51 thoughts on “2017 Game 19: Minnesota Twins vs. Texas Rangers”

1. Sano was the only one suspended because of Saturday's incident. That's baloney.

   1. Shoving a guy is apparently worse than throwing a solid projectile at someone's head.

      1. It was not at his head. It was behind his backside. But I agree that throwing a projectile at someone, no matter where, should get at least as much punishment as the supposed punch to a guy wearing full catching gear.

   2. I finally remembered to watch the incident this morning. That's.... terrible. I think I'm less mad that Sano got the one game. It's lame, but it registers more on the "whatever" scale. What I'm furious about is that, but doing nothing to either tigers player is a clear endorsement of these stupid, stupid unwritten rules, including the extremely dangerous one of throwing at guys. It's disgusting, really.

      1. I would not have a problem with Sano getting a game suspension if the Tigers pitcher and catcher had gotten one as well. But either all of them needed to get one or none should have. Singling Sano out is ridiculous.

2. One of my pet peeves is when someone says, as Paul Molitor just did on the radio pregame, that he was "forced" to use a lot of relief pitchers yesterday. No, Paul, you weren't forced to do that. You chose to do it. You especially chose to use four relief pitchers (not counting Gimenez) after the fifth inning, when the game was clearly gone. You made that choice knowing that you'd used six relievers the day before and three the day before that. You are not the innocent victim of circumstances here. If you're short in the bullpen, that's the entirely foreseeable result of the choices you made. If you want to say that you think you made the right choices and you're willing to deal with the result, that's fine. But nobody forced you to do it this way. You had other options.

   1. Wasn't that always Gardy's excuse to justify the eight relievers?

      1. Yes. To be fair, I hear lots of managers, coaches, and announcers say it. But it always bothers me, because it absolves the manager/coach of responsibility for the choices he makes.

3. TIBN radio: That's Gallo with a 'G'.

   What else would it be?

   1. I wondered about that, too.

   2. Starting early to end the obviously wrong "Jallo" pronunciation.

4. A broken-bat hit to start the game! Maybe it's a good omen!

   1. A double play. That's probably a bad omen.

5. FInesse!

6. That pitch look a little low for a strike.

   1. I'm not really used to those sort of plays going in the twins favor.

      1. I think we can thank the pitch framing gods.

7. I think the Twins have had as many strike em out, throw em out DPs this year already as they had last year.

   1. That seems right. But can one find that kind of stat on Fangraphs or b-r?

8. I'm starting to think this Hughes fellow may not be a very good pitcher.

   1. If he can average 1 run allowed per 3 innings in Arlington, I'd be very happy with that.

      1. So would we all, I imagine. In fact, I'd be quite happy if he could do that everywhere. It's the actual doing of it that's the tricky bit.

9. I'm thinking I'm gonna have a pretty quick hook for this game. I'm finding it fairly easy to bail the last couple weeks.

10. The matte finished batting helmets looks great on Texas batters.

11. Elvis has left the diamond.

12. Odor.

13. So was that a great catch, or did Sano play it into a great catch?

    1. Possibly a bit of both. They did show the flags whipping around pretty good, so it's pretty likely the ball changed course mid flight.

    2. Option B, but also the wind was pushing the ball.

    3. A buddy of mine had a brother who worked as a juggler on the tight rope at the Renaissance Fair. The main part of the act was to make it look like he was about to fall.

    4. He definitely struggled to get to the ball, but great coordination to make the catch and surprisingly quick on his feet to jump up to make a very strong and accurate throw home.

14. Nice catch by Sano. Route efficiency was terrible.

15. Suxton.

16. I'm not pretending Buxton is doing well, but it also seems like any time he hits the ball hard, it's still an out.

    1. When hard-hit balls happen so rarely, it's pretty easy to have bad luck. That said, that was a very encouraging at-bat by Buxton. Didn't chase. Got ahead in the count. Hit it a long ways just foul down the right-field line before hitting it pretty hard to left.

       1. When hard-hit balls happen so rarely, it's pretty easy to have bad luck.

          Or good luck. That's the nature of SSST.

    2. His fly out last inning wasn't hit that hard, but he hit a very loud foul ball earlier in the AB.

17. I think Hughes has the worst stuff of the starting pitchers, but he at least seems to have an idea of what he's doing out there, unlike Gibson. I'd much rather watch Hughes pitch than Gibson nibble, nibble, nibble even if the results aren't necessarily that much better.

18. So after yesterday's game, I've seen Victor Martinez play in person 15 times. In 65 plate appearances with me in attendance, he's hit 410/431/705. Sheesh.

19. Dozier!!!!

20. Buxton is so fast.

    1. Heh, he could've passed Vargas if they had to go to first.

21. There it is!

22. Time for some insurance runs!

    1. Was Banister right to complain about that strike? Gameday thought so.

       1. Yeah, but Alphanso Marquez has an iffy zone all night (probably favored the Twins some).

23. Twins Win!!!!!

24. Six BBs

    1. Six?? They'd catch absolutely everything.

25. 

26. We're still on track for 152-10!

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