A.J. Griffen
v
Francisco Liriano
Griffen makes his fourth career start tonight. He's pitched 18 innings and has a 2.00 ERA, but no win thanks to the A's offense.
The Twins have company at the bottom of the AL: the Mariners. They're tied at 36 wins but the Mariners are ahead in losses: 51-49. Along with the Royals, they are the only teams with fewer than 40 wins. With some good play against the A's and O's, the Twins could move into 23rd place! They're already ahead of four NL teams: Astros, Cubs, Rockies, and Padres with the Phillies narrowly ahead of the Twins.
the twitter machine says a short weather delay. first pitch at 7:20pm
Was going to say there should be some blather on the Gameday by now for an 8:10 start (Eastern).
Have fun, kids. I'll be sitting at the local pizza joint, watching the Boy and friends playin' jazz. I suppose he thinks I'm gonna throw a dollar in his jar too, but since I just shelled out one large to help him by hizzone trombone (a Bach Stradivarius somethin-something, for Rhu_Ru's benefit)....
Meme trombone. Chick magnet.
TK in the booth.
was that Dick Bremer taking a slight jab at FSN's 50 Great Twins program?
bombs away
Snapper mow em down!
Having problems getting the audio feed from MLB tonite. Am I alone? On a Mac.
its been a while since Span has been picked off.
Twenty dongs for The Hammer
Holy crap, F-bomb!
hola!
Hey!
I'm gonna need a wider screen!
Dual monitors 4TW!
Who-hoo! Free game re-routed through home office's St. Louis internet and past the blackout!
Losing my computer and still not having replaced it but borrowing a laptop from work pays off!
In laws will be here before long, but, hey, my FiL will watch with me!
Liriano looking to get 26 strikeouts in a game.
Why settle? If he's close, Butera should let one go by so he can make it up.
28 strikeouts in a nine inning game would be really cool.
Sadly, he's only on pace for 24.
Three strikeouts until he matches his career high, set and tied once in 2006.
Interesting catch by Span.
Catch?
I dont think it was a catch
I agree.
Countdown until Gardy gets ejected...
That call was absolutely boo.
I have to say, this is the right call by the umps. How they could come to this conclusion after the meeting, though, I have no idea.
maybe the first base ump had a better view than the second base ump
Right.
Just another opportunity to get a K.
C_ris Carter has 142 PAs and just 25 hits.
You can't expect a guy to be good at every sport he plays.
f bomb 🙁
An interesting turn of events.
Why, of course all I've seen are the walks and weirdness. Completely missed the 47 strikeouts.
Me too.
I'm opposite. I went to help my in-laws get into the house and runners on first and second with one out become no-one on base with one out and 4 runs.
Boo.
It goes without saying but I think we all spookied that.
So yeah, that changes things.
So much for good F-bomb.
Should've traded him after the second inning.
OH, F*&^
Dr. Jekyll meet Mr. Hyde.
Now TK and Dick agree that Span didn't catch the ball.
I thought it was pretty obvious after the first replay when the ball was sitting on top on Spans glove as he was reached in the pocket
MLB.tv is showing the stadium feed in between innings for me. Let's see what inane things Dick has to say this time!
That is cool. His Mic was on, but he wasn't near it.
In-laws here, I'll be offline.
I'd like to see Mauer grow a manly beard.
I'd like to see me grow one, too, but some of just can't. Joe must be one of those people.
But, when he was injured last year, he occasionally made appearances with a few days of beard growth. I'm pretty sure his beard would make his sideburns seem pedestrian.
Oh, right, the sideburns. Yeah, he can probably grow one. Damn it.
He can pull it off, too.
Not gonna lie, this make my heart feel all pitter patter.
I feel like it would be a big F U to all of his critics.
Do it Joe!
i would love a full-on mauer beard.
The kind that Willingham has.
Ham, Willing.
wow
W-bomb!
Huh, that didn't take long to get interesting again.
Ray Fosse: "Let's see what AJ Griffin has learned about Josh Willingham from his first at-bat."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
PBP guy: "oh HO!"
for those who missed the first inning, Willingham hit the Killebrew '3' number in foul territory, then the next pitch hit another deep foul ball. then Span got picked off so Willingham led off the second inning and crushed one into the bullpen. This pitcher is not fooling Porky
I'm predicting a 5 HR game for him tonight.
Heh heh. Nothing wrong with this inning so far.
DON'T HIT AND RUN, YOU IDIOTS
Especially with freaking Dozier batting.
Hit and runs look really cool.
The 1 out of 10 times they actually work.
You got there way too early Revere.
that would have been awesome
That would have been in the top 1 catches of all time.
I saw this one Willie Mays catch on some old B&W film...
It would have been top five all time for sure.
If F bomb can keep the runs down, the the Twins are going to get a pretty good return for him in the next 17 days.
Ooh, foul ball caught by the one douchetard who actually bought an American League all-star jersey!
Maybe he was the one that voted for Bourn. Poor guy.
FIER JOSH WILLINGPORK!!!1
Bring bak DelmAn.
I know you're being sarcasic, but we're halfway through the season and his OBP is awfully damn close to his AVG, which is hilarious.
is Delmon still 23 years old?
Based on how he runs, I would say yes, in dog years.
So I just got back from dinner (and a few beers). Would it be ok to say that Willingham is my favorite Twin of ever? (Ok, maybe second behind Mauer. Sorry Kirby and Kent.)
Chuck James is my favorite.
100ish pitches, I think that might be the night for the FBomb
evening, everyone. my mom just texted me to tell me she got hit in the head with a liriano foul ball and my stepdad caught it. he's happy, she's okay, and all's well that ends well i guess.
Can't say I approve of sending Liriano out for the eighth.
But, definitely cheering for him to tie Santana's record.
Blow out his arm goosing up his trade value!
I was just going to say, he's only gonna be on the team a couple more weeks, may as well screw over someone else.
wow, back for more
That is a lot of F's.
According to this page, that ties the team record.
I think you need to double check your math on that one.
AMR's math is fine. The Twins' have Alzheimer's though.
Why doesn't b-r.com have single-game records?
They do.
Wait wait...
More runs than the rest of the list combined! (and as many earned).
Im surprised Walter Johnson never had a 15 k game
The league average K/9 was like 4. Also, strikeout totals for a game before 1918 are missing from B-R. He probably never had 15, but I'm not sure if many/anyone knows what his game high is.
FiL was asking for HRs/game record, too.
Someday, I'll buy B-r.com functionality.
Free trial through yesterday.
Do you want HRs/game overall or Twins? Nine-inning games or any?
Twins individual HRs/game. Just the records, for extra-inning and 9-inning.
If the record is three, I've got those listed on that page I linked, plus Morneau on 7-6-08, game 2 of the Double-header in South Chicago
Thanks! (I had the wrong year for Morneau.)
i was at that game. he was pretty darn close to a 4th, if i recall correctly (and that's a big if).
I was not at that game, but you are correct.
good. that was very, very shortly after we moved to chicago. we had seats in a weird, little bar section in RF where we were served by a waitress. had our own picnic table and everything. that last close on was out to left, i believe.
Unrelated, but I think I'm done with my fake-sports-reference table. I think I've got all the big and most of the small features.
that was game 2 of that epic doubleheader, right? (too lazy to B-R, though you've just been showing off with the tables, yeah? ;))
oh wait, in your epic table, i'm assuming (2) means the second game.
Yes. (Absolutely.) Yes.
nevertheless, rarefied air for Liriano. 6th Twins with 15+ k's
Seventh. Pascual did it twice.
thats what I get for not consulting the media guide.
Sure would be good to see a couple runs cross the plate this inning.
Pitcher wins are idiotic, but I really want the Twins to score some runs here so Frank doesn't take the L.
I really want the Twins to score a few just to win.
That was Punto-esque.
That was a sweet bunt. If you're going for height.
Time for that lefty drought to be broken!
good at bat for Morneau
Plouffe needs to start catching back up to Pork.
If the Twins don't win this game after 47 strikeouts by F-bomb...
When TK is on the broadcast the actual baseball knowledge goes up about 1000 times.
And yet, I've talked to some people back home who are all "ugh, I hate when TK is on the broadcast. Too much knowledge."
(Paraphrased, but you get the idea.)
He's a bit monotone.
But I do like his personality. He sounds exactly how I expected the surly stewing TK from the dugout to sound.
And "Richard" gets me every time.
I wonder if he'd call Blyleven "Rik"
earlier in the game, he called Chili Davis 'Charles'
agreed. i've missed a lot of times he's in the booth, and it's soooo refreshing to listen to.
Shitty shit fuck.
PLOUFFFE!
That is all.
That had to have stung when Weeks caught it.
Dumb.
stupid defender being there
He hasn't hit into a double play?
Triple-play time!
It could have been, had Weeks not been running..
I do not like Alex Burnett.
That includes everyone but the Twins I think.
He has a K/9 of 3.9!
That's the best K/9 I've ever seen!
(low is good, right?)
I'm confused why he even got put out there. He's not exactly the protect a close run difference late in the game guy.
Burnett's ERA is below 3.00! He must be excellent!
Well I mean Perkins & Burton are only working on 5 days rest.
It's better than trying to use him to protect a one-run lead, I guess. A bunch of righties in a row, so it shouldn't have been that difficult and it wasn't like he got hammered. I'm guessing Gardy was remembering using Perkins recently when down by a run late and he ended up pitching four days in a row. The Twins only have two dominant relievers. Even if the A's don't score, the odds were heavily in their favor that they were going to win anyways with the bottom of the order due up against a well-rested dominant reliever, so might as well save some bullets for protecting a lead or preserving a tie. I'd like to see more of Fien, however.
Hey look. The A's executed the ol' 3rd base hit and run.
it would help if the defenders would play some defense
yay a double play
It would help more if the pitcher didn't suck.
Burnett has been better than OK, bbut this but less than great. But, this is about the 3rd outing the last 2 weeks where he has been not so good
His results have been good, but nothing about him has been good. I would like it if he could continue, but every sign is against that.
Three ground balls, a flare and a line drive in two-thirds of an inning hardly qualifies as a bad outing. Not great, but he easily could have had a quick inning with one base allowed on the line-drive single. If the first ground ball was six inches to the left, Plouffe probably makes the play. If Plouffe doesn't try to cover third so soon, he gets a double play. That was a lot more defensive problems and/or bad luck than anything. A low K rate means there is a higher possibility of this happening and/or a smaller margin for error. But I don't blame the pitcher for not striking every batter out. He is what he is. If he's throwing strikes and getting ground balls, he's doing a good enough job. Just needs help from his defense and neutral (or not as bad) luck.
well, thats the ballgame.
What, you don't think Dozier can get something started?
Maybe his car, if he doesn't double-clutch or drop the key.
It's a good sign that Gardy's pinch hitting Casilla for Dozier. Lots of faith in the young man. If you don't trust him to lead off an inning against another team's closer, why is he on the roster?
There's a lot of guys on this roster you could ask that question of. Jeff Gray, for instance.
Also, Dozier could have done that. Makes me think Casilla was actually a defensive replacement.
Casilla's a lefty and he's faster that Dozier, so that gave him a better chance against Cook. Dozier's a young guy still learning, so a last-place team needs to keep him out there every day, but that doesn't mean you don't pinch-hit for him against a dominant righty in the late innings.
Welcome back.
Well that game was a mixed bag.
Just picking up where they left off before the All-Star break.
Sean, for as much ML history as you can see, what's the top number of runs given up a pitcher with 15 K?
Or a team by a team recording 16 Ks in a nine-inning game?
FiL wanted to know how the Sox game is going. He's not giving up on the season yet!
Heh. It's been a while since I cared what anyone else in the division was doing.
awhile ago, a sox fan at work started talking a little trash, to which i (honestly) responded, "wait, you guys are in first?"
Better them than the Tiggers, I say.
Sox win in 14!
That trade for Youk seems to be working out in the short-run for GMKW.
I think the same think happened with his trade for Rios. GMKW seems to have a temporary Midas touch.
I really hope that the Twins only trade Liriano if they absolutely fleece someone.
I really don't want them to sign him to a long-term deal and I don't want him to walk for nothing. Unless they are willing to offer him a 1-year, $12M deal to get a draft pick if he walks, I don't see any point in holding on to him.
I'm wondering if any team has ever lost when their pitcher got 15 Ks and they had a hitter with two home runs. That's insane. 15Ks and 1 BB. Wow. Of course that walk ends up scoring and is basically the difference in the game, since Burton would have pitched the ninth if the game was tied. The A's had six base runners against Liriano and four ended up scoring. One of those included the error, which I thought he caught. He should have had it without dropping it, but that doesn't excuse the umpires from making a bad call after they got it right to begin with.
Your specific search is difficult to do, but in striking out at least 15, it has happened a lot. Earlier this year, the Yankees struck out 15 and hit two home runs and lost. Last year, the Braves did it.
Also, that wasn't a catch.
Neither had a single player strike out 15 and another single player hit two home runs. When you get two huge performances like that on both sides of the ball and still lose ... geez that's depressing.
Well, the Twins could've won, but they didn't win. That's baseball. We'll just have to settle for 112-50!
I haven't done much b-r querying, I assumed I had to pay.
Do I just have to pay to link to results?
But I did find that the most runs allowed by a pitcher with 15 or more Ks is 6. Twice, all six were earned.
Nolan Ryan (Win, team scored 16), and Dazzy Vance (10 innings in an 11-inning loss).
As for games in which a pitcher threw 15 Ks, and in which a batter hit 2 HRs, but the team still lost...
This appears to be the first time ever. In fact, since 1918, every other game in which a single pitcher threw 15Ks and the team hit at least 2 HRs was a win.
And there's this game: Randy Johnson, 8IP, 15K, 2H, 3BB, 3HBP, 2ER. Four relievers: 0IP, 4H, HBP, 2BB, 7R, BS, L.