So after beating up on the dreadful A's the Twins back in the mire losing to teams that are decent. The Mariners are a little disappointing this year after finally making the playoffs in 2022 but apparently playing the Twins is a good tonic for what ails you (Royals and A's excepted).
Rookie Bryan Woo on the mound for the Mariners. He's only 23 and I think this is his 3rd or 4th start. Bailey Ober up for the Twins and he continues to pitch well, but without a lot of run support from the bats.
Fourth of July! Grab a cold beer, hotdog, drive your Chevy truck to grandmas and go watch some baseball just like Tom Jefferson told you to do some 247 years ago.
Twins play the unfortunately (for today) named Royals at Target Field. Maeda v. Grienke. Can't get any more American that that.
Game 81, halfway through the season so we can take stock of the 2023 Twins team: Good starting pitching. Ass bats. ok bullpen. (Imagine you all get insight like that without a subscription to the Athletic.)
Twins in the second game against the first place Atlanta team. Bryce Elder on the mound for Atlanta and he's a rookie who's done a real nice job this year. It's the Joe Ryan Express for the Twins and let's hope he continues with his excellent ways.
It looks the the summer of our discontent is settling in on this 2023 Twins team. Third worst record since May 1 (behind the Royals and A's), 23 games under .500 since 2021, etc. But what's worse the Twins are just playing bad unfun baseball. Bonehead plays in the field, stupid baserunning, poor approaches at the plate, head-scratching match-ups and moves by the manager, former Twins tearing up the league in new uniforms. If the Twins were in any other division other that the AL Central, we'd be GOSOing the team already. Oof.
Bailey Ober on the mound tonight and he's been a nice little addition to the starting rotation. 0.99 WHIP, almost a K per inning. Looks like he could be a positive contributor for years to come. Kutter Crawford -- who has a name that should have been given to a minor character in Field of Dreams -- is "starting" for the Sox, but it looks like this may be a bullpen game for them.
First pitch at 6:40. Should be toasty warm at the ballpark if you head out.
Time for my semi-annual, why does MLB hate money and schedule the Brewers for a two-game mid-week series when a weekend series would guarantee near capacity crowds screed. Whew, I feel better already.
Brewers season similar to Twins in that they play in a crappy division yet only find themselves 2 games over .500. They are especially feeling a little down after being swept by the lowly A's this past weekend. Corbin Burnes on the mound for the Brewers. He's considered their ace I guess but has been pretty humdrum in 2023. His one strikeout per inning may cause issues for the strikeout prone Twins however.
Pablo Lopez up for the Twins and we all would like to see the April version of Lopez, not the May version, especially given that Louis Arraez is still tearing it up it in the National League. Lopez pitched really well against the Rays last week in a losing effort. Hopefully he can continue to pitch like that and the Twins bats can come alive.
Looks like a gorgeous night for some baseball. First pitch at 6:40p.
Twins head down to St. Pete to play the scorching hot Rays for a three game series. Rays by far have been the best team in MLB this year with a 43-19 record and only six losses at the horror dome known as The Trop. They are doing this with the 3rd lowest payroll, at $73.2 million, or roughly the cost of two Carlos Correas.
Louie Varland on for the Twins and he's showing signs that he can be a serviceable number 4 or 5 guy. Zach Eflin for the Rays and of course his 7-1 record is going to reflect how well the Rays are playing but his WHIP of 1.0 and nearly a strikeout an inning may play havoc with the assbats the Twins seem to be lugging from town to town these days.
After some heroics from Royce Lewis yesterday, Twins back at it tonight against Houston in an evening game. Joe Ryan on the mound vs. Brandon Bielak. Twins definitely come out ahead on today's pitching match up so hopefully the bats can be active and timely once again. No word this morning on Byron Buxton who was not in the line up yesterday. He's been pretty wretched at the plate since he dinged that knee so hopefully a few days off will get him back on track. LATE
UPDATE: Buxton in today's lineup. Hopefully the one day did him good.
Oof. Twins have lost five of last seven games all to California teams and for the most part have looked pretty lousy doing so. Sonny Gray on the mound for the Twins tonight and although he has pitched well all season, he hasn't won a game yet in May either. Alex Cobb for the Giants.
Twins have a tough stretch of games coming up and it would be nice to feast upon the so-so Giants. If the rest of the Central wasn't so lousy I'd be worried about going all GOSO on the Twins but I think we can still count on some good baseball throughout the summer, especially with Gray, Ryan, and Lopez heading up the starting rotation.
Game time 6:40 and looks like a glorious night for outdoor baseball.
So an up and down night at Chavez Ravine Monday with poor starting pitching, a Twins team that battled back to take a late lead, crappy umpiring, and then a bullpen implosion. Hollywood is just down the way from the ballpark, it should take notes on the drama and villains from last night. Now the Twins have to bounce back with a depleted bullpen and a shot at Clayton Kershaw. Hopefully, Phil Cuzzi is no longer behind the plate and along the 3rd baseline where he belongs. (Narrator: Cuzzi in fact should not be along the 3rd base line either).
Bailey Ober on the mound for the Twins and he's done really well and making a case for staying up in the bigs. Thing I learned today: Bailey Ober is tall! He's listed at 6'9". Unfortunately for the Twins, Clayton Kershaw putting up great regular season numbers again. Perhaps we can use some Hollywood CGI magic and convince him today's outing is a playoff game.
First pitch at 9:10p Central and looks like a glorious night for baseball out in southern California.
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