Game Time - 7:10 p.m. CDT
The Twins made multiple deals ahead of the trade deadline last week as they "retool for the future." No word on when that future is expected to arrive. Fans are asked to remain patient while the retooling process is underway.
Griffin Jax on the mound for the Twins today. He's 1-1 in 3 starts with a 6.41 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP, so there's some room for improvement here. Framber Valdez takes the ball for the Astros. He's got a 7-2 record, a 3.01 ERA, and a 1.30 WHIP. Play ball!
This is anecdotal, but it seems like we've rarely seen "openers" in mlb this year. We've seen bullpen games, and we've seen piggyback situations where the starter was expected to go three or four innings and the next pitcher another two or three. But we haven't seen much of the opener, where a pitcher is planned to go one or two innings, followed by a pitcher who goes four or five. That strategy seems to have faded pretty quickly.
I agree. Have rarely if ever heard of an opener game this year.
Kind of fun to hear the Mt. Vernon (SD) baseball field highlighted on the Twins radio pregame show. I played ball on that field when I was a kid, and got a rare bunt single there once.
If the rest of the season is about the future, why are we playing Rob Refsnyder and sending Nick Gordon back to AAA?
* budseligshrug.jpg *
There's a lot of hope and help in that tweet.
They have to say something. You can always find a reason to send a young player down if that's your goal. It seems pretty early in his career to have decided he's going to be a super-utility guy, but if that's really what they've decided, there's no reason he can't learn that in Minnesota. There's no reason for Refsnyder to be playing ahead of him. Much as I love A-Stud, there's no reason for him to be playing ahead of Gordon, either.
Seriously. What's the point of the rest of this season of it isn't to give young players experience?
Good first inning for Jax.
A-Stud gets the Twins on the scoreboard!
Larnach comes through!
I dont like that is a ball rolls under the padding but is still visable is an automatic double.
It seems like (anecdotal) umps are a lot quicker to call that this year, for some reason.
Early evening farm report. Not much good news so far:
St. Paul and Louisville are tied at zero in the second. Drew Strotman is pitching for the Saints tonight.
Wichita trails Midland 4-0 in the second. Jordan Balazovic surrendered four runs in the first inning.
Cedar Rapids trails Quad Cities 4-0 in the fifth. The Kernels have just one hit.
Fort Myers trails Dunedin 5-0 in the sixth. The Mighty Mussels also have just one hit.
Great inning
Nice other half of the inning
Has Donaldson had a hit in the last several weeks?
This is the part of the game where Jax has been bogging down. Let's see if he continues to pitch great
Baby steps
GJ hasn't exactly been fooling anyone, but he's getting outs and getting Twins' first QS in the last several weeks, so good for him. Also, it's the Astros
Jax shrunk his ERA to 5.63 tonight. I saw him pitch when he got his win, he looked real good that day.
freakin bandbox
Okay, keep this crap out of the gamelogs!
I thought pinstripes were supposed to be slimming, but Gallo looks about six inches shorter in that uniform
Mitch picked an okay game to work on his K's. He almost has as many as our pitchers
Luis hasn't made an out in several weeks
Rather disappointed Coulombe doesn't have a more electric fastball. I just want him to have something with some charge on it.
Shocking dad humor this late in the evening
Don't give him so much static.
Twins need to avoid the Co*lom*e closers.