The Texas Rangers have agreed to play the Minnesota Twins in a baseball exhibition today. It is my understanding that the Twins were once a major league team.
[edit by sean]:
Span will play __ before going on the DL
Total Voters: 12
Loading ...Liam v. Milone
GO TWINS!
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Tonight Brett Anderson makes his first start since being traded from my fantasy baseball team to DK's. This trade was last year.
First Pitch - 9:05 p.m. CDT
Television - FSN
Lineups
Oooooow, look at all that foul territory. The Twins will feel right at home there, they've been playing pretty foul ball lately, winning just one game in their last ten and riding a five game losing streak. It's so bad I wandered over to Cot's today to see what our payroll situation looks like for next year. The good news is a lot of money is coming off the books, about $35 million, give or take a nickel. So Terry Ryan should have some money with which to play ball this winter. Let's hope he doesn't decide to bunt.
On The Hill:
Brian Duensing vs. Brandon McCarthy.
I'm not going to bother with their stats at this point. I'll just say advantage Oakland and leave it there. With this late start, I'll be down for the count after three innings. It won't surprise me if The Dunce is, too.
Play ball!
Today, Sam Deduno faces Blake Beavan in a matchup where the rest of the country goes "Who the hell are those guys?"
Beavan is a prototypical Twins pitcher - in fact, he might be more of a Twin that most current Twins are - he doesn't strike out many, but his walk rate is outstanding (1.14 per 9 innings). He does give up his fair share of homers, with 17 so far in 102 innings. He's a thoroughly beatable righty, so I assume this is the game the Twins were planning on winning from this series all along.
Meanwhile, my interest has waned a bit, with Chelsea's season starting today and (fantasy) football starting soon. But they're the only Twins I have, so I'll be around for what's become the rare game that doesn't happen when I'm scheduled to work. And hey, after that, I can watch the all-important Red Sox-Yankees game tonight because it's the only game on at the time!!!
The Twins may not be interesting right now, but the playoffs always are. With one quarter of the season left, here's what you've got if it ended today:
(1) Yankees vs. (4) Rays or (5) A's
(2) Rangers vs. (3) White Sox
(1) Nationals vs. (4) Braves or (5) Pirates
(2) Reds vs. (3) Giants
There are a lot of close races, and this still looks like a lot of fun (Yankees excepted).
Go Twins...give me a game worth seeing, at least.
Diamond's on the mound tonight. That's good.
Vargas takes the mound for the Mariners. That's good-ish (he doesn't strike many out, doesn't walk many, and gives up a fair number of long balls, but seems to be getting lucky so far this year.)
Go twins!
Nick Blackburn
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Hisashi Iwakuma
Scherzer (11-6, 4.65) v. De Vries (2-3, 4.77)
Cats:
Go Twins!
Doug Fister
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Brian Duensing
FSN talking about the internal debate about whether Duensing should start or relieve. Bert then talks about how his last three starts are good evidence he should start. Yes, clearly just those three starts matter. I really need to avoid tuning in until the last possible minute.
First Pitch - 7:10 p.m.
Television - FSN
Lineups
No, we don't really have the Tigers by the tail, we're 11.5 games behind them in the standings and from here you can't even see their tail, although you can catch a faint whiff of what's directly beneath it. The Detroit Tigers have been disappointing their fans lately by struggling to gain ground on the division leader, losing four of their last ten games. The Twins, on other hand, have been adding glory to their franchise history by proving triumphant in five of their most recent ten contests and remain poised to surpass both the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Indians before the season draws to a close.
With this season well on the downhill side, the non-waiver trade deadline in the rearview and a few weeks to go before September call-ups, there's not much for Twins fans to get excited about except playing spoiler, the face-crushing demotion of Nishi, and the glorious return to the lineup of Trevor Plouffe!. Even the chance to play spoiler to the contending Tigers is tempered by the realization that beating them does nothing except improve the chances of the White Sox winning the division. Boo dat.
On The Hill:
Anibal Sanchez - Who cares about his stats, he's named Anibal. This guy is one vowel substitution away from losing a testicle.
Samuel Deduno - His middle name is Lake. I got nothing.
Neither of these pitchers has a record against their opponent, so who knows what to expect. But I would be pretty surprised to see an old-fashioned pitchers' duel tonight.
Play ball!