Things are going well! Playoff spot has been clinched with plenty of season left, now it's time to get everyone in line for the postseason and ....
Hang on. I've got the wrong Minnesota team here.
(shuffles notes)
Ah! Here we are.
Everything is terrible! They'll never make the playoffs and there's not nearly enough season left for them to turn it around and play better.
Matt Shoemaker v. Wil Crowe
Winning this series against the Pirates would be a good place to start. To do that the Twins look to Matt Shoemaker, who has been bit by the home run early in this season. Every run he has allowed so far has come from a home run, including a 3-run homer off Alcala that scored the two runners that were bequeathed by Shoemaker in his last start in Oakland.
5 home runs in 14.1 IP isn't really a recipe for success, but he's only allowed one other extra base hit. So keeping the Pirates in the yard will maybe be an indicator of how this start goes.
Wil Crowe goes for Pittsburgh. This will be the 5th appearance in his career (4th start). He's pitched 9 innings in the majors and allowed 5 home runs and walked 10 hitters. In his lone appearance this year, he faced 5 batters. Two strikeouts, a single, two walks and two wild pitches.
Fangraphs says the following about Crowe:
[Crowe] works with below-average velo, he’s a below-average athlete, he’s had health issues ... and has now struggled during his first big league trial, at age 25/26. I wonder if his fastball will gain a few tick in relief, and I think it needs to based on how loose his location of it was in 2020.
Hopefully, the Twins can feast on Crowe. And if they don't I guess I'll be ... eating ... crow?
(That was bad. I feel bad about that)
Puns are good. But can you eat crow if you didn't actually declare a victory? Should you? Seems like a lot of burden on hope.
That was a rookie pun - no points allocated
DG certainly murdered that pun.
Nice
Solid single and a couple of bloops and now down at least a run
Every run he has allowed so far has come from a home run, ... 5 home runs in 14.1 IP isn't really a recipe for success, but he's only allowed one other extra base hit.
Shoe is taking your entire write up as a personal challenge it seems, DG
Next week I'm doing double secret reverse psychology.
Even I won't know what I'm implying.
Can't hurt; might help
Today, two teams will take the field.
Pitching will occur.
Bats will be swung.
Peanuts, cracker jack, that whole thing.
You get it.
That's poetry, DG. Pure poetry.
I just started listening, but we're going to have to score more than two runs to win, so it's not looking good.
so, you bring in a LOOGY to face a rookie with so little service time he has a 000/000/000 slash line? Oookay, then. Thanks, Pittsburgh.
no bueno, Thielbar.
A hit!
And another hit!
And that's it.
doing my taxes is more interesting than this game....
I believe the Twins are leading the league in Fan Exasperated Sighs per 9 innings.
FEZ/9
I believe this deserves a WGOM buck with a fez on top. Where's our resident Photoshop King when you need him?
Eh, this is close enough.
I lack confidence that the Twins will come back to win this game.
It just keeps getting better
Well, we got our two runs, finally.
One could say "He only HRs when it's too late", but that's pretty much all the time, right?
The good news is that the brisket is smoked before it's too late to eat for dinner! Better news I'm not hammered and trying to clean the smoker!
So, are you not trying to clean the smoker, or not hammered?
Winning one out of three is better than being swept.
Being swept is better than being the Yankees.
Being the Yankees is better than ...
Damn, this game got hard.
Yeah, I played my trump card too early
I'm a little late to the party, but I just wanted to know that this Game Log was a Thing With Feathers
Love this.