Let's get back to .500, then.
Sonny Gray was supposed to start today, but he's been scratched, so we get... 36-year old Chris Smith, who hasn't won a game since 2008.
The Twins will counter with Mejia. I'm bullish-ish on Mejia, but I'd really love to see him consistently getting deeper into games. I don't mind six solid innings, but these five inning starts don't help.
Anyone going to stay up for this one? I was seriously nodding off at the end of yesterday night's game, and I sort of doubt I'll last through this one, but you never know.
I am also bullish-ish on Mejia and I also agree it would be nice to get 6-7 innings out of him instead of 4-5.
Mejía needs to get his walk rate down, which could help him work deeper; issuing 4.1 BB/9 is not a recipe for success. If he could cut that in half, he seems like he could stick in the rotation for a good while.
I wonder if we'll get a Sonny Gray trade announcement before the game ends.
The MLB feed is really laggy tonight. I keep getting spoiled by push notifications.
So, Zack's batting average is fairly empty, but he's been hitting lots and lots of line drive singles lately. Still gets sent down when Buxton gets back, though, I think.
When Buxton is ready, it will be interesting to see who goes down. I'm betting it won't be Granite. Also, Rosario was going to make sure he was going to score from second tonight.
Kepler's lost forty-one points in his OPS since July 9th, but he's still at a 98 OPS+. He needs regular playing time in the majors to work through this, so they'd better not send him down. Granite's OPS+ is a paltry 74 by comparison.
Perhaps they could send down one of the bullpen chaff. Or they could send down Polanco, who isn't going to hit his way out of his slump riding the pine behind Escobar and Adrianza.
And have Grossman as a full time DH?
I feel weird being as annoyed as I am with a guy who's asking the league leaders in OBP.
I see no pressing need to have Grossman wear his glove on the field if it can be helped.
Polanco is out of options. I doubt he'd make it through waivers, but you never know. I guess Escobar and Adrianza are a good enough offensive/defensive option at SS to hold down the position until the Twins deem Nick Gordon is ready if Polanco is claimed by another team. I see no reason why the Twins need so many relievers, especially when Alan Busenitz has a 1.86 ERA in the majors and has thrown 11 pitches since he was recalled. Before tonight, Boshers hadn't pitched since the first game against the Dodgers.
Adrián Beltré is now just one hit away from 3,000. For all the crap he took during his years in Seattle, he's got plenty to celebrate once he's finally done, hopefully several years from now.
Plays like that suggest Mauer probably could've handled third just fine.
Regardless of how this inning ends, it is indicative of the issues with Mejia's game.
Deep counts, walks, not being able to put away hitters when he gets ahead.
Still bullish-ish
Allen's got his hands full with charting starts like this. I really wonder what kind of adjustments Mejía can make to hit his spots more consistently. Dick was talking about release points, but I'm wondering if there's more to it than that.
Sano!
An underrated thing about Oakland's white jerseys is that they wear the matching white shoes.
If you are going to give up a home run, mind as well give up a 600 footer.
Chattanooga is heading to the 20th inning. Oofta!
TWINS BASEBALL!!!
Of course Rajai Davis hits a walk off HR.
Davis has 59 career HRs. 6 have been off Twins pitching.
My recording ran out with Davis at the plate in the ninth....
Didn't miss much.
Yea, I was only 10-15 minutes behind at that point, so I switched over to the postgame show, expecting to see a discussion about how the A's starter had struggled, only to learn that Rajah Davis is the Greatest Player Evah. He had a hell of a night. But I'm kind of wondering why Kintzler wasn't available. Yes, he threw nearly 30 pitches the night before, but ....
holy crap.