Ah, bad teams have such a knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Category Archives: 2013 Twins Game Log
Game 42: Is It 2015 Yet?
Welcome back to Tuesday starts, Pelf!
Pelfrey (3-4, 6.57 ERA) vs. Tim Hudson (4-3, 5.12 ERA)
Boy, apathy is really starting to set in for me already. Amazing what two years of losing, a 6-game losing streak and the furious return of the assbats can do for a man's patience, which could be why I keep forgetting I have Tuesday game logs.
Anyway, as I was struggling for words for this game log, Buffalo reminded me that tonight is the NBA lottery. I always get unreasonably excited to see which terrible spot the Wolves end up. Will they fall below their expected slot? Will they move up only to be slotted one pick after they can reasonably be expected to select the guy that will actually help the team? Stay tuned.
2013 Game 41: Minnesota at Atlanta
I'm trying to imagine what it must be like to have a a tornado more than a mile wide with winds up to 300 miles per hour bearing down on you. The worst of the storm that devastated Moore, OK went south of where my Oklahoma City relatives live, and it's a bad one. Best wishes to everyone in the storm's path.
After a pretty miserable home stand against teams with stocking fetishes, the Twins take to the road for a little interleague play. The last time the Twins played the Braves in Atlanta the two teams were locked in an epic and immortal clash of talent and will to claim the world championship of baseball. This series doesn't promise to hold the same level of drama and intensity as that one.
To start this one off the Twins will trot Kevin Correia to the mound. With a a 4-3 record and a 3.35 ERA he's been as solid a starting pitcher as we have so far this year, and with all his time in the National League he should be able to avoid looking completely lost with a bat in his hand. The Braves send Julio Teheran to the mound tonight. Just 22 years old, Teheran has posted a 14-to-1 K/BB rate in his last 25 innings pitched, which would seem to indicate a decent level of control. We'll see.
Play ball!
2013 Game 40: Red Sox at Twins
After a few annoying games in a row, the Twins are three games under .500 but only five games out of first in a predictably mediocre (but surprisingly well-balanced, through a quarter of the season) division. John Lackey, who still looks like trailer trash to me despite years of proof that he's a reasonably decent major league starter, faces Pedro Hernandez, who looks more like a major league starter, but often proves otherwise. Oh well.
Wilkin Ramirez starts today as Willingham sits, and Carroll leads off again. The Twins season has probably hit its zenith and won't be going back, but I'm cool with a quarter-season-long mirage while I wait for the big boys to hit the major league club in the next couple of years.
Game 39: Red Sox @ Twins
Well, they're back in last place again (then again, in the rough and tumble AL Central, that's not as bad a thing as it might otherwise appear).
After golf on Thursday, a group of people were sitting around talking about baseball, when the subject of Joe Mauer came up. I was expecting the worst, but the near universal consensus was that we're watching a Hall of Famer do Hall of Fame-y things. The couple dissenters were looked upon with a sort of cocked eyebrow pity. I got the sense that maybe all isn't lost. There are people - even those who aren't so statistically inclined - who can see that Minnesota's in the midst of watching one of the very best to ever play his position.
Those that can't see that? Well, they can choke on their own tongues when Joe is inducted into the Hall of Fame as they lie and say they were with him every step of the way.
Diamond vs. Dempster today (I didn't realize Dempster has been around as long as he has). Hopefully, Diamond bounces back from his last start (5 2/3 innings, 6 runs on 3 home runs), while Dempster expands upon his (5 innings, 6 runs on 3 home runs).
Twins on Leaderboards
rWAR (position players) - Mauer, 5th (2.0)
Batting Average - Mauer, 3rd (.349)
OBP - Mauer, 3rd (.431)
OPS - Mauer, 7th (.931)
Hits - Mauer, t-7th (51)
Doubles - Mauer, 3rd (16)
Triples - Dozier, t-5th (2)
RBIs - Morneau t-10th (28)
Bases on Balls - Willingham, t-3rd (25)
Bases on Balls - Mauer t-10th (21)
OPS+ - Mauer, 6th (157)
Runs Created - Mauer, t-4th (33)
Times on Base - Mauer, 4th (72)
Hit By Pitch - Willingham, 1st (6)
Hit By Pitch - Plouffe, t-4th (4)
Sacrifice Hits - Dozier, t-9th (2)
Sac Flies - Morneau, t-1st (4)
Sac Flies - Doumit, t-4th (3)
Intentional Walks - Mauer, t-4th (3)
GIDP - Dozier, t-9th (6)
Caught Stealing - Dozier, t-3rd (3)
Joe Mauer. Good at baseball? You decide.
BB/9 - Correia, 4th (1.342)
Games Pitched - Fien, t-3rd (20)*
Games Pitched - Burton, t-9th (19)
Saves - Perkins, 7th (8)
Games Started - Worley, t-1st (9)
Hits Allowed - Worley, 2nd (72)
Hits Allowed - Correia, t-10th (58)
Losses - Worley & Pelfrey, t-7th (4)
Earned Runs - Worley, 8th (31)
Games Finished - Perkins, 7th (14)
* I would expect (injury excepted of course) Fien to be high on this list at season's end.
2013 Game 38: The Other Sox at Minnesota Twins
Clay Buchholz
v
Vance Worley
Joe, time to work turn your pitch framing magic to 11. Worley needs all the help he can get.
Wait, Mauer isn't catching? Uh, oh.
Game 37: WSox at Twins
DAY GAME ALERT!
Probables:
CWS - Dylan Axelrod (0-3, 4.17)
MNT - Mike Pelfrey (3-3, 6.03)
Those are some ugly numbers for today's starting pitchers.
Lineups:
Sox:
- DeWayne Wise CF
- Alexei Ramirez SS
- Alex Rios RF
- Adam Dunn 1B
- Paul Konerko DH
- Conor Gillaspie 3B
- Dayan Viciedo LF
- Jeff Keppinger 2B
- Hector Gimenez C
Twins:
- Carroll 2B
- Mauer DH
- Willingham LF
- Mountie 1B
- Doumit C
- Arcia RF
- Hicks CF
- Escobar 3B
- Florimon SS
Go Twins!
Game 36: Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins
Starters: Peavy (4-1, 3.03 ERA) v. Correia (4-2, 3.09 ERA)
NBB - your wish is granted.
2013 Game 35: Pale Hosers at Twins
I used to love to hate the White Sox, but that fiery passion has cooled considerably in the past few years. Now I just like to dislike them. For this I blame Ozzie Guillen, who somehow against all odds and expectations brought a new level of civility and respect to the formerly fierce and nasty rivalry. I blame Ozzie because this is America, and we all know that in America the way a person feels about anything can never, ever, ever be blamed on the person doing the feeling; it must be either God's will or somebody else's fault. Ozzie's outspoken admiration for the Twins' brand of baseball during his Chicago tenure cowed the South Side trash talkers, and for that I don't think I can ever forgive him.
2013 Game 34: Orioles at Twins
So, the Twins are 17-16 with 20% of the season gone. I'm sure I'm not the only one who keeps figuring that the "playing .500" part of the season is over, even at this site, but here we are (is anyone keeping track of that "-84 run differential the rest of the way" thing?).
Wei-Yin Chen goes for the Orioles. I don't know much about him, but he seems to be pitching fairly well (minus many strikeouts) and not getting run support. He faces Scott Diamond, who apparently is coming back from surgery in a decidedly non-Twins kind of way.
I'd put more into this, but it's been an emotionally wrecked May for me already. Go Twins. Win one for the moms in attendance.