2021 Games 15 and16 (Redux): Twins at Angels

Game Times - 3:07 p.m. CDT & 6:07 p.m. CDT

The White Sox own the Twins this year and brother do they have the receipts. After losing yesterday's matinee and the home series to the Pale Hose in what's become a typically scowl-inducing fashion, the Twins hopped a plane to the West Coast to make up two games with Anaheim from April that were postponed because of the COVID. They'll do that with a doubleheader today, after which the team will wing its way to Cleveland to open a weekend series on Friday. That's a lot of miles to log in just a couple of days.

In game one of today's twin bill, the Gemini will send southpaw Lewis Thorpe to the mound. He was added as the 27th man (I still have not internalized this rule) to the roster for the makeup games. His only other appearance this year opened the truncated series in Anaheim on April 16th that's being completed today, a spot start in which he gave up two runs on three hits over four inning. The Angels counter with right-hander Alex Cobb coming off the injured list for his first trip to the mound since Star Wars day. He threw five scoreless innings against the Rays in his last start before he was sidelined with a blistered finger.

Game two today figures to be the better pitching matchup of the pair, with the Twins featuring Jose Berrios and the Angels handing the ball to Griffin Canning (no, that is not some mythical beast putting up preserves). Both Berrios and Canning hold 3-2 records and pitched well in their last starts. Canning has an overall ERA of 4.78 after some rough outings in April, but he's notched a 1.59 ERA over his last three games. Berrios leads the Twins with 49 strikeouts and his ERA sits at 3.74 on the season.

It seems the statfreak mentality has taken hold among some in the  media and the prophets of doom are already casting their gaze to the trade deadline and speculating on what the Twins could get for looming free agents like Nelson Cruz and J.A. Happ and Big Mike Pineda. They may be right, maybe this is a lost season and the front office should look beyond this year already, but then again a lot of people lost good money betting against the New York Giants when they were down by 13 games in August of 1951. Now I'll always have to wonder what they could have gotten in return for Bobby Thompson if only Chub Feeney had been a little more aggressive with his roster moves.

Play ball!

39 thoughts on “2021 Games 15 and16 (Redux): Twins at Angels”

    1. It's one thing if Duffman actually hit his target but he didnt even do that . That suspension is BS

      1. It is, but they have to discipline what they can, they don't have a rule against stupid.

    1. I hate to throw in the towel before Memorial Day, but this team looks so ungood right now.

      1. I don't think there's much chance of a pennant race, but I still have some hope that they can get things together enough to make a run at .500 before the season's over. I expected somewhat of a down year, but I still don't believe this team is as bad as they've played so far.

        1. Maybe a 1989 type year, where the hitting overall is really good but the pitching staff is a mess leading to .500

        2. Right, I'm already assuming there's no playoff chance for this team this year.

        1. It does feel that way. I don't know if it's actually true, but that's how it feels.

  1. In Tampa, two Fort Myers pitchers have a combined no-hitter going in the sixth inning. However, they Mighty Mussels trail Tampa 4-2. Tampa scored two in the first on three walks, a hit batsman, and another walk. They scored one in the second on an error, two stolen bases, and a sacrifice fly. They scored one in the fourth on a walk, a wild pitch, and two fly balls. It's not that uncommon for a team to be no-hit and score once, but I've never heard of a team being no-hit and scoring four.

      1. I knew Hawkins had an odd no-hitter, but I didn't remember that he allowed four runs.

    1. you notice the dude in the crowd yelled something and Robles held on the ball until he finished

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