All posts by Can of Corn

2011 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins

Game 118, Indians 3, Twins 2

A pinch hit recap for Twayn...I wish I was on vacation and he were writing this.

I was really looking forward to having all of our opening day starters back together again. Then Cuddy tweaked something in his neck in early batting practice and Kubel had to sub in right. Good start out of Pavano. Not a good outing by Perkins. Mountie and Lexi back in the lineup - Laddie back out of the lineup in the 7th with a tweaked hamstring...lots of "tweaking" tonight.

Batters 1 through 6 were 1 for 20 with a walk and rare were the outs made on well struck balls (typically they didn't even leave the infield). That's simply not going to cut it. Most exciting moment for the hometown 9 may have been the Dude's 400+ ft fly out to center in the 5th. Nishi had both rbi's for the Twins, but also had a pretty gawd-awful night in the field.

"We basically gave it away," Gardenhire said. "We missed a lot of plays. It's a tough loss for us. We need some people to play a lot better baseball. It's kind of embarrassing to tell you the truth."

I couldn't agree more. Highlight of the night for me was the shout-out to Rhubarb_Runner of WGOM and é rayhahn, rayhahn fame who is "jostling for position" with someone named Matt Krieger...and Rhu_Ru didn't even submit the winning answer tonight!11!1!

For some reason, I've been hanging on to hope that this team would make a run and challenge for a playoff spot. Watching them run around like monkeys f*cking a football tonight has pretty much cinched it for me. How about you?

2011 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins

Game 116: Red Sox 4, Twins 3

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WP: Albers (4-3), LP: Capps (3-6)

I didn't see a recap for last night's game...perhaps that was done on purpose? I have no doubt this will add very little to the current GOSO sentiment currently enveloping the WGOM, but I'm bored this afternoon and this post from JoeC included some interesting thoughts from the manager about the pitcher last night. Full disclosure, I didn't watch the game - just heard the end of it in the car, but a career high in walks is pretty brutal. However, Gardy seemed to think that F-Bomb did okay.

There were a lot of pitches that were close, borderline, just missing, and we like where the ball was, down around the knees. That's a pretty good start for him. Hopefully he can continue that process.

As you can see from the strikezone plot, Frankie was down in the zone. I guess my hope is that he can continue to work on staying down, throwing strikes and getting ahead in the count for the remainder of the year. His value to the Twins depends on those moments of brilliance associated with that funky delivery and left arm.

 

2011 Twins Game Recaps

2011 Game 82 (2nd Half, Game 1) Recap: Brewers 7, Twins 9

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Minnesota (36-46)  -  Milwaukee (45-40)
WP: Dumatrait (1-1)
LP: Loe (2-7)
SV: Perkins (1)

JI JIM Mashes Taters and the Iceman cometh up big time as the pair drove in 4 runs and scored 4 runs. Jim crossed home plate 3 times but arguably the biggest moment was not career HR 595 in the 2nd (which was nice), it was the 2-out walk off of Grienke in the 4th. Juicy followed with his first hit of the day, a double, which paved the way for Rene Tosoni's 3-run blast. The Iceman's donger got the Twins back into the game after a terrible top half of the 4th saw the visitors throw up a 5 spot.

After that, it was all Twins bullpen (with a little help from Kotsay in the 7th). Snicklefritz, Dumatrait, Nathan, Capps and Perkins combined to go 5 innings giving up only 1 run on 4 hits. Twins batters scored 4 times in the 7th - all with 2 outs and all off of walks or singles...or on the hilarious fielding error by Mark Kotsay.

Nathan looked good in the 8th. Conversely, Capps looked pretty bad in the 9th. Gardy, quite surprisingly, pulled him out after he managed to put runners on 1st and 2nd with only 1 out and Prince Fielder due up. Perkins got the call and struck the big vegetarian out on 3 pitches! The Brewers still had one more batter, but you just knew it was in the bag after that.

Neither Grienke nor Blackburn figured in the decision. Zack went 6 innings giving up 5 runs on 5 hits, 4 of them earned. Nick went 4 innings giving up 6 runs on 6 hits, all of them earned.

Cuddyer is our All Star representative. They announced it during the game and he got a pretty good ovation. After that, it's a good thing he got in on the scoring with 2 RBI on 2 hits as he badly misplayed a ball off the right field wall in the 4th, leading to a triple for Kotsay and at least one of those 5 runs for the Crew.

On a personal note, I'd like to post a thank you to Cornsilk  (thanks for that one guys) who took me to the game today. She doesn't follow the World's Greatest, but I am blessed and wanted to share it with you all.

Weather: Gorgeous

Time of Game: 3 hours 14 minutes

Attendance: 41,195



2011 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins, MLB

2011 Game 78: Dodgers 4, Twins 6

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WP: Duensing (5-7, 4.69)
LP: Lilly (5-8, 4.97)
SV: Capps (12)
I love the mojo gumshoe, ballpark views and quick glances at statistics like WPA to tell you a bit about what went down, but none of those things are mine. I tried think of something clever for my first recap since the season opener (glad that fiasco was left in the other basement) but instead I decided, don't over think the thing. I watched the game, took notes, and below is what I saw.

Also, I DVR'd the game so I could cover the recap after bottling my first try at brewing a hefeweizen. Missing the game live for what turned out to be a nice win seems worth it if this brew ends up better than my last one. /Side note: tip of the cap to cheap - letting that last one sit for a few months has improved it enough that I don't expect to boil a huge batch of brats anytime soon/ After watching the game, I read the game log and found that my notes pretty well shadow the conversation...funny how that works.

As I said before, these are my notes. If you didn't see the game and want to know what went down, read on...if you just wanted the score, now you have it.

-Game Notes-

Got off to a good start for both Dunce and the offense. Quick top of 1st and then a nice little single, sac bunt, stolen base (3rd base!  by Revere), and a RBI single by our resident slap-hitting p*ssy DH to get the Twins on the board.

A great catch by Valencia to start the 2nd led to another quick inning by Duensing. Bottom half, Replicant gets on with a single, steals 2nd, moves over to third and then scores on a single by Revere. Revere then steals 2nd while Laddie is batting and scores on Lexi's doubtriple…

I hate to admit it, but I really was entertained watching Laddie smash that ball off the left field wall and get thrown out trying to stretch the double into a triple (despite the play being in front of him as he rounded 2nd base). That young man is truly a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…or as Gardy would say, “bonehead”.

5th Inning: watched Dunce give up a home run to Aaron Miles. It was the first HR for the Dodger since 2008 and only the 17th of his MLB career. I thought to myself, “God, I hope this inning doesn’t spiral.” Well of course it spiraled. Dunce was trying hard not to give up hits; instead he managed to walk the 9 hitter Jamey Carroll and, eventually, Casey Blake to fill the bases. With Ethier stepping into the box I thought to myself, “Self, why did you spooky this inning?” Sure enough, RBI # 39 & 40 for Andre and the 3-run lead has dissipated. Then he gets to face Kemp, who (as Dick so kindly informs us) is “a dangerous man at the plate…Kemp with 22 home runs and the Twins active roster with 28 this year.” “Awesome,” says I. Dunce gets ahead of Kemp at 0-2 and somehow finagles a shallow fly-out to keep the score even at 4.

Next thing I know (Holy Sh!t, Dick with the call!), Aussie’s 5th inning donger jack with 2 outs and one on (Valencia) puts the boys back up by 2! That was actually one of the stories tonight: 2-out RBI by Revere, Laddie and Aussie (2).

Following a hit batsman, Burnett comes in for Dunce with no one out in the 6th and promptly coaxes a nice little around-the-horn double play ball out of Thames and a ground out by Miles.

1 out and 1 on in the 7th and Perkins comes in for Burnett. Gets a ground out and then gives up a single to Blake. I laughed right out loud when Rivera tagged Carroll out at home. Took a great tag to "get" him, but the throw from Replicant was there to make it happen (or appear to happen). Jason seemed to be doing it to the Dodgers all night long.

8th starts and Twitchy comes in for Perkins after a hit by Ethier. Strikes out Kemp and should have been out of the inning with a double-play grounder. Though it seemed like a weird distance for an underhand toss from Nishioka, Laddie still had a chance at the out with an on-target throw - pretty tough to do with Ethier sliding hard under him at the 2nd base bag. Nathan next faced a pinch-hitter (James Loney) ending the at-bat with a nasty curve for strike 3, (apparently the first breaking ball of his evening), down goes Loney and we move on.

As has become more typical than I’d like, Crisco makes the 9th inning interesting. Ground out to start the inning, a walk to Oeltjen, Crisco with an “athletic move” to get Navarro for the second out and a walk to Gwynn Jr.  put the tying run on base. Finally, another ground out to Laddie salts it away.

Twins Win !