Category Archives: 2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 112: Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins

61 Comments

Hellickson
v
De Vries

Assorted notes:

  • The Twins are 0.01 runs/game above league average on offense.
  • The Twins are 0.001 runs/game behind Cleveland for pitching. They have already given up five fewer runs than Cleveland, but played one less game. If they give up one less run than the Indians today, they will no longer be last in the league. It will be awhile until they can think about trying for 12th.
  • The Twins pitching trail the league in strikeouts, at 650 so far. They have 90 fewer than the next worse.
  • The Rays pitching lead the league in strikeouts, at 935.
  • The Twins offense is second best at avoiding the strikeout, with 712.
  • The Rays offense is third-worst at striking out, with 893.
2012 Twins Game Log

Whoa Nellie Game 111: Twins at Jacobs

72 Comments

Duensing (2-6, 4.39)CLE: Masterson (7-10, 4.78)

An early one this time around.

Lineups:
Twins

  1. Span, D, CF
  2. Revere, B, RF
  3. Mauer, J, 1B
  4. Willingham, J, LF
  5. Morneau, J, DH
  6. Doumit, R, C
  7. Nishioka, T, 2B
  8. Dozier, B, SS
  9. Casilla, A, 3B

Indians

  1. Kipnis, J, 2B
  2. Cabrera, A, SS
  3. Choo, S, RF
  4. Santana, C, DH
  5. Brantley, M, CF
  6. Duncan, S, LF
  7. Marson, L, C .223 10 39 3 4 .500 0 0
  8. Lillibridge, B, 3B

GO TWINS!

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 109: Twins at Indians

190 Comments

First Pitch - 6:05 pm CDT
Television - FSN
Lineups - TBD

I don't have a lot of time for today's game log since I spent most of the day yesterday walking (3.25 miles on the Coon Rapids dam trails), shopping (Trader Joe's) and eating (chicken, black bean and corn quesadillas with guacamole) instead of working on the work work I probably should have been working on. What can I say, the doctors told me I have to be a little more selfish about taking time for my health from now on.

The Twins have been playing pretty good baseball lately. They've won seven of their last ten games and sit in fourth place, 12.5 games off the division lead and 3 games behind the third-place Indians. Cleveland, on the other hand, is in total collapse mode, riding a nine-game losing streak that started with a series sweep by the Twins at the end of July. We'd all like to see the Twins continue Cleveland's losing streak by sweeping this series, too. After all, now that the Cuyahoga Rivers doesn't start on fire when you toss a cigarette butt into it, we have to give the Indians something else to cry about. Extending their losing streak to an even dozen games and moving into a tie for third place ought to do it.

The Twins made an unexpected move over the weekend, trading Danny Valencia to the Red Sox for minor league outfielder Jeremias Pineda after a waiver claim. This looks like a move that will improve the Minnesota team immediately by subtraction and could pay off several years down the road by addition or ancillary transaction. Some four-cylinder import named Nishioka has been called up from Rochester to fill Juicy's roster spot, which was temporary anyway, but I expect Nishi will take a turn at shortstop and/or second as a September audition. Or maybe he'll just ride the pine for a week. It's not like the team is concerned about getting him regular at-bats like they are with Parmelee. Jamey Carroll will likely get all the duty at the hot corner until Babe Plouffe! returns from the 15-day disabled list, possibly by Friday.

On The Hill:
Tonight the Twins send ace-apparent Diamond out to face something called a McAllister. Diamond has a record of 9 wins and 3 losses, while McAllister has notched 4 wins and 3 losses. Diamond has an equal rights amendment of 2.93 and McAllister has an equal rights amendment of 3.42. All other pitching stats are made up and/or meaningless.

Play ball!

2012 Twins Game Log

2012 Game 108: Twins at Red Sox

188 Comments

Today, something called Franklin Morales, who walks a decent number of guys but strikes out waaaaay more and otherwise seems fairly legit, plays host to Nick Blackburn, who occasionally walks guys, never, ever strikes them out, and has no legitimacy whatsoever (shine up that beer sampler for me, klawitter!).

Still, sometimes Mauer conquers all, and he's in there today - catching, even - so I'll stick with this team as they hit the two-thirds mark on the season.

2012 Twins Game Log

Game 107: Twins @ Red Sox

166 Comments

Time is running out for Ben Revere. If he's going to hit an honest-to-God over the fence homerun, you'd have to figure it'd be here or New Yankee bandbox. The problem, of course, is that in his entire career, he's only hit four balls in the air out of the infield. Things look grim, but this is the ballpark that has walls just over 300 feet from the plate (seems gimmicky, but I've been assured that it's not) If he really got into one, and the wind was blowing out at about 30 miles an hour, and the fielder Canseco'd it, he might have a shot.

Cole DeVries takes the ball for the good guys today. I've mentioned it before, but I really thought that when DeVries was sent back down that first time that he was gone for good. Instead, he's pretty much become our second best starter. I like his strikeouts, such as they are*, I love his walk rate, if he can figure out how to avoid throwing two or three BP fastballs every single game, I'd be good with him the rest of the way. Good Lord, though, those home runs... he gets grounders on fewer than a third of the balls hit in play, and a full 15.8% of those fly balls leave the playing field. If he keeps this up, I don't know how we're going to be able to rely on him come playoffs.

Clay Buchholz is also pitching, but he's a thoroughly mediocre pitcher, and no one cares about him.

* Fun Fact: At 6.2 k/9, DeVries has the highest rate of any of our starters (including injured ones), and the third highest strikeout rate of any pitchers who are still with the team who have pitched more than 15 innings this year. How is that even possible??