Keeping Track

Minor Details: Games of 7/28

10 Comments

Rochester 7, Louisville 3 in Louisville.  The Red Wings scored five in the fourth to take a 6-3 lead.  Brian Dinkelman had two doubles.  Jeff Bailey singled and tripled.  Toby Gardenhire singled and doubled.  Denard Span was 1-for-4, raising his average to .209 (6-for-29).  Eric Hacker pitched six innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk.  Jeff Manship struck out three in two shutout innings.

Bowie 3, New Britain 2 in New Britain.  The Rock Cats scored two in the first, but that was as far as the good news went.  Chris Parmelee singled and hit a two-run homer, his eleventh.  Joe Benson, Deibinson Romero, and Mark Dolenc each had two hits.  Matt Schuld allowed a run on four hits and a walk in six innings.  Bruce Pugh took the loss, allowing two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out four in three innings.

Tampa 12, Ft. Myers 2 in Ft. Myers.  The Miracle led 2-1 after four, but a six-run fifth for the Yankees put an end to that.  Anderson Hidalgo had two hits.  Oswaldo Arcia hit a home run, his third.  Pat Dean surrendered six runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out seven in 4.2 innings.

Beloit 4, Burlington 1 in Burlington.  The Snappers broke a scoreless tie with two in the fifth.  Derek McCallum and Adam Bryant each singled and doubled.  Lance Ray had two hits.  Manuel Soliman worked six shutout innings, giving up two hits and three walks.  Jose Gonzalez pitched a perfect ninth to get his tenth save.

Danville 8, Elizabethton 1 in Elizabethton.  The Braves scored four in the first and three in the third.  Eddie Rosario had two singles and a homer, his eleventh, raising his average to .324.  Starter Todd Van Steensel surrendered seven runs on six hits and two walks in just 2.2 innings.  Nicholas Alloway worked two shutout innings, walking two.

GCL Twins 1, Rays 0 at Rays (10 innings).  Michael Quesada led off the tenth with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly.  Quesada also doubled.  Four pitchers combined to shut down the Rays:  Angel Mata went three innings, giving up one hit; Mark Trau threw two innings, allowing just a walk; Tyler Herr struck out two and walked two in two innings; and Nathan Fawbush got the win with three innings, giving up one hit.

Twins 9, Cubs1 5 at Cubs1 (7 1/2 innings--rain).  The Twins trailed 5-3 after four but scored three in the fifth and three in the eighth.  Ernesto Ciprian tripled and homered, scoring three times and driving in three.  Jorge Polanco had two hits.  Starter Javier Vargas pitched only 2.1 innings, surrendering five runs on five hits and three walks.  Elias Villasana got the win with 4.2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit and one walk.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: July 29, 2011

35 Comments

For the cost of your e-mail, SPIN magazine* will let you download an MP3 compilation with track-by-track coverage of Nirvana's Nevermind, which was released 20 years ago. (Oddly, it seems older than that to me.)

*which I haven't really read since Charles Aaron stopped writing his "Singles" column a dozen-plus years ago**
**Yes, I missed the Klosterman years.

The results vary widely, but two are worth the inconvenience of having to unsubscribe after you get the first unwanted e-mail, and a two more are interesting:

1. Meat Puppets "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Almost sounds like it could be a well-recorded acoustic demo. Curt sounds a lot like Kurt, or actually, I'm first realizing how much Kurt was sounding like Curt. If ever a story came out that Kurt had Curt co-write his songs for him, I could now totally believe it. "With the lights out, we're less dangerous... I feel stupid, and contagious": Totally Puppets lyrics.

2. Titus Andronicus "Breed". I've tried listening to TA before, and I just haven't been able to get into them at all. But this sounds great, the vox are all treble and aren't aping Kurt, yet still get some of the intent across.

3. Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band "Stay Away". James-Brown-type funk with some Summer-of-love distorted guitar for color. Reminds me of Sharon Jones' Janet Jackson cover, which made it sound like Janet was actually covering a long-lost classic. Only this "Stay Away" is clearly the cover.

4. EMA "Endless Nameless". This is the noisy hidden track. EMA does alright, but I think she could have done better on one of the actual songs than some of the other jokers did. And this just makes me miss Dave Grohl's drum thump at the end of the original, over which Kurt's guitar squealing staggers. It's here, but it doesn't feel like it should go on forever.

Not all of the other tracks are necessarily worthless, and I haven't listened to them that carefully. Some are really bad though, even worse than Tricky's cover with incorrect lyrics of "Something in the Way". A better list of contributors could have helped, but I really don't know where SPIN is right now or which bands who would have done well.

OK, that's not true. Bobby Bare Jr.*, Ha Ha Tonka, and Will Oldham definitely could. And I'd love to see what these folk could do: Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Low, Rocky Votolato, Grinderman, The F--- Buttons (only for Endless, Nameless for them though).

*He did a fantastic cover "Ocean Size" from Jane's Addiction for a complilation.

Anyways, those are my thoughts for today. What's randomly running to your ears?

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 105: Twins at Rangers

192 Comments

After suffering the beatdown for the ages, just a couple days later, the Twins are poised for - at worst - a season split. Plus, their best pitcher is going. Well, how about that?

Scott Baker 8-5, 115.2 IP, 8.48 K/9, 2.41 BB/9, 2.88 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 3.48 xFIP, 2.4 WAR
Matt Harrison 8-7, 118 IP, 5.95 K/9, 2.90 BB/9, 3.05 ERA, 3.86 FIP, 3.88 xFIP, 1.9 WAR

Is Matt Harrison the Scott Baker of the south? Their numbers are similar enough, outside of Ks, that I'm guessing he's probably underappreciated down there. Or maybe I'm just cynical because of Bert's endless whining about the bullpen and all that.

Setting aside the usual snark about Baker's unwarranted strained relationship with the jagweeds in the media, he really is having a nice season. To date, Baker's best season was 2008, and this one is on pace to surpass it.

The Twins are six games out as well as six games under, and that seems to be the way it's been for a week or two. Let's take another step in the right direction tonight.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 104 Recap: Twins Win, Twins Win!

3 Comments

Twins 7, Rangers 2
WP: The Dunce LP: C. Lewis
Twins record 49-55, 6 games out of first
Fangraphs should really be named fungraphs
MLB

Yesterday, Joe Mauer arrived at Ranger's Ballpark well before he needed to. He unpacked his duffel bag in the clubhouse before the game, and glanced around to ensure that no one was looking. He quickly slid his man muscles out of the bag, slipped them on, and suited up for the game acting like nothing was out of the ordinary and patiently waited for the game to start. The Ump called out, "Play Ball" and Ben Revere stepped into the box. He took a couple of pitches, but eventually hit a ground ball to make the first out. 'Lexi wasted no time, and popped out to the second baseman for the second out. Joe walked up to the dish, tugging on his uni a bit hoping that no one could see the bulge of his man muscles beneath. He took the first pitch for a strike and then deposited the second pitch into the right field bleachers. Joe Mauer trotted around the bases and thought about kissing his bicep, but decided that that would be a douchy thing to do. Not wanting to be outdone, Cuddy jacked a donger of his own in the 4th inning, and from that point on the Twins never looked back. After the game, the boys cheered for the return of the man muscles shouting hip-hip-hooray.

Get some culture inebriation at Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge. The burgers are great, the patio is splendid, and who can argue with 3 dollar surly during happy hour?

Keeping Track

Minor Details: Games of 7/27

Rochester 2, Louisville 0 in Louisville (10 innings).  Doubles by Denard Span and Dustin Martin led to two runs in the tenth to break a scoreless tie.  Span was 2-for-5 in the game.  Aaron Bates singled and doubled, raising his average to .324.  Chase Lambin had two hits.  Andrew Baldwin lasted 5.1 innings, giving up four hits and two walks.  Jake Stevens worked two shutout innings, walking two, and Kyle Waldrop threw 2.2 perfect innings to get the win.

New Britain 7, New Hampshire 6 in New Britain (Game 1--11 innings--Scheduled 7 innings).  The Rock Cats scored two in the seventh to tie it, then Chris Parmelee singled home Deibinson Romero with the winning run in the eleventh.  Joe Benson had two singles, a double, and a homer, driving in three.  Chris Herrmann singled and homered.  Romero singled and doubled.  Parmelee, Brian Dozier, and Nate Hanson each had two hits.  Starter Andrew Albers lasted went only 4.1 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out five.  Deolis Guerra struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Tyler Robertson fanned two in a perfect eleventh to get the win.

New Hampshire 17, New Britain 3 in New Britain (Game 2--Scheduled 7 innings).  The Fisher Cats only scored in three innings, but they had four in the second, seven in the third, and six in the sixth.  Brian Dozier had three hits, raising his average to .318.  Joe Benson had two hits.  Mike Hollimon hit a home run.  Bobby Lanigan was hammered for eleven runs (six earned) on fourteen hits in 2.2 innings.  He did not walk anyone, although maybe he should have.  Spencer Steedley worked 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Tampa 6, Ft. Myers 1 in Ft. Myers.  The Yankees scored five in the first and it was all they needed.  James Beresford had two hits.  Starter Miguel Munoz yielded five runs on five hits and a walk in just one-third of an inning.  Edgar Ibarra worked 4.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and two walks, and Alex Wimmers gave up a run on four hits and no walks in four innings.

Beloit 21, Burlington 8 in Burlington.  The Snappers led 11-4 after four, then scored eight in the fifth.  Jairo Perez had a single, a double, and two home runs, driving in eight, scoring three, and raising his average back to .366.  Michael Gonzales had two singles and two doubles, scoring five times.  Reggie Williams doubled and homered, driving in three.  Wang-wei Lin singled and homered, scoring three times.  Daniel Santana and Andy Leer each had two hits, with Santana scoring three times.  Ryan O'Rourke got the win despite allowing four runs on six hits and four walks in five innings; he also struck out five.  Blayne Weller struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

Elizabethton.  No game scheduled.

GCL Rays 5, Twins 2 at Twins (12 innings).  Candido Pimentel and Dereck Rodriguez each had two hits.  Starter Hein Robb worked four innings, giving up an unearned run on five hits.  Markus Solbach and Luis Nunez each pitched two shutout innings, each giving up one hit.  Marcus Limon took the loss, giving up the three twelfth inning runs in his second inning of pitching.

DSL Orioles 6, Twins 0.  It was scoreless for six, but the Orioles scored one in the seventh, four in the eighth, and one in the ninth.  Jose Ramirez had two hits.  Sterling Bonilla pitched four shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk.  Randy Rosario took a tough loss, giving up an unearned run on three hits in three innings.  The Twins made five errors.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.