This is a big series. Cleveland and Minnesota are tied for first place,w ith the Twins having two games in hand, a sweep could make some room at the top. The Twins have the perfect pitcher to continue a long win streak with Ervin Santana. Josh Tomlin starts for the C's. He is coming off his best start of the season (7ip 1r)
Fun fact! With his next run scored, Joe Mauer will reach 900 for his career. He is 5th on the all time Twins list, and only 4 behind Kent Hrbek. If Mauer is helathy and plays all of next year he might be able to catch Kirby (1071) and Harmon (1076 in his Twins years)
Earlier today, I was at a Cub Foods in Mankato and there was a lifesize (or close to lifesize) cutout of Brian Dozier and they encouraged you to snap a pic and if you post it to social media add a hashtag (I forgot what the tag read). I wish I would have brought my phone.
Here's how they played it at the local Cub.
SAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNONONONONONONONOOOOOOOOOO!
Maybe those projections WILL hold up...
Pitch down the middle of the plate and Sano hits it the other way for a HR. Sweet!
Came in from mowing and I see that Bigger Papi smoked another one. That makes 13 games in a row with a HR for the Twins.
It's the small things.
When Derek Faley is talking, he sounds like Joe Mauer
Long Single == Single.
I didn't know Twitter live streamed baseball games, but the Red Sox-Rays game is on right now.
Pull 'em, boyo.
Erv, what's with all the damn walks? You've been watching the bullpen guys too much.
wiggle wiggle wiggle.
Hoo hah, Tribers.
Mauer tries for a bunt base hit. Remember back in the day when everyone grabbed the pitchforks because Mauer did that?
It was with a runner already in scoring position, IIRC.
I think in the not-too-distant future, it won't be all that uncommon for a starting pitcher to get pulled in an inning like the bottom of the fifth: two outs, bases loaded, best power hitter at the plate. The fact that hitter and pitcher are both right-handed will make it less common, but I think that's where the game is trending.
Joe should have stayed with the bunting idea.
That was Sano's 8th walk this season with 2 outs and no one on base. 5 more have come with 2 outs and first base open with RISP, so he's had 13 walks with two outs and first base open, which is half his walks this season. The Twins really need to find someone to be a power threat behind Sano.
Kennys Vargas kind of looks like that kind of hitter.
Yeah, he would be the best hope to do that. Him or maybe Kepler, but Kepler will have to prove his power before teams respect it.
Power doesn't matter per se, but instead the overall quality of the hitter. When there's a big gap, the batter tends to be walked more. There is such a large gap between Sanó's 1.100 OPS and Grossman's .800 or Kepler's .750 that Sanó better be okay with walking a lot.
Yeah, I think the biggest difference this year to last year for Sano is that he's not expanding his zone and is willing to take a walk if they're not going to pitch to him.
rally time!
Joe, get on for Sano.
Pussy RIot!
Joe has been making all kinds of plays tonight on defense.
My fault.
Belisle? Really? Yikes.
Well.... they got an out.
yeesh
Good thing there was only 1 out. Ended up putting a slower runner on base, so it wasn't pretty but actually helps the Twins.
Guile. Nice.
*peeks between fingers* whew!
This is why I hate playing the Indians. Trailing by a run, 1 out, no one on base and has to make a mid-inning pitching change. That's the one good thing about Tomlin going 8 innings is less pitching changes.
WINNAH!
That'll improve sean's graph
First place!
Skim watched some of this one with me. When we struck first, she said that would be enough. I said, no, one run is almost never enough. Now she's strutting around like a peacock.
Twins have been outscored 47-52 in May and are 6-3.
Per Twins PR flack: Tepesch down Berrios up.
And I'm reading that he starts tomorrow.
Good Lord, it's about time.
Just wanted to say that we're still on track for 148-14!