h/t painter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml4zqd_1oGg
(4 votes, average: 9.25 out of 10)
Loading... Brusdar Graterol makes his AAA debut. Bailey Ober has an excellent game. Brent Headrick makes his professional debut. Stephen Gonsalves continues his rehab assignment.
Date: Wednesday, August 21.
Batting stars: None.
Pitching stars: Ryne Harper pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one. Sam Dyson pitched a perfect inning and struck out one. Tyler Duffey struck out two in a perfect inning. Trevor May pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Lucas Giolito struck out twelve in a complete game shutout, giving up three hits and no walks. Jose Abreu was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Leury Garcia was 2-for-5 with two runs. Tim Anderson was 2-for-5.
The game: The Twins helped the White Sox get two runs in the first inning. Garcia led off with a single, and runners were on first and second when Jorge Polanco failed to touch second on what should have been a force out. Abreu then singled home a run, a wild pitch moved runners to second and third, and Matt Skole singled to make it 2-0.
In the third, singles by Garcia, Anderson, and Abreu made it 3-0. In the fifth, Abreu doubled, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
Meanwhile, the Twins could get nothing accomplished on offense. Polanco had a bunt single in the first, Nelson Cruz had a one-out single in the fourth, and Jonathan Schoop had a one-out double in the eighth. That was all the offense the Twins had, with Schoop the only Twin to get as far as second base.
WP: Giolito (14-6). LP: Jake Odorizzi (13-6). S: None.
Notes: Max Kepler remained in center field, with Jake Cave in right, in the continued absence of Byron Buxton. Luis Arraez was at third base, with Miguel Sano moving to first. Eddie Rosario started in left, but was removed in the fifth inning due to a tight hamstring. Rather than use an outfielder, the Twins moved Arraez to left, Sano to third, and put Ehire Adrianza in the game at first base. I'm not sure why you'd rather have Sano at third than Adrianza, but I admit that I haven't looked at their defensive stats at third base.
Arraez was 0-for-3 and is batting .341. Cruz was 1-for-4 and is batting .303. Duffey has an ERA of 2.95.
The Twins made another error and threw three more pitches to the backstop. I'm probably sounding like Johnny One-note mentioning this all the time, but I'd be happy to stop mentioning it if the Twins would stop doing it. I could easily have missed it, but I don't remember Rocco or the front office publicly addressing the defensive lapses. The only thing I've hears is the occasional comment that "No one feels worse about that than [the responsible player]", which is probably true but doesn't do anything to solve the problem. I have no idea what may be going on privately, of course, nor is there any reason I should. But whatever they may be doing privately doesn't seem to be helping, and publicly they don't seem very concerned. They should be. When you play bad teams, you can sometimes rely on your batting to overcome your defensive woes. When you play good teams, you can't afford to give them free bases and extra outs. The Twins had better get the defense tightened up pretty soon.
It's obviously disappointing to lose two of three to the lowly White Sox, and it's tempting to get really upset about it. But the thing is, that's baseball. A bad team takes a series from a good team sometimes. Giolito is a very good pitcher, and he'll shut a team down sometimes. Ivan Nova is not as good as Giolito, but he's good enough that he'll have an occasional really good game, too. And the Twins did not have a lot of luck in this series--fourteen hits with only four runs in the first game, lots of soft-contact hits for the White Sox in the last game. It happens. Yes, the Twins made some contributions to their bad luck, but it was still a factor. It happens, because it's baseball. That's why there's no such thing as an upset in any particular baseball game. As Joaquin Andujar told us, the one word that describes baseball best is youneverknow.
The good news is that Cleveland lost, too. The Twins don't have to win any specific number of games to win the division. They just have to win one more than the Indians. Right now, they've won three more. I'm not saying "All is well", but I'd still rather be three games up than three games back.
Record: The Twins are 77-50, in first place in the American League Central, three games ahead of Cleveland.
Projected record: We'll just have to settle for 112-50!
I heard that MLB has had to issue warnings to its players because they keep chowing down on gas station boner pills and then testing positive for banned substances. Seriously. Know what you're putting in your body, people.
Ned Hanlon (1857)
Howie Camnitz (1881)
Wally Schang (1889)
Happy Felsch (1891)
Carl Yastrzemski (1939)
Bill Burbach (1947)
Doug Bair (1949)
Ray Burris (1950)
Paul Molitor (1956)
Darrin Jackson (1962)
Mike Everitt (1964)
Gary Scott (1968)
Hipolito Pichardo (1969)
Steve Kline (1972)
Jeff Weaver (1976)
Randy Wolf (1976)
Alan Busenitz (1990)
Mike Everitt has been a major league umpire since 1996.
We would also like to wish a very happy anniversary to Grandma and Grandpa S.
Lucas Giolito
vs
Jake Odorizzi
The Twins now have four-way tie at 244 home runs. Giolito made his contribution in July by giving up four home runs, including three to Cruz. If the Twins get two more home runs, they enter into the top ten all time. It's time for Giolito to help the Twins move up the rankings again.
Three extra inning games, including one that went thirteen despite the Manfred Rule.
It may (or may not) surprise you that the Twins Squirrel has been on Twitter for almost 10 years.
Date: Tuesday, August 20.
Batting stars: Nelson Cruz was 4-for-5 with a home run (his thirty-third), three doubles, three runs, and three RBIs. Max Kepler was 2-for-5 with a home run (his thirty-fourth), three runs, and three RBIs. Eddie Rosario was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Jorge Polanco was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer (his nineteenth) and two runs.
Pitching stars: Michael Pineda pitched seven innings, giving up four runs on six hits and no walks and striking out four. Trevor May pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.
Opposition stars: Tim Anderson was 2-for-4 with a home run (his thirteenth), a double, two runs, and two RBIs. Jose Abreu was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his twenty-eighth.
The game: It didn't look good early. The Twins did nothing for the first two innings, as their first six batters were retired on just twenty-one pitches. In the third, Yolmer Sanchez singled and scored on a two-out double by Anderson. Abreu followed with a two-run homer and the White Sox quickly took a 3-0 lead.
Mitch Garver led off the bottom of the third with a double, but with two out he had only gotten as far as third base. Kepler solved that problem, hitting a two-run homer to get the Twins back into the game at 3-2. In the fourth, Cruz led off with a home run, tying the score 3-3.
The Twins took control in the fifth. The first two batters went out, but Jake Cave singled and Kepler reached on an error. Jorge Polanco was hit by a pitch, putting the Twins in the dreaded bases loaded situation. But Cruz said, "Fear not" and belted a two-run double. Rosario followed with a two-run single and the Twins led 7-3.
Anderson homered leading off the sixth, cutting the margin to 7-4, but that was as close as Chicago would come. The Twins put it away in the eighth. Cruz led off with a double and scored on Miguel Sano's double. Luis Arraez singled, putting men on first and third, and later stole second, moving men to second and third with two out. Marwin Gonzalez was intentionally walked, and again the Twins came through with the bases loaded. This time it was pinch-hitter C. J. Cron delivering a three-run double. He would score on Kepler's double and Polanco then hit a two-run homer. It was 14-4, and that's where it would stay.
WP: Pineda (9-5). LP: Reynaldo Lopez (7-11). S: None.
Kepler returned to the lineup in center field, with Jake Cave in right in the continued absence of Byron Buxton. Gonzalez was at first base in place of Cron. Cron remained in the game after his pinch-hit and played first, with Gonzalez moving to right field.
Arraez was 1-for-4 and is batting .346. Cruz raised his average to .303, the first time he's been over .300 since May 6.
The Twins did not throw any wild pitches, and they were not charged with any errors, although there were at least two that could have been scored. Still, I guess it's progress. I know there's a lot more to defense than not making errors, but most of the errors have been on routine plays, and coupled with wild pitches and baserunning mistakes, it just leads to an overall sloppiness of play that I find annoying. They've been able to hit enough to overcome it most of the time, and they did so again last night, but it still bothers me.
There was some discussion in the game log about Rocco making an unnecessary pitching change in the eighth, bringing in Sergio Romo with two out and none on with the Twins holding a three-run lead. I would tend to agree that the change was unnecessary, but on the plus side: a) Romo got the job done, b) he only threw three pitches, so he should be fine to pitch today, and c) there's an off day tomorrow, so he'll have at least one day where he won't pitch. So, even if it was unnecessary, it looks like there's no harm done.
Cruz has to be having one of the best seasons a thirty-nine-year-old ever had. I'm sure Barry Bonds has him beat, and there are probably a few others, but there can't be very many. He is batting .303/.390/.667, for an OPS of 1.057. He has thirty-three home runs. And he's not wearing down as the season goes on--granted that he missed some time, but August is so far his best month of the season. It's pretty incredible.
Record: The Twins are 77-49, in first place in the American League Central, three games ahead of Cleveland.
Projected record: We're still on track for 113-49!
(5 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)Loading... 
