Anibal Sanchez (passable) at Liam Hendriks (a work in progress)
This one might have trouble matching the excitement level of Game 163, but at least the Twins can slow things down for the team that employs Miguel Cabrera, and Hendriks can try to stop Cabrera from winning that Triple Crown that would nab an MVP award that Mike Trout deserves. Beyond that, I guess I just look at every win over #63 as an improvement over last year, so I may as well be happy. There's no real difference between 63 and 68 wins in the scheme of things, but dudes, it's all we've got.
I'd like to watch some of the playoff-implicating baseball today, but annoyingly, I'll be at work until the last games are ending. Oh well.
I just wanted to point out that Miggy Cabrera is Detroit's nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award.
edit: This link gives little rundowns on each player that is nominated. Discuss.
how much of Miggy's 'giving back to the community' was court ordered?
I think Chris Resop is a backwards poser.
Good to see that Cuddy picked up right out the gate in Denver. Don't really know how to judge among them.
Santana gets the Mets nomination. Still claiming that used firetruck that he bought about 10 years ago.
On the pregame show, Gardy said the key to pitching Cabrera was to not leave anything out over the center of the plate. With coaching like that, I don't know why the Twins' pitchers are not all Cy Young contenders.
Mauer still has a chance at the batting title, although he'd obviously have to go on a tear these last four games. A base hit in the first is a good way to start.
I appreciated seeing Mauer take three walks yesterday. I hope he comes away with the AL OBP title--he's only done that once before. Another batting title would be great as well, of course.
Provus talking about how Hendriks has trouble putting batters away with two strikes. It seems to me that's a problem a lot of young pitchers have. I suspect if he's given enough chance, Hendriks will grow out of that.
thats pretty awesome!
They did that yesterday, too. About five or six times, a different player had bought a row of fans some food. I was never in the winning row unfortunately (never won the Hormel Row of Fame either, despite many, many, many chances).
One of the drawings was 4 off my ticket. If we'd have been in about 20 seconds earlier, I would've won.... something.
They only drew one number that was within 1,000 of my ticket.
the Twins need more hits so Joe Mauer gets more at bats.
I LIKE hearing Perk talk with the radio crew during the game. Guy knows what he's talking about, is very personable, and not a bit full of himself.
It's interesting note how far Perk has come, not only in public perception, but in how much the team promotes and holds him up as a paragon of the Twins. The doghouse feels like it forever ago, now.
We've kind of been seeing that this season, and with the JoeP article, others are getting a glimpse of it, too.
To think that in 2010, he pitched almost the entire season in the minors, and when he did come back, it was for only 13 games of mop up work.
And nobody was questioning it either, other than maybe why he was still in the organization.
Casilla goes back-to-back to get his 20th steal for the season! Well done, 'Lexi
OMG SEND HIM!!!
JOE!!
strand them runners *forehead slap*
the Twins have not been very RISPy today :/
Thankfully, the Tigers haven't, either.
well timed, dw
a run!!!
Joe catching up to Cabrera. Good news is that the Jays are also not very good. I'm on my phone now, otherwise I'd check if the Jays pitching is near as awful as the Twins.
Mauer OBP is roughly .419
oh frack.
are you effing kidding me
The top of that fence is getting quite the workout lately.
no w for hendrix, but he dud drop his era by 0.50.
He wants to strike everyone out. He says the best way to do that is in three pitches.
I am very happy we'll be seeing Perkins in a Twins uniform next season.
🙁
*sigh*
3-4 is still a pretty good day
And there you have it: the Twins lose 50 home games, (tied for) the most in club history.
Twins still guaranteed at least a three-game improvement. If they somehow manage to win the series in Toronto, it will be a five-game improvement and the Twins will avoid the worst consecutive seasons in team history as far as total losses. Twins will finish with no worse than the fourth-worst season.
So, in other words, this season was a complete disaster.
I would say almost complete disaster. As mentioned in my game log on Friday, there are a few rays of light (offense and relief pitching) that have been mediocre/bad instead of horrifyingly awful like the starting pitching. That said, considering the starting pitching, it's still a disaster of a season.
in this game, starting pitching ruled the day, while offense and relief let it down.
This season is reminding me of the batting race at the end of the '76 season
On the GM show, Terry Ryan said this was an important game for Liam Hendriks to show them something, and he did. We'll just have to settle for 69-93.