Category Archives: Gamelog Archive

Archive for game logs from previous seasons.

Game 50.1: Twins at Red Sox

Big Pelf (4-1, 2.77 ERA, 4.50 xFIP) vs. Bucholz (2-6, 4.33 ERA, 3.15 xFIP)

Well this all feels pretty familiar. I feel like I just previewed this pitching match up last Tuesday. That particular contest was shockingly both a pitcher's duel and won by the Pelfster. It'd be pretty great if they Twins could just score a bunch of runs on Bucholz this time and completely avoid having to rely on a 2-1 victory.

Of course, I do see some more rain in the forecast, so who knows if this game will happen or suffer the same fate as Monday's game, the poor bastard.

Game 49: AL’s Best 6, More AL Least Fodder 5

What a way to finish off a month for the ages. The Twins woke up today on June 1 in first place with the best record in the American League.

The Twins went an incredible 20-7 in May. The Twins haven't had that many wins in any month since June 1991. That, of course, was when the Twins had their amazing 15-game winning streak that jump-started their run to their most recent World Series victory. In other words, most of those that are graduating from college this spring weren't even born the last time the Twins had a month like this. I wonder had many Citizens weren't even born yet.

It's not hard to figure out who were the main contributors on offense to the 'Mazing May. The trio of Brian Dozier (.985 OPS in May), Torii Hunter (.957) and Trevor Plouffe (.951) carried the Twins' offense in May and Sunday was no different. Dozier had three hits and scored three runs, Plouffe had a game-tying two-run home run in the sixth inning and after Josh Donaldson homered against the Twins, again, Hunter had a two-run double to put the Twins ahead for good.

Hunter's big hit looked like it was misplayed by former Twin Chris Colabello, but when you put a guy like Colabello out in left field, you can't complain when that ends up costing you some runs. Colabello also dropped a line drive sac fly by Joe Mauer in the first inning, but Mauer was eventually erased on a double play. Still, it was really nice to see the other team be punished for playing a DH in the outfield. At least the Twins have been putting athletic middle infielders in the outfield.

On the pitching side, Ricky Nolasco was attempting to go to 6-0 in May despite an ERA over 4.00. However, he had to leave the game early with an injury. It appeared at first to be an arm injury but turned out to be just an ankle injury. Even if Nolasco is out for a while, the Twins should be just fine with Tommy Milone dominating in AAA.

This is the main difference between this team and those of the previous four years is its depth. When injuries occurred, the Twins usually ended up looking to journeymen or worse to fill the void. A couple years ago, Milone probably would have been considered the team's ace. Now he has to wait in AAA for a spot to open up.

The Twins' best pitcher in May was Kyle Gibson, who went 3-1 with a 1.36 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP.  Mike Pelfrey was 2-1 with a 3.21 ERA, but he had a 1.36 WHIP and a convenience store of a BB-K ratio (7 BBs to 11 Ks), so he's overdue for some serious regression. Phil Hughes went 4-0, but he had a 4.64 ERA and struggled to keep the ball in the park (6 HRs allowed) and to locate his backdoor cutter to lefties, which meant just 15 Ks in 33 IPs.

The bullpen was pretty much lights out with the lead, which seemed like almost every day. Glen Perkins was 13-for-13 in save opportunities in May. In fact, Blaine Boyer was the only Twin to be given a blown save in May despite Boyer having a 0.68 ERA and 0.98 WHIP while filling in as primary setup man to Perkins with Fien injured for most of the month. And again the Twins have shown great depth in the bullpen because Ryan Pressly and Michael Tonkin were called up when Fien and Tim Stauffer were injured and, if anything, the bullpen was better than before. Pressly pitched well enough that the Twins decided to go with a 13-man staff for now when Stauffer returned. Stauffer allowed two runs, including a home run, in 2 1/3 innings on Sunday. A few more outings like that and maybe the Twins will finally jettison him and bring Tonkin back up.

That bullpen depth was tested on Sunday when Nolasco left without recording an out in the second inning. Stauffer was the only reliever to allow an earned run, although J.R. Graham did allow a pair of inherited runners to score after relieving Nolasco and then allowed an unearned run in the fourth.

What was even more amazing about this May is it wasn't like the Twins were completely healthy. Not only were Fien and Stauffer hurt, but so was Oswaldo Arcia. However, Eddie Rosario was called up and instantly improved the outfield defense (how could he not?) and his OPS has actually been slightly better than what Arcia was doing. Also, Joe Mauer has one of the worst healthy months of his career with a sub-.700 OPS. However, he still came through with 17 RBIs, which would put him on pace for 102 over a full season.

Many, many Twins fans spent most of May asking how long this will last. Well, the longer this continues, the harder it is to consider it a fluke. Even more exciting, the longer this continues, the sooner the Twins can fill holes with top prospects like Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano and Jose Berrios. My advice for nervous fans is to stop worrying about the future and just enjoy the now. Because as of right now, no one in the AL has been better than the Twins.

Game 49: Blue Jays at Twins

Ricky Nolasco (5-1, 5.12 ERA, 81 ERA+, 2.86 FIP, 1.61 WHIP): A win for Ricky today ties his win total for all of last year.
-vs-
Drew Hutchison (4-1, 5.12 ERA 77 ERA+, 3.73 FIP, 1.31 WHIP): Drew has received an average of 9 runs of support this year...wow.
Other than a hiccup in Detroit, Minnesota has won every series in the month of May thus far. A win today would get them to 8 series wins out of 9 and 20 wins for the month.

LINEUPS
Twins

  1.  Dozier
  2. Hunter
  3. Mauer
  4. Plouffe
  5. Suzuki
  6. Rosario
  7. Nunez
  8. Hicks
  9. Santana

Blue Jays

  1. Reyes
  2. Donaldson
  3. Bautista
  4. Encarnacion
  5. Martin
  6. Colabello
  7. Carrera
  8. Pillar
  9. Goins

Game 45: Red Sox at Twins

Bucholz (2-5, 4.58 ERA, 3.12 xFIP) vs. Big Pelf (3-1, 3.00 ERA, 4.74 xFIP)

The Twins take on the Red Sox tonight holding second place in the AL Central all by themselves. Many articles have been written about how crazy it is, and in the spirit of that craziness, the Twins turn to the Big Pelf himself to keep up his recent resurgence to help once again vanquish the Red Sox, who play in the crappy AL East.

It'd be nice if the Twins can get some early offense AND some late offense. Its nice their getting runs in bunches, but games that start out with six or seven runs just don't feel all that comfortable when they aren't adding any insurance.

Game 44: Twins 7, Red Sox 2

Yesterday's game featured great examples of the various facets of what makes for winning baseball, and highlighted why it is the Twins (26-18) have moved to only 2 games behind AL Central-leading Kansas City. Their recent improvements on offense, defense and pitching were all on display in the first four innings. To start the game off, we saw:
-a 6-run second inning (12 men batted),
-a diving catch by Hicks in the second to save a run with the game at 1-0, and
-Ricky Nolasco striking out 3 (of his 5), inducing 3 ground outs (one a nifty around-the-horn double play -more defense!- to end a first inning threat) and bearing down to get some important outs in the third after the Red Sox put their first two batters on base to start the inning.

Every Twins player contributed to the 16 total hits and only Kurt Suzuki didn't score a run or notch an RBI.

Ricky Nolasco (5-1, 5.12 ERA) ended up going 7 2/3 innings, scattering 7 hits and allowing 2 earned runs while striking out 5 and walking none. With Mookie Betts standing on second, Aaron Thompson replaced Nolasco and got David Ortiz - he of the .509 batting average at Target Field (prior to yesterday) - to line out. Boyer pitched the 9th, allowing only one hit, and the Twins won for the third day in a row, 7th out of their past 10 games, and for the 16th time in May.*

*Last year, Minnesota was 23-21 after 44 games. The Twins won their 15th home game on May 27th. They'd lost 13 games on the road by May 26 of last year; they're at 12 road losses so far in 2015.