Twins go for eight straight great games here in Chicago tonight. While you never want to get too confident, this is the kind of team you want be playing (though they did just sweep the Rays(!)).
Joe Ryan has been pitching pretty all right this year, though he's only faced AL Central teams which usually takes the edge off things. He gets another Central opponent tonight though, so we can hope the trend continues. Also, he's starting on my fantasy team, so let's bring it home for papa.
Crochet hasn't had as good a go of it lately. Perhaps he should take up knitting instead. Once again, let's hope the trend continues.
And the bats of fire trend is another welcome one. Trifecta tonight, please!
At 11-13, with injuries to many key players, and plenty of painful at-bats, this season has probably been a disappointment for most. But for the School of Athens (the Philosofer household) it really hasn't been so bad. Circumstance has us with a new, much larger TV, and somewhat frequent access to the games as the secondary household on a subscription. Add in the fact that Aquinas and Nietzsche both had their best years of baseball last year, and we've got some eager learners in the house. The girls are getting involved too, asking great questions as the games progress. And Philosofette is excited to actually start getting to put names with faces after too many years of not really knowing who the players are.
Throw in Cory Provus' narration and, well, this has been a great year so far. Lots of baseball to go, and hopefully they keep the streak going now that they're not playing the Sox!
The 2023 Oakland Athletics got their fourth win on game 20 and by game 23 were 5-18. They scored 81 runs in their first 22 games (3.7 runs/G) while the White Sox have scored 50 (2.3 R/G). If the 2024 White Sox have one thing going for them compared to last season's Athletics, it's the 129 runs allowed through 22 games compared to the 178 runs allowed for the Athletics.
Crochet strikes out a lot of batters, doesn't walk many, and gives up a few too many home runs but everything else is good enough for his 3.86 FIP. His current ERA of 5.61 comes from being shelled in his last two games. The Twins need to study the Phillies game and repeat that for today.
Nothing like playing the White Sox for what cure ya, right? I knew the White Sox were really bad this year but only researching this game log did I find out they are 3-19 bad. Ouch!
Pablo Lopez on for the Twins and while he's pitched decently this year, it would be nice to see a dominant performance today, just for the enjoyment of it all. Erick Fedde on for the Whities, and he has actually done well this year considering.
First Pitch: 6:40
Freealonzo's "Take it to the Credit Union" surefire winner: 10 Strikeouts for Pablo López
Coming into this year I expected Joe Ryan to take another big step forward. Or maybe a small step, depending on how you already felt about him. Point is, I expected him and Lopez to really lead the way.
That's been the case so far, and hopefully he has another great outing tonight, as the Twins' bats try to do something - anything! - against Jack Flaherty.
Also, I'm just putting this out there: the only two batters hitting at all are Buxton and Jeffers, right? And they're the only two batters who look willing to go the opposite way. I'm thinking we've got some (recurring - we've seen this before) institutional issues in our batting approach that have to get fixed.
Twins a not nice 6-9 headed into the second game against the Orioles in Baltimore. Baltimore is definitely one of those teams hard to root against. Were terrible for many years but slowly built a team and organization that looks like it could be a force for a couple of years.
Grayson Rodriguez up the Orioles and he's one of those young guys a team can really build around. Tall, a fastball that hits upper 90's with a nice slider to keep hitters honest. Only 24 years old too. Over a strikeout per inning so Twins may have a hard time not adding to their league leading strikeout totals. Chris Paddock on for the Twins and he's done ok this year. Hopefully we can go further than the 5th inning this outing.
Freealonzo's "Take it to the Credit Union" surefire winner: Buxton HR/SO total=3
