Can the Twins not only win five games in a row, but complete two consecutive series sweeps? As difficult as that may be for us to get our heads around this season, that’s exactly what the Twins are playing for today in Milwaukee.
As happy as I am to see this recent string of success, my enthusiasm is tempered somewhat by the realization that the Twins won’t be able to continue playing every game against teams with defenses as bad as the Brewers and Tigers have. That said, it’s a lot more fun watching other teams play the “Bad News Bears” role, allowing the Twins to pick up some Ws.
I didn’t see or even listen to any of this game and from the looks of things, it’s probably just as well. Let’s face it, any game in which the Twins use six pitchers and the second best pitching performance of the group was by Drew Butera, probably was not a game I really wanted to see. It looks like Joe Mauer showed up with his bat, but otherwise I don’t see much evidence of any offense in the Twins boxscore. – JC
This post has almost nothing whatsover to do with the Twins. Since this is pretty much a Twins blog, I thought I should say that up front. So if you want to just go read something else about the Twins, I understand.
I spent Saturday night watching my hometown Cedar Rapids Kernels (an Angels Class A affiliate in the Midwest League) take on the Peoria Chiefs (the Cubs’ Class A affiliate).
After dinner with my wife and some friends at a local downtown restaurant in Cedar Rapids (Saturday was our 33rd wedding anniversary), the four of us made our way to Memorial Stadium to catch the Kernels/Chiefs game. I thought about stopping at the box office on the way to dinner to get tickets, but decided that probably wasn’t necessary. Mistake.
By the time we got to the parking lot, still several minutes before the first pitch, the place was packed. Maybe it was because the Cubs affiliate was taking on the Kernels and the Cubs are popular around here. Maybe it was because it was “Star Wars” night. Maybe it was because there were postgame fireworks planned for after the game. Maybe it was the perfect weather. Maybe it was a combination of all of the above, but the stadium was full.
A full house at Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids
I absolutely love to see a full ballpark for a Kernels game. It makes me feel good when the community so clearly appreciates this kind of entertainment.
The Chiefs scored four runs in the top of the 3rd inning. The Kernels scored five runs in the bottom of the same inning. And so the game went. In the end, the Kernels emerged on the winning end of a 7-6 score.
If you don’t regularly attend minor league games, you probably don’t understand the whole “Star Wars” night thing. Minor league teams generally schedule several special events during the season to (a) generate some publicity and (b) raise some money for a local charity. The players wear special jerseys, which are sold via silent auction during the game, with the proceeds going to a charity. Tonight’s Star Wars Night benefited the Make-a-Wish Foundation, for example.
Cam Bedrosian's "Star Wars" Kernels jersey
I shelled out a few bucks for Cam Bedrosian’s #30 jersey. The 20-year old right-handed pitcher was the Angels’ first round draft choice in 2010. If his name sounds familiar to you, it may be because his dad, Steve Bedrosian, had a pretty nice Major League career and was a member of the 1991 Twins World Series Champions (see… I managed to find at least a LITTLE connection to the Twins). Oh… and by the way… one of his teammates here in Cedar Rapids is infielder Matt Scioscia, son of the Angels current (somewhat beleaguered) manager, Mike Scioscia.
The jersey itself is one of those so-corny-its-cool things… a Chewbacca brown jersey with neon green lettering. I love it! And Cam was good enough to autograph it for us.
The Twins won their fourth game in a row Saturday and I’m happy about that. But as much as I enjoy following the Twins, it’s really tough to beat a beautiful night watching the Kernels at a ballpark full of families with kids and adults of all ages. If you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about because you’ve never had the pleasure of attending minor league games… well… I feel sorry for ya. You have no idea what you’re missing!
My guess is that everyone wearing a Twins uniform is feeling pretty good right about now. And they should be. I really hope they get to the point where they realize that they really like this feeling of working together, playing good ball and getting wins. Even more importantly, I look forward to the time when they can win ball games that don’t involve the opposing teams hiring circus clowns for the field.
As for today’s pitching, all reports are that Pavano is feeling good enough that he supposedly even declined the cortisone shot they had proposed. I don’t know if that is good news or bad news for today but I like the sound of recovery…
My guess about today’s game is that the boys all felt like they started early enough on a Saturday, they might as well play a little longer into the evening so they just kept letting things get tied up… Pavano was on a pitch count but still managed to pitch a full 6 innings which we needed. His velocity isn’t all that much higher than it was but he definitely was pretty solid.
And BOD for today? Finally an easy one. Across the board we had great outings and yes, Drew Butera STILL leads the team in Batting Average since he’s up to .375 if my count is accurate. And Matt Capps put another Save notch on his headboard. But when a game keeps getting tied up, the guy who BREAKS the tie? He gets to be BOD. That is you, Trevor Plouffe!
And we have arrived at that point of the season we call  INTERLEAGUE PLAY! Ok, there’s a lot of controversy about in-season interleague play but I’m going on the record as loving it. I LIKE that there are two leagues. I LIKE that there are different rules and strategies and that we get to see them during the season.
You are entitled to have your own opinion and I’m ok if it’s different than mine – but it won’t mean that I enjoy the Milwaukee matchups every year any less and admit it, you like it too.
Now we just have to find out if Diamond can bunt… LOL
Are we allowed to just keep saying “wow”?? Â It’s really hard to believe that boxscore belongs to the same team we’ve been watching all season. Not to mention that tonight officially makes a win STREAK! It’s the first time we’ve hit 3 consecutive wins this season I think. hard to believe that little details like that are so hard to come by sometimes. There was just a ridiculous amount of hitting tonight – from up and down the lineup.
The M&M boys showed up in a big way getting hits & RBI the way we’d expect. Mauer broke up the tie in the 5th inning which basically broke game open. And Scott Diamond not only booked his 3rd Win as a Twins starter, he showed he knows which end of the bat does what too! He got his first big league hit AND a run which is rare enough from our bench much less our pitchers so I say all three of these boys deserve a tall frosty one courtesy of the city of Milwaukee.
Cheers boys!
But of course the real prize of the day was tough to come up with due to the team effort across the board. But Denard Span came in after dealing with some calf tightness and he came back in a BIG way. 4 hits, 3 RBI, 3 Runs and in general doing everything you want your leadoff runner to be doing! For all that, he has earned today’s BOD!
[edit] I LIED! The calendar doesn’t have this broadcast listed for FSN but it seems to be on the FSN list!! woohoo!
photo courtesy of Jim Mone/ASSOCIATED PRESS
First of all, I feel it’s utterly appropriate to recognize that a year ago, today, we lost Harmon Killebrew. For the Twins fans and team, this was a HUGE loss. I think we are continuing to feel his absence both up in MN and in the minor leagues where he had such an impact on young players. You’ll always be missed Killer.
On to the game: today’s pre-game roster moves are not what anyone was actually expecting. After last night’s odd victory (both in on-field activity and record), we had some odd announcements. We expected to see Doumit moved to the DL after popping a calf muscle during the game and having Butera replace him defensively in the 8th. Turns out, he had an MRI and it was all good news! Doumit is day-to-day but could be available to DH very soon. Of course that means he joins the ranks of the bench-injured – a growing club with this team that includes Span and apparently Capps as well. In a rare move, the Twins actually did place someone on the DL – Nick Blackburn – with a strained left quad. That does explain the horrible 2 inning outing. However, the team brought up Ben Revere to take the open spot on the roster… Â color me a tad confused. I’m sure the decision regarding Revere was made when the team assumed they were losing Doumit for awhile. But I certainly didn’t expect to see the team go to 12 pitchers the day after we used the entire available bullpen to win a game. I think that we have a lot of pressure on Walters today.. let’s see what happens.
The Twins won a SERIES!!! Detroit may lead the division at some point (probable) this season but their defense is going to have to improve for that to happen. BUT if you have the bats, solid defense and miracle of all miracles, a BULLPEN, you can go places!! Justin Morneau got 3 of today’s 4 RBI so I gotta say it’s really good to have him back. And you’ll never guess who leads the team in Batting Average right now.. yes, it’s DREW BUTERA! *dies laughing* Statistically, Drew was 3/4 today but actually got on base all 4 plate appearances due to an error.
But, as I mentioned in the pregame notes, the pressure for today was all on PJ Walters. Since our bullpen had to cover 7 innings last night, there wasn’t a lot of room for anything but a deep outing from our starter today. And while Detroit may do their best circus emulation on the field, they DO bring the big bats to the plate. It’s no easy job to face that lineup inning after inning. So while we offer our heartiest thanks and plates of pastries to Doc & Drew for their stellar efforts today, the BOD goes to the new comer, PJ Walters! Congrats on your first Twins win!
There is other baseball to watch in the Twin Cities! We are actually a blessed community to have options. So if & when you are frustrated with watching the Twins at points during the season – and even if you’re not! The Saints make a great show of 9 innings in addition to the ballgame. And the Saints actually made it to the playoffs last year.. and took it all the way through Championship only to lose out in the last possible game.. I’m hoping for one game better this year!
Since the Season Opener is at home, they have a GREAT week of activities planned for all the fans that show up to enjoy this great May weather. This is all after a fun week of exhibition activities that culminated in the World’s Largest Game of Catch yesterday where the team mascot was introduced to the public.. in case you don’t already know, the Saints pick a little piggy to represent them until roasting time at the end of the season. This year is breaking tradition just a bit! They have Co-Mascots this year.
Introducing Kim LARDashian and Kris HAMphries!
Better news is that their union will actually last longer than their namesakes.. *snort*
There are a LOT of other things going on this week that you would love to be a part of!
Tickets are so affordable, you can bring the whole family!
BTW, in other news from this years legislative discussions regarding stadium funding, the Saints were also at the capitol looking for some funding to move from Midway to a new home base in Lowertown, St. Paul. They certainly don’t have the weight to throw around that the Vikings or Twins do nor are they looking for anything like the amount of money as the big boys.. And the news at this point is that while they did not receive any direct funding, they most likely are eligible to apply for an economic development grant to fulfill their needs. That will take some more time to work out but I’m sure that further announcements will come later.
Until then, as old as it is, Midway is a fun place to watch a baseball game and I hope you all will make an attempt to go out and join the fun!
I haven’t seem much of the news today so I have no idea what may or may not have happened with the Twins. I do know Denard Span was scratched from the lineup with a tight hamstring and that Justin Morneau returns at 1B tonight.
I won’t be around much, if at all tonight, but I’m opening up the GameChat. Pray for the best!
It’s a good thing that all runs count instead of just “earned” runs or these two teams might still be playing. Before the season started, I recall poking fun at what I expected to be a pretty inept defense that Detroit would be putting on the field. I haven’t watched more than a handful of innings from their season so far, but I’ve been reading and hearing that their defense isn’t as bad as some of us thought it would be. You wouldn’t know that to be the case based on how they booted and tossed the ball around against the Twins tonight.
Regardless of how poorly the Tigers defended, the Twins deserve credit for (a) putting the ball in play, and (b) coming through with some timely hitting, as well. Yes… the Twins… timely hitting! I know… I couldn’t believe it either, but it was happening. In fact, our guys were 6 for 15 with runners in scoring position tonight. Six hits! For that matter, even having 15 ABs with guys in scoring position is pretty remarkable lately!
We’ll skip the discussion of Nick Blackburn’s start… after all, he wasn’t really in the game long enough to worry about it. But the bullpen did a heckuva job again. Jeff Gray, Alex Burnett, Brian Duensing, Jared Burton and Glen Perkins combined for seven innings of 5-hit baseball, giving up just one run.
That was good enough to hold off the Tigers while the Twins bats set about pretty much raking the Tigers’ pitchers. Josh Willingham had three hits (including 2 doubles), while Joe Mauer, Jamey Carroll and Brian Dozier all had two hits apiece. In fact, among the position players who got in the game, only Erik Komatsu failed to get at least one hit (and Komatsu managed to reach on a Tiger error and score a run).
It was a tough decision to come up with just one Boyfriend of the Day, with the entire bullpen proving worthy, as well as probably half a dozen hitters, but in GameChat voting, Brian Dozier’s defense and his critical 3-run home run in the second inning earned him the honor! – JC
Brian Dozier
EDIT: The news apparently wasn’t all good for the Twins after the game. The Strib’s Joe Christensen reports that Ryan Doumit has been placed on the 15-day DL with a strained calf (what… already? What happened to waiting around for a week to decide that kind of thing?). Ben Revere is on his way up to take Doumit’s spot on the active roster.
EDITED EDIT: Thursday morning, the Twins announced that they were a bit premature in declaring Ryan Doumit would be placed on the DL. Instead, they decided Doumit would be day-to-day (sigh) and Nick Blackburn would be the player DL’d, with his strained quad. That drops the pitching staff to 12 as they head in to the weekend’s interleague series with the Brewers. Hopefully, Doumit’s able to contribute in some manner.
First things first – Happy Birthday to Justin Morneau & Brian Dozier! It would be REALLY great if they could get a win to honor the day! Good baseball would be a gift to us all quite honestly but a Win would be the icing… There has to be something you can gain off birthdays right?
Phil Mackey put out a very interesting piece about Pavano’s start last night. I definitely recommend giving it a read but to sum up, Pavano is basically in charge of his own rehab (given recent history, I don’t blame him) and he says that he IS feeling better even if it’s not improving as fast as he would prefer. It sounds as though he is not going on the road with the team – at least for the Detroit portion – and work with a soft tissue specialist here in the cities. This could make the pitching rotation a little interesting and with this rotation, that’s kind of hard to do.
Today’s lineup is a bit interesting but then again, Gardy has a reputation to uphold for getaway day “B” lineups… Of course it doesn’t look all THAT different from our regular lineups but that is mostly because we don’t exactly have a big bench. Span is out today with a tight hamstring – supposedly nothing serious. It’s kind of fun to see a kid like Mastro showing up in that leadoff spot instead of Lexi for a twist. Hope to see him have a good time.
Also, the talk is that Morneau will be activated after the game today – I guess that’s SOMETHING for your birthday anyway – and Gardy has said that he will NOT go to 12 pitchers so one of position players is going to go back to Rochester. I don’t think it’s going to be a “last in, first out” situation. 😉 Reports are that either Plouffe or Parmelee will be heading back down. Given Plouffe’s performance lately, I can believe that but I’m trying to figure out how the platoon situation for 3B works without him – full time Carroll? Parmelee is more likely given the existing coverage I think.. we’ll just have to see what happens in the post game.
oh yeah, today’s game is only on MLB.tv or 1500espn radio.. (not that there’s a whole lot of people other than me that have mid-day TV access)
Well… the weather was gorgeous? not much else you can say about this game that is all that positive.. Derek Lowe managed to pitch a complete game shutout – without throwing a single strike. So, congratulations to Derek Lowe? The twitter stream started a meme of “worm killing” to describe the Twins hitting – fairly appropos. Thank you Phil Mackey.
Yeah, not sure what else I can pull out of this experience for you other than I think this was a very good game to not have televised.
[Edit] I was right about the Plouffe/Parmelee scenario. Despite Plouffe not hitting OR fielding worthy of the big leagues, Parmelee was optioned down to AAA immediately following the game and Justin Morneau was activated and will play tomorrow in Detroit.
It only SEEMS like the Twins have been moved to the American League East Division this season. In fact, they remain members in good standing of the AL Central Division, despite having played only two of their first 34 games within their division.
Tonight, they begin to rectify that issue as they host the first game of a brief two-game series against Cleveland.
Justin Morneau, who is eligible to come off the DL on Wednesday, reportedly took live batting practice before the game, though we still have no official word on when he may find his way back in to the lineup.
I’m sure we’ll all be watching Carl Pavano closely tonight for evidence that his arm is about to separate from his shoulder. He either has or hasn’t been having shoulder soreness, did or didn’t have an MRI, which did or didn’t show anything wrong, but was or wasn’t sent to an outside physician for a second opinion and may or may not lead to a cortisone shot, after which he may or may not miss a start or even may or may not go on the DL himself.
Our guys made it interesting, thanks to a Ryan Doumit moon shot in the bottom of the eighth, but the Tribe scored one run off of Matt Capps in the top of the 9th and that was the ballgame. We did see Francisco Liriano’s first relief appearance and he was very good… right up to the point where he walked three straight batters. He got a strike out to end the inning at that point, so I guess on balance it was a successful appearance. Starting pitcher Carl Pavano threw just 72 pitches in his six innings of work.
