Archive for game logs from previous seasons.
CWS - Dylan Axelrod (0-3, 4.17)
MNT - Mike Pelfrey (3-3, 6.03)
Those are some ugly numbers for today's starting pitchers.
Go Twins!
Starters: Peavy (4-1, 3.03 ERA) v. Correia (4-2, 3.09 ERA)
NBB - your wish is granted.
Days since Joe Mauer's 30th Birthday: 24
Days since Aaron Hicks got his man bat out: 0
Days since Gladden called a coherent inning: imaginary number
I was in the car for the first 2 hours of this game, so the time in between Hicks' amazing catch and his second homer was spent walking from the car to the house. Listening to Gladden call a game is a lesson of keeping things remembered in your head plus having a healthy active imagination, but from what I gathered the Twins destroyed the Sox and then almost let it get away before a one man beatdown by the name of Hicks.
The innings I saw on TV were a lot more fun. Let's continue this.
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.
As noted by AMR, it's been a pretty good week for birds. Diamond looked anything but sharp allowing 6 earned runs on 9 hits in 5 2/3 innings for the Loss. Wei-Yin Chen was workman-like allowing no more than one hit in each of his 5 innings. He left after feeling some pain in his side...no matter, the O's bullpen was solid the rest of the way.
The Twins had the leadoff man on first 4 out of the first 5 innings but couldn't move them. On the day, they were 0-9 with runners in scoring position and collectively struck out 8 times while only taking one walk. It was only their second shutout of the season.
Surprise: Joe Mauer was 2-3 with a walk, hit another double, his tenth in the past 8 contests, and extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
In other news: Tiger won The Players Championship at Sawgrass, closing the day with 2 pars to finish -13. It is his fourth win this year. With 78 career PGA wins, he is now four short of Sam Snead's record.
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.
I didn't expect that the Twins would break even on that road trip. That was actually pretty fun to watch. Now the work begins. In order to be a properly mediocre team (as opposed to a wretched one), the home team is going to have to follow up that perfectly acceptable road trip with a slightly better home stand. That started poorly yesterday, but what do you expect when the only give Josh Roenicke a three run lead and one inning to keep it?
None-the-less, today, the faithful must press on, confident in the knowledge that the opposition has a rookie on the mound, whereas we have a winless ace going on our side. Plus, the Twins have noted folk heroes Joe Mauer and Oswaldo Arcia in the lineup (I assume they do, anyway, I'm writing this up before the lineups have actually been posted).
It's like we can't lose.
Twins on Leaderboards
rWAR (position players) - Mauer, 10th (1.6)
OBP - Mauer, 10th (.396)
Doubles - Mauer, t-2nd (13)*
Triples - Dozier, t-3rd (2)
Bases on Balls - Willingham, 2nd (24)
Hit By Pitch - Willingham, 1st (5)
Hit By Pitch - Plouffe, t-2nd (4)
Sacrifices - Dozier, t-7th (2)
Sac Flies - Morneau, t-1st (4)
Wins - Correia, t-10th (4)
BB/9 - Correia, 5th (1.350)
Saves - Perkins, 7th (8)
Hits Allowed - Worley, 3rd (55)
Losses - Worley, t-5th (4)
Earned Runs - Worley, t-7th (26)
Earned Runs - Pelfrey, t-10th (23)
Games Fished - Perkins, t-6th (13)
* Yeah, that Fenway series was fun, wasn't it?
Hammel
v
Pelfrey
I did not expect the Twins to have more wins than losses at this point in the season. Or any point after game four. They are still in fourth place though, so maybe that's why. The Twins are above .500 and the AL Central has four teams at least .500, most of any division.
Since ending his season starting strikeout streak on April 15, Hicks's batting line is .200/.328/.345. His season stats are a lost cause, but the stats since are comparable to Hunter's first full season at the same age in 1999: .255/.309/.380. Hicks has 14 walks so far while Hunter had 26 in all of 1999. Hicks will probably end up with more strikeouts than Hunter; he's racked up 34 in 31 games compared to Hunter's 76 in 135 games.
I'm feeling better about the season and it looks like Hicks major league experience might not be ruined.
6:10 (CDT) start time.
Kevin Correia vs. John Lackey
Watch for rain.
Gleeman has been telling us for weeks that Correia has a history of pitching well in April and then turning back into a pumpkin. That seemed to play out in his last start when he gave up four runs in five innings versus the Indians. Let's hope that history stops repeating itself tonight. And if it does have to repeat itself, let's see it be a repeat of last night.
4 Dozier
2 Mauer
7 Willingham
3 Morneau
5 Plouffe
DH Doumit
9 Arcia
8 Hicks
6 Florimon
Game time 610?
PH v Someone the Sox just called up. Adam?
Go Twins!