At least I got to watch a good start last night. I'm guessing we won't be so lucky today.
Sleestak vs. Weaver
To anyone watching this game tonight; you have my pity in advance. If Smokestick pitches a perfect game or something, consider this some sort of reverse Spookying of said event.
I love interleague. There are so many reasons to hate it - and there are lots of places to find those reasons. I just like seeing pitchers attempting to bat. Without interleague, we don't get our favorite Johan Santana moment (the video link doesn't work, so just close your eyes, the highlight reel is still there, I'm sure). You don't get the crazy over-managing that ends with pitchers in left-field and utility infielders sitting on the bench, praying the game ends before their crazy manager gets any ideas and has them warming up in the bullpen.
I like that style of baseball. I don't know that I'd like it all the time, but a few games a year is interesting to me. I almost feel cheated when a National League team comes to Target Field, because that doesn't give me my "pitchers wearing batting helmets" fix.
Luckily, the Twins have seen fit to play much better as of late (well... the last 4 or 5 games, anyway). Now I'll have extra reason to enjoy sitting down, cracking open a beer and watching some late-night baseball.
Maybe they'll even win one for me tonight. Considering the fact that they're 1-6 on Saturdays, maybe that's asking for too much though. I guess I'll just be satisfied with the fact that I'm going to be able to watch Scott Baker bat.
Speaking of, here are tonight's pitchers.
Scott Baker (.050/.050/.050, 0 HR, 0 RBI, -0.3 WAR)
Micah Owings (.295/.323/.528, 9 HR, 34 RBI, 2.9 WAR)
Both of those are career lines, as neither pitcher has batted in 2011. For Baker, this is because he plays in the wrong league to show off his impressive hitting skills. For Owings, it's because while his secondary skills are legendary (he's pretty much the best hitting pitcher of all time), his primary skills (keep the opposing team from scoring runs) are sadly lacking. This is his first start in 2011, but lefties have eaten him alive over the course of his career, so unless the game is decided by which pitcher is a better batter, I like the Twins' chances.
"It's been tough to watch lately. Really tough."
Just about every game log, regardless of writer, has started with some permutation of that phrase. It's been horrifically true, though. When the pitching's good, the offense declines to score any runs. When the offense does click and puts up a gargantuan run total (maybe something like five runs or so), the pitching blows it.
The injuries have played a factor, obviously, but Delmon Young, Joe Mauer, and Jim Thome are not going to turn this team into a division winner. In fact, I'm becoming increasingly pessimistic about our chances of breaking even (we'd have to play 69-57 from here on out to make it to .500. That's .547 from now on, and I don't know if we've seen more than a couple of games all year where they looked like they could play that way for any length of time.)
So, that's that. The team needs to turn around, and they can't wait for the star catcher to come back. They can't wait for the MVP first baseman to get his head right. They can't wait for the "mvp" (lower case) to Just. Stop. Sucking. It needs to happen right now. It probably won't happen (Sean's historical searchings didn't exactly provide a silver lining), but come on... giving up before June is for Pirates fans, right?
We've got Blackburn on the mound today, they've got Jo-Jo Reyes. Both seem to be fairly allergic to striking people out (though Blackburn's 3.5 k/9 is just absurd*), so I guess we can expect lots of hits today. That'll be a nice change of pace, at least.
Blackburn's our "big game pitcher" right? Well, we need this one. Go get 'em, Blackie.
I didn't see a game log, so here one is.
That's about as much effort as I feel like putting into this team right now. When the major leaguers outnumber the minor leaguers on the roster, they might grab my attention again.
Well, hey! I'm able to post a game log from my phone. Good times.
Last night's game was a lot of fun. In fact, the last few games have been. I'm under no illusions that everything's gotten better, but as long as they can fake it until a couple folks get off the DL, we could turn this thing around.
Time to give one of baseball's more annoying fanbases just a little more to bitch about.
I'm pretty sure that this recent stretch is a loyalty test for Twins fans. The team has managed to look absolutely awful since that tiny hopeful stretch last weekend. I choose to handle this game log the same way I've handled all Twins conversation for the past week or so...
I'm going to change the subject.
Beer brewing has been going well. I'm actually brewing up a batch of Wisconsin Spring Porter right this very minute... hang on, let me check my temperature.... looking good.... Time to add in some maple syrup.
I do have one question for all the brewmasters that this place has accumulated. How does one achieve the balance between getting enough hops into the beer, without adding a ton of sediment? When I made my hopnog, it had fantastic hoppy flavor (like, really hoopy tasty flavor), but since I ended up tossing the hops directly into the wort, it ended up with a ton of sediment, which I'd prefer avoid, since the final product was good, and tasty, but also quite heavy and near opaque. Last time, we steeped the hops, rather than toss them directly in, and the finished product had less sediment, but also less hoppy flavor.
Regardless, beer brewing is becoming a very enjoyable hobby, and the compliments the finished product has received ar sort of addicting (most of my friends have never had homebrew before, so their reviews end up anywhere from "damn tasty brew" to "best beer I've ever tasted".) So I'm pretty happy with what's been going on thus far. It's a great hobby to get into.
Oh wait... this is a baseball-related site? Oh.
Duensing vs. O'Sullivan - I'm tired of impassioned entreaties, I'm tired of excuses, I'm tired of the reasons that we haven't been winning lately. Just win. Watching baseball is about a hundred times more fun when the cheered for team wins, so get on that. Go Twins!
So that road trip to open up the season was pretty fun, right guys?
I mentioned this elsewhere, but the AL Central standings are exactly the opposite of what I expected them to be. I don't expect this to continue.
Cleveland's over-performing right now. Their batters certainly are - Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting home runs at a pace of one every twenty at bats after hitting one about every 80 at bats through his MLB career and one every 60 in his minor league career, I would guess that would settle down a bit. Their pitchers are over performing, too. The team's getting lucky, and it's time for the Twins to change that.
Carmona vs. Duensing.
Let's do this.