201 thoughts on “Game 82: Twins @ Detroit – THURSDAY DAY GAME ALERT”

  1. JoeChristensen ‏@JoeCStrib
    Raining at Comerica Park. For the third straight day, this one won't start on time. #MNTwins #Tigers

    will it be a third straight day of the 50 Great Twins program, or will it be the hokey 'Legends' game on FSN today?

      1. speaking of which, yesterday was "Minnesota" day on the Big1Ten2 Network. I watched much of the Goofers hoop win at Assembly Hall in 1996 (Lou-Doo's last game as coach of the Illini). Bobby Jackson had a career high (mid-20s), David Grim scored ~17. Sophomore Sam Jacobson had a lousy game, but hit the winner with 9 seconds to go, and sure as hell looked like a ballplayer.

        I can't remember now whether I went to that game in person. I was a faculty member at Illinois at the time, and went to a few games. I probably didn't because it was smack in the middle of the spring academic conference season and, as it was known to be Lou's last home game, tickets were at a premium.

    2. Is there an estimated start time? I was going to line up my lunch so I could watch some of the game. But I'm getting hungry...

    1. No kidding. These Detroit rain storms as my grass turns to dust and my snow dog does his best not to move one inch are hilarious.

  4. Hey guys! It's gonna be a good day for Ploufffe! (the extra 'f' is for "fantastic"!) I can feel it! BWoooooooo!

  7. The fact that Doumit is hitting cleanup today was an a bit of a shock. Too bad we don't have any other right-handed batters hitting well right now that we could have put in between Mauer and Morneau.

        1. Really? I don't think the rally comes for a month yet. Because it draws such a big crowd now, though, there are people who go to Sturgis either before or after it, so I guess it could be.

  11. I'm as jazzed as everyone else about Babe Plouffe's home runs, but it really makes me happy to see him work a count full and line a single up the middle, too.

    1. I'm almost more excited about that- there's plenty of guys who can put a mistake pitch into the seats, but to stay in the lineup to get the chance to do that, Plouffe needs to line those singles up the middle, too.

    2. This - I like his developing patience and good at-bats almost as much as when he jacks a "mistake".

      1. Yes. This is what he wasn't doing at first, and what he has started to do that has me actually hating him less. I mean, jeez he stinks!

  14. Has anyone ever done any research to see just how often the contact play actually works? I suppose it would be hard to set the parameters for it, but I'd really like to know what the percentages are on that.

    1. That would be difficult to get accurate data on considering how often is the contact play on and the batter gets a hit? The fans wouldn't have a clue that the contact play was on. Plus, I would imagine that there are times when the runner just goes even though the contact play isn't necessarily on.

  16. Two runners thrown out at the plate in one inning. Because, after all, the Twins get so many chances to score that they can just throw a couple away.

    1. Same here - That was my instinct too. To those watching, were either of them close to scoring?

      2. Both of them had abysmal slides. Dozier had a chance if he slid well, but it was ugly. Pre-haircut Plouffe ugly.

  21. I think whenever Delmon is up, and the count gets to 2-x, the pitching coach should go out and check for an injury or strange phobia.

  26. We need Morneau to get a base hit here, so we can get Doumit thrown out at the plate.

      1. I imagine Prince has written hundreds of dirty limericks.

        I once knew a girl named Nicki
        She did things that others thought icky
        "You wanna waste some time?"
        Then she started to grind...
        I never showed no one that hickey.

      1. Calm down, it wasn't that bad...just a pop up for the 3rd out - happens to the best of 'em.

  32. Come on, Maestro! You're not supposed to get thrown out until you get to home plate!

  37. If nobody got hurt there, it sounds like it will be hilarious to watch on the highlights.

      2. Carroll popped a bunt up. Fielder, Porcello, and Laird all converged on the ball. Fielder elbow went right into lairds chin and the ball dribbled away.

        Although I think they touched it in fair rritory, but the ump called it foul

    1. Blackburn had one with 100 a couple nights ago. I think it's the machine not being able to express a 0.

  41. Tigers Color: "Minny's gone back to the days when they were called Punto and the Piranhas."

    Did anyone ever say "Punto and the Piranhas?"

  42. Against my better judgement, I kind of like Mastroianni and hope he sticks as a fourth outfielder for a while.

  45. For all that we get the impression the Twins fan base is down on Mauer, he sure gets chosen a lot in the "hitting streak" contest.

      1. On the one hand, this is true. On the other hand, they're probably more numerous than most in this circle would be willing to believe. There are a lot of baseball fans out there, and for most of the ones that I've seen HR+RBI+RUNS=Good Player.

          1. Who says that they're ever happy?

            Then again, if they're livid now, think of what the uproar would've been if they had let him walk after 2010.

    3. On the other hand, Joe is never going to make it as actor after his career is over. That H&S commercial is painful.

  48. It is amazing to me how many times Twins batters have literally hit the ball off the pitcher this season.

  51. That's an awful lot of hits and infield comedy with only two runs to show for it so far.

    1. Twelve hits & enough infield shenanigans to fill a highlight reel in four innings, but only three runs so far.

  52. Did they just say Phil Nevin is their AAA manager? Good for him. (Side question: is it common for former players to be AAA coaches so quickly after their careers end?)

    1. Seems pretty quick to me. (follow-up side question: Wasn't Nevin about 40 when he called it quits?)

  53. On the bright side, I guess, if the Twins weren't getting hits, they wouldn't have left eight runners on base.

  54. What was with that first pitch ball to Jackson? Gameday said that it didn't touch the black, but only because the entire ball was inside the strike zone.

  55. I thought there was a consensus a couple years ago that the M caps were history. I have cap confusion.

      1. Even as a child, with absolutely no sense for aesthetics, I knew they were ugly. My grandfather got one for me for my 8th or 9th birthday and I traded it for the TC version.

        1. I was given one for a birthday (or something.) I never wore it out in public, choosing to wear my faded old TC model instead. The M looked like it was gonna tip over. Just a clunky looking design.

    2. I've always disliked them, but I'd be surprised if the caps they wore when they won the World Series ever completely go away.

  59. If it seems like Octavio Dotel has been around forever, it's because he has been.

  61. Diamond and the bullpen had better stay strong, because I don't think the Twins are going to score any more runs.

  68. Well, we hadn't gotten a runner thrown out at the plate for four innings or so, so I guess we were due.

  70. That was worse than a contact play. Carroll needs to work on his bat-handling, evidently.

      1. Must've been the second pitch, then. Yeah, the Twins ran themselves right out of this game.

  73. Is there no strategy for pitching to Cabrera that doesn't involve him getting a hit?

  78. *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack* *forehead smack*

  83. Gardy wants to sit on win 900 for a bit longer. 901 is such a non round number.

  84. Honestly, why didn't they bring out Burton for that inning? You have a one run lead. Bring in your best relievers.

    1. Review will apparently show HR. Comerica is #3, I believe, in HR Reviews. Can you guess #1 and #2?

      Spoiler SelectShow

    1. I'm going to guess the Twins will put Douchey McDancealot on the ropes, and end the game with the tying run in scoring position.

      6-14 with RISP, 3 runs scored. 9 LOB. 3 players out at the plate. Horrible.

      1. 6-for-14 with RISP is terrific, not horrible. It's hard to get six hits with RISP and only score three runs. Is that bad luck, bad base running? A combination? Getting more than one extra-base hit in the game also would help.

        1. The 6-14 with RISP is definitely terrific, but only managing to score 3 runs out of that is what I felt was horrible. Agreed that some power would help. Sigh.

  94. So, I was in a pretty good mood. Now I'm in a really crappy mood. I can't wait to hear Gardy's reasoning for not using Perkins or Burton in the 8th.

    1. Perkins still not available after pitcing four days in a row. Burton was the closer du jour and apparently couldn't pitch more than one inning after having three days off.

    1. After the 7th I checked Diamonds pitch count and was thinking "Oh, good he can come out for the 8th".

    2. STrib reporting that Diamond was "gassed" after pitching in the heat. Capps' injury and Duensing being forced to the rotation finally came back to hurt the Twins. Also, not scoring more than 3 runs on 15 hits didn't help.

  97. its been a while since the bullpen (non Capps division) completely fell apart.

    still got a split of the series, but it stinks it wasnt 3/4.

  98. Wow. No luck whatsoever for the Twins. I counted three two-out hits with RISP that didn't score a run (one runner thrown out and two stopped at third) and two lineouts to infielders with two outs and RISP.

  99. Well, it was a disappointing outcome. Still, if the Twins keep getting that many runners on base, and keep getting that kind of starting pitching, they're going to win a lot of games. We'll just have to settle for 115-47!

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