Diamond (8-3, 2.96 ERA) vs. Mendoza (3-6, 4.32 ERA)
The sparkle has faded ever so slightly from Diamond, but he's still been far and away the best starter we've had. Even a slightly scuffed up Diamond is worth more than a Blackburn.
Besides. The Royals only managed one run in seven innings against the guy who was on pace to have the worst ERA+ ever. Diamond has to pitch a good 8 hitless innings, right?
Bad news guys, (a) Jeremy is back. The good news is that he's not scheduled to start against the Twins during this series. Unfortunately, Blackburn is also back and scheduled to start.
Nick Blackburn
v
Luke Hochever
Blackburn started for Rochester four times, pitched 21 innings, and have up eight runs (six earned). He also struck out seven, walked five, and gave up 20 hits. Proving he had a lot nothing else to learn, the Twins decided to call him up.
Bruce Chen vs. Cole De Vries
Span
Revere
Mauer
Willingham (DH)
Morneau
Plouffe
Doumit (LF)
Dozier
Casilla
Tommy Hunter
v
Francisco Liriano
@
It probably would have been smarter for the Twins to save their 19 runs for a pitcher like Evan Samuel Deduno rather than for pretty boy Nicky Scott Diamond.
I was starting to worry that the Twins might not win the division this year but to echo the Padre "I feel confident that if we score nineteen runs every game, it'll happen!"
Happy vacation, Twayn!
It's the Return of the Gentleman Masher! Jimbo's last game in a Twins uniform was against the O's. How coincidental that his first second current return-trip to the Bullseye should be in an O's uniform.
Anyway, I know what I'm rooting for tonight: jacked dongers.
Of course, there WOULD be a lefty on the mound for the Twins in Scott Diamond, so maybe Jim will si
sit instead of start tonight. That would be absolute Boo.
In Diamond's last three starts, he has gone 7, 8 and 8, respectively, while allowing 2, 2, and 3 runs, respectively. He has emerged as the Koufax* of the staff, with a 2.62 ERA, 3.85/3.53 FIP/xFIP, and 45:12 K:BB in 79 innings.
His opposing number tonight will be Chris Tillman. In his only other appearance this season, July 4 against Seattle, Tillman went 8 2/3 of 2-hit ball, striking out 7 and giving up two runs. The big right-hander throws a mid-90s fastball, curve, and changeup. Tillman was part of the package, with CFer Adam Jones, for Erik Bedard back in 2008. He has had several cups of coffee since but struggled to put his game together in the minors (5.58 ERA, 5.31 FIP in 36 starts over three seasons prior to this year).
From the fangraphs piece by Jack Moore on July 5:
Tillman appeared to figure something out in Triple-A this year, striking out over a batter per inning again after dropping to under 7.0 per nine innings in 2010 and 2011. According to StatCorner, he drew 11.4% swinging strikes after marks below 10% in both 2010 and 2011.
Just a look at the radar gun readings shows what happened: Tillman’s fastball is back. He touched 97.2 MPH in the ninth inning — twice — after averaging just 89.5 MPH on his fastball last season. Tillman averaged 95.0 MPH on the fastball Wednesday, and every pitch saw an uptick in velocity — the cutter up to 93.0 from 84.2, the curve up to 77.4 from 75.2, the changeup up to 83.2 from 78.7 (a massive 12 MPH difference from the fastball).
Hopefully, he'll give Consuela and Morneau a couple of belt-high fastballs each tonight.
*Diamond is in his age-25 season. At age 25, Koufax went 18-13 with a 3.52 ERA and led the NL with 269 Ks in 255 2/3 innings while earning his first A-S appearance. So, umm, yea, it could happen.
The Twins and their #30 run differential take on the A's again today. Jarrod Parker, whom I haven't heard of but doesn't seem to suck at all, faces Brian Duensing, whom I have heard of and is serviceable.
Span isn't playing for some reason. Feel free to worry about why that might be.
Coles De Vries takes the ball for the Twins tonight. I could have absolutely sworn when he was sent back to Rochester the first time that we'd seen the last of him. However, as it turns out, he's been pretty persistent, and here he is making his sixth start. He's rapidly becoming a semi-fixture in the rotation, and the fact that he's the second pitcher starting off the post-All Star break seems to imply that he might be here a while.
Is that a good thing? I suppose if we had an ideal major league roster, a 5.17 FIP (4.37 xFIP) wouldn't get my heart all aflutter, but looking over some of the rest of the rotation - Duensing (who I wish would just get left alone in the bullpen), Hendriks (is he still with us? It's always so hard to tell), Blackburn (I know he's not in the majors, but you know it won't be long...) - it's hard to say that he's the first person I'd drop.
The A's are sending out Tommy Milone, who's gotten decent results in his rookie season, but seems to be pretty heavily built up by a super low walk rate. If the Twins can hit some line drives, he'll be toast, and De Vries can pick up his third win. Not bad for someone I figured would be kicking it in Rochester for the remainder of his career.
A.J. Griffen
v
Francisco Liriano
Griffen makes his fourth career start tonight. He's pitched 18 innings and has a 2.00 ERA, but no win thanks to the A's offense.
The Twins have company at the bottom of the AL: the Mariners. They're tied at 36 wins but the Mariners are ahead in losses: 51-49. Along with the Royals, they are the only teams with fewer than 40 wins. With some good play against the A's and O's, the Twins could move into 23rd place! They're already ahead of four NL teams: Astros, Cubs, Rockies, and Padres with the Phillies narrowly ahead of the Twins.
For some reason, the Twins merit one of the two late games tonight, so here's hoping we can enjoy three innings of Twins baseball before we all inevitably switch over to the much more important and intriguing Yankees-Red Sox game. Cole DeVries, who has a last name that is pronounced annoyingly, faces Roy Oswalt, who also has a last name that's pronounced annoyingly. And the similarities don't stop there! Actually, they probably do.
It hasn't been much of a first half, but I'll agree with other Citizens of late...it isn't like last year, where the team looked directionless and pathetic in the second half, and it hasn't become a chore to watch my favorite team play my favorite sport. Though they're behind last year's pace by a game or two, this team isn't likely to once again put up a historically awful final couple of months leading into a 99-loss campaign.
Thanks for another enjoyable half-season of game logs, Citizens, and SBG: as always, thanks for making this community possible. Bring this one home, gents. I have a night shift that will rob me of my rightful Sunday ballgame.
Go Twins.