Category Archives: WGOM

2011 Game 43: Minnesota Twins at Arizona Diamondbacks

Brian Duensing vs Ian Kennedy

And now begins the interleague preview.

The Twins have played the Diamondbacks three times. The most recent series was here in 2008, sweeping them. Livan out pitched Webb for the win in game 1. The Twins visited Arizona in 2005, winning the series 2-1, and again in 2004 with the same results. Their sole loss was a complete game by Randy Johnson. I guess Silva, Aaron Fultz, and Joe Roa weren't a good match against him. In 2003, the Twins lost the series 1-2, with the sole win coming from spot starter Santana. It was his final start for a month before he was permanently installed in the rotation.

Following the clear progression, I predict a sweep.

Embrace – 3 Is The Magic Number

Jeff Buckley, De La Soul, and Blind Melon, have all taken turns with this School House Rock title before.  Here is an English group, Embrace. I chose them because the video was live and of the highest quality.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL659ziEyT8

I wonder if Jobu is going to play Marvelous 3 or 3 Days Grace tomorrow.

4 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 104 votes, average: 6.25 out of 10 (4 votes, average: 6.25 out of 10)
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Game 42 Recap: Twins 11, A’s 1

MINNESOTA 11, OAKLAND 1
Record
- 15-27 (Last in the Central)
Highest WPA
- Blackburn (7.0 IP, 1 R, 5 H, 1 SO) and Morneau (3 for 5, HR, 2 RBI)
Lowest WPA - Plouffe (1 for 5, HR, 3 RBI) - seriously, the guy who hit a 3-R HR ended up with the lowest WPA.
Fangraphs
MLB Recap

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I did not have a chance to see this game as it happened.  Work required my attention this afternoon, but I managed to avoid hearing anything about it and once I got home I turned on the replay.  Unfortunately, I can't recap the actual game, because someone edited in some obviously fake footage right over the top of what I assume to be the standard 2011 Twins effort.

Instead, I got to see Nick Blackburn pitch an effective seven innings, alternatively aided and hindered by his defense.  Meanwhile, the Twins offense put up double digit runs (I know, I know. This was one of the clues that something was up).  All those runs were the result of multiple extra base hits (strike two) including a home-run by Rene Rivera (Oh, come on!).

Prior to this "game" the Twins had won two straight, but this is the first time in a long time that Minnesota won a game that was never really in doubt.

Feels good.  Too bad it was a fabrication.  Anyone care to fill me in on what actually happened?

 

2011 Game 42: Twins at A’s

A day game? Well, I'm at work and didn't realize that last night would have been the time to do this. Whoops.

Tyson Ross vs. Nick Blackburn. Blackburn has been saving his spot in the rotation over the past few starts, and Ross has been a revelation in what should still qualify as his rookie year, thus far going ERA 2.50/FIP 3.03 /xFIP 3.69. He does have an unsustainably low HR/FB rate, and if anyone's going to fix that, it's this Twins lineup!!11!11

Seriously, though, let's add to this little winning streak.

Game 41 recap: Twins at Elephants

Twins 4, A's 3 (10)

Fangraphs thought we'd lost this one, too.
MLB recap

Twins record 14-27, 12.5 games out of first place
Save: Shortening bakes up a batch of outs for the Twins (7)

Time to check in on the king of the savers leader board. MoRo's corpse continues to dominate the league that counts, but two other dudes in the family friendly league race ahead of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The twins got off to an early start last night by scoring a run in the first inning. I know, I know. I couldn't believe it either. plouffe (!)'s error cost the Twins two runs in the second, but the hometown nine roared back with two more runs in the third. Carl (no stache) Pavano tossed seven excellent innings giving up 3 runs, 1 earned, and kept the Twins in the ballgame. Pavano pitched well giving up 6 hits, striking out 2, and he issued no free passes. Glen Perkins continued his dominance out of the pen, pitching one and a third allowing a hit and striking out 2. Joe Nathan came into the ball game grooved a pitch the Kurt Motorbike smashed for a double. But not to worry murry, he struck out Mark Ellis on two pitches out of the zone, and induced a ground out to end the inning. Shortening came on in the tenth to close the game out after plouffe (!) knocked in Del on a sacrifice fly. All told, plouffe was responsible for five of the seven runs scored last night. I'm glad he provided 3 of them for the good guys. That's two in a row. We're going streaking!

Game 41: Twins at Oakland

Pitchers:

Twins     C. Pavano (2-4)
Oakland    B. McCarthy (1-4)

Lineups:

Twins
CF Span, Denard
SS Plouffe, Trevor
DH Kubel, Jason
1B Morneau, Justin
RF Cuddyer, Michael
3B Valencia, Danny
LF Revere, Ben
C Butera, Drew
2B Casilla, Alexi

Oakland
RF DeJesus, David
1B Barton, Daric
LF Willingham, Josh
DH Matsui, Hideki
C Suzuki, Kurt
CF Sweeney, Ryan
2B Ellis, Mark
3B Kouzmanoff, Kevin
SS Pennington, Cliff

GO TWINS!

Game 40: Twins 2, Mariners 1

Sorry for getting this up so late everyone.

It is strange to feel strange about winning a game. But it is a good feeling. I was disappointed with yesterday's lineup because I badly wanted them to win one in honor of Harmon. They still managed to win the game because they got great pitching. Liriano pitched a great ballgame, and it feels to me like he's turned a corner. I am definitely looking forward to his next start. Perkins has obviously had a robotic arm transplanted onto his left arm, and Capps was the Proven Closer that he is. The offense still feels like it's spinning its wheels, but to hear that Nishioka, Thome, and the sissy catcher Mauer are all down in extended spring training gives me a glimmer of hope.

Still, a win is a win. The offensive futility of both teams seemed fitting yesterday, in retrospect. They both got 3 hits and scored a total of 3 runs.

RIP, Harmon.

Final Score: Minnesota Twins 2, Seattle Mariners 1.
Twins Record: 13-27, 11.0 GB in the AL Central. Worst record in MLB.
WP: Francisco Liriano (3-5) | LP: Felix Hernandez (4-4)

2011 Game Logs: Game 40 Minnesota @ Seattle

Franky

@

King Felix

I was kind of hoping to make this game log a eulogy for Harmon. There are plenty of people out there who could do a better job than me though. I thought maybe I'd write a clever story about the Killer looking down from the big Diamond in the sky, talking with Kirby, Lyman, and Delmon Young's zone judgment but thought better of it. I thought about writing about the game itself but it somehow seems insignificant.

Tonight, you have two pretty good young pitchers. If you have the chance, watch the game with your fathers, your sons, your mothers, or your daughters. Watch it with your grandparents, your brothers, sisters, or spouses. Life is a fickle thing. It takes away people who are by all accounts are amazing to everyone with little or no explanation. So raise your glass, thank those around you for the good times and hope that maybe, just maybe there might be a couple of people in Heaven rooting for Minnesota tonight.