2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 46: Mariners at Twins

319 Comments

Another "tough weekend" in the rearview mirror.

Twins fans were a-twitter after a three-game run against Seattle and Oakland that seemed to signal that the end of the dark times was nigh, as predicted by the prophet Harold Camping. All those hopes foundered on the plain of Megiddo Maricopa, as the Righteous were denied three times by the serpents in the service of Kirk Gogson.

But the false prediction might not be so easily effaced from the lives of Twins followers. The L.A. Times writes that a 38-year-old tractor trailer driver took a road trip with his family to see the Twins before the world ended.

"With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, some wins would have been a relief," the paper writes.

But he is not angry at Camping for his false prediction. "Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see Baker and Liriano outhit their catchers," he told the paper. "If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me."

An east coast fan, who spent $140,000 of his life savings to advertise the Twins resurrection in New York, said he was dumbfounded when life went on as usual Saturday.

"I do not understand why ...," he told Reuters while awaiting the event in Times Square. "I do not understand why they just can't seem to get it done. I thought Morneau was out of his slump and that Dusty Hughes would make all the difference."

Fortunately, life and the season go on.

Seattle comes in on a roll, having won five straight since the Twins bested F-Her.
Pitching matchup:

Jason Vargas (3.39 ERA, 3.16 FIP, 3.78 xFIP, 110 tRA+, 41:14 K:BB, 4 HR in 58 1/3)
Pavanostache (5.30 ERA, 4.25 FIP, 4.65 xFIP, 85 tRA+, 20:14 K:BB, 5 HR in 54 1/3)

also, THOME TONIGHT!!!!!1111one1111!!!! (thanks, socal)

319 thoughts on “2011 Game 46: Mariners at Twins”

  1. More on Slowey. Even the non-apologist beat writers are throwing him under the bus:

    Phil Mackey
    @PMac21 Phil Mackey
    People asking if Slowey is really a pain in the ass or if the media blows it out of proportion...

    @PMac21 Phil Mackey
    All I can say is this: I won't tell an injured player when he should/shouldn't play. But Slowey has made this bullpen transition difficult.

    @PMac21 Phil Mackey
    And he hasn't been the most willing participant...

    @PMac21 Phil Mackey
    From everything I'm told, it's not hard. RT @ERolfPleiss: Why is it hard to go from SP to RP? Figured it'd be harder the other way around.

    1. Oy. Why does this organization feel the need to talk down the value of its assets when it clearly wants to sell those assets?

      1. My thoughts exactly. "We want to trade Slowey, and we're absolutely desperate to move him as fast as possible and will accept the first offer that comes our way!!111!"

    2. I am always shocked when people whose livelihoods rely on Gardenhire talking to them more than any other single person present his view of a situation without challenge or balance.

      1. You don't really expect reporters to investigate, talk to multiple sources, and the like, do you? They are REPORTERS. Their job is to REPORT. Just because a barely-trained monkey could put a by-line above a company press release is no reason to expect a reporter to do more than that.

      1. Oh, cripes, I could have seen it on TV instead of just sitting here waiting for MLB.tv. Forgot we were playing Seattle, despite the fact that I'd had it in mind all day...

        1. is it too much to ask for mlb.tv to show a ceremony for one of the best human beings ever to play the game? guess so...

          1. Yeah, I really have no idea why that wouldn't be aired. If there's a rule in place for such things, I need to have it explained to me in a way that won't make me say "Okay, but f*&^ you."

      1. Thank you, sir. Mostly plagiarized from Yahoo, however. I just made some minor adjustments.

  16. In honor of Harmon, the Twins should hit at least 3 home runs tonight. Better yet, they should hit 33.

  21. So we get Giminez's first double, Cust's first HR and Ichiro's first walk of the season??? Jeebus.

  25. I guess the question is "Can Pavano go through an inning without giving up a run?"

  26. Why do they get to score every inning and we can't even score every game?

    1. Four runs in three innings is quite effective. Now if only he could act as if he's on the Twins' side.

  30. Did the Twins collectively decide 'hey, let's remind fans what things were like in the mid 90s, minus the tiny payroll and shitty stadium?".

    That's what it feels like

  31. Dave Sims reminds me that Carl Pavano's record "doesn't tell the whole story." Thanks for keeping me up on that, guy. In related news, the number of times that Sir Alec Guiness said the word "lemon" in films doesn't tell the whole story when it comes to how good an actor he was.

  33. Apparently SI's Expert on Everything Peter King called Blue Moon a "craft beer" on Twitter the other day.

    3. That's how they list it at a lot of restaurants with crappy beer lists.
      It just means "we get to charge you an extra $2".

  36. whenever i see eric wedge (or morneau, for that matter), i always think of r.j. fletcher from UHF.

    "and take that ridiculous thing off!!"

    1. If you're going to manage in the Wild (AL) West, you need facial hair to play the part.

        1. It was probably even a negative number since many people probably spookied him not walking.

        1. i'm not saying we shouldn't have, i'm just saying he would have been out.

    2. Things Bert likes:

      1) Pitching to contact
      2) 150+ pitches/start
      3) Giving up solo home runs

      Things Bert doesn't like:

      1) Everything else

        1. I'm glad both of you were here to remind me how much Bert hearts to fart.

        1. That's probably better phrasing than I used since I'm sure Bert would object to a pitcher being pulled just because he's thrown 160 pitches.

  61. TwinsPrez MLB rules govern what we can show. RT @luectod: @TwinsPrez why never any "close call" replays in the stadium?

    i'd really like to see the wording on this rule.

  66. I have tickets to the games on Saturday and Sunday. At this rate I might have a chance of seeing 600.

    3. Since I am just getting here I would like to mention the 3 behind second base looks terrific.

  74. /obligatorily/ is a lot more fun to type when you trust Nathan will retire the ensuing hitters.

    1. If it ends with Capps doing what he did on Saturday, I'm going to turn off every game he appears in on principle.

    2. My essential issue with him is that he has incredible pitching knowledge but nearly everything he says is some version of "The pitcher's job in this situation is to [literally a pitcher's expected job, as written]."

    1. On the plus side, he didn't even have to go a full inning last night, so he should be well rested.

  83. well, at least the twins are finally starting to get heath--

    JoeCStrib Delmon Young left the game with left leg contusion. Michael Cuddyer left with right hip tightness.

    uh, nevermind.

    2. Which means that Casilla will be at second and Repko will be in left tomorrow with the Twins trying to end a four-game losing streak and a nine-game home losing streak. Is that a team record? I can't imagine even the late-1990s Twins losing that many in a row at the Metrodome.

      1. I know Casilla's not a super defender, but Repko and Casilla sounds like a huge defensive upgrade on Delmon and Cuddyer2B.

    1. In all seriousness, Plouffe let it drop hoping to get a double play, that's why he didn't catch it. Why have Dick and Bert not mentioned this yet?

        1. Yeah he could have. Plouffe cost them 2 runs that inning without making an 'error'

          1. I'm not positive either. I think we can agree that he wasn't in great position to match the catch. I don't know where to find hitter spray charts online but if my memory serves me correctly Ichiro! hits a ton of balls the other way. With that in mind, Plouffe was probably shading toward third base.

            Watching the replay he looked a little flat footed, too. The ball came off the bat strangely and he was out of position, for sure. Let's say he makes a lunge at the ball it misses his glove and everyone is safe. That is clearly a worse outcome for the Twins.

            All things considered, while I would have much preferred him to catch the ball, I am not going to go say Plouffe cost Minnesota two runs that inning.

  91. Another close game, eh? Wish I could be tracking it a bit closer, but of course work is keeping me hopping tonight.

  112. I sure hope they score this inning rather than rely on SporeSac in the 10th.

  113. bert: "time to hit one really high in the air. and deep!"

    unflappable understanding of the game.

  120. Hating on Capps for not getting 6 and 5 out saves is kind of weak. Blame the Twins FO for not having anybody to pitch the 7th and/or 8th innings.

    2. It's not like Capps has been pitching with a one run lead in these games. Just because the Twins have done a terrible job of assembling a bullpen doesn't excuse the fact that he sucks.

      1. No name value in that guy. What a waste of a roster spot that bum is.

      1. We hear Bert/Jack talk about their lawns often. Can someone get Mike Marshall or Bill Campbell to chime in?

    5. what about his tasty 63% save percentage this year? can i hate on that (SSS granted)?

    1. The fact that the Twins intentionally walked Henry Blanco this weekend (I missed the Game Logs, did anybody point out during the sweep how much we still miss him?) sort of cheapened the whole thing for me.

      2. The Padre said it, but he was kind of sincere, since when one looks at Butters and Rivera out there every day, we kind of do really miss Henry Blanco.

  128. now we some people have to wait 2-3 more innings for Thome's next AB

    Time for bed. Got a long day here in Omerha tomorrow, and I don't sleep well in hotels anyway. Especially after tonight's pitching.

  129. I'd still rather have Smigglespratch pitching here than Hoey.

  130. Dick: Kevin Slowey is out tonight because he has the testicular fortitude of a 13 year old girl.

    /paraphrasing/

  131. There's something that kind of pisses me off about all the grumbling about Slowey.

    1. Why? His job is to pitch when the team needs him to pitch. And he won't. It's ridiculous. It's not like starting pitchers have never been converted to relief pitchers before.

      1. Then trade him or release him.

        Don't keep whinging about the whole situation.

        1. Exactly. If he was still hurt, which isn't unreasonable to believe, he should've been back on the DL. If he wasn't, they should have moved him off the roster one way or the other weeks ago. (I will try not to get into my belief that he should have been in the rotation from the beginning too much). Instead they've spent days publicly bashing him outrageously through every possible medium while doing nothing constructive and reducing whatever trade value he might have had to zero.

      2. I don't want to compare Slowey to J.R. Richard or anything but let's be careful about calling players whooses. You never know exactly what is going on with these players. Okay, a MRI came back negative. What did they scope? Maybe there is something else wrong. Maybe the Twins are trying to maintain trade value and say he isn't hurt badly when he thinks he is.

        Trust me, I am displeased with him not pitching as anyone. He is one of the better pitchers on the team and I want him to play. But until I hear from Slowey's mouth that he isn't injured I am not taking Dick, Bert, or Ron Coomer's word for it.

        1. Every pitcher would rather be a starter than a reliever. Being a pussy about it is another story.

      1. as a jr. member, i second that. at the very least, there's a few key people that know what's really going on. dick, bert, and many others (us too) don't know what it is. all this wild, unabashed vitriol is a) out of left field, b) really not helpful if you actually want to trade him.

        1. I used to be a member of his fan club, but this is beyond the pale. It's been going on all year. He's totally screwed the team over with his "I can't pitch in the bullpen" garbage.

          Even if you totally disagree with the decision not to put him in the rotation, it was, at minimum, a reasonable decision to put him in the bullpen. I know I had hopes he could be a good late inning option, with the Twins bullpen in total flux. And he flat out refused to put any effort into being a reliever because he was bitter about not being in the rotation. I know that's spin but how else do you explain it????

          1. What's your basis for actually saying this? Slowey was quoted before the season started as being fully willing to contribute out of the bullpen. What's your basis for saying he's unequivocally "refused to put any effort" into that?

            1. Because I believe what Mackey said about him today. And that is essentially corroborated by every single writer that covers the team.

              What is it with this internet blogger obsession to believe the player over the team, or to believe that the team is stupid and the player is always right?

              1. DK doesn't blog, so he's best described as "a person" or perhaps "a fan of the Twins."

                I can't speak for him, but for my part, I've never met an athlete I trusted, but I can't remember the last Twins writer who didn't lead me astray, either.

              2. Because thanks to statistics, we know that half the time the writers are wildly incorrect when they're talking about on-the-field stuff. What's to stop them from making things up on off-the-field stuff? Remember when Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau were too pussy and couldn't play through a little pain? Good thing we got rid of those guys.

              3. Because from Mackey, and every other writer that covers the team, we only get one side of almost any situation. And in any case where I can only get one side of a situation, I'm going to view that with a pretty heavy dose of skepticism.

                The rest of your statement about "believ[ing] that the team is stupid and the player is always right" is meaningless, excessive hyperbole.

              4. Correct me if I am wrong, as I am not a Minnesotan, but but a little birdie told me the media in the Twin Cites has a long history of being a mouth piece for the organization.

                1. I can admit that "he put no effort into pitching in the bullpen" is probably me taking it too far. And I don't like it when the media calls out guys for being hurt etc. But you have to admit that the circumstantial evidence against Slowey is pretty damned overwhelming. And I also think Mackey in particular is a bright guy and he's not some hack like Powers or Souhan etc.

                  1. I don't know what to think. Last week Kevin Slowey was injured. This week he is the biggest malinger in the history of hypochondria? It doesn't add up to me. As sean posited below I believe there was a falling out of sorts between Slowey and Gardy. Furthermore, I would speculate that Slowey not pitching is more of a Gardy call than a Slowey call at this point.

                    I understand that losing over and over and over again gets us all a little fired up. When losing like this we all want to point fingers. When doing so, let's just be responsible. That is what separates us from Souhan, Powers, etc.

                    Homerdome and tat-man pointed out above that the real issue is the Twins not doing ANYTHING about this issue. Send him to Rochester, trade him, or put him on the DL. You do that this is a non-story. If you have to point a finger at something, there is your issue.

                    1. But they are going to send him to Rochester. After trying to trade him in ST. And then after trying to use him in the bullpen. And they did want to use him. But he said he couldn't "get loose" to pitch in the bullpen.

                      I would be shocked if Slowey not pitching is more of a Gardy call than a Slowey call. Both parties essentially said publicly "I (Slowey) can't relieve. I have to start." That's just bizarre to me.

                    2. Slowey did try to get loose in the normal amount of time for a reliever, and he ended up on the DL. He came back and they probably told him to make sure he gets loose so he doesn't hurt himself, so he does that and then they say he takes too long. He got up in the bullpen a couple times in one game because the rest of the staff sucks and he ended up sore. How sore? I don't know. You don't know. Nobody knows except Slowey, but it sure seems like everyone is convinced they know. The guy got totally screwed over when the obvious selection for the bullpen in desperate need for help was told he automatically was a starter and that was that and then the worst guy in the rotation last year was told he was in a few days later, never mind it wasn't even halfway through spring training. So Slowey had to battle a guy in the same situation as him, a starter that never was in the bullpen before, except Baker has more experience and a bigger paycheck, so Slowey ended up in the bullpen. He could have gone all Torii Hunter on the situation, but he didn't. He took the high road and said I'll do whatever the team wants me to do to help out and now everyone talks like he's the worst teammate in the world. And still, Slowey has not said anything to the media. He just told Gardy that yeah, maybe this isn't the best situation because I've tried it in the bullpen and it just isn't working. We don't know if Slowey could have truly done more out of the bullpen because no one but Slowey truly knows. We do know he has acted in public with true class in a difficult situation despite being attacked from all sides.

                  2. you know, the more i think about it, here we are going on about slowey rather than directing our ire towards gardy and FO over the rest of the bullpen and team in general. ZOMG, its toattally slowys fault the twins lost tonight!!!!!!!111

                    damn, clever move on their part.

                    2. Socal, I've never heard of a pitcher that can't warm up to pitch a few innings.

                      And regardless of the wisdom of the situation, deserves got nothing to do with it.

  133. WOW.

    Pan to Slowey yawning in the bullpen

    Bert: AAAaaaand it looks like we are keeping him up.

  139. I remember LRod was the emergency catcher. I hope that means the curse holds.

    1. Not enough, Splashstats.
      I now expect to see DooMAHtray and Dusty and Burnett all pitch this inning. Twins will lose 9-17.

    2. Not long ago, when the Twins were slightly behind late, it never occurred to me that they might lose. Now the exact opposite is true. This is no fun, and it's even worse for me to know that I'm the type of guy who won't bail no matter how horrible it gets.

      1. [dido]

        3 runs up today, i was wondering how they'd screw it up. that was about right.

      2. I've been following the Royals for a while. This team is like the 2004-2006 KCRs in that sense. Never underestimate the team's ability to give up a lead it holds. I want Chuck James in the majors right now not because he's earned it, but because I believe he could immediately be the best pitcher in the bullpen, and the team needs it.

      3. Yeah, once Plouffe screwed up in the eighth, you pretty much knew what was going to happen. He's cooled off after his fast start. I wouldn't be surprised if Nishi will be going to shortstop with Cuddyer staying at second and Plouffe getting sent back down.

    1. What are you suggesting? I don't think I've ever seen one pitch to the other.

      1. i'd definitely believe something was afoot if one or the other had a bad mustache...

    1. i think we had this discussion over the weekend, but, unfortunately, that's highly debatable.

        1. It doesn't help that the number in the L column keeps getting bigger and bigger, that's for sure.

          1. that perhaps aids in overreacting to one reliever's situation, rather than reflecting on the state of the bullpen in general.

              1. Especially with Perkins out. I was actually feeling really good about him finding a groove as a reliever. I wonder if it wasn't for the compensation picks if we would have gone harder after Crain or Guerrier. The compensation for Type B free agents really incentivizes teams to let players sign elsewhere.

                1. And yet we spent a first-round or compensation pick on a reliever and he's still in AAA. And we gave away Neshek and Rob Delaney. Neshek might be our closer now if he had hung around. His walk rate is quite high, but he is striking out a batter an inning and has a 1.54 ERA. They also gave away Robert Delaney, who has a 9.5/3.3 K/BB rate in AAA and was called up by the Rays. I also hate the 40-man roster decisions. Not only is Chuck James in AAA still because he isn't on the roster, but the Twins spent a high draft pick on Carlos Gutierrez and he has pitched pretty well this year and Anthony Slama has been dominant in the minors in his career too. Am I really desperately waiting for Jose Mijares?

  152. Watching the Twins this season reminds me a lot of watching the Wolves--except that people care when they lose.

    1. Even when the Twins rarely win, because they were good last year, I get this sense that maybe they've turned some kind of corner. I imagine it's easier (though more depressing) when there's less hope of good times to come.

      1. I sat through an entire winter of crappy Wolves and crappy Vikings while I awaited baseball season. Now I get this and realized that I have to sit through another crappy winter until I might get to see a good product on the field again.

        The Wolves haven't really been good since 2003-04, so it's frustrating to watch some of the other teams actually emerge into decent teams. It makes me wonder why it's so hard for them. For the Twins at least, if they get back close to healthy and focused on the bullpen issues a bit, it doesn't seem like it would be that hard for them to turn the corner.

        1. I don't know the answer with the Wolves, but I suspect that it has a lot with them pushing so hard to win in KG's last years (and making ill-advised moves in the process.) And it probably does really take that many years to overcome that many lost first-round picks, and of course the lottery hasn't done them any favors. Looking at the Wolves, I'm glad that baseball teams can't trade future draft picks--it's too easy for one bad GM to screw over one team's fans for too long.

          The free agent market in the NBA seems really awful, too. What little talent actually reaches the free agent market always seems to go for an absurd premium. Are there any real bargain free agents that the Wolves have missed out on the last few years?

          1. Oh yeah, the Wolves really screwed up throughout KG's entire tenure as a Wolf. The only "good" thing they did was bring in Cassell and Sprewell for a year. We all knew (even though most people wouldn't admit it) that it was a short term fix and that it would all blow up eventually. Unfortunately, it blew up a little sooner than expected. After that, everything they did was a disaster. At the beginning of last season, Brewer was the longest tenured Wolf--being there for two years. Now, he's gone. The Wolves aren't building anything. They're just replacing one crappy player with another. Other than Love, I'm not sure who on the Wolves is actually worth keeping, but the excuse of the KG era should be long gone by now.

            I'm not sure if there are really any bargains that they've missed out on. It's hard for them to attract a top name free agent for a number of reasons. Of course--like any other sport--there are undervalued players out there. I'm not sure it's enough to rebuild the team though.

  153. I haven't gone on about Butera much, but damn, his upside is his minor league line of .214/.296/.317. I know defense at catcher matters, and I even bet he's good at defense, but he might be the worst hitter to ever get more than 200 AB in the majors.

      1. Is there wOBA+ going back that far? I usually try to compare across eras on baseball-reference, but they are big on OPS+ and it's pretty broken when you get to the extreme low performances. Bergen had a .395 career OPS in an era where a league average OPS was around .600-.650. Even if Butera improves to a .500 OPS, he's playing in an era of about a .725 league OPS. I guess pro-rating Butera's oWAR to Bergen's 3200+ PA makes Bergen the winner in the race to the bottom.

        1. Yes. His career wRC+ is 16. I think his fielding is undervalued though, due to the paucity of reliable statistics.

    2. Why was Butera batting in the 10th? We're down a run. I know Tolbert was the only option, but even he is a dramatic improvement over Butera against a right-handed pitcher, right? Butera is 7-for-72 against righties before tonight. Tolbert is only 8-for-55 against righites this year, but he's much better than that for his career. Even taking this year's numbers, it would be like replacing a .250 hitter with a .300 hitter. It truly is astounding just how bad Butera is at hitting and the Twins never once thought that this could be a problem because I guess they didn't think that a catcher could possibly get hurt. Still, why do you not bat Tolbert there? We're already down a run. Downgrading the defense would be a good problem to have if you get that far.

      1. I once had kool-aid made with Vodka (as in vodka+sugar+redpowder).
        I ended up throwing my comforter in the washing maching about 5 hours later.

      2. Sometimes the truth is staring you right in the face, no matter the source

        #kneejerkreaction

  155. This game was lost on a wild pitch. I totally spookied Thome honoring No. 3 by hitting his third two-run homer of the game to end a three-game losing streak. But a wild pitch meant he never got that chance.

    1. Exactly what I thought.

      Next time that happens Casilla better keep his butt at first.

      Managers are taught not to purposefully advance the winning run to second. It was literally the only situation-barring the bases being loaded- where they would've pitched to Thome. The pitcher was trying to throw balls, but what if he had accidentally put one in the zone. What if...

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