2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 89: Orioles at Twins

124 Comments

Happy vacation, Twayn!

It's the Return of the Gentleman Masher! Jimbo's last game in a Twins uniform was against the O's. How coincidental that his first second current return-trip to the Bullseye should be in an O's uniform.

Anyway, I know what I'm rooting for tonight: jacked dongers.

Of course, there WOULD be a lefty on the mound for the Twins in Scott Diamond, so maybe Jim will si
sit instead of start tonight. That would be absolute Boo.

In Diamond's last three starts, he has gone 7, 8 and 8, respectively, while allowing 2, 2, and 3 runs, respectively. He has emerged as the Koufax* of the staff, with a 2.62 ERA, 3.85/3.53 FIP/xFIP, and 45:12 K:BB in 79 innings.

His opposing number tonight will be Chris Tillman. In his only other appearance this season, July 4 against Seattle, Tillman went 8 2/3 of 2-hit ball, striking out 7 and giving up two runs. The big right-hander throws a mid-90s fastball, curve, and changeup. Tillman was part of the package, with CFer Adam Jones, for Erik Bedard back in 2008. He has had several cups of coffee since but struggled to put his game together in the minors (5.58 ERA, 5.31 FIP in 36 starts over three seasons prior to this year).

From the fangraphs piece by Jack Moore on July 5:

Tillman appeared to figure something out in Triple-A this year, striking out over a batter per inning again after dropping to under 7.0 per nine innings in 2010 and 2011. According to StatCorner, he drew 11.4% swinging strikes after marks below 10% in both 2010 and 2011.

Just a look at the radar gun readings shows what happened: Tillman’s fastball is back. He touched 97.2 MPH in the ninth inning — twice — after averaging just 89.5 MPH on his fastball last season. Tillman averaged 95.0 MPH on the fastball Wednesday, and every pitch saw an uptick in velocity — the cutter up to 93.0 from 84.2, the curve up to 77.4 from 75.2, the changeup up to 83.2 from 78.7 (a massive 12 MPH difference from the fastball).

Hopefully, he'll give Consuela and Morneau a couple of belt-high fastballs each tonight.

*Diamond is in his age-25 season. At age 25, Koufax went 18-13 with a 3.52 ERA and led the NL with 269 Ks in 255 2/3 innings while earning his first A-S appearance. So, umm, yea, it could happen.

124 thoughts on “2012 Game 89: Orioles at Twins”

  1. My reaction to Revere's play.

    Don't you dive...
    Don't you dive...
    Don't you dive...
    Don't you dare dive...
    Holy. Crap.

  6. Anybody ever try a Bubblegum Head beer? Not something I'd drink everyday but it has an interesting juniper tang to it.

  9. [redacted]

    I can't get Gameday to load. So I guess I'm going home. Now that Twayn is here, I abdicate all responsibility for this game log back to him. 😉

      1. so, I guess I won't tell you all about the delicious chile colorado sauce I made this morning, part of which I used to marinate chicken thighs to go on the grill, along with baked sweet potato and sauteed broccolini tonight. Serves you right.

  22. the last time the Twins have scored at least 7 in an inning was June 21, 2011 where they scored 8.

    the Twins pitching staff has not allowed 7 runs in an inning this year.

    1. Mauer: "F*** flowers."

      I don't know why the guy hates flowers so much. BOOOOOOO!!!

  31. OK, wtf is going on with Gameday? It doesn't work on my home machine (FF or Chrome) either. Did the dumbasses break everything but Idiot Explorer again?

        1. I think I'd rather not have GameDay than use IE.

          **okay, slight exaggeration. But very slight.**

          1. given that I'm paying to listen to these games, I'm willing to make an exception.

    3. I thought you should know when I open up a comments section from a Canis post I know just ctrl+f "E-6". It works out pretty enjoyably for me.

        1. You know what the say about imitation.

          Did you see that grab earlier tonight?

              1. I'm disappointed that the good doctor didn't end up getting that job in wny... Well, not really.

          2. Nice. All those graphics would take me weeks to put together- I'm sure you're much faster, but it still has to take you a while.

            1. That one certainly did, but most of 'em I knock out in 20 minutes or less. A couple of magic apps make it easy as pie.

            2. I especially enjoyed the Broussard comment. But it was all quality entertaintment. Cough.

    1. I may sound un-'Merrican, but I kind of like the idea of a US super team not winning. I miss the idea of the Olympics being an amateur contest. (even if I don't think it ever really was in my lifetime)

        1. Ok, yeah, that would be an exception. I almost still want to root for Spain, anyway.

            1. I knew I'd heard that word before. It's used in Brazil to describe when someone makes an embarrassing mistake on a soccer pitch.

    2. Balks are generally my most "WTF" play. Until the announcer tells me what happened, I'm usually at a loss.

    1. I'm following on Gameday, and I'm pissed that they waited until I was on vacation to open up the whoopass.

  40. Wolves summer league on NBA TV tonight if things get too out of hand at Target Field.

  41. I feel pretty safe saying that isn't why the infield fly rule was introduced, Dick.

  47. If the Twins can put together an 8 run inning here, I can go to bed feeling pretty comfortable.

    1. Really? It's still like 90 degrees here, so comfort is hard to come by.

      (Yes, yes, I have air conditioning... it was just a joak).

  48. wait, it's only the sixth? Is this Red Sawks/Yankmees?

    Good lord. I'm almost done cooking dinner, and the game has advanced all of an inning and a half.

  49. Reynolds is 3-4 tonight? Did anyone even mention he's a triple short of the cycle? Gladden might have, but I was tuning him out.

  59. Still on track for 110-52! I feel confident that if we score nineteen runs every game, it'll happen!

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