Last night was fun, too bad these teams didn't play on Monday.
Pitchers:
Twins - Dunsling
Rangers - Colby "Jerry" Lewis
Lineups:
Twins
Rangers
Go Twins!
This is horribly late, my apologies for that. Great game for the boys last night. Pavano pitched a real stinker, but the bats kept the boys in the game. Watching them make Feliz look like Matt Capps was a sweet, sweet bonus. A Rangers fan was riding me hard on Monday night, and told me to "let him know when Mauer hits something other than a single," so there was a little extra in my fist pump when Mauer stroked that double into left.
Nathan looks filthy, and it makes me happy. I hope he takes sole possession of being All Time King of Savers: Twins Division tonight so meat has that to write about tomorrow.
Final Score: Minnesota Twins 9, Texas Rangers 8
Twins Record: 48-55, 7.0 GB in the AL Central.
WP: Glen Perkins (3-1) | LP: Neftali Feliz (0-2)
Rochester 11, Louisville 3 in Louisville. The Red Wings led 4-3 after four, then scored seven in the fifth. Brian Dinkelman had two singles and a double. Dustin Martin, Aaron Bates, and Rene Rivera each singled and doubled, with Bates raising his average to .321. Liam Hendriks worked six innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk. Dusty Hughes struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
New Hampshire 5, New Britian 4 in New Britain. The Rock Cats trailed 5-1 after five and scored three in the sixth to make it close, but could not catch up. Deibinson Romero had two doubles. Joe Benson had two hits. Deinys Suarez allowed all five runs on seven hits and four walks in seven innings, striking out six. Brett Jacobson threw two shutout innings, giving up two hits.
Tampa 2, Ft. Myers 1 in Ft. Myers (11 innings). Ronnier Mustelier led of the eleventh with a triple and scored the game winning run. Aaron Hicks had two hits. Jhon Garcia pitched seven strong innings, giving up a run on six hits and a walk. Matt Hauser threw three shutout inning, giving up a hit and a walk. Brad Stillings worked the eleventh and took the loss.
Beloit. No games scheduled.
Elizabethton 6, Burlington 4 in Burlington. The Twins broke a 1-1 tie with two in the seventh, then scored three in the eighth to put it away. Eddie Rosario singled and tripled, raising his average to .312. Miguel Sano had two hits. Tim Shibuya got the win, giving up two runs on eight hits with no walks in 6.1 innings.
GCL Orioles at Twins. Postponed.
DSL Twins 11, White Sox 1 at White Sox. The Twins scored seven in the fourth to break a 1-1 tie. Jonatan Ynojoso had two hits. Wander Guillen tripled and drove in four. Starter Jose Abreu pitched four innings, giving up an unearned run on four hits and two walks. Felix Jorge struck out five in three shutout innings, giving up three hits and getting the win. Ezequiel Zarzuela threw the last two shutout innings, striking out three while giving up two hits.
Release Date: March, 1993
System: NES
Developer: Tecmo
Known in Japan as Solomon Key's 2, Fire 'N Ice is so good that if you liked Solomon's Key, you'll probably hate it after playing its sequel. You play as Dana, the same hero from the first game. You also still have the ability to create and destroy blocks. Eliminated from this game is all the magic, secrets, moving enemies, and treasures. Most importantly, eliminated are the arbitrary clock and play control issues.
Back to the blocks. As Dana, you create blocks of ice. You destroy blocks of ice. You slide blocks of ice. That's it. Your job is to destroy the stationary flames on each level. Despite its simplicity, the immense strategy involved is enough to make the game consistently challenging and interesting over approximately 100 levels.
If you like The Adventures of Lolo games or Bubble Bobble, it'd be difficult to imagine you wouldn't like this one as well. The cartridge is rare, as it was produced late in the NES's life and wasn't very popular. But it's the kind of game that is just as enjoyable during emulation.
I've played Angry Birds for a couple days now and I'm already kind of bored with it. I come back to Fire 'N Ice every couple years and play through it again.
Whatcha playin?
Davy Force (1846)
Joe Tinker (1880)
Rube Walberg (1896)
Biz Mackey (1897)
Benny Bengough (1898)
Zack Taylor (1898)
Leo Durocher (1905)
Kazuto Tsuruoka (1916)
Ray Boone (1923)
Harry Wendelstedt (1938)
Larry Biittner (1945)
Bump Wills (1952)
Rich Dauer (1952)
Brian Kingman (1954)
Shane Rawley (1955)
Len Barker (1955)
Dave Dombrowski (1956)
Tom Goodwin (1968)
Shane Bowers (1971)
Enrique Wilson (1973)
Alex Rodriguez (1975)
When the hometown nine follow a loss like that with a win like that, it makes it awfully difficult to give up on them...
While we are playing videos of dudes who own their instruments I thought I'd offer up my pick for best drummer of all time.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHulrp03qnk
Feel free to post why John Bonham or Keith Moon are in LTE form.
(4 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)
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I suppose I could do the usual thing and tell you which batters and pitchers had the highest and lowest WPA for the game, but seriously, why should I bother? Last night was beyond laughably bad for several reasons. Joe Mauer inexplicably played the entire game despite not exactly being a McGriff-like model of durability. That seems to be to be a case of serious managerial malpractice. Did the reporters present at the postgame ask a single question about this decision? Not as far as I can tell from the articles available as I write this (0100 Tuesday). I could grouch about Mauer playing or mediocre journalism more, but I'm guessing the number of eyes that care to revisit last night by reading this are already going to be pretty low.
Moving along, the storyline for last night (apart from being blown out of the water) is Cuddyer's turn as a pitcher. According to the AP, this was the first time a position player took the hill for the Twins since John Moses pitched an inning in relief. That was 31 July 1990, in a 13-2 loss to the California Angels. Moses actually pitched twice in 1990, each time in a loss charged to Allan Anderson, throwing an inning in each appearance. The other was in a 13-1 loss to the Red Sox on 19 May, when the Sawk hung 5 runs on Anderson before he was given the hook after 0.2 IP. In all, five position players have now pitched for the Twins: Julio Becquer (10 Sept 1961), César Tovar (more on him in a minute), Dan Gladden (27 June 1988 and 7 May 1989, both Fred Toliver losses), John Moses, and now Cuddyer.
Anyway, Cuddy's now played every position on the diamond except shortstop and catcher. The question is, why didn't he play all nine last night? If you believe (or have resigned yourself to the fact that) the Twins will not trade Cuddyer at the deadline because they're overly fond of him, then there was absolutely no reason for him to not become the second Twin to have played all nine positions in a game. I suppose one could make the argument that doing so would simply remind Twins fans of this game when it comes up in bar trivia 30 years from now, but quite honestly, that's not good enough. In a game where history has significant weight, Ron Gardenhire and the coaching staff squandered a golden opportunity for Cuddyer to join (in order) Bert Campaneris, César Tovar, Scott Shelton, and Shane Halter as the only players in baseball history to perform that feat. I don't think there's any shame in that. I would have kept watching, no matter how bad the score got, simply to see Cuddyer pull it off.
A few words about pulling it off, then. If you don't already know, Campaneris was the first player to pull it off, back in 1965. Tovar became the second three years later, on 22 September 1968. When he took the mound in the first inning of that game, do you know who stepped in to face Tovar? That's right - Bert Campaneris. (Campy fouled out to Ron Clark at third base.) Tovar recorded one strikeout - the always-prolific Reggie Jackson. In the second Tovar was behind the plate, and you can guess what his box score reads from there: P-C-1B-2B-SS-3B-LF-CF-RF. Tom Hall, who came on to pitch the second, got the win. Rod Carew played short for an inning. Graig Nettles manned center field for four innings. If Graig Nettles could play center for four innings, there's no reason the Twins couldn't have let Cuddyer play short, catcher, and everywhere else last night. It would have given Twins fans an opportunity to fondly remember César Tovar, a player who deserves more remembrance than he gets, and would allow Cuddy to check off an item or two more on his bucket list. With a game as bad as last night's was, and it was far, far worse than hitting Malört out of the bottle like a cowboy, the club has to give something back to the fans who stick around until the bitter end, something to deaden that throw-up-in-the-mouth taste. Cuddy playing all nine would have done it. Instead we got nine innings of suck and needless risk to the franchise player (yeah, I'm not over that).
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Here's this week's View from the Ballpark:
photo by The WGOM's very own Rhubarb_Runner
Remember, no embiggening.
Indianapolis 7, Rochester 6 in Indianapolis (12 innings). The Red Wings led 3-0 after four, fell behind 5-3 after seven, scored in the eighth and ninth to tie, scored in the twelfth to get ahead, only to see the Indians score two in the bottom of the twelfth to steal the victory. Aaron Bates singled and homered, raising his average to .317. Matt Tolbert and Rene Rivera each singled and doubled, with Rivera driving in three. Chase Lambin had two hits. Kevin Slowey allowed three runs on ten hits in six innings, walking none. Cole DeVries threw two shutout innings, giving up just a walk. Jim Hoey took the loss in his third inning of work.
New Britain 6, New Hampshire 5 in New Britain (13 innings). The Fisher Cats took a 5-3 lead in the top of the thirteenth, only to see the Rock Cats score three in the bottom of the inning to win. Mark Dolenc had two singles, a double, and a triple. Brian Dozier, Chris Parmelee, and Yangervis Solarte each singled and doubled, with Solarte raising his average to .329. Mike Hollimon had two hits. Starter Blake Martin struck out eight in four innings, but allowed two runs on three hits and five walks. Spencer Steedley struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up just a walk, and Tyler Robertson struck out four in three innings, giving up three hits and a walk. Brett Jacobson got the win despite giving up the two thirteenth-inning runs in his second inning of work.
Tampa 6, Ft. Myers 1 in Ft. Myers. The Yankees scored five in the second to take control. Danny Rohlfing had two doubles. Nick Romero had two hits. Logan Darnell had a rare bad game, surrendering six runs on nine hits and three walks in 3.1 innings. Ricky Bowen struck out six in 3.2 innings of scoreless relief, giving up two hits and a walk.
Lansing 7, Beloit 6 in Lansing. The Snappers scored four in the ninth to make it close and had the bases loaded with one out, but a double play ended the game. Lance Ray had two singles and a double. Daniel Santana singled and doubled. Adrian Salcedo gave up three runs on six hits and a walk in five innings.
Burlington 6, Elizabethton 5 in Burlington. The Twins fell behind 5-1 after two, tied the score after five, but lost in the bottom of the ninth. JaDamion Williams had two singles and a double, driving in three and raising his average to .375. Eddie Rosario singled and homered, raising his average to .308. Niko Goodrum singled and tripled. Miguel Sano had two hits. David Hurlbut surrendered five runs on nine hits and a walk in just 3.1 innings. Cole Johnson worked two shutout innings, giving up a hit and three walks. Steven Gruver also threw two shutout innings, striking out four while allowing just a walk. Matthew Summers pitched the ninth and took the loss, giving up a run on four hits.
GCL Orioles 9, Twins 5 at Orioles. The Orioles scored four in the sixth to put the game away. Candido Pimentel and Romy Trinidad each had two hits. Angel Morales hit a three-run homer. David Bromberg started and pitched two innings, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. Ricardo Arevalo took the loss, surrendering five runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks while striking out four in three innings.
DSL Diamondbacks 11, Twins 1 at Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks scored six in the first. Erick Gonzalez had three hits, raising his average to .310. Starter Yorman Landa did not give up a hit, but did not retire anyone, either: he faced six batters, walking four and hitting two, and was charged with all six first-inning runs. Melcaides De La Cruz pitched three shutout innings of relief, striking out five while giving up two hits.