2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 16: Twins at Rays

135 Comments

Well, it's time for Liriano to put up or shut up.

Francisco Liriano has been both unlucky and plain bad.

Jeff Niemann has been unlucky too, but he does have strong K/9 and BB/9 numbers, and he certainly isn't the unpredictable entity that Liriano is.

I'm not likely to see a second of this one, so you guys are gonna have to bring this one home. The Twins are hitting fairly well, so if any of the pitching starts to come together, there might be something here. Not "win the division" here or anything, but maybe "we're not entering another dark age" here, at least.

135 thoughts on “2012 Game 16: Twins at Rays”

  4. I had a scary moment. For a while there, I thought the sound on my TV was effed. Fortunately, I fixed it just in time to see Span ground out.

  5. I don't like Bert telling me what pitch is coming before the pitcher throws it.

    1. If Bert can figure out the Twins signs it is safe to say our opponents know the Twins signs.

      1. he might have a scouting report or sat in the catcher meeting

        but I catch your drift

        1. When the cameras show Mauer flashing a sign and Bert says a slider is coming, even if teams didn't know before hand, it becomes public knowledge at that time. I mean, front offices are smart, if they want the Twins signs they will get them. It just feels odd to flaunt them out there so carelessly.

      2. I think he's just looking at Mauer's signs. I remember previously he once called a slider away, and it was a fastball inside.

  6. 10 pitches in the first. that might be the quickest first for any Twins pitcher this year

  10. I think the Rays' jerseys are really sharp. The color is a really nice shade of blue and the font for "Rays" is nice, but I don't like the little sunburst in the "R".

  12. Gameday really slow today bringing up the Twins match - maybe that's why its the Free Game Of The Day.

  28. Maybe Liriano needs to throw every up to take advantage of the ridiculously tall zone.

  29. This games is a clinic on how to reach base without getting a hit.

  38. I'm torn on this whole "Twins frequently are the free game of the day" thing. On the one hand, free TV! On the other, that means they suck.

  39. Matt Joyce's "IF" I had a Superpower?? His superpower is destroying Twins' pitching!

  44. I would say that Liriano is pitching himself out of the rotation, but I have no idea who would replace him.

  46. Dustin Morse ‏ @Twins_morsecode
    The #Twins have served up 8,000 home runs (1961-2012).

      1. On a number of occasions, I've seen him do a trick where he swings a bat and makes a baseball disappear!

        (The trick is that the ball is hidden in the catcher's mitt)

  72. Liriano was not good today. There's no denying that, but it wouldn't have taken that much good luck for this to be a much closer game. If the walks in the third inning happened with two outs, no runs score. If they happened with one out, only one run scores. If Longoria's leadoff double was a one-out or two-out double, then he doesn't score. So, the timing was key for the Rays to maximize their runs today, especially since they have no hits with RISP.

    1. but, Longoria's double hit a catwalk. it could have been a HR, but we'll never know.
      Liriano pitch 2 good innings, then melted down. I have no faith in him to get more than 6 straight outs. It might be time to either move him to the bullpen and pitch in blowout games, or trade him for something halfway useful.

      1. OK, didn't see that. I read something about the ballpark coming into play, but I didn't know that was it. I turned it on at 3-0.

  75. Since when do you get kicked out for trying to catch a foul ball in the stands? That's ridiculous.

  76. I think the President is about to announce a national day of mourning. Yankees-Red Sox have been rained out.

      1. speaking of cooking:

        What we've thought was Kobe beef was most likely U.S.-raised beef, Olmsted tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz, not the expensive delicacy raised in Japan.

        "You can guarantee that it was not real Kobe beef because real Kobe beef from Japan is not imported in the United States at all," he says.

        Under Japanese law, real Kobe beef actually comes from a particular breed of cow known as Tajima.

        "Most importantly," Olmsted says, "they have to be slaughtered in Hyogo prefecture where none of the slaughter houses are approved by the USDA for export," he tells Raz.

        So, how is it possible that Kobe beef is advertised all across the U.S.? While Kobe cattlemen in Japan have both patent and trademarks on the different terminology for Kobe beef, U.S. law does not recognize or protect these trademarks.

        "So, we can call pretty much anything we want Kobe," Olmsted says. "The Department of Agriculture cares that when you call something beef, it's beef, and that's about it."

        see, it's crap like this that makes people mad at both businesses AND the gubmint.

        I'll never pay a markup for another "Kobe" burger again. What a scam.

  86. Well, if you would have told me before this road trip that the Twins would go 3-4, I would have probably been satisfied with that, but the Twins had too many opportunities to do so much more. And at some point, they need to start getting closer to .500, not further away.

Comments are closed.