Tag Archives: Minnesota Twins

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 16 recap. Seattle 2 Minnesota 0

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Phil Hughes was awesome. 8 innings, 9 strikeouts, 0 walks (natch), but two solo home runs as all King Felix needed as the Seattle Mariners beat the Twins 2-0 in a game played in a little over two hours.

Hernadez was dominant early, taking a perfect game into the 5th inning before Trevor Plouffe hit a solid single. The Twins made some waves in the later innings of the game but could not plate the run. The best chance was in the 6th. Suzuki reached 2nd on a hit/error combo. Moved over to 3rd on an infield single by Jordan Schafer (he made one bunt attempt but whiffed), but Hernandez slammed the door.

One is supposed to cheer for the home team, and perhaps I am underselling how awesome Phil Hughes pitched tonight,  but I appreciate good baseball and watching King Felix is pretty darned good. I dont have a MLB package and the Mariners are never on national TV, so I dont get to watch him as often as I would like. Perhaps the M's will be half way good this year and get some national love.

NOTES

- Phil Hughes has 2 complete games as  a Twin. Both are 8 inning losses.

-This is Hughes' 4th career complete game. His first complete game was a shutout. But only 6 innings in a rain shortened game.

-Other pitchers with 2 CGs as a Twin: Brian Duensing, LaTroy Hawkins, Livan Hernandez, Les Straker, Luis Tiant, Bill Campbell, and more.

-Schafer's 6th inning infield single broke a 0-21 slump. Perhaps his time as a Twin is done at the end of April.

-This was Hernadez's 24th career complete game and 10th shutout.  CC Sabathia lead active players with 38 CGs and Tim Hudson leads with 13 SHO

-The Twins had 5 hits, all singles. This is the third time this year they have been extra baseless.

-The is the third time the Twins have been shutout. The first two happened in  Detroit in games 1 and 2.

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 15: Twins at Seattle. 9:10 central time.

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West coast baseball for a short spell. The beginning of this game will compete with the Wild game so make sure you give your thumb a warm up before you furiously flip back and forth between the two games.

On paper, this is a good pitching matchup. Phil Hughes throws for the Twins, King Felix for Seattle. I hope the Twins win 2 out of 3 this weekend.

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 13 Recap: Royals 7, Twins 1

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Kyle Gibson took the loss, going 5 innings while giving up 4 runs (3 earned - more on that in a minute) on 4 hits, walking 4 and striking out none. Even so, the performance saw him lower  his ERA to 5.97 and his WHIP to 1.96...trending the right direction after a horrible start in Detroit on the 9th and a better start against Kansas City last week.

The Twins' offense managed 5 hits and 1 run off of Edinson Volquez, scoring after getting the first two men on to lead off the 2nd inning. A ground ball out and subsequent double play later and the threat was over. In 7 innings, Volquez struck out 5 and walked 1, Brian Dozier, who scored the only Twins run when Hosmer's force attempt went high and wide of second base.

KEY INNING

"Arcia's defense in LF makes me yearn for _elmon Young patrolling that area. wooooof"

-davidwatts

Tied 1-1 in the 6th, the aforementioned error by Arcia in left resulted in Moustakas reaching to lead off the home half of the inning. Gibson proceeded to walk Hosmer; Kendrys Morales slapped a double down the third base line, scoring Moustakas, and Moliter went to the pen. On his 2nd pitch, Blaine Boyer skipped the throw past Suzuki allowing Hosmer to come home and concluded the Perez at-bat with a sac fly, sending Morales home. Boyer managed to get the next 5 batters out, but the damage was basically done.

Thielbar and Stauffer combined for another 3-run inning (the 8th) and the Twins' 4, 5 and 6 hitters sleep-walked through the top of the 9th to end the game with a whimper.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–April 19

Bucky Walters (1909)
Hector Maestri (1935)
Rick Miller (1948)
Ed Hodge (1958)
R. J. Reynolds (1959)
Frank Viola (1960)
Spike Owen (1961)
Scott Kamieniecki (1964)
Brent Mayne (1968)
Jose Cruz (1974)
Joe Beimel (1977)
George Sherrill (1977)
Dennys Reyes (1977)
Joe Mauer (1983)
Zach Duke (1983)
Alberto Callaspo (1983)

Right-hander Hector Maestri was with the Washington franchise in 1960, making one appearance in the majors.  Before the 1961 season started, however, he was selected in the expansion draft by the new Washington franchise, for whom he made one more appearance in 1961.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 19 →

2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 10 recap: Twins 3 Cleveland 2 (11 innings)

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This game started with the current Cy Young Award winner pitching like  one and ended with Blaine Boyer getting more outs than base runners allowed and a Trevor Plouffe HR to win the game. Baseball is fun!

Mike Pelfrey.  He was a pretty poor sport about being sent to the bullpen during Spring Training. But, he just can't get past 5 innings. Does he not realize this? I know Im not breakingHe pitched OK today (5 innings, 1 run) but seemed to peter out by the 4th inning.

Corey Kluber had perfect game material. By the end of the 3rd inning, I thought it was going to happen. He got through the first 15 batter before Arcia got a solid single. Then TWINS BASEBALL happened. Wild pitch, then a single with a throwing error scoring Arcia, then a fielders choice, then a sac bunt (with Herrmann breaking for home, then going back to third when he realized he was going to be out Santana was safe at 1st) , then a wild pitch on strike 3 scores a run, then a IBB, then a double play to end the inning.

Things were pretty quiet after that, with a couple of situations arising but fires put out.

This game seemed destined to go about 15 innings and Chris Herrmann pitching his second inning and Torii Hunter catching but Trevor Plouffe ended it with a mammoth HR to left field and the locals win 3-2.

 

NOTES

-According to b-r HR Tracker, this is Plouffe's first walk of HR.

- Plouffe has 9 career HR's against Cleveland. Only Kansas City (11) has given up more

-Plouffe has 37 career HRs at Target Field. That is the most. Shockingly, Jose Bautista does not have 52

-Joe Mauer was intentionally walked twice tonight. That gives him 117 for his career,  which is 8th most active and tied for 86th all time (Larry Walker and Ron Cey)

-Blaine Boyer got a win today, his first as a Twin. Other notable Twins pitcher with 1 win include Vance Worley, Kyle Waldrop, Luis Ayala, RA Dickey, Jim Hoey, and a host of others.

2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 10: Twins hosting Cleveland 7:10 pm.

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The Twins are on a winning streak! Only two games but I'll take it.
Cy Young Award winning Corey Kluber throws for Cleveland. Since this years lineup is mostly the same as last year, lets go back and look what Kluber did against the Twins.
2014-09-21 @MIN W 8.0 7 2 2 1 14 0
2014-09-11 MIN W 8.1 8 2 2 0 7 0
2014-08-21 @MIN L 7.0 6 3 3 4 8 1

That jumbled mass of number says Kluber was very good against the locals.  Mike Pelfrey goes for Minnesota. Lets hope he makes it at least 6 innings and keeps the run total low.