GameChat – Twins @ Tigers, 6:05 pm

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!

TWINS

@

TIGERS
Komatsu, CF   Jackson, A, CF
Dozier, SS   Dirks, LF
Mauer, DH   Cabrera, Mi, 3B
Willingham, LF   Fielder, 1B
Morneau, 1B   Young, D, DH
Doumit, C   Avila, C
Plouffe, RF   Raburn, 2B
Casilla, A, 2B   Boesch, RF
Carroll, 3B   Santiago, SS
  _Blackburn, P     _Porcello, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 2 3 1 0 0 2 1 0 2 11 14 0
Detroit 1 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 7 11 4

Well that was kinda fun!

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.

GameChat – Blue Jays @ Twins #2, 7:10pm

Oh, baseball season, constantly in battle with yard season…

The bad thing is actually I’m off to help a friend with a new fence instead of working on my own new yard..

The good thing? yeah, I’m going to have to miss at least part of the game to get the work done.. the way the Twins are playing these days though maybe that is a good thing. Of course, it also looks like there might be a bit of a rain delay. It’s a bit windy and cool but I think they will get the game in tonight.

My fondest wish is that I’ll come back to the radio to find out the Twins have chosen to spite me and made it a fabulous game since I couldn’t watch. I’d still be cool with that.

Toronto

@

Minnesota
Johnson, K, 2B Span, CF
Escobar, Y, SS Dozier, SS
Bautista, RF Mauer, C
Encarnacion, DH Willingham, LF
Thames, E, LF Doumit, DH
Lawrie, 3B Plouffe, 3B
Rasmus, CF Parmelee, 1B
Lind, 1B Mastroianni, RF
Arencibia, C Carroll, 2B
  Drabek, P   Blackburn, P

 

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

Our guys don’t do anything the easy way these days, but we’ll take a win at this point any way we can get it.

Nick Blackburn went 5+ innings for the Win. The 5 went alright, but the + part was a problem as Nick coughed up 2 home runs and a total of 3 runs in the sixth inning without recording an out. Fortunately, his teammates had provided a 4 run lead at that point, so he had a run of cushion.

Alex Burnett stopped the bleeding in the sixth and after Darin Mastroianni provided a key RBI single to provide a much needed insurance run, Jared Burton threw another of his patented 1-2-3 innings of relief work. Glen Perkins coughed up a solo home run to Encarnacion in the eighth, but Matt Capps slammed the door in the ninth with the tying run on 3B to secure the save and, more importantly, the win for the Twins.

Burton certainly earns baked goods for his performance, while Denard Span went 2 for 4 with a double and a couple of runs scored and Ryan Doumit came through with a pair of critical ribbies, also earning some pastries for their efforts.

But the Boyfriend of the Day can be none other than Darin Mastroianni, who not only collected his first MLB hits, but plated three VERY important RBI in the process! – JC

Darin Mastroianni (Photo: CapitalBabs)

GameChat – Angels @ Twins #2, 7:10 pm

No Denard Span tonight, but apparently that was the plan all along so we’re not supposed to read anything in to it. We’ll see.

The Knuckleballs crew is taping a podcast tonight during the first 45 minutes or so of the game, so if you don’t see us around, don’t freak out… wait until you hear the podcast, THEN you can freak out. Thanks to Phil Naessens for having us on. We’ll try not to screw it up too bad.

Go Twins!

ANGELS

@

TWINS
Trout, CF Komatsu, CF
Callaspo, 3B Dozier, SS
Pujols, 1B Mauer, 1B
Hunter, To, RF Willingham, LF
Trumbo, DH Doumit, DH
Kendrick, H, 2B Valencia, 3B
Wells, V, LF Plouffe, RF
Aybar, SS Butera, C
Iannetta, C Carroll, 2B
  _Haren, P   _Diamond, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
LA Angels 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0
Minnesota 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 x 5 12 0

Seven innings of shutout baseball thrown by a Twins starter… now that’s something we haven’t seen this season. Add to that 12 hits and five runs and you’ve got pretty much a complete effort. Josh Willingham had an early RBI double and Ryan Doumit hit his fourth HR of the season. Joe Mauer added a couple of hits of his own. Jared Burton and Matt Capps each added scoreless innings of relief.

But in his first MLB start of the season, Scott Diamond limited the Angels to just four hits over his seven innings and that’s good enough for tonight’s Boyfriend of the Day award!

Scott Diamond

GameChat – Twins @ Mariners #1, 9:10pm

And we’re back.

Two days ago the Minnesota Twins were no-hit by Jered Weaver and the Los Angeles Angels.  Yesterday, presumably, the Twins licked their wounds and prepared for a three game set in Seattle.

Part of that preparation involved designating Major League Strike-Out King Clete Thomas for assignment to make room for Erik Komatsu, claimed off waivers from the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.  Komatsu is a typical lead-off type hitter, reaches base at a solid clip but has never really hit for power.  The move is yet another piece of evidence that the Twins think Ben Revere needs more “seasoning” in the Minor Leagues and an opportunity to play everyday.  Sean Burroughs, who was designated for assignment this past Tuesday to make room for Drew Butera, has cleared waivers and will join the AAA Rochester Red Wings.

Don’t forget: Ron Gardenhire is taking the weekend off and Scott Ullger is serving as the acting manager.

Here are the lineups:

 Minnesota Twins

@

Seattle Mariners
 Span, CF  Ackley, 2B
 Carroll, SS  Liddi, 3B
 Mauer, DH  Suzuki, I, RF
 Willingham, LF  Montero, C
 Doumit, RF  Seager, DH
 Valencia, 3B  Smoak, 1B
 Parmelee, 1B  Carp, LF
 Casilla, A, 2B  Saunders, M, CF
 Butera, C  Ryan, SS
  _Pavano, P   _Vargas, P

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

 Minnesota

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

3

5

0

Seattle

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

2

8

1

 

Carl Pavano pitched 6 effective innings giving up just two runs before turning the game over to the bullpen.  In the top of the 7th the Twins took advantage of a Mariners error and a Joe Mauer infield single to score 3 runs.  The bullpen pitched 3 scoreless innings, striking out 5 batters and the Twins hang on to win.

Photo Credit: CapitalBabs

Boyfriend of the Day:

Brian Duensing gets some baked goods for holding the lead in the bottom of the 7th but the real hero of the day is Jamey Carroll.  Not only did he break the Twins’ hitless streak in the top of the first inning, he finished the day 2-4, with a walk, a stolen base, and an RBI.

 

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #3, 1:10 pm

Remember a week ago when everyone was looking forward to six games against the Red Sox and Royals… two teams that we thought were struggling just as much as the Twins?

Well, here we are at the end of that stretch still waiting for the first Twins win. How friggin depressing is that?

On the bright side, it’s 55 degrees and, more importantly, NOT raining in Minneapolis right now, so there will be baseball played today. I wish I were more certain that that’s a good thing.

ROYALS

@

TWINS
Getz, 2B Span, CF
Gordon, LF Carroll, SS
Butler, DH Mauer, C
Hosmer, 1B Willingham, LF
Francoeur, RF Morneau, 1B
Moustakas, 3B Valencia, 3B
Pena, B, C Doumit, DH
Escobar, A, SS Plouffe, RF
Dyson, CF Casilla, A, 2B
  _Chen, P   _Marquis, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 4 9 2
Minnesota 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 x 7 11 0

It’s been a while, so it’s hard to recognize it when we see it, but I’m pretty sure that’s what they call a WIN!

Once again, the bats did their job. Danny Valencia had a good day, with three hits, a couple of ribbies and started a critical double play in the field. One thing we saw today that we haven’t seen in a while was a “Quality Start” from a member of the Twins rotation. Three or fewer runs in six or more innings doesn’t seem like a terribly high standard until your guys can’t seem to meet it. But Jason Marquis did exactly that today and Jared Burton, Glen Perkins and Matt Capps managed to hold the lead.

But today’s Boyfriend of the Day has to be Josh Willingham, who managed 3/4 of the “cycle” with a single, double and triple, to go with two RBI and a couple of runs scored. Great way to end the homestand, guys! – JC

Josh Willingham (photo Jim Crikket)

GameChat – Twins @ Rays, 6:10pm

I always enjoy our series against the Rays simply because … well.. I like the Rays for the most part. I think they play in a ridiculous division and they do a lot of stuff with that anyway and let’s just say they do it efficiently. Of course by that I mean that they don’t have anywhere near the payroll as their divisional competitors. It’s just something that goes to the core of being a Twins fan that likes an underdog. I know I’m not the only one who feels that way, right?

At any rate, that doesn’t mean I don’t want the Twins to win.. it just means I would enjoy watching the Rays beat the Yankees almost as much as I would our boys. What I do hope is that the Twins are able to give better support to Liam tonight than they did the last time around for him. And I really want to see Hendriks pitch his little patooter off. I want to see one of our starters do well… please?

 

Minnesota

@

Tampa Bay
Span, CF Jennings, LF
Carroll, SS Zobrist, 2B
Mauer, DH Pena, C, 1B
Willingham, LF Longoria, 3B
Valencia, 3B Scott, DH
Doumit, C Joyce, RF
Plouffe, RF Upton, B, CF
Parmelee, 1B Gimenez, C, C
Casilla, A, 2B Rodriguez, S, SS
  Hendriks, P   Moore, P

 

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

Minnesota

1

0

0

0

1

0

3

0

0

5

11

1

Tampa Bay

0

0

0

0

1

3

0

0

0

4

5

0

Woohoo!! Starting a series with a win always feels good. And I’m grateful that the boys gave Liam enough run support to get it done.

Tonight was an easy BOD though – Josh Willingham all the way. Seriously that boy is hitting. Not only did his solid blast give the Twins the lead, but it continued his streak to 14 games. I don’t really get too excited about streaks but it is kind of fun to see from a guy who STARTED the season with starting his streak… yeah, like I said, fun.

Mauer & Carroll get treats too as well as the bullpen for coming in and nailing it down again. But the big honor goes to Willy – hope it continues.

(photo courtesy of Rob Carr/ Getty Images)

GameChat – Twins @ Yankees #3, 6:05

Francisco Liriano certainly didn’t have his best stuff last night, failing to get out of the 3rd inning and putting the Twins behind.  Liriano now has three terrible starts for the Twins in 2012, coming off a poor 2011 campaign, and if the Twins had anybody left at AAA to take his spot in the rotation, Liriano could be in trouble of losing his spot with the Major League club.

Morneau is back in the lineup today, after a day off.  He is not back at first, but he’s in the lineup, and so far reports are that everything went as planned on Monday with Morneau playing the field, so expect his playing time to increase.  Also of note: Ryan Doumit is getting the day off in favor of the hot hitting Clete Thomas.

 Minnesota

@

 NY Yankees
 Span, CF  Jeter, SS
 Carroll, SS  Granderson, CF
 Mauer, C  Teixeira, 1B
 Willingham, LF  Cano, 2B
 Morneau, DH  Swisher, DH
 Parmelee, 1B  Ibanez, RF
 Burroughs, 3B  Chavez, Er, 3B
 Thomas, C, RF  Martin, C
 Casilla, A, 2B  Gardner, LF
 _ Marquis, P  _ Kuroda, P

 

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

BIG win for the Twins tonight! Once again, the guys jumped on the Yankee starting pitcher for runs in the first inning and once again the Twins pitcher gave a chunk of that lead right back. But, like Carl Pavano on Monday, Jason Marquis settled in and gave his team a chance to win.

A big sack of baked goods goes to the Twins’ bullpen as Brian Duensing and Jared Burton combined to throw three shutout innings of relief and Matt Capps survived a ninth inning Derek Jeter HR to nail down the save.

Plenty of hitting from the Twins tonight, as well, with eight different hitters contributing a total of 13 hits. Chris Parmelee notched two of them and Alexi Casilla continued to warm up at the plate with three hits of his own. Josh Willingham managed to stretch his hitting streak to 12 straight games to open the season with a ninth inning double.

But the Boyfriend of the Day award can go to nobody but Justin Morneau. Doc proved he doesn’t have to be playing 1B to hit well in Yankee Stadium, as the DH hit not one, but two more home runs!

It may be hard to believe, but the Twins will be going for a series win on Thursday night in Yankee Stadium. – JC

Justin Morneau

.
.

Game Chat – Twins @ Yankees, 6:05 pm

Justin Morneau plays first base tonight and Josh Willingham slips up in to the clean-up spot between Morneau and Joe Mauer, as Justin drops down to 5th in the order.

It’s also Carl Pavano’s first start for the Twins in Yankee Stadium. That should be interesting because he’s so beloved there.

TWINS

@

YANKEES
Span, CF Jeter, SS
Carroll, SS Granderson, CF
Mauer, DH Rodriguez, Al, 3B
Willingham, LF Cano, 2B
Morneau, 1B Teixeira, 1B
Doumit, C Swisher, RF
Valencia, 3B Ibanez, DH
Thomas, C, RF Martin, C
Casilla, A, 2B Gardner, LF
  _Pavano, P   _Garcia, F, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 2 0 0 0 2 1 0 2 0 7 14 1
NY Yankees 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 9 0

Many of you younger Twins fans may not realize it, but yes the Twins ARE allowed to beat the Yankees! Young or old, not many fans have seen the Twins beat the Evil Empire lately, especially at George’s Monstrosity.

This was another team-wide effort. Our guys scored two runs in the top of the first and I jokingly asked the Chat group what the over-under was on how long it would take Carl Pavano to cough up the lead. I don’t think any of us imagined the answer would be four pitches, but that’s all the longer it took. But the three runs ‘Stache allowed in the first were all they got as he frustrated the hell out of Yankee hitters (and a few million Yankee fans, no doubt) for the next six scoreless innings.

Brian Duensing lit up the radar gun, hitting 95 mph several times, in the scoreless 8th and Matt Capps closed the door in the ninth.

Joe Mauer had three hits (two of them doubles, one in each corner of the OF), Justin Morneau celebrated his return to the defensive side of the field by launching a home run to dead CF.

All of these guys, and probably more, deserve baked goods galore for their efforts and certainly both Pavano and Mauer were worthy of Boyfriend of the Day consideration. But we’re going to reward defense tonight and Alexi Casilla just ooooozed defense! A slick, leaping turn of a double play and a diving stop of a ground ball up the middle followed by a glove-hand feed to SS Jamey Carroll were just two examples of his contributions. Just for good measure, he also doubled and scored a run. For all of that, Lexi, you are our BOD!

– JC

Alexi Casilla

GameChat – Angels @ Twins #3, 12:10pm

One win certainly does make things feel a little better but I’ll tell you, more would be better! LOL Today would be a great day for Liriano to improve on what was not a great first appearance. Yes, the Twins need to score more runs but this is a team sport. The pitching has to do their job and the defense needs to do theirs as well. We’ve been kind of weak on all fronts so far – everyone needs to step it up.

Speaking of a team needing to step it up, if you want to see a truly keystone cop moment on the field, AND the reason that you play it out no matter what as a baserunner, you can see Michael Cuddyer and his fellow Rockies pull off a baserunning miracle. It’s definitely worth the watch.

 

LA Angels

@

Minnesota
Izturis, M, SS Span, CF
Kendrick, H, 2B Carroll, SS
Pujols, 1B Mauer, C
Hunter, To, RF Morneau, DH
Trumbo, DH Willingham, LF
Wells, V, LF Parmelee, 1B
Callaspo, 3B Valencia, 3B
Wilson, Bo, C Revere, RF
Bourjos, CF Casilla, A, 2B
  Haren, P   Liriano, P

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

LA Angels

0

5

0

0

1

0

0

1

2

9

13

0

Minnesota

0

0

0

0

3

0

3

4

x

10

20

1

 

I can’t begin to figure out how to summarize that game… LOL Of all the games to play during a day game when half (or more) fans can’t even see what’s happening!??!?! I can guarantee that even the most diehard fan didn’t EXPECT a win today but we all hoped. To get the win in this fashion seems to be about the only way the Twins are willing to do it. They have to rip our hearts out, stomp on them, and put them back and inflate them just for the fun of it. THAT is what it means to be a Twins fan people…

Things started to look both familiar and disastrous in the second inning.. Liriano gave up a big hit and those of us who have watched him for a long time knew the meltdown was coming. And what a spectacular meltdown it was. We finally managed to get enough outs to get out of the inning.. 5 runs later. Franky DOES get points for coming out and working to put his brain back into the game for three more innings.. But for all that he only gave up one more run after that, his line is still not pretty. 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 HR and only 3 K’s means it was not a good day for Liriano, again.

Lately, this is about what you expect to be the end of the story for the Twins.. not today!

Today? They brought out the good bats!! hooray! We had lots and lots and lots of hits – more than we actually took advantage of for scoring purposes anyway. And when the runs started, they just started getting bigger and bigger! Guess what folks, it was the return of the HOMERUNS finally. And more importantly, it wasn’t just Josh Willingham! (who did hit his 4th homerun of the season however which leads all of MLB) We finally have the return of both the Big Boppers: Mauer AND Morneau. All of Twins Territory had collective fits when they went LONG. It’s the first time in June of 2010 that both have hit HRs in the same game and the first time EVER that it’s happened in Target Field.

It’d be great if that was the end but no… after two spectacular scoreless innings by Alex Burnett, we went into the 9th with a 3 run lead (10-7) which meant it was up to Capps to close it out for us. I know he’s really trying hard to improve the impression he left with Twins fans last year but that doesn’t mean we don’t hold our breath when he comes out. And today he showed it was with good reason. But he still managed to squeak the out the necessary outs before giving up more runs than we had lead.

Of course, that means we WON which means we have a STREAK which also means we had to vote on BOD! And again, like with the first win, the whole team was involved in getting these runs on the board so voting for who contributed the most was tough. In the spirit of the team victory, we have a chat team consensus as we assembled several ideas into the final offering we put to the public.

Your CO-BODs of the day are the M&M Boys!

 

But just so we don’t leave out our ever big bat, Josh Willingham, we offer him the finest of all Girl Scout Cookies – his own box of Thin Mints! This box is donated by our ever loyal TallDrinkOWater in California! Congrats to Josh for holding the biggest bat in MLB right now! That’s actually a very impressive accomplishment for someone wearing a Twins jersey. As your defensive abilities continue to improve, I’m sure that your selection of baked goods in the pantry will grow significantly!

 

We also offer a selection of tasty treats to Alex Burnett and Denard Span for their efforts today to hold the team together with both the bat, baserunning and solid pitching. As I mentioned in the pre-game, the only way to make a go of this with the roster we have is for everyone to step up their game in ever facet of play. They really seemed to take me at my word and go for it today.

If you get a chance to watch the replay, it’s totally worth it even when you already know how it ends! Besides, knowing the end will keep you from the ulcers that several of us got this afternoon during the live presentation.

GameChat – Angels @ Twins #2, 7:10 pm

First, the bad news: It was announced today that Scott Baker will have further cleanup surgery on bone spurs in his elbow and his season is over. Anyone else have a vague or not-so-vague feeling of deja vu?? This really sucks for both the team AND for Scott.

I think it would go a LONG way to helping the fans feel a bit better if they could actually WIN a game tonight.. just saying. And winning implies scoring runs. That would be MULTIPLE and MORE THAN THEM. Felt it necessary to be specific.

 

LA Angels

@

Minnesota
Aybar, SS Span, CF
Kendrick, H, 2B Carroll, SS
Pujols, 1B Mauer, C
Morales, K, DH Morneau, DH
Hunter, To, RF Willingham, LF
Wells, V, LF Doumit, RF
Callaspo, 3B Valencia, 3B
Iannetta, C Parmelee, 1B
Bourjos, CF Casilla, A, 2B
  Weaver, P   Pavano, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
LA Angels 0 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 0 5 8 0
Minnesota 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 0 x 6 9 0

Our guys finally get a win!

Considering the pressure of being the last remaining team without a win, so many Twins came through in so many ways tonight that picking a Boyfriend of the Day was difficult.

Carl Pavano came within a fluke inside-the-park HR of pretty much shutting down the Angels. Jeff Gray took all of one pitch to work out of a potential scoring situation in relief of Pavstache in the 7th inning (and earning the “win” in the process). Glen Perkins was extremely impressive in his set up role during an 8th inning that ended with a strike out of Albert Pujols. And Matt Capps survived a Torii Hunter double in the 9th to rack up save number 1 on the season.

The bats finally woke up a bit, as well. Joe Mauer got the scoring started with an RBI single in the 4th inning and scored when Josh Willingham ripped his third home run of the season in the same inning, giving the Twins their first lead in any game this year. Chris Parmelee came through with a 7th inning triple that tied the game.

But in a close vote, Jamey Carroll gets our first BOD award of the season for providing the margin of victory with a two-out base hit to score Parmelee.

It’s a noon game on Thursday… would it be too much to ask for a mini winning streak? – JC

Jamey Carroll