2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 17: Red Sox at Twins

258 Comments

First Pitch - 7:10 p.m. CDT
Television - FSN, NESN
Game Notes
Lineups
Scorecard

I don't look at standings or stats much in April, it's sort of like looking at the thermometer. You can tell today's temperature, but you aren't going to spot any real trends yet. Or maybe you can start to see the shape of things to come and I'm just in denial. Either way, I'm not too worried about our slow start (5-11, but who's counting?) when we have such a long, long road ahead of us with many potentially scenic vistas to enjoy.

Taking to heart the uplifting finale of The Life of Brian, I do try to always look on the bright side of life. In that regard, there are some things that warrant a little hope this year. Mr. Willingham has proven to be a most adequate replacement for Michael Cuddyer, even if the latter is putting up mile-high numbers in Colorado at the moment. Morneau has show that he can still be a formidable hitter post-concussion. Span has been solid again at leadoff and Jamey Carroll has been a great addition to the lineup in the #2 spot, getting on base at a .343 clip. Mauer has quietly settled in as the team's second hottest hitter at the moment, despite his maddening double play tendencies, which on the bright side are a sign that Span and Carroll are getting on base a lot. The rest of the order will be something of a crapshoot, but we know this current roster has the potential to be a fairly potent offense.

On The Hill

On the other hand, our starting rotation is broken. Scotty Baker is out for the year after going under the knife last week. F-Bomb has a million-dollar cybernetic arm and a ten-cent head. The Marquis de Sad struggled in his first Twins start despite getting the win, which only serves to further degrade that particular metric. Only Pavano and Blackburn have really pitched to expectations, and for one of them that's not a very high bar. By the numbers you could even make the case that Liam Hendricks is the Twins' best starter right now. But whatever the case, when two cogs out of five are missing from your primary pitching gear, you've got a system-level problem. Hopefully Terry Ryan can work some magic and patch together some kind of starting rotation that gets us through the year, sort of like how Scotty can always find a way to fix the dilithium crystals enough to get the Enterprise out of danger of imminent but not necessarily eventual destruction. But I fear that bad pitching will be the refrain of a lament we sing too many times before October.

Facing off on the hill inside the diamond tonight are Jason Marquis in his second Twins start and Jon Lester for the Sox. After two good starts against the Tigers and the Blue Jays, Lester went only two innings in his last horn-locker against the Rangers, giving up eight hits and four walks for seven earned runs against a potently familar Texas offense. In his lone start this year against the Yankees, Marquis went five innings and gave up four earned runs on seven hits and two walks. So neither of tonight's starters were especially sharp in their last outing. But that's the beauty of baseball -- tonight either one of them could pitch a no-hitter or get sent to the showers early. You never know with this game.

But early showers is the way to bet.

Play ball!

 

 

258 thoughts on “2012 Game 17: Red Sox at Twins”

  1. throwback jersey. Tom Kelly in the booth. all this lead to a blowout win for the home team!

      2. Willie might have better range. Parm seemed to have a good arm on that throw home

  5. Marquis shrugged off the pressure of both the no-hitter and the shut-out- we're doing good!

  15. Morneau just tried a bunt against the shift? Huh. I'm slightly impressed, since he probably hasn't bunted in a game for a long, long time.

    1. Just ran that through Foreign Translator, Somali. Response: Asdgjkhna;olkdgsa.

          1. I know that earlier this month I said that Casilla was my boyfriend, but that was a lie. I've never cheated on joe.

            ps. Casilla sucks balls.

    2. Somehow I doubt you'd be happy with anyone that replaces him, at least anyone currently on the 40-man roster.

      1. Probably not, but I know I'm not happy with Valencia, there's no doubt there. Might as well see who's got what else

  22. Twins pitchers continuing to prove you don't need hits with RISP to score runs. Big flies and little flies have been killing us the last two games.

  24. Gardy said he'd rather have Parmelee out there than Trader Clete. I'd rather see a half eaten burrito out there than Trader Clete.

      1. Man alive. I just finished working on the house for today. I never want to purchase a house that requires work ever again.

        1. Linds and I have agreed that is priority one with our next place. A little bit of yard work or whatever is fine, but I'm sick of the huge, month-spanning projects.

          2. I'll be back outside at 8 am to finish the first coat of paint on the exterior of the last side, and then will be in the back yard til sundown figuring out what the hell I'm supposed to do with the drought stricken plants and grass we have left. Yeah, I'm done.

              1. Contact between our agent and their's was made, but there's work to be done to pass appraisal.

  26. Lester comes into the game pitching 17 innings, giving up 11 runs and walking 9. So of course he is in shutdown mode.

  30. I'm going to start a facebook* campaign to have Bert replaced by TK.

    *I don't have a FB account. Someone else will have to start the FB campaign for me.

  31. These jerseys are so much sharper than anything else the Twins wear.

  37. Lester was throwing Joe Joe some ridiculous pitches that AB and he still got a hit!

  39. Just in case anyone was wondering, it is snowing in Buffalo and has been for around 24 hours or so now.

    2. If only the Twins were playing the White Sox. TK could rattle on about Anthony John.

  55. And Doumit and Danny simultaneously are heard to say "How do you like me now?"

      1. I'm thinking more of the car advert with that song, with the life-sized stuffed toys.

    1. If they had started that rally with one out instead of two, they would have made it for sure!

  58. So hey, did anybody rag on cheaptoy yet about two guys he hates finally doing something?

      1. I'm not sure it works with pitchers, and it definitely doesn't work with shooting guards.

    1. Mauer's single almost prevented them from putting up a 4 spot, but they prevailed.

  67. This Gameday scout is fantastic. During Span's at-bat it said Lester may be running out of gas because his fastball went from 95 to 87. Then, during Carroll's, it said he has plenty left in the tank because he hit 91 on his last 10 pitches.

    3. If his fastball actually dropped eight MPH, he would be pulled from the game because of injury.

  76. bah! all my feeds, video or otherwise, are falling me. i might need to start working on my presentation to the boss to requisite funds for purchase of video transmission subscriptions. a daunting prospect...

    1. On second thought, Plouffe made the most impressive play there. That.was.awesome.

      2. It was double awesome. If that play isn't #1 on Sports Center tonight, then it's probably a routine ground ball to Jeter.

      1. Well, the next thing Gameday showed me before even getting that video up was extreme disappointment...

      1. Heh. The Gi-nats were last in the NL in runs/g last year, and he wasn't good enough to keep.

  94. That was an awful half inning. Take some pitches!! They seriously could consider bringing Lester back out for the eighth. We need to get to that bullpen soon.

      1. I helped with several pictures of Grain Belt Premium this afternoon and then went to my last class evah while under the influence.

  105. I'm confused. Why didn't Valentine walk Wheeling Ham to set up a double play and keep the lefty in there to face Morneau? I thought that would be automatic. I guess not. Hopefully, that will be good for us.

    1. I guess he skipped over the part where Morneau hasnt hit lefties at all this year

      1. But its Capps. Had he done that, he'd have made it even more horrible by giving up a home run to Marlon Byrd, just to spite us.

  134. Why did they leave Marquis in for the 7th?
    How in the hell do you get a runner to 3rd with no outs and not score?
    Why was Crapps pitching instead of Perk in the 9th?
    Why couldn't Plouffe have hit that ball 20 feet to the left?

    God. This team is not catching many breaks early in the year. I sure hope the luck turns around soon.

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