2011 Twins Game Logs, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Game 58: Twins at Royals

139 Comments

Brian Duensing vs. Jeff Francis

This is the Twins' fourth three-game winning streak of the season and they do not have a four-game winning streak. So, the Twins are due, right? This will be the third time that Duensing is the starter as the Twins go for a fourth consecutive victory.

The Twins have followed the three previous three-game win streaks with six-, nine- and four-game losing streaks, so the Twins need to find a way to keep this going, but the current health of their roster is likely to make this difficult. With a lefty on the mound, I wouldn't be surprised if both Justin Morneau and Denard Span get an extra day off to help with their minor injuries.

Duensing is 0-5 in his last six starts. This bad stretch started in Kansas City, so hopefully coming full circle will help Duensing put an end to it.

Alexi Casilla is now hitting .301/.370/.390 in his last 34 games (119 PAs).  The Twins desperately need some production and consistent defense from a middle infielder, so this is a good sign. GO TWINS!!!

139 thoughts on “Game 58: Twins at Royals”

  1. line-ups:

    TWINS (20-37)
    1. Ben Revere, CF
    2. Alexi Casilla, SS
    3. Michael Cuddyer, DH
    4. Danny Valencia, 3B
    5. Delmon Young, LF
    6. Luke Hughes, 1B
    7. Jason Repko, RF
    8. Drew Butera, C
    9. Matt Tolbert, 2B
    Starting pitcher: LH Brian Duensing (2-5, 5.37 ERA)

    ROYALS (25-32)
    1. Alex Gordon, LF
    2. Melky Cabrera, CF
    3. Eric Hosmer, 1B
    4. Jeff Francoeur, RF
    5. Billy Butler, DH
    6. Wilson Betemit, 3B
    7. Mike Aviles, 2B
    8. Brayan Pena, C
    9. Alcides Escobar, SS
    Starting pitcher: LH Jeff Francis (2-5, 4.46 ERA)

    as gleeman put it:

    aarongleeman For a full season I think today's Twins lineup could rank as high as third or fourth among International League teams in scoring.

  21. Revere now has the second-highest OPS in the lineup (.659, tied with Casilla, behind Cuddy's .729)

      1. As a fan of Revere (much in the same way as I was with CarGo), I'm looking at the positive: Good chance the fella sticks around or keeps getting better.

  22. Royals teevee guys lauding the Twins pitchers. Whereas the position players are chock full of AAA guys, the guys on the mound "are not AAA pitchers."

    at least I think that is a compliment, since he was talking about the starters, not the bullpen.

    1. At least we know our subs are AAA players, whereas the Royals have Melky, Francoeur and Betemit as their "established" MLB regulars.

      1. Betemit playing very well for them, actually.
        .304/.365/.429 for a 124 OPS+ (Would be best batter on Twins' active roster, third behind Thome and Kubel.)
        He actually did better last year (143 OPS+) and he must have regressed a bit during the year, I'd've thought he'd been better.

        Frenchy's line is .281/.324/.489 for a 126 OPS+, but his trajectory has been sharply downward through the season.

        Even Melky's hitting .273/.314/.441 for 111 OPS+. These are the guys that the team is 90% certain to trade for prospects in July. Should be a decent reward for their placeholder players.

        1. I'm so old that I remember when Betemit was going to make the Braves move Chipper Jones to another position. Or be the Dodgers' best 3b since adrian beltre.

        2. I'm guess I'm referring more to the fact that our regulars, with the exception of Delmon and Thome, are all guys that came up through the Twins system. The Royals guys, while they are playing well, are all guys who signed as free agents that are going to be gone when the team is out of contention.

  25. Cue the Cuddy fial. A professional at-bat with RISP more than once a series would be nice.

  31. Bert with his California math: "A lot of the games here ... have been played in Kauffman Stadium."

    Me: Do tell.

  40. If we can get this one and the next three, well, we'll be on the periphery of the race.

    1. You'd be lucky to get the Twins plus +7000 to win the division!

    2. We still have a chance for 17 additional wins against the Indians, to go 19-0 against them on the season. All we have to do is beat the Indians and play .500 otherwise, it's that easy. 🙂 Well, okay, you'd still have to go .500 in a creative way that concentrated wins against the Tigers, White Sox, and Royals, but hey, if we beat the Indians 19 times this year, that'd be something.

      1. you'd still have to go .500 in a creative way that concentrated wins against the Tigers, White Sox, and Royals, but hey, if we beat the Indians 19 times this year, that'd be something.

        Doesn't the unbalanced schedule help with that?

        1. It doesn't really give us more of an advantage, but it can give us more hope. It makes big swings within the division more likely, but those swings are just as likely to be down as they are up.

  41. Raburn just hit a grand slam to put the Tigers up 6-2 over the White Sox.

  44. Bring this one home, fellas. I'm late for a BBQ.

    (Wanna see that destructive puppy and a Jasper Johns when I get back tonight.)

    1. Your coach calls you in. Says you're going down to AAA after the game. How do you feel?

      1. Is this testing whether I'm a replicant or a lesbian glutton for punishment, Mr. Smith?

    1. Kind of mind-bending that a national sportswriter, especially one with a couple books on baseball, would move to a town without a major league baseball team.

      1. He's originally from the area and has family there. He travels all over for SI and everything else is Internet so his home base isn't all that relevant to his line of work.

        1. I think there's something to be said for following a team in person. If a sportswriter is watching the games on TV like the rest of us, he's just another guy with an opinion. I also think that the impact of announcers on how we perceive the games is underrated. I'm more interested in the opinion of someone who might have noticed something that isn't on the television and isn't as influenced by the opinions of the yahoos in the broadcast booth.

  52. It's so hard for me to wrap my head around low-90s temps right now. It got to the 70s this weekend in Seattle and after 7 months below 70, it seems rather balmy.

      1. We have had weeks of rainy weather. Did SF fall off into the sea, making Sactown coastal, without telling me?

      2. I would gladly arrange a trade in order to add some variety to my weather. The first month or so of rain and 30-50 degrees isn't so bad, but it gets old after the fourth or fifth month.

        1. I'd say the same about the fifth or sixth straight month of 95-105 degree days, but all this rain is wreaking havoc on my garden. I need some degree days, damnit!

          1. I am against monotony in weather, so I would be equally put off by five or six straight months with highs in the upper 90s. Honestly, sometimes in the summer in Seattle, I wish the sunny days got broken up more by rainy days.

  54. 113 pitches. He must be done. Which scares me. How about five or six runs this inning, boys?

  61. According to Royals TV analyst, regarding Casilla hitting .231 going into the series and .262 now: "Well, you knew he was a better hitter than that." We did?

    2. Yes, but only slightly. His career batting average is .250 coming into this game. FWIW, Casilla has a better OPS this season than Morneau. But what leadership Morneau is showing by staying in there and giving sub-Casilla production instead of getting himself healthy!

      1. I'm not a total Casilla hater, but he could hit .231 for a season and it wouldn't be surprising. His career average is higher, but there's no guarantee he'll be better than his career average this season.

  62. Heh. Fans with the Bronx cheer on Butler's advancing to 2nd on defensive indifference.

  63. I love baseball. Butler advances to second on defensive indifference in the 9th with a 6-run deficit and the crowd goes wild!

      1. Just got home. Sheenie claimed the first shower. Thanks for organizing, RR!

          2. Set the cruise to 76 in Iowa (I was shocked, SHOCKED that only one car that was pulled over had Iowa plates) and 78 in MN and it was just over 6.5 hours.

  70. From Joe Pos:

    Today's Twins lineup is an unrelenting echo of "I have never heard of that guy." Naturally, Minnesota already leads KC 3-0.

Comments are closed.