Tag Archives: BOD

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox #2, 7:10

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I can’t help it. Even though I am usually the first to remind baseball fans not to count their chickens before they hatch, I’m also one who likes to be prepared.  So, my thoughts about tonight’s game can’t help but wander towards how this is the kind of matchup Duensing wants to be ready for in the post season (if we get there *knock on wood*).  Brian has been really a star in the second half of this season and I am sure he will be in any possible post-season rotation.  But games like tonight?  They show us how we’re set for that kind of situation.  I’m looking forward to it.

Minnesota @ Chi White Sox
Span, CF   Pierre, LF
Hudson, O, 2B   Ramirez, A, SS
Mauer, C   Rios, CF
Kubel, RF   Konerko, 1B
Cuddyer, 1B   Ramirez, M, DH
Thome, DH   Quentin, RF
Young, D, LF   Pierzynski, C
Valencia, 3B   Vizquel, 3B
Hardy, SS   Beckham, 2B
  Duensing, P     Floyd, G, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 0 0 9 13 2
Chi White Sox 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 3 12 0

 

We Twins fans are definitely getting spoiled.  We’re now 41-16 since the All-Star break which means we don’t have to face that losing situation post-game very often lately.  And I ALMOST feel bad for Ozzie Guillen.  I know what I feel everytime we roadtrip to Yankee Stadium – that undeniable sense of dread that you know isn’t reasonable but always seems to be a self-fulfilling prophesy.  They just can’t seem to beat us this year – mostly because I think the Twins are a better team – but tonight had some CRAZY bounces that were practically unplayable.  How do you factor what looks like sheer bad luck into a playoff chase?

Duensing is just rocking the world right now.  And tonight was NOT one of his better performances.  I really wanted to see how he responded to the pressure, what his general mood would be and all those ‘intagibles’ that are so hard to quantify.  You know what?  He rocked.  He threw WAAAAAAAY too many pitches in the first couple innings and had some rough spots during the game.  But if you watched his face, he didn’t stress out, he didn’t get frustrated, he didn’t over-react.  He took the call, adjusted and threw again.  THAT is the kind of reaction you want to see in ANY pitcher you are considering for a post-season rotation and it’s EXCELLENT to see in a rookie.  I’m VERY excited about the possibilities for his future career.  So tonight, he has full access to the pastry buffet. Congrats Brian.

The offense decided to show off a bit tonight too – although, as mentioned earlier, some of it was on ridiculous bounces.  Span seems to be coming back to the guy we remember after a bit of a slump; Hardy is hitting GREAT now that he’s finally healthy again, Valencia had a good night to reverse the slide of late and in general, we were making plays we needed to make.  Kubel left the game with a sore wrist and Repko was ready to just slide right in.

But NO ONE showed off the offense tonight like Joe Mauer.  He finally got another homerun – in addition to hitting 3/4, 2 Runs, an IBB, and 3 RBI.   Yeah, he had a good night.  *laugh* For that, the chat voted him BOD.

GameChat – Twin @ White Sox, 7:10

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Here it is – the final series with the White Sox. From a math perspective, the White Sox are quickly losing any balance in the odds. However improbable the numbers are now, they aren’t impossible so every game counts. PLUS, the rest of baseball is finally starting to join me in looking up the line instead of back – whoever takes the AL East doesn’t really matter to me, but the home field advantages do! So let’s keep winning.

Minnesota @ Chi White Sox
Span, CF   Pierre, LF
Hudson, O, 2B   Ramirez, A, SS
Mauer, C   Rios, CF
Cuddyer, 1B   Konerko, 1B
Kubel, RF   Ramirez, M, DH
Young, D, LF   Quentin, RF
Thome, DH   Pierzynski, C
Valencia, 3B   Vizquel, 3B
Hardy, SS   Beckham, 2B
Liriano, P   Danks, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 5 0 9 12 1
Chi White Sox 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 3 8 2

 

Not many nails remaining!

Well THAT was fun!

It may just be me, but that game epitomized the Twins and the White Sox seasons. Both teams got solid starting pitching for a few innings. The Twins scored first, the Sox answered and even pulled ahead. The Twins answer, with the bottom part of the order coming through.

The Sox turned right around and threaten to pass right by again. The Twins bullpen has a hiccup but then slams the door in the Sox collective faces and then the hitters start taking advantage of Sox mistakes to pull away to a 9-3 win.

Joe Mauer was, as usual, right in the thick of things with three hits, including the 1000th of his young career, earning him a nice, moderately priced bottle of wine to celebrate the occasion (after all, we’re expecting a couple thousand more of those things out of him). JJ Hardy had a couple of doubles, earning himself a big ole hunk of double-chocolate cake. JJ wasn’t the only one with an extra base hit tonight, though. Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel and Denard Span all added doubles, as well, and Delmon Young launched a home run, as well.

But for the first time this season (I think), the GameChat crew voted a relief pitcher Boyfriend of the Day honors. Jesse Crain entered the game in the 7th inning with nobody out and two men on base with the Twins nursing a 4-3 lead. Not only did he prevent the Sox from scoring, but he struck out Paul Konerko and Manny Ramirez back-to-back to end the inning and preserve the lead before the Twins went on to put up a 5-spot in the top of the 8th to put things away. Crain has just been outstanding for most of the season and tonight’s performance showed just how important he has become to the team… and why he is our BOD! – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #3, 12:05 pm, WFTC29 & am1500

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WOW do I wish I had been able to catch some of last night’s game!!!  I LOVE a good pitchers’ duel!!!  Blackburn is giving me the shivers again and I love it.  Looking now at the end of the regular season, we have 6 starting pitchers to rotate through – given our history with injury, that sounds just about perfect.  I am looking for the next step in Slowey’s progress today.  For all that it wasn’t the outting anyone wanted last time, it wasn’t actually a BAD outting.  I am looking for continued improvement today.  I’m sure he is too.  Good luck, Kevin!

Minnesota @ Cleveland
Span, CF   Brantley, CF
Hudson, O, 2B   Cabrera, A, SS
Mauer, C   Choo, RF
Kubel, RF   Hafner, DH
Cuddyer, 1B   Nix, J, 3B
Thome, DH   Brown, J, LF
Young, D, LF   LaPorta, 1B
Valencia, 3B   Valbuena, 2B
Casilla, A, SS   Gimenez, C
  Slowey, P     Talbot, P

 

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

 

Well that was a lot less drama than the 12 inning marathon last night.  LOL Not that that is a bad thing but it was good to start definitively and just keep it that way.  Mitch Talbot really had a problem in the first inning – I’ll give him credit for trying to keep at it anyway.  There was a meeting on the mound after the first batter and he said, no, let me see if I can get loosened up – but no, the Twins quite obviously took advantage of the fact that his pitches were NOT where they were supposed to be.  And Masterson just didn’t quite seem ready when he came in to replace Talbot.  He got it figured out for the innings that followed but his defense also couldn’t figure out how to play clean baseball.  I’ll never forget seeing Thome waved home from second on a Valencia single – his face said, “really!??!” but he made it.

But the Twins didn’t slouch or play down to the Indians today.  There was some REALLY nice fielding and Kevin DID continue his progression.  He’s obviously still working to get back to free & easy on his delivery and not there yet.  He was on a pitch count so he only pitched through the 5th inning.  However, the outting was solid and he got himself out a jam in the 2nd inning with only 2 runs and managed to keep it pretty good from there.  Perkins had two great innings relieving him and in general the bullpen kept a lid on everything.  So the whole pitching staff get’s all-you-can-eat peanuts on the plane ride home.

I’m choosing to award special treats to Delmon Young and Alexi Casilla for some BEAUTIFUL throws for outs that just made me happy so they both get ice cream bars – just to encourage them to keep up good fielding.  We’ll call that positive reinforcement.  😉

And the BOD for today is awarded to Michael Cuddyer!  For the record, he was not only a leader in hitting and RBI today but he’s been a real workhorse for this team since Morneau went down.  All the announcers seem to remind everyone of how many days straight he’s played since then with no time off but I think it goes beyond the physical effort of playing every day.  The mental effort of being prepared for anything and still telling your manager and your entire team, “I’m here guys, let’s play” is just not something that should go unnoticed.  So congratulations, Cuddy, you are today’s BOD!

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #2, 6:05

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Ok, let’s pretend that yesterday didn’t happen and try this again.

Player updates:  Punto and Mijares are now activated – Punto’s hammy is still a bit off so running is not likely but if we need him, I’m sure he’ll be jumping up & down waving his arm saying “Put me in Coach!”  Fuentes said he’s feeling good, bullpen went great and he should be available by tomorrow.  Thome is back in the lineup and that is sure a boost to team morale I’m sure.  Baker is still working through soreness, has had one bullpen session and will likely have another in Chicago.  And Jason Repko is finally a DADDY!  He and his wife now have a little girl.  Congrats Ripcord!

For tonight, I just want Blackburn to pitch well and the offense to hit well.

Minnesota @ Cleveland
Span, CF   Brantley, CF
Hudson, O, 2B   Cabrera, A, SS
Mauer, C   Choo, RF
Kubel, RF   Hafner, DH
Cuddyer, 1B   LaPorta, 1B
Thome, DH   Crowe, LF
Young, D, LF   Donald, 2B
Valencia, 3B   Valbuena, 3B
Hardy, SS   Marson, C
Blackburn, P   Carrasco, C, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 8 0
Cleveland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 2

 

Where do we begin to tell the story of this game?

I suppose we should begin with the fact that the game didn’t get started until almost two hours late, due to rain in Cleveland.

But once we got things going, the Twins got 8 innings of darn fine shutout pitching by Nick Blackburn. He took a no hitter through 5 innings and ended up giving up only 5 hits and a couple of walks. Jesse Crain followed with a couple of innings just as fine. Matty Guerrier came in with runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, made one heck of a play on a bunt to get the lead runner at 3B, then closed out the inning without giving up the winning run. Matt Capps gave us a 1-2-3 for the save. How about a nice big New York cheesecake with the toppings of their choice for those pitchers?

Now about the offense. Each team had 8 hits in 12 innings. The Tribe had 8 singles. Until the top of the 12th inning, the Twins had 7 hits, all singles. Ahhh… but that last hit… I know we all got excited, but should it really have surprised us that Jim Thome would eventually launch a ball several hundred feet and over the CF wall in his old stomping grounds? It was almost like it was scripted (though I’d be fine with the script being shortened 3 innings next time).

And you know what’s REALLY cool about that home run? With one swing of the bat, Mr. Incredible got to shove a knife in to the gut of TWO former teams… enabling the Twins to beat the Indians 1-0 AND the Bitch Sox (who lost to the Royals and thus lost a full game in the standings and two games on the “Magic Number” chart).

And for that game winner, Jim Thome (is our Homey), you are our Boyfriend of the Day! – JC

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #3, 7:10

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It’s hard to find bad news on a day when Batgirl returns but there was a couple clouds on the horizon in the bullpen today.  Apparently, Fuentes tried to throw again and still had a stiff back.  That is telling staff that perhaps there is something more wrong so he’s getting an MRI.  I don’t like to think about backs & unexplained pain and MRI’s.

In a ‘clouds parting’ kind of discussion, Morneau talked to reporters today and epxressed that he VERY optimistic about coming back.  He still has symptoms but he says that he has more good days than bad days and I’m a fan enough to want to believe him so I will.  At any rate, I really hope that he’s back sooner rather than later because I really like the idea of making further progress in post-season positioning.  We’re only 4 games behind the Yankees afterall – no need to keep looking over our shoulder at who’s behind us, we should look forward and work for it!

Thome was a late scratch from the lineup – still waiting to hear why from folk working the clubhouse but for whatever reason, Morales is taking his spot in the lineup.

Kansas City @ Minnesota
Blanco, G, CF   Span, CF
Aviles, M, 2B   Hudson, O, 2B
Fields, 3B   Mauer, C
Betemit, 1B   Kubel, RF
Betancourt, Y, SS   Cuddyer, 1B
Pena, B, C   Morales, J, DH
May, DH   Young, D, LF
Gordon, A, LF   Hardy, SS
Miller, Ja, RF   Tolbert, 3B
Greinke, P   Duensing, P

 

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

 

You have to kind of figure Zach Greinke is counting the days until he can be a Free Agent and sign with the Twins, if only for the reason that he won’t have to pitch against them any more. I can’t think of any ace starting pitcher that the Twins have dominated like they have this guy. He actually pitched well tonight and for a while there were real concerns about the lack of hits coming off the Twins’ bats. But in the end, despite a bit of a shaky 9th inning by Mr. Capps, our guys had another win and, combined with the Tiger win, another full game added to their lead over the Bitch Sox in the standings. AND… that’s TWO SWEEPS in a row, gang!

The concern over the hitting finally melted away as the bottom part of the Twins order took over and decided they would not stand still for being shut out by the Landed Gentry (obligatory Batgirl reference). Matt Tolbert came through with timely hitting and Denard Span had a nice RBI triple after the boys at the bottom of the order rolled things over to the top again. For that, they both deserve a healthy slice of pie of their choice… but JJ Hardy’s pair of hits included his first Target Field home run, in to the bullpen, earning him a whole pie to himself, a la mode, if he’s up for it!

But Boyfriend of the Day honors go to Brian Duensing. We were concerned about the pitch count being racked up the first 2-3 innings, but almost before you could say “Go Big Red!”, it was the 8th inning and Brian was still shutting down the Royal hitters. Eight innings of 6 hit baseball and 7 strikeouts, while giving up only 1 run is BOD worthy! – JC

GameChat – Royals @ Twins #2, 7:10

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Let’s get the injury updates out of the way first.  Fuentes threw a bullpen today and his back is still a little tight so it will be a couple days for him yet.  Valencia told Mackey today that he feels great but according to the team, there is still about a 20% difference in flexibility between his two legs so Tolbert will have at least one more start at 3B.  Punto says he’s feeling good but he’s also taking the advice of trainers who want him to wait out a bit of stiffness a couple more days – in his words, he was feeling fine last time and look what happened.  They may activate him if there’s an emergency but they don’t want to push it too hard.  The final word on him is that it’s still just a matter of days.

We also have two more guys in the bullpen tonight!!  Neshek and Perkins are here and available to pitch.  I’m so excited to see Sideshow on the mound for us again and I’m just glad he’s back here with the big boys.  That being said, I also hope that he’s got that old magic back!

Tonight’s game is going to be pretty cool and windy so who knows what’s going to happen with the game.  There’s no rain in the schedule but I’m not sure that really helps so much.  Anyway, I know Frankie isn’t all that fond of the cold so I’m hoping that he’s got a good internal fire going and shuts them down tonight.

Kansas City @ Minnesota
Blanco, G, CF   Span, CF
Aviles, M, 2B   Hudson, O, 2B
Butler, 1B   Mauer, C
Betemit, DH   Kubel, RF
Fields, 3B   Cuddyer, 1B
Gordon, A, LF   Thome, DH
Pena, B, C   Young, D, LF
Miller, Ja, RF   Hardy, SS
Betancourt, Y, SS   Tolbert, 3B
Bannister, B, P   Liriano, P

 

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

 

I hate to admit it but my brain is only half here so trying to write a good postgame report might be a challenge that is beyond me.   But to sum up, that was a fun game to watch!  With this win against Kansas City, the Royals are officially eliminated and the Twins are now a full 4.5 games ahead of the White Sox who lost to the Tigers tonight.

Frankie did a fantastic job  and got what I think is his 7th straight win.  I could have that wrong but I’m too lazy to go look it up to verify.  But it was a really good outting.  And we had a big enough cushion of runs that we got a couple of our younger guys out there to get a little playing time – including Ben Revere who made his MLB debut tonight.  I’m sure that he didn’t really want to strike out in his first plate appearance but that boy was so darn excited, he was bouncing off every hard surface in sight.  I really don’t think he’ll even CARE about the strikeout.  He just got to be out there in the field running around playing baseball in the big leagues.  Perkins  came out for an inning back up from AAA.  We also got to see Pat Neshek back finally… talk about someone who was a bit too excited!  *laugh*  Sideshow was totally overamped and throwing a bit crazy.  Took him a couple batters, a couple walks, a couple fly outs and a run before he finally got himself all settled in and got out of the inning.  That being said, I think that he’ll be a valuable addition to the pen since his delivery is just so unusual and it seems different to me even than it was before.  This could be fun.

Of course, with a score of 10 – 3, you can’t have a postgame discussion without talking about the offense.  Tolbert is becoming famous for his triples I think.  I really love those.  And Thome is just … ridiculous.  There are really no words to describe how much of an impact he’s had on this team – and apparently on the RF Target Plaza pavement!  He hit HR #586 tying Frank Robinson on the all-time HR list.  For making it so much fun to watch Twins hitters, those guys have both earned themselves homemade cheesecake and a beverage of their own choosing  (there was significant debate in the chat on whether beer is a suitable companion – not in my book).

But the BIG winner on the offense tonight was Delmon Young.  He was a machine tonight – 3 Runs, 4 RBI and a LOT of smiles as he ran to the OF looking like a GIANT next to Ben Revere.  Chat folk immediately voted him today’s BOD!  Congrats Delmon.

GameChat – Royals @ Twins, 1:10pm

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So my plans changed and instead of watching the game from Huberts with Kristie over by Target Field, I’m home in bed wishing my head didn’t weigh 20 lbs.  There is an Unplugged event at Huberts tonight after the game so our plan was to be sure we had good seats by getting there before all the people let out of the game.  Oh well.  Next time. And it’s starting to get a bit.. moist.. at the field today so let’s hope that the rain passes quickly.

News about our call-up situation continues to dribble out.  Ben Revere is with the team now and seems practically speechless that it’s happened for him this year.  Fox and Delaney have both been sent down so that we have room.  I’m sure we’ll see more of them in coming years.  Joe C. was kind enough to make sure that a question was answered that has hung in the back of my mind all year.  No, Jacque Jones won’t be up with the team this year.  Apparently, while they would really have loved to see him up here, there just wasn’t enough machinations they could make with the 40 man roster.  Ok, but we needed Ben Revere?  I like the kid but I don’t see it.  But I know Jacque was glad just to be with a team playing ball this year – and have a big league chance – even if it was only the Rochester Red Wings.

As Slowey’s first start coming back from the DL, I’m glad to see more and more starter names coming back into the lineup.  Yes, we still have Tolbert out there though.  Valencia is being handled very carefully – to make sure that he doesn’t actually do serious damage by going back out too early.  I’m fairly certain that Gardy doesn’t want to have another Punto situation.  Btw, Punto is much better and eligible to come back but the team says it’ll probably be another week before he could go full out – they may do so sooner than that though if they need him for a pinch. 

hmmm..  Nick Punto as a pinch hitter??  LOL  Ok, so we know he’d be a defensive replacement.  But let’s hope that the wins continue – our cushion with the White Sox isn’t nearly big enough. The offense just needs to keep up their thing – a very successfull thing as it turns out. The Twins have the highest team BA in the league. Who would ever have guessed.

Kansas City @ Minnesota
Blanco, G, CF   Span, CF
Maier, RF   Hudson, O, 2B
Butler, DH   Mauer, C
Ka’aihue, 1B   Kubel, RF
Betemit, 3B   Cuddyer, 1B
Gordon, A, LF   Thome, DH
Pena, B, C   Young, D, LF
Getz, 2B   Hardy, SS
Betancourt, Y, SS   Tolbert, 3B
  O’Sullivan, P     Slowey, P

 

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

 

Today’s game started out in a bit of a frustration for everyone.  I know we all wanted to see more from Slowey, including Kevin himself, but as far as injury returns go, that was NOT a bad outting.  He just didn’t have what he wanted with every pitch.  He still was getting the job done for the most part though.  I knew he wasn’t going to be able to go deep in the game but past the 4th would have been nice.  But Jeff Manship came in and did a great job of holding down the fort for us.  So it’s good to have that expanded bullpen right now.

The offense really did do its thing.  We were all wishing it would have done just a little more because these 1 run games are always tense.  But a win’s a win.  Tense, easy, blow out, close… these wins are all necessary to keep on track since the White Sox don’t seem to be slowing down at this point of the season either.  Gardy did verify that we’ll be adding Neshek and Perkins into the bullpen now too.  But today, the offense story was .. HOMERUN!!!  Delmon ALMOST got one, Kubel NAILED one and Thome… well, I’m not really sure there is a word for what Thome did.  Field staff put out an estimate on the distance and then put out a REVISED distance – 480 feet.  Wow.  Of course, that’s an estimate of where it would have landed if the travel would have been unobstructed because he HIT THE AMERICAN FLAG POLE!  Just a ridiculous mashing of taters there.  For that, Jim Thome is today’s BOD.

GameChat – Rangers @ Twins #3, (12:30 FSN) 2:00, WFTC29 & am1500

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FIRST:  This is going out early so that people have a heads up to watch the Legends Game!  It’s not on the same channel as the game itself but it is being broadcast so if you aren’t actually in in Target Field like I am today, you should be sure to catch it – here’s the bit from FSN about the Legends Game:

On Sunday, FOX Sports North will televise the Twins Legends Game live from Target Field at 12:30 p.m. (Just don’t call them old-timers!) The three-inning game will feature some of the greatest names in Twins history reunited: Bert Blyleven, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, Ron Coomer, Tim Laudner, Tom Brunansky, Greg Gagne, Terry Steinbach, Brad Radke and Eddie Guardado.

Managing the two Legends Game teams will be Tom Kelly and Frank Quilici. Numerous players in the Legends Game will wear wireless microphones for the FS North telecast, along with Don Shelby from WCCO-TV, who will serve as home plate umpire.

And if that’s not enough, current Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington, a former Twin, will don a Twins uniform, sit in the Twins dugout and play in the Legends Game … just before he switches dugouts to manage the Rangers in the regular game.

SECOND:  The actual Twins game is on the schedule for 1:10 but it’s my understanding that the game is going to be delayed because of the Legends game and isn’t actually starting until 2 pm.  You will have to change over channels to WFTC29 but I think y’all can manage it.

Our news update since yesterday’s game is that Ben Revere has gotten his shot at being a September callup.  AND according to Sunday Sports Talk this morning, Neshek, Slama and Perkins could also be brought back up today.  SIDESHOW!!!  I’ve really missed him but I’m glad to see his name being mentioned by someone other than the bloggers.  Kubel says he’s feeling better and might be ready to try a little action today.  There are also rumors that Punto might be ready to come back today if necessary – which would require activation.  That means a lot of crazy shenanigans with the 25 man roster and according to people who know more than I, it’s likely that Fox and Flores will be the ones removed to make room.  I’m not entirely sure that I am ready to swap Perkins for Flores but I’ve hardly gotten a chance to get to know Flores yet.

** Matt Fox has been officially designated for assignment to make room for Revere

I may or may not be able to get the fancy lineups in before I head off and JC will not be joining us today as he has a daughter to take off to college.  Hopefully, you will get a visit from KL during the game but I don’t know her schedule either – I trust y’all know the drill and can manage to chat without us including any game end decisions that might be necessary!  I will check the archives and make any appropriate announcements.

Texas @ Minnesota
Guzman, C, SS   Span, CF
Young, M, 3B   Hudson, O, 2B
Murphy, Dv, LF   Mauer, C
Guerrero, DH   Cuddyer, 1B
Cruz, N, RF   Kubel, DH
Kinsler, 2B   Young, D, LF
Moreland, 1B   Hardy, SS
Treanor, C   Tolbert, 3B
Borbon, CF   Repko, RF
Wilson, C, P   Blackburn, P

 

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

 

I don’t have much to say in terms of summarizing the game. I really should have just ignored baseball today. See… after I got my daughter moved in to her dorm at college and got back to town, I turned my car radio on and it was the top of the 9th inning of the Sox/Sox game and the BitchSox were about to lose to Boston. By the time I got home, Boston had essentially handed Chicago a win. Then I turned on the Twins game and it was the top of the 9th there too, with the Twins leading 6-2. Thee runs and one “out on coach’s interference” call later, the Twins had held on to notch a 6-5 win.

I’m relying on the rest of the gang in the GameChat for Boyfriend of the Day decisions today, since I certainly didn’t see anyone worthy in the half inning I watched! The offense was spread around pretty broadly. Michael Cuddyer, with his 2 RBI, certainly earned some raspberry cheesecake, and Jason Kubel, being the only guy with 2 hits, gets some as well. But the clear BOD for the day appears to be Nick Blackburn. Once again, the Twins got a very good start out of Blackie, throwing 7 complete innings and giving up only 2 runs (both earned). It wasn’t anything approaching perfection, as he walked 3 to go with the 4 Ks he racked up, but given what I saw of the two pitchers-who-shall-remain-nameless who worked the 9th inning, he certainly had to look like an All Star by comparison… and that makes you, Nick Blackburn, our BOD!

I should add… there also seemed to be a great deal of support for awarding various foodstuffs to some of the Legends in recognition of their efforts in the 3 inning Legends Game held prior to the Twins game today. However, after seeing a few of these guys the other night during the ceremony, I think most of them would benefit from something other than high-calorie sweets. So I’ll award a couple of cases of LITE beer and a healthy supply of tylenol and Ben-Gay to the Legends! I hope I get an opportunity to see a replay of the event… it sounds like a good time was had by all. Since Babs was in attendance, I’m counting on her to post a full report, complete with a multitude of pictures, in the near future! – JC

GameChat – Rangers @ Twins #2, FOX & am1500, 3:10 pm

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Since KL & Babs are doing the State Fair and JC is doing Hawkeye football today, we are short on time and access to get the gamechat up. Hopefully, things will be filled in soon to give you the lineups and such.

Texas @ Minnesota
Andrus, SS   Span, CF
Young, M, 3B   Hudson, O, 2B
Hamilton, CF   Cuddyer, 1B
Guerrero, DH   Thome, DH
Cruz, N, LF   Young, D, LF
Kinsler, 2B   Hardy, SS
Moreland, 1B   Repko, RF
Francoeur, RF   Tolbert, 3B
Molina, B, C   Butera, C
  Lewis, P     Pavano, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Texas 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 4 10 0
Minnesota 5 0 1 3 0 0 3 0 x 12 11 0

 

hehehe..  heheheheheee .. HAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHA!!!!

THOME PASSED MCGWIRE!!!!  He hit 2, count them 1 – 2, homeruns in todays game so as not to spend unnecessary time tied with one of the steroid princes (less than half an hour) and is continuing his pursuit of 600.  I hope he’s able to stay with us long enough to achieve that lofty goal.  But for now, he achieved a stellar mark in itself and doing so with integrity.  For that, Jim Thome is most definitely today’s BOD.

But today’s game was just so much fun even aside from the Thome Taters.  When a team has 12 runs, there was more than one person being pretty successful with the bat.  Believe it or not, TOLBERT was the one really swinging well today – 2 triples and a career-high 5 RBI.  JJ Hardy was 3/4 with 2 RBI – I like it that he’s back to hitting well.  So even on a day where we have the “B” lineup out there, we just killed with the bat.  We’ve had person after person go down with one injury or another and the most unlikely people keep stepping up to get us wins.  So Tolby, Hardy, you boys can share a great big bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies and all the milk you can drink.

And Pavano went out there and threw 8 innings of masterful baseball against that Texas lineup.  God love him, he still has the ‘stache.  And Rob Delaney makes his major league debut for the 9th inning.  It wasn’t perfect, especially since the first batter he faced took him yard, but it was most definitely a good outting.  And it’s good to have the rest of the bullpen get a good rest.  You guys both get Pronto Pups with the condiments of your choice.  Thanks bunches!

GameChat – Rangers @ Twins, 7:10

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This is going to be interesting.  If you want a really complete update on all our injury/callup/rotation situation, beyond what JC already posted today, Mackey did a GREAT job in his Friday Notebook  so I highly recommend reading it and I’m too lazy to do work that someone else has already done.  So I’ll just cover the highlights – no, there is too much, let me sum up.

1) Baker got a cortizone shot and he feels a lot better – might miss a start or two though

2) Kubel’s MRI is encouraging – no serious damage and he hopes to be back this weekend

3) Capps is better but Fuentes is still out.

I do feel a little badly for Matt Fox because this seems like a REALLY high pressure situation to come up and have your MLB debut but I’m sending him all the positive vibes I can work up.

Texas @ Minnesota
Andrus, SS   Span, CF
Young, M, 3B   Hudson, O, 2B
Murphy, Dv, LF   Mauer, C
Hamilton, DH   Cuddyer, 1B
Cruz, N, RF   Young, D, LF
Kinsler, 2B   Thome, DH
Moreland, 1B   Valencia, 3B
Molina, B, C   Repko, RF
Borbon, CF   Hardy, SS
  Holland, P     Fox, M, P

 

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

 

First, I can’t tell you how cool it was to see that pregame special with all those fantastic former Twins all in one place.  It made for a pretty emotional reaction before the game even started.  And nothing like really adding to the pressure poor Matt Fox was under – here kid, it’s your MLB debut, you can do it front of these guys in a pennant race in September right?

Sadly, the injury bug seems to have bit YET AGAIN.  Valencia left the game tonight with a Hammy problem – they pulled him as a precautionary measure reportedly and consider him day-to-day.  Apparently, that is also the condition of Gardy’s lineup card and probably his ulcer too.  I do NOT envy him the job of pulling all this together.

It was another close game with a lot of dicey moments but at least Fox went 5.2 innings when we really needed something good from him and he kept us in the game.  Sadly he wasn’t able to get the win tonight BUT he did a very good job and made himself look pretty darn good.  Who knows what we’ll need him to do in the next few weeks but he looks like he can hold his own!  For that, we here at Knuckleballs decided that he should start getting ready for more appearances and are giving him his own personal copy of MLB10: The Show.  He should start working on his homework right away! 😉

And then there were a couple other real standouts tonight.  First, Jason Repko was amazing!  Freakish even.  At least in the field.  My friend, Ben Collin, aptly titled him “the outfield version of Nick Punto”.  It really struck a cord for me and it’s likely very true.  I know he’d like to be hitting better and I wouldn’t mind if he was but if he can keep up what he does in the OF – especially those throws to 3B *shiver* – I would love to see him stick around for awhile.  And Capps really made himself popular here with Twins fans by coming in in the 8th inning to finish it off then, and then nailing down the 1 run Save.  It was really a solid great game for him.  For that, both guys are granted as much state fair food as they can handle – corn dogs, cheese curds and beer – whatever they want.

BUT in a game where we had some legitimately beautiful performances that deserved recognition and gratitude, we did have a bright light.  One player stood out both defensively AND offensively: Denard Span, this is your BOD.  Not only was there some really amazing catches in the OF but he managed to get the game-winning RBI in a VERY tight game that didn’t grant us a lot of offensive opportunities.  I hope he realizes that wearing tall socks is good for his mojo and he should do it all the time!!