Tag Archives: Oakland Athletics

2024 Twins Game Logs

2024 Game 69 (quit yer gigglin’): Athletics at Twins

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The Twins' homestand continues tonight as they kick off a four-game series with the 26-and-44 Athletics. We currently stand eight games back of Cleveland and three behind Kansas City and just three games ahead of the Tigers. It doesn't sit well to be the third-place team in what is widely considered a weak division, but here we are. If we want to gain ground we have to win these games and series against weaker teams, because we sure seem to crumble against the good ones. So maybe that's what we are this year, a little less mediocre than Detroit but a lot better than the White Sox. And friends, that is not an enviable position.

Joe Ryan gets the mound to start for the Twins. His 3.30 ERA,  85 strikeouts and 0.97 WHIP over 13 starts are better than his 4-5 record would indicate, but run support has been scant when the ass bats show up. Luis Medina gets the call tonight for the A's in just the third start of the year for the 25-year old righthander. His short sample size ERA is 5.23 and he's struck out 7 batters over 10 innings. Who know what he'll do tonight.

Play ball!

2021 Twins Game Logs

2021 Twins Game Log 15 and 16 – Twins at A’s

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After a mid-April Covid break, Twins up to play two against the Athletics.

As I write this, it has been announced Derek Chauvin verdict has been reached and by the time you read this, it will have been announced so not sure how much Twins notice attention will be.

Game 1: Shoemaker v. Manaea 5:30p
Game 2: Berrios v. Luzardo. 8:30p

Game 1 Line up
C - Garver
3b - Donaldson
DH - Cruz
CF - Buxton!!
SS - Polanco
1B - Sano
LF - Arraez
RF - Rooker
2b - Astudillo

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 96: Oakland at Minnesota

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Bassit v. Odorizzi.

There's a part of me that, all season long, just hasn't bought into Odorizzi. For some reason, I feel like he's been doing it with smoke and mirrors. But his last outing, against Cleveland, felt like something different. He didn't have many K's (2), and he still only lasted 5.1 innings, but... it was an important game. A win in that middle game of the series would deny the Indians a chance to gain ground in a home series against the Twins. And limiting the Tribe to just 3 hits felt like something notable. It wasn't about whether Odorizzi is truly an all-star pitcher, and was every bit about the team, and doing what he could to contribute.

Meanwhile, last night's game felt much the same way. It was a hero off the bench who provided the, uh, heroics. Walks were drawn, pressures were kept up, etc. Down 3-1, it was starting to feel like another loss. And then suddenly it wasn't, and it seemed like the whole team was clicking again.

This is one of the things I love most about baseball. It is so much more a team sport than most others. And this is one of the things I've been loving about this iteration of the Twins: it feels like a team. A really well-rounded team.

Speaking of the A's, this phenomena reminds me a bit of Moneyball. One of the great things about Moneyball, and probably something that isn't emphasized all the time, was the focus on the team aspects. Beane said "we don't need you to hit 40 HR, we need you to hit 20, and we'll get the other 20 from X, Y, and Z" (or somesuch. I can't be bothered to look this up.).

Anyway, that's how this Twins team feels to me. And I like it.

Now let's get us another win!

2019 Twins Game Logs

Game 95: Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins

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The Twins’ AL Central lead is down to 4 games, and for the second time in as many weeks, the Twins get to face the hard-charging A’s (55-41, 2nd in the West, 4.5 games in back of Houston, 8-2 in their last 10) while Cleveland (also 8-2 over their past 10 games) are looking to complete a sweep of the terrible Gardy’s (Detroit). CLE took 3 out of 3, June 21-23 & have won the first 3 of their current 4-game series ... yeah.

I’m going to focus on the pitcher tonight because the professionals on the offensive side of the equation have had their game scrutinized sufficiently over the 1st half. Though maybe they wouldn’t mind getting back to the April/May Twins as opposed to the last months-worth of games (scoring 5 or fewer runs 16 times in 24 games for a record of 13-11).

“Fun” statistical coincidence(?) and the perfect example of the mediocrity average baseball we’ve been seeing recently...
Last 10: 5-5
Last 20: 10-10
Last 30: 15-15

In his last start, Gibson managed to secure only 11 outs against Cleveland (July 12) before giving way to the bullpen in a game the Twins came back and win 5-3. Gibby is having a slightly better year numbers-wise than his career averages, but I’d certainly appreciate it if we see a start more in line with his June 14 blanking of the Royals - 8 IP, 2 H, 6 SO. I’d even take a start like his last winning performance against the Rays on June 25th: 4 ER on 7 H, with 7 SO scattered over 7 innings. We’ll see.