The Twins finally got to 50 wins! It only took 5 months!
I dont have much to say, its been a slog. But, I still like watching Joe Mauer swat baseballs, I like seeing Brian Dozier hit bombs, I like seeing Max Kepler dive for balls he has no business diving for. Why? Because its baseball and there is only one month left.
Enjoy the game.
Tonight's game features the Twins best starter* of 2016 - Ervin Santana (6-10, 3.54 ERA, 118 ERA+, 1.201 WHIP) who, in pitching for a bad team, is 4-3 in his past 7 starts (49 IP, 13 ER's, 11BB:40K, 2.39 ERA, with an average of 4 runs of support) including a 2-0 loss to Atlanta on July 26, and a 2-1 loss to Kansas City on Aug 21.
The Twins offense will see Jose Quintana, quietly(?) having the best year of his career (11-9, 2.77 ERA, 147 ERA+, 1.103 WHIP). Quintana, also pitching for a (pretty) bad team, is also 4-3 in his past 7 starts (48.2 IP's, 10 ER's, 8BB:38K, 1.85 ERA, also with an average of 4 runs of support).
Based on the remarkable similarity of their results over their past 7 starts, tonight could be a very fun game if you like pitching.
The Twins are 2-2 against Quintana this season, losing their first two meetings, but beating him on June 28th & July 29th (though he recorded 8 & 9 SO's in those games respectively).
RECAP
-The Twins are 49-84 (6 wins behind their Pythagorean projected 55-79) and are on pace for 102 losses.
-60-102 would tie their worst W-L% since moving to Minnesota - their 1982 record.**
-A loss tonight ties the Twins longest losing streak of 14 games, set between May 19 - June 2, 1982. (The Senators lost 18 consecutive games at least four times: 1903, '04, '48 & '59.)
-Thankfully, they've got a ways to go to catch the '88 Orioles at 21 games lost in a row, or the modern-era-leading 1961 Phillies with a 23 game losing streak.
On a more positive note, highlighted by dw early this morning, Dozier has accumulated 5.4 WAR*** this year, and at 2.5 WAR so far, Joe Mauer is only .6 WAR behind Kirby Puckett on the Twins career WAR list at 50.3, good for 6th all time.
*No other Twins starter has an ERA below 5, though reliever Ryan Pressly is 6-6 with a 3.65 ERA in 62 games
**There are 9 Senators teams with worse W-L%'s
***A career best. Maybe it goes without saying that 32 HR's and 81 RBI's (so far) are also career bests
Its the return of The Mountie. Even in Chicago clothes, I will still cheer for him.
Joe Mauer hit a triple last night. His 27th of his career. That is actually 13th all time on the Twins franchise list. That kind of surprised me! It will be a stretch to move up a slot, John Castino is 12th with 34 triples.
Enjoy the game!
Ricky Rubio has motivational words for the Twins
We are going on a win streak. Like a 20 games. Its going to be awesome. Go Twins!
After last night's game, Chicago ace Chris has 2 losses on the year and both of 'em have come courtesy of the Twins. Game three will decide who takes the Memorial Day weekend series.
Today's matchup features Kyle Gibson (3-3, 2.98 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) and Jose Quintana (2-4, 4.13 ERA, 1.35 WHIP).
Gibson's coming off consecutive losses for the first time this season, though the 2-1 loss against Detroit on May 12 wasn't his doing (5 hits, 1 earned run, 0 BB and 6 K's in 7 innings). He wasn't nearly that good on the 17th against Tampa (8 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 BB and 2 K's in 5 innings). Hopefully, we get a bounce-back game from Kyle.
He'll be opposed by Quintana who's coming off a string of five games where he's allowed 2 earned runs or less while averaging 6.2 innings pitched, 6.1 K's and 2 BB per game. During that stretch, he's 2-3 due to a notable lack of offense (a total of 10 runs scored in those five games). His last start against Cleveland on the 19th wasn't great, allowing 8 hits and 4 BB while only striking out 4. Hopefully, we get another game like that and the Twins can put up some runs.
It started with a bunt.
White Sox starter Jeff Samardzija was struggling in the first and second inning. He was running counts 3-2 on batters and the Twins got 2 runs in the first and Ed Escobar led off the 2nd with a walk. Then a bunt. A first pitch bunt by Eddie Rosario halted all that momentum. Sure he was trying for a base hit and was credited for a sac but that pitch, that play seemed to have thing click on for The Shark. Next batter Aaron Hick swung at the first pitch and hit a lazy fly ball and Santana struck out and that was all she wrote for the Twins offense.
Phil Hughes pitched well except for the 4th inning where the wheels fell off. A walk, a defensive misplay and a misplaced pitch led to 2 runs. Hughes was lifted after 7 inning even though he had 89 pitches (72 strikes!) and was in control. Aaron Thompson came in and walk the second batter he faced and that run came around to score Twins lose 3-2.
NOTES
- Joe Mauer stole third base in the first inning and it led to sac fly by Plouffe. Mauer is 3 for 4 in stealing 3rd. His last attempt was in 2010.
- Mauer has 25 RBI this season, a team high.
- Mauer has 9 doubles, giving him 12 extra base hits this year. That is 4th most on the Twins (Dozier, Plouffe, Hunter)
Lets take a look at the AL Central Standings
Team W L GB
KCR 26 14 --
DET 25 17 2.0
MIN 23 17 3.0
CHW 18 20 7.0
CLE 17 23 9.0
We almost to Memorial Day and the Twins are still in the thick of the race. Thats awesome! Bonus action this weeks is that if the Twins sweep, they really put a world of hurt to the Pale Hosers, and thats always great.
Go Twins Go.
Has Kyle Gibson turned a corner, or did he look good against a White Sox lineup that cant score runs? Its probably a little of both but it resulted in another Twins win over the White Sox . Gibson had his sinker working, of his 24 outs recorded 13 were ground ball outs, 2 by fly ball and 4 by strikeout. Perhaps the Nick Blackburn comparisons/ceiling projections are not that far off base. The Twins led 1-0 after 8, but Paul Molitor decided that was enough and sent Glen Perkins in for the 9th to get the save and preserve the shut out.
Jose Quintana had himself a nice game too, going 7 innings and giving up 1 run. The run was scored by the speedster Kennys Vargas. While on second, Vargas tagged up on a ball to medium deep CF and scampered home on a wild pitch. The Twins have run at will on center fielder Adam Eaton's arm. And really, he has shown no accuracy and his throws so I think that trend will continue.
The Twins will try to win another one Saturday. Game time is 1:10pm.
NOTES
- After a 1-6 start, the Twins are 10-6 and are only 1 game below .500
-Torii Hunter collected two hits. Its his 3rd game of 20 played where he has 2 or more hits.
-Brian Dozier did NOT score a run, breaking a 5 game run scoring streak (plating 8 times in those 5 games). Dozier has scored at least 1 run in nine of the last eleven games.
-This is the third time in Gibson's career he has recorded 24 outs. He has not pitched a complete game.
-This is the third team shutout for Twins pitching. It took until May 21 last year to reach that mark.
- Roster Moves: Twins will activate Ricky Nolasco & Brian Duensing & have optioned Tommy Milone & Caleb Thielbar to AAA.
Go Twins Go!
