G'day, wankers! This weekend the Twins wrapped up the first half of their season and got started on the second half, and so far it's been a fair dinkum year. It does seem odd to see the Twins so dominating when the team spent so many years without getting within a cooee of the postseason, but crikey, I could sure get used to it.
Due to a pair of marathon extra-inning games this past week that pressed today's presumed starter, Kyle Gibson, into an inning of relief work and wore down the entire bullpen, the Twins reached down to Rochester and pulled up Lewis Thorpe. A native of Melbourne, Australia, Thorpe will become the eighth Bruce to play for the Twins in the team's history. Thorpe was expected to just shore up the bullpen, but those plans changed with the heavy pitching workload of the last week. Thorpe got a nice surprise following yesterday's game. His parents decided to take a chance that he'd pitch at some point this weekend, so they went walkabout, hit the frog and toad and headed for Chicago to see their ankle biter in his major league debut. In 14 starts for the Red Wings this year, Thorpe is 3-4 with a 5.71 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. The Pale Hosers send Lucas Giolito to the bump today with the series win on the line. Giolito is having an excellent year with a very mediocre team. He's compiled a 10-2 record with a 2.87 ERA and 111 strikeouts. But he's struggled in his last two starts, allowing nine runs over the course of those outings. So grab yourself a coldie from the Esky, help yourself to a sanger, and flick on the telly, mates. Play ball!
I hope they didn't stop at Minneapolis to watch that son.
Strewth! No worries, all fixed. I can be a bit of a galah sometimes.
Remember, you can now Spooky in game to win or lose points (independent from your pre-game pick). Must be called in the inning they come up. Can be called during at-bat.
I'm really just hoping Thorpe will keep us in the game, say five innings and four runs. It would be wonderful if he could do better, obviously. But if he can just do that, I'll be happy.
Nice start for Thorpe
Thorpe looks like a 10 year vet out there.
Striking out McCann had to help his psyche.
Kepler up to 2.9 rWAR, besting his season high from last year in half the time. The extension looks brilliant now.
Cron seems to resent me picking him over and over to bomba.
But I picked Garver today, CJ! So stop ass-batting.
21 pitches, 18 strikes. Wow.
and now 4 Ks in 5 outs.
jeez, I jinxed him.
First pitch to Rondon was on the black, called a ball. When did Angel get back from London?
I disfavor the 4-pitch walks to guys with 527 OPSs.
YDNRO(checks lineup)EA!
YDNROOEOFERS (You Do Not Run On Our Emergency OFers)
Speaking of the Twins playing the ChiSox in Chicago. I booked our room in Chicago at the Kimpton Gray Hotel. Friday through Monday end o July. Looking forward to meeting up with hungry joe at some point on that Sunday (game day). Looks like we will stop in WI on Thursday to see family, then drive through Michigan and the UP of Michigan on Monday through Wednesday.
We'll be at the P&P for ~3pm linner next Saturday, so start cleaning up the place 😉
And I will be here polishing up the salt and pepper shakers when u get here!
I spookied that 🙁
Welcome to the bigs, Rook.
I can haz take-back runs?
Giolito is dealin'. Need to get his pitch count up and him out.
Don't know what Jay was complaining about. Gameday says it was clearly in the zone.
Good to have Bux back.
Oh Buxton. How we missed you.
heck of a catch by Buxton
In Buxton we trust.
I love Bux, but he let Torii get way too into his head.
?
He tried to punch Morneau but missed and hit Dick Bremer
Can we get a statcast on Buxtons flightpath?
If I never see/hear the signing Arbys chef commercial ever again, that would be nice. For one thing, Arbys has a chef? Not likely. Two, I know him being a horrible singer is supposed to be part of the joke. It's not cute, it's not funny. It's just annoying.
is this different from the series of commercials with H. Jon Benjamin (Archer and Bob from Bob's Burgers)??
no, its Sterling Archer singing offkey.
i've been seeing the visual version lately on the streamings.
...for sandwiches
let me just say, because it's HJB, i'm giving the whole bit a lot more rope than i normally would.
as will all ads, direct your ire at the company itself
Right. If it was someone besides Archer doing it in something besides Archer's voice, I would probably find the commercials annoying rather than amusing.
Let's get Lew some runs, shall we?
dazzle with a nice backhanded compliment. something like "this is the fastest i've seen them get the tarp on the field over the past years."
Naw. He's been very, very complimentary to the grounds crew all broadcast. Says they are amongst the best in the business.
Thorpe did better than I expected. Good for him. Hope they can start playing again, and we can take him off the hook with some runs.
And I'm guessing Giolito will not come back.
any update on re-start?
5:25
All Star reserves announced. No Buxton, Cruz, Cron, Kepler, Garver, or any other Twins hitters. Hoping for some pitchers.
I imagine we will have 2, maybe 3
Nope. Just Odorizzi.
White Sox with three players. I see how it is.
Two of them make sense, the third, not so much.
🙁
Beau and nibbish net 2 points today
I'll admit, I like it better as just "guess which twin hits a home run before they got one"
I liked it better when they hit 5 HRs
Correction, nibbish gets 1 point
that's what you get, nibs...