I had a full day planned so I recorded todays tilt on the old DVR. Maybe my technology has a heart because when I went to review the game this evening, it hadn’t been recorded after all. At first I was annoyed, but then I checked out the box score… yuck. After committing 3 errors in last night’s ballgame, the Twins cleaned it up today and didn’t commit a single one. That’s about the only positive thing I saw.
Francisco Liriano struggled for the 3rd straight start and took the loss. He went only 5 innings and allowed 5 runs on 3 hits (4 sacrifice flies), gave up 4 walks and hit 1 batter. He threw only 47 of his 86 pitches for strikes and was only able to get 1st pitch strikes on 13 of the 22 batters he faced. Sloughstall and Glen combined to give up 1 run on 2 hits over the final 3 innings. With Blackburn due back from the DL, Sizzlesump will be the odd man out of the rotation.
The M - Inverted M & M boys went a combined 0 for the day. Another guy I’d hoped might turn it around this weekend, Danny Valencia, also went 0-4 with 2 K’s (1-13, 6 K for the series). In all, the Twins managed 2 runs on 5 hits today, with both runs scoring on a Doumit pinch hit single in the 6th. The club was 1-8 with runners in scoring position and 4-27 during the 3-game series in Tampa. Not good. Also, Willingham’s hit streak to start the season came to an end at 15; tied with Kirby Puckett for longest in Twins history. He went 0 for 2 with a walk and a hit by pitch. Despite an “off” day, Willingham still sports a .328/.435/.655 slash line in 16 games this season. So, I actually had a couple of positive things to report!
Finally, there will be a small contingent of Citizens at tomorrow night’s game against the Sawks. We’re meeting beforehand at The Depot between 5:15 and 6 for beers and burgers. Stop by and have a beverage or two with us if you’re in the vicinity and so inclined. If you can’t make it for a drink, I guess you can watch for us on the telecast - Section 121, Row 4 (infield view, 3rd base line).
tied with Kirby Puckett for longest in Twins history.
i believe it's tied for the longest streak to start a season for the twins. looks like the longest hitting streak in a twins uniform was by ken landreaux back in `80 at 31.
With Blackburn due back
from the DL, Sizzlesump will be the odd man out of the rotation.will he?
I'd rather see Slackstink start again before I'd like to see Liriano start another game.
that 1994 Puckett season started off great. 15 game hit streak, one game with no hit, then tore off another 9 game hit streak. 39 hits total for the month of April (.348/.371/.500/.871 slash line)
😉
Also, there's this:
At least I know someone read this weeks...thing were looking so bad after the TX series that there were no comments until DG pointed out that we'd had no comments on recaps all weekend.
half-baked, i tells ya!
The minor league summaries might get better responses than the recaps.
At least they're separate entities this year.
At 5-10 the 2012 Twins have merely matched the 1991 Twins through 15 games. Nothing to see here. I expect they'll claw their way back to .500 around the end of May and then go on a 16-game winning streak to start June.
Insert [Fry squinting eyes with text "Not sure if serious..."] here.
Ubes is just needling socal for his earlier comparison of the two Twins teams- I look forward to this continuing for a while.
So you're saying there's a chance ...
Oh good, you're here!
Actually, the first part of that, .500 by the end of May, seems entirely possible. They're only six games under, and the end of May is almost six weeks away. Even last year's team had a six week stretch in which it played pretty well. While I haven't checked, the schedule has to start getting easier at some point. This isn't a prediction, but .500 by the end of May doesn't seem like an unreasonable goal at all.
I do think that .500 by the end of May is possible. The hardest thing I see for the Twins is that their starting pitching depth is already strained and I don't see much hope of that situation improving, while it can always get worse. So I'm not very optimistic about July-Sep, and yeah, I don't see any 16-game winning streaks in their future.
RBI from new Twins:
Generated 4/23/2012.
Total: 31
RBI from Old Twins:
Generated 4/23/2012.
Total: 24*
What does this mean? Probably a large truckload of bupkiss***, but it's at least nice to see the new signings being somewhat productive instead of in the Craig Monroe/Rondell White mold.
*I put Parmelee with the "new" because I decided his 21 games last year made wasn't enough to consider him "old"**. Moving his 2 RBI would make 29 and 26.
**This is purely my conjecture and should not be taken as authoritative in any sense.
***Especially since RBI has so many caveats****, but the fact Doumit scored both runners today made me start thinking.
****Plus SSS of only 15 games, of course.
I wouldn't mind seeing an "ex-Twins" group too: Cuddy, Kubel, Hardy, etc. from the past couple seasons, just for reference.
Question borne out of me being distracted and missing a key substitution.
Did Gardy pinch hit Doumit for Parmelee before the pitching change in the 6th?
I'm hoping it was to avoid the L-L matchup for Parmelee, but I didn't see it.
Yes. Doumit was announced, then the change to Wade Davis, which turned him around.
ah good. For a second I thought Gardy had lost all faith in Parmelee. Glad to hear that's not the case.