Category Archives: 2019 Twins Game Logs

2019 Game 46: Minnesota at Seattle

A complete team. I think that's what we're starting to see in this season's edition of the Twins. An offense that fires with the regularity and effectiveness of an artillery brigade. Starting pitching that turns opposing hitters' bats into Jell-O® sticks. And now the bullpen is getting into the act, with six current relievers sporting ERAs of 2.00 or less, though several of the remaining bullpen ERAs are well above the 2.00 mark. Still, as a team the Twins have a 3.82 ERA, fifth in the American League and good for a 117 ERA+. I just know it's been worth staying up late to watch these last few nights, even Pineda showed improved command of his pitches. I do hope that the FO takes note of the room for improvement in the bullpen, though, as we give up too many meaningless runs in routs of the Mariners in this series. Two more solid arms out there would go a long way toward making a deep playoff run a distinct possibility. Of course, I'm counting on Pineda settling in at the back of the rotation with a .500 record or so and an ERA around 5.00, and Gibson to continue being aggressive in the strike zone and getting his ERA down below 4.00, so I'm a crazy man. Gibson will get his most current chance to do the first and work on the second, and lead the team to a four-game sweep of the Mariners at T-Mobile Park Not Safeco Field®, as the Twins' starting pitcher today. Countering the right-hander for the Mariners is rookie southpaw from Morioka, Japan, Yusei Kikuchi (2-1, 3.64 ERA, 1.07 WHIP), the third left-handed starter that Seattle has trotted out in the series. A quarter of the way through the season and the Twins are one of the two best teams in the major leagues. Who'd a thunk it? Play ball!

Game 44: Twins at Mariners

So May 17th is a somewhat infamous day in Twins history. The way I see it, every year that they don't add to bad history is a win. And a win is like a double win.

The Twins'll pitch Perez against the Mariner's Marco Gonzales, who has been pretty solid this year. Hopefully they'll get to him early, so, like last night, folks can go to bed in the confidence that the bullpen will hold on.

Here's hoping for a double win!

Game 43: Minnesota at Seattle

Michael Pineda (2-3, 5.35 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 40 IP, 35 K)
-v-
Erik Swanson (1-4, 6.35 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 28.1 IP, 21 K)

The 2019 MLB season debut of Miguel Sanó shifts Gonzalez to 1st and Cron to DH while leaving the remainder of the starters as expected. I believe Cruz is available off the bench too ... at least I haven't heard otherwise. I'm excited to get Miguel back with the big club, but I'm also very interested in whether a road trip can help Kepler get off the schneid.

2019 Game 41: Angels at Twins

Last Thursday the Twins had come off a nice little 4-2 road trip, including a three game sweep of the Blue Jays. They had the best record in baseball and I had already placed a lawn chair on the Nicollet Mall to save may space for the inevitable victory parade. Now it’s Tuesday and the Twins have lost 3 of last 4 at home to the Tigers and Angels, Nelson Cruz is nursing a sore wrist (not a good sign for a power hitter), and Jose Berrios was Lance Lynn-like last night. What happened, the Twins have to do something! “Forget it Jake, it’s a long season.”

Kyle Gibson on the mound for the Twins and we’ve seen the emergence of Good Gibby lately. Let’s hope that continues. Angels going with an Opener tonight with Cam Bedrosian pitching first inning and then Felix Pena coming in afterward. This will be the third time this season Pena will have had an opener. I wonder if Cam has any fond memories of Minnesota when his dad pitched here? Usually the local paper writes something up along those lines.

Game time 6:40p. It promises to be another very pleasant night. I hope you can get to the ballpark or other enjoy the game as the Twins try to right the ship back toward my parade route. That lawn chair cost me $8.00.

2019 Game 40: LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAngels vs. Minnesota Twins

Happy Berríos Day!

After splitting the series with Detroit (which admittedly was a disappointment), an even more capable team in the Angels are coming to town. The Twins have .650 winning percentage at Target Field this year, but have split the games when the Angels have stopped by.

Hopefully Cron and Parker will look to extract some revenge against their old team. Cruz has whipped out his Boomstick 50 times against the Angels (good for 2nd most against them as a team), but he's day to day with his wrist is being evaluated. Hopefully we can find another dong masher or two on the team in the meantime.

On the mound for the Angels is Skaggs, whose numbers don't look all that great this year (3-3, 4.70 ERA, 1.37 WHIP). Maybe we can find some of that missing offense tonight.

Finally, don't forget, we're still on 1840 start times. Some of the senior citizens around here can get to bed a little earlier.

2019 Game 39: Los Tigres vs. Los Gemelos

I'll admit that I'm a geek and one reason I want the Twins to win today is so they'll be 26-13, with as many wins over .500 as total losses on the year. I'm not sure what you can say about this team anymore. The funny thing is, as good as the team is right now, it's pretty easy to see opportunities for improvement. We need more starting pitching depth. We could get that through acquisition or staff improvement. I think Gibson has the chance to be a very solid middle rotation pitcher and has plenty of room to grow as a player. I'm less enthused about Pineda, who did manage to turn in a quality start yesterday in a losing effort, but it it still kind of early. Too early to talk about Jose Berrios (6-1, 2.53 ERA, .919 WHIP), and/or Jake Odorizzi (5-2, 2.32 ERA, .938 WHIP) in the same breath as Cy Young, maybe, for the season is long and full of errors. Still, right now the Twins have a pretty solid starting rotation pitching as well as any in baseball. Berrios and Odorizzi are worth 1.5 and 1.4 WAR respectively. They tend to overshadow a fine run by Perez checking in at 1.1 WAR. Showing the most room for improvement, Gibson charts a 0.6 WAR and Pineda a meager 0.1. So, Gibson needs to step up to the next level, and Pineda at least needs to stabilize and take on some ballast at the back of the rotation. The bullpen continues to impress, especially when it's not being overused, although you can see some obvious depth issues there as well. Still, we have 7 relievers with an ERA+ above 100, and 5 of them above 200, and that's a nice thing to see. Fangraphs gives the Twins a 64% chance of winning today and taking the 4-game series with Perez on the mound going up against Daniel Norris (1-1, 3.81 ERA) for the Tigers. I'd say that sounds about right. Play ball!

Game 37 (and 38!): Tigers @ Twins – Let’s Play (Another) Two!

At the risk of extreme repetition...

This team is FUN.

Great pitching, great hitting... Byron Buxton not completely sucking. It's been a delight.

You know what would be even more delightful? Another doubleheader sweep.

Pineda and Stewart haven't exactly been aces, but if you're going to toss them out there, you may as well do it against the Tigers.

2019 Game 26: Tigers @ Twins

You know what I think was a good decision? Letting Ron Gardenhire go. I mean that in the nicest way possible. He seems like a nice enough fella, and he's pretty funny at times. But man, I'm just not worried about a team he's managing. Ron Gardenhire returns with his Tigers to Minnesota inspires... I dunno... maybe sympathy?

True story... google "Tigers Manager". The photo that pops up is of Ron Gardenhire. In a Twins cap. Anyway, let's hope that's how the Twins own the Tigers this weekend too.

Tyson Ross goes for the Tigers tonight against Odorizzi, whose name often makes me think of "Rizzo", which actually makes me think of both the rat and the character from Grease, and then later on it dawns on me that there's a ballplayer by that name too. Alright, I think that's my cue to step aside. Let's keep the winning streak going tonight!