BOD – Page 14 – Knuckleballs

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #4, 1:10 pm

Posted on 1 July, 2012 by Jim Crikket

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that four-game series were pretty commonplace. Not so any more. But thanks to yesterday’s make-up game, we’ve got the finale of four-game series today against the Royals. Thanks to yesterday’s doubleheader sweep, the worst our guys can do is come away with a series split and a win today claims the series 3-1.

In case anyone missed it, the Orioles acquired Jim Thome from the Phillies yesterday. Big Jim will be wearing #25 for the O’s. Yes… as hard as it is to believe, the Orioles have not retired that number in honor of Rafael Palmeiro. Thome will return to Target Field with his new team in just two weeks!

The All-Star Game rosters were announced today. Representing the Twins will be Joe Mauer. That’s not really a surprise and he deserves to be selected. He probably deserves to start ahead of Mike Napoli, but with the Twins pulling up the rear in the AL Central standings, you don’t expect to get much love around the country. All of that said, I’d have liked to see Josh Willingham get his first All-Star selection. The Twins poor record has kept Willingham from getting the recognition he deserves. He’s clearly one of the best Free Agent pick ups in the league (especially if you consider performance vs. pay).

If you’re in to the whole ESPYs thing (or even if you aren’t), Ben Revere needs your vote!

On to the game…

The Twins have declared today “Armed Forces Appreciation Day” with a special ceremony scheduled to honor “Gold Star” families. With Independence Day this week, it’s a good time to honor families of those who have given the “last full measure of devotion” for our country’s freedom. They deserve our thanks this week and every week.

Francisco Liriano is on the mound for the Twins. Let’s see the good Frankie today!

ROYALS	@	TWINS
Gordon, LF		Span, CF
Escobar, A, SS		Carroll, 2B
Butler, DH		Mauer, DH
Francoeur, RF		Willingham, LF
Betancourt, Y, 3B		Morneau, 1B
Hosmer, 1B		Plouffe, 3B
Pena, B, C		Mastroianni, RF
Bourgeois, CF		Butera, C
Falu, 2B		Dozier, SS
_Chen, P		_Liriano, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Kansas City	0	0	0	1	0	4	0	0	3	8	13	1
Minnesota	0	1	0	0	0	5	1	3	x	10	9	2

I can’t stop laughing.. LOL That was just a ridiculous game of baseball that ended with us on top so at least I’m not crying. Today was all about the HR. Whether we credit burning the assbats, or the warm weather or the sacrifice of live chickens to Jobu, I don’t really care. It’s about time that the hometown 9 figured out how to hit Bruce Chen!!

The real entertainment seemed to be the battle of the team Homerun lead between Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham. Both guys have been on fire for the month of June and wanted to get July started off on the right pace. They started today tied but Trevor took the early lead in the 2nd inning. But Josh couldn’t let him get away so he answered back in the 6th with a homerun of his own to tie the race. Trevor was having none of that and took back his position as the HR leader with his SECOND HR of the day in the 6th. It was an embarrassment of runs and riches to watch them go off that way.

For that, we grant them both ice cold adult beverages of their choice (unless they need to re-hydrate) just to show our appreciation.

And then out of the blue…

Drew Butera?!? Totally unexpected 3 run HR in the 8th to build that run cushion up. AND it turns out that 4 HRs in a single game is actually a Twins record. Then it turns out that those runs weren’t so extraneous after all. Perkins made life a little interesting in the top of the 9th and all of a sudden we were VERY grateful that we had those “extra” runs from Drew. As much for the runs as for the surprise of the source, Drew gets the room vote for BOD!

MillersJerseyButera — Drew Butera sporting the Minneapolis Millers uniform (Photo: Minnesota Twins)

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #3, 6:10 pm

Posted on 30 June, 2012 by Jim Crikket

Kudos to the Twins cleaning crew who got the ballpark ready for Game 2 of today’s split doubleheader in just a couple of hours.

Before we take on Game 2, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Brian Dozier’s “infield hit” below. I’m pretty sure it’s something you’ve never seen happen before. This, folks, is why coaches taught us to “always run everything out!”

On to Game 2. Cole De Vries has been called upon to make a spot start tonight for the Twins, though he won’t find a Twins jersey in his locker when he shows up to get dressed for the game. Tonight is “turn back the clock” night and the Twins will be wearing Minneapolis Millers uniforms. The Royals, likewise, will be wearing throwback KC Blues uniforms.

Denard Span is getting the night off as Ben Revere leads off and plays CF. Having Span and Ryan Doumit ready to pinch hit late in the game could come in handy.

ROYALS	@	TWINS
Gordon, LF		Revere, CF
Betancourt, Y, 2B		Carroll, SS
Moustakas, 3B		Mauer, C
Butler, DH		Willingham, LF
Francoeur, RF		Morneau, DH
Hosmer, 1B		Plouffe, 3B
Perez, S, C		Parmelee, 1B
Dyson, CF		Mastroianni, RF
Escobar, A, SS		Casilla, A, 2B
_Hochevar, P		_De Vries, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Kansas City	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	0
Minnesota	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	x	5	9	0

twobrooms — two brooms for a doubleheader sweep!

Where to begin? So many little tidbits being passed along after the Twins beat the Royals 5-1.

Let’s start with the obvious… that was a doubleheader SWEEP of the Royals that our guys completed tonight. Yes, I know it isn’t exactly the Yankees… or even the White Sox… but hey, the Twins are looking up at the Royals in the standings, so let’s not minimize this too much!

MLB.com Twins beat writer Rhett Bollinger tweeted a couple of additional little fun facts after the game. For example, this was the Twins’ first doubleheader sweep since September 13… FOUR years ago. Yes, September of 2008 was the last time the Twins took both ends of a doubleheader. In fact, winning even one game of a doubleheader would have been an improvement over last season when the Twins went 0-8 in doubleheader games. And finally, with today’s sweep,the Twins completed the month of June with a 14-13 record… the first winning record for a month since July last year.

Joe Mauer continued his hot hitting, going 2 for 4 and Josh Willingham apparently decided he didn’t want to let Trevor Plouffe lead the team in HRs without him, so he launched his 16th of the season, as Plouffe did this afternoon.

But the story of the game… and our Boyfriend of the Day… was starting pitcher Cole DeVries. The Minnesota kid went six innings while giving up just five hits and one walk and striking out six Royals. The bullpen of Alex Burnett, Tyler Robertson and Jared Burton each threw a scoreless inning of relief in support of DeVries.

DeVriesGetty — Cole DeVries (Photo: Hannah Foslein – Getty Images)

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #2, 12:10pm (make-up)

Posted on 30 June, 2012 by CapitalBabs

This is going to be an interesting day.. Two games, HIGH temps, and we used 5 pitchers in last nights trial. In the post game questions, Gardy said that they deliberately didn’t over-use any particular pitcher so they are all theoretically available for today… This is going to be another one of those endurance challenges.

I have a hint for our boys.. lots of offense makes it way easier on everyone. Just saying..

Kansas City	@	Minnesota
Gordon, LF		Span, CF
Betancourt, Y, 2B		Revere, RF
Moustakas, 3B		Mauer, 1B
Butler, DH		Willingham, DH
Francoeur, RF		Plouffe, 3B
Hosmer, 1B		Doumit, C
Pena, B, C		Mastroianni, LF
Bourgeois, CF		Dozier, SS
Escobar, A, SS		Casilla, A, 2B
Sanchez, J, P		Diamond, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Kansas City	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	7	1
Minnesota	0	0	2	0	4	0	0	1	x	7	14	0

well hot damn! look what happens when you hit the ball! Better yet, look what happens when your pitcher actually pitches WELL!! THAT was a fun game to watch!

And Scott Diamond, you brilliant gem, YOU are BOD!

: Scott Diamond (photo: Genevieve Ross/AP)

GameChat – Chicago White Sox @ Minnesota Twins 7:10 pm

Posted on 25 June, 2012 by Eric Pleiss

Matt Capps has been officially placed on the Disabled List and Tyler Robertson has been called up from AAA Rochester to join the Twins. Wether or not he makes his MLB debut tonight will depend on Francisco Liriano‘s ability to work effectively and efficiently (the latter something he rarely accomplishes). In addition to beating Jake Peavy and his 2.74 ERA the Twins will have to battle Chicago’s newest addition, Kevin Youkilis, batting in the 2 hole for the south-siders.

Enjoy the game!

Chicago White Sox	@	Minnesota Twins
De Aza, CF		Span, CF
Youkilis, 3B		Revere, RF
Dunn, A, DH		Mauer, DH
Konerko, 1B		Willingham, LF
Rios, RF		Morneau, 1B
Pierzynski, C		Plouffe, 3B
Viciedo, LF		Dozier, SS
Ramirez, Al, SS		Butera, C
Beckham, 2B		Carroll, 2B
_Peavy, P		_Liriano, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chi White Sox	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	5	1
Minnesota	1	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	x	4	14	1

Ruined the big first game of Kevin Youkilis as a White Sox… check. Put an end to the “Jake Peavy has a perfect 0.00 ERA at Target Field” nonsense… check. Beat the Bitch Sox… CHECK!

The top 3 guys in the order combined for nine hits tonight but the obvious Boyfriend of the Day award winner was Francisco Liriano. It wasn’t a no-hitter like the last time he started a game against the Sox, but he arguably actually pitched better tonight. Seven innings, 4 hits, 5 Ks, only one walk and just one run. Can’t beat that! – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Reds #2, 12:05pm

Posted on 24 June, 2012 by CapitalBabs

Bugger – too late home from family lunch but here is the chat anyway. I really hope that Scotty can have a better outing this time than last time.

Minnesota	@	Cincinnati
Revere, CF		Heisey, CF
Mastroianni, RF		Valdez, W, SS
Mauer, C		Votto, 1B
Willingham, LF		Phillips, B, 2B
Morneau, 1B		Bruce, RF
Plouffe, 3B		Ludwick, LF
Dozier, SS		Frazier, 3B
Casilla, A, 2B		Mesoraco, C
Diamond, P		Leake, P

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

Well that sure felt familiar.. And then all of a sudden, Josh pulls out the Hammer and we’re on top again! I do like winning.. I think we need to win more SERIES however but I’ll take one whenever it happens. Today was all about the HR though thanks to Plouffe and Willy. And for pulling out that late game ‘grab the lead in the 9th’ blast, Josh Willingham is today’s BOD!

GameChat – Twins @ Reds, 6:10 pm

Posted on 22 June, 2012 by Jim Crikket

Three decades ago, the Reds were the MLB affiliate of our Cedar Rapids Midwest League team so we tended to follow the players that came through town on their way to Major League careers. Reggie Sanders and Rob Dibble are just a couple of names that come to mind as having pretty memorable minor league seasons here. For the past 20 years, however, our local club has been affiliated with the Angels and I admit I haven’t paid a nickel’s worth of attention to the Reds.

So to recognize this obscure fact, tonight I’m opening up the GameChat here and then heading to the local ballpark to watch our Kernels take on the Beloit Snappers (the Twins’ MWL affiliate), rather than hanging around to follow the Twins game with those Cincinnati Reds. But for those of you who come around for the GameChat, I hope you enjoy the game!

TWINS	@	REDS
Span, CF		Cozart, SS
Revere, RF		Heisey, CF
Willingham, LF		Votto, 1B
Morneau, 1B		Phillips, B, 2B
Plouffe, 3B		Bruce, RF
Doumit, C		Ludwick, LF
Dozier, SS		Rolen, 3B
Carroll, 2B		Mesoraco, C
Blackburn, P		Bailey, H, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	1	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	5	10	0
Cincinnati	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	4	9	1

Can you believe it!??! I got to watch half a game of Twins baseball and they WON! I know, who would have guessed!

Blackburn only went 5 innings but he still got the win because the bullpen did a fantastic job of just shutting the door once they came out. For that, the entire bullpen gets access to the pastry buffet. Help yourself boys, we’re darn proud of you.

Congrats to Ben Revere for a great outting in front of his family – don’t really know the story (maybe he’s local) but that is just because I wasn’t really paying attention. But that being said, if you can give those who care about you a good show? yeah, that is an exciting time.

But today’s BOD goes to Ryan Doumit who kicked BUTT offensively while catching the game as well. His line says it all:

4 AB,

2 Runs,

4 Hits,

1 HR

That is enough for anyone on this team lately – good for you Doum!

GameChat – Twins @ Pirates #2, 6:10 pm

Posted on 20 June, 2012 by Jim Crikket

Still no Joe.

I’m curious to see how Francisco Liriano fares tonight against a line up he hasn’t faced, at least since spring training. Sure would be nice to see “good” Frankie, tonight.

Speaking of Spring Training, did you see that the Twins and Lee County agreed on a contract that will keep the Twins at their current Spring Training site for the next 30 years? Cool. Hat tip to TwinsTrivia.com for the news!

TWINS	@	PIRATES
Span, CF		Tabata, LF
Revere, RF		Harrison, RF
Willingham, LF		McCutchen, A, CF
Morneau, 1B		McGehee, 1B
Plouffe, 3B		Walker, 2B
Dozier, SS		Alvarez, 3B
Carroll, 2B		Barmes, SS
Butera, C		McKenry, C
Liriano, P		Bedard, P

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

There was lots to like about the game tonight, not the least of which, of course, is that the Twins WON the game!

Josh Willingham scored both Twins runs, with a double and a home run. Denard Span had what turned out to probably be a game-saving diving catch in the outfield and Brian Dozier also had a web gem of his own. Jared Burton put out a fire when he entered the game and Glen Perkins notched his first save of the season.

But the Boyfriend of the Day award goes to Francisco Liriano, who gave up just one run on four hits over 6 and 2/3 innings. He walked just two (and one was intentional) while striking out six Pirates. Well done, Frankie!

GameChat – Phillies @ Twins, 7:10 pm

Posted on 12 June, 2012 by Jim Crikket

Big Jim Thome returns to Target Field tonight, but now he’s wearing a Phillies uniform and we’re all hoping he doesn’t take aim at that flag pole on Target Plaza again.

The Twins’ first draft pick, Byron Buxton took some batting practice swings this afternoon and reportedly managed to launch a ball in to the bullpens. It sounds like he’s all but signed, pending a physical, so he’ll be getting some playing time on one or both of the Twins’ short season teams yet this summer.

Nick Blackburn takes the mound tonight against the Phils, who are coming off a couple of extra-inning losses to the Orioles in a row. Let’s hope they just keep right on losing!

PHILLIES	@	TWINS
Rollins, SS		Span, CF
Pierre, LF		Revere, RF
Pence, RF		Mauer, C
Thome, DH		Willingham, LF
Victorino, CF		Morneau, 1B
Wigginton, 1B		Doumit, DH
Ruiz, C		Plouffe, 3B
Fontenot, 3B		Dozier, SS
Martinez, M, 2B		Carroll, 2B
_Kendrick, K, P		_Blackburn, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Philadelphia	0	0	0	4	0	3	0	0	0	7	14	1
Minnesota	1	4	0	1	2	1	2	0	x	11	17	0

Well that was an interesting game. From the moment Denard Span opened things up with a leadoff home run in the first inning to the point where Matt Capps completed the first 1-2-3 inning by a Twins pitcher, you never really had the feeling the game was in hand.

We won’t mention most of the rest of the pitchers, but there was certainly enough offense spread up and down the line up. Span walked three times to go with his HR and scored three runs. Ben Revere had three hits and 2 RBI, Jamie Carroll added three hits and a pair of RBI, as well, and added a couple of runs scored. Ryan Doumit had three hits and scored a pair of runs. Joe Mauer had a pair of hits and two RBI. And Josh Willingham added his 12th home run of the season.

But even with all of that competition, Trevor Plouffe is adding yet another Boyfriend of the Day award to his collection. Plouffe had three hits, including a double and a home run, scored three runs and drove in three more!

GameChat – Cubs @ Twins #2, 1:10 pm

Posted on 9 June, 2012 by Jim Crikket

It turns out all of the Knuckelballs were AWOL last night, so we didn’t get a GameChat post up. Our apologies to anyone who came around looking to hang out during the game.

Maybe the most unfortunate part of not having a GameChat is that we missed an opportunity to award Josh Willingham a well-deserved BOD designation for his 10th inning walk-off heroics! So, we’ll make up for that right now by passing on that honor to Willy. A day late is better than never, right?

Now, on to today’s game.

The good news is that we see the return of Joe Mauer and Denard Span to the line up. Mauer has been out of action for almost a week with a sprained thumb, while Span has missed a couple of games with the flu (although he did make a cameo appearance as a pinch runner in the 9th inning Friday night).

We all know the Twins have been winning more regularly the past couple of weeks and that certainly makes their games more fun to watch. But here’s something you may not realize… the Twins are now 23-34 for a winning percentage of .404. This is the first time that Twins players are waking up to a day where they’ve won at least 40% of their games since the morning of September 14, 2011.

I realize that the reason for this stretch of wins has a lot to do with playing some pretty bad teams. But I’m also a baseball romantic so forgive me if I indulge myself, just for a little while, with the fantasy that it really does have something to do with the ‘M’ caps they’ve been sporting.

And they just beat the Cubs last night. For those of us who have to live amidst way too many Cub fans, that makes today a pretty good day.

CUBS	@	TWINS
Johnson, Re, LF		Span, CF
Castro, S, SS		Revere, RF
DeJesus, RF		Mauer, C
Soriano, A, DH		Willingham, LF
Baker, Je, 1B		Morneau, 1B
Mather, CF		Doumit, DH
Clevenger, C		Plouffe, 3B
Barney, 2B		Dozier, SS
Stewart, I, 3B		Carroll, 2B
_Samardzija, P		_Diamond, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chi Cubs	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	3	11	0
Minnesota	0	2	0	6	1	2	0	0	x	11	16	0

I gotta say, Nuke LaLoosh was right when he said, “I love winning. It’s like… better than losing!”

The Twins put another W on the board, this one in far less dramatic fashion than the game Friday night. The built up an 11-0 lead before the Cubs put up some meaningless runs late in the game off of Jeff Gray. Six different Twins had more than one hit, led by Joe Mauer who had three hits, and seven different hitters drove runs in. That’s a pretty balanced offensive attack. Jeff Manship (with his name spelled correctly on his jersey today) pitched a final shutout inning in the 9th.

But Boyfriend of the Day consideration really came down to two players. Scott Diamond threw six scoreless innings, spreading out 7 hits, while striking out five Cubs without issuing a single walk. Trevor Plouffe continued his hot hitting, with a double and a home run, totaling four RBI and scoring a couple of runs himself, and racking up five assists from his 3B position, just for good measure. For those performances, Scott and Trevor, you are our BODs.

DiamondAPphoto — Scott Diamond (photo: Genevieve Ross/AP)

GameChat – Twins @ Royals #3, 7:10pm

Posted on 6 June, 2012 by CapitalBabs

Anyone else really nervous about Blackburn’s return tonight? I think it’s a bit rushed.. No clue if he’s really ready to be back. And I LIKE Blackburn!

*crosses fingers, toes, eyes and whatever else is necessary*

Minnesota	@	Kansas City
Revere, CF		Gordon, LF
Carroll, 3B		Betancourt, Y, SS
Willingham, LF		Butler, DH
Morneau, DH		Moustakas, 3B
Doumit, C		Francoeur, RF
Plouffe, 1B		Hosmer, 1B
Dozier, SS		Giavotella, 2B
Casilla, A, 2B		Dyson, CF
Mastroianni, RF		Quintero, C
Blackburn, P		Paulino, F, P

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

That’s another series win, folks!

Liriano gives up 1 run in five innings last night and Blackburn follows that up with a five inning-two run effort tonight. Once again the bullpen was outstanding and tonight, the offense provided a bit more support than they gave Frankie last night. The result was a 4-2 win.

You won’t see it in the boxscore, but Alexi Casilla was impressive with the glove tonight. It’s time we rewarded some defense and tonight we’ll do just that… Lexi, you are our Boyfriend of the Day!