All posts by davidwatts

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 10 recap: Twins 3 Cleveland 2 (11 innings)

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This game started with the current Cy Young Award winner pitching like  one and ended with Blaine Boyer getting more outs than base runners allowed and a Trevor Plouffe HR to win the game. Baseball is fun!

Mike Pelfrey.  He was a pretty poor sport about being sent to the bullpen during Spring Training. But, he just can't get past 5 innings. Does he not realize this? I know Im not breakingHe pitched OK today (5 innings, 1 run) but seemed to peter out by the 4th inning.

Corey Kluber had perfect game material. By the end of the 3rd inning, I thought it was going to happen. He got through the first 15 batter before Arcia got a solid single. Then TWINS BASEBALL happened. Wild pitch, then a single with a throwing error scoring Arcia, then a fielders choice, then a sac bunt (with Herrmann breaking for home, then going back to third when he realized he was going to be out Santana was safe at 1st) , then a wild pitch on strike 3 scores a run, then a IBB, then a double play to end the inning.

Things were pretty quiet after that, with a couple of situations arising but fires put out.

This game seemed destined to go about 15 innings and Chris Herrmann pitching his second inning and Torii Hunter catching but Trevor Plouffe ended it with a mammoth HR to left field and the locals win 3-2.

 

NOTES

-According to b-r HR Tracker, this is Plouffe's first walk of HR.

- Plouffe has 9 career HR's against Cleveland. Only Kansas City (11) has given up more

-Plouffe has 37 career HRs at Target Field. That is the most. Shockingly, Jose Bautista does not have 52

-Joe Mauer was intentionally walked twice tonight. That gives him 117 for his career,  which is 8th most active and tied for 86th all time (Larry Walker and Ron Cey)

-Blaine Boyer got a win today, his first as a Twin. Other notable Twins pitcher with 1 win include Vance Worley, Kyle Waldrop, Luis Ayala, RA Dickey, Jim Hoey, and a host of others.

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 10: Twins hosting Cleveland 7:10 pm.

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The Twins are on a winning streak! Only two games but I'll take it.
Cy Young Award winning Corey Kluber throws for Cleveland. Since this years lineup is mostly the same as last year, lets go back and look what Kluber did against the Twins.
2014-09-21 @MIN W 8.0 7 2 2 1 14 0
2014-09-11 MIN W 8.1 8 2 2 0 7 0
2014-08-21 @MIN L 7.0 6 3 3 4 8 1

That jumbled mass of number says Kluber was very good against the locals.  Mike Pelfrey goes for Minnesota. Lets hope he makes it at least 6 innings and keeps the run total low.

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 4 recap : Twins 6 Bad Guys 0.

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Its always nice to get a win. To me, its always better when that win comes against the Southsiders. The sun shines brighter, the birds sing happier, the Twins Twittersphere has less angst.

The Twins wasted no time to get on the scoreboard as Joe Mauer knocked in Eddie Escobar and the score was 1-0 after a half inning. That is all Tommy Milone needed. Milone allowed only 2 hits and walked 2 in 7.2 of work, the longest a Twins starter has pitched this season. At one point, Milone had retired 16 straight White Sox batters. Its weird seeing a Twins pitcher be that stingy with base runners. Lets hope its a trend and not a mirage.

Back to the offense, The Twins walked 9 times today (3 IBB's), got a few extra base hits, and its resulted in 6 runs. I am not expecting 6 every night, but loved seeing the batting order churn over and over.

Get your rest, the Twins next game is in a few hours. 1pm central.

NOTES

-Paul Molitor notched his first win as manager. He needs 34 more to pass Johnny Goryl
-Brian Duensing got a save. He came in the 8th inning after Milone gave up a double to Tyler Flowers. Then the Twins erupted for 3 runs in the 9th. Molitor decided to keep Duensing in, even though Perkins was warming in the pen during the 9th. Its Brian's 2nd career save.
- WGOM.org's favorite player Torii Hunter stole a base in the 9th. Its his 127th as a Twin. There are only 4 players who have stolen more bases as Twin than Hunter: Kirby (134), Cesar Tovar (186), Rod Carew (271), and Chuck Knobluach (276)
- The Twins shut out opponents 7 times last year, with the earliest being April 17 against Toronto

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 4: Twins at White Sox. 3:10 pm.

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Early season baseball screws up my Twins watching. Games start at noon or 1 or in this case 3pm because spring temperatures make it not ideal for playing baseball or watching baseball in the stands. And because of these early starts, I only can catch an inning or two on my lunch break and see the score when I get home.

Well this year, I haven't missed much. The most exciting Twins related thing to happen was Bert Blyleven taking to Twitter and offering his insights on Detroit. That is not a good thing.

The Twins move on to Chicago to take on the White Sox. Both teams are 0-3.
Tommy Milone will throw for the Local 9. The current White Sox roster has a .250/.284/.391/.674 career slash line against him (67 plate apps). Chicago will throw out Hector Noesi. I would be willing to wager a lot of money that the Twins score more than 1 run this series.

GO TWINS

NBA

LA Clippers @ Wolves. 7:10pm

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Kevin Garnett was nice enough to buy 1,000 tickets to this game (would a segment of Twins fandom boo if Joe Mauer did something like this at Target Field?)

The Wolves are playing better since Pek, Martin, and Rubio have come back from injury. But tonight they will be without Pek (foot) and Martin (the flu) and missing Pek might be more of a thing because DeAndre Jordan has been in beast mode lately.

Lets hope for the best.