The Arizona Diamondbacks are 13-4 since May 20, when they began a three-game sweep of our boys (and 18-5 back to May 14. I just wanted to point that out, because through April, the Snakes were 28th in MLB in FIP (just ahead of the Twins) and 26th in pitching WAR (the Twins were dead last). Now Arizona is in the hunt in the NL West, a half-game back of SF, thanks to much improved pitching (they were middle-of-the-pack in FIP, xFIP and pitching WAR in May).
The Twins ride into Cleveland on the wings of a four-game sweep of the Landed Gentlemen. Not exactly the 1927 Yankees there, but a feel-good weekend nonetheless. But if the Twins are going to make a move, now is the time to get it started, with a series win against the surprise division leaders.
Pitching matchup:
Scott Baker (3.86 ERA, 4.06 FIP, 3.65 xFIP, 66:23 K:BB, 10 HR in 67 2/3)
Josh Tomlin (3.27 ERA, 4.33 FIP, 3.86 xFIP, 41:11 K:BB, 11 HR in 71 2/3)
Tomlin, a righty, has been riding the tiger in Cleveland. He's 7-2, thanks in significant part to best-in-the-majors run support (7.91 r/g), a .213 BAA and unsustainable .213 BABIP, despite not missing very many bats and having given up HRs at the same pace as our boy Scotty. He throws a pedestrian 2-seam fastball, cutter, curve and changeup and recently has been compared unfavorably to Phil Humber. If only we had some healthy, left-handed sluggers to put in the lineup against this Cinderella Story.... Go, Red Wings Rock Cats!!!111one111!!!
If the Twins sweep the Indians it is possible for them to no longer have the fewest wins in baseball.
Crickets
I'm waiting to see who's going to pry Bubba Starling out of Corn Nation's hands.
Or how M's are going to make every baseball writer on my twitter feed write "woah".
Looks like Kansas City gets to try.
That just means three more seasons of T-Magic (and his unbelievable speed and ridiculous immaturity).
Draft time!!
Gotcha.
draught time?
Gotcha.
De raft time?
wow. this is Baker's 150th career start.
I've likely seen 140+ of them.
One of the few I missed of course was when he brought a perfect game into the 9th.
I was at the near-perfect game and left in the 5th inning not knowing it was a perfect game.
Do I need to mention that my kids were with me?
Maybe the looonnngggg anthem put everyone else to sleep?
trying to get work done(!!!!) so I'll be in-n-out.
let the hating on baker begin
does it ever stop?
it slows down for around 4 days
Or maybe not, if Scotty doesn't start getting some of these guys out.
jeebus. Free Kevin Slowey!!!
'up in the zone' is going to be uttered 598 times tonight
I've got the radio feed tonight. I take it Baker left that ball up?
That was easy.
Huh. The right-handed hitters are on to Tomlin, but not the lefties.
SAFE!
Tolbert does nothing but drive in runs.
Wait what?
Nice slide Delmon!
So, we can run on Choo this game?
He thinks so.
Bizarro world.
Evening, citizens. Lovely commute home tonight, what with the pavement buckling and all.
I saw that. MN/DOT listed it as "pavement failure". Looks brutal in Minneapolis with three lanes closed, leaving a single lane for rush hour traffic.
Looks like Baker had a little Radkeitis tonight.
Mmm, good reference point. He kept the ball down, didn't he?
After the first inning.
Shoot me if Cabrera homers again this inning.
ok, big improvement from the first inning.
We are behind on beverages tonight. I've got a couple of these to ease me through this 78 degree heat wave.
I'm drinking my IPA made with citra and cascade hops. I will use citra hops again in the future.
Also, its 95 frickin degrees here today with tomorrow expected to be hotter.
I picked up a case of "Kirkland" beer from Costco. I don't know who made this batch, but so far the Belgian-style white ale and the pale ale have been surprisingly good. Session beers, to be sure, but good value.
I don't have a Costco membership, so I've not tried those but have heard basically what you said. I feel that way about the Trader Joe's beers. (the Hofbrau bock is of particularly good value.)
Kirkland! Named for the bland suburb of Seattle which recently annexed three surrounding areas to add 33K people to their revenue stream. I'd keep an eye on that beer.
Cry me a river, 'toy. I'm having my summer standby highlife, followed up with a homemade agave !pa. Speaking of which, I'll be sending one out someday this week.
Excellent. There's also a good chance that box will be returned to you with my triple, this citra/cascade ipa and a hefeweizen.
I expect that box as I've been tardy replying to your email. Things have just gotten out of hand here.
I can understand that. Fortunately for you, this triple has only gotten better with age.
If only I could stand to age beer for longer than 3 days...
However, I did try a very nice IPA from your old (man's) stomping grounds. It's the first Lift Bridge that I've had where I immediately wanted more.
And dammit, we're not used to this heat. I have a customer who came up from Arlington today and even he said it was miserably hot. Then again, he was expecting to get a break from the heat, so maybe that's clouding his judgment.
Green tea in a can. I'm on one of my periodic health kicks so I'm off the beer for a week or two.
I wasn't here, but did Bert say that after the Twins tied the game, Baker had to make sure to put a zero on the board?
It's like you didn't miss a thing.
I'm out. Stir up trouble, kids.
I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.
just in time to hear the trivia question. not quick enough to know the answer, though
Buntters!
crazy
like a foxHousekeeping to the booth with a mop. Housekeeping to the television booth with a mop, please.
I haven't seen him hit all that much, but Revere seems to go up the middle quite a bit.
'Lexi's turn
Eh, I think I'll take it.
Laddie should have bunted there to avoid the DP.
Spent all damn day writing. The Twins owe me this game. I'm not sure how the two are related, but I'm guessing they are.
I spent all day mailing shit sold on ebay. Then I poked around in the studio doing nothing productive. I think the Twins owe me this game, too.
TWINS BASEBALL!!!!!
With some emphasis now.
sorry, it's seeped into my skin now
Twins baseball...
It's June and baseball is fun again.
"The Twins steal another run." Hmm, Indian booth not all about taking responsibility.
Did they just play the White Sox recently?
They knew Butters would get a kick out of being said to have stole home.
Light Rail gets no respect
brad?
Brad
Solo job.
Dazzle said "Good piece of hitting by Cuddyer" -- what does that mean? 'cause it can't mean what it means.
Cool. Indians believe in give-back runs, too.
Gameday: "Young doubles on pop up to second basemen Orlando Cabrera"
Me: Huh?
more of a pop up to the center-fielder, but they were both there
Dazzle is all gaga about Tomlin's ability to throw strikes with four pitches. Now, strikes that were not hittable, I'd be more impressed.
I can do it, too. A 55, 50, 45, and 40 MPH fastball.
You can pitch backwards, too!
I see the Twins did some manufacturing while I was gone.
they did receive some subsidization from the indians.
First manufacturing in Cleveland in 50 years!
/buffaloed/
+10 to Gryffindor.
Oh, well played. Indeed.
Rust-Belt raspberries. Nice.
Now Dazzle ragging on the bullpen guys for having fun heading out to the bullpen. Last place team, GODazzle'sL.
They might as well have fun going to the bullpen since they haven't seemed to have much fun coming in from it.
The bullpen walk was hilarious. I love the way they escorted Slama as if he was carrying the nuclear football. It was also pretty funny that only Capps and Mijares weren't forced to do the walk because they're the only two who have "earned" their position.
evening, all.
I forgot to set my DVR to record this (boo), but I do get to turn it on to see a 6-3 lead (yay!)
So anyway...what up?
Just got my brew. Somersault Summer Ale from New Belgium, and some friggin' Red Chair, which has been sold out all the time lately (and I got the last sixer this time).
Anyone have a player in particular they would like to see the Twins take tonight?
Jose Bautista
I've got my fingers crossed for some middle infield prospects. Of course, in the mlb draft you don't picked based on need but I like Levi Michael, SS, North Carolina. From insider:
got your wish!
Any relief pitcher with an ERA under 5.00.
It's the 8th? Ugh.
Evening Gents.
HammerBumma timeAt least no Hoey.
*looks for a Gardy toss*
A Radke-style start for Light Rail, but not so much the finish. When Radke's arm fell off late in a game, he would just stick it back onto his shoulder with a wad of Super Bubble and keep working the outside corner...
Another shit call.
2 in an inning, that's about par for this season.
Oh, what a crap call
C'mon, fellas.
THE UMPS JUST STOLE OUR DOUBLE PLAY...WTF??????????
and it was giveth back
They still tooketh our run though.
Not often a player makes 4 outs in one at bat.
Ha! Got it back, Blue.
Argue away.
Two in one inning. Who paid off these morons?
Clearly out on the replay.
Five outs now.
Every game it seems like the 8th inning takes six outs, but for once it actually does!
I'll give the umps some credit. Usually the opposition doesn't need so much help to score in the 8th against the Twins.
Plus, Mijares just doesn't look fast enough to beat anyone to the bag.
Hey Fellas... just came in after 18 holes of 90 degree golf. A quick shower, and now all I need is a win here.
Cart or carry, bro?
It was a chamber golf tournament, so it was a cart. However, many tee boxes standing around in the hot sun.
Geez, did you at least have a cart?
Refresh, refresh, refresh....
The beer cart seemed to be similarly equiped today though... 2nd place after 7-8 beers... not a bad day.
Juuuuuust a little short of the plate.
*vulgar grumblings*
I'm Spookying something...whew!
OFFS.
BIG strikeout there!
Holy balls.
Burnett will f@%# you up! Maybe.
Easy peasy.
Easy as 1-2-3-4-5-6.
Heh, well done.
I didn't get to 6 until my 3rd year of grad school.
Some mutual of omaha would be nice.
Indians guy: "I thought he was gonna go all Kent Hrbek and pull his leg off the bag."
Dick'n'Bert: "Hughes - nearly got hit by the throw. Nearly got picked off. Throw nearly got by LaPorta..."
Wasn't one of dick's better moments.
The family is at a Northwoods League game tonight. I chose the Twins, WGOM and a Bud Light. I so far only regret 1 of those choices.
Give us time, zooomx....
You might be oh-fer by the end of the night, then.
Kenny powers in for the 9th.
Come on, Capps!!!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2HcRl4wSk
Geez, Capps.
here we go...
You didn't punctuate or capitalize that correctly. It should read:
Here. We. GO!
Obligatory...wait, wrong closer.
yeah, for Capps the term is "unfortunate"
Or "expected."
Man, I hate Matt Capps.
Hate is a bit strong, but he does not give me a warm fuzzy, err
Then he does that.
I don't hate him, but I don't trust him much, either.
You know what would be cool? If MLB and their TV broadcasters used the SAP function to give us a choice of the home or away announcers. That would be cool. One of the reasons I keep re-upping for Gameday audio is to listen to other teams' broadcast crews from time to time. Why not do it on regular TV broadcasts?
mlb.tv has this feature. It is great.
you're not missing anything with the cleveland announcers.
And yet they're still better than the last couple of opposing feeds, which have all been better or as "good" as the Twins. Sigh...
The dagger!
Never in doubt.
two out of three aint bad!
+ 1 meatloaf
The Kelly Wells special! Pitcher's best friend.
Cue the roman candle dachshund!
Are you talking to me? Are you...talking to me?
Exhale. Five wins in a row! Who knew?
Well, since the Twins won this one for meat and me, two more of you dudes have to spend all day tomorrow doing either difficult or tedious things so the Twins owe us again.
i'm pretty sure i can give you 10 hours of the latter.
Yeah, it can be very easy for me to engage in tedious things tomorrow. The things we do for our
teampaychecks.Yeah, I have an electronics instrument "training" session all day tomorrow. Depending on the instructor, that could be difficult AND tedious. I'll take this one, for the Twins.
I'll take Wednesday, I've got an all-day meeting I have to sit in on.
I spent three hours every day commuting. Does that count?
I'm working on a difficult mathematical proof. If I can complete it tomorrow, that's gotta be good for at least 3 wins, right?
Does it show how we can average more runs with Casilla, Tolbert and Butera in the lineup than we did with Mauer, Nishi and Thome?
Nope. Terry Tao already proved that was impossible.
Everyday my job is tedious as f**k. And tomorrow is my first day riding my bike to work, so that'll cover the heat portion of the requirements.
PUPPIES!
Still love Hughes' accent
25 or 6 to 4?
Who's the polished college pitcher with limited upside or the toolsy HS outfielder for the Twins to pick?
For some reason I read that in an Isaac Hayes voice and shouted out SHAFT!
We drafted Shaft? Sweet.
You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother...
Shut your mouth!
But I'm talkin' about Shaft
Then we can dig it
levi michael.
A man with three first names? Nothing good can come of that.
What about James Earl R...oh, I see what you mean now.
Good to see someone else onto my theory of three names = no good.
John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray*, John Walker Lindh, Billy Ray Cyrus*, John Wayne Gacy, the list goes on.
*This theory gets a lot of play south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
I chuckled at your casually including Billy Ray with assassins, serial killers and terrorists.
College Shortstop! It's everything Gleeman wanted.
College website bio