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Archive for game logs from previous seasons.

2011 Twins Game Logs, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Game 108: Twins at A’s

58 Comments

Carl Pavano vs. Brandon McCarthy

The Twins need to win this one. This is the worst team they are playing on this road trip and they have pretty much had their way with Oakland as of late. They have not won their last three series. They haven't gone that long without a series win since the end of May, when they lost four series in a row before beginning this turnaround.

McCarthy is having his best season thus far, mainly be becoming a different style of pitcher. He was mainly a flyball pitcher, but with Oakland he has improved his groundball rate by 50 percent. Combine that with moving from the Rangers' to the A's home ballparks and suddenly his HR rate has dropped to a third of what it was. However, his HR/FB rate is at an unsustainable 3 percent this year, so maybe that luck can change today.

Pavano has had a couple bad starts in a row and needs to reverse that trend against the second-worst offense in the AL.

By the time this game starts, we will know if we should be expecting Denard Span to be up in a few days or a new reliever added to the team. Either way, the team will be receiving help. Let's get this momentum going in the right direction. GO TWINS!!

2011 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins, MLB

Game 107: A’s 8, Twins 3

3 Comments

Just when you want to believe, the Twins get hammered by a bad offensive team and the Indians go out and get Ubaldo Jimenez. Of course, then the Indians go out and trade Orlando Cabrera for a minor leaguer, so I'm kinda confused, although I guess Cabrera had been relegated to a bench role of late. Also, Jimenez gave up four runs on four walks and two doubles in the first inning before being pulled, presumably when the trade went down, so he may be somewhat of an enigma, something in the lines of a Francisco Liriano.

As for the Twins, it still boggles the mind that Blackburn was handed a starting job over Kevin Slowey, especially after Blackburn's struggles last season. His ERA now stands at 4.49 with a 1.51 WHIP, which is even worse than last year when he could at least blame a sore arm for his struggles. He's now allowed at least four runs in six of his last seven starts and it was the fourth time in that stretch he's allowed double-digit hits. The one slightly encouraging sign was he still was able to get 10 groundball outs, which he must do to have any success.

How bad is it, though, that Blackburn got beat when matched up against a poor man's Slowey. Mancuso is an extreme flyball pitcher without an out pitch. His groundball rate, K rate and walk rate are all worse than Slowey's.

Oh well, at least Span wasn't traded. At least not yet. I did see one encouraging sign that the Twins will be insisting on getting a good deal:

The Twins are insisting on acquiring Storen with Bernadina and minor league infielder Stephen Lombardozzi for Span, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com.

That deal I can get on board, although I still would be upset that Span was traded, since he's one of my favorite players. However, Lombo's son is exactly the type of player the Twins need to focus on. He's a second baseman that can actually hit. He's a switch hitter with a career .370 on-base average in over 1,800 PAs. He's batting .318/.360/.429 as a 22 yr old in AAA. His numbers remind me a lot of a second baseman on a Twins championship team, but thankfully not his dad. If he does get traded to the Twins, we should start a pool on how long it will take for Dazzle to take a swing at him.

2011 Twins Game Logs

Game 107: Twins at A’s

213 Comments

After an ugly series against the Tigers and a split against the Rangers, a series against the A's is texactly what we need right now. Going from facing lineups with Miguel Cabreras and Josh Hamiltons to a lineup whose greatest threat is Josh Willingham is kind of a nice change of pace.

Luckily for A's fans, we're going to try to counteract that lineup by bringing out Nick Blackburn tonight. Blackie's been in second-half form lately, carrying a 6.94 ERA over his last seven starts (and that's after a couple of very nice starts in the middle of this month). We've got the resistible force meeting the movable object - which will suck less? Only time will tell.

The Twins get to face Guillermo Moscoso. Guillermo's trad stats look okay (3-5, 3.47 ERA), but he's carrying some ugly peripherals. He's not striking people out (4.5 K/9), he's walking more than a pitcher like him should (3.5 BB/9), and he's giving up lots of homers (1.4 HR/9, which seems high, until you consider he's got a ground ball rate of just over 25%). Combine that with a BABIP of .219, and you would think that this is exactly the type of pitcher the Twins would tee off on (no ground balls, no strikeouts). So, let's see some of that, then.

I expect a high scoring game. However, since I'm expecting that, I'm sure the game will go scoreless until the 17th inning, when Butera will bunt home a run, making Cuddyer the winning pitcher (Jose Mijares won't be used, because no loving manager would put his team's fans through two straight nights of Mijares pitching).

2011 Twins Game Recaps, Minnesota Twins

2011 Game 106 Recap: Twins 9, White Elephants 5

3 Comments

Weather: 64 degrees, clear
Wind: 12 mph, in from left field
Time: 3:07
Attendance: 25,656

Box Score
Fangraphs

The baseball season spans half a year. Old timers will tell you how teams need to use that time: Two months to figure out what's wrong, two months to fix it, and two months to make a run for the top of the standings.

For the Twins this season, it didn't take long to assess the problem -- the clubhouse was as much emergency room as dressing room, and player after player was shuttling back and forth between the active roster and the disabled list. Morneau, Mauer, Span, Thome, Young, Baker, Slowey, Nishioka, Kubel, Casilla, Nathan -- all spent time on the DL, seriously testing the depth of the Twins organization.

Continue reading 2011 Game 106 Recap: Twins 9, White Elephants 5 →

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 106: Minnesota Twins at Oakland Athletics

176 Comments

Francisco Liriano vs Gio Gonzalez

The MLB.com short blurb on each pitcher sounds rather similar:

Lasting just 2 1/3 innings on Sunday, Liriano clearly did not have his best stuff against the Tigers and was unable to battle through it. The lefty gave up four runs on six hits and four walks with three strikeouts.

For the second time in three starts, Gonzalez was unable to get through the fifth, leaving after 4 2/3 innings. He gave up six earned runs on seven hits, including a homer, and struck out five. His 2.67 ERA is still seventh-best in the AL.

Here's to extending Gonzalez's struggles for a third time in four starts.

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 105: Twins at Rangers

192 Comments

After suffering the beatdown for the ages, just a couple days later, the Twins are poised for - at worst - a season split. Plus, their best pitcher is going. Well, how about that?

Scott Baker 8-5, 115.2 IP, 8.48 K/9, 2.41 BB/9, 2.88 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 3.48 xFIP, 2.4 WAR
Matt Harrison 8-7, 118 IP, 5.95 K/9, 2.90 BB/9, 3.05 ERA, 3.86 FIP, 3.88 xFIP, 1.9 WAR

Is Matt Harrison the Scott Baker of the south? Their numbers are similar enough, outside of Ks, that I'm guessing he's probably underappreciated down there. Or maybe I'm just cynical because of Bert's endless whining about the bullpen and all that.

Setting aside the usual snark about Baker's unwarranted strained relationship with the jagweeds in the media, he really is having a nice season. To date, Baker's best season was 2008, and this one is on pace to surpass it.

The Twins are six games out as well as six games under, and that seems to be the way it's been for a week or two. Let's take another step in the right direction tonight.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 104 Recap: Twins Win, Twins Win!

3 Comments

Twins 7, Rangers 2
WP: The Dunce LP: C. Lewis
Twins record 49-55, 6 games out of first
Fangraphs should really be named fungraphs
MLB

Yesterday, Joe Mauer arrived at Ranger's Ballpark well before he needed to. He unpacked his duffel bag in the clubhouse before the game, and glanced around to ensure that no one was looking. He quickly slid his man muscles out of the bag, slipped them on, and suited up for the game acting like nothing was out of the ordinary and patiently waited for the game to start. The Ump called out, "Play Ball" and Ben Revere stepped into the box. He took a couple of pitches, but eventually hit a ground ball to make the first out. 'Lexi wasted no time, and popped out to the second baseman for the second out. Joe walked up to the dish, tugging on his uni a bit hoping that no one could see the bulge of his man muscles beneath. He took the first pitch for a strike and then deposited the second pitch into the right field bleachers. Joe Mauer trotted around the bases and thought about kissing his bicep, but decided that that would be a douchy thing to do. Not wanting to be outdone, Cuddy jacked a donger of his own in the 4th inning, and from that point on the Twins never looked back. After the game, the boys cheered for the return of the man muscles shouting hip-hip-hooray.

Get some culture inebriation at Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge. The burgers are great, the patio is splendid, and who can argue with 3 dollar surly during happy hour?

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 103 – Twins 9, Rangers 8

2 Comments

This is horribly late, my apologies for that. Great game for the boys last night. Pavano pitched a real stinker, but the bats kept the boys in the game. Watching them make Feliz look like Matt Capps was a sweet, sweet bonus. A Rangers fan was riding me hard on Monday night, and told me to "let him know when Mauer hits something other than a single," so there was a little extra in my fist pump when Mauer stroked that double into left.

Nathan looks filthy, and it makes me happy. I hope he takes sole possession of being All Time King of Savers: Twins Division tonight so meat has that to write about tomorrow.

Final Score: Minnesota Twins 9, Texas Rangers 8
Twins Record: 48-55, 7.0 GB in the AL Central.
WP: Glen Perkins (3-1) | LP: Neftali Feliz (0-2)