Tag Archives: BOD

GameChat – Dodgers @ Twins #2, 7:10

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Some good news today (assuming we can believe anything coming out of the organization’s medical staff) is that Delmon Young apparently has no ligament damage and should be ready to return to action when his DL time expires.

On a sad note, former Twins GM Howard Fox passed away at an Orlando hospice at the age of 90. Fox pretty much devoted his life to the Twins, having been involved with the franchise for something like 50 years in various capacities. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.

Tonight, we’ve got Joe Mauer DHing. This is actually encouraging to me in that Gardy has gotten past the standard “don’t catch Mauer in a day game after a night game” mentality and actually looked at pitching match ups to determine in advance what might be the best game to have him DH. Rather than having him catch tonight and Jim Thome DH against the Dodger lefty, Ted Lilly, Gardy will instead let Thome sit tonight and DH tomorrow against a righty. Seems like a small thing, but it shows more forethought that we’re accustomed to seeing out of the Twins manager, so that’s encouraging.

Here are the line ups:

DODGERS @ TWINS
Gwynn, LF Revere, CF
Blake, 1B Casilla, A, 2B
Ethier, RF Mauer, DH
Kemp, CF Cuddyer, RF
Uribe, 3B Valencia, 3B
Thames, M, DH Hughes, L, 1B
Miles, 2B Repko, LF
Ellis, A, C Rivera, R, C
Carroll, SS Nishioka, SS
_Lilly, P _Duensing, P

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
LA Dodgers 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 4 7 1
Minnesota 1 2 0 1 2 0 0 0 x 6 10 0

This was a rather unique win for the Twins… Brian Duensing fell short of a “quality start” and got bailed out a bit by the offense. Duensing actually pitched well for four innings, but walks were his downfall in the fifth. The bullpen did a nice job in relief and it was particularly nice to see Joe Nathan pitch a really nice 8th inning up against some tough hitters. Matt Capps had a few control issues in the 9th but got the save. Let’s buy a keg for the bullpen!

There was no shortage of offensive heroes tonight. In fact, when it came down to voting for BOD honors, it was pretty tough to name just one… or even two. So for the first time, we have tri-BODs. Ben Revere seemed like he was on base all night with two hits and a walk, leading to two runs. Luke Hughes provided the winning margin with a huge two-run home run in the 5th inning to break a 4-4 tie. And Jason Repko not only had two hits and scored two runs, he also had a huge assist, throwing a runner out at the plate from LF (yeah… maybe the call was a debatable but the umpire is always right, right?). Gentlemen… you are our BODs!

 

Ben Revere
Luke Hughes
Jason Repko

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GameChat – Twins @ Giants, 9:15 pm, MLBN

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ah… West Coast baseball…  *sigh* we’ll see if I can make it through the whole game!

Minnesota @ San Francisco
Revere, CF Torres, CF
Casilla, A, 2B Tejada, M, SS
Mauer, C Sandoval, P, 3B
Cuddyer, RF Huff, 1B
Young, D, LF Ross, C, LF
Valencia, 3B Schierholtz, RF
Hughes, L, 1B Hall, 2B
Nishioka, SS Whiteside, C
Pavano, P Bumgarner, P

 


 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 14 0
San Francisco 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 9 2

Boy, if you missed the first half inning of the game tonight, you pretty much missed the whole game! The Twins started the game with eight straight hits (half of them doubles) before Carl Pavano struck out for the first out of the game. Ben Revere followed with his second hit of the inning, driving in the 7th and 8th runs of the inning and sending the Giants starting pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, to the shower. Alexi Casilla capped of the scoring in the 9th inning with his second home run in as many games. The offense truly was a team effort as all the position players not only had hits in the first inning, but scored a run that inning, too.

Carl Pavano had another typical quality performance, working eight solid innings, giving up just two runs on nine hits, not walking anyone and striking out a pair of Giants. That earns him yet another BOD award from the GameChat crew!

Carl Pavano

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GameChat – Padres @ Twins #3, 1:10 (sorry it’s late!)

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My deepest apologies folks – demands of Fathers Day have made the day a little harder to predict than I was able to plan for.. here you go!!

 

San Diego @ Minnesota
Denorfia, LF   Revere, CF
Bartlett, SS   Casilla, A, 2B
Headley, 3B   Mauer, DH
Ludwick, DH   Cuddyer, RF
Guzman, J, 1B   Young, D, LF
Maybin, CF   Hughes, L, 1B
Hudson, O, 2B   Nishioka, SS
Venable, RF   Rivera, R, C
Johnson, Ro, C   Tolbert, 3B
  Moseley, P     Liriano, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
San Diego 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 4 11 1
Minnesota 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 5 7 0

 

SWEEP!!!!  AND it even made the Twins hit SEVEN on the winning streak which I think is a record this season (I didn’t look it up to be sure but that’s my recollection.) It actually was a great game to watch but I’m not going to take too much time for a wrap up today – still doing family stuff.  Here’s a link to the Play by Play if you are curious. But the heroes of the game really were unexpected…  Alexi Casilla started it with a solo homerun in the first inning… but the big one was in the bottom of the 9th – Drew Butera hit the winning RBI.  For that, he gets today’s BOD! (and a face full of shaving cream from his teammates.. )

Drew Butera, BOD!

GameChat – Padres @ Twins #2, 6:10

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Yes, I know this post is going up more than five hours before game time and we don’t have line ups to post, but all the Knuckleballs actually have lives away from the internet today.

So, because we love all of our regular chatters so much, we’re putting up the Chatroll early… really early.

Enjoy the game, all!

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
San Diego 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0
Minnesota 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 x 1 6 0

Another 1-0 win! I’d like to start seeing a few more runs go up on the Twins’ side of the ledger in these games, but given how many 1-run games the Twins have lost this season, it’s sure nice to see more of them end with e win, lately.

Danny Valencia gets ice cream for his solo shot in the second inning, providing all of the game’s offense, but BOD could go to one person only… starting pitcher Scott Baker. 8 IP and only 4 hits and one walk, while racking up 10 Ks, leaving Matt Capps one inning of work for his 11th save.  WTG Scotty… keep up the good work!

Scott Baker

 

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GameChat – Padres @ Twins, 7:10

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The Twins start a stretch of interleague games tonight when they open a three-game home series with the San Diego Padres.

A couple of Twins alumni are making their returns as members of the visiting Padres. Former Twins SS Jason Bartlett is in the line up for SD and relief pitcher Pat “Sideshow” Neshek makes his first return to his home town as a member of a visiting team. (Orlando Hudson is also a Padre, but currently is on their Disabled List).

But the big “return” tonight is the guy batting third for the Twins. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Joe Mauer lives! In fact, he not only lives, but he’s apparently up for playing a little baseball. There’s been some questions floating around about what sort of reception fans will give Joe when he’s announced tonight and I think that’s a no-brainer… he’ll get a very enthusiastic “welcome back” from the crowd. If it’s anything less, I’ll be very surprised… and disappointed.

Mauer doesn’t deserve a free pass from fans and media and questions about why he’s missed so much time for “leg weakness” are fair, but tonight, the bottom line is that a guy who’s played an awful lot of very good baseball for the Twins is back in the line up. Welcome him back and hope he can help keep the W’s coming!

Let’s not forget that Glen Perkins returns to the Twins’ bullpen tonight, as well. Let’s hope he picks up right where he left off, as he was one of the few effective bullpen arms before his DL stint.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka is at SS again, but with Joe’s return, Nishioka has dropped to 7th in the batting order… which is about right, for now. Let’s see him get his timing down there toward the bottom of the order before we expect him to contribute from a more critical spot in the order.

I’m not sure I’ll be around for much, if any of the GameChat tonight, but for those who are, let’s hope Brian Duensing gets back on track… enjoy the game!

PADRES @ TWINS
Denorfia, RF Revere, CF
Bartlett, SS Casilla, A, 2B
Headley, 3B Mauer, C
Ludwick, DH Cuddyer, 1B
Maybin, CF Young, D, LF
Guzman, J, LF Valencia, 3B
Rizzo, 1B Nishioka, SS
Hundley, C Hughes, L, DH
Gonzalez, Ab, 2B Repko, RF
_ Richard, P _ Duensing, P

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
San Diego 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 0 0 5 11 3
Minnesota 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 x 6 10 1

That ended up a little closer than it should have been!

It’s always nice to see our guys jump on the opposing pitcher for a bunch of runs early and that certainly happened tonight. Ben Revere gets kudos for a productive night at the plate and he got flat out robbed of a beautiful diving catch in the OF by a terrible call by the 2B umpire who ruled he trapped a ball that he totally caught.

Joe Mauer started his return with an RBI single and Danny Valencia got some BOD support for his line shot to the second deck for a home run.

But we want to encourage more pitching performances like this out of Brian Duensing and he certainly did his job tonight, giving up just 2 runs on 7 hits and 1 BB over 6 innings, while striking out 5 Padre hitters. So, for that, Brian Duensing is our BOD (but he’s sharing photo “face time” with Danny V)!

Brian Duensing (with Danny Valencia at 3B)

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GameChat – White Sox @ Twins #”3″, 12:10

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I like beating the White Sox… let’s do it AGAIN! oh yeah, and the big story for today is Nishi’s return to the lineup – playing SS & batting 3rd. This should be interesting.

Chi White Sox @ Minnesota
Pierre, LF Revere, CF
Ramirez, Al, SS Casilla, A, 2B
Quentin, RF Nishioka, SS
Konerko, 1B Cuddyer, RF
Pierzynski, C Young, D, DH
Rios, CF Hughes, L, 1B
Dunn, A, DH Valencia, 3B
Beckham, 2B Rivera, R, C
Morel, 3B Repko, LF
Buehrle, P Blackburn, P

 


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

Yes, I know it’s just a two game series but it’s still a SWEEP of the BitchSox!

Kinda says it all, doesn't it!?

I played hooky this afternoon to go home and watch the game and at the end of the game, I was the only person in GameChat. You would think that when there’s only one voter in Chat to cast a BOD vote it would be a pretty easy thing to determine. But not really.

It was nice to see Tsuyoshi Nishioka back on the field and the Sox certainly gave him plenty of fielding opportunities at shortstop. He had 8 assists and made a couple of additional very nice fielding plays where he wasn’t quite able to get the throw to 1B in time for the out. His arm is clearly not as strong as Lexi’s, but he looks comfortable over there. He did boot one ground ball that coulda/shoulda been a DP. Welcome back Nishi!

The Twins got the win today, but let’s not kid ourselves, this was not a really good game for the Twins, as a team. Four hits? Two errors? Mark Buehrle pretty much dominated this line-up… with one exception. Michael Cuddyer showed that he still owns Buehrle. He had two hits, including the one he launched in to the bullpens to lead off the second inning, accounting for the only run by either team in the game.

Nick Blackburn threw eight shutout innings without really breaking much of a sweat. He walked one, struck out one and spread 7 hits over the 8 innings. I admit I was queasy about bringing in Matt Capps to pitch the 9th inning, especially with Adam Dunn due up in the inning, but while Capps gave upa single to Dunn, he shut down everyone else to earn the save.

In the end, my right brain and left brain couldn’t agree on a BOD, so we’re going to have co-BODs today… Blackie and Cuddy.

Nick Blackburn
Michael Cuddyer

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GameChat – White Sox @ Twins #2 (kind of), 7:10

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Lots of goings on at Target Field today – and the extra-sized press corps has returned.  Nishioka is back in Minnesota! He’s not in the lineup tonight. In fact, tonight’s lineup is exactly the same as last night.  We’ve sent a guy down to AAA to make room though – Dusty Hughes – so Nishioka will be showing up in the lineup any day now. The other news is that Mauer is also supposedly returning on Friday! His rehab is good and he and Nathan teamed up for a little joint rehab – a bit of testing each other I think. At any rate, both reportedly felt very good with the results and Mauer is champing at the bit to play.

But neither of them are playing tonight so we’ll have to hope that the boys we currently have are ready to go. I think the rain is supposed to be done once we get the game going so even if we have some sprinkles, they should be able to get the whole game in – so the weather men say. Not sure about their batting average though.

Chi White Sox @ Minnesota
Pierre, LF Revere, CF
Ramirez, Al, SS Casilla, A, SS
Quentin, RF Cuddyer, RF
Konerko, 1B Young, D, DH
Pierzynski, C Hughes, L, 1B
Rios, CF Valencia, 3B
Dunn, A, DH Dinkelman, LF
Beckham, 2B Tolbert, 2B
Morel, 3B Butera, C
Floyd, P Pavano, P

 


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

Hey, guess what… one of the ESPN Baseball Tonight guys has discovered that the Twins are playing some baseball! Barry Larkin mentioned the Twins are playing well and, in his opinion, aren’t out of the AL Central race! That may be the kiss of death. But tonight, the Twins sure looked like the team we hoped they would be all season.

Revere, Casilla, Cuddyer and Dinkelman (that’s right, I said Dinkelman) all had two hits tonight, earning our undying thanks. Cuddy gets extra ice cream from the post-game dessert bar for stealing not one… not two… but THREE bases off of our old buddy AJ!

But a complete game bitch slapping of the BitchSox certainly warrants BOD honors for Carl Pavano!

Carl Pavano

GameChat – Rangers @ Twins #4, 1:10

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The Twins have a shot at winning yet another series from a first place ballclub today as they close out their series with Texas. With Scott Baker’s complete game gem yesterday, the bullpen should be plenty rested to support Francisco Liriano, if necessary. But will the Minnesota Red Wings line up continue to wreak havoc at the plate and on the basepaths against Rangers lefty Matt Harrison? Harrison has been just about as consistent as Liriano (which is to say, not at all), so it’s all up to the baseball gods today. Speaking of which, if it’s not asking too much, maybe those baseball gods could find a way to drop a loss or two on the Tigers and White Sox?

RANGERS @ TWINS
Kinsler, 2B Revere, CF
Andrus, SS Casilla, A, SS
Hamilton, LF Cuddyer, 1B
Young, M, 1B Young, D, LF
Beltre, A, 3B Hughes, L, 3B
Cruz, N, RF Valencia, DH
Torrealba, C Repko, RF
Murphy, Dv, DH Rivera, R, C
Gentry, CF Tolbert, 2B
_Harrison, P _Liriano, P

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

Terrific ballgame! Combined with losses today by Cleveland and Detroit, today’s win moves the Twins within 9 games of the AL Central leaders.

Luke Hughes with three hits certainly seems determined to make a case that he deserves to stay with the Twins, no matter who comes off the DL, Lexi Casilla “only” had two hits (the slacker!) and Michael Cuddyer hit home run #9 on the season.

But Francisco Liriano was headed for his second no-hitter of the season through the 7th inning, until the seventh inning stretch and a five-run outburst by his team mates forced him to sit for a half an hour before taking the mound for the 8th inning. Still, you can’t argue with 1 earned run on 2 hits, no walks and 9 strikeouts over 8 innings of work. That earns Frankie our BOD award!

Francisco Liriano

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GameChat – Rangers @ Twins #3, 3:10pm

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The Twins are one of the FOX regional games today (not that it does me any good personally, since Iowa will get the Cubs/Phillies game shown down here).

Today, the Twins are inducting pitcher Jim Perry in to the organization’s Hall of Fame. I’d just like to say, it’s about damn time. As a kid who grew up watching the Twins during Perry’s time with the ballclub, he was always one of my favorite players. Our family only made one or two trips each summer to the Twin Cities for a Twins game, but I always hoped I’d get to see Perry (or maybe Jim Kaat) pitch.

Most people, I’m sure, are aware that he’s the brother of Gaylord Perry. I remember back then that whenever you bought a pack of Topps baseball cards and got either a Jim or Gaylord Perry card, the blurb on the back of the card that Topps used to write something about the player always pointed out that his brother also was a Major League pitcher. They just had to keep changing the team affiliation, since both brothers played for a few different teams.

Anyway… I’m glad the Twins are inducting Jim Perry in to their Hall of Fame. It’s well-deserved. Thanks for all the great memories, Jim!

In roster news, it sounds like Nishioka is headed to Rochester to play a few games for the Red Wings, while Mauer stays in Ft. Myers a bit longer. He’s going to take some live hitting off of Joe Nathan in a couple of days. Wouldn’t that be kind of fun to watch?!

Justin Morneau is going to be sitting out the next two games, as well. Gardy has made that decision against Justin’s wishes, apparently. It’s probably the right thing to do at this point, but I like that Morneau isn’t happy about it.

Here are today’s line ups.

RANGERS @ TWINS
Kinsler, 2B Revere, CF
Andrus, SS Casilla, A, SS
Hamilton, LF Cuddyer, 1B
Beltre, A, 3B Young, D, LF
Cruz, N, RF Tosoni, DH
Moreland, 1B Valencia, 3B
Napoli, C Dinkelman, RF
Murphy, Dv, LF Rivera, R, C
Chavez, En, CF Tolbert, 2B
Lewis, C, P Baker, S, P

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 5 0
Minnesota 5 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 x 8 12 0

Talk about turning the tables on an opponent! Today’s game looked an awful lot like the Friday night game, but with the Twins jumping on Rangers’ pitcher Colby Lewis, rather than the other way around.

Alexi Casilla and Delmon Young each had three hits, while Ben Revere and Michael Cuddyer added two each. Brian Dinkelman got his first two career RBI at the MLB level.

When a starting pitcher gets staked to a 5-0 lead in the first inning, it certainly takes the pressure off and the defense (especially Revere) made some terrific plays behind Scott Baker. Baker was perfect through four innings, struck out Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton three times, and just generally cruised through a complete game performance. That earns him our Boyfriend of the Day!

Scott Baker

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GameChat – Texas @ Minnesota, 7:10pm

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UPDATE: After tonight’s game, the Twins announced that Denard Span was placed on the new 7-day DL for concussion injuries. Rene Tosoni has been recalled from Rochester. – JC

So the Twins are finally home! After a very heavy road schedule to start the season, the next couple of months are pretty heavily at home. That will be a nice change I think.  We have rain in the forecast for the evening but we’ll see if it holds off until after the game.

Rhett Bollinger provided a quick injury update for just about everyone on the team on twitter this afternoon – if you don’t follow him already you should because he’s very informative! @RhettBollinger:

  • Nathan and Perkins both threw bullpens today. Kubel played catch, hit in the cage, & did agility drills. Slowey threw from 150 feet
  • Gardy was hesitant to say Joe Mauer will return early next week because he still wants to see him catch more games.
  • Nishioka could also return next week but will play a few games with Triple-A Rochester before being activated.
  • Morneau also had an MRI on his wrist but it showed no structural damage. Just fluid. So cleared to play.
  • Thome’s quad injury is linked to his previous back problems. He’s scheduled to have an epidural in his back.
  • Span is going to meet with doctors again today. Feels better but suffered whiplash.
Texas @ Minnesota
Andrus, SS Revere, CF
Murphy, Dv, DH Casilla, A, SS
Hamilton, LF Cuddyer, RF
Young, M, 2B Morneau, DH
Beltre, A, 3B Young, D, LF
Cruz, N, RF Valencia, 3B
Moreland, 1B Hughes, L, 1B
Torrealba, C Rivera, R, C
Chavez, En, CF Tolbert, 2B
Holland, D, P Blackburn, P

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 4 12 1
Minnesota 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 5 10 2

It was “Thirsty Thursday” at the CR Kernels game (1.50 beers) so $12 worth of beer and a thunderstorm later, I got home to listen to the last couple of innings of the Twins game. I did, however, follow most of it (until the rain started at the ballpark I was at) via GameDay. From what I can tell…

Delmon hit a long home run… he actually had three hits!

Cuddy hit a big time home run… maybe he and DY are tired of the little guys getting all the love (we can only hope).

Blackie pitched well (but maybe didn’t do as well throwing to 1B as he did to home plate).

The bullpen (with the possible exception of Jose) had another good night and Jim Hoey, in particular, came through with a big inning of relief.

But when you come through with a two-out walk-off RBI single to win the game, you get the night’s BOD award! Tonight, that would be you, Alexi Casilla! – JC

 

Alexi Casilla