Tag Archives: saves are dumb

Keeping Track

1991 Rewind: Game One Hundred Forty-one

TEXAS 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN TEXAS

Date:  Thursday, September 12.

Batting stars:  Chili Davis was 1-for-4 with a home run, his twenty-eighth.  Kent Hrbek was 1-for-3 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Jack Morris pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up four runs on five hits and two walks and striking out six.  He threw 113 pitches.  He clearly did not do a good job of pitching to the score.

Opposition stars:  Nolan Ryan struck out nine in seven innings, giving up one run on two hits and a walk.  Kevin Reimer was 1-for-2 with a three-run homer (his seventeenth) and a walk.

The game:  The Rangers got all the runs they needed in the first inning.  They opened the inning with singles by Brian Downing and Julio Franco, and a sacrifice fly scored the first run.  Ruben Sierra singled and Reimer hit a three-run homer to make the score 4-0 Texas.

That was all the Rangers got, but again it was all they needed.  The Twins got on the board in the fourth when Dan Gladden and Chuck Knoblauch singled and Kirby Puckett hit an RBI ground out, but that was it for the inning.  Those were the only hits the Twins got against Ryan.  They scored two in the ninth when Hrbek hit a two-out single and Davis hit a two-run homer, cutting the margin to 4-3.  That was it, though as pinch-hitter Randy Bush grounded out to end the game.

WP:  Ryan (10-6).  LP:  Morris (16-11).  S:  Jeff Russell (27).

Notes:  Gene Larkin pinch-hit for Greg Gagne in the eighth, with Scott Leius then coming in to play shortstop.  Bush pinch-hit for Brian Harper in the ninth.

Puckett was 0-for-4 and was batting .327.  Mack was 1-for-3 and was batting .314.  Harper was 0-for-3 and was batting .311.

Nolan Ryan was forty-four in 1991.  If this wasn't the best season a forty-four year old pitcher ever had, it's pretty darn close.  He made 27 starts, pitching 173 innings.  He went 12-6, 2.91, 1.01 WHIP.  He led the majors in WHIP, in fewest hits per nine innings, and in most strikeouts per nine inning.

Russell gave up two runs in one inning, taking the score from 4-1 to 4-3, and was credited with the save.

The White Sox lost to California 7-4, so another day came off the schedule without them gaining any ground.

Record:  The Twins were 85-56, in first place in the American League West, 8.5 games ahead of Chicago.

In the East, Boston won and Toronto did not play, so the Blue Jays' margin fell to 3.5 games.

2012 Twins Game Recaps

Game 5 Recap: Dewey Wins! Puppies!

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Twins 6, Laaaaaaaaaaaaa 5

WP: Gray* (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
LP: Takahashi (0-1, 10.80 ERA)
SAVE(!) Shortening (1)
Fangraphs loves baseball. I do too.
Mlb Recap

FireworksWow. Where to start with this one? The Twins had a lot of firsts tonight including the biggest first of them all, Matt Capps converted the Twins save of the season. Without Matt the local nine wouldn't have had their first win, and for that we thank him. Carl pitched perfect through three, but then he started looking a little shaky. He gave up a leadoff hit to start the fourth, turned a double play into a single play, and then a stolen base lead to a run off poo-holes's bat. Poo-holes forced himself out by trying to take an extra base, and Carl worked himself out of the fourth. JC Superstar stepped to the plate and stroked a double, Joe Mau Mau pussied a single to tie the game, the Mountie struck out, and Josh Willingham absolutely crushed a home run to take the lead. Carl was determined not to give the lead back, but accidentally left one up and Bourjos punished him. Actually, Bourjos punished everyone except LAAA fans. Carl pitched a scoreless 6th, but coughed up another run on a two out hit in the 7th. I was about to give up on the game when Doumit and Sweet Danny V hit back to back singles. Parmelee came to the plate and stroked a double that ii face planted into a triple to tie the game at five. Casilla and Span both went down without making much noise. I began to worry that we were being set up for heartbreak, but JC Superstar assuaged my doubt by singling in Parmelee to take the lead. Glenn Perkins took the ball for the 8th and destroyed the heart of the Angels order. The sequence of pitches to poo-holes was nothing short of magnificent. Capps was called on to close the game out, and other than padding ii's stats he was best there ever was. Perfect.

*Sworn enemy of DPWY

Culture Club: I've done this recap thingy for a couple of seasons and I usually follow up the post with a review of art or a cultural institution. I'm choosing to focus on printmaking workshops this year as a way to feature a large number of artists creating diverse images though a wide range of techniques. I'm also interested in promoting the collecting of original art, and fine art prints offer an inexpensive way to own works by famous, infamous, and unknown (me!) artists. I know that I've already featured them here several times, but, what the hell, Highpoint Center for Printmaking is one of the premier professional printmaking centers in the United States. Cole Rogers, a Tamarind Master Printer, and Carla McGrath have created a professional and community workshop, gallery, and educational outreach programs that are unmatched. From their professional shop they print original works from local, national, and internationally known artists such as Willie Cole, David Rathman, Julie Mehretu, and Todd Norsten to name a few. Their gallery is friendly and features a diverse catalog of work hat can accommodate every level of art patron. Stop by, or better yet take a class at the workshop, and visit Highpoint, and tell them I sent you down.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game # Something: Twins 83 LTE (and counting) Royals 0 LTE

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Twins win, right?! Right? Oh, Letters to the Editor don't count towards the final score of the actual game. I'm sorry. Yes, indeed, the Twins lost.

Twins 3, Royals 7

LP: Hendriks (0-2) WP: Hoe-shaver (11-11)

Save? no. I'm not counting the Greg Holland effort as a save even if the box score on MLB.com says he earned one. No way. Not going to count. I'm not even going to look at the King of the Savers  leader board because I'm enraged that the official scored actually believed the Twins could possibly rally to threaten the Royals lead in the ninth. Puh-lease. How dare the powers that be issue a sacred save in such a decidedly un-save like situation. boo.

 

Okay, yeah, now that I'm over my save-rage induced fit I'll commence with the recapage. Liam Hendriks started his second ball game today and lost. He went five innings giving up eight hits, five earned runs while striking out only 2 batters. The good news? He walked zero, zilch, nada batters today. Bert must be pleased with his performance, that is, of course, unless he left the ball up in the zone. Truth be told, I don't know if there were many balls left up in the zone, I was busy finishing a print that's due on Friday, but I'll assume that because the Royals didn't hit any home runs off of him that Hendriks didn't leave any balls up. Waldrop pitched two thirds of an inning and gave up two runs. The rest of the bullpen gave up 3 hits and no runs, Hoey included. Wierd, right? The Twins offense offered up eight hits and three runs. Mauer went oh-fer with three walks. I'd ask for my money back, but I live out of state. The "defense" offered up three errors, and Plouffe (!) records  of them. Some puss threw the ball away on some play that I didn't see to give the Twins another error on the field today. Frankly, I don't know how to read what happened in during the bottom half of the fourth inning, and being that the Twins couldn't scrape together enough hits / runs to win this garbage I don't care to decipher what actually happened.

 

Culture Club: Kansas City is chalk full of fine art. No joak. There is so much happening in KC that I don't know where to start, but the Nelson-Atkins is definitely worth the price of admission. They have world class exhibitions (most of which are FREE (hint, hint, DG...), a fantastic facility, and a beautiful sculpture grounds. Through the 15th of November they have an exhibition of night sky and cosmos photography, and coming in October they'll be showing Romare Beardon's prints. I highly recommend a stop by the Nelson-Atkins Museum if you're going to be in KC to see the Twins lose.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 136 Recap: Twins Win!

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Twins 7, Sux 6
WP: Diamonds are a girls best friend LP: Peavy
SAVE! Joe Nathan
Twins record 57-79, 18 games out of first, 1.5 games ahead of the cellar

I'd look at the king of the savers race, but I really don't care.

The Twins scored a whopping 7 runs in this game. Whopping. One of the runs scored was driven in by Joe Mauer which brings his career total to 500 rsbi. If he'd play like a man he'd have more than a mazillionty by now, but he's really a puss. Not. The only other thing to know about this game is that SBG fired the Tweet heard round the strib. Rational folks cheered.

Culture Club: I've always enjoyed touring Chicago's art venues, and when in town I always make a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art. There is always something happening at the MCA including great installations, weird contemporary art, performances, theater, working artist projects, and a good gift shop to boot. Heads up, hj, Tuesday admission is FREE for IL residents.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 97 Recap: Indians at Twins

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Twins 7, Indian 5
WP: Matt Capps (wait, what?) LP: Sipp
SAVE! Joe "that's right bitches" Nathan
Fangraphs is confused about Capps winning, too.
MLB recap, spoiler ---> the local nine win this one.

Ah, everyone's favorite feature comes roaring back to life with a Joe Nathan save on a Wednesday. Let's look at the progress of the king of the savers race, shall we? Craig Kimbrel and The Beard are tied for the lead with 29 saves. The Beard gets extra credit for style and blowing up fewer games. The ninth guy on the list plays in the AL, for De-toilet to boot, and has 25 saves on the season. There's a lot of baseball to be played, and a lot of saves to be racked up. Stay tuned saves fans!

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. The last two games have been some of the most exciting baseball that I've watched all season. How awesome was it to bloop and dink our way to walk off on Tuesday night, and then to double down on Wednesday and split the series with the Tribe to stay alive in the central. Blackie pitched a hell of a ballgame getting tagged with only 1 earned run, but the defense behind (and in front) of him allowed 3 unearned runs to score. Joe Mauer flashed the leather a couple of times because he's the best evah. The bullpen made things very interesting, but pulled through to keep the score knotted at 4. Laddie led off the eighth with a ground rule double, Mauer pussied a single, Cuddy looked vintage, and Thome drew a walk. If Orlando Ballgame had been just a little bit taller, if had had been a baller, he would have robbed Danny V of the go ahead single, but he wasn't and he didn't. Del was Del. Nishi cracked the game open with a two run single. Drew was Drew. Joe Nathan allowed the obligatory closer's donger (thankfully it was of the solo kind), and the Twins win. I don't care if the Twins come back to make the postseason this year, but I love the way they drag me back in just when I think I'm out.

The Nation Has An Appetite

I love pork. You should <3

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Braised Short Rib with Panang at Lotus of Siam RestaurantToday's installment of pork = awesome features hoisin braised country style ribs. Country style ribs aren't really ribs at all, rather these delicious morsels are cut from the rib end of the shoulder and usually contain a bone or two. Slow cooking country style ribs breaks down the fat and connective tissue which creates a tender, juicy, and delicious final product. You'll need the following:

3lbs bone in country style ribs
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated ginger (you can substitute 1 tsp powder ginger)
2 cloves garlic smashed

Method: Put ribs into your crock pot. Cover with onion slices. Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over ribs / onions.

Cover and cook on low for 8ish hours (you're looking for the ribs to be tender, the bone will probably fall out and the meat will be falling apart). Really, that's it. A few minutes in the morning and by the time you're home from work dinner is waiting.

Remove ribs from the crock pot and keep them warm. De-fat the pan juice and pour over the ribs, garnish with chopped cilantro.

I add some sliced peppers to the mix, jalapeno, poblano, anaheim, whatever I have around to Bam! it up a notch. I've accidentally omitted the rice vinegar from this dish and haven't noticed a marked decrease in deliciousness. A couple teaspoons of sesame oil will also add a bit of je ne sais quoi to this dish.

 

 

2011 Twins Game Recaps

2011 Game 82 (2nd Half, Game 1) Recap: Brewers 7, Twins 9

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Minnesota (36-46)  -  Milwaukee (45-40)
WP: Dumatrait (1-1)
LP: Loe (2-7)
SV: Perkins (1)

JI JIM Mashes Taters and the Iceman cometh up big time as the pair drove in 4 runs and scored 4 runs. Jim crossed home plate 3 times but arguably the biggest moment was not career HR 595 in the 2nd (which was nice), it was the 2-out walk off of Grienke in the 4th. Juicy followed with his first hit of the day, a double, which paved the way for Rene Tosoni's 3-run blast. The Iceman's donger got the Twins back into the game after a terrible top half of the 4th saw the visitors throw up a 5 spot.

After that, it was all Twins bullpen (with a little help from Kotsay in the 7th). Snicklefritz, Dumatrait, Nathan, Capps and Perkins combined to go 5 innings giving up only 1 run on 4 hits. Twins batters scored 4 times in the 7th - all with 2 outs and all off of walks or singles...or on the hilarious fielding error by Mark Kotsay.

Nathan looked good in the 8th. Conversely, Capps looked pretty bad in the 9th. Gardy, quite surprisingly, pulled him out after he managed to put runners on 1st and 2nd with only 1 out and Prince Fielder due up. Perkins got the call and struck the big vegetarian out on 3 pitches! The Brewers still had one more batter, but you just knew it was in the bag after that.

Neither Grienke nor Blackburn figured in the decision. Zack went 6 innings giving up 5 runs on 5 hits, 4 of them earned. Nick went 4 innings giving up 6 runs on 6 hits, all of them earned.

Cuddyer is our All Star representative. They announced it during the game and he got a pretty good ovation. After that, it's a good thing he got in on the scoring with 2 RBI on 2 hits as he badly misplayed a ball off the right field wall in the 4th, leading to a triple for Kotsay and at least one of those 5 runs for the Crew.

On a personal note, I'd like to post a thank you to Cornsilk  (thanks for that one guys) who took me to the game today. She doesn't follow the World's Greatest, but I am blessed and wanted to share it with you all.

Weather: Gorgeous

Time of Game: 3 hours 14 minutes

Attendance: 41,195



2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 79 Recap: How about them dodgers?

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Twins 1, Dodgers ZERO
WP: Light Rail
LP: De La Rosa
SAVE! Matt "I'll Busta" Capps (13)
Twins record: 34-45, 8.5 games out of first NOT LAST IN THE AL CENTRAL!!ONEOENEOENEOQN!O!NIW

Fangraphs knows scottie baker wasn't looking at the bullpen.

Well, well, well, a save on a wednesday? My goodness gracious, let's take a look at the king of the savers race. The Beard is racking up saves like nobody's business. He currently owns the top spot with 24 saves. We would have to drop six spots on the leader board to find someone in the league that counts but I really don't care that much.

Player A .281 / .304 / .303 / .607 ops+69
Player B .296 / .320 / .336 / .655 ops+79

Just looking at their rookie seasons I'd think these dudes are brothers from another mother. In other news, Scott Baker tossed an absolute gem today. So did De La Rosa for that matter. If you tuned into this one late you missed the scoring action. Sweet Ben hit a lead off triple and was driven in by Nishioka's swinging bunt. That was it. I never doubted the Twins for a second on this one, matt capps excepted. When the camera flashed on Joe Nathan during the ninth I found myself longing for the good old days, and wondering if we'll see Joe back in the closer role before the end of the season.

Go see some art on paper at the walker. 50/50, up 'til July 17, half curated by the unwashed masses, half by experts:

Featuring some 200 works hung salon-style, 50/50 is at once an experiment in crowd curation and an exploration of the Walker’s collection, with each of the two sections filling half the gallery space. This shared exchange sparks a range of questions about the dynamics between “audience” and “expert,” or between curatorial practice and so-called “mass taste.” It also touches on a broader contrast between the act of making aesthetic judgments in an online context and the experience of looking at and thinking about art up close, without time constraints.

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 61 Recap: Twins at Natives

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Twins 3, Tribe 2 (10)
WP: Matt Capps. Wait, what?
LP: Perez
Blown Save: Matt Capps. Yeah, that seems about right.
Save: Phil Dumatrait. Wait, who?
Twins Record: 23-38, 11.5 games out of first, 2.5 games out of not in the cellar.
Fangraphs loves a winner.
MLB recap.

Who has two thumbs and loves to close games? This guy.

Holy cows. Over the last one game the Twins have won one, in extras to boot. Hot Carl Pavano had a solid outing, allowing seven hits and one earned run over seven innings, striking out three, and walking one. Jose "My Neck Isn't Fat, It's Big Boned" Mijares came on for the eighth and retired all three batters he faced. Then Shortening come on to close out the game. He cruised through the first two batters and then decided to serve up a meatball to Jack Hannahan who promptly deposited the ball into the bleachers. Crisco had trouble with the next batter, Lou Marson, before getting Milton Bradley Michael Brantley to pop up to the glove of Butters in foul territory. This marks the 5th blown save in 13 attempts this season for Capps. At the dish the Twins relied on Ben Revere, who warned Texas that the Twins are coming. Sweet Ben went 3-5, driving in two runs, and scored the only other Twins run of the day off a Morneau double in the 6th. According the Dick, the Key "Hit" in that inning was Cuddy's ground out to the first baseman. Yeah, Dick, that hit really tied the inning together for the pitcher*.

Art, and culture. Cleveland is home to many fine art institutions, including the Cleveland Institute Of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and some sort of hall of fame. If you happen into Cleveland this summer I would recommend a stop by any of these fine institutions, and after you can refresh your palette here.

*edited for clarity

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game # who cares recap —> 20 games under .500

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Twins 2, Tigers 4

Twins record 17-37, 16 games out

LP Scott Baker, WP R. Porcello

Save: The King of D-bags, Valverde

What to say about this? Well, there isn't much to say about this. Oh, what's that you say? Alexi decided that bunting for a base hit with two strikes in the 9th was a good idea? Holy crap, I wish I had dreamed that, but I didn't. No, with the undisputed king of the d-bags on the mound Alexi decided to bunt with two strikes. He executed the bunt puuuuurfectly for the tigers. I imagine that Joe Mauer will take the blame for this loss. As boosty pointed out in the game log this is a particularly  bad loss bringing the twins to 20 games under .500. That's bad. Really. B-A-D.

This, of course, doesn't mean that I'll stop watching the Twins lose, but this is still  something of a milestone. Boo.

 

Art.