Back to .500

You never like to lose, of course, but I can't really get too upset about this game.  Maybe that's because I listened to very little of it and watched even less.  Maybe it's because after Friday I'll have done four funerals in eight days and just have other things on my mind.  But I just can't get too upset about it.

Zack Greinke shut down the Twins offense for six innings.  That's not good, but he's a good pitcher.  Good pitchers will do that sometimes; that's why their good pitchers.

Kyle Gibson looks like he's a good pitcher, too.  He shut down the Dodgers' offense for six innings, too.  Then he was asked to pitch the seventh.  He didn't pitch badly there, but a few well-placed hits drove him from the game, and the bullpen did what it seems to do a lot, allowing a pair of inherited runners to score.  Had he been removed after six innings, Gibson would have a quality start.  Since he pitched part of the seventh, he doesn't.  Which is one of the reasons the quality start stat is not a very good one.  Regardless, Gibson pitched much better than you would know if you just looked at his line in the box score.

The Twins had a chance to get back into it in the seventh, but Trevor Plouffe swung at a bad pitch on 3-0 with the bases loaded and popped it up.  I can see Gardy's thinking on giving him a 3-0 green light.  The Twins were down four, it was getting late, Plouffe has some power, you're hoping he'll get a good pitch and hit it a long way.  Unfortunately, Plouffe was overanxious.  It happens.

Plouffe partly made up for it in the ninth, hitting a two-run double that brought Our Hero Chris Colabello to the plate as the tying run.  But the storybook ending wasn't to be, as he grounded out to end the game.  Even so, I'm always encouraged when a team is way down late and rallies to make a game of it.  It would be easy to give up, take a few half-hearted swings, and get the game over with.  The Twins did not do that.  They kept fighting until the end, they got back into the game, and that encourages me.

Eduardo Escobar started at shortstop and went 4-for-4.  As Florimon's average continues to drop toward double digits, Escobar might get more of a chance.  I'd like to see that.  Do I think he's going to be Cal Ripken?  No.  Do I think he's done enough that he deserves a chance, especially considering the Twins' other options?  Yes.  Let's run him out there every day for a while and see what happens.  Why not?

So today we have a day-night doubleheader.  I have a funeral in the afternoon and a prayer service at night, so again I'll hear and see very little of either game.  Death definitely needs to take a holiday around here.  But as far as the Twins, you know the old saying.  Every team is going to win twelve games and every team is going to lose twelve games.  It's what you do in the other twelvety-twelve games that counts.  And we know what the Twins will do in those games:  win them all!  We'll just have to settle for 152-12!