Category Archives: Gamelog Archive

Archive for game logs from previous seasons.

2011 Twins Game Logs, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Game 151: Indians at Twins

54 Comments

Masterson vs. Pavano

Don't blink. This could go quick. Pavano has pitched well against his former team and Masterson is facing the Twins, so don't expect much offense.

The Twins need to go 4-8 to avoid 100 losses. I'm not sure it really matters, but maybe it could motivate the Twins to show a little more inspired play. They also need to go 2-10 to avoid the Twins' worst record. Fortunately, the franchise record of 113 losses (in 154 games!!) is safe. The Twins need to go winless and finish the season with 19 consecutive losses to have the Twins' worst record all to themselves. Doesn't seem all that unlikely at this point.

Some other races to look at: Can Benson set the Twins' rookie record for stolen bases? Can the Twins have a game with no players from the Opening Day lineup play in the game? Who will have the worst batting average: Butera, Rivera or Tosoni? Will any Twin get to 20 home runs (Cuddyer's at 18, Valencia 15)? Will anyone get to 70 RBIs (Valencia at 69, Cuddyer 65)?

GO TWINS!!!

2011 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Game 150: Indians 10, Cuddy & the Kids 4

4 Comments

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Twins lost again to extend another losing streak. This one is at seven and it is the sixth losing streak of at least six games this season. The Twins are 0-40 in those losing streaks and 59-51 the rest of the time. I imagine that's not all that unusual for teams this bad, but the Twins have been real streaky this season. It's hard to remember that they actually won eight games in a row at one point. Then again, the Twins haven't won as much as three in a row since July 5, which happened to be the one game I attended.

But this time of year for a last-place team isn't about wins and losses, especially when you only have one member of your Opening Day lineup available to play and only one member of your original five-man rotation still pitching in the rotation. And let's face it. Any wins now only hurt the Twins' draft position and have no real tangible benefit. It's just about pride now.

This is about seeing the kids playing and seeing some hope for the future and the last two games have been good in that sense. On Friday, it was Joe Benson showing why he's considered by some to be the Twins' top prospect that could actually make the team next year when he went 4-for-4 with three extra-base hits against a very tough right-hander in Ubaldo Jiminez. In this game, it was Chris Parmelee showing why the Twins took him in the first round of the draft, going 3-for-3 with a walk and his first-career home run. Parmelee is now batting .357 in the bigs and more impressively has five walks and just four strikeouts.

2011 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins

2011 Game 149 Recap: Indians 7, Twins 6

1 Comment

Weather: 56 degrees, overcast
Wind: 14 mph, R to L
Time: 2:58
Attendance: 37,942

Box Score
Fangraphs

Yeah, it was just like old times. Jim Thome steps to the plate at Target Field and belts a solo shot, career home run #603. Only this time he was wearing an Indians uniform again, Joe Nathan was trying to keep the game even, and the home run made the difference between a potential come-from-behind Twins win and another Twins loss. So it goes.

Kevin Slowey had another poor outing for the Twins, going just four innings and giving up five runs on seven hits. But what the hell, this is the time of year when everything heads south, so we really shouldn't expect any different.

The one bright spot in the game for the Twins was Joe Benson, who damn near hit for the cycle and provided a good chunk of the team's offense, scoring three runs with a 4-for-4 night. Benson has doubled in four of his last five games, and six of his nine hits in the Majors have gone for extra bases. His four hits were the most for a Twins rookie since Danny Valencia did it last year.

2011 Twins Game Logs

Game. Cleveland vs. Minnesota

37 Comments

It's sort of sad that the Twins will never win another baseball game. I was a fan of the occasional win, but if I can't have that, I guess watching errors and strikeouts will have to get me by.

I'll be listening to this one, driving to Brainerd on a road trip with the wife. Since this one is obviously impossible, let's at least make it close.

Gomez vs Swizzlestick, who seems to be our best starter lately. Who knows, maybe we'll only lose by three?

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game # Something: Twins 83 LTE (and counting) Royals 0 LTE

17 Comments

Twins win, right?! Right? Oh, Letters to the Editor don't count towards the final score of the actual game. I'm sorry. Yes, indeed, the Twins lost.

Twins 3, Royals 7

LP: Hendriks (0-2) WP: Hoe-shaver (11-11)

Save? no. I'm not counting the Greg Holland effort as a save even if the box score on MLB.com says he earned one. No way. Not going to count. I'm not even going to look at the King of the Savers  leader board because I'm enraged that the official scored actually believed the Twins could possibly rally to threaten the Royals lead in the ninth. Puh-lease. How dare the powers that be issue a sacred save in such a decidedly un-save like situation. boo.

 

Okay, yeah, now that I'm over my save-rage induced fit I'll commence with the recapage. Liam Hendriks started his second ball game today and lost. He went five innings giving up eight hits, five earned runs while striking out only 2 batters. The good news? He walked zero, zilch, nada batters today. Bert must be pleased with his performance, that is, of course, unless he left the ball up in the zone. Truth be told, I don't know if there were many balls left up in the zone, I was busy finishing a print that's due on Friday, but I'll assume that because the Royals didn't hit any home runs off of him that Hendriks didn't leave any balls up. Waldrop pitched two thirds of an inning and gave up two runs. The rest of the bullpen gave up 3 hits and no runs, Hoey included. Wierd, right? The Twins offense offered up eight hits and three runs. Mauer went oh-fer with three walks. I'd ask for my money back, but I live out of state. The "defense" offered up three errors, and Plouffe (!) records  of them. Some puss threw the ball away on some play that I didn't see to give the Twins another error on the field today. Frankly, I don't know how to read what happened in during the bottom half of the fourth inning, and being that the Twins couldn't scrape together enough hits / runs to win this garbage I don't care to decipher what actually happened.

 

Culture Club: Kansas City is chalk full of fine art. No joak. There is so much happening in KC that I don't know where to start, but the Nelson-Atkins is definitely worth the price of admission. They have world class exhibitions (most of which are FREE (hint, hint, DG...), a fantastic facility, and a beautiful sculpture grounds. Through the 15th of November they have an exhibition of night sky and cosmos photography, and coming in October they'll be showing Romare Beardon's prints. I highly recommend a stop by the Nelson-Atkins Museum if you're going to be in KC to see the Twins lose.

2011 Twins Game Logs, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Game 146: Twins at Tigers

29 Comments

Ten years ago last week, we moved into our current home. I know this because 10 years ago today I was waiting for my DirecTV to be installed when my wife called to tell me to turn on the radio. I may have been the last person in the country to know about the Twin Towers. Let's honor those who lost their lives and celebrate those who survived and helped others survive and maybe share a few of our own memories of that day. As for the game ...

Scott Diamond vs. Doug Fister

Maybe the Twins can fist it off Fister, but I won't be holding my breath.

Diamond had the benefit of unfamiliarity against the Tigers in his last start against them. I don't expect it to go so well the second time. Then again, he did better against the White Sox the second time around, so you never know.

Normally, this would be a great doubleheader day with the Twins scheduled to start about three hours before a certain other Minnesota team kicks off its season (literally). It's really sad that for decades the Twins have tried to surpass the Vikings in popularity and even with two world championships, they still haven't done it. However, they had a golden opportunity to get a leg up on the Vikes, who bumbled through a controversial and disappointing season while the Twins were coming off a wonderful 94-win debut season for spectacular Target Field. All the Twins did was puke all over that field and their fans while the Vikings traded for Donovan McNabb and signed their most popular player to a 7-year, $100 million contract, with only just over a third of it guaranteed.

Hey, Ziggy. You wouldn't want to buy a baseball team as well?