No, really. You can go home now.
HOU @ BOS: Morton vs. Porcello (HOU up 2-1)
WAS @ CHC: Scherzer vs. Quintana (series tied 1-1)
CLE @ NYY: Bauer vs. Severino (CLE up 2-1)
LA @ ARI: Darvish vs. Greinke (LA up 2-0)
Lots and lots of high quality pitchers. I'll bet a couple of them even go 5 innings.
Rough day Monday. Las Vegas. Tom Petty. All of which pushed the crisis in Puerto Rico, North Korea... off the list of latest things that outrage/sadden us.
That's why we need this. The improbable run. This plucky band of brothers who thrilled us, made us smile, made us care about baseball again. Even if it's for one day, we need this. And we need it to be against the Yankees. It just feels like it was meant to be -- win or lose.
Winning would be great, but it's not necessary. It's playoff baseball and the Twins are participants. And for one day, heck for three (plus) hours, all will be right in our little corner of the world. The problems won't go away and there is a lot of healing that needs to be done, but for one evening, we can watch, rejoice, thrill, even cheer at a bunch of grown men trying to hit, throw, and catch a little ball.
Admit it, you’re nervous. Sure, there are only twelve games left and the Twins have an easier path than the LAAAA but man can the Twins just pull off a nice 5 game win streak? Can they take advantage of facing a pedestrian Jaime Garcia and win the first game of the series against the Yankees? Can’t the Angels just fall on their face for 4 games or so and then we can all relax? In my estimation Twins need one win at the Yankees and one win at Cleveland then take at least 5 from the lowly Tigers to assure a playoff berth.
Tonight we get old versus young, fat versus skinny, $25,000,000 versus $507,500. CC Sabathia against Joes Berrios. Live from Yankee Stadium at 6:10p.
As mentioned in today's CoC, we're hitting the final stretch of the regular season, which hopefully isn't also the final stretch of the Twins' season. 4 more series remain (@NYY, @DET, @CLE, DET), and we start off with a chance to cut into NY's hold on the first WC slot (currently at 4.0 games).
Also, this will be a test for the Twins as they're currently looking at a one game playoff in NY. As history has shown, the combination of the Yankees, playoffs, and the Twinkies does not bode well. Hopefully this series will be a chance to work through some issues in advance.
Santana faces off against Twins cast-off Garcia, who may feel he has something to prove.
We all have to admit this Twins season has been better than expected. Forty-seven wins on July 17, while the 2016 version hadn’t won #47 until August 13th, team somewhat in the play-off mix in a bad division, good years from Sano, Santana, Berrios, Kintzler… we all know the facts. The Twins have been playing decent, fun baseball. When they get blown out, heck throw the back-up catcher out there for an inning. It’s fun and baseball is a game, meaning it should be fun.
That’s why the Twins signing Bartolo Colón and having him pitch against the Yankees is such a compelling story. It’s fun, it’s interesting. It has a bit of “hey check out this crazy thing.” Will Aaron Judge hit a massive homerun off of Colón? Likely. Will Bartolo dazzle the Yankees for 6 innings with 3-hit ball? Unlikely. Is this just a marketing ploy to get a few more tickets sold at Target Field or a few more eyeballs checking out DicknBert? Could be. Who knows what will happen tonight but isn’t that the compelling part? That it will be fun to see? That tomorrow you will see a bunch of memes or funny tweets? That at least for a little bit we were engaged by baseball?
Yankees pitcher is some guy named Luis Cessa. Game time at 7:10p. The big sexy thunderstorms earlier forecasted during game time seem to have dissapated so it looks like game on.
I've been so out of the Twins loop lately, I didn't know that Tommy Milone is back with the big league club. What else have I missed?
So, between long hours at work and OMG A SOCIAL LIFE for the first time in what feels like 10 years AND west coast games, I haven't paid much attention to the Twins this week. The big hullabaloo is Oswaldo Arcia being DFA'd. Am I supposed to offer a hot taek about this? I don't know I supposed. But really I just don't care. I want players to succeed. Arcia probably plateaued his success as a Twin (in their eyes) and let him go. I do hope he does well. Maybe on a Danny Valencia path of success. I will not boo him. Also, I will not criticize the Twins 15 years later when Arcia is an almost HoFer like David Ortiz. Because that argument is boring. Its baseball, life moves on.
Or, maybe the 2016 Twins are being Nihilists and want to see how far the boundaries can go before everything snaps.
The PR's birthday is tomorrow and mine is Tuesday. My parents are taking us to tonight's game as her team is in town to play my team.
Anyone else going tonight?
Ms. Hill missed the Grammys, but we've got her here.
21 Jul 2001
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
Loading... If you missed the game, I found the file footage of Yankees pitching
Miguel Sano's two run HR in the first was really something. (side not, how many times are we going to something like that over his career? 100? 150?) Taking borderline pitches to work the count then found a hanging cutter and crushed it over the CF wall and he didnt full extension of his arms!
Two runs is all Phil Hughes needed as he scattered 7 hits over 7 innings of work as the Twins moved to 52-44 on the season and gained a game on the Royals in the AL Central race. I dont like seeing Wild Card standings. The WC is a crap shoot. Winning divisions guarantees you 3 playoff games.
Kurt Suzuki flashed some of his 2014 form by knocking in two runs to pad the lead. Torii Hunter lined a HR in the 7th, then Trevor Plouffe and Brian Dozier blasted homers in the 8th to make it a laugher. Also of note Eddie Rosario hit 3 doubles.
I love when the Twins beat down an opponent, but there are two teams I really love to see them against: The White Sox and the Yankees. Yeah, this game was awesome. Lets do it again Saturday night!
