Category Archives: WGOM

2023 Game 6: Minnesota Twins at Miami Marlins

Pablo López
vs
Jesús Luzardo

López returns to his original park right away this season for a rematch. We will see how well the Marlins remember his repertoire versus López adjusting his pitches this spring.

The Twins did a lot to increase rotation depth and after one turn through, it shows. The starters have a 1.03 ERA after five starts with 10.6 K/9. The relievers too have been great with a 1.53 ERA. The same has not been true for the batters. It was great to win two 2-0 games but I don't recommend it as a long-term strategy.

2023 Game Log 5 – Twins at Marlins

So few complaints with the Twins start of the season huh?

Twins in Miami for game two of the the 3-game series against the Marlins and this may be the toughest match up of the season thus far. Kenta Maeda on for the Twins in his first game back since August 2021. His Spring Training was meh at best so it will interesting to see if he has his old form back.

Twins face a legimate ace in Sandy Alacantara, the reigning National League Cy Young winner (unanimously no less). Alacantara didn't have a great outing opening day so we'll see how does against the Twins bashers.

Game at 5:40p so get your dinner plans set.

Twins Line up
1. Gordon, 2B
2. Correa, SS
3. Larnach, RF
4. Miranda, 3B
5. Gallo, 1B
6. Solano, DH
7. Castro, LF
8. Vázquez, C
9. Taylor, CF

No Buxton but available to pinch hit apparently.

2023 Game Log 4: Minnesota Twins at Miami Marlins

It's the battle of the M's!!!

While it's not the most robust of opponents, the Twins come into Florida after sweeping the Royals in Kansas City (162-0!). Cueto is actually 5-1 against the Twins with a 2.62 ERA, so hopefully Gallo will smack a couple of dongers for us.

We'll also see our old friend Arraez, who is off to a great start this year. Definitely going to miss him, but hopefully Lopez will soften the blow. Gotta imagine that Luis prefers Florida climes to Minnesota's though. Good on him.

The Twins are so far undefeated on my game log post days (0-0), and I hope that trend continues today. Win, Twins!

Game 3: Twins @ Royals

It seems reasonable to assume that the Twins will not allow any runs for the entire season.  The sample size is getting larger every day!  Joe Ryan takes the hill this afternoon with an 18 inning shutout streak to extend. Like all Twins pitchers, Ryan has not allowed a run all season.

Twins pitchers have walked 10 Royals in 2 games, which seems a little high.  4 double plays have limited the damage. and the shutout streak has been held intact by the Royals just not getting any hits.

Jax, Thielbar, and Jorge Lopez have pitched in both games this series out of the bullpen, but with a day off in between games, maybe they'd still be available today.

Byron Buxton is almost the entirety of the Twins offense so far. He has all of the Twins extra base hits and has scored 3 of the 4 runs. He continues to be just ... so good.  Buxton and Vazquez each have 4 hits (.500/.500/.688), and the rest of the Twins roster has 7 hits total (.135/.220/.135).

The Twins face Brad Keller today. I swear this is the 30th time they've faced him in the last few years.  Keller has allowed 24 runs in 6 starts against Minnesota in the last two years, a rate of 7.9 Runs/9 with a WHIP of 1.90. More like that, please!

Max Kepler is 7 for 19 with 2 HR against Keller in his career (.368/.500/.737).

Dick briefly mentioned yesterday on the broadcast that the Royals are working on getting a new stadium in the near future.  I was surprised how much nostalgia I immediately felt for Kauffman Stadium.  When we lived in Kansas for 3 or 4 years, we had a lot of great baseball experiences there, tickets were always available, the stadium is really nice, and I met a fair number of WGOM citizens there.  We have talked about going back there with little G, as he has only been to that stadium in utero. Now all of a sudden that seems like it might jump up on the priority list.

 

Game 2: twins @ royals

Baseball is back. The winter was (err.....remains) long, but that doesn't matter now. Baseball is back.

And the Twins will probably be good! Buxton looks ready to go, we still, against all odds, have one of the best shortstops in baseball, and Jhoan Duran still throws a million miles per hour.

Today, it's Sonny Gray's turn to beat up on the Royals. I might actually be able to watch some of this one, so that will be a treat.

Go Twins!