aaaaaaand Mitch Garver allows a wild pitch. Drink?
Category Archives: 2018 Twins Game Logs
Game 38 — Redbirds at Twins
St. Louis Cardinal time again. After dominating them last week in St. Louis the Twins are looking to pluck the Cardinals once again and put a stop to a 2-game slide. Jose Berrios on the mound for the Twins and it sure would be nice to have the April Berrios and not the May Berrios show up tonight. Jack Flahery for the Cardinals.
7:10p start and it looks like it will be absolutely gorgeous weather tonight.
2018 Game 8 37: Seattle Mariners vs. Minnesota Twins
Sorry, gang, crazy busy day. Should there be a game tonight, here's a gamelog.
2018 Game 36: Land O’ Lakes Twins vs. Part of the Greater Metropolitan Los Angeles Area Angels
Hang onto your hats, gentlemen. Today's tilt features a match-up of two rookie hurling phenoms. In this corner, weighing in with a 3-1 record, a 4.10 ERA, and a 0.4 WAR is Shohei Ohtani. In the other corner, sporting a 2-0 record, and a 0.8 WAR, undefeated and unscored upon, Fernando Romero. It's only my humble opinion, but I'll put it out there - these are the two most exciting young pitchers in baseball at the moment. My brother-in-law in Orange will be in the stands today - wish I could join him. Play ball!
Game! In Progress! Twins @ Angels
Nolan Ryan Gibson is on the mound!
Game 34 Twins at Angels
Last night I fell asleep with the game tied, so I refuse to acknowledge that loss.
Lance Lynn will try to build on a strong start last time around. Maybe he can keep Ian Kinsler in the ballpark.
Game 33 Twins at Anaheim
*** No FSN, National TV game FS1 ***
Happy Byron Buxton Day! He off the DL and back in the lineup which means Robbie Grossman exits the OF woo wooo! Is there a Statcast breakdown on OFers arms? Because it sure seems like Grossman has a noodle arm out there.
Also Happy Berrios Day........
HAPPY BUXTERRIOS DAY!
All this excitement has to result in a win for our favorite baseballers (although the Angles are no slouch of team with 22 wins so far this year)
Game 32 — Twins at Cardinals
Twins on a four game winning streak. Only 1.5 games behind the Clevelanders. Byron Buxton should be ready to play this week. All looking rosy for the Twins after a dreadful late April. Could be a nice pitcher's duel today with Jake Odorizzi up against Carlos Martinez, who's been pretty dang good this year. Perfect St. Louis weather for an afternoon game. If I worked in downtown St. Louis, probably a great day to play hooky and head over to the ballpark.
12:10p Start.
2018 Game 31: Minnesota Twins vs. Saint Louis Cardinals
One good thing about the years long slog of White Sox ineptitude is being able to score really nice seats on the cheap. The boy had a birthday party, and I wanted to catch at least one game, so I convinced Jane to let me slip out to the South Side. $30 something dollars later, I had a ticket just to the side of the Twins' dugout and a few rows back.
As it happened—"as it was meant to happen," Bokonon would say— DG and I bought tickets literally right next to each other for the game yesterday. I was later informed that there was actually a real good up close shot of us on the Twins broadcast. You can find a screenshot here:
Anyway, good times and well met, DG. See you at the GRate in June.
The Twins meanwhile move their road trip on down to St. Louis for a couple of games. We've got quite the pitching battle tonight as neither pitcher has yet to allow a run all year! Both have gotten the W every game they pitched! Sure, they only have 8.2 IP between the two of them, but why should that matter? Romero looked good in his MLB debut last outing. His 98.4mph pitch was the hardest thrown by a Twins pitcher since 2008. Yeesh.
Mauer has 26 BBs to 15 Ks, making his 1.73 BB/K rate the best for all MLB hitters. On the flipside, both in terms of stats and believability, at 10.28 batters per nine innings, the Twins pitching staff as a whole has the majors' best K rate on the road.
Mauer, Dozier, and Rosario are all beasts against NL teams, so hopefully some modes will be engaged. The Cards will be without Molina because, well, I recommend against Googling it. Let's go beat those Birds, gang.
Continue reading 2018 Game 31: Minnesota Twins vs. Saint Louis Cardinals
Game 30: Twinkies at Pale Hosers
There’s little room for argument that Kyle Gibson has been a frustrating pitcher to watch, and probably to coach, over his four full major league seasons. Brilliant one start and seemingly brain-dead the next, far too often nibbling away his advantage after getting ahead in counts, and never seeming to trust his best stuff in tough situations despite ample evidence that he can and should. But we may be witnessing a metamorphosis of sorts with Gibby and this could be a breakout season for the 31-year old Hoosier, with the normal caveat about staying healthy.
Late last year Gibson finally started to show some confidence and consistency on the mound and finished the season strong. His Achilles heel continues to be inefficiency as he’s only averaged 5 1/3 innings per start this season despite notching impressive performance stats, to wit a 3.38 ERA (good for a 129 ERA+) that's nicely in line with his 3.42 FIP. He’s allowed only two long balls in 32 innings and pitched to a meager .212 opponent batting average while maintaining a low 1.28 WHIP. And he’s been an effective control and ground ball pitcher, tallying 36 strikeouts with a 2.25 K/BB ratio and 1.57 grounders for every fly ball struck. All told it’s been worth 0.9 WAR from Gibson through April.
Opposing Gibson today is James Shields, who has struggled some out of the gate to a 1-3 record. His 5.35 ERA and 4.73 FIP indicate he’s been a bit unlucky and the Pale Hose have lost five of his seven starts, four of them by a single run. Twins on the current roster have 200 at bats against Shields with a respectable slash line of .260/.323/.465/.788. Dozier especially has feasted, sporting a .333 average and 1.224 OPS against Shields, who has contributed just 0.2 WAR for the Southsiders this year.
Enough with the egghead stats already, this game happens on a field, not a spreadsheet. Play ball!