2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 87: Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox

312 Comments

Nick Blackburn vs Gavin Floyd

The last time the Twins have lost a series against Chicago was May 19-21, 2009. There was a two game split on May 11-12, 2010, but there's no doubt the Twins would have won the series if given the chance. Overall, the Twins are .732 against the White Sox from 2009 through today.

Blackburn has done his part this year, abusing the White Sox with a 0.61 ERA in 14.2 innings. His FIP is probably quite ugly though, since he struck out only two while walking five. Could you try to keep the ratio above two one today?

312 thoughts on “2011 Game 87: Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox”

  3. So the dude who was supposed to buy my gym flaked out and didn't come for the third time. I'm pissed. This time, he didn't even bother to message me. If he tries to contact me in the future, I think I should just jack up the price on him.

    On a related note...anybody want a home gym?

    1. What was his OPS as a 1B? 1.200? Pfft, he's worthless as a first baseman compared to his 3.000 OPS as a catcher the game after first basing.

  12. It's not exactly a radio or tv voice - but I have enjoyed TK's insights and angle on the games. Of course its easier to like things when beating the White Sox.

  13. It's good to see that Mauer's participation in the HR hitting contest time at first base has not ruined his swing.

  16. Yeah, Konerko vs. Blackburn is not a matchup I feel is favorable for the Twins.

  18. Dazz: GOML, Paulie. You "conceded" the triple when you could have made it "easily."

    Me: WTF?

  19. We'll know if it's one of THOSE Blackburn games if Dunn does anything here.

  28. TK "Andy's going to have to work some magic here..." Hopefully that magic includes pulling Blackburn ASAP.

      1. I'm taking credit for this one, even if I didn't follow past the second inning.

  30. Progress - Blackburn did get 2 strikes before giving up that RBI double....so there is that.

      1. Oh yes. I meant the last 3 games. I maybe should've worded that in a more clear way. I think we're definitely in the midst of it.

  37. All things considered - throwing runners out probably better odds than Blackburn getting anybody out.

  39. Blackburn may have to fall on his sword tonight since the long guy's starting on Sunday, I would imagine.

  41. C'mon Blackie. There's your Radke 5. Now shut them down for the rest of the game.

    1. Tolbert for the three-run donger?

      It has happened against the ChiSox before, or so I've read.

  46. Luckily it appears the 2nd time through the rotation these guys are realizing that even though its Blackburn on the mound.....they suck.

  51. You gotta love the drunken southside fan in reach of the boom mike who is obviously at the game as part of Chicago's inmate work release program to increase attendance as he yells "You suck number seven!"

  57. This game is kinda teh suck right now, but it has potential to turn around...right now!

  62. Raging Tonsils should not try so hard to emulate his betters. Be patient, boy.

  63. You know if I was a no talent hack that somehow got to the show - I think Id take more than one pitch - just to extend the experience you know?

  64. Dazz: "Floyd's a guy who can throw the ball over the plate when he wants to."

    Me: other than Shooter Hunt, doesn't that describe almost every professional pitcher?

    1. I bet Hunt doesn't have a problem with that either. I doubt the catcher would like jumping for it though.

  65. Walking Hughes has to be up there with land wars in Asia as classic blunders.

  66. TK - "this is where we teach our minor league players to battle, battle, battle" - why are we teaching our minor leaguers in major league games?

  74. This will not be the last time the Twins have a chance to score in this game.

    2. This will not be the last time the Twins have a chance to score in this game down only 3 runs.

  75. evening, all. here for just a few minutes. i've got a mother, and mother in law in town (oy), and i gotta head out for dinner soon...

    2. Mother^2? What kind of buffer material do you use to keep the mass from going critical?

  76. Hey, Rhu Ru,

    When you buy cards online, how do people usually ship them? I'm going to try selling some of my old MTG cards on ebay and am wondering exactly what the best/cheapest way to do it is. I'm thinking right now that I can jam them in the middle of about 10 cheap cards in a plastic sleeve and just send it via normal postal mail.

    1. That'll work, although I usually bundle cards between a couple hardcards within a team bag and drop in a bubble envelope. And only use blue tape, for easy removal

      1. I've got some heavier duty holders that I might use for some of the more expensive cards (some are worth upwards of $50), but I might just my solution for some of the cheaper cards. I'll try to swing by Target tomorrow and see what I can get.

  77. Huh. Somehow the Twins scored a run in the bottom of the inning. The Twins PBP guy said "Chicago leads the Twins by two."

  78. I'm looking forward to a Mothership Wit when I get home, to go with leftover ribs and a quesadilla.

      1. AJ is the type of guy who only gets on my softball team if he brings the beer...EVERY GAME.

  94. White Floyd doing everything he can to make sure the Sox lose this game.

    1. Step 1 - give up a big lead

      Step 2 - ?????

      Step 3 - find yet another way to crush the White Sox.

  96. Weird approach by Sweet Danny V. If the guy is gonna throw balls, don't swing at them.

        3. i should've amended that. he has been hitting very well lately, yes, but when he's been striking out, it's been on very bad pitches. a closer inspection of recent scouting reports might bring that slash line down.

  98. And the commercial music starts going on the White Sox broadcast...there's only 2 outs.

  109. this is all part of the plan

    to make blackburn sit until he gets cold.

    "michael gilhaney is an example of a man that is nearly banjaxed from the principal of the atomic theory. would it astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?" ~~ sergeant pluck

    by BuehrleMan on Jul 8, 2011 8:15 PM CDT reply actions

  119. Man, I love beating up on the White Sox. Even if the Twins end up losing this game, we win.

        1. that was Dazz's line to, although he was all GOML about it, suggesting that Beckham was "showboating".

  121. Hawk and Co whining that the entire inning is because of the '4th out' the Twins got. I LOVE IT.

    1. The lone beautiful thing about Hawk is that as much pleasure as Hoser fans get listening to him when they're winning, we get even more of a kick listening to him when they're losing.

  124. Heh. Hughesy didn't even watch the ball sail over the fence after he hit it.

  125. Glad ozzie put in ohman after the damage was done

    Way to be proactive

    by LVSoxFan on Jul 8, 2011 8:41 PM CDT reply actions
    Scrap that

    by LVSoxFan on Jul 8, 2011 8:43 PM CDT up reply actions

    Floyd's lucky to have only given up singles this inning.

    A lot of fastballs up and splitting the plate.

    by 3E8 on Jul 8, 2011 8:40 PM CDT reply actions
    minnesota is terrible.

    "michael gilhaney is an example of a man that is nearly banjaxed from the principal of the atomic theory. would it astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?" ~~ sergeant pluck

    by BuehrleMan on Jul 8, 2011 8:40 PM CDT up reply actions

  126. How funny would it be if Blackie were to settle down and get through 7 or 8 tonight with no more damage?

    1. His pitch count is too high for that. Getting through 6 at this point would be pretty great.

  127. Gotta love this:

    How come the one time the Sox actually have offense is the one time the pitching shits all over itself?

    Fuck Gavin Floyd and fuck this season.

    The Great Ballparks Tour 2011! Rogers Centre August 29, Yankee Stadium September 2, Citizens Bank Park September 5, Nationals Park September 6!

    by mikecws91 on Jul 8, 2011 8:45 PM CDT

    As opposed to last night when Hoser pitching sh!t all over itself, right?

  128. Blackie's curve is beginning to do stuff. Apparently all that bench-sitting wasn't so terrible.

    1. Maybe it was the Twins who were the ones with the superior master plan of scoring a bunch of runs so that they would be in the lead.

  129. Has anyone at SSS noticed that tonight's lineup is even more AAA than last night?

  130. I wonder if Dazz yells at stadium organists to "turn that sh!t down! That's not music, it's just noise!" everytime one does a riff on a pop song? Because his lawn seems mighty, mighty wide tonight.

  133. Dazz, when you are hitting .166, you aren't swing the bat well against righties either.

    1. Dunn may have already done what all he is going to do tonight this month.

  137. "His speed was the reason why they got 5 of the 6 runs last inning"

    Direct Hawk quote about Revere.

  141. I got out of work at 933 EST turned the mlb app on my phone. I turned on the game at exactly the right time. The Tonsils was great but I just started cracking up when Hughes hit the homer. Man, we own the White Sox.

  145. Why is Dazzle surprised that that was only the third K by Blackburn? It's only the 5th, how many times does he think Dunn came to the plate?

    1. Maybe it was just because Blacky was so dominant that it seemed like more.

  150. You know what's fun? Reading comments on SSS last night about how all Twins fans are bandwagon jumpers/fair weather fans, only to be confronted with a stream of comments like "8-5, what the hell? I leave after the first inning and the offense has gone back to hibernation mode." and "Can someone [expletive] explain me what happened here? I left the game 5 × 2 in our favor to watch a little bit of soccer (Copa America)….flipped the channel and we are down by three runs???" over there tonight.

    1. It's hard to compete with the Cubs regarding fair-weather fandom, but it's a simple fact that 99 percent of what White Sox' fans think they know is wrong.

    2. His .165 average is going to go down after that.

      Dude's worse at the plate than Tony Batista.

  153. WOW! I listened to the first couple innings and then decided it would be better to spend my time with my family. I decided to check the damage and see the Twins with the lead! Awesome. Blackburn trying to do a Radke special. Give up a bunch in the first and then try to hang around long enough to get the win. Nice!

  154. Giving up on the White Sox, Hawk narrates a fight in the Red Sox-Orioles game.

  156. The umpire is trying to speed up the game, oh wait here comes Ozzie...nice try Blue.

    1. If Ozzie loves how they do things so much then he can take his Twinkie-loving ass to their
      organization and have a ball. Stop kissing their ass and beat them.

      "Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls. It's more democratic" - Crash Davis
      by Servant2LordBeckham on Jul 8, 2011 9:44 PM CDT up reply

      1. the opposition between the comment and the quote is about as wide as I've ever seen.

  163. Nathan in the 8th. Gulp, does that me, oh crap, Capps in the 9th?

    1. I only trust Capps as far as I can throw him. Maybe if he lost some weight, then I could throw him further, but I still wouldn't trust him.

      1. I hope you keep the home gym. Maybe you could throw him further.

        1. The gym has been disassembled because I thought that dude was coming to buy it, so I'll never use it again. I am keeping my Bowflex dumbbells though. Those things are awesome!

    2. The game has taken a remarkable turn for the boring since the Twins scored 6 in the 4th. Fine by me, just as long as it stays boring.

  165. I don't get it. If Nathan is pitching well, why isn't he back as closer? He took himself out of the role because he was pitching poorly. That's clearly not the case anymore. So, why can't he be made the closer again?

    1. Because at the moment Perkins is pitching better? I'm happy to see Nathan freed for use when needed, and not when Gardy thinks the closer tag is called for.

      1. Yep. The game can be lost just as easily in the 8th as the 9th, and 3 outs are 3 outs.

  167. I LOVE the Joe Mauer Head and Shoulders background ad on SSS.

      1. It is exactly the kind of salt in a wound that I really enjoy.

        1. Also, did you notice in the blog area that a guy named "Rhubarb" wrote a post containing the word "Twain?" (Close enough to Twayn, yeah?)

    1. I'm just happy it is an out. A ball that doesn't reach the warning track in Chicago in July probably wasn't hit all that great anyways.

  178. Dept. of Small Victories:

    capps stinks.

    at least they gave up wilson ramos for him. haha.

    "michael gilhaney is an example of a man that is nearly banjaxed from the principal of the atomic theory. would it astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?" ~~ sergeant pluck

    by BuehrleMan on Jul 8, 2011 10:31 PM CDT

  181. with the Clevelanders losing tonight, the Twins are 7 games out of first place...also 7 games under the .500 mark. Only trail the ChiSox by 2.5 for 3rd place

    1. Twins also now guaranteed to be no worse than 9 back at the All-Star break. I would have been very happy with that when they were 16.5 back. I'd love to see them get another game or two closer in the next couple days as well.

  183. From AP:

    Chicago’s five first-inning runs matched the White Sox’s total output against the Twins in their first five games this season.

  184. I left to go see a friend right after Tonsils' base hit. I made a quick stop at the store, and stayed in the car to listen to Hughes' AB. I started laughing like a maniac when he hit the home run. The game was never in doubt.

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