Tag Archives: BOD

GameChat – A’s @ Twin #2, 6:10 pm

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I love good exciting baseball games but I’m hoping for a little less of the extremes tonight – last night wore me out.  Is it too much to ask for a nice start from Duensing, good fielding from the defense and some fantastic offense all to work together for a win without the head-banging dramatics?  Maybe…

Oakland @ Minnesota
Crisp, CF   Span, CF
Barton, D, 1B   Hudson, O, 2B
Suzuki, K, C   Mauer, C
Kouzmanoff, 3B   Kubel, RF
Ellis, M, 2B   Cuddyer, 1B
Davis, R, RF   Thome, DH
Cust, DH   Young, D, LF
Carter, LF   Valencia, 3B
Tolleson, SS   Casilla, A, SS
  Cahill, P     Duensing, P

 

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

 

Now that I’m recovered from fits of tremors and drooling, I’ll see what I can do to describe how awesome that was!  A TRUE pitchers duel and BRIAN DUENSING WON!!!  It was just fantstic.  A complete game shutout for the young rookie and done with style too.  His teammates annointed him with the traditional shaving cream pie in the face which made for an entertaining postgame interview – his general opinion was that shaving cream doesn’t taste very good.  Of course, from the smile on his face after the last out – facing just 29 batters – my guess is that the taste of shaving cream will be soon forgotten.  It also made choosing a BOD a very easy task today.  Congratulations, Brian!

Given the closeness of the game (especially until the bottom of the 8th), the chat also awards assorted pastries to Orlando Hudson and Joe Mauer for their part in tonight’s win.  Thanks guys!

GameChat – A’s @ Twins, 7:10 pm

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It’s really good to have our boys back home and I hope that the weather cooperates while they are here!  I think everyone in MN would be glad for a short break from torrential rain.  So Morneau is improving but Gardy announced today that they aren’t talking time tables with him anymore – they want to make sure that he’s ready and so far he still hasn’t had any symptom-free days – at least he’s not feeling bad until he gets home now.  If you want a full recap of life for him right now, Phil Mackey did a great write-up today.

Unfortunately, news about Mijares is not as good.  He’s got more than a sprained knee – it’s a torn meniscus and requires surgery and he’ll be out 4-6 weeks.  Ouch.

TC Bear announced today on twitter that he & Bert Blyleven planted trees over at the Luce Line trail today for all the bats Twins pitchers have broken so far – he said the broken bat total right now is at 131.  At 100 trees per bat, that’s a lot of new canopy!  Here’s a pic!  Bert is supposed to talk about it in the FSN pregame if you are able to watch the program.

Coming off the series win in Chicago, I’m sure that the team morale is high.  Let’s hope that Pavano does a very Pavano job and that our offense keeps up the good work.

Oakland @ Minnesota
Crisp, CF   Span, CF
Barton, D, 1B   Hudson, O, 2B
Suzuki, K, C   Mauer, DH
Cust, DH   Cuddyer, 1B
Kouzmanoff, 3B   Kubel, RF
Ellis, M, 2B   Young, D, LF
Davis, R, RF   Valencia, 3B
Carter, LF   Casilla, A, SS
Pennington, SS   Butera, C
  Gonzalez, G, P     Pavano, P

 

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

 

That was a CRAZY game – some INCREDIBLE defense and amazing plays and then some absolutely head-banging plays.  But it all worked out to give Carl Pavano win #15 which puts him in a tie for first place in the American League!  In the postgame interview, he FINALLY expressed what it is about Drew Butera that he connects so well with – they are both Italian.  But he did mention that he’s a bit angry with Drew for shaving the mustache off.  AND he really enjoyed the walk-on music that Target Field played for him tonight – the theme to Mario Bros!  And even TC “grew” his mustache in honor of the big guy’s start tonight.  Carl’s not sure what it is about his mustache that has elicited such support from the fans but I think I speak for all of us when I say, if you keep winning, we’ll keep loving the ‘Stache! (at least metaphorically)

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The most incredible play of the night was a GORGEOUSLY executed suicide squeeze bunt between Drew Butera and Danny Valencia.  Wow.  Butera’s bunt was perfect and I swear that Danny was 2/3 of the way to homeplate with his leadoff before Butera even made contact.  VERY well done boys.  For that play alone, they both have a special bakery prize – their very own “BUNT” Cake!! Hope they really enjoy it!

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SECOND, there were inumberable plays tonight where our boys sacrificed the body to make the play – Lexi, Spanky and Hudson all really laid it out there – literally.  But none came up with blood on the uniform, met with the trainer and stayed in the game the way Michael Cuddyer did.  For that grit and determination, Knuckleballs awards him the very rarely offered GOLDEN BANDAID!  Thanks for all you do, Cuddy!

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Additionally, the bullpen came out AGAIN and in some high pressure situations, kept the Twins in the lead and allowed us to walk off the field with the win.  Since there was still a bit of roughness that I am worried is attributed to dehydration after the keg they got last night, they will have to live with rootbeer floats tonight instead of the other kind.  And Jesse Crain – for coming in with the bases loaded and nailing it down anyway, you get yours in a tall, frosty mug straight out of the freezer with an extra scoop!  We really enjoy it when you come in and do stuff like that!

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Of course, all this leads up to who did we vote to get the BOD!?!  For that we go back to the beginning.  In addition to that absolutely gorgeous squeeze, Valencia went 2/4, with a double, a run, and 2 RBI.  For that, he has earned today’s BOD!  Viva La Valencia!

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox #3, 7:10 pm

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Sometimes it gets a little old starting every game chat with an injury update but after yesterday, yeah, we need to cover a few things.  Mijares is going to the DL with a sprained knee and they officially called Manship back up to take his roster spot.  I’m still not sure what that means for Perkins – and I don’t think they have quite figured it out yet either.  Because we have yet another pitcher who can’t pitch right now.  Jon Rauch screwed up a toe in such a way that even Gardy is talking/wincing about how “ugly” and black & blue it is.  Really?  How are we supposed to keep fielding a team this way?!  The good news on the pitching front is that Slowey is throwing in the bullpen and feeling good so he’ll do his next start just fine.

As far as our fielders go, JJ Hardy did leave last night’s game because of a sore wrist.  However, he says he’s going to play through it and it doesn’t require him to spend any time benched.  We’ll see if Punto is ready to come back tomorrow but from the looks of things, it would be a good thing if he’s ready.

** update from Joe C: Punto and Morneau are planning to work out with the team on Friday. Punto will be activated this weekend. That would ALSO be very good news. **

Considering that we are now back in that tied spot for the division lead, I would love it if Frankie could bring it in that way we all know and love and get us back into that first place spot by ourselves.  Again, that will require some freaking RUN SUPPORT!!!  Let’s get 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   Quentin, RF
Thome, DH   Pierzynski, C
Young, D, LF   Viciedo, DH
Valencia, 3B   Vizquel, 3B
Casilla, A, SS   Beckham, 2B
  Liriano, P     Floyd, G, P

 

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

 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  We’re back in first place and we own it!  I would like to make sure that we keep that same attitude playing the A’s.  But that was just a good game all the way around.  They battled quite a bit and they had to EARN this win but it was unbelievable to see the nasty come out in Liriano when he needed it – got himself out of 3 bases-loaded situations.  He wasn’t perfect tonight but I have always measured my respect for pitchers by how they perform when they aren’t having their best day – this was a HUGE game for Liriano.  Orlando Hudson and Kubel both hit Homeruns tonight but Kubes… his was a 3 run shot that just seemed to put the nail in the coffin.  And huge kudos for the bullpen – especially Matty G – for coming in and slamming the lid down a little earlier than we’d like to see them out there. 

So, for all the happiness in the Chat – it was a REALLY tough call for the BOD voting.  In the end, here’s how we broke it down:  Hudson gets an ice cream cake for that homerun in the first inning – nothing like setting the tone.  The bullpen gets a Keg and a Family bucket of KFC for being so finger-licking good!  Matty, first cup’s on me!  And finally, because we refuse to take the fun out of a good debate, we chose to assign CO-BOD status to both Kubel and Liriano for being really good at their jobs and keeping the morale of the team up where it should be.  Thanks boys!

GameChat – Twins @ White Sox, 7:10

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Hope you enjoyed your off-day but now we’re back to Twins baseball!

As several of my favorite bloggers have pointed out, we are down to the final 50 games of the season!  And the Twins are officially tied with the White Sox for first place in the Central Division.  That makes this series especially exciting!!  We have 9 games left against the White Sox and every single game is going to count!  If you want to know how much it counts, I really encourage you to read the piece Seth Stohs did for TwinsCentric: 50 Game Season begins tonight!

As far as injury updates go, Joe C was actually kind enough to go check on Nick Punto since I asked!  He’s progressing well from the hamstring strain and is eilligible to come back on Friday.  It’s not known for sure if he’ll be ready to go but it’s at least possible.  Morneau is not going to join the team in Chicago afterall – but he’s continuing his workouts.  Tolby is getting better too – gonna start a rehab assignment.  I’m not sure what is going to happen when all our utility infielders are back on track – we seem to have a few extra now.

Anyway, let’s hope that Baker has his stuff tonight.  He’s going to need to really bring it because the White Sox are going to show up loaded for bear.

Minnesota @ Chi White Sox
Span, CF   Pierre, LF
Hudson, O, 2B   Vizquel, 3B
Mauer, C   Rios, CF
Young, D, LF   Konerko, 1B
Kubel, RF   Kotsay, DH
Cuddyer, 1B   Ramirez, A, SS
Thome, DH   Quentin, RF
Valencia, 3B   Castro, R, C
Hardy, SS   Lillibridge, 2B
  Baker, S, P     Garcia, F, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 1 4 1 2 0 2 0 2 0 12 14 1
Chi White Sox 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 6 10 0

 

*still giggling*  Yes, you read that boxscore correctly.  You see that bit where it says we got 12 runs on 14 hits??  Yeah, 5 HOME RUNS, BABY!!!  I’m really a small ball girl – I love the running of the bases and smart hits and steals and good bunts.  But you really gotta love it when the Twins go to the long ball in Chicago so successfully!!!  We really got to Freddy Garcia right off too.  And the offense was ON it from the top of the order to the bottom.  Thome was having a LOT of fun against his former team – obviously one of the homeruns but more surprisingly, a DOUBLE!  Mauer was 3/5 with 2 runs and once again was a triple short of the cycle.  Kubel had one of the homeruns and 3 WALKS!!  EVERY starter got a hit tonight – it was an offensive buffet supporting a very solid Scott Baker.  He struggled early and gave up three runs in the 2nd inning but pulled himself back into focus and kept them stalled out from then on.  Obviously, that 40th bday party y’all threw for Jim Thome got everyone on the same page!  I love it!  As Kbro pointed out, the image to remember from this game is of Ozzie Guillen with the face/palm.

With all the fireworks from the bats tonight, there was a LOT of discussion about who actually earned tonight’s BOD (including a snide mention of Freddy Garcia 😉 ) so just for giving us so many to choose from, the whole lineup gets an all-you-can-eat buffet of baked goods.  But the actual BOD honors as voted go to Michael Cuddyer!  It’s been awhile for him but going 2/5 with a homerun and 4 RBI is nothing to sneeze at.  Good job boys! 

*** Post game note: in order to make room for Glen Perkins to come out to pitch for Kevin Slowey tomorrow, the Twins sent Trevor Plouffe back down to Rochester after the game.  That’s pretty much to be expected I think right now.  Some had asked, “why not Morales?” and my answer is that Gardy still likes that bench bat that doesn’t take away his DH if he’s got Mauer in that spot instead of behind the plate.  Gardy won’t give that up until he has to.  At least we are now back to 12 pitchers on the roster.  I’m just guessing but I really don’t think that Perk will go back down.  When Kev comes back, it will be interesting to see what happens. ***

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #3, 12:05

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YAY!  I can post the gamechat today!!!  AGAIN, my apologies for missing you all last night.  At least we have today.  (doesn’t that sound like a taudry romantic drama? about baseball?)

Ok, injury updates:  The good news is that ‘Lando is BACK!!  Joe Mauer is BACK to catching – which is great news for Butera who has really earned the day off.  And even better, Lexi’s little experience last night will not require a stint on the DL.  He has a bone spur on his ankle but no soft tissue damage or fractures so … they’ll let him play when the soreness is gone.  But that means that Plouffe, who would have been sent down to make room for Hudson, has to stay to back him up, and it’s Anthony Slama who draws the short straw.  I’m sure we’ll see Slama again fairly soon.

The bad news is that Kevin Slowey is dealing with some pain on the back of his elbow and he’ll be skipping his next start.  Sounds like they’ll be bringing up Perkins to make a start in his spot – and both Liriano and Pavano would like an extra day of rest as the rotation flows so I think the math works out.  Perkins will start on Wednesday against the White Sox if I’m still on target.

The MIA bit is that I haven’t heard a word about Punto’s recovery and if he’ll come back on schedule or not.  I’m definitely going to ask around and see if I can find out.

On to today’s game!  Duensing is out there again and I think he will do well today.  I sure hope it’s still cooler in Cleveland than it is in Minnesota.  And I can’t say that I will miss the throwback uniforms from yesterday.  I still think the hats were cool though. Span is getting a day off and Repko i sout in his spot – from how Span looked at the plate last night, I think that is a very good move. He needs a mental reboot.

Minnesota @ Cleveland
Repko, CF   Brantley, CF
Hudson, O, 2B   Cabrera, A, SS
Mauer, C   Choo, RF
Young, D, LF   Duncan, S, DH
Kubel, RF   LaPorta, 1B
Cuddyer, 1B   Marte, A, 3B
Thome, DH   Crowe, LF
Valencia, 3B   Donald, 2B
Hardy, SS   Marson, C
  Duensing, P     Huff, D, P

 

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

 

Well it was REALLY good to get the win today and the series win as well!!  Duensing was a bit rough in the first inning and gave up 3 runs and the defense was a bit rough behind him for a couple innings too.. and there was NO offense from the Twins to speak of.  However, they got their rhythmn together and all three parties managed to get things going. 

Duensing turned in brilliant innings 3-7 and even came out to start the 8th for the first time this season.  ‘Lando had a GREAT day back and even got the game-tying hit.  For that, they both get pastries for doing such a great job.  Gamechat elected Jim Thome as our BOD today though for really getting the offensive ball rolling with a 2 run HR that in NO WAY left room for doubt or review.  Thank you so much  Mr. Thome!

GameChat – Twins @ Indians #2, postgame

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WordPress.org FINALLY let me in!  My deepest apologies for the lack of game chat – I had everything ready to go and simply was never able to get the dashboard to login so that I could put up a post until now.

If you were unable to see tonight’s game, you should really check out some pictures in the paper or on the website because both Cleveland and Minnesota were wearing throwback uniforms in honor of the Negro Leagues.  If you watched the game on TV, aren’t you glad you don’t have to play baseball in that every day?! I hope that the weather in Cleveland was cooler than it is here in Minnesota!

 And I gotta say it made Pavano look MASSIVE.  I kind of feel bad for Mauer and the pitchers with all those sleeves.  The Indians unis weren’t nearly as dramatic as the Twins. The Twins were wearing unis modeled after the 1909 St. Paul Gophers – really different than any throwback uni I have ever witnessed before.  Final note on the uniforms: I really liked the HATS!  Now there is a white hat that works!

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

  

Pavano didn’t really appear to like the uniform very much and, like several of the pitchers, appeared to have cut the sleeves off at the elbows.  It wasn’t his BEST appearance but he actually did what I like best in pitchers – he still did the job on a night when he didn’t have his best stuff.  He got through 7 innings and only gave up 2 runs despite several hits and walks.  And the defense behind him wasn’t great.  There were some really beautiful moments and some absolute head-bangers.  Kubel managed to have two incredibly bone-headed fielding efforts that earned him two errors.  But he really tried hard to make up for it at the plate with a double, a homerun and a very timely walk. I would say that, overall, the offense really was the story of this game.  Kubel wasn’t the only one with a HR either.  Trevor Plouffe hit his first MLB homerun and it was a lot of fun to see.  In addition, Mauer was 4/5, Cuddy was 3/5, and even Casilla was 2/2 – until he kind of stepped on the catcher running into home and hurt his ankle.  We’ll see how that goes but it did look like he kind of jammed himself up a bit.  Gardy said that an xray tonight showed a bone chip in the ankle but they’ll get an MRI tomorrow morning to decide if it’s a long term or short term problem – and before they decide what to do with DL for Hudson or maybe Lexi.  

All together, they actually managed to string hits together and the LOB percentage was about 50% instead of the approximately 80% it has been several times lately.  Aren’t you surprised I did the math?!?!

Anyway, we have a Twins win and no chat with which to elect a BOD.  So I believe that leaves the choice to me. Normally, I would look at the RBI totals and see that Kubel’s two are the most in the lineup BUT after the two errors I simply can’t do it.  I decided to go with Mauer due to his .800 BA for the night, two runs and an RBI besides.  It’s been a LONG time since Joe appeared in the ranks of BOD and all I can say is, “it’s about time!”

Boyfriend of the Month for July is No Surprise. DY!

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Yeah, big shock huh? Delmon Young kicked some major butt in July (no doubt motivated by having to share the Knuckleballs Boyfriend of the Month award with Carl Pavano in June) and ran away with the BOM race last month. DY racked up six Boyfriend of the Day awards in July alone.

We Knuckleballers weren’t the only ones impressed with Delmon’s performance in July, however. According to The Sports Network, Delmon and Toronto’s Jose Bautista are sharing the July American League Player of the Month award.

Pavano, meanwhile, apparently believed duplicating the three BOD awards that earned him a share of the BOM prize for June would be enough to do the same in July. Silly starting pitcher.

Young is now in double figures for BOD awards on the year, tallying 11 awards with two months of games still to play. Pavano’s six BODs are good for second place, thus far, in the Boyfriend of the Year race. His grip on the runner-up spot is tenuous however, as Francisco Liriano finished July just one BOD award behind Pavano and has already made up the distance with an early August BOD.

Denard Span, Jason Kubel, Kevin Slowey and Denard Span round out the top 5 (and ties) with four BODs each through the end of July. (Slowey got the jump on that group with his 5th BOD Thursday.)

Will DY continue running away with the BOY race? Will The ‘Stache fend off the challengers for runner-up? Let’s just hope August brings a lot of wins and a lot of BODs! – JC

GameChat – Twins @ Rays #4, 11:10am

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This is it.  This is the final game of the series.  After that marathon pitching battle last night, I would really like to come out and play well today.  Mauer tried throwing this morning and the shoulder is still sore so he’s not ready to catch yet.  Butera will be going for the 5th day in a row.  My hope is that Slowey will continue his good pitching and not shake off Butera either.  He has to let his pitcher run the call and not let himself get tied up in his own head.  Win TWINS!!!

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay
Repko, CF   Rodriguez, S, 2B
Casilla, A, 2B   Crawford, LF
Mauer, DH   Longoria, 3B
Young, D, LF   Aybar, W, DH
Kubel, RF   Joyce, RF
Cuddyer, 1B   Johnson, D, 1B
Valencia, 3B   Upton, B, CF
Hardy, SS   Brignac, R, SS
Butera, C   Shoppach, C
  Slowey, P     Davis, W, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 8 15 2
Tampa Bay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 6 5 0

 

*dies laughing*  No, really, I’m still laughing.  What an utterly ridiculous series of events!  For those who couldn’t see the game because they are gainfully employed, this is going to be hard to convey and the boxscore simply does not do it justice.

To start with, Kevin Slowey was amazing.  He pitched a BEAUTIFUL game (very similar to Bakers but even faster).  He really had the Rays lineup off-balance in ways that were obviously frustrating them – poor Kelly Shoppach tried to break his bat over his knee after one particular strike out.  He got ALMOST all the way through the 8th inning before he started to struggle a bit – kind of wish he’d stayed out there because he couldn’t have done any WORSE than the relief pitching that came out.  Our bullpen was taxed and tired after the last three games so it was wonderful that Slowey did what he did. 

The Twins offense got to Davis early and hard getting 4 runs in the first inning and sending all 9 hitters to the plate.  In the following innings, Davis managed to refocus but we still tagged the Rays with another couple runs and kept the shutout going until the 8th inning.  That was assisted hugely by some GREAT defensive plays that contrasted greatly with the defensive miscues from yesterday.  But defense and pitching kept the Rays frustrated for a good portion of the game…  and then came the 8th inning. 

Slowey didn’t seem to be working as successfully with the strike zone and started letting men on base after he gave up a solo HR.  Jesse Crain was brought in and he couldn’t get an out to save his life and by the time he walked in an additional run to make the score 6-2, he was pulled and Mahay came in.  Um… yeah, ouch.  Mahay ended up giving up a grand slam to Bartlett who came in as a pinch hitter and tied the game.  All of Twins fandom felt their hearts crack as yet another stellar starting pitching outting ended in a no decision. (We really have to do better to support our starters wehn they do so well guys!)  Matt Capps came in and FINALLY got the last out.  That left one inning left to try to take the game back even if it was too late for Kev.

Twins hitters once again managed to make something happen to get on base even without Mauer who was walked intentionally twice.  The truly entertaining part was Kubel coming up with runners on the corners and 2 outs.  He REALLY wanted to hit that long HR and be the hero…  well, he hit it hard, that’s for sure – straight up.  The ball ended up bouncing off of the inner-most metal catwalk and bouncing back down into the infield in what was the luckiest play to go the Twins way in a long time.  The Rays infield simply had no way to play the ball as it ricocheted back down to almost the pitchers mound.  There was a lot of dropped jaws on the faces of players from both teams and much broadcaster reading of the rules so that fans knew what the heck counted as what.  But EVERYONE knew that was just a lucky bounce that went our way irregardless of what it bounced off of.  So Kubel ended up getting us that winning RBI off a hard hit single into the sky. For that, he and JJ Hardy and Jason Repko all get pastries for timely hitting.

However, the two highlights of today won’t really show up in the final stats.  The first was that no decision of Kev Slowey’s which was a beautifully pitched gem and the other was some consistently miraculous fielding from Alexi Casilla including the final out that didn’t even look humanly possible.  Especially since their accomplishments seem to lose impact in the final stats, the Chat voted them CO-BOD’s today.  Thanks you so much for your hard work and excellent comebacks from two players who have known what it is to struggle.

 

GameChat – Twins @ Rays #3, 6:10

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In the way of injury updates, I’m going to suggest checking out LaVelle’s bit from the Strib today because he covers a lot of our known concerns right now.  To summarize, Mauer is going to continue to DH until his shoulder feels 100%, Morneau is continuing his workouts and improving and, down in AA, Ben Revere took a pitch to the face last night and could have broken bones – awaiting an update.

So, for tonight, we are two games down in a four game series.  After two losses in a row, I really believe that the Twins need to get on the stick and figure out a way to beat the Rays.  Given the tightness of the race between the Rays and the Yankees for the AL East, if we can’t beat the Rays, we have a real problem when it comes to the post-season (assuming we get there) since we already know there is a tendency to give it up to the Yankees when we play on their turf.  Yes, I am still the optimist that sees the Twins not only taking the AL Central from the White Sox (again 😉 ) but with chances to go all the way through to October.  But this series is really a good measure for whether or not the talent we have right at this moment can do that – injuries and all.

All that said, the Twins have to get to David Price which is no small task.  AND Scott Baker has to be able to take it to the Rays hitters and get OUTS instead of walks and runs.  Let’s go, guys.

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay
Span, CF   Zobrist, 1B
Casilla, A, 2B   Crawford, LF
Mauer, DH   Longoria, 3B
Young, D, LF   Joyce, RF
Cuddyer, 1B   Johnson, D, DH
Valencia, 3B   Jaso, J, C
Repko, RF   Upton, B, CF
Hardy, SS   Rodriguez, S, 2B
Butera, C   Bartlett, SS
  Baker, S, P     Price, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 R H E
Minnesota 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 10 0
Tampa Bay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 0

 

Holy crap that was quite a game.  Scott Baker was TOTALLY robbed of the decision tonight.  It was an outstanding pitching duel – especially against one of the best pitchers in the game right now.  I greatly disagree with D&B, Baker did NOT match Price pitch for pitch, he out-pitched him fairly dramatically – throwing far fewer pitches inning for inning and shutting the Rays out for 8 full innings.  Sadly, Matt Capps could NOT convert the Save and I have to admit that I thought to myself, “Rauch could have done THAT.”  Of course, he couldn’t since he was back at the hotel during tonight’s game battling an allergic reaction on his hands.

And the Twins offense couldn’t seem to get it’s act together and again left hitters on base and in general committed a lot of defensive mistakes tonight.  FINALLY, after a leadoff walk from Lexi and Mauer moving him to 3B, Delmon Young got his first hit of the evening and got the winning RBI.  After that, Matt Guerrier came out for a second stellar inning and saved the win for the Twins in the 13th.  For that, he deserves a very cold beer in addition to the Save.  Thank you very much Matty.  However, Baker still rules the day and was voted BOD!  Wish we could have gotten you the Win, Scooter.

GameChat – Mariners @ Twins, 1:10

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The Twins FINALLY gained a game on the BitchSox yesterday as the A’s and Dallas Braden beat Chicago and allowed the Twins to move within half a game of first place in the AL Central Division entering today. The Twins will be going for their second straight series sweep as they wrap up this homestand with today’s game against the Mariners. I imagine this is where the scoreboard watching starts to get serious as the Sox and A’s will be starting their series finale a couple of minutes before today’s Twins game gets going.

On the medical front, Joe Mauer got a cortisone shot to treat tendonitis in his right shoulder. Hopefully he comes back with less pain after getting today and Monday off from catching duties.

On the positive side, we’ve got a couple of Joe Christensen tweets with good news. Justin Morneau took BP this morning so we’re seeing progress as he works his way back from his concussion. Doc was going to take outdoor practice but went indoors to avoid making “a spectacle” and because of the Sunday family game. Speaking of which, Joe Nathan made his first pitching appearance since his TJ surgery… pitching to his 5 year old son, Cole, in the family game. There’s a punchline in there somewhere with reference to recovery requiring “baby steps”… but I’m just not coming up with it right now.

We all are conditioned to expect a “B team” lineup on Sundays and that’s what Gardy has penciled in today, but I’ve seen Sunday lineups much worse than this one. I’m going to call this one a Sunday “B+ lineup”. – JC

MARINERS @ TWINS
Suzuki, I, RF Span, CF
Figgins, 2B Casilla, A, 2B
Gutierrez, F, CF Young, D, LF
Branyan, DH Cuddyer, 1B
Kotchman, 1B Kubel, DH
Wilson, Jo, SS Valencia, 3B
Tuiasosopo, M, 3B Repko, RF
Saunders, LF Hardy, SS
Johnson, Ro, C Butera, C
French, P Liriano, P

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

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Two straight series sweeps! Can’t beat that with a stick… but we can sweep ’em away with brooms!

I tried to get back in to the Chatroll by phone from the Kernels/RiverBandits game but it appears Chatroll went back down for “maintenance”. The program certainly has not been reliable this weekend and we apologize for that. Hopefully the Chatroll people get their crap together by Monday night.

I followed the game by phone and caught a few video clips when I got home. Since I wasn’t in the GameChat, I’m going to make an executive decision with regard to the Boyfriend of the Day. It’s pretty tempting to hand the award to Jason Kubel for his bases emptying double that was oh-so-close to a grand slam HR. We’ll award him a great big ole giant chocolate chip cookie and some pastries for Danny Valencia who drove Kubes in with a base hit to top of the scoring.

But when your pitcher goes seven shutout innings, striking out 11 and giving up only 2 hits, that’s indisputable BOD material… and that makes you, ‘Cisco Liriano, the Knuckleballs BOD!