The Twins head back out on the road after a 1-5 homestand that held such comical moments as the only 3-triple, 1-run inning in the expansion era. After an expectation defying May, June has tempered the excitement of the optimists and confirmed the expectations of the pessimists. After the first real spark of interest in their team in years, it was enough to cause the front office to consider something desperate!
Okay, well, maybe not that dramatic. The latest top prospect to get the call, Byron Buxton joined the team yesterday and played a role, if not a significant or flashy one. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I don't believe Buxton was setting any worlds on fire in AA so far this year. Still, at this point, I'm fine with a little shake up. I'm assuming the job is his to lose so far, so lets hope he sticks for awhile.
The Twins open a mini-interleague series in Budweiser territory tonight. This will be Minnesota's first visit to the Mound City since 2009. May was the tough luck loser last time and has been pitching well of late. He'll take on a tough assignment tonight against the league's best team. Lackey's last start was not a good, and he looks to rebound from a 10-run drubbing.
After his iijection and suspensiion, Hunter will join the rejoin the team today, Also, a happy birthday to to Plouffe! and Nunez. Hopefully they can spread a little birthday love around.
Minnesota Twins vs. Saint Louis Cardinals
(34-28) (41-21)
Busch Stadium
700 Clark Avenue
Saint Louis, Missouri 63102
7:15 PM CDT
Game Previews
Minnesota Twins Official Game Notes
Baseball-Reference
MLB
Yahoo! Sports
Minnesota Twins Starting Lineup
1. Dozier, 2B
2. Rosario, LF
3. Mauer, 1B
4. Plouffe, 3B
5. Hunter, RF
6. Suzuki, C
7. Escobar, SS
8. May, P
9. Buxton, CF
Saint Louis Cardinals Starting Lineup
1. Wong, 2B
2. Carpenter, 3B
3. Peralta, SS
4. Reynolds, 1B
5. Molina, C
6. Heyward, RF
7. Grichuk, LF
8. Jay, CF
9. Lackey, P
Probable Starting Pitchers
Trevor J. May
RHP, 4-4, 4.16
v.
John Derran Lackey
RHP, 4-4, 3.74
Photo courtesy of ken yee
Twitter says rain the area has pushed the start time to around 7:30
Buxton may not have been setting the world on fire in AA but he was pretty good: .283/.351/.489, or an .840 OPS. He was leading the league in runs and triples (twice as many triples as second place) and was second in total bases and tied for fourth in stolen bases.
I wonder if he'll still be the AA leader at the end of the season.
And was one of the youngest players there. Plus, he got off to a slow start (not unexpectedly after missing so much time last year) and has been hitting a lot better over the last month than his final numbers showed.
Got a text from someone I know at the ballpark and she's not sure the game gets played. Lots of twins fans there though
Seems like that would have been the better scenario.
Ummm, Twins were already on the road before coming to StL.
Also, ignore Lackey's last start and look at his home/away spilts.
Don't know if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but Harmon Killebrew's grandson is currently in Omaha pitching for Cal-State Fullerton in the CWS. He's also signed a contract to pitch for the St. Cloud Rox of the Northwoods league.
Cool! Good luck to him.
That seemed like a really quick first inning.
Man, I dislike pitchers hitting.
I would say there are plenty of hits left in those bats.
Yikes. I just turned on the game - giving the St. Louis feed a shot - and the first thing said was "If you're playing Torii Hunter in right, then this guy must be a pretty special fielder."
Torii Hunter started playing in right in 2010. Where has that guy been?
Or, that is one sarcastic personality.
I've had this feed on for five or ten minutes now and I can't type fast enough to point out all the weird comments. He said he wouldn't bet against Jon Jay batting .300 at the end of the season (he's .226/.314./278). I feel like he doesn't know just how far into the season we are.
I totally chastised him to Mrs Runner as well. Ricky Horton's an idiot.
Just what a Twins fan needs to see: Buxton colliding with the wall and being slow to get up.
I was spookying such a scenario all yesterday, but today the feeling had passed...
Hicks wouldn't have gotten close to that either. That was amazing for him to come a fraction of an inch from catching that.
Cardinals are "sundimentally found" according to Dazzle, or something like that
When you get a man on third with none out, you figure he'll score. May limited the damage to one, which is good. Let's get some runs!
You mean when a Twins opponent does that. When the Twins do it, I figure he won't score and then hope I get surprised, especially lately.
Good point.
I like a pitcher who can get a K to get out of an inning. May has been a stud lately.
Dozier extra base hit yawn.
I don't like Rosario bunting here.
Hey Joe - RISP
Pfft, the pussy wussed out and took a walk instead.
This would be a good time for Plouffe! to celebrate his birthday.
That's not much of a celebration.
Hi everybody!
Also, gameday is really, really terrible now. What the hell happened in the last 4 seasons?
300+ losses?
Go to the bottom and select Classic
The outfielders clearly aren't playing deep enough.
Spookied that one...probably because I saw him hit a bunch in low single-A and have never stopped expecting it.
But I didn't see Molina's coming. Ugh.
Well, back to cooking dinner.
speaking of which, I made a nice lentil salad tonight.
1 cup of green lentils cooked to tender in vegetable broth, then chilled for a couple hours
~4 oz pressed bean curd (essentially, a very dense tofu), cut into cubes and marinated in the vinaigrette
lemon vinaigrette: 4 cloves garlic, crushed and smushed with kosher salt; a big splorch of dijon mustard (about a quarter cup), zest from a lemon and juice from half, a teaspoon of herbes de Provence, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, and olive oil
chopped cherry tomatoes (half a dozen or so)
half a cucumber, peeled and seeded and chopped
2-3 mushrooms, roughly chopped or sliced
chopped red or yellow bell pepper (about half a pepper)
a handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley
combine everything, then top servings with feta cheese, chopped Kalamata olives, and a little chopped onion (optional). Serves 3-4 as a main course.
Gladden just got done saying Lackey wasn't going to swing when he hit a fly out to center field.
A Rosario HR would be nice.
We shall call that a "Buxton" from henceforth.
How fitting that Buxton's first major league hit is a stand up triple.
His manager was the only player to get a triple for his 3,000th hit, so synergy!
Ooooohhh. That was worth the wait.
This was my sentiment.
I hope they put a radar gun on Buxton when he was running the bases.
I just realized that Buxton hit a stand up triple to left center field. LEFT CENTER.
good lawrd.
And he almost fell down a couple times and it still wasn't close and it wasn't like someone dived for the ball and missed.
Two on the black. Gotta swing it, Joe.
He used to get those calls. Not anymore.
Strikezone has expanded that extra little bit.
Philo, can you get Trueblood to update his Mauer analysis about pitches down and away to include 2015?
I've tried. It's not just Mauer though - I've seen it with other left-handed batters too.
It's ridiculous. What's the point of having a great eye if suddenly those pitches become strikes halfway through your career?
Perhaps if you suddenly had a brain injury that (permanently?) impaired your reactions.
In addition to the brain injury possibly slowing down reactions/impairing the previously impeccable hand-eye coordination - I've been wondering, perhaps the move from catcher also has a part in this. As in, he used to spend half the game behind home plate, receiving hundreds of pitches, seeing where the strikes are being called, interacting with the home plate umpire & developing a rapport with Blue.
I think it's reasonable to believe that perhaps he:
a). Doesn't have as much perception/insight into where the pitches are being called strikes.
b). Doesn't have as much opportunity to interact with the umps, negatively affecting the calls vs. those he used to get based on relationship/reputation.
TRADE HIM!!!