2015 Game 2: Minnesota Visiting Detroit

In today's let's get back to .500 edition the hometown ii's look to take revenge on their fearless leader's former squad. Will this squad ever score a run, or are they already looking toward their World Series Win in 2016?  Only time will tell.

Game Start: 12:08pm

Probables:
MIN: Ricky (Not Ricardo) Nolasco, RHP
DET: Anibal (Not an Island) Sanchez, RHP

Lineups:
MIN:
1. Santana SS
2. Dozier 2B
3. Mauer 1B
4. Hunter RF
5. Vargas DH
6. Plouffe 3B
7. Arcia LF
8. Suzuki C
9. Schafer CF
DET:
1. Gose CF
2. Kinsler 2B
3. Cabrera 1B
4. Martinez DH
5. Martinez RF
6. Cespedes LF
7. Castellanos 3B
8. Avila C
9. Iglesias SS

Go Twins!

122 thoughts on “2015 Game 2: Minnesota Visiting Detroit”

  1. ii made a pretty good catch. It will keep DicknBert going for the next month at least.

  2. I can see Ricky ('s In Love) keeping that Tigers lineup, 1-9, from scoring. But how is that Twins lineup going to get any hits?
    Calling a Ricky (Don't Lose that Number) Quality Start No Decision.

  3. Gameday suggests that Kerwin has a pretty tight strike zone in the early going ... accurate or no?

  4. Every ball that BabyJeebus has put in play this year has been to 2nd base...SSS and all that, but oy.

  5. Guys! Buddy Carlyle is back in the Majors!
    In one of my epic "Mugshot Purgatory" columns in the old basement, he featured in the Braves photos, having his MLB and AAA pics both taken with his MLB hat, but the MLB shot was smiling and the AAA shot was not.

    1. I believe the Twins can out will the other teams by pitching 50 innings of shutout baseball each game and forcing the other team to forfeit.

    1. Looking forward to Game 9 when the Twins get their first win of the season.

    1. He's always so confidently wrong, too. He never seems to doubt that he's got the name nailed, and Dick never bothers to correct him.

      1. They just put so much effort into finding numbers that could be presented better. "Starts as an outfielder in AL history" is actually indicative of player durability and worth - or at least moreso than what they looked for.

      1. That's surprising no one has ever done 3, given that runs are usually at a premium at the beginning of a season and I remember when the Twins got three consecutive shutouts from their pitchers and I believe it was all against the Braves.

        1. Why are runs at a premium at the beginning of a season as opposed to the middle or end of the season? The record is four (done eight times) and there are numerous streaks of three; most recent occurrence was the Rays last June. If anything, it seems less likely to happen at the beginning of the season due to players being better rested.

            1. From 2014:

              Month Runs/Game
              March/April 4.51
              May 4.17
              June 4.12
              July 4.04
              August 4.08
              September/October 3.90

              Conclusion: Spring training is much too short. It needs to be seven months to get pitchers into shape.

      1. There were two separate plays that were messed up, one by Hunter and one by Schafer. Schafer got an error, Hunter did not.

  6. The way I look at it, the worse the Twins play at the start of the year, the sooner we'll see some of the kids come up, which is what we really want to see anyway.

      1. True. Hunter would have to be a lot worse than I think he's going to be to get pulled from the lineup. He might get more frequent days off, though. And since he'll be forty this year, there's probably a decent chance he'll spend some time on the disabled list.

      2. I'm just hoping against hope that he reneges on his "I'm a Twin for life now that I'm home!" stance and begs for a trade to a contender at the deadline.

        Though I'm fairly certain a lot of the local fanbase would talk about how his teammates let him down, rather than how he was a jerk. I'd be elated.

  7. Just came to apologize. Turned on the game during lunch, just as the bottom of the third was starting. My bad. This one's on me.

  8. When the Twins win the World Series in a few months, we are gonna look back at this beginning of the season and laugh.

  9. I did learn, however, during my 20 minutes watching that Torii Hunter is going to school the young players, so that they don't make the same mistakes he made when he was young, which I think we can all agree is exactly what you're looking for in a corner outfielder.

                1. Oh, that reminds me I can add another to the list (and add a space, oops). I don't have the code handy but I am pretty sure this one and the usual tb one were added at the same time.

      1. Nope, it's still all text but expresses additional frustration about the baseball being played.

        1. Ahh - I tried variations of that, but not exactly that, i.e.:
          [tb]
          TWINS BASEBALL!!
          [f]
          [ftb]
          [tbf]

  10. In Re the various ii comments above - We may be in for a very, very long season.

    "You want your guys to be able to stand up and say, 'Hey, this is what we're trying to do. Until the game is over, we're trying to win,'" Molitor said. "The other side of the coin is that you don't want young players to put themselves in position to be too vulnerable to whatever way the Commissioner's Office might react to that. But Torii doesn't care anymore, I think. He's kind of at that point where he'll speak his mind. So good for him."

    emphasis mine

  11. This is when Gordo would always solemnly remind us "This is not a save situation."

  12. 2015: The Quest to Avoid 90 Losses just became 2015: The Quest to Score A Run.

  13. Never fear, Eddie Guardado will probably light some farts in the clubhouse tonight and all will be well.

  14. so, with no ubelmann around, I guess I have to do this (or maybe can get away with it). My quick Bayesian analysis suggests that the Twins will score zero runs this season.

  15. The Twins haven't scored a run in their last 28 innings, all at Detroit. (Price shut them out in the season finale last year). Of course, they won the previous game 12-3, so they're averaging 3 runs per game in their last 4 games.

  16. The Twins haven't been shut out in consecutive games since ... Sept. 2013, so not exactly a long time. That was at home to the Rays. In the final game of that series, the Twins trailed 3-0 after six innings and ended up winning 6-4. That final game was started by ... David Price. The Twins loaded the bases in the seventh inning with one out. Maddon took Price out and brought in Jake McGee, who gave up a two-run single to Chris Parmelee to end the drought.

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