With under seven weeks left in the season, I find myself so apathetic about the Twins that I didn't even feel like referring to Chicago as the "Hosers" in my title. Still, there are interesting things going on. Pitcher Wins and Losses are dumb, but Max Scherzer goes today and he's 17-1. Team wins and losses are legitimately meaningful, and the Dodgers are one of just three teams in the past 71 years to win 42 games over a 50-game span. That team is eight and a half games up, and was at one point 30-42, well behind the Diamondbacks. Danny DeVito was spotted at a Dodgers game wearing a Nick Punto jersey, prompting the question of whether DeVito is an even bigger loser than the character he plays on TV. The Pirates seem to be heading to the playoffs for the first time in over twenty years, and early signs say there's going to be an interesting playoff chase in the AL.
Meanwhile, the local lottery team sends the enigmatic Sam Deduno to the hill to face Hector Santiago, whose numbers are better than Deduno's with much worse "results" (he's 3-7). The lefty can strike guys out and the Twins are ready and willing to strike out, so this could be painful at times.
The quest for 73-89 is also heating up, as the Twins need to go 19-22 from this point forward to reach my arbitrary magic number. If this doesn't motivate them, nothing will.
Hey, if the Twins are going to play Wilkin Ramirez in center with Willingham and Arcia in the corners, this is the game to do it- with Deduno pitching and hopefully getting a bazillion groundballs.
better see Willingham, Plouffe!, and our other righties pull their weight,
orit's going to be a long gameoh, great start.
MLB Gameday taking a while to catch up - must be carbon in the interweb sockets...
I've noticed that if the play is "complicated" (or if someone made a mistake and needed to correct it), it takes a while to get the ball rolling again
Ah, so it's like Oz behind the curtains. Makes sense now.
More like the Scarecrow behind the curtain, but yes.
Yeah, baby. Dozier should have scored on that.
now THATS a loud strike. oh my.
Pluff-da!
Things small.
productive out
*drink*
really, Im surprised FSN is showing some be footage of a raging party because they Twins scored a run on a weak groundball out.
Deduno beaning away - Pale-hose bench brawl imminent.
Carlos Quentin is a Dodger.
Doubles Dozier
Biscuit!
sigh
Wheels Hammer not quite fast enough.
Did GreekHouse Send Him??
Wait, what did I do?
*sigh*
Alexi Ramirez now had 4 HRs this year, 3 have come against the Twins and within 10 days
ugh
Since I won't have time to finish the Twins game before work anyway, I switched over to the Dodgers game (a run this awesome has to be seen, I figured). In the first five minutes I got Steve Lyons mocking fans for how they voted in a poll and Nick Punto subbing into the game. Must be a sign.
That open manhole cover still has a job?
I was surprised too. It must have been a thing where they realized it was unfair to compare someone to Vin Scully, so they threw a guy to the wolves.
Steve Lyons is doing Wolves games this year!? Crap.
This game is some serious RISP FIAL.
That should be a statistical category on the 'Advanced' tab of position players' FanGraphs pages.
Hey, then the Twins can lead the league in something!
Do they lead in batter strikeouts? The last few weeks suggest yes, but I really don't know.
They're well behind Houston, in second.
I keep hearing that the Twins lead the league in turning double-plays. Usually the person saying it has the wisdom and the grace to admit that leading the league in that stat is not a good thing, but Dazzle has brought it up a few times, too.
yeah, Dazzle knows.
I've been looking around a bit, trying to see if there's any word on why Mauer's been going high-cuffed lately. Can anyone clue me in if there's been a discussion of this, here or elsewhere?
He had a wild hair, and Morny (and others?) joined him
Shows he's not a leader in the clubhouse if he can't get everyone to do it.
"Lead Off Double Goes By the Wayside" has to be in the running for the story of the 2013 Twins season
Shut up now, Dick. Please.
Five minutes later your idea is still stupid, Bremer.
yeah, that was all sorts of stupid.
you could hear Bert rolling his eyes.
Bert was certainly giving off the indulging-the-dunce vibe.
remember way back when the closer didn't get much work because the offense kept scoring so many runs? yeah, me neither
that was an awful series.
It took ten days after the actual activation (which was 13 days after the move), but internet has returned to the domicile. Thank goodness. Data plans on cell phones are awesome, especially when you can tether (<3 unlocked phone), but it just isn't the same.
Oh, forgot the one good part. One of the techs noticed that the vines I ripped off the gate (so it could actually function as a gate) were hops. Now I need to figure how to constructively grow them for next year,
ooooooh. party on, sean!
Back to the game: Really hate the discussion about poor RISP numbers. It's as if the batters forgot how to do productive outs and the commentators feel the need to explain how to do it right next time.
If we stop using injured pitchers, we should have no more problems. We'll just have to settle for 94-68!