Category Archives: Gamelog Archive

Archive for game logs from previous seasons.

2015 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Twins 4, Mariners 2 (11)

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These Guys Ain't So F'n Bad

In my favorite baseball movie, Major League, which is based on a fictional miracle run to winning the pennant by the hapless Cleveland Indians, they show a montage of Indians fans right after the roster is set at the end of spring training. All of the fans are complaining about that they don't know who most of the players are or that they just suck (with a lot of worse language thrown in).

After the season starts and the Indians somehow hang around .500, the movie goes through another montage of the same fans, most of whom are talking about how this team might not be so terrible after all, including a construction worker who looked up at a fellow worker and exclaimed, "These guys ain't so [redacted]-ing bad!" (The Japanese groundscrew were still not convinced).

I think I'm starting to get to that point with the Twins.

After a brutal 12-3 home opener following a disastrous initial road trip, the Twins were 1-6 on April 14 and had been outscored 45-16. They had just found out a week earlier that their biggest free agent signing in team history, Ervin Santana, was going to be suspended for the first half of the season and their second-biggest free agent, Ricky Nolasco, was going on the DL with a sore elbow. Paul Molitor's tenure as manager could hardly have gotten off to a worse start.

Since then, however, the Twins are 7-4 and have outscored their opponents 44-36, which means they have allowed an average of 3.27 runs per game in that stretch. In fact, they have the best record in their division in games played after April 13.

The Twins (8-10) are closing in on .500 despite the fact that they have won 0 games started by Phil Hughes, Santana or Nolasco. The Twins are 8-5 in games not started by their presumed top 3 starting pitchers.

On Sunday, the Twins also saw a continued resurgence from Joe Mauer, who's raised his batting average 49 points to .299 over his last five games. He had three hits on Sunday, including a tiebreaking two-run triple in the 11th inning. He could have had five hits after lining out twice. He also was intentionally walked, which gives him as many walks on the season as strikeouts (11 of each).

Also, for a second-consecutive game, the bullpen played a key role in a win. On Saturday when Trevor May got hurt in the fifth inning of a tie game, I figured that was all she wrote right there. But the bullpen only allowed two runs on a two-run home run with a five-run lead late while the Twins' batters took it to the Mariners' bullpen. Then on Sunday, the Twins' best relievers of Aaron Thompson, Casey Fien and Glen Perkins combined for four scoreless innings with 4 Ks and 1 BB. Those three relievers have no greater than a 0.75 WHIP, which is incredibly good.

There's still plenty of problems and concerns with this team, but at least for now there's at least some small signs that maybe this team won't be so [redacted]-ing bad after all.

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 17: Twins @ Mariners

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The good news is that we don't have to watch our favorite team take on Felix Hernandez any more in this series.

Trevor May (1-1 4.76 ERA, 3.04 FIP)
vs.
James Paxton (0-1 8.40 ERA, 4.64 FIP)

I should really do xFIP, but I'm about to go run some errands, and I can't be arsed to do anything other than a quick bbref lookup. It looks like this Paxton fellow has been almost as good as Hughes at keeping the ball on the correct side of the outfield fence. I'd expect that to change.

On that note: the Twins as a team have 8 home runs. Nelson Cruz has 9.

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 16 recap. Seattle 2 Minnesota 0

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Phil Hughes was awesome. 8 innings, 9 strikeouts, 0 walks (natch), but two solo home runs as all King Felix needed as the Seattle Mariners beat the Twins 2-0 in a game played in a little over two hours.

Hernadez was dominant early, taking a perfect game into the 5th inning before Trevor Plouffe hit a solid single. The Twins made some waves in the later innings of the game but could not plate the run. The best chance was in the 6th. Suzuki reached 2nd on a hit/error combo. Moved over to 3rd on an infield single by Jordan Schafer (he made one bunt attempt but whiffed), but Hernandez slammed the door.

One is supposed to cheer for the home team, and perhaps I am underselling how awesome Phil Hughes pitched tonight,  but I appreciate good baseball and watching King Felix is pretty darned good. I dont have a MLB package and the Mariners are never on national TV, so I dont get to watch him as often as I would like. Perhaps the M's will be half way good this year and get some national love.

NOTES

- Phil Hughes has 2 complete games as  a Twin. Both are 8 inning losses.

-This is Hughes' 4th career complete game. His first complete game was a shutout. But only 6 innings in a rain shortened game.

-Other pitchers with 2 CGs as a Twin: Brian Duensing, LaTroy Hawkins, Livan Hernandez, Les Straker, Luis Tiant, Bill Campbell, and more.

-Schafer's 6th inning infield single broke a 0-21 slump. Perhaps his time as a Twin is done at the end of April.

-This was Hernadez's 24th career complete game and 10th shutout.  CC Sabathia lead active players with 38 CGs and Tim Hudson leads with 13 SHO

-The Twins had 5 hits, all singles. This is the third time this year they have been extra baseless.

-The is the third time the Twins have been shutout. The first two happened in  Detroit in games 1 and 2.

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 15: Twins at Seattle. 9:10 central time.

29 Comments

West coast baseball for a short spell. The beginning of this game will compete with the Wild game so make sure you give your thumb a warm up before you furiously flip back and forth between the two games.

On paper, this is a good pitching matchup. Phil Hughes throws for the Twins, King Felix for Seattle. I hope the Twins win 2 out of 3 this weekend.

2015 Twins Game Logs, Game Logs

Game 15: Twins at Royals

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Guthrie v. Pelfrey

Twins:
1. Danny Santana (S) SS
2. Torii Hunter (R) RF
3. Joe Mauer (L) 1B
4. Brian Dozier (R) 2B
5. Kennys Vargas (S) DH
6. Trevor Plouffe (R) 3B
7. Oswaldo Arcia (L) LF
8. Kurt Suzuki (R) C
9. Jordan Schafer (L) CF

Royals:
1. Alcides Escobar (R) SS
2. Mike Moustakas (L) 3B
3. Lorenzo Cain (R) CF
4. Eric Hosmer (L) 1B
5. Kendrys Morales (S) DH
6. Alex Gordon (L) LF
7. Salvador Perez (R) C
8. Paulo Orlando (R) RF
9. Christian Colon (R) 2B

Go Twins!

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 14: Twins @ Royals

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Milone (2-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. Vargas (1-1, 6.00 ERA)

Hooray, the first Tuesday game of the year! And it isn't Big Pelf starting!

I suppose one could say that Milone is the Twins new ace in this SSST of the first month of the season. He's the only one having any real consistent success. Considering the brutality of the Twins OF defense, his team leading 6.9 SO/9 could be a part of that. (although I do expect Hughes's totals to come up from where they are at the moment.)

My main point here is to say that I really can't wait until the young'uns in the lower levels show some success and make their way to the big club.

Here's to hoping the Twins can rough up Vargas like they did last week, if only due to reports yesterday of moldy hot dogs being served at Kaufman stadium for dollar dog day on Friday. (Ok, it was against the A's, but still. Nice reminder that, yes everyone liked the Royals last year but they are still owned by terrible people.)

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 13 Recap: Royals 7, Twins 1

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Kyle Gibson took the loss, going 5 innings while giving up 4 runs (3 earned - more on that in a minute) on 4 hits, walking 4 and striking out none. Even so, the performance saw him lower  his ERA to 5.97 and his WHIP to 1.96...trending the right direction after a horrible start in Detroit on the 9th and a better start against Kansas City last week.

The Twins' offense managed 5 hits and 1 run off of Edinson Volquez, scoring after getting the first two men on to lead off the 2nd inning. A ground ball out and subsequent double play later and the threat was over. In 7 innings, Volquez struck out 5 and walked 1, Brian Dozier, who scored the only Twins run when Hosmer's force attempt went high and wide of second base.

KEY INNING

"Arcia's defense in LF makes me yearn for _elmon Young patrolling that area. wooooof"

-davidwatts

Tied 1-1 in the 6th, the aforementioned error by Arcia in left resulted in Moustakas reaching to lead off the home half of the inning. Gibson proceeded to walk Hosmer; Kendrys Morales slapped a double down the third base line, scoring Moustakas, and Moliter went to the pen. On his 2nd pitch, Blaine Boyer skipped the throw past Suzuki allowing Hosmer to come home and concluded the Perez at-bat with a sac fly, sending Morales home. Boyer managed to get the next 5 batters out, but the damage was basically done.

Thielbar and Stauffer combined for another 3-run inning (the 8th) and the Twins' 4, 5 and 6 hitters sleep-walked through the top of the 9th to end the game with a whimper.