BOD – Page 9 – Knuckleballs

GameChat – Seattle @ Minnesota #2, 12:10pm

Posted on 1 June, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Sorry for the late start folks – my computer was not cooperating today so it took far longer than I thought to get this going.

Quick note about the lineup today: Morneau arrived to the park with flu-like symptoms so we get to see Colabello at 1B. I have to admit that while I am going to be listening to this game rather than watching for the most part, I will definitely have to take the opportunity to see how he does for at least a portion of the game.

Seattle	@	Minnesota
Chavez, En, RF		Escobar, E, 3B
Bay, LF		Mauer, DH
Seager, 3B		Willingham, LF
Morales, K, 1B		Doumit, C
Ibanez, DH		Parmelee, RF
Franklin, 2B		Colabello, 1B
Saunders, M, CF		Dozier, 2B
Shoppach, C		Hicks, CF
Ryan, SS		Florimon, SS
Harang, P		Correia, P

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

So I spent the majority of the game cleaning out my car and listening on the radio – because yes, I can actually GET the Twins station in my car, just not in the house and yes, it did take well over 2 hours to clean out my car…

Fortunately, most of the game wasn’t worth paying my full attention to anyway so I could work away and not worry about missing anything.

But! I finished just before the 9th inning and came in to sit and watch the last inning on the TV.. HOLY CRAP AM I GLAD I DID!!!

Who knew that their closer would absolutely fall apart and WALK 3 consecutive batters (Florimon, Escobar and Mauer) and just set up the bases loaded for the heart of our hitting order. Florimon scored on a sac fly from Willingham who still practically scuffed the dirt with his shoes because he really really really wanted that sucker to go out of the park and it almost did but not quite. And then Doumit… runners at first and second and Doumit up hitting lefty against the right-hander who couldn’t keep balls where he wanted them.. Doing a little math for myself and realizing just a good liner ties up the game and a solid double wins it since Mauer isn’t the FASTEST guy on the team but he can move and score from 1st if necessary. And that is exactly how it played out.. Accordingly, Doumit was the team hero AND got himself shaving creamed during the post game interview.. he deserved it I’m sure and he deserves today’s BOD! Congrats!

GameChat – Brewers @ Twins #2, 7:10pm

Posted on 30 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Ok, we’re doing well against the Brewers and I would really like that to continue. Again, we’re playing a bit of poker game against the Rain and the atmosphere is the house. It could get dicey tonight but since this is our last meetup with Milwaukee, they’ll do whatever they can to get the game played.

Roster note, Plouffe is BACK on the DL. This time it’s for the calf, it’s not retroactive to his previous injury because it’s a new issue and Colabello is coming back up (btw, I have no clue if I’m spelling that right. I’ll have to look it up.)

Let’s hope that we can go deep with the starting pitching again tonight – both hoping that PJ can pitch a good amount of innings AND that we take Kyle Lohse YARD!

I wonder who will show tonight…. Kyle or Lyle?? Welcome back to MN Mr. Lohse.

Milwaukee	@	innesota
Gomez, C, CF		Carroll, 3B
Segura, SS		Dozier, 2B
Braun, LF		Mauer, DH
Ramirez, Ar, DH		Willingham, LF
Lucroy, C		Morneau, 1B
Betancourt, Y, 1B		Doumit, C
Schafer, L, RF		Parmelee, RF
Weeks, R, 2B		Hicks, CF
Bianchi, 3B		Florimon, SS
Lohse, P		Walters, P, P

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

Wow… just.. wow. Technically this is actually a sweep of two separate series of the same team but since it’s only 4 games, I think we’ve all been thinking of it as a single series. Am I right?

Tonight was the perfect capstone. I have to tell you, the BOD discussion was getting mighty creative as we attempted to dissect the performances of the various players that just ROCKED tonight.. and it was a close battle! There were 4 Homeruns! 4 players went 2/4 and 3 of those four had 2 RBI… It came down to fielding and base-running between those guys that edged it out for one.

And congratulations to PJ Walters for a great outing and to Jared Burton for keeping us from getting ulcers. It was definitely good to have all that run cushion though because the Brewers didn’t give up. Special thanks to Lyle Kohse for that great start.. *snort*

Because it feels really good to finally have a win streak going and to have it be such an impressive use of the bat tonight, we are gifting the entire team with yet another beer bash variation – they ALL get rootbeer floats! (some of those kids are awfully young yet). Not to mention that it’s still plenty warm and humid in Minnesota – it’s about time – so they can cool off and enjoy some relaxation as a team. Good job boys – let’s do it some more ok? Remember how good this feels when we face Seattle tomorrow?

But in all that discussion of BOD, one did win out on the votes by sheer dedication and consistent effort both in the field AND with the bat. Tonight, it’s all Parmesan!

Chris Parmelee (photo: J Megenhardt/MLB.com)

GameChat – Brewers @ Twins, 7:10pm

Posted on 29 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

and the Beer Bash continues… we hope. There’s a threat of some pretty severe storms moving in so let’s hope we can get the baseball in. The boys already had to give up batting practice due to earlier rain today so let’s hope that works out as well as it did the last time rain cancelled BP – they hit the stuffing out of the ball!

In further roster shake-up, Colabello has already gone back down to Rochester as Plouffe came off the 7-day DL today. We have a new lead-off hitter to try out tonight as they put Escobar in the 1-hole. We also have Herrmann making his first appearance this season catching so that Mauer can get a little break by DHing. And just for the record, I would love to see Deduno improve over his last outing. I think we won’t get a lot of leeway and it’s imperative that he go as deep into the game as the game can go given the extra innings last night – although if rain interferes, there is little we can do to manage that other than hope someone in the bullpen has something left…

Milwaukee	@	Minnesota
Aoki, RF		Escobar, E, 3B
Segura, SS		Dozier, 2B
Braun, LF		Mauer, DH
Ramirez, Ar, DH		Willingham, LF
Gomez, C, CF		Doumit, RF
Lucroy, C		Parmelee, 1B
Betancourt, Y, 1B		Herrmann, C, C
Weeks, R, 2B		Hicks, CF
Bianchi, 3B		Florimon, SS
Estrada, P		Deduno, P

[edit] already had to post a new lineup – VERY late substitution has taken Plouffe out the game and not for the reason you’re thinking. He’s apparently dealing with tightness in his calf which kind of sucks since we already sent Colabello back down and we’re going to be light on the bench tonight…

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

Hot DAMN!!! And the timing was perfect because I’m listening to thunder as I type this!

Now THAT was some great baseball!! SO many great things happened tonight and so many people did some awesome stuff that I decided we had to combine the beer prize with our traditional baked-goods prizes and start passing out Beer Cakes to the sundry excellent performers!

Everyone except Florimon got a hit tonight, Doumit had 2 RBI and Hicks had a beautiful Homerun that sailed just out of reach of the chasing GoGo. And there was some spectacular defensive plays out there tonight and you know I’m a sucker for the glove work. Aaron Hicks and Chris Parmelee both made RIDICULOUS catches that I can guarantee will make the high light reels and Dozier had some SOLID work in the middle infield including a VERY timely and necessary double play. They ALL get to pick a Beer Cake and enjoy.

But more than anything it was great to watch a WIN and our heartiest congratulations to Samuel Deduno for his first W this season! Yeah, he hit 3 batters.. (oops) but that just solidifies his title of “effectively wild”. And more importantly, going into the 8th inning after last night’s 5+ hour affair is EXACTLY what this team needed tonight. It was a BRILLIANT outing that earned him tonight’s BOD! Good job!

Sam Deduno (Photo: Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

GameChat – Twins @ Brewers #2, 7:10pm

Posted on 28 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

It really does feel like we play a LOT more inter-league play with this schedule but I think it’s just one of those thing that is more because of timing than actual game count.. maybe. I lose track.

So Mauer is back in the 3-hole – IMHO, FINALLY! – and it seems to be one of those things that has the twitter fandom in an uproar. I guess that everyone has their opinion but your best hitter on the team REALLY shouldn’t be your 2-hole guy. I know there is a lot of disagreement on that point.. y’all are just wrong. 😉

Let’s hope Scotty can put the Brewers away tonight and go deep into the game. I would like to start having a reason to send that 13th pitcher back down…

Minnesota	@	Milwaukee
Carroll, 3B		Aoki, RF
Dozier, 2B		Segura, SS
Mauer, C		Braun, LF
Willingham, LF		Ramirez, Ar, 3B
Morneau, 1B		Gomez, C, CF
Doumit, RF		Lucroy, C
Hicks, CF		Weeks, R, 2B
Florimon, SS		Betancourt, Y, 1B
Diamond, P		Fiers, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	8	0
Milwaukee	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	13	1

yeah, I don’t know about you but I didn’t make it until the end…

I gave up when Perkins lost the save. I had this horrible feeling it was going to take awhile to fix. It did.. Thank GOD for Aaron Hicks finally getting something out there. Since there was only one person left in the chat by that point – she gets the sole BOD vote and she said Hicks. I can’t even argue that point! So there it is, congrats Mr. Hicks!

GameChat – Twins @ Brewers

Posted on 27 May, 2013 by Jim Crikket

A bit late getting the GameChat up today. Sorry about that.

Looks like the Twins got on the board first and that’s a refreshing change!

TWINS	@	BREWERS
Carroll, 2B		Aoki, RF
Dozier, 2B		Segura, SS
Mauer, C		Gomez, C, CF
Willingham, LF		Betancourt, Y, 3B
Morneau, 1B		Bianchi, 2B
Doumit, RF		Gonzalez, Al, 1B
Hicks, CF		Schafer, L, LF
Escobar, E, 3B		Maldonado, C
Correia, P		Peralta, W, P

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

Woohoooo!!

You know what? Winning baseball games is FUN! I hope the boys remember that. Today was a good day – Correia gave it up a couple times but he showed signs of returning to the workhorse guy we had in April. It really was a relief to have a starter at least go 6 innings again! Just for not sucking, I decided to grant Correia a beer on the house. It is Miller Park after all.

I’m granting a beer to Ryan Doumit for actually knocking in the winning RBI, Parmelee for the Homerun and an RBI and to Pedro Florimon for going 2 for 4. (Can you tell that I’m trying to encourage them to keep this kind of activity up?)

ALSO getting a beer on the house is the umpiring Crew Chief – for overruling that idiot Angel Hernandez on yet another absolutely ridiculous bad call. Thank heaven that someone can see even if it took a video review.

But after a bit of discussion which I think we only did for the fun of it, today’s BOD went to Joe Mauer – again – for getting 3 Runs (our entire lead) and in general being awesome at the plate with a Homerun and 2 Walks. Keep it up, Big Man. – CB

GameChat – Orioles @ Twins #2, 6:10pm

Posted on 11 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

So JC & I had an entertaining lunch today before going our separate ways – me off to more family stops & more shopping (sheesh) and he, off to the game. Let’s hope that since the weather is not nearly as nice as yesterday, hopefully the baseball will actually be better. It’s still sunny but significantly cooler and a LOT windier. I’m curious as to whether that will effect the game. Let’s hope Worley has great stuff tonight since I think our bullpen could use the break – but I’m not holding my breath.

I’ll be in and out (honestly still trying to take advantage of what outside weather we have to try to catch up to the months of backlog on yard work) but don’t leave if I don’t answer right away – I’ll be back!

Baltimore	@	Minnesota
McLouth, LF		Dozier, 2B
Machado, M, 3B		Mauer, C
Markakis, RF		Doumit, DH
Jones, Ad, CF		Morneau, 1B
Davis, C, 1B		Plouffe, 3B
Wieters, C		Parmelee, RF
Hardy, SS		Arcia, LF
Flaherty, 2B		Ramirez, W, CF
Reimold, DH		Escobar, E, SS
Johnson, S, P		Worley, P

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

YAY! They certainly did a better job at giving JC a reason to want to come back to MN later on this season. And the game was entertaining enough that I didn’t fall asleep in the 7th inning! This is also a good measure of a baseball game for me lately.

At any rate, it’s amazing the kind of win you can get when the top – heart of the order is getting on base or clearing a base with every AB. Mauer, Morneau, Doumit and Dozier all seemed to come through at the right moment tonight. And then Burton came in for a ground-breaking appearance in his recover/rehab/return but had told Gardy he felt good and could give him an inning – given our bullpen right now, that was VERY GOOD and he nailed down the save at the end. It was a good game with some great effort all around.

And just because in our discussions, we couldn’t really decide which was better: Mauer’s 3 Runs (+some) or Morneau’s 3 RBI but eventually we decided to give the BOD to Mauer just because he was really making it work tonight and that IBB just went to prove that the Orioles pitching really didn’t want to give him yet another opportunity. So Mauer is BOD!

GameChat – Twins @ Red Sox #4, 6:05pm

Posted on 9 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

The final game of the series – almost here since it’s hard to give you guys much notice with these 6pm games! – but I have to say that as much fun as the Green Monster has been for us, I’ll be glad when we’re away from these BoSox-paced games. Yeesh.

Let’s hope that Correia can continue what he’s been so good at this year so far in getting deep into the game and keeping it moving. I would really love that and I’m pretty sure our now completely over-worked bullpen feels the same.

Minnesota	@	Boston
Dozier, 2B		Ellsbury, CF
Mauer, C		Victorino, RF
Willingham, LF		Pedroia, 2B
Morneau, 1B		Ortiz, D, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Napoli, 1B
Doumit, DH		Nava, LF
Arcia, RF		Middlebrooks, 3B
Hicks, CF		Drew, SS
Florimon, SS		Ross, D, C
Correia, P		Lackey, P

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

WOOHOOO!!! It feels good to take a series on the road against an east coast team – especially one that can hit like that BoSox lineup. Considering that pitching is still likely our weakest element, I’m pretty pleased with how the majority of the pitching staff has done tonight… not to mention the whole series. I was a little worried about the freshness of what was available given the heavy use they have had this week. I wasn’t alone in that concern in the chat. So we voted that the bullpen all gets a treat after hanging in there and holding the line tonight. Given their location, they all get a nice Boston Lager!

The offense started off well early and then we fell behind again but thanks to young Oswaldo Arcia, we retook the lead and held that through the end of the game! (which came far earlier tonight than it had previously in this series) So for an outstanding offensive performance and honestly, very good timing, we voted Arcia as tonight’s BOD! Oh yeah, it just happens to be his 22nd birthday today so Happy Birthday as well!

GameChat – Twins @ Red Sox, 6:05 pm

Posted on 8 May, 2013 by Jim Crikket

Programming note: Tonight’s game is on ESPN!

Today’s entertainment revolved around the whole Gardy vs Hicks confrontation from last night. The Twitterverse was apparently alive with comments about an incident that probably would have gone totally unnoticed outside of Minnesota and surrounding states if not for the fact that it occurred in Boston, where everything is magnified 100 times.

Hicks is back in the starting line up tonight and playing center field, so apparently his sins weren’t fatal.

Hopefully, the Twins will do something tonight that will make everyone forget about the other nonsense (and hopefully whatever that something is will be a good something).

TWINS	@	RED SOX
Carroll, 2B		Ellsbury, CF
Mauer, C		Victorino, RF
Willingham, LF		Pedroia, 2B
Morneau, 1B		Ortiz, D, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Napoli, 1B
Doumit, DH		Gomes, J, LF
Arcia, RF		Saltalamacchia, C
Hicks, CF		Drew, SS
Florimon, SS		Ciriaco, 3B
_Hernandez, P, P		_Webster, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	4	7	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	15	20	0
Boston	5	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	8	12	1

Seriously.

I have no words to describe this game accurately.

It was just ridiculous and I don’t care who was scoring along at home, I don’t think ANYONE has a matching sheet. In case you were wondering, here’s what the OFFICIAL MLB Play by Play has listed for the top of the 7th inning:

TOP OF THE 7th
AB#	Play String	Play	Play by Play
68			Defensive Substitution: Daniel Nava replaces right fielder Shane Victorino, batting 2nd, playing right field.
68	..BFD	E5/TH/G	Josh Willingham reaches on a throwing error by third baseman Pedro Ciriaco.
69	.BFBFFX	8/F	Justin Morneau flies out to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury.
70	.CD	S7/L.1-2	Trevor Plouffe singles on a line drive to left fielder Jonny Gomes. Josh Willingham to 2nd.
71	.FX	S8/FDP.2-3;1X3(3);BX2(8643)	Ryan Doumit singles on a fly ball to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury. Double play, first baseman Mike Napoli to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury to shortstop Stephen Drew to second baseman Dustin Pedroia to first baseman Mike Napoli. Trevor Plouffe out at 3rd. Ryan Doumit out at 2nd.

Despite more officiating miscues than I can count and a strike zone that traveled more than Santa Claus, the Twins were able to make significant use of the Fenway’s historic nature – and goofy field proportions! The whole team gets a beer – or two (or as many as they need to recover) courtesy of Knuckleballs. It was a lot of fun to watch the whole lineup get a hit tonight! And our sincerest congratulations to Ryan Pressley for getting the Win tonight – it was his first MLB Win and he worked hard for it tonight.

The official vote for BOD was a landslide – for the Green Monster.

But if you’re a stickler for having a person as your boyfriend of the day, second place went to Ryan Doumit – who has basically kicked ass this whole series. He kept it up tonight too so we’ll toss the alternative acknowledgement his way.

That being said, let’s hope this officiating crew gets their heads screwed back on before tomorrow’s series finale.

GameChat – Twins @ Red Sox #2, 6:05pm

Posted on 7 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Ok, guys, I’m putting this up and then running off to build my puppy a sandbox. But then I will be back to catch up with the game. We can always hope that this is a bad night for Dempster but regardless I hope it’s a good night for Diamond.

Minnesota	@	Boston
Carroll, SS		Ellsbury, CF
Mauer, DH		Victorino, RF
Willingham, LF		Pedroia, 2B
Morneau, 1B		Ortiz, D, DH
Plouffe, 3B		Napoli, 1B
Doumit, C		Gomes, J, LF
Parmelee, RF		Middlebrooks, 3B
Ramirez, W, CF		Drew, SS
Dozier, 2B		Ross, D, C
Diamond, P		Dempster, P

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

That was, overall, a very professionally executed ballgame by the Twins. Not perfect, but we would take about 100 more games like that without a complaint.

We’ve kind of been waiting for Ryan Doumit to step up his game (though, admittedly, he’s been getting less regular playing time since Oswaldo Arcia’s promotion), but tonight Doumit certainly made a case for more at-bats. 2 for 4 with a double and a home run absolutely warrants some BOD support.

But Scott Diamond threw seven shutout innings and gave up only three hits in the process. He also called it a night after sitting down the last 15 hitters he faced. For Twins fans who aren’t familiar with seeing that kind of performance, that is called PITCHING. In fact, around here it’s called BOD pitching. – JC

GDJHK

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

Posted on 5 May, 2013 by CapitalBabs

Apparently Justin Morneau showed up at the ballpark feeling a little stiff and asked to DH today. Ironically, he may have improved the defense behind starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey in the process as Chris Parmelee moves to first base and Oswaldo Arcia moves in to right field.

Pelfrey will need all the help he can get today as the Twins attempt to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Indians this weekend.

TWINS	@	INDIANS
Carroll, 2B		Brantley, LF
Mauer, C		Kipnis, 2B
Willingham, LF		Cabrera, A, SS
Morneau, DH		Swisher, DH
Parmelee, 1B		Reynolds, Ma, 1B
Plouffe, 3B		Santana, C, C
Arcia, RF		Raburn, RF
Hicks, CF		Chisenhall, 3B
Escobar, E, SS		Stubbs, CF
_Pelfrey, P		_Kluber, P

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

So.. yard work took a little longer than I thought it was going to so I ended up missing the first half of the game.. I knew it was a Pelfrey start though so a) I figured that they would probably be on the 3rd inning at 1:30 and b) wasn’t sure that I would have missed anything good anyway. Imagine my surprise when I cam in and found we had the LEAD! And we never gave it up! Glad that we were able to pull a win out.

And just because it was such a great surprise, I give BOD to Pelfrey with hopes he’ll keep it up!!!