BOD – Page 8 – Knuckleballs

GameChat – Twins @ Blue Jays #2, 12:07pm

Posted on 6 July, 2013 by CapitalBabs

RA Dickey

so.. a little afternoon baseball…

and this time we are facing one of my favorites.. RA Dickey!

I don’t begrudge this man one bit of the success he has achieved since he left our team and still wish we’d kept him around. I think he doesn’t really miss us all that much though. I’m just hoping we can figure out how to do more hitting today than we did yesterday – and THEN actually get RUNS once we have those base-runners!!

That’s not too much to ask is it? I mean, hitting is fun but RUNS are so much more exciting if you ask me. And I REALLY wouldn’t argue with breaking the losing streak.. Sorry RA, as much as I like you, I still would rather win the game. 😉

Minnesota	@	Toronto
Dozier, 2B		Reyes, SS
Carroll, 3B		Bautista, RF
Mauer, C		Encarnacion, 1B
Morneau, 1B		Lind, DH
Arcia, LF		Rasmus, C, CF
Plouffe, DH		Davis, R, LF
Parmelee, RF		Izturis, M, 3B
Hicks, CF		Thole, C
Escobar, E, SS		Kawasaki, 2B
Pelfrey, P		Dickey, P

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

Woohooo!!! The losing streak is OVER! And with a shutout no less!

I am pretty sure that Gardy should have some smiles on his team now! Let’s hope the boys remember how much fun this is and keep it up for a bit. Clearly they weren’t having much issue with the knuckleball (sorry Dickey) – especially Dozier & Parmelee. But additionally, Pelfrey did quite well for himself in his return from the DL. Let’s hope that he can keep it up as well!

Arcia left the game after getting a knuckleball to the hand – they do tend to move about in unexpected ways. Reportedly it’s just a bruise.

But to recognize some really nice performances today, we are awarding both Parmelee and Pelfrey our heartiest congratulations and some lovely Canadian beer to toast each others’ efforts to get the Twins back on track today! The boys in uniform aren’t the only ones that need to remember this is a game and we should be smiling more just because it’s baseball. But thanks for the reminder of why we like this sport!

The big prize goes to Brian Dozier with some SERIOUS offensive totals today including a BEAUTIFUL homerun! I really like how he’s settling into 2B and the top of the order.

GameChat – Royals @ Twins, 3:10

Posted on 29 June, 2013 by Jim Crikket

At long last (too long for many of us), Kyle Gibson gets to make his Twins debut on the mound this afternoon against the Kansas City Royals.

For more on Gibson (and other stuff), you should scroll down and give a listen to the Talk to Contact podcast fellow Knuckleballer Eric posted this morning.

I don’t think anyone believes he’s going to be a 20-game winner for the Twins anytime soon (or ever, perhaps), but he has been mowing down AAA hitters consistently for most of the season and, meanwhile, the Twins rotation has had some issues, to say the least.

It should be interesting to see how Gibson fares today. In fact, for only like the third time all season, I am interested enough in a Twins game to actually go find a sports bar to watch at least part of one of their games before I head to the Kernels ballpark. – JC

ROYALS	@	TWINS
Gordon, A, LF		Thomas, C, CF
Escobar, A, SS		Dozier, 2B
Hosmer, 1B		Mauer, C
Butler, B, DH		Morneau, 1B
Perez, S, C		Plouffe, DH
Moustakas, 3B		Arcia, LF
Cain, L, RF		Parmelee, RF
Tejada, M, 2B		Carroll, 3B
Dyson, J, CF		Florimon, SS
_Davis, W, P		_Gibson, P

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

Justin Morneau and Trevor Plouffe provided some early offensive support, but when a guy gives you a Quality Start in his first start as a Big Leaguer, he’s your Boyfriend of the Day!

jhgiuy

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

Posted on 23 June, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Ok, in my defense, this week my schedule has been RIDICULOUS (I hear Dairy Queen commercials in my head when I type this) so I have missed a LOT of baseball and baseball news. And sadly, today isn’t done with that schedule yet so I still don’t get any baseball.

BUT WHEN AND WHY DID PEDRO HERNANDEZ GET BACK UP HERE???

I’m so lost… I would still hate to see us on the OTHER side of a sweep in the division so can we please hope that he pitches great today?? oh, and boys, hit the ball a lot.

Minnesota	@	Cleveland
Thomas, C, CF		Bourn, CF
Mauer, DH		Aviles, SS
Doumit, C		Kipnis, 2B
Willingham, LF		Swisher, 1B
Arcia, RF		Reynolds, Ma, 3B
Plouffe, 3B		Santana, C, DH
Parmelee, 1B		Raburn, LF
Dozier, 2B		Gomes, Y, C
Florimon, SS		Stubbs, RF
Hernandez, P, P		Carrasco, P

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

Ok, what the heck is up with these super slow games in Cleveland??

And just a heads up on the info I didn’t have during pregame: Pedro was up because Pelfrey hurt his back yesterday in warm-ups and is on the DL retro-active to his last start. Thank you to Pedro and his wife for the extraordinary effort in driving 357 miles overnight to be here as the emergency starter today.

I am glad that we got a win though. I was only able to briefly check in on the game at various points and never thought it was very encouraging but it looks like everyone kept firing away and worked hard. I like that they leave on a win and have the day off tomorrow. While there was a lot of contribution from everyone but from the numbers, today belongs to Mr. Joe Mauer.

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

Posted on 20 June, 2013 by CapitalBabs

These day games are really hard for regularly-employed people – I’m always concerned whether I can get a break for a post much less be able to follow the game itself and my current work-load? But since I’m sitting on hold at the moment, up goes a post. (and of course this is the day that they were really slow posting lineups so post delayed)

You might be entertained by this video from Justin Morneau’s HR in last night’s game:

But enough of yesterday, we would LOVE to sweep the White Sox wouldn’t we? I think, yes. It’s great to have the wins we already have and the series win but this is a divisional opponent and every single win matters so let’s not let the heat & humidity or the day game lethargy diminish the effort.

Chi White Sox	@	Minnesota
De Aza, CF		Dozier, 2B
Ramirez, Al, SS		Mauer, DH
Rios, RF		Doumit, C
Konerko, DH		Willingham, LF
Dunn, A, 1B		Morneau, 1B
Viciedo, LF		Plouffe, 3B
Keppinger, 3B		Arcia, RF
Beckham, G, 2B		Thomas, C, CF
Gimenez, H, C		Escobar, E, SS
Danks, Jh, P		Diamond, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chi White Sox	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	4	10	2
Minnesota	0	3	0	2	1	2	0	0	x	8	15	1

WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!! Storm clouds may be literally on the horizon but that didn’t mean the boys didn’t want to finish off the White Sox with a bang today. I’m not going to argue with the fact that overall, the hitters made it really tough to pick a BOD today! There were homeruns from Dozier, Arcia, Thomas and Escobar which really makes the lacking look funny at the heart of the order… but again, with a win, who cares?

A lot could be said about the White Sox losing this game because with all the fielding errors, they really just gave us the game but no, we were still hitting and doing the job right for the most part – I’m looking at you Plouffe.

Interesting to me was a bit I got off Twitter: First time Sox swept at Target Field, first time swept at Minn since 9/23-25/08. 12 games under .500 since end of 2007.

Wow… but this is a huge shot in the arm for the boys to take the Sox at home so I hope they take that feeling with them for the next game.

And congrats to Oswaldo Arcia as today’s BOD!

Minnesota+Twins+Photo+Day+Arcia

GameChat – White Sox @ Twins #2, 7:10pm

Posted on 19 June, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Ok this week is CRAZY about deadlines for me – honestly, more than I can actually meet so something is going to have to give somewhere, I just don’t know when or where..

So while I’m working tonight and my brain is frying, I’m hoping that the Twins will at least give me a good distraction AND a good mood lift. Last night’s win didn’t hurt!

Seeing Mauer take on Chris Sale could make for good baseball theater! I just hope Correia is up to the task.. let’s go boys!

Chi White Sox	@	Minnesota
De Aza, CF		Dozier, 2B
Ramirez, Al, SS		Mauer, C
Rios, RF		Doumit, RF
Dunn, A, DH		Willingham, DH
Konerko, 1B		Morneau, 1B
Gillaspie, 3B		Plouffe, 3B
Viciedo, LF		Arcia, LF
Beckham, G, 2B		Thomas, C, CF
Flowers, C		Florimon, SS
Sale, P		Correia, P

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

It really is fun beating the White Sox, isn’t it? I mean… just watching the circus that their defense can turn in to at times is just enjoyable.

One thing about being the only person left in the Chat when the game ends is that it falls to me to choose the BOD. There were all sorts of guys up and down the line up that had good games. Brian Dozier with an early, critical home run. Justin Morneau breaking his HR slump. Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit… the list goes on.

But Kevin Correia gave the Twins a very good outing on the mound, giving up just five hits in 6.2 innings and striking out 6 Sox without surrendering a single walk. That’s the kind of starting pitching that deserves to be rewarded and that’s what we’re going to do!

GameChat – White Sox @ Twins, 7:10

Posted on 18 June, 2013 by Jim Crikket

The Bitch Sox come to town for a three game series starting tonight and it gives the Twins an opportunity to start reversing the recent trend that’s seen the South Siders winning a heck of a lot more games at Target Field than they should be allowed to win. Oh and it’s also a chance to put a little distance between the Twins and the Sox, who are the only AL Central team the Twins can currently look down at in the standings.

WHITE SOX	@	TWINS
De Aza, CF		Thomas, C, CF
Ramirez, Al, SS		Mauer, 1B
Rios, RF		Doumit, C
Dunn, A, 1B		Willingham, LF
Konerko, DH		Morneau, DH
Gillaspie, 3B		Arcia, RF
Viciedo, LF		Plouffe, 3B
Beckham, G, 2B		Dozier, 2B
Flowers, C		Florimon, SS
_Axelrod, P		_Pelfrey, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chi White Sox	0	2	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	5	11	1
Minnesota	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	x	7	13	1

So many potential heroes to choose from tonight. Joe Mauer with a first inning home run. Trevor Plouffe with a couple of ribbies. Mike Pelfrey with a Quality Start.

But when you come through in a tie game with a 2-RBI double with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning, that’s BOD material in my book. Ryan Doumit strikes again!

GameChat – Tigers @ Twins #2, 6:10

Posted on 15 June, 2013 by CapitalBabs

So it’s been raining just about the whole day here in Minnesota but the sun just came out at my house about half an hour ago.. I am thinking they may actually be able to get great game weather!

Let’s see if we can’t actually get a better GAME than we got last night though…

Detroit	@	Minnesota
Jackson, A, CF		Thomas, C, CF
Dirks, LF		Mauer, DH
Cabrera, M, 3B		Doumit, C
Fielder, 1B		Morneau, 1B
Martinez, V, DH		Arcia, LF
Peralta, Jh, SS		Plouffe, 3B
Kelly, D, RF		Parmelee, RF
Infante, 2B		Dozier, 2B
Avila, C		Florimon, SS
Sanchez, An, P		Deduno, P

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

That’s the kind of ballgame you watch and it brings back memories of the way the Twins used to play baseball on a regular basis. Seven excellent innings of work from Sam Deduno just demonstrated what can be accomplished when you get good starting pitching. Jared Burton struggled just a bit again, but Glen Perkins closed the door in the 9th inning.

Joe Mauer did his Joe Mauer thing collecting a two-out, two-RBI single in the sixth inning.

But Birthday Boy Trevor Plouffe is the clear choice for BOD tonight. 3 for 3, a double, a home run, 3 ribbies and a couple of runs scored in his first game back from the Disabled List. Welcome back, Trevor!

GameChat – Phillies @ Twins #2, 7:10pm

Posted on 12 June, 2013 by CapitalBabs

[My apologies for the late post folks – for some reason the first post attempt did not publish]

So I haven’t given up on Pelfrey – but then again, I still don’t trust him all that far either. Does that make me a bad fan? Regardless, I never know which version we’re going to get when the game starts so I always feel like I need to cross my fingers and hope really hard.

This lineup doesn’t exactly give you the utmost confidence either but I’m an optimist so I always look to each game as its own animal with possibilities. Let’s see what the boys can do – and hopefully they have a long enough dry spell to do it in.

Philadelphia	@	Minnesota
Young, M, 3B		Carroll, 3B
Revere, CF		Mauer, C
Rollins, SS		Doumit, RF
Howard, 1B		Willingham, DH
Brown, D, LF		Morneau, 1B
Young, D, DH		Arcia, LF
Mayberry, RF		Thomas, C, CF
Galvis, 2B		Escobar, E, 2B
Lerud, C		Florimon, SS
Cloyd, P		Pelfrey, P

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

Nice that we can get a come from behind win!! The first half of this game didn’t even look like this was possible but then it started warming up..

But it didn’t get hot until the end and Arcia and Thomas actually started making some SERIOUS moves.. Tonight was a career-high 4 hit night for Clete AND he hit the tying RBI and scored the Winning Run so he is tonight’s BOD!

Minnesota Twins' Clete Thomas is congratulated by third base coach Steve Liddle, left, as he runs toward home plate on a two-run home run against Texas Rangers pitcher Neftali during the fifth inning of a baseball game on Sunday, April 15, 2012, in Minneapolis. The players were all wearing No. 42 jerseys in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross) — Minnesota Twins’ Clete Thomas is congratulated by third base coach Steve Liddle, left, as he runs toward home plate on a two-run home run against Texas Rangers pitcher Neftali during the fifth inning of a baseball game on Sunday, April 15, 2012, in Minneapolis. The players were all wearing No. 42 jerseys in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)

GameChat – Phillies @ Twins, 7:10

Posted on 11 June, 2013 by Jim Crikket

After paying a visit to one former Twins center fielder in Washington over the weekend, the Twins play host to another one tonight as Ben Revere and the Phillies begin a series in Minnesota.

Aaron Hicks is now on the Disabled List and Oswaldo Arcia is back with the club and manning left field while Josh Willingham slides in as the DH. Clete Thomas is the best option Gardy could come up with to play center field in Hicks’ absence.

PHILLIES	@	TWINS
Young, M, 3B		Carroll, 3B
Revere, CF		Mauer, C
Rollins, SS		Doumit, RF
Howard, 1B		Willingham, DH
Brown, D, LF		Morneau, 1B
Young, D, DH		Arcia, LF
Mayberry, RF		Dozier, 2B
Galvis, 2B		Thomas, C, CF
Quintero, C		Florimon, SS
_ Hamels, P		_ Walters, P, P

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

That was a pretty slick win. Maybe it just comes as such a total surprise to me when the Twins get a really impressive start from a member of their rotation. PJ Walters earned our kudos and some baked goods for 7.1 innings of work.

But after the Phillies tied the game up at 2 in the top of the eighth, Justin Morneau came through with a two out RBI single to put the Twins back up 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth and set up Glen Perkins for a save.

For that game winner, the Chat group elected Morneau our BOD for the game.

GameChat – Twins @ Nationals, 3:05pm

Posted on 8 June, 2013 by CapitalBabs

My apologies but I’m not going to be around during game time so if someone happens to come by that can give you our fancy lineup chart, then we’re all go and if not, at least you all have a place to gather and chat!

**********************

It sure took these guys a long time to figure out their lineups and get them posted!

Ryan Doumit hitting 3rd for the Twins. That’s different.

Of course, we get to say hello to an old friend today in Denard Span.

I’ve got a wedding reception to go drink at this afternoon, so I won’t be around after the first couple of innings, but hopefully we’ll see some of the Twins’ historic inter-league success today. – JC

TWINS	@	NATIONALS
Carroll, 3B		Span, CF
Mauer, C		Werth, RF
Doumit, RF		Zimmerman, 3B
Willingham, LF		LaRoche, 1B
Morneau, 1B		Desmond, SS
Hicks, CF		Rendon, 2B
Dozier, 2B		Bernadina, LF
Florimon, SS		Suzuki, K, C
Correia, P		Gonzalez, Gi, P

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

well hot damn!

A Win is great! A Win after 11 innings is a blessing! This is going to be a long weekend of ball for the boys since they have a double header tomorrow to make up for last nights postponement.

At any rate, the boys actually fought hard and this time, whenever they gave up a run, they came back and got another one – this game was tied from most of the 4th inning on – hard fought baseball.

It’s hard to decide on BOD today but the vote eventually went to Doumit for hitting the winning RBI. Congratulations Ryan.. again. 🙂