am I reading that boxscore right? Three perfect innings of relief for Logan Darnell? Wow! – JC

*sigh*

Apparently this home-stand is all about teasing me with favorite former Twins…

I STILL get angry seeing JJ Hardy on someone else’s roster. Just saying.

At any rate, at least I get to see him – no complaints there. AND the weather has improved! We have sun (sometimes) and the temp is starting almost 20 degrees warmer than the last 3 games did!

Fans in TF will hopefully have that plus other reasons to enjoy some baseball!

[edit] Roster news: Hicks has been placed on the 7 day disabled list with concussion symptoms and Logan Darnell has been called up from AAA to take his spot. Of course, he’s not here yet tonight so that limits the bench but we’ll see what happens.. 

Gotta admit that tonight was not the most interesting baseball game ever…  Nolasco didn’t pitch great but he didn’t suck either. And he did pitch a complete game so that was a HUGE bonus for the bullpen. He got lucky a few times, he left a few up but he really only paid for it once – one long bomb for 2 runs that brought the Orioles lead up to 3. But honestly, I don’t know why the Twins didn’t get any runs because I don’t think Jimenez really pitched all that well either.

Let’s just say that it didn’t really cause me any distress to move over to the hockey game when it started.

so… GO WILD!

Before I get into a discussion of tonight’s game, I want to give you guys a heads up about TOMORROW’s game that I think a good portion of you will find highly appropriate. They have a last minute surprise promo giveaway that may encourage those of you in the area to pop out for evening:

Now, back to our regularly scheduled gamechat posting.

I think tonight is actually better weather than this afternoon!! Let’s hope the pitching is also improved. If you have peeked ahead, you’ll see a name that chances are, you won’t recognize. The Twins got Kris Johnson as a result of some complicated maneuvering in the Justin Morneau trade. I know next to nothing about his actual pitching ability but I do know his visit here is temporary.. for now. He’s the 26th guy that the Twins have available due to the double-header. It’s doubtful that he can do MUCH worse than the starts we have been getting from Pelfrey – not that that is what we’re going for here. *knock on wood*

Well, you can’t blame this one on the starting pitching. Kris Johnson threw a lot of pitches, walked a few guys, but also struck out his share of Dodgers in throwing 4.1 innings of shutout baseball in his spot start.

I got home from the Kernels doubleheader (where they won both ends) in time for the final half inning of this extra-inning affair. The guys made a run at pulling out a win in the 12th but fell just short. The result is being on the wrong end of a sweep. And that sucks. – JC

Ok, it’s butt cold and still rainy – this will NOT be comfortable baseball.

That being said, we should be able to get both games in which I’m sure is a great relief to MLB.

general consensus was that this game sucked and it was all Pelfrey’s fault… It was good to see Deduno do pretty well though and good to see Gardy use the challenge well. Let’s hope this evening goes better.

It sounds like it may be a pretty damp evening at Target Field and it will be interesting to see how many fans show up, given the weather. I guess there’s some kind of hockey game on TV that a few Minnesotans are interested in later tonight, too.

Kris Johnson, who was acquired from the Pirates in a round-about way for Justin Morneau (more accurately for a guy the Twins got for Morneau but decided they didn’t want so much, after all), has been promoted to be their allowed “26th player” for tomorrow’s scheduled doubleheader with the Dodgers. Johnson’s scheduled Rochester start earlier this week was rained out so he’s rested and got the call to pitch game 2 Thursday.

I’m sure MLB will do whatever it can to get tonight’s game in, since rescheduling later in the year would be a major league pain in the butt. But if the Twins want to win tonight, I strongly suggest they get an early lead and hang on because I could see this game ending as soon as the requisite innings have been played to make the game official. It won’t be easy, though, since they’re facing former Royal Zack Greinke, who hasn’t given up more than 2 runs in a start in something just short of forever.

So, tonight we welcome back former Twin Drew Butera, who will be catching Greinke for the Dodgers.

The good news is the Twins scored the first run of the game and the last three runs of the game. The bad news is the Dodgers racked up six runs in between.

The Twins managed just one run off Greinke and while Gibson’s night was arguably not as bad as his final stat line looks, it still wasn’t good enough.
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