https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkwJ-g0iJ6w
(4 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
Loading... More games! AL teams switch dugouts!
Marlins vs Braves, 1:08 p.m.
Pablo López vs Ian Anderson
Athletics vs Astros, 2:35 p.m.
Jesús Luzardo vs Jose Urquidy
Rays vs Yankees, 6:10 p.m.
Charlie Morton vs Masahiro Tanaka
Padres vs Dodgers, 8:08 p.m.
TBD vs Clayton Kershaw
Okay, so, here's another one we did. Kind of. You see, someone screwed everything up and completely lost the second half of what recorded. Lost topics include more season wrap-up as well as a look towards next year. We'll pick that up again next time after I quintuple check how to make sure I whoever doesn't screw everything up next time.
Also, I'll need to figure out how to embed in the page. Here's the link for now.
(eschapp: there is an add media button on the edit post page)
Mars is as close as it's going to get for a bit, so say hello.
Date: Sunday, April 6.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 2-for-4 with a double. Chris Gomez was 2-for-4. Bobby Kielty was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Juan Rincon struck out six in five shutout innings of relief, giving up one hit. Tony Fiore pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Cory Lidle struck out seven in seven innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk. Frank Catalanotto was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Carlos Delgado was 2-for-4 with a home run (his second), two runs, and four RBIs. Chris Woodward was 2-for-4 with two runs. Shannon Stewart was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs.
The game: In the first inning Catalanotto singled and Delgado hit a two-run homer, giving the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead. Not to worry: Brad Radke was pitching, and we expect him to give up a couple of runs in the first, then settle down. Unfortunately, this day he did not settle down.
He got Toronto out in order in the second. In the third, however, the Blue Jays started the inning with singles by Woodward, Stewart, and Catalanotto, loading the bases. Vernon Wells walked to force in a run. Delgado delivered a two-run single. The next two batters went out, but Greg Myers singled home a run to make it 6-0.
The fourth was no better for Radke. Woodward singled, Stewart doubled, and Catalanotto hit a two-run double to put Toronto up 8-0. At that point, Ron Gardenhire pulled Radke and brought in Rincon, who brought some order to the game. He actually pitched very well, but it was simply too late/
The Twins did little offensively. Their lone run came in the sixth, when Jones doubled and Gomez singled him home. The Twins had two on with none out in the seventh and loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but could not dent the plate either time.
WP: Lidle (1-1). LP: Radke (1-1). S: None.
Notes: Gomez was at shortstop in place of Cristian Guzman. Kielty was in left, with Jones at DH. Dustan Mohr was in center in place of Torii Hunter. Michael Cuddyer was in right.
Denny Hocking went to third base in the seventh inning in place of Corey Koskie.
Koskie was 1-for-3 and was batting .462. Kielty was batting .375. Jones was batting .360.
On the other end of the scale, Luis Rivas was batting .143.
Radke allowed eight runs on ten hits and a walk in just three innings. He struck out two. By game scores it was his worst game of the season.
On the other hand, Rincon pitched really well. This was easily his longest outing of the season. He had been a starter in the minors, though, and that's mostly where he had been prior to this season, so a five-inning appearance would not have been that strange to him at the time.
He didn't make a big deal out of it, but I think Herb Carneal really enjoyed saying the name "Frank Catalanotto".
After sweeping the Tigers on the road to start the season, the Twins were swept at home by Toronto. Not to worry, though. Their next series would be on the road against the Yankees.
Record: The Twins were 3-3, tied for second with Chicago in the American League Central, 2.5 games behind Kansas City.
Fleet Walker (1856)
Brickyard Kennedy (1867)
Bill Walker (1903)
Chuck Klein (1904)
Frank Baumholtz (1918)
Grady Hatton (1922)
Bud Daley (1932)
Phil Ortega (1939)
Jose Cardenal (1943)
Rich DeLucia (1964)
Evan Longoria (1985)
Kohl Stewart (1994)
Moses Fleetwood "Fleet" Walker is credited as the first African-American to play major league baseball. A catcher, he appeared in forty-two games for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association in 1884, until rival owners and players demanded that he be removed from the roster. In those forty-two games, he batted .263/.325/.316.
h/t to free for this video. Just completely insane face melting awesomeness.
Someone on the webz said imagine having a band with D.L. Roth as the frontman, but the band is still named after the guitar player. That's about right.
(5 votes, average: 9.40 out of 10)Loading... ALL FOUR GAMES TODAY
Miami - Atlanta
Houston - Oakland
NYY - Tampa
San Diego - LA
It just so happens that I am finishing my third consecutive book by a Minnesota author. It wasn't intentional, and one of them doesn't even really count, but it gave me the idea for this topic. Still, discuss whatever you want for books... this is largely just a place holder for the content that comes in the LTEs.
Briefly, my MN Books:
The Girl Who Drank The Moon - Kelly Barnhill - Young Adult fantasy literature. Newberry medal winner. It was good. Very lyrical in its language, which was quite enjoyable. That said, Aquinas read it and put his finger squarely on the problem: there isn't really a climax. The book is all build and rising tension, and then it reaches the climax, and it just sort of happens, without taking any real time or space or challenge. That aside, I highly recommend this one, because the build and rising tension and world building and lyrical writing is all fantastic.
Sharks In The Time Of Saviors - By Kawai Strong Washburn - I found this book because Kawai and I used to be in a writer's group together back in D.C. Apparently he started working on this novel shortly after leaving that group, so I never got to see any of the first work for it, but I read a lot of his other stuff, and it was really good writing. His descriptions are excellent, and really bring a world alive. He moved to MN a few years ago, after having lived in CA, and before that D.C., and Hawaii before that. This book is really a Hawaii book, not a Minnesota book, but I'm calling him a MN author now, because I can. Anyway, check this one out. It's a bit of magical realism, heavy on the realism, and about halfway through the book switches in a way I did not see coming, and that I resented a bit at first, but, ultimately came to peace with. Which, I think, was kind of the point. A very very worthy read.
The Master Butcher's Singing Club - Louis Erdrich - I've read a few Erdrich novels over the years, though I rarely know much about them before I pick them up. The strength of her reputation is enough to convince me to give them a chance. This was one I picked up for 25 cents at a library sale or something like that, and it sat on my nightstand for maybe a year before I decided to give it a go. I'm so glad I did. It's historical fiction (naturally), set in North Dakota post-WWI, and follows the lives of a German immigrant and another woman who was from the town where this is set. What strikes me is how much reading this book has been like getting to know real people. The characters are so fully human, so well-rounded, that as I'm writing this it is just now occurring to me that they are fictitious, because they occupy a space in my brain where they seem so real. I don't know that I've had that experience in reading for a while... too many science fiction/fantasy settings that prevent that, or authors who maybe aren't quite at the level that Erdrich is? Either way... wow.
Alright, other MN authors? What are you reading? What are you looking forward to? So on and so forth. Books, go now:
Date: Saturday, April 5.
Batting stars: Jacque Jones was 3-for-6 with a double. Bobby Kielty was 2-for-5 with a double, a stolen base, and two RBIs. Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with two walks and two runs.
Pitching stars: Johan Santana pitched two shutout innings, giving up two walks and striking out one. LaTroy Hawkins pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up two walks and striking out one. J. C. Romero pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out one.
Opposition stars: Roy Halladay pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on eight hits and one walk and striking out three. Carlos Delgado was 3-for-5 with a double, a walk, and two RBIs. Shannon Stewart was 2-for-3 with a double, three walks, and two runs. Chris Woodward was 2-for-5 with a double. Josh Phelps was 1-for-5 with a home run, his second.
The game: Stewart led off the game with a double and Delgado hit a two-out RBI single to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. They had the bases loaded in the second but could not score. It looked like that would cost them, because the Twins scored two in the bottom of the second. Koskie singled and scored from first on a Doug Mientkiewicz double. Kielty followed with an RBI single and the Twins led 2-1.
Toronto again loaded the bases in the third and did not score. In the fourth, however, Stewart hit a one-out single, was balked to second, and scored on Vernon Wells' ground-rule double. Delgado followed with a run-scoring single and the Blue Jays led 3-2.
Then came a lot of missed opportunities. The Twins had two on in the fifth and a leadoff double in the sixth. The Blue Jays had two on in the seventh. The Twins had a two-out triple in the seventh. Still, the score remained 3-2 until the eighth, when Koskie walked and again scored from first on a double, this one by Kielty, tying the score 3-3.
The Twins could not cash in a leadoff double in the ninth. Toronto loaded the bases in the tenth to no avail. In the eleventh, however, Phelps hit a one-out home run to put the Blue Jays in the lead to stay. The Twins went down in order in the bottom of the eleventh.
WP: Pete Walker (1-0). LP: Eddie Guardado (0-1). S: Kelvim Escobar (1).
Notes: Tom Prince was behind the plate in place of A. J. Pierzynski. Denny Hocking was on second in place of Luis Rivas. Bobby Kielty was in right field in place of Dustan Mohr.
Pierzynski pinch-hit for Prince in the eighth and remained in the game at catcher. Michael Cuddyer pinch-hit for Hocking in the eleventh.
Kenny Rogers started for the Twins and pitched just four innings, allowing three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out two. The Twins bullpen really came through, throwing six shutout innings before the Phelps home run in the eleventh.
The real story of the game, as you may have gathered, was missed opportunities. The Twins stranded eleven and went 2-for-14 with men in scoring position. The Blue Jays stranded fifteen and went 3-for-13 with men in scoring position. The deciding run, of course, was not on a hit with men in scoring position.
There were three Blue Jays who either had or would play for the Twins: Orlando Hudson, Greg Myers, and Shannon Stewart.
Record: The Twins were 3-2, in second place in the American League Central, two games behind Kansas City.
