Game 107: Twins @ Red Sox

Time is running out for Ben Revere. If he's going to hit an honest-to-God over the fence homerun, you'd have to figure it'd be here or New Yankee bandbox. The problem, of course, is that in his entire career, he's only hit four balls in the air out of the infield. Things look grim, but this is the ballpark that has walls just over 300 feet from the plate (seems gimmicky, but I've been assured that it's not) If he really got into one, and the wind was blowing out at about 30 miles an hour, and the fielder Canseco'd it, he might have a shot.

Cole DeVries takes the ball for the good guys today. I've mentioned it before, but I really thought that when DeVries was sent back down that first time that he was gone for good. Instead, he's pretty much become our second best starter. I like his strikeouts, such as they are*, I love his walk rate, if he can figure out how to avoid throwing two or three BP fastballs every single game, I'd be good with him the rest of the way. Good Lord, though, those home runs... he gets grounders on fewer than a third of the balls hit in play, and a full 15.8% of those fly balls leave the playing field. If he keeps this up, I don't know how we're going to be able to rely on him come playoffs.

Clay Buchholz is also pitching, but he's a thoroughly mediocre pitcher, and no one cares about him.

* Fun Fact: At 6.2 k/9, DeVries has the highest rate of any of our starters (including injured ones), and the third highest strikeout rate of any pitchers who are still with the team who have pitched more than 15 innings this year. How is that even possible??

Happy Birthday–August 4

Jake Beckley (1867)
Dolf Luque (1890)
Chick Galloway (1896)
Ski Melillo (1899)
Bill Hallahan (1902)
George Caster (1907)
Tuck Stainback (1911)
Luke Easter (1915)
Don Kolloway (1918)
Dallas Green (1934)
Frank Kostro (1937)
Ray Oyler (1938)
Cleon Jones (1942)
Johnny Grubb (1948)
Roger Clemens (1962)
B. J. Surhoff (1964)
Matt Merullo (1965)
Troy O'Leary (1969)
Bob Howry (1973)
Eric Milton (1975)
Scott Linebrink (1976)

While this is an incredible day for names, it should be pointed out that none of these players was listed here because of his name.  In fact, each of them had a substantial baseball career.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–August 4

Baseball Game Recap: Minnesota vs. Boston

The Minnesotans played the Bostonians in a baseball match last night. The game was played in Boston, but the Minnesota team was victorious. Although it was close early on, Minnesota scored enough points to... hold on, the team with the most points wins, right? So Minnesota won? Yeah, I just checked on wikipedia, the team with the most points wins. Minnesota had five points and Boston had no points, so... wait. Am I looking at this right? Minnesota had 5-9-0 and Boston had 0-2-0? So Minnesota won by scoring 5 and 9 and 0 points while Boston scored 0 and 2 and 0 points.

The winning player for Minnesota was Deduno. The losing player for Boston was Lester. The H in this game was Fien, and the S player was Perkins. Looking at the hitters, the... oh jeez, each hitter gets his own points too? Span scored 4-1-1-1-0-1-1. What the hell does... okay. The hitters scored points or they didn't. I don't care anymore. I think we're done here.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.