Category Archives: Gamelog Archive

Archive for game logs from previous seasons.

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 110: royals @ twins

75 Comments

Happy Joe Nathan Day!

Hopefully, the home team will honor its best ever reliever (seriously, his 2006 in particular was insane -- Rivera never matched Nathan's 39 FIP-) by giving up a few obligatory baserunners, then utterly destroying all remaining batters on their way to a scoreless game.

Attempting that feat will be Kyle Gibson, and you know what? Good Gibby could accomplish that. In his 10 wins, he's been holding the opposition to a .544 OPS, coupled with a 2.44 ERA.

In his losses.... it's a .982 and a 7.52. I don't know for sure, but that's got to be up there in terms of game outcome splits. I still think he's your third starter in a playoff rotation, but I'd have Odorizzi standing by from the first pitch on.

Gotta stick with Cruz for a boomstick tonight.

Go Twins!

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 106: Twins at Marlins

43 Comments

Finally the schedule flips as the Twins take on the struggling Miami Marlins while Cleveland hosts the Astros. Miami has the worst record in the NL and a -97 run differential so here's hoping the Twins can take advantage and win all three of these interleague games. They will have to do it without the hot bat of Nelson Cruz as no DH this trip and Baldelli has no plans to play Nelly at First Base.

Jake Odorizzi on the mound for the Twins and he's definitely regressed to the mean after a monster start to the season. This Miami lineup seems like the perfect time to get back to the Odo we saw in May. Marlins have rookie Zac Gallen on the mound, who has pitched competently for a last place team. Last outing against the White Sox was stellar as he threw 7 scoreless innings. Hopefully it was due to the line-up and not that he has found his way.

Marlins stadium (whatever its called) not super conducive to the bomba so the Twins may have to score runs the old fashioned way this series.

Game time at 6:10p.

Twins Lineup:
RF kepler
SS Polanco
C Garver
LF Rosario
3B Sano
2B Arraez
1B Gonzalez
CF Buxton
P Odorizzi

2019 Twins Game Logs

2019 Game 105: Us and Them

65 Comments

Starting Lineups

Win Probability: 59%

The ten game lead on Cleveland that the Twins enjoyed two months ago had been whittled down to eight games just one month ago. In the past month of games, Cleveland has slashed that lead to just one game. The Twins vaunted offense remains potent (despite last night's ass-battery), the starting pitching remains mostly competent if no longer outstanding, but the bullpen continues to vex. I mean, when Taylor Rogers breaks your heart twice in one week, it might be time to re-evaluate your emotional entanglements. If nothing else, the worrisome collapse of a double digit divisional lead down to a single game helped spur the front office into action and pick up Sergio Romo from the Marlins. Carlos Torres was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Romo. So long, Carlos, we hardly knew ye. The brain trust has until Wednesday afternoon to make any additional moves that could impact the roster for the playoffs. Now, I keep hearing from the mouthpieces that the Twins, despite their precipitous fall in the standings, are playing with a lot of confidence right now. That's good. But maybe it's time to also play with a little bit of fear and loathing, and more competence than the Twins have shown in recent days. Were I Jonathan Schoop, for instance, I think I would have burned that glove with the hole in it and gotten myself a new one by now.

So, cue the Mighty Mouse theme song, because today the Twins have Kyle Gibson (9-4, 4.24 ERA, 109 K) on the mound to start the game. The Nibbler is our last best hope for maintaining sole possession of first place in the AL Central by the end of the day. Him and the offense, which went MIA on the south side last night. Oh, and the Kansas City Royals. But that's it, just Kyle Gibson, the Twins offense, and the Kansas City Royals. The White Sox send right-hander Dylan Covey (1-6, 6.04 ERA, 31 K) to the hill today. In short sample size theater, Schoop is two for three and hitting .667 against Covey, Garver (not in the lineup) hits him at a .500 clip, and Max Kepler averages .444 against him in nine at bats. So, 58 games to go and Cleveland is hot on our heels and breathing down our necks. Hold onto your butts, citizens, this ride might get a little rough. Play ball!

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 103: Duplicates at Bleached Footwear

53 Comments

Apparently battling the White Sox is easier than battling the Yankees or A's, or... any good team, really. Apparently pitching Jose Berrios helps too.

Tonight Big Mike gets to keep the train rolling, and, more to the point, hopefully the batters do their part against Dylan Cease in his 4th big league start. So far he's faced the Tigers, Royals, and Tampa, none of whom are quite known for their offense in the same way, so... this should be a good test for the kid. Of course, these new guys often present their own kind of challenge, so hopefully the Twins can solve him early and thoroughly.

A few more HRs would be nice too. We haven't passed a previous year's HR total in almost 24 hours.

Also, I adore that the White Sox have a downward facing arrow in their signage. Someone really wasn't thinking there, were they?

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 102: Minnesota @ Chicago White Sox

59 Comments

Berrios
-vs-
Giolito

Minnesota & Chicago have identical 3-7 records over their past 10 games and both have lost two in a row. The difference being, the Twins faced the Yankees, Athletics, Mets (derp) and Cleveland while Chicago managed that against the Marlins, Rays and Royals. On the season, Minnesota has scored 576 runs and given up 468 for a run differential of +108. The White Sox have plated 418 and given up 514 runs for a differential of -96.

So ... you're thinking this should be a bounce back game series after the heartbreaker on Tuesday and non-competitive start last night? We'll see - 24-year-old Chicago Ace and former 1st rounder Lucas Giolito has seemingly "figured it out" over 19 starts this year to the tune of 3.14 ERA, 1.092 WHIP, 134 K's in 112.2 innings pitched. He's leading his team in WAR at 3.8 (a full 'Win' ahead of their #2 player, catcher James McCann). All that said, 3 of his 4 losses have come in his past four starts (though the lone 'W' in there was against the Twins on June 30).

After watching Twins starters struggle mightily over the past 10 games (only Gibson secured a starter 'W'), it'd be nice to see José Berríos get the group back on more solid ground. Unfortunately, Berríos hasn't won a start since June 6 (1-3 w/ 4 no decisions) though he has had some nice games where the Ass Bats© did him no favors - he's had 5 or more runs of support only three times in that span. We can only hope that the seemingly awakened Bomba Squad continues to hit; José - and the club - could use a laugher.