San Diego Padres and their $250 million dollar payroll come into town for a rare series against the Twins. Even with elite hitters such as Manny Machado, Juan Soto, and Fernando Tatis, Jr., the Padres have been about as ass-batty as the Twins, with near league lows in average and runs scored.
Extremely tall Iowa native Michael Wacha on the mound for the Padres. He was very good last year for Red Sox against the Twins so we will see if that success continues. Louie Varland has pitched ok with no decisions since being called up so it would be nice to seem him get settled and pitch a good game.
Thing I Learned Today: Nelson Cruz plays for the Padres.
Game time 6:40 with decent temps and a slight chance for rain.
When I hear "Wacha" I can't help thinking of Fozzie Bear.
Or when Dazzle says, "Wacha walked Buxton."
Yay Justin Morneau is back in the booth
A hit!
I don't know if the Twins can score enough to get back into this game.
Watching the Twins play a series in Petco is something I would actually travel across the country to see. Even better if it were the World Series!
I try not to let my distaste for Preller & Machado overshadow how fond I am of the Friars.
I really need some Rubio's.
Tie game!
Minor league update:
St. Paul leads Indianapolis 4-0 in the fourth. Michael Helman hit a three-run homer.
Wichita and Frisco are tied 4-4 in the sixth. Pat Winkel hit a two-run homer.
Cedar Rapids leads Quad Cities 4-2 in the fourth. Jeferson Morales and Keoni Cavaco have homered.
Fort Myers leads Tampa 6-3 in the sixth. Jorel Ortega is 3-for-3.
Not sure how we can win any games when the staff lets runs pile up like they have
Sorry, this was 40 minutes too early
Lots of
TWINS BASEBALL!!!
this inning.
OFFS
oofta
somehow, a bloop and a blast and we will be tied up
Robot umps now!
A hit? A hit!
What a putrid stretch of baseball.
It really has been. Somehow on the season this squad is hitting .268/.365/.508 with RISP. I was expecting much worse (for reference, a team I was assuming would be head and shoulders above the Twins in the old RISP - TB - is currently trotting a .285/.364/.479 out there).
The real killer is that in 18 games of the ‘Late & Close’* variety, the team is slashing .190/.272/.321 while in 15 of these, the Rays are good for .280/.336/.576.
*
I liked it better when we were scoring 9 runs an inning
Correa’s 6 LOB isn’t going to help the -0.73 WPA millstone he carried into tonight’s game.
Don't look at his clutch numbers for the season on a full stomach