The restaurant Linds and I were at switch the channel from the Twins to the Wild right after Parmelee's home run. I figured they had it in the bag. Oh, well. Today is a chance to pull to .500 yet again.
I have to be honest, I thought the days of hanging around .500 were going to be done in mid-April, but the team is been surprisingly able, and I find myself actually optimistic about them. Not so much this year, because I don't think this is anyone's idea of a playoff team, but come next year, there's the workings of a solid team here.
Today's Pitchers
Correia vs. Kazmir
I know Correia's bound to come back down to earth sometime, but Kazmir has been really beatable these last few years (and this year hasn't really done anything to change that so far), so I hope it doesn't happen today.
Twins on Leaderboards
OBP - Willingham, 10th (.407)
Triples - Dozier, t-3rd (2)
Base on Balls - Willingham, t-6th (17)
OPS+ - Willingham, 10th (155)
Hit By Pitch - Willingham & Plouffe, t-3rd (3)
Hit By Pitch - Parmelee, t-10th (2)
Sacrifice Hits - Dozier, t-7th (2)
Sacrifice Flies - Dozier & Parmelee, t-7th (2)
AB per HR - Willingham, 9th (14.2)
WPA -Escobar, 7th (1.0)
Pitcher bWAR - Correia, 6th (1.4)
ERA - Correia, 8th (2.23)
BB/9 - Correia, 3rd (1.239)
Saves - Perkins, 8th (6)
Starts - Worley, t-5th (6)
Hits Allowed - Worley, 3rd (46)
HR/9 - Correia, 9th (0.495)
Losses - Worley, t-3rd (4)
Losses - Pelfrey, t-10th (3)
Earned Runs - Worley, t-4th (23)
Games Finished - Perkins, t-6th (10)
ERA+ - Correia, 10th (181)
Lineups
Minnesota
Dozier, 2B
Mauer, DH
Willingham, LF
Morneau, 1B
Plouffe, 3B
Doumit, C
Parmelee, RF
Hicks, CF
Florimon, SS
Cleveland
Brantley, LF
Kipnis, 2B
A. Cabrera, SS
Swisher, DH
M. Reynolds, 1B
C. Santana, C
Chisenhall, 3B
Stubbs, CF
Carrera, RF
Scott Kazmir. huh.
great googily moogily
I blame Gleeman on this.
Gleeman is the new Casilla
since he went all fangraphy on Correia, he should have noted that pitch data shows that Correia is well above his career average for first-pitch strikes (63.1 pct going into today, compared to 59.9 pct for his career). That small difference can make a big difference in outcomes.
But the bigger point is the Ubelpoint: the contract is fairly modest. Correia doesn't have to perform much above replacement to earn his pay ($4.5M this season, $5.5M next).
It felt that Gleeman was/is too focused on maximizing contract efficiency. The Twins rather suck so they have to be a bit inefficient to attract free agents.
It felt like Gleeman was too focused on Hinske.
Hicks!
AARON HICKS HOME RUN YOU GUYS.
more like Hank Aaron Hicks.
Poor Dick. He can't comprehend the increase in strikeouts.
Dick Bremer has mentioned the high strikeout total for the Indians lineup about 50 times in 14 innings of this series.
make. it. stop.
crax. I'm off to the gym.
Wrong team is rallying.
*crickets*
Hey it's baseball! And they're the toons! Swizzlestick can still shut them down and the Twins can still come back!
Watched a couple innings while visiting at the local baseball card shop. Nice to have seen Hick's first 4-Baseon
Willingham out on ball neighborhood play.
Booooo another run.
Heads-up play by Dozier getting Carrera when he overslides the bag.
That's probably the Twins last chance at reaching .500 this season.
I keep wondering at what point .550 starts slipping away from us.
.500? .550? We're going way past that, guys. We'll just have to settle for .914 (148-14)!