2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 52: Twins at Tiggers

262 Comments

In honor of Memorial Day, the soul of brevity:

pitching matchup:

Darling Nicky (3.20 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 3.84 xFIP, 35:20 K:BB, 52.6 pct GB in 64 2/3 innings)
Pretty Penny (4.45 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 4.41 xFIP, 27:22 K:BB, 55.3 pct GB in 62 2/3 innings)

Both are 4-4 on the season, both have average-ish FIPs, both induce a lot of ground balls but miss very few bats.

262 thoughts on “2011 Game 52: Twins at Tiggers”

  10. Bert thinks the Twins have to win within the division to get back into this race. I'm pretty sure they have to win practically every game against everyone for a while, though...

    1. Didja miss Magoo's comment back there...?

      You know, if the Twins continue to play this terribly, maybe MLB.tv will make them the free game of the day every day.

  18. While that's not exactly why we pay him the big bucks, it's nice to have someone competent at the plate once in awhile.

      1. I don't think there'd be too many 1st to 3rd's. That'd be textbook station-to-station, at least as far as singles would be concerned.

    1. careful. We don't want you getting carbon monoxide poisoning. Plus, you'd have to re-paint. Take that bad boy to the deck to cook.

  25. Nice play by Lexi. A little more than routine -- not much -- but still nice.

    1. He's working his way off my list for now. At the very least, he's moved to the "we've got bigger problems than him" list.

  37. Penny is really struggling all of a sudden these last two innings. Get Thome up there again!

    1. We had a huuuge dude on our HS team, like 6'4" 300+. Of course, he was slow as hell. LeCroy slow. One time, one of the guys yelled out "Pick up the plow". We in the dugout were like "Drew, you realize if he picks it up he's still got the weight. He wants to unhook it."

      1. I remember a weightman's sprint at one of our HS track meets; great guy from one of the other teams (6-1"ish, 300+) was in it -- one of the coaches with a stopwatch helping to time calls out, "I've got Baby Huey in lanes 1 and 2!"

        1. Oy. I remember weightmen's relays. We usually had to carry a shot as the "baton". You try running around the track carrying an 8-lb (jr high) or 12-lb (h.s.) iron ball!

  39. Oh, God. Did he just use the "writers who never even played the game" line? Welcome to the mute list, Bert... have fun at Cooperstown.

  40. does the Tiger catcher wear glasses, or is he a Droid? Looks like he has glowing red eyes.

  47. OK, so Rivera should start most games at Catcher til Joe comes back, eh?
    What kind of useless reliever can we trade him for? Luis Ayala has a 1.80 ERA for the Yankmes. He's a "proven closer", right?

    1. Rivera should have the back up slot when Joe gets back and Butera can go to the St Paul Saints

  64. That was really, really annoying product placement (the Mike's advert right below Harmon's jersey in the dugout). Ugh.

  71. Love the "Valencia is a sophomore so pitchers now know how to pitch to him" bit even though he's hitting more line drives than last year. Nice research.

        1. You're making a mockery of my all-time total of two wins. Of course, they were just a couple of months apart, during the one time I didn't have a TV.

                1. Wow, I was just jumping off of the "Ministry" term. I'd totally forgotten that was the name of the department in Brazil, a film I adore but have only seen once.

      1. Yeah, a Victor Martinez shot doesn't bug me like, say, a Brennan Boesch shot would.

        ...speaking of Brennan Boesch, what the hell? I didn't know he could do that.

      2. I was mostly referring to the fact that prior to this game, he had a 2.175 OPS against the Twins this year. SSS Theater of course, but the Twins can't seem to get him out this year.

    1. The good news is that you've missed the part where the opposition ties it; the bad news is that you'll see the part where they take the lead for good.

            1. when your water is on fire, either it is really, really hot, or you are on the river in Cleveland.

    3. it wasnt the 8th inning. at one point, Twins pitching had allowed 49 8th inning runs in 49 games

  103. Pinch runner for Thome guarantees this game goes long enough for his spot to come up again.

  109. If justin would have sacrificed his body we would have been out of this mess. /#6org

  120. Of course, this is a rule in the book that gives umps complete discretion, right?

    1. I don't know that I've ever seen the umps allow an extra base on a ball in the stands before. I don't think Jhonny had even rounded third before the second fan had touched it, much less before the first had. Just another wonderful way to lose games that the Twins have discovered this year.

  121. Well, it's the umps discretion to allow the run to score, but that's a rare call and a pretty crappy one in this instance. The ball was in the stands, and came back into the field of play.

  124. That is just total bullshit. Even if neither fan touched it, the ball bounced out of play. That is supposed to be automatic Ground Rule Double.

    2. it was an automatic ground rule double, but that doesn't mean the umps can't award lead runners bases they thought they would have made

        1. the umps also never call the runner at second safe when the shortstop isn't anywhere close on the double play. your argument is a fallacy

          1. So basically what you're saying is we need to replace all umpires with robots at the All Star Break?

        2. And shouldn't have done, in this case. The replay shows Peralta still on second when the first fan touched the ball.

  125. I did not expect the game to still be on after I got out of the presentations. I am unfortunately less surprised they managed to give the Tigers the lead back.

  126. The Twins should play the rest of the game under protest. That was a clear umpiring decision that awarded a run that shouldn't have been awarded.

    1. it was a judgment call, though, not the umps ignoring the rules. that's like playing under protest for missing a called strike

      1. It was a judgment call when umps were calling foul balls home runs too. They were wrong, but they didn't know they were.

        1. I realize that. But that can be fixed with a robot. The only to fix the last call is a change in the rules.

            1. Robots umps with a human crew looking at replays to decide things like that.

              I've agreed with the opinion that a ground-rule double with two outs should allow even a baserunner at first to score, assuming that with two outs the runner will be off with contact. I believe Beau's correct that the rules currently allow for it, although this is the first I've ever seen such discretion used. I'd be in favor of this being made a hard rule and don't allow umpire discretion at all.

              For precendent on treating the rules differently when there are two outs vs. fewer, a dropped third strike is an out if first base is occupied, unless there are two outs, in which case the batter must be retired as if the ball were put in play.

  129. Sounds like Gardy working towards the Cox ejections record (132 in 29 seasons). AL Record is Earl Weaver with 98 in 17 seasons.
    Single-season AL record is 12 (Paul Richards). MLB record is 13 (McGraw). This is Gardy's fourth.

    1. And 56th in his tenth season. At his rate through nine seasons, it would take him 23 seasons to surpass Cox's record. Maybe he's upping the pace?

    3. Weaver got ejected more frequently than Gardy, (once per 25.9 games, Gardy's at once per 27.0 games). But Weaver had a few more partial seasons. At his rate, Gardy would tie Weaver at the end of the 2017 season.

      Cox wasn't near as frequently ejected (once per 34.2 games). At his rate, Gardy will reach that record at the end of May 2024.

      This year, Gardy's been ejected once per 13 games, which is just a tad slower than Paul Richards in 1956 (once per 12.8), and a bit more than John McGraw in 1905 (once per 11.9 games). But McGraw only had to manage 155 games and Richards only 154. Projecting Gardy's current season rate through 162 games would have Gardy rack up 12.5 ejections, right between the two records.

      However, I am showing a timing bias here in my measurement. I'm looking at rate right after two ejections in three games, so a randomly measured rate this season would probably be less frequent.

      However, with the team continuing to struggle, and to perform well below expectations, Gardy will probably feel a need to show that he's doing something and be more vociferous with questionable umpiring calls. Remember his quote after the "showtime" ejection? Gardy said "We're out there playing for our lives." Well, being 15 games back less than 60 games into the season would make it so they're also playing for their families lives and the lives of future generations. I'd put his chance of tyinging the AL record at about 25-30% and the MLB record at 20-25%. Taking the MLB record this year might be a one-in-six or seven chance.

    4. This looked a bit like a "magic word" ejection, since Gardy was turned around on his way to the dugout when he got tossed.

  136. I'd be pretty livid about that call if this wasn't such a terrible season, but as is, it's hard to work up the effort to care.

  137. TomPelissero
    #Twins place Francisco Liriano on the DL, recall Anthony Slama. So there's that.

      1. Gardy on radio interview sounds like a Kubel to DL move tomorrow is possible. (He'll wear a boot tonight, and we'll see how it is tomorrow.)

        So would we get Tosoni or Revere back? I'd prefer Revere, although for non-baseball reasons.

        So yeah, the ejections record is really what we've got to look forward to. I guess that means I'm against robot umps until next year.

  138. Whether or not that run should have scored seems irrelevant since I know without a doubt that the call would have been no run scored if it was the Twins hitting. I can probably count on one hand how many times in 25 years of watching baseball that I've seen the runner awarded the extra base after fan interference, which it shouldn't been interference anyways. Just one more way for the Twins to find a way to lose a game after looking fantastic through the first five innings. Then a meatball to Victor Martinez and a bad call by the ump (or at the very least a very borderline call that goes against the Twins and costs them the game).

  139. Blackburn still unbeaten in May. Nevermind he allowed five of the six runs.

  140. I finally saw the replay. I think the over-the-rail reacher touched it. If you watch MLB.com's "Must C: Curious" replay. At 1:02, the clip shows the view from the 3rd-base-line stands. A grey-haired gentleman is yelling at the reacher "What the F--- are you doing?" or something like that.

    It's a borderline call whether it was fan interference or a g-r double, though. Do the rules treat such plays differently? I think they should... hometown teams should not be given the benefit of the judgement call unless it's clear that the interferor is a fan of the visiting team. (Which replaces one judgement call with another. This is why I don't have Selig's ear anymore.)

    1. I think the two calls are different. a ground rule double is an automatic 2 base advance from where you started where as a fan interference call its up to the umpire to place where the runner goes

    2. Is Curious the category they'll use for all questionable officiating decisions?

      I guess from the replays, it's hard to see where the runner is when the ball gets to Delmon, but Delmon was close enough to home that even sending the runner was going to be a borderline call.

      I found both sets of announcers rather unprofessional in calling it. The Twins announcers were whining when the call got reversed, and the Tigers' announcer basically accused Delmon of lying about the ball going out of play in the first place, which I'm going to put down as unprofessional in my book.

  141. Huh, didn't realize the Twins played yesterday. Probably for the better.

    Anyway, I see _elm_n has UNO'd his way to a lower OPS than Rene Rivera.

      1. Slightly more PA's for Y_ung, but still sad. I really, really want the Twins to just cut ties with him and stick Revere there everyday. I figure his ability to not wear roller skates will make up for the lesser arm strength.

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