Category Archives: 2021 Twins Game Logs

2021 Game 126: Minnesota Twins at Boston Red Sox

Bailey Ober
vs
Nick Pivetta

This is, after I did the math twice, game 126 for the Twins. Any player needs to have a minimum of 390.6 PAs after tonight's game to qualify for all of the batting categories. Arraez is now at 352 PAs so he needs 38.6 more to not have outs added to his totals to qualify. Added to the rest of the season and he needs to average 4.05 PAs per team game. His current batting average would place him third, 0.00025 points behind Brantley.

2021 Game Log 125 – Twins at Red Sox

The last place Twins, 16 games under .500, play the Red Sox who happen to be 16 games over .500 in their annual trip to Fenway. After a good start of the season for the Red Sox, they've cooled down but still in line to play a Wild Card game, perhaps against the Yankees. I wonder if it will be televised?

A match-up between two rookies as Tanner Houck on the mound for the Sox and although 0-3 on the year, has pitched well and could be a decent back of the rotation guy for a while. Giffin Jax for the Twins. Primarily a fastball guy, it will be good for the Twins to see what they have in Jax over the next 6 weeks of the season.

Game time 6:10. Since it's against the Red Sox I think it's on ESPN+ if you subscribe.

Twins Line up
RF - Kepler
LF - Rooker
SS - Polanco
DH - Donaldson
3B - Arraez
C - Garver
2B - Gordon
1B - Sano
RF - Cave

2021 Game 122: Twins at Yankees

Game Time - 6:05 p.m. CT

The Twins hit the road today to kick off a 4-game set with the Yankees on the heels of their most successful homestand of the year, winning all three series and going 6-3 against the White Sox, Rays, and Guardians. In three of the last four games, Twins wins came off the bat of Jorge Polanco, who delivered a sac fly and two base hits for walk-off victories. I would love to see the boys extend their winning ways on this road trip, but whenever we head to New York and that bandbox replica stadium, I take all of my expectations for winning, tie them up in a burlap bag, and drown them in the river.

After the game Tuesday night I rode an elevator with John Gant and what I assume is his wife or girlfriend (I don't really know his marital status). Players don't normally use that elevator so maybe he got lost in the tunnels or something, but I knew it was him by the name tag on his suitcase. Just to make some small talk I asked him how he liked Minnesota. He said he loves it so far. I replied with, "Well, we like your pitching. So far."

It sounds like Rocco is going with a bullpen game tonight with Gant getting the ball first. Since joining the team he's had six good outings and one bad one where he gave up five runs over two innings , but the man has strike-'em-out stuff and I'm happy to have him around. Even though I think of him as a relief pitcher, this will be Gant's 15th start this year, his most since 2018 when he started 19 games. He worked exclusively out of the bullpen in 2019 and 2020. I'm guessing he'll throw just a few innings tonight before passing the baton and hitting the shower. Jameson Taillon gets the ball today for New York. He's 7-4 in 23 starts on the season with a 3.89 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. He strikes out about one batter per inning, and strikes out three hitters for every one he walks, so he's been pretty good. Play ball!

 

Twins Log Game 120 – Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins

Is the Guardians thing official or does that start in 2022? I don't care, I'm going with Guardians. Tonight is the 8th game of a pretty decent homestand for the Twins and they could win their fourth straight series with a victory tonight. Not that we have to look at the standings or anything but it's nice that the Twins are now just mediocre instead of terrible.

Speaking of terrible, Eli Morgan on the mound for the Guardians and he's been pretty bad this year including a 5 run in 4 innings performance last week. He gets just under a strikeout per inning and has a WHIP of 1.28. Should be easy pickings for the Twins potent bats. Bailey Ober for the Twins and let's see if he can put together a couple of back to back great outings. Did you know he's really tall too?

First pitch at 7:10p for what promises to be a pretty warm game.

Twins Lineup

Game 118: Twins v. Rays

First team to 10 runs wins! That's been the series so far, with blowouts going both ways in the first two games.

Brent Rooker sure likes hitting against the Rays, huh? 6 for 9 in the first two games, with 2 homers, a double, and not a single strikeout. This after going 0 for 11 with 9 strikeouts in the previous series against the White Sox.

Luis Arraez just likes hitting against anyone. I feel like he's the one in the lineup that I watch and think "but how does he do that?" the most often. After hitting only .304 in June,  Arraez hit .373 in July and .417 so far in August.

Charlie Barnes starts for the Twins.  That hasn't gone great so far this year, but maybe this time will be different.

Luis Patiño goes for the Rays and he's had one good start out of four since joining the rotation about a month ago.

Looking at the most recent starts for these pitchers,  it just might end up being another race to 10 runs this afternoon.