2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 24: Twins at Rays

80 Comments

In general, it takes a lot for the NBA and NHL playoffs to pry my eyes from the Twins. This year, it's getting harder and harder to resist the urge to favor them over my injury-riddled, assbatting Twins.

The good news is that our starter today, Anthony Slapshanks, has as many Wins as Rays starter Jeff Niemann.

Stripsearch hasn't pitched in the majors since he did so rather poorly in 2009, and his 2010 in AAA was nearly as bad. He was 5-12 last year with a 6.21 ERA and a 4.75 FIP. This year he's off to a better start, but the Rays are a far tougher test than he's had in a couple of years, even without Longoria.

Niemann is off to an awful start, with a 7.08 ERA and a 5.30 FIP in 20 innings, but his .348 BABIP is so much higher than his career .287 mark that he's bound to regress soon. Still, if the Twins can't beat up on a right-hander at home after a couple of beatings in a row, it's going to be a tough pill to swallow. Well, the playoffs are only a click away. I suppose the draft is, too, but I only watch that when a friend is around to tell me who the hell all the players are, and the friend who was going to do that is sick.

Go, Twins. Let's get a split out of today, at least. Win one for the Smokestack.

80 thoughts on “2011 Game 24: Twins at Rays”

  1. It's amazing how many different nicknames have been pasted on Swarzak. Somehow, they are all enough alike we always know who the writer is referring to.

    1. You weren't around when we started that ridiculous bit, but there were one or two game logs where we spent the entire time giving him new names, always two parts, usually both starting with S.

  2. SlipperySlope is going out there on short rest. This could be another hide your eyes moment.

  4. What the hell is Shortrest doing? You can't go through the first inning without giving up hits and runs.

        1. Spookedrat* maybe getting a little jumpy out there now.

          *likely too close to spookymilk, but it fit with my assessment, so what the hey?

  8. Only 2 runs allowed by Shovelshite so far? I guess that's a victory. So can we declare it and go home?

    i'm just passing through, on my way to the Girl's bb practice. She ran the mile at a track meet today (7:24). The coach asked her on, like, Monday, to come run. So that's with one day of practice. I look forward to her breaking 7 minutes by season's end.

  9. I was at the game earlier today (my hands still haven't entirely warmed up) and the highlight to me was Michael Cuddyer trying to take the extra base when down 10 runs in the 8th inning.

    On a more serious note, I love attending games to see things. I pointed out to my brother in the second inning that the Rays put in a very shift for Morneau after they fell behind in the count. On the next pitch, he fouled out and the 3b had to cover about 120 feet just to get to what normally would have been an easy play.

    1. I love noticing stuff like that when at the park. Even stuff that's basically irrelevant to the game can be fun to pay attention to, like trying to keep track of all of Adrian Beltre's habits. (One of my favorites is that after the ball is thrown around the infield before an inning starts, he always, always taps a toe on third base after receiving the ball and before sending it to the pitcher.)

      1. I love watching defensive positioning change within an at bat. Oh, and it was always fun to see how many times Eddie Guardado would adjust himself between each pitch. Even in a 40-degree drubbing, I could find many things to keep me interested.

        I can only imagine how entertaining Beltre must be in person because he's been one of my favorite guys to watch ever since I lived with a M's fan about 5 years ago. To this day, few things crack me up more than when he appeals his own check swing.

        1. It's too bad the television broadcasts almost never say anything about defensive positioning. There's probably a lot I could learn about defensive positioning if someone qualified would point things out on the broadcast, but I suppose the producers don't think the audience wants that level of detail. Especially the FOX producers. The FOX producers mainly think we're interested in every pore of each pitcher's face.

  11. OK, let's see if Shinglesheets can make another inning without digging the hole any deeper.

    1. OK, a little bigger brushback would've been nice. Oh, hell, just hit him next time.

  13. Rene Tosoni should be a pitcher, since his anagram is "toe on rosin."

    Alternates:

    Onion Trees
    No One Tries
    No Tie, Senor!

  16. I don't know what on earth possessed me, but I followed some Gleeman links to Twin Cities dead-tree media columns (and, alas, some of the comments) and what a mistake that was. It makes me a bit sad to see so much cynicism regarding injury and especially cynicism regarding Mauer. And reading the columns, it's as though no one mainstream (at least in Minnesota) actually writes about baseball anymore. Armchair psychology? Yes. Armchair medicine? Yes. Armchair soap opera? Yes. Shallow game recaps? Sure. But past that, they don't have much to say about baseball, which is too bad.

    1. Nature abhors a vacuum, ergo WGOM (and other Twins blogs). Sorry for your foray into the wilderness.

      1. Perhaps I ask for too much, but as much as I love the WGOM, I'd like for intelligent, reasonable mainstream writers to cover my favorite team. Even collectively, there's only so much we can do in our spare time compared to a group of writers covering the Twins full-time.

    2. I've been staying away from comments sections on public sites for some years now, and have even stopped making comments about baseball on Facebook to avoid such idiocy. Sometimes I forget how much negativity and stupidity is still out there.

      Although, I suppose, last year I visited SouthSideSox a few times. The horrors...oh God, the horrors.

  17. Wow - saw the score on the screen whilst on the treadmill at the club earlier. Sleestack helped the Rays to a new club record.

      1. Has anyone on the broadcast suggested "moving his feet" with some inside pitches? I feel like that always comes up from the old timers every time an opponent starts hitting well against you.

          1. I would get more behind this line of reasoning except that I'm pretty sure it became conventional wisdom because a lot of pitchers just wanted to lash out in frustration at the hitters who were beating them. I'm sure there's some truth to it, but I don't like the undertones.

  19. Swizzerstick seems like he's getting really lucky out there. I predict he gives up at least 7 runs before he gets pulled.

      1. Huh, something weird here...only related to this site, as far as I can tell. Not like I really want to comment on this game or series or team anymore anyway...

        1. I have gotten a white screen when submitting a comment once. My glaring knocked the site back into line though.

    3. I see the Twins have as many hits as the Vikings to far tonight.

      1. I am also having problems with the site. This comment threaded in the wrong spot and didn't get proof read.

  22. Vikes pick Chris Ponder, I have a friend at the draft party and he's texting me saying the crowd went crazy (in a bad way) Chris Speilman practically got booed off the stage.

    Meanwhile Twins getting no-hit by Neimann.

    Will we look back at this time of MN sports history and laugh or cry?

  28. Sleepsock must be confused. Damon with nary a run nor an RBI, yet still Spitswear gets the "L."

  29. Oh, and bhiggum, the name game generally requires both of the monosyllabic* stems to begin with a fricative, as in Swillsteak's actual surname. So, although I am not the final arbiter, I'd disallow "Shortrest," "Stafface," and "Spookedrat." But it looks like you got the hang of it through the game, and I'd also be lenient on your first time through.

    *An intital Disyllabic stem will also work, such as in "Swizzlestick" or "Sacredstep."

    2. Dang, I really liked Shortrest. I'll just combine two of those into Shortstaffed and call it a day.

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