2017 Twins Game Logs

2017 Game 41: Minnesota Twins vs. Baltimore Orioles

115 Comments

Okay, I'm not sure what to type here. My last game log, I went off on an ill-advised bout of pessimism, and since then the Twins have continued playing some fairly decent ball. Obviously there's issues abound (like the starting pitching staff), but it's been nice to watch games and have a reasonable expectation that they might actually win.

Anyway, I still don't know how I should feel about this lteam. As AG noted today, the Twins have been in first place a total of 18 days this year. Between 2011-2016 they were in first place a combined 13 days. So, again, I'm not sure just exactly how I should be taking this team in, but for now I'll stop asking too many questions and just enjoy it.

Back to the game at hand: the Twins open up a 3-game series on Bawlmore before heading back home. Speaking of questionable starting pitching, Kyle Gibson lugs his giant ERA back to the majors as Hughes is put on the shelf with "right arm soreness". Gibby wasn't able to win any games down on the farm either, but it appears he pitched a little better than when he was last up. The O's counter with Ubaldo Jimenez who, while generally struggling over the past few years, has never really had any problems smacking the Twins around (2.49 ERA and 75 strikeouts over 11 appearances).

Oh, and Escobar is DHing again for some reason.


Minnesota Twins vs. Baltimore Orioles
(22-18)                                          (25-17)
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
333 West Camden Street
Baltimore, Maryland
21201
7:05 PM EDT

Game Previews
Minnesota Twins Official Game Notes
Baseball-Reference
MLB
Yahoo! Sports

Minnesota Twins Starting Lineup
1. Dozier, 2B
2. Grossman, LF
3. Mauer, 1B
4. Sanó, 3B
5. Kepler, RF
6. Escobar, DH
7. Polanco, SS
8. Castro, C
9. Buxton, CF

Texas Rangers Starting Lineup
1. Smith, RF
2. Jones, CF
3. Machado, 3B
4. Trumbo, DH
5. Davis, 1B
6. Castillo, C
7. Mancini, LF
8. Schoop, 2B
9. Hardy, SS

Probable Starting Pitchers
Kyle Benjamin Gibson
0-4, 8.20
v.
Ubaldo Jiménez García
1-2, 6.52

115 thoughts on “2017 Game 41: Minnesota Twins vs. Baltimore Orioles”

  4. Nice to see Joe drawing walks lately. I think I heard the radio crew say he had a number of caught looking, and the team didn't really agree with any of the third strikes, so I guess they're saying his eye is still spot-on

  8. Speaking of questionable starting pitching, Kyle Gibson lugs his giant ERA back to the majors as Hughes is put on the shelf with "right arm soreness".

    Gibby might have some right arm soreness after this game too.

  12. After the May 22 game last year, Dozier had a .602 OPS. He had a .978 OPS the rest of the season. Coming into this game, he was at .744 for the season.

    2. Yeah, but the Twins would end up with a win outta this too. Tough call, but I can live with that.

  34. The Twins are crushing the ball.

    I miss watching them play in Baltimore.

      1. I first saw the score when it was 5-1 and decided, meh, I'll take a look later and see if anything is happening. I waited too long.

    3. I left because Gibson, but I came back just in time to hear dick say Buxton "sharted..."

    4. And I've been watching season 2 of Bojack Horseman, so really, I think I might still win.

      1. I should add: I can't believe how funny the Vincent Adultman running gag has remained. It seems like it should have run out of steam really quickly, but it just keeps on being hilarious.

        1. That show can just do no wrong. All things considered, it's one of the absolute best shows on TV. And season three is better than anything you've seen so far.

      2. I've been at work for 70 of the past 96 hours. Watching mostly empty House and Senate chambers on dual computer screens and baseball, oh so much baseball, on the tv in my office.

        edit: Amazing how much of my job at this point is answering calls and emails with the same information I've been providing for most of the past 6 months.

        1. They just showed him again, and his face now mostly matches the bill of his cap.

    3. If This Week In Baseball was stil around, that balk would make the year end blooper reel.

  41. I'm pretty sure there is a tablet behind Molitor playing an unrelated game. This amuses me for some reason.

    1. Indeed. I was just thinking I hope they don't consider giving him another shot as a starter because of how effective he's been in long relief.

          2. We've come a long way from the days of trading for a slap hitting middle infielder.

  44. So after yesterday, Salvador Perez has a .909 slugging percentage in the 8 games I've attended in which he's played. Next highest for players I saw at least 6 times in person: Roberto Kelly(?!) with .769 in 12 games.

      1. 10 game hit streak now.

        I have always held out hope for Joe making a notable hit streak run at some point in his career. Maybe this time.

  47. Jack Morris being generous when he says that Robbie Grossman's defense is "serviceable".

  51. I'm not sure what happened in this game after I gave up on it at 6-2, but I very much approve of the turnaround.

  56. Having been frequently critical of Molitor's handling of the pitching staff, I thought I should note approval of what he's done the last couple of days. I realize it's easy to say that after the fact, but I wasn't around last night before or during the fact, so this will have to do. Molitor got five innings out of Gibson last night, resisting the temptation to pull him in the second and use six relief pitchers. And when he did go to the bullpen, he used Duffey for two innings rather than one. This was a day after he used Wilk for nearly four innings of relief. I don't know if Molitor has changed or if this is an aberration, but I thought it only fair that I should acknowledge it.

    1. I was fine with sticking with Gibson when the Twins were down by 4 or 5 runs, but I thought it was a horrible decision to send Gibson back out there with the game tied. I agree that there's no point in pulling a starting pitcher out if the team is down by 4 or more runs and you might as well get as many outs out of the starting pitcher that you can when it will make little difference in the outcome. However, when the team makes a big rally and erases the deficit, it would have been devastating to morale to send the same pitcher out there to give up more runs. It wasn't like Gibson was cruising after the second. He had runners in scoring position in both the 3rd and 4th. Molitor may have decided to try to squeeze one more inning from Gibson because the bottom of the order was due up. I just hope that Molitor wasn't letting the win statistic make the decision for him, much like manages for the save statistic. Gibson looked pretty intense out there and of course he struck out the side, which is more strikeouts in one inning than he had in all but one start this year. I wonder if Molitor told him he'll get the bottom of the order and that was it and so he knew that he couldn't allow a base runner if he wanted to qualify for the win (hoping the offense would break the tie in the sixth, which it did). In the end, it would have been better to just go straight to Duffey. Using up your bullpen to secure a win should never be a problem. And it wasn't like the bullpen has been overtaxed lately, plus Thursday is another day off.

    2. My only complaint is that he only let Duffey pitch two innings when he easily could have gone three since he only had 17 pitches.

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