All posts by Can of Corn

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 115 & 114 (Pt. Deux): Astros at Twins

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Rain, rain go away
Come again another day:
Little Jose wants to play

Twins score 5 runs off 2015 Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel, including a leadoff homerun by Brian Dozier, and win it going away!

le sigh...

"You get off to a good start against a good pitcher and you've got your best guy out there and you've just got to wipe it off the slate," Twins manager Paul Molitor said, with a hint of weariness in his voice. "Unfortunate. Good for them."

Apparently, last night's tilt was just for funsies, not an official game, and will be replayed tonight featuring bullpen residents Tommy Milone and Chris Devenski on the mound.

The day game features every immature person's favorite giggle-inducing, unfortunately-named veteran Doug Fister (10-7, 3.47 ERA) facing 22-year-old rookie Jose Berrios (2-2, 8.31 ERA), who is hoping to notch his 3rd big league win (and second against the Astros). Berrios's best Game Score thus far is a rather timid 57 (his first major league win vs Houston), while his opponent has accrued 8 games with GSc's of ≥60, with a record of 7-1 in those contests this year.

Bring 'em home, boyos!

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 95: The Last Place Minnesota Twins at The First Place Boston Red Sox

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Minnesota has gone 10-6 in July, winning two series' against the West-leading Rangers and three out of four against Oakland. They didn't really get the offense going in their first series back following the All Star Break (against Cleveland), scored no runs on Monday, had one big inning on Tuesday (5 runs) and another crooked number in the 9th yesterday (3 runs) to notch a series win against the 2nd place Tigers.

In Boston to face the Red Sox (1st in the East, 53-39, 8-2 in their past 10) for the next four games, the Twins start the series with a rebounding Tyler Duffey on the mound. Duffey is 3-0 in his last four starts with a 3.10 ERA, and Twins' wins in each of his past five starts.

Squaring off against the Twins for Boston is All Star knuckleballer Steven Wright (11-5, 2.78 ERA, 1.18 WHIP), winner of his past three games (though with an atrocious 6.35 ERA) and looking for continued support from an offense averaging 5.38 runs per game over the past dozen.

Read on if you care to learn more about the huge mistake the Twins made when they released David "Big Papi" Ortiz ... 14 years ago ...

Spoiler SelectShow

Cup of Coffee

July 16, 2016: Free stuff

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High school friend of my wife has a 6 year old daughter and 4 year old son. My kids are roughly 2 years younger, respectively. Every year, we get bags of hand me downs from them - here again today to deliver another load and swim in the pool ... I can't begin to contemplate how much money they've saved us.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 85: Twins at Rangers

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Just past the halfway point of the season (2nd half started on Monday).

Following the win against Oakland last night, this is the first time all year the Twins have won back-to-back series' and (courtesy of socal) only the second time they've managed to avoid losing multiple games in a row. I'll go out on a limb and say that there is very little chance for this team to climb back into contention, but a couple of bright spots:
-They don't hold the worst record in baseball (ATL is 28-57).
-Over his past 5 starts, Ervin Santana is 2-1, with a 2.76 ERA and 20 K's - 5 BB in 32.2 innings of work (including a complete game, 2-hit shutout last night against Oakland).
-After an atrocious offensive April & May, Brian Dozier has managed to pull himself up to a respectable .252/.336/.456 and leads the team with a 1.8 WAR.
-Over 44 games with the team, Robbie Grossman is batting .281/.420/.473 (and, though short of the req'd AB's, leads the team in OPS and OPS+) ... plus, an outfielder playing in the outfield!!!one111

Tonight, we'll see if young Mr. Duffey can build on his 8-Inning, 2 Hit, 1 Run performance in New York last week, and add another W to his team-leading 4 Wins.

For those interested (and out of market I presume) MLB.TV's free game of the day.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 72: Phillies @ Twins

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The Twins haven't had a three-game sweep since visiting Seattle back in late May.
The Twins haven't had a four-game winning streak since sweeping LAA and winning the first game against MIL between April 15-18.
In his 15th start, Ricky Nolasco will be the first Twins starter with a chance to win their fourth game of the season.
Right fielder Max Kepler is riding an 8-game hitting streak, and but for an 0-5 showing against LAA on June 13, would be on a 12-game streak.

The Phillies are riding a 9-game (I think) losing streak ... hope the locals can make it 10.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 59: Florida at Minnesota

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Last week, I suggested that with a long home stand facing a few teams with losing records, attendance at games could result in fans seeing some wins. The team from Tampa, FL had a losing record and came into town having lost 10 of 12. They promptly lost the first game of the series against the Twins. Since then, they still own a losing record (27-31), but have won 5 of 6 including the final 3 against the Minnesota. Their lone loss? Facing Zack Greinke...

On the other hand, the team from Miami, FL came into town with a winning record (30-27), and recent fair-to-middling series' against the Mets and Pirates. Today, the Twins send Ervin Santana (1-5, 4.50 ERA) to the mound to face righty Tom Koehler (3-6, 4.50 ERA) with a chance to sweep the Fish.

It feels like the pattern for this year is feast or famine (emphasis on the latter), with lots of L's punctuated by a 'W' here and there, with the odd sweep/winning streak thrown in to tease us. I'm past believing that a couple of wins signifies a return to competence or competitiveness, but I'll be at the game tonight with a groups of classmates - celebrating the conclusion of our Policy Fellows program, so I'm hoping for a repeat of the power we've been treated to in recent weeks, if not an outright WIN!

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 53: Rays at Twins

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Kyle Gibson (0-3, 6.10 ERA) comes off the DL for his first start* former starter Phil Hughes comes out of the pen, looking for his first win in over a month (0-5, 6.43 ERA in that span w/ a 0-3, 7.43 ERA in May) to face Matt Moore (2-3, 5.31 ERA).

After averaging 6 runs per game in Seattle, the Twins offense reverted to a more anemic 2.33 runs per game in Oakland. This limited run production will likely continue as their RBI & HR leader, Miguel Sano, has been placed on the DL with a hamstring injury. That being said, Nunez & Mauer (AL Player of the Week for June 29!) the two Twins with higher BA's, OBP's and OPS's are still available. And, in a dozen games with the Twins, left fielder Robbie "Not Rex" Grossman is slashing .359/.457/.667 with 9 RBI's and 8 extra-base hits ... So they got that going for 'em.

The Twins play only 3 road games in their next 20. With visits from Tampa, New York and Philadelphia (all currently owners of sub-.500 records) combined with the Twins record of 4-6 in their past 10, it could be argued that there will be wins at Target Field in the next three weeks. Furthermore, at 15-37, I can assure you that good seats will be available for cheap (though I'd wager the "good seats" will be filled with BoSox and Yankme fans when those teams are here).

*Gibson scratched due to a sore back.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: (Game In Progress) … a common refrain

22 Comments

This is here.
Add your list down there.
 
 
 
 
HJ:
I'm going to hijack this thread a little to announce...


WGOM SUMMER MIX 2016!

Over the next couple weeks we'll take submissions. Rules are pretty simple:

  • Nominate up to 3 songs in a Spoiler.
  • Nominate songs that fall under the category of "Summer" (you can take that as subjectively as you'd like)
  • Like the All-Star game, everyone gets at least one song. Your first nominated song is (most likely) juiced in to be picked.
  • The same song nominated by multiple people will also most likely be automatically included.
  • Whatever other rules I make up along the way.

I'm shooting to have this done by the solstice, so let's get those picks in!

2016 Twins Game Logs

2016 – Game 40: Toronto @ Minnesota

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Ervin Santana faces off against Marco Estrada. While both pitchers sport 1-2 records, Santana has managed 29.1 innings over 6 starts with a decent 3.38 ERA and 3.36 FIP, but a 1.50 WHIP, 124 ERA+, opponents batting average of .281 and BABIP of .341 and only 27 strikeouts on the year.

On the other hand, Estrada has pitched 43.2 innings in 7 starts with a shiny 2.89 ERA, a 3.64 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, 141 ERA+, opponents BA of .199 and BABIP of .241 and 41 strikeouts. He's seen only 2.06 runs/9 of support compared to 3.38 for Santana...we'll see how it goes.

The Twins brand has lost it's luster during the first 8 weeks of the season ... more losses than wins, poor hitting, fielding, pitching, managing and roster construction in general resulting in lots of moves in non-competitive season. Moves that appear to be, to borrow a well-worn analogy, like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Hopefully for the long-suffering diehard fans (5 of 6 years of 90+ losses!?) and those youngsters in the stands getting their first taste of live baseball (there's gotta be a few families taking advantage of the dirt-cheap secondary market, eh?) may the home team bring home a win today!

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: Live Music

33 Comments

Not sure who has May but I was here, nothing was up, and I went to a concert last night!

I've lived in the Eastside and/or the WBL area for the past 8 years, but I'd never been to the Myth for a show. It's sort of a weird venue; a dance club/concert space in what amounts to big box, strip mall, regular mall, sea of parking lots suburbia (but free parking ftw!). Once inside however, I was pleasantly surprised at the layout and acoustics.

Heard three bands: Joywave, Foals and Silversun Pickups. To be honest, I was most excited to see the first two bands, and rightly so as it turned out.

Joywave only had 30 minutes, but played some great stuff: Now, Parade, Nice House, Bad Dreams, Somebody New, Tongues, Destruction, Destruction (not a typo ... they played this song twice in a row. I've never seen that before). It was still light outside and the crowd wasn't into it yet, but the band didn't seem to care - lots of snarky self-deprecation and goofy commentary during the set, but they played some interesting & catchy tunes. Would've liked to hear another 5 songs.

Foals played an awesome set and rocked it out like it was the last show they'd ever play. I was really disappointed to miss them with Cage The Elephant and J. Roddy Walston & The Business a few years back, even more so after taking in their performance last night. Stuff I knew into stuff I didn't know, but seamlessly and with great flow, and live, they were cohesive in a way that I think some bands lack. Really impressive.

SSP have about a half-dozen songs I really like, and the remainder of their output feels like lots of sameness. That was the case live too. That being said, their production felt crisp and they sprinkled in some of their more popular stuff while playing lots off the newest album... actually, that could be why I wasn't really feeling it.

Next up for me is Sturgill, and then Wilco & Kurt Vile later in the summer. Not sure who else is coming ... what have you seen (or who are you planning to see)?