Category Archives: Gamelog Archive
Archive for game logs from previous seasons.
2012 Game 109: Twins at Indians
First Pitch - 6:05 pm CDT
Television - FSN
Lineups - TBD
I don't have a lot of time for today's game log since I spent most of the day yesterday walking (3.25 miles on the Coon Rapids dam trails), shopping (Trader Joe's) and eating (chicken, black bean and corn quesadillas with guacamole) instead of working on the work work I probably should have been working on. What can I say, the doctors told me I have to be a little more selfish about taking time for my health from now on.
The Twins have been playing pretty good baseball lately. They've won seven of their last ten games and sit in fourth place, 12.5 games off the division lead and 3 games behind the third-place Indians. Cleveland, on the other hand, is in total collapse mode, riding a nine-game losing streak that started with a series sweep by the Twins at the end of July. We'd all like to see the Twins continue Cleveland's losing streak by sweeping this series, too. After all, now that the Cuyahoga Rivers doesn't start on fire when you toss a cigarette butt into it, we have to give the Indians something else to cry about. Extending their losing streak to an even dozen games and moving into a tie for third place ought to do it.
The Twins made an unexpected move over the weekend, trading Danny Valencia to the Red Sox for minor league outfielder Jeremias Pineda after a waiver claim. This looks like a move that will improve the Minnesota team immediately by subtraction and could pay off several years down the road by addition or ancillary transaction. Some four-cylinder import named Nishioka has been called up from Rochester to fill Juicy's roster spot, which was temporary anyway, but I expect Nishi will take a turn at shortstop and/or second as a September audition. Or maybe he'll just ride the pine for a week. It's not like the team is concerned about getting him regular at-bats like they are with Parmelee. Jamey Carroll will likely get all the duty at the hot corner until Babe Plouffe! returns from the 15-day disabled list, possibly by Friday.
On The Hill:
Tonight the Twins send ace-apparent Diamond out to face something called a McAllister. Diamond has a record of 9 wins and 3 losses, while McAllister has notched 4 wins and 3 losses. Diamond has an equal rights amendment of 2.93 and McAllister has an equal rights amendment of 3.42. All other pitching stats are made up and/or meaningless.
Play ball!
Game 108: Twins 4, Red Sox 6
The Twins missed a series sweep at Fenway by one game. According to someone, they last swept the BoSox in Boston in our World Championship year of 1991. They managed only 6 hits but recorded 3 runs in the top of the 9th (HR's by Willingham (28!) and Doumit (11)) to make the finale interesting.
Revere extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a single leading off the first - the longest hitting streak since ii made it to 23 games in 2007. He's currently batting .323/.354/.383 and is a staple in the lineup since being recalled from AAA, playing in 73 games for the Twins this season and starting in center on Sunday. He also had a really nice over-the-shoulder catch and completed a double play with his throw to second.
In other news, Blackburn wasn't very good - pitching 5 innings and allowing 9 hits and 4 earned runs while striking out 4.
Before the game, the Twins traded Danny Valencia to the Red Sox for outfielder and 21-year-old prospect Jeremias Pineda. Juicy was immediately sent to AAA Pawtucket. There are rumors that Nishioka has been recalled. I didn't really care to confirm.
2012 Game 108: Twins at Red Sox
Today, something called Franklin Morales, who walks a decent number of guys but strikes out waaaaay more and otherwise seems fairly legit, plays host to Nick Blackburn, who occasionally walks guys, never, ever strikes them out, and has no legitimacy whatsoever (shine up that beer sampler for me, klawitter!).
Still, sometimes Mauer conquers all, and he's in there today - catching, even - so I'll stick with this team as they hit the two-thirds mark on the season.
Game 107 Recap: Aceves vs. Mauer
DeVries had a very DeVries-ian start, Revere, Casilla, and Carroll came through in the clutch, and our bullpen did another fantastic job.
You're not allowed to talk about those things.
We come to praise, not bury Joe Mauer, for heroic feats, both in power (taming monsters) and patience (ball 3. seriously.)
Game 107: Twins @ Red Sox
Time is running out for Ben Revere. If he's going to hit an honest-to-God over the fence homerun, you'd have to figure it'd be here or New Yankee bandbox. The problem, of course, is that in his entire career, he's only hit four balls in the air out of the infield. Things look grim, but this is the ballpark that has walls just over 300 feet from the plate (seems gimmicky, but I've been assured that it's not) If he really got into one, and the wind was blowing out at about 30 miles an hour, and the fielder Canseco'd it, he might have a shot.
Cole DeVries takes the ball for the good guys today. I've mentioned it before, but I really thought that when DeVries was sent back down that first time that he was gone for good. Instead, he's pretty much become our second best starter. I like his strikeouts, such as they are*, I love his walk rate, if he can figure out how to avoid throwing two or three BP fastballs every single game, I'd be good with him the rest of the way. Good Lord, though, those home runs... he gets grounders on fewer than a third of the balls hit in play, and a full 15.8% of those fly balls leave the playing field. If he keeps this up, I don't know how we're going to be able to rely on him come playoffs.
Clay Buchholz is also pitching, but he's a thoroughly mediocre pitcher, and no one cares about him.
* Fun Fact: At 6.2 k/9, DeVries has the highest rate of any of our starters (including injured ones), and the third highest strikeout rate of any pitchers who are still with the team who have pitched more than 15 innings this year. How is that even possible??
2012 Game 106: Minnesota Twins at Boston Red Sox
Duensing
v
Doubront
From mlb.com:
Duensing had less than 24 hours notice of his last start vs. Cleveland on July 29 because of the Francisco Liriano trade a day earlier. But he responded with his best start of the year, holding the Indians to one run on five hits over a six innings.
Maybe he should be the surprise starter instead of a spot starter.
Baseball Game Recap: Minnesota vs. Boston
The Minnesotans played the Bostonians in a baseball match last night. The game was played in Boston, but the Minnesota team was victorious. Although it was close early on, Minnesota scored enough points to... hold on, the team with the most points wins, right? So Minnesota won? Yeah, I just checked on wikipedia, the team with the most points wins. Minnesota had five points and Boston had no points, so... wait. Am I looking at this right? Minnesota had 5-9-0 and Boston had 0-2-0? So Minnesota won by scoring 5 and 9 and 0 points while Boston scored 0 and 2 and 0 points.
The winning player for Minnesota was Deduno. The losing player for Boston was Lester. The H in this game was Fien, and the S player was Perkins. Looking at the hitters, the... oh jeez, each hitter gets his own points too? Span scored 4-1-1-1-0-1-1. What the hell does... okay. The hitters scored points or they didn't. I don't care anymore. I think we're done here.
Game ###: Twins vs. Red Sox
Some Twins pitcher vs. Some Red Sox pitcher
Lineups:
Twins
9 guys from the Twins
Red Sox
9 guys from the Red Sox
Game number summat recap: twins lose again.
Is anyone reading this? No? I'm not surprised.