2015 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Twins 4, Mariners 2 (11)

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These Guys Ain't So F'n Bad

In my favorite baseball movie, Major League, which is based on a fictional miracle run to winning the pennant by the hapless Cleveland Indians, they show a montage of Indians fans right after the roster is set at the end of spring training. All of the fans are complaining about that they don't know who most of the players are or that they just suck (with a lot of worse language thrown in).

After the season starts and the Indians somehow hang around .500, the movie goes through another montage of the same fans, most of whom are talking about how this team might not be so terrible after all, including a construction worker who looked up at a fellow worker and exclaimed, "These guys ain't so [redacted]-ing bad!" (The Japanese groundscrew were still not convinced).

I think I'm starting to get to that point with the Twins.

After a brutal 12-3 home opener following a disastrous initial road trip, the Twins were 1-6 on April 14 and had been outscored 45-16. They had just found out a week earlier that their biggest free agent signing in team history, Ervin Santana, was going to be suspended for the first half of the season and their second-biggest free agent, Ricky Nolasco, was going on the DL with a sore elbow. Paul Molitor's tenure as manager could hardly have gotten off to a worse start.

Since then, however, the Twins are 7-4 and have outscored their opponents 44-36, which means they have allowed an average of 3.27 runs per game in that stretch. In fact, they have the best record in their division in games played after April 13.

The Twins (8-10) are closing in on .500 despite the fact that they have won 0 games started by Phil Hughes, Santana or Nolasco. The Twins are 8-5 in games not started by their presumed top 3 starting pitchers.

On Sunday, the Twins also saw a continued resurgence from Joe Mauer, who's raised his batting average 49 points to .299 over his last five games. He had three hits on Sunday, including a tiebreaking two-run triple in the 11th inning. He could have had five hits after lining out twice. He also was intentionally walked, which gives him as many walks on the season as strikeouts (11 of each).

Also, for a second-consecutive game, the bullpen played a key role in a win. On Saturday when Trevor May got hurt in the fifth inning of a tie game, I figured that was all she wrote right there. But the bullpen only allowed two runs on a two-run home run with a five-run lead late while the Twins' batters took it to the Mariners' bullpen. Then on Sunday, the Twins' best relievers of Aaron Thompson, Casey Fien and Glen Perkins combined for four scoreless innings with 4 Ks and 1 BB. Those three relievers have no greater than a 0.75 WHIP, which is incredibly good.

There's still plenty of problems and concerns with this team, but at least for now there's at least some small signs that maybe this team won't be so [redacted]-ing bad after all.

6 thoughts on “Twins 4, Mariners 2 (11)”

  1. First off, thanks to dw for the game log coverage. Was finishing up the family trip to WI Dells yesterday morning and posting anything Twins-related completely slipped my mind.

    There's still plenty of problems and concerns with this team...

    Last year through 18 games, the Twins were 9-9. They managed to flirt with .500 through the third week of June (6/22: 36-38) before losing 54 out of their remaining 88 games.
    I suppose the Twins should be in alright shape if Hughes, Santana and Nolasco show a return to form at midseason. At present, I'm more concerned about the offense.

    Of those players with more than 30 plate appearances, only Mauer and Shane Robinson have an OPS+ over 100. The team is last in the league in OBP, SLG, OPS (and perhaps obviously OPS+) and RBI, 14th out of 15 for BA and tied for last in Runs Scored. The Twins have a combined 36 extra base hits - 15 less than the league average.

      1. I thought about calling you more than once for beer recommendations. Went with one I know (NG sampler pack ... because Wisconsin) and some I didn't: a flight of beers with dinner at Moosejaw Pizza & Dells Brewing. Nothing jaw-dropping, but I did like the Blonde, Kilbourn, Stand & Summer Wheat. The Pilsner was pretty good, the Nut House was not. The pizza there was very good.

        Stayed in a condo at Great Wolf - great place for families with small children. What we (over)spent on accommodations we more than made up for by cooking our own meals (only ate out the one time) in the kitchenette.

        1. The Kilbourn is pretty good, I don't stray much from it when we do go to Moosejaw. But since some in-laws work there, I try not to suggest it, if you catch my drift....

          Good work on the kitchenette, that's a pretty perfect idea since the Dells tends to be overpriced in the restaurants, too, not that I'm morally opposed to exploiting people from Illinois.

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