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2020 Twins Game Logs

2020 Game 52: Twins at Pale Hosers

64 Comments

Yesterday I couldn’t watch the game, and the Twins finally took one from Chicago. Today I can’t watch either, so I’m expecting good things.

The Twins play an early “getaway game” time today, apparently to give themselves 30 hours to get to the north side tomorrow. Our wonderful friend Kenta Maeda faces the as-yet unimpressive Reynaldo Lopez in the finale. Perhaps most importantly, late last night, I found out I was on Sony’s preferred list to preorder a PS5 from them directly and not deal with a retailer. Go Twins!

64 thoughts on “2020 Game 52: Twins at Pale Hosers”

  1. Staying in front of the Yankees/Toronto for the 4th seed is more important IMHO than catching the White Sox for a top 3 seed.

      1. Double concur.

        Beating the B!tch Sox is always meritorious. Getting home field advantage in the first round is vital.

      1. Donaldson came home and covered the plate with dirt to display dissatisfaction with...the ump?? after circling the bases on the HR. Got tossed.

        2. and Dazz is excusing it.

          If I'm the manager, I'm chewing his ass out. And I leave it to his teammates to determine punishment (e.g., kangaroo court fines). They should be pissed with him.

    2. I mean, jiminy christmas. He was going to get at least one more plate appearance, and is needed in the field. In a tight, critical game.

    1. I don't think that warrants such a quick ejection. A dick move by Donaldson, but that ejection is on the ump being overly sensitive.

      2. Eh, Donaldson knew what he was doing by kicking dirt on home plate. I think the ejection was warranted at that point.

        If there was actual accountability for umps, though, and I was in charge of the umps, he'd have to have a long conversation with me after the game about why the home plate ump needed to escalate the situation by not just answering Donaldson's question about check swing versus called strike. That pitch was way outside, Donaldson actually judged it better than the home plate ump--it's fine to make that mistake, but don't go being a dick about it and escalating the situation. Like, players are going to disagree with your calls sometimes, and you're the one who should be less emotionally invested in the situation.

        1. I mean, kicking dirt on home plate is a pretty minor thing, and does not warrant ejection on its own. The only reason it would is the context, and the ump contributed more to the context than the player.

          1. On the other hand, it's a pretty immature thing for Donaldson to do. Pro sports has coddled and encouraged toxic masculine immaturity for ever.

            1. I suppose there's a bit of natural conflict between the coddled immaturity of players and the "respect mah authoritah!" entitlement of umpires. I have much more problem with the law enforcers abusing their authority than I do with the players getting emotional. If Donaldson had flipped his bat to celebrate/show up, how would we have felt about his ejection? A messy slide step across the plate doesn't seem too far down the scale from that in my mind.

  18. Does May come back out for the 7th? He only threw 6 pitches. Bottom of the order coming up for chicago. I'd keep him in the game, given how many innings Stashak and Duffman ate yesterday.

      1. Shaky process, unfortunate result. It looked to me like his hand made it in, and even the White Sox announcers said he probably should have been called safe. Twins were out of challenges, but that was close enough the umps likely wouldn't overturn it. I love The Human Element.

        I haven't been very active in threads because I can rarely watch the games, but I was able to watch this one. Knowing that a bunch of unlucky, flukey b.s. the entirety of this series is likely going to cost the Twins home field in their absolutely inevitable at this point series with the Yankees, which will likely be full of even more unlucky, flukey b.s. that always seems to happen when they play... feels pretty bad! Hopefully the team wide ass bat slump is happening now rather than the playoffs...

  27. If we don't come back - this will be a tough loss. I think the chance to catch Chicago was lost Monday - but we need to keep ahead of the Yankees.

    3 game series all in Minneapolis we have a shot.

    3 game series all in NY - add 2 more games to the post season losing streak.

    1. I don't think it's that bad. 3 game series in Minnesota: 65-35 that Minnesota advances. 3 game series in NY: 65-35 that NYY advances. I just don't put that much stock in ancient history curses.

      1. Series in Minnesota - 55-45 to 60-40

        Series in NY - 20-80 at best - not just because of history - but because the Twins have been one of the worst road teams in MLB this season.

          1. So, you think the lack of fans on the road has made the Twins worse on the road, or you think the lack of fans at Yankme would reduce the road disadvantage?

        2. If I understand the math here, you are suggesting that the Twins' probability of winning any independent game in Yankme is around 28 percent?, and their probability of winning any independent game in Minnesota is around 55-57 percent?

          1. The Twins have the best home record in the AL (21-5), and are now 10-16 on the road. NYY are 20-7 at home and even worse than the Twins (8-14) on the road. Just saying.

            Twins are 12-8 against teams with winning records, NYY 9-14.

            1. From a handicapping standpoint -

              I think the Yankees have a better team than the Twins - its debatable and its close but I would handicap the Yankees as the better team.

              Until the Twins show otherwise - their postseason handicapping and specifically postseason in NY handicapping includes an extra drop.

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