Game Time - 12:10 p.m. CDT
Ass-bats and ass-arms. Either the Twins are a better team than their record indicates, or this isn't going to be the team I thought it was going to be. But it's still early and I take solace in the conventional wisdom that the front office has two months to figure out what's broke and two months to fix it. I'd suggest, though, that they don't need another month of figuring and can move directly on to the fixing at this point.
Big Mike starts off the slinging for the Twins today, he's 2-1 with a 2.30 ERA and 27 strikeouts in five starts and you can't ask for much more than that. Jordan Lyles takes the mound for the Rangers in the matinee sporting a 1-2 record with a 7.39 ERA. He was roughed up to the tune of five runs over four innings by the Red Sox in his last start and he's given up 12 over his last two, so there may be opportunity to put some crooked numbers on the board. Play ball!
Nick Gordon making his major league debut today. Good for him. Hopefully he does well.
He beat the shift
Rhu_Ru’s snark might be a fresh tactic. Who should be next?
Kepler with a leadoff home run. Take that shift.
Gordon's first plate appearance ends with a walk and he steals second.
btw, all La Tortuga does is hit into DPs.
Buxton took away the GIDP but I think this counts.
*casts Sauron eye over lineup* Glad Nick Gordon got his one time on base, because it's not happening again today.
😮
way to go Nick Gordon!
Well, too bad Max HR'd right away in the first, because the Twins won't be hitting any more this game.
And here we go.....
......
In goes Robles to replace Pineda who was at 87 pitches. What was it The Pirate said...
Yup.
And there goes the lead...
I was at the Carlos Silva game they are discussing. (when he fired the ball to the upper deck)
Can't wait for the Ump Scorecard on this one.
wow
Can't be good. Oof.
brutal call on "Strike 3"
after a brutal call on ball 1!
Well, he didn't strike out.
Rogers spanning multiple innings with a day off worked well. Too bad Pineda was hooked before 90 pitches.
Nice work Jorge.
Score now, or doom!
Top of the lineup and Manfredball looming. If this goes to the tenth, I'm going to need to find a gambling site that would let me put a bet in.
We could put Ballys/Sinclair out of business betting against the Twins once it goes into extras.
Final half inning for the Twins to win.
oh good lord
oh boy.
Fake Game Time!
Tough to win when you score only three runs.
I blame Kepler and Polanco.
well, that's not good.
TWINS BASEBALL!!
Cave in for Buxton? What happened?
He pulled up limping just before he got to first base.
His at bat before that, he didnt run very hard to first base
Yeah. Which is what made it weird to me that he looked ok coming out of the box in that last at-bat. They did mention he's been dealing with some knee tendinitis.
Got a notification saying he's day-to-day with a strained hip.
Well, they made that look easy.
Twins 0-6 in extras so far this season, and the Reds are the only other team to have played more than four Manfred Rules. Like mosquitoes to bare skin.
Nellie Cruz Control at 2nd. Gotta have that kind of speed in scoring position when you need a run.
well, we have speed on, so got that working for us here
Just put it over the damned fence, Donaldson.
Hard to if the strike zone is six inches outside
Good lord this ump is bad.
Cuzzi? Bad? Well, I never!
I didn't know it was Cuzzi. Figures.
I'm not sure what to do with this strike zone. Good lord.
There goes Donaldson, choking in a key moment.
This team is excruciating to watch. Even when it’s just as background for working in the garage.
You're not wrong. It's catching up to 2011, 2016 and 2018 very quickly.
I did some looking today, and the team is 3-7 now when the starters hand the bullpen a lead of 3 runs or less.
Maybe a starter can throw 100 pitches? #squadgoals
Eventually you have to let a guy keep going when he's rolling, right?
I mean, one would think. lol
I'm going to assume that next year's draft class is terrible, right?
cue the fake-loss explosives. 🙁
Well, at least he didn't strike out.
Astudillo never strikes out but does in extra innings, noted defensive specialist Joey Gallo rubs Sano of a hit
You cant make it up
Well, at least Willians didn't hit into a DP, which is what he usually does in extras.
Gallo did win a Gold Glove last season, so it sort of tracks?
It doesn't matter, though, they could have had Nelson Cruz out there, and the instant that the ball went into the outfield, it was going to get caught.
Yes. Gallo is actually a good fielder. He's below average for sprint speed in 2021 (26.6 ft/s) but was above average in 2020 and earlier.
I had no idea Gallo won a GG lol, but this year he is at a -.5 brDWAR
I'm tabbing the curse on the Twins' 2021 season entirely on Sam Adams' Wicked Hazy IPA until someone can sway me otherwise.
WICKED WHAT??
I would like to submit blaming it on the prevalence of hazy IPA's in general.
Yeah, I'm not much of a fan and they're evvvverywhere.
We went to a place in Madison on Saturday that had zero normal IPAs and like, four hazy ones. I want my beer to look good, dammit!
At some point, it's not bad luck when you can't get a single with a guy at second.
or two fly balls.
Or really a ball in play at any point other than with 2 outs.
or a WP. Or is that just something our RP do?
The more offensive sinkholes there are, the more “bad luck” seems like a convenient excuse for hitters who don’t get the job done when it needs to get done.
I mean, it can't be as hard as winning a playoff game...
The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass every day, but the Twins must have a serious vitamin D deficiency by now.