Category Archives: 2011 Twins Game Recaps

2011 Game 39: Mariners 5, Twins 2

Weather: "indoors"
Attendance: 14,859
Time: 2:31

Twins record: 12-27 (last in AL Central, 13.5 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap

"Highlights":

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Morneau .038 (1-4, SO) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Some band-aid whose name I've already forgotten .003 (1.1 IP, ER, 2 BB)

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Cuddyer, -.138 (1-4, R) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Baker, -.172 (6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 BB, 8 SO, 4 ER)
  • Pretty much all of it.

Last night Scott Baker had a very Scott Baker-y outing. The Twins lost.

What else can I say about the game? I fell asleep after Pineda came out, it's now 2:30am, and I'm going to bed. If I've missed something important, talk about it below.

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This week's View from the Ballpark might be too easy, but I like the history behind it too much to let it go.

photo by Flickr user joshbousel

Over the years at least two former Twins have managed here. | photo by Flickr user joshbousel

Remember, no embiggening.

Game #38: Blue Jays 11, Twins 3

Twins record: 12-26
Fangraphs
MLB Game Wrap

To be honest, I did not watch much of this game today. When I first turned it on, the score was already 2-0. I heard there was a fair amount of _elm_n being _elm_n today. I also noticed that Jose Bautista had more at-bats in which he hit a home run than at-bats in which he did not. Instead, I paid more attention to the Phillies-Braves game on TBS, which was an intriguing pitching duel between Roy Halladay and Tim Hudson, and which featured what appeared to be actual major league baseball players in both teams' dugouts. Dan Uggla put the Braves ahead 3-2 with a homer off Doc in the bottom of the 8th and Craig Kimbrel pitched a damage-less 9th for the save.

On the bright side, I'm ready to see what glories the newly-begun Phil Dumatrait Era has in store for Twins Nation.

Ex-Twins Player of the Week: J.J. Hardy went 2-for-5 with a grand slam (off of fellow ex-Twin Rob Delaney) to finalize his slash line for the week at .400/.444/.640. If there are any other ex-Twins with worthy weekly performances, please direct your humble recapper's attention to them. (Programming note: The Twins Hitter and Pitcher of the Week Awards will be replaced by Ex-Twins Player of the Week for all subsequent weeks this season in which the Twins fail to win a game.)

Game 37: Jays 9, Twins 3 (11)

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins set a major league record Saturday by stranding 33 base runners in a 9-3, 11-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

The Twins also continued their losing streak, which extended to 37 games, also a record to start a season. Reliever Glen Perkins dropped to 0-8 after allowing a leadoff single in the 11th. Perkins was pulled from the game and the Blue Jays proceeded to hit five consecutive home runs to put the game away.

With his bullpen overworked and ineffective, manager Ron Gardenhire was forced to bring in reliever Kevin Slowey, who normally is a right-hander but was forced to use his left arm to pitch. With his right arm in a sling, Slowey wore catcher's gear in hopes that if a ball came back to him, he could knock it down with his body and throw it with his healthy arm.

Fortunately, it never came to that as the Jays batters were laughing too hard at Slowey to swing the bat and Slowey struck out all three batters he faced on just nine pitches.

TV analyst Bert Blyleven was heard to remark about Slowey, "Not too bad, but he needs to work on keeping the ball down."

The heartbreaking loss was followed by even more bad news when six more players were put on the disabled list following the game, also a major league record. All six had broken wrists after slapping hands with Michael Cuddyer after he homered in the seventh, which was the first by a Twin other than Jason Kubel on the season. In fact, it was the first hit by a non-Kubel to leave the infield this season.

2011 Game 36 Recap: Toronto Bautistas 2, Minnesota Replacement Levels 0

Weather: 54 degrees, overcast
Wind: 13 mph, L to R
Time: 2:58
Attendance: 38,809

Box Score
Fangraphs

Right now, the Minnesota Twins are the worst team in baseball, and it's not even that close. Twelve games under .500 and 11.5 games out of first place. A paltry .333 winning percentage and a losing streak that now runs to six games. Watching this team play baseball is about as much fun as growing up in a Dickensian orphanage. It's damp and drafty, it's cold, the beatings are frequent and severe, and there's never enough gruel in your bowl.

Continue reading 2011 Game 36 Recap: Toronto Bautistas 2, Minnesota Replacement Levels 0

Game 34: Detroit Tigers 10, Rochester Red Wings 2

I'm not even sure what to say to this one. Monday's game was a heartbreaking loss despite the inability to get any runs across the plate. To get blown out and burn up two starting pitchers the next night is like salt in the wound. Also we got skunked by Rick Porcello. I only paid partial attention to the game, and I instead spent my time on more worthwhile ventures. I think it was for the best.

I still think it's too early to freak out too much but I'm getting pretty close to giving up. Delmon's supposed to be be back on Friday, so I hope that's the start of us getting some of the regulars back. But who knows if that will be enough to counteract The Curse of #6org.

I apologize for the half-baked post, but really, it's hard to give full effort when Matt tolberting Tolbert is batting second.

Final Score: Detroit Tigers 10, Minnesota Twins 2.
Twins Record: 12-22, 11.0 GB in the AL Central. Worst record in MLB.
WP: Rick Porcello (3-2) | LP: Francisco Liriano (2-5)
Witty Remarks?: I'm all out of them. The Twins are terrible right now.

2011 Game 33: Red Sox 2, Twins 1 (11)

Weather: 60°F, cloudy
Wind: 16 mph, in from CF
Attendance: 37,276
Time: 3:55

Twins record: 12-21 (tied for last in AL Central, 10.0 GB)
Fangraphs boxscore | MLB Game Wrap

Highlights:

  • Highest WPA, hitter: Span .150 (2-4, R, BB) | Highest WPA, pitcher: Mijares .299 (2.0 IP, H, BB)
  • Outfield defense - Revere's diving catch and Span's sliding catch

Lowlights:

  • Lowest WPA, hitter: Tolbert, -.346 (0-5, 1 SO) | Lowest WPA, pitcher: Hoey, -.350 (0.1 IP, H, BB, ER)
  • Tolbert: still batting second
  • MLB's continued employment of Angel Hernandez and Joe West

BOSTON -- The latest rumblings out of the Twins' clubhouse are something else indeed. General Manager Bill Smith accidentally ran his iPhone through the visitor's clubhouse washing machine in Chicago last week after spilling a Chicago-style hot dog on his pants. Smith immediately put the device in a box of rice, to no avail, and had to reluctantly borrow infielder Matt Tolbert's phone so he could make some calls and find a new catcher. Steve Holm wasn't quite Corky Miller bad in his brief appearance, but Bill Smith eventually figured out he wasn't an answer to any question worth asking. Tolbert reportedly told Smith he doesn't make enough for the Twins' GM to call 411 and ask for the Rangers' front office (more on this in a moment), but could swing a call to AAA Rochester as long as it happened on his plan's nights & weekends minutes.

Red Wings infielder Toby Gardenhire is apparently #3 on Tolbert's speed dial, right behind Voicemail (#1) and former teammate Nick Punto (#2). Smith accordingly placed his call to Gardenhire the Younger, who relayed the request for a catcher to Red Wings manager Tom Nieto. Nieto, himself a former Twin, initially volunteered his own services, but apparently requested a few days to iron the fungoes out of his swing, time that Smith just wasn't willing to waste.

In his first season with the Twins, Nieto briefly served as Tim Laudner's backup and outhit regular backup Sal Butera late in the season (.071/.188/.143 for Nieto vs. .063/.118/.125 for Butera in Sept/Oct) before being inexplicably left off the playoff roster. Nieto actually paced Twins catchers in hitting and on-base percentage that year, posting a .200/.276/.314 line to Laudner's .191/.252/.389 and Sal Butera's .171/.217/.243 mark. Overall, Nieto posted an OPS+ of 17 in his Twins career, which spanned 183 plate appearances between 1987-88. When reached for comment, Nieto said, "I out-hit Sal Butera in 1987, and I believe in the depths of my soul I can out-hit his son in 2011." Drew Butera currently owns a positively Buterian .172/.213/.251 line. "But the Twins value defense behind the plate," Nieto continued, "and I accumulated -0.2 dWAR in my Twins career, so Bill Smith elected to pursue other options."

So, that's why Rene Rivera is now with the Twins. But why Rivera instead of, say, Rangers catcher/first baseman Mike Napoli, who has only 63 at bats (but 6 HR) this season despite a career 119 OPS+ and a .238 ISO? Napoli, only 29, is likely still in his hitting prime, and despite whatever Mike Scioscia - Napoli's former manager - thinks, he appears to be a serviceable catcher. Unfortunately, Smith laundered his iPhone and apparently hasn't yet worked up the nerve to tell Jim Pohlad, Dave St. Peter, or Wade Navratil, the Twins' Senior Director of Technology. Of course, Smith could always look up Rangers GM Jon Daniels' number in his laptop's address book, or drop Daniels an email for that matter, but an unnamed source in the Twins' front office divulged that Smith has forgotten how to turn his laptop on. According to another source in the Twins' front office, former Twins GM Terry Ryan and former Twins manager Tom Kelly have offered to call former Twins GM Andy MacPhail, currently the Orioles' President of Baseball Operations, about the availability of Matt "Mauer with Power" Wieters, but Smith has repeatedly expressed the desire to put his own stamp on the club.

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This week's View from the Ballpark:

photo by Flickr user LugoLounge
I know at least 5 6 7 10 Hall of Famers played here. | photo by Flickr user LugoLounge

Remember, no embiggening.

Game #32: Red Sox 9, Twins 5

Twins record: 12-20
Fangraphs
MLB Game Wrap

The Twins are consistently running out a lot of players who are either just very bad (the catchers, most of the bullpen, Casilla/Tolbert) or some combination of pretty limited and in over their heads (Hughes, Revere, Tosoni, probably Plouffe - although he's been great offensively in all of three games, that will come down to earth, and I'm not sold on his defense at all). Those are all pretty frustrating, but they can only concern me to a point. If all of those guys get lots of playing time because others are hurt, the Twins are probably not going anywhere this season. If, however, many of those guys get replaced by the proper starters, the Twins are still going to most likely need contributions towards success from two guys I am a little more concerned about: Carl Pavano and Justin Morneau.

Pavano went a second straight entire game without striking anyone out today. I harp on this a lot, but it's just a lot less likely to be successful as a pitcher without getting strikeouts. He seems to be getting a little over-hammered - I have his FIP right now at about two runs less than his ERA, but a 4.6-ish FIP still isn't quite where he was at the past couple of years. Morneau, on the other hand, has me concerned that he's not physically back together yet. I have his line after today at .202/.269/.293 so far. I'm a little reminded of the beginning of 2006, when there was much gnashing of teeth over how lost he looked at the plate over the first month, before Gardenhire famously gave him "The Talk" that turned him into a (not-quite-worthy) MVP. His line over March/April that year was .208/.274/.416 - basically the same, except back then he still hit a few homers.

At least one other guy whose physical state/all-the-way-back-ness has been a concern, Joe Nathan, had a pretty good outing today.

Hitter of the Week: Jason Kubel is still pretty close to the only horse in this race.
Pitcher of the Week: Duh.

Game 31: Red Sox 4, Twins 0

I hate Fox with a passion.

I have discovered the greatest help to baseball watching ever conceived. I record the games with a DVR and I set my Skip function to skip ahead 10 seconds. This allows me to skip ahead between each pitch, eliminating 10 seconds between each one. I also can skip through the commercials, pitching changes, umpire arguments, pitcher-catcher discussions, and, yes, rain delays. Which has been working fantastic until today.

The Twins were on Fox, and only on Fox (I have MLB Extra Innings package that I paid a pretty penny for), and I started to watch it a couple hours after it started. This, of course, means that I have to remain offline, or at least avoid sites that will display the score, as well as other channels, like ESPN. (I once turned on the TV to start watching the game, but it was on ESPN and the Twins score was at the bottom of the screen at the exact moment I turned it on. I would have really been upset, except it showed the Twins won, so I was still happy to watch the game in its entirety). So, I had no idea the Twins went into a rain delay. I was OK about it (I set the DVR to record 4 1/2 hours for each game) because I could fast forward it. I was fine until I saw a different score at the bottom of the screen, which meant the game had resumed, but Fox had not gone back to the game. So, I had to go to the computer to find out that I had missed three innings of the game.

Of course, as it turned out, I didn't really miss much. I listened to the rest of the game on XM, but there wasn't much drama to it, especially once Alex Burnett came in. If the Twins are going to make a move, I would bet on it being a setup right-handed reliever. At the very least, maybe they can give Anthony Slama another shot.

Justin Morneau does not look good right now. A week or so ago, he was hitting line drives and not having much luck. Now he looks like he's trying to do too much and trying to pull everything. He probably should have gotten the whole day off today and not just DH. That is probably the worst thing to do is DH when you are struggling. The player can only sit around and think about his last weak swing instead of go out and play defense. I know some are panicking that this is the result of the concussion and that he'll never be the same, but we have no evidence of that and it's not like he hasn't gone through stretches like this before. He just needs to remember that there is a left field out there as well.

The good news is Kevin Slowey pitched well in his return, so the bullpen has been bolstered. Hopefully, Delmon Young will be back soon as well.

2011 Game 30 Recap: Twins 9, Crimson Hosiery 2

Weather: 66 degrees, partly cloudy
Wind: 21 mph, out to CF
Time: 2:37
Attendance: 37,798

Box Score
Fangraphs

What's not to love about this game? The Twins jet into Beantown on a wing and a prayer, a wisp of momentum, and a sigh of relief that they were able to best the offensively impotent Pale Hosers in a series deuce on the South Side, a short set featuring a no-hitter the hard way that F-bomb rolled for a 1-0 win. The boys haven't exactly been swinging hot lumber lately. With Butera and Casilla mired below the Mendozza line like sloths in La Brea tar, and Morneau barely above it, and Mauer and Delmon and JI

JIM THOME bruised and benched, our lineup doesn't have the punch of a full-strength squad hitting to expectations. But you wouldn't know it tonight.

Continue reading 2011 Game 30 Recap: Twins 9, Crimson Hosiery 2

Game 29 Recap: Twins at Pale Hose

Twins 3, Hose 2
Twins Record 11-18, 9 games out of first place
Fangraphs doesn't think Liriano deserved a No-No either.
Save: M. Capps

crisco

Crisco, always a good idea in the ninth. Matt Capps is now ranked 20th(give or take) in the King of the Savers race with five saves. A rotting corpse in NYC and some dude in Florida are tied for first with 11 saves on the season.

What can I say about a game that I didn't watch? Not a whole lot, but if someone would post a picture of a painting by Jasper Johns involving a broom on flickr with an agreement to share through creative commons I would repost said photo. That and Jason Kuble is swinging the ever loving fire out of the bat right now.

Featured art [Jasper Johns Broom]