Game 81, halfway through the season so we can take stock of the 2023 Twins team: Good starting pitching. Ass bats. ok bullpen. (Imagine you all get insight like that without a subscription to the Athletic.)
Twins in the second game against the first place Atlanta team. Bryce Elder on the mound for Atlanta and he's a rookie who's done a real nice job this year. It's the Joe Ryan Express for the Twins and let's hope he continues with his excellent ways.
First Pitch 6:20p
Sonny Gray
vs
Spencer Strider
The Twins have by far the most strikeouts of any team. Atlanta ranks second in strikeouts per nine (9.64 K/9), a tiny bit ahead of the Marlins (9.57) and Twins (9.56). Out of all qualified pitchers, Strider ranks first in strikeout percentage (39.0%). Pablo López is a distant fifth at merely 30.1%. Joe Ryan is twelfth at 27.4%. If you go by K/9, Strider is at 14.5. There is no one in the 13s or 12s. Ohtani leads the way in the 11s at 11.8. Strider strikes out a ton of batters. Today is a good day for the Twins to shorten up those swings.
Here's some new Old Dad Rock for nearing the end of June. This one goes out to hj's cast iron skillet.
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
Loading... Twins baseball before noon for those in the Central time zone. I assume Gophers football has a game at Comerica later today or something.
Bailey Ober takes on Michael Lorenzen.
The best Tiger player for your future Immaculate Grid constructions is probably Jake Marisnick who's on his 8th big league team this season.
If we lose this series to the Tigers on top of the one last week ... well, that won't be great.
(3 votes, average: 9.33 out of 10)Loading... The Twins are trying to extend a winning streak so modest it's wearing a parka over another parka.
Lopez is the guy to do it if ever there was one. Let's go, Lopez! Let's get this winning streak a little....scandalous. Can we get a dizzying second game over .500?? The mind positively reels.
Haven't played any WoD in a while
(1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... Maeda is back. But for how long? 2 innings? 2 pitches? Let's hope it's much, much more. Like, 2020 Maeda. Joey Wentz, who is apparently not good, pitches for Detroit.
Let's hope the Twins can keep building on their last few wins and start the revenge tour in Detroit.
New music from Meshell.
(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)Loading... The Twins pulled off a pretty exciting extra-innings walk-off win last night, despite the combined efforts of the Red Sox and the blue shirts. The Gallo/Baldelli ejections got the crowd pretty worked up, and the out call on MAT at first base on the sacrifice, a bad call upheld by an even worse replay review -- well, let's just say things got fairly raucous and I had to issue a few polite reminders about profanity to nearby fans. At any rate, it was a sorely needed win, it was good to see Rocco get lathered up, and hopefully the win can spark a return to the form we saw early in the season when the pitching and hitting were on the same page in the same book most of the time.
Today the Twins wrap up a long homestand and their 4-game series with Boston with a businessman's special. Young Joe Ryan, 7-4 with a 3.30 ERA and 91 strikeouts, slings for the Minnesota nine with Justin Garza on the hill for the Sox. He's 0-1 and this appears to be his first start of the season, he's thrown 13 innings of relief in 12 games in 2023. Not sure how long he'll go, this could be a bullpen start for Boston and Garza is just the first leg.
Play ball!
