Game two of the series is going to go much better than game one did, right?
OK, I’m not terribly confident about that, either, but we can hope.
If you want something to at least look forward to… kind of… the Twins announced today that Sam Deduno would be called up to start on Friday in Detroit. It’s not that we should assume Deduno will be incredible, but he won’t be any of the same guys we’ve been watching fail miserably to start seemingly every other game recently.
This team is getting very good at one thing… finding new ways to lose baseball games.
Glen Perkins gets his first blown save of the season. Guess you can hardly blame him, given how long it has been since he had his last save opportunity.
Monday was supposed to be a noon start for the Kernels, but the storms that rolled through Cedar Rapids did a little number on the ballpark. They lost electricity for quite some time and there was some damage to signage and one of the picnic areas in left field. The infield tarp didn’t exactly end the night in the same position it started it, either.
Nonetheless, the Kernels’ staff worked their butts off and the final game of the team’s series with the Kane County Cougars got started about 1:30. Personally, that worked out great for me, since I couldn’t shake myself loose from the office until after 1:00, but there were several busloads of youngsters from schools that only got to see a couple of innings of baseball before having to get back on their buses.
The Kernels ended up winning the game 8-7 and claiming three out of four games in the series against the Cubs’ MWL affiliate.
Byron Buxton and Travis Harrison each hit their seventh home run of the season this afternoon. I have no video of either home run. (Sorry guys, but I can’t capture every at-bat on video. I have to put my camera down to drink a beer every once in a while, after all.)
But I did catch a couple of things I thought you all might enjoy seeing.
First… here’s a video of Niko Goodrum’s bases clearing triple in the sixth inning.
Goodrum is just one Kernels player with serious wheels.
As I said, I didn’t get a video of Travis Harrison’s home run, which exited the entire ballpark and landed on 8th Avenue. Byron Buxton has hit a few out on to the same street, but his home run today merely cleared the LCF wall (borrrrrrring) and I didn’t get a video of that, either.
But Buck doesn’t just score on home runs.
Here’s a series of videos that I think demonstrates how capable the Kernels are of manufacturing runs. It happens to involve Buxton, but honestly, it could just as easily feature any number of Kernels hitters.
Buxton leads off the fifth inning with a chopper up the middle. It was ruled an error on the shortstop and I understand that… but it’s highly unlikely that Buxton gets thrown out at 1B even if the guy fields the ball cleanly. Every infielder in the league knows that they have to play every infield ground ball perfectly to throw out at least half of the Kernels hitters.
Buxton takes a modest lead off of 1B, but that doesn’t stop the Cougars from throwing over to keep him close. Nor does it keep Buxton from stealing 2B. The catcher, again knowing he has to hurry, doesn’t come up with the pitch cleanly and can’t even make a throw.
Candido Pimentel expertly hits behind Buxton and moves him to 3B.
With one out, Niko Goodrum makes contact and drives Buxton in with a ground ball.
It’s not as flashy as a home run, but it’s an example of how Buxton and his team mates have used their speed to intimidate and ultimately beat their opponents through the first several weeks of the season.
not really a whole lot to say about this game… *sigh*
Best I can do for you is CONGRATS to Thielbar! That was certainly a lovely MLB debut! 2 innings, 3 K’s and only 1 Hit is a great way to start! Let’s hope for more great stuff.
Ok, we have a break from the thunderstorms! But that means it is hot and steamy and is ripe air for the long ball – I hope Pedro can keep them on the ground today.
Today the Twins are showing The Sandlot after the game in honor of the 20th Anniversary – our favorite Twins Fan turned radio show host will be sporting appropriate gear so say Hi to Lindsay if you see her!
Otherwise, let’s see if we can salvage this series huh? I’m going to be taking advantage of the NON-rain by putting in a new planting bed in the yard.. sorry folks, but chat away!
Sweeps are just ugly and proof that we weren’t playing well. We lasted out the rain delay while they played the entire Sandlot movie for the fans who stayed through. Once the game restarted, it was sadly the worse for us.
Let’s hope we get ourselves back on track on the road.
It’s time for the Twins to get back in the win column. I’m not sure how they’re going to do it, but getting Joe Mauer back in the line up would seem to be a good start. Having Scott Diamond on the mound can’t hurt, either.
Diamond and Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster went head to head in Boston and the Twins came out ahead 6-1.
I haven’t really followed Twins news today, but I do believe I saw where they activated Cole DeVries… and then optioned him.
I do note with interest that Justin Morneau is hitting ahead of Josh Willingham. Phil Miller of the Strib reports that the first time that’s happened this season.
I’m covering the Kernels tonight, so I won’t likely be in the chat much, if at all, but for those of you who are, I hope you enjoy the game and the company!
The Twins only lost by one… if you keep score by number of hits instead of runs. And they didn’t commit any errors, so they’ve got that going for them.
Alas, what matters is runs and the Red Sox scored a lot of them while the Twins scored far fewer.
Tomorrow should be a better day, if for no other reason than it’s the day the Twins are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of the movie “Sandlot” and are going to be showing it on the video boards.
Episode 38 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Dalton Hicks
This week Cody and Eric dive into the poor pitching management of Ron Gardenhire, Joe Mauer‘s hit-streak amid a season filled with strike-outs, and then we discuss the possibility of seeing Kyle Gibson in a Twins uniform and the outside shot of a 6-man rotation in Minnesota.
We name our Twins hitters and pitchers of the week, and then go Down on the Pond and talk about Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernals first basemen Dalton Hicks.
We finish up the podcast talking about beers from Europe and making a trip Around the League (including a fabulous Korean bat flip).
Only an hour of fun this week, but we’ll be back next week with a special patriotic Talk to Contact in honor of Memorial Day.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
For the second consecutive night, the Cedar Rapids Kernels won a game in dramatic fashion when third baseman Travis Harrison hit a walkoff single down the left field line in the bottom of the 12th inning to beat the Cubs affiliate in the Midwest League, the Kane County Cougars.
The video below captures Harrison’s apparent attempt to hit manager Jake Mauer with a foul ball just before driving in the winning run. Failing to do so, he settled for a single down the left field line to score Jorge Polanco with the game winning run. Polanco had walked to start the inning and advanced to second base via a sacrifice bunt by cleanup hitter Dalton Hicks.
So the Red Sox are in town – and we greet them with soggy, grayness. Yay.
And we face Clay Buchholz with no Mauer (out tonight with a sore back) and with Parmelee in the 2-hole. THAT’s kind of interesting.. not sure what I think about that.
At any rate, let’s see what the boys can do since I’m pretty sure that they’ll get the game in..
I was watching an extra-inning game tonight, but it didn’t involve the Twins (at least not the current Twins), so I couldn’t begin to comment on what happened. I did note from Twitter that Vance Worley seemed to have one of his better games on the mound since joining the Twins, but it wasn’t enough to get the win. For that, your bats typically need to accumulate more than four hits. – JC
Thursday night, Twins prospect Byron Buxton came to the plate with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, the bases loaded, and his Kernels team trailing the Burlington Bees 6-3.
Again, pardon the photography. I had to take this video from the second row of the Kernels pressbox, behind the Mediacom “MC22” broadcasters who were televising the game. The bonus, I guess, is that you can hear their call of what happens next.
Please note, unlike when Travis Harrison launched a walkoff grand slam a couple of weeks ago, the Kernels bench did not chase Buxton around the basepaths, but waited for him to reach home plate before mobbing him. It’s nice to know that particular lesson has been learned!
After the game, Buxton got the traditional shaving cream to the face during a television interview.
You might expect that a superstar-in-the-making like Buxton would rush straight from the TV interview to the clubhouse to join his team mates in their celebration. But not Buxton. He signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans for several minutes before making his way up the tunnel to the clubhouse.
