Wow, the first game already started. A quadruple header today. Life is good.
Cardinals @ Nationals, Carpenter v. Jackson - in progress
Giants @ Reds, Zito v. Leake - 3:00 pm CDT
Orioles @ Yankees, Gonzalez v. Kuroda - 6:30 pm CDT
Tigers @ Athletics, Scherzer v. Griffin - 8:30 pm CDT
This one was a laugher. I went to a friend's to lend him my DVDs of <em>The Wire</em> right around when the game started. I got out of the car with runners on 2nd & 3rd, one out, and Konerko at the plate. When I got back to the car, Mr. Provus said the Twins were "leading by 4." I assumed that Diamond had wriggled out of the jam in the first inning and the Twins had a nice couple of innings. Then he said it was the bottom of the second, and the Twins were up 7-3. I was a bit sad I missed the first offensive outburst in... I can't even remember how long. But I turned the game on at home. Thankfully I was witness to that glorious 5th inning. I can't describe how wonderful it was, so I'll let the box score do the talking:
1. Justin Morneau walks.
2. Ryan Doumit singles on a sharp line drive to right fielder Alex Rios. Justin Morneau to 3rd.
• Pitching Change: Leyson Septimo replaces Dylan Axelrod.
3. Chris Parmelee grounds out, third baseman Kevin Youkilis to first baseman Paul Konerko. Justin Morneau scores. Ryan Doumit to 2nd.
• Pitching Change: Philip Humber replaces Leyson Septimo.
4. Trevor Plouffe triples (1) on a line drive to right fielder Alex Rios. Ryan Doumit scores.
5. Eduardo Escobar singles on a line drive to right fielder Alex Rios. Trevor Plouffe scores.
6. Ben Revere singles on a ground ball to right fielder Alex Rios. Eduardo Escobar to 3rd.
7. Jamey Carroll out on a sacrifice fly to right fielder Alex Rios. Eduardo Escobar scores.
8. Joe Mauer walks. Ben Revere to 2nd.
• Coaching visit to mound.
9. Josh Willingham singles on a line drive to right fielder Alex Rios. Ben Revere scores. Joe Mauer to 3rd.
10. Justin Morneau walks. Josh Willingham to 2nd.
11. Ryan Doumit singles on a line drive to left fielder Dayan Viciedo. Joe Mauer scores. Josh Willingham scores. Justin Morneau to 2nd.
12. Chris Parmelee homers (5) on a fly ball to center field. Justin Morneau scores. Ryan Doumit scores.
13. Trevor Plouffe singles on a line drive to left fielder Dayan Viciedo.
• Pitching Change: Brian Omogrosso replaces Philip Humber.
14. Eduardo Escobar flies out to left fielder Dayan Viciedo.
I tuned out before Swampsludge gave up a bunch of runs, thankfully, so in my mind this game was even more one sided. That was fun.
I stopped listening to tonight's game loss after Diamond gave up the three run bomb so I could listen to Swans and finish my studies for the evening. I just got home, and my friend shared this link with me.
For those of you who don't want to just click a link sight unseen, this is Ken Rosenthal, obviously in the midst of a slow day, wondering if perhaps now that they freed up some salary the Red Sox might try to trade for Joe Mauer.
Instead of recounting the Twins' 16th loss in their last 19 games, let's laugh at what a moron Rosenthal is.
I went to bed early last night. I was awake long enough to hear Plouffe hit into a double play and the A's take the lead. I went to bed hoping I woke up to read about a thrilling late innings victory. No such luck. Given how three game series seem to go (win the first game, lose a close one in the second, get blown out in the last game) I'm not expecting a fun game this afternoon. I hope so, though.
This team is really fun to watch again.
Two Twins wins in a row. Is that a winning streak? I don't know, I'll take it over watching them get destroyed by one of the weakest offenses in the AL.
Fun game last night. It was definitely the Joe Mauer show. I'm glad he's back. I was going to write this whole recap about him today, but SBG pretty much summed it up in today's CoC.
It's going to rule when the Twins win 14 more in a row and get back to .500.
Since I've been out of town since Saturday, and worked crazy hours all of last week, I haven't seen a game in some time. Last night, I followed on my phone. That's more than I've done the last few games. I can't give a detailed recap, but I can list some things I know to be true:
- Nick Blackburn sucks. I hope he's never on the 25 man roster again.
- Joe Mauer is awesome. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
- Trevor Plouffe is ridiculous.
- This team is fun to follow again.
Hopefully, when I can watch a game again (Friday?), it's still fun. If not, you all can blame me.
I wonder if the Twins will consider retiring Bruce Chen's number when his playing days are over. Going by the eye test, he's the greatest pitcher the Major Leagues have ever seen. The boys definitely got Chenned last night.
On a positive note, Liriano looked pretty sharp again. I guess that means the front office can maybe move him for something. I don't know, I'll be sad to see him go. I hope he looks good while he's still in a Twins uniform.
I hope they can win the series tonight, but with Nic_ BBlac_bburn on the hill, I won't be holding my breath.
It might just be the excitement of watching a Twins walk off victory, but I'm pretty sure that Josh Willingham is the greatest Twinbaseball player of all time.
Here's the game's box score:
PS: I love Willingham.
That sucked.
To be honest, games like this are going to happen and I have a little bit of trouble getting too worked up over it. Mostly what games like this do is make me think of other close games the team could have won that they failed to. There's been two to three games this year the Twins had a good shot of winning and ended up losing. If they have those, the 5-13 record is closer to 8-10. That seems a hell of a lot better.
It's a long season, but I really don't want to put up with a whole season of .278 baseball. It'd sure be nice if they could get some reasonable starts so the team isn't always in a hole.
Well onto the next. 149-13, go.