Archived Game Threads

This one will be live for me, televised for you. Wind is really blowing out to left today. Hopefully that means a few long balls … for us, not them. Go Twins!

Twins Lineup: Rays Lineup: Enjoy the game!

Welcome to game thread #487! Okay, I made that up and didn't really count them all. And if you include ST threads, it's probably short a few. Then add on play off threads ... oh ... Anyway, I'm kind of at a loss of what to say. I had this thing all written up yesterday, then tossed it out. It started with the 'oh so clever' quote (aka trite), 'Ask not what TD can do for you, ask what you can do for TD.' I went into this whole thing how people could 'get involved' through Adopt-A-Prospect (a really cool and useful thing you should check out); volunteer to start a game thread (there are always dates to be had, until there aren't, so fill them up!); start a blog (hey, rant…

I am opening this thread for the people who visit Twins Daily but have not yet posted on any of the forums. If you have not yet registered, then you will need to do so. You should also read the TD Comment Policy sticky thread at the top of the Questions About MinnCentric forum. Even if you're a little shy, gather your courage and take a chance and post something here. I believe that you will find that most of us don't bite, and those who do bite better not do it here.

A few years ago, when the Twins inadvertently made a playoff appearance, I was notified, that, should the Twins progress, I would have the honor of introducing a play-off game thread. Then, the Twins bombed in the Bronx, following up that loss by then limping to a dreadful conclusion of the 2018 campaign. During a busy, yet head-scratching, off-season, the FO signed new players, coaches and a manager, trying to bolster a team that clearly wasn’t getting the job done. Amazingly enough, the FO put together an excellent team, a team that set both team and MLB records, setting the stage for one of the best seasons I can remember since the 1987 Squad won it all. Which br…

Let me explain the ALDS thus far... No there is too much. Let me sum up: Episode V (III, sir!) The Empire Ks It is a dark time for the Twins Fan base. Although the Bomba title has been claimed, Imperial troops have driven our Rebel forces from the Yankee Stadium and pursued us across the country. Evading the dreaded Imperial TV network, a group of freedom fighters led by Nelson Cruz are entrenched in Target Field in the remote ice state of Minnesota. The evil Pinstripes look to dash the hopes of the upstart Twins, and silence the mighty bomba stick, the last hope for order and peace in the MLB…. (John Williams wasn't available so this wiil have to do) …

Yankees: The Twins Nemesis? I may have mentioned in past writings on this site how much I despise the Yankees. Then again, maybe not. I tend to hold things in… like my gut while trying to slip into an old pair of jeans, or my honest opinion of my blonde sister-in-law’s cooking, or the gas from politely eating my blonde sister-in-law’s cooking. My Yankee despisement (is that a word?) goes back to those thrilling days of yesteryear when every kid in Little League had a favorite team. Mine was the Dodgers (the Twins hadn’t been invented yet). My nemesis at the time was another kid who was a self-proclaimed Yankees fan. His old man was the high school principal, who, as…

Alright Twins fans, we already know what has happened in the past. 17 losses in a row, and it feels like even more somehow. The longest losing streak in all of North America for playoff losing streaks. My only wish is that I would've been betting on these games, and rolling over the winnings. However, today, the Twins have a chance to change that. Jose Berrios takes the bump, and a rookie makes his first ever start in the postseason. Buckle up, if today is like yesterday, it's going to be one hell of a ride where everyone ends up puking at the end. The Pitchers - RHP Jose Berrios (5-4, 4.00 ERA, 68 K's, 63 IP) vs RHP Jose Urquidy (1-1, 2.73 ERA, 17 K's, 29.2 IP) The T…

Well, we’re here. It’s postseason time and there’s no game thread ready a few hours before first pitch so I’m typing this on my phone to get it out there. Only have time for one thought: I love Greinke, he’s a delightful weirdo. But I hope the Twins effing demolish him. Win Twins! 1. Arráez 2B 2. Buxton CF 3. Kepler RF 4. Cruz DH 5. Rosario LF 6. Sanó 1B 7. Polanco SS 8. Jeffers C 9. González 3B

The Twins have lost back-to-back games!! Oh my gosh, the world must be coming to an end. On a less extreme note, the Twins are still in first place by more than 10 games, and that is with the Indians playing well. They have only picked up half a game since the start of June. Tonight, the Twins have to win to have a shot at winning the series against the Red Sox with Michael Pineda on the mound. The Pitchers: David Price (4-2, 3.52 ERA, 71 K's) vs Michael Pineda (4-3, 5.04 ERA, 57 K's) David Price is having the best year he has since he was named to the All-Star team in 2015. The lefty has a 3.52 ERA, with a FIP of 3.18. He is striking out over a batter an inning, a…

After the exciting win yesterday, and after perusing the game thread yesterday, I came to the conclusion some of the Twins faithful needed some help surviving the game Nothing like high comedy, drama and angst....all in one game, which encapsulates everything that goes with being a Twins fan this year. The highs and lows of following the Twins this year have been nothing short of spectacular. Now, the Yankees come to town and they've been playing good baseball, boo!, and, have been a Twins nemesis for as long as Target Field has been in existence. Not to worry, though, Twins fans, because I have come up with the perfect way to deal with watching the Twins play the …

The Cleveland Falcon I was holding down a barstool in a cheap dive just down the street from what used to be Jacobs Stadium, trying to nurse three fingers of the worst tasting whiskey I’d ever had the misfortune to order when she walked in. She had legs halfway up to her neck, auburn hair pulled back in one of those French braids that made her look… French and a figure you won’t find in any accountant’s office. “What’s a dame like you doing in a gin joint like this?” I asked her in my best Bogie impression. She coolly looked me over before claiming a seat three stools away. “I’m looking for a Tom Collins,” she replied, distantly. “Haven’t seen him,” I inf…

I have a confession to make. It’s a rather serious confession and one that is not easy to say… I grew up in Cleveland. Now before you disparage me, please understand that this was not my choice. My parents up and moved from Owatonna, MN to Cleveland and forced me into a childhood surrounded by Indians fans. Cleveland baseball fans might be the worst, I might add, and are not deserving of a professional baseball team as the definition of fair-weather fans shows a picture of an Indians fan. This is not to be confused with a Browns fan, as those are the definition of loyalty. Things to think about: 1) Songs – Cleveland has a few songs of note. Minnesota does not (unless …

My ten years as a stringer – a freelance sportswriter for The Associated Press – spanned two distinct baseball eras. During the first, 1983-88, stringers dictated stories by telephone to the New York baseball desk and most of the players were somewhat ordinary in size and shape. I left Minnesota for five years and, when I returned in 1993 for a second tour of AP duty, it was all about laptop transmissions and ginormous players. Depending on assignment, the job entailed some combination of scorekeeping, hunting down postgame clubhouse quotes from players and managers, and writing three stories: a bare-bones gamer, an alternate account including quotes and, finally, a fea…

April 1st...the day of office pranksters and foolish little kids all around the world. That jar at work that you think is M&M's probably has a mixture of skittles with it. Your fridge? Better make sure it's not running away. However, there is one thing today that is not a joke. BASEBALL. IS. BACK. The Twins travel to Milwaukee for a three day set against the Brewers, which means that the Twins will not be able to use Nelson Cruz because the league hates the game. Nor will a majority of fans across the league be able to tune into todays game because Fox Sports Bally Sports (Whatever the heck that is) hasn't made a deal with television or streaming providers. They also…

Wednesday 9/9, 7:10 PM CT at Kauffman Stadium TV: FS-N; Radio: Go 96.3, TIBN Weather: Mostly clear, with a low around 64. East northeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight (I'm just going to go ahead and leave that in there in case we go into extras). Lineups: TWINS (71-67): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Mike Pelfrey (6-9, 4.17 ERA) ROYALS (83-55): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Kris Medlen (3-1, 4.88 ERA) This contention thing has proved to be too stressful for me. I used to always write the game threads at least a day in advance, and, in the case of the failed Chicken Dinnah attempt, a week or two before necessary, but today I am starting from…

Happy Wednesday everyone, and I do emphasize the happy, as there hasn’t been much happy around these parts of late, and to be fair, for good reason. Our Minnesota Twins along with something they call a bull pen will attempt to defeat the Houston Astros, who currently hold the best record in baseball and are up 2 games to none on this series. Before we continue with the tarring and feathering of the entire front office, the scouting staff, the players, and TC Bear, I should note with full disclosure that our Twins are 0-2 on game threads that I start. That means that I am clearly to blame as my win percentage in game threads is worse than that of the Twins pen… think ab…

“Well I’ve never been to Heaven... but I’ve been to Oklahoma...” Apologies to Three Dog Night, but that could be me. I’ve been to Oklahoma lots of times but my chances of eventually being in Heaven are like the old baseball adage, “slim and none”. I’ve never been to LA either. In fact I’ve never set foot, or any other part of me, in California. At least not that I remember. Three dog night - that’s how the Aussies post the weather forecast Down Under. Apparently they judge how cold it’s going to be by how many dogs you have to sleep with in order to stay warm. Quaint. Though with the price of dog food today, it might be cheaper to buy some thermometers. Or an el…

The Twins visit Detroit in the second game of a three game season with only five games to play. Their magic number is two. Any combination of two Twins wins or Cleveland losses wins the Central for Minnesota, their first division championship since 2010. Detroit is wrapping up a terrible season, they are 46-110 and they have talent commensurate with their record. They have hit pretty well against the Twins, but lack power. The Tigers will face Twins folk hero Randy Dobnak today. Dobnak has climbed from independent minor league to the major leagues and has pitched very effectively, first as an opener and in his last two starts as a legitimate starter. Dobnak started 201…

Welcome to another exciting game thread experience at Twins Daily and game #2 in the ALDS series against the Yankees. After last nights game and the disappointing results, I'm calling an audible and doing an entirely different introduction than what I intended to write yesterday. The theme for today is simple: GET. READY. TO. FIGHT. While there were some questionable calls, plays and managerial decisions made during the game yesterday, did anyone of us think this would be easy? Playing New York at home in the playoffs is difficult for almost every team in the league. The Twins know this and that's why I think they will come out swinging hard today. I liked what I…

Today The Twins play the Yankees in a doubleheader in the Bronx. Twins fans obviously have nightmares about facing this opponent, especially on their home turf, but fortunately I happen to have at least one fond memory of a Twins-Yankees game in the House of Horrors. I've always lived in New York State and over the years I've tried to catch the team on their visits to Boston and New York. (My trips to Boston have been much more enjoyable on many levels!) The last game I attended was in May of 2019 against the Yankees in the new Yankee Stadium, which is a monolith and is as far removed from a Fenway-type ball park as you can get. My 20-something daughter and I took a …

After the fiasco of the last thread, pro tip: don’t do something that stands out, otherwise people develop expectations, I realized that I needed to see if I could bring a bit more culture to Twins Daily. Well, okay, not so much realized as had a couple of people think poetry was on the groovy side.* ** *By fiasco, I mean something people wish to see more of. Unless they were just humoring me, in which case, the jokes on them! **What do mean it's not culture? Says, "Culture Club" right there! Now, for the groovy part:* *What do you mean Bruce Campbell and "The Evil Dead" isn't groovy? Diamond Dreams I gaze upon a field of shimmering green, And, with…

Game-time forecast: Mostly cloudy. Winds blowing out to center field at 10-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 35. Jays: SP, Dickey Melky Cabrera LF Munenori Kawasaki 2B Jose Bautista CF Edwin Encarnacion 1B Colby Rasmus DH Brett Lawrie 3B Moises Sierra RF Josh Thole C Ryan Goins SS Twins: SP, Gibson Brian Dozier 2B Joe Mauer 1B Trevor Plouffe 3B Chris Colabello RF Jason Kubel LF Josmil Pinto DH Kurt Suzuki C Aaron Hicks CF Pedro Florimon SS The 2nd game's lineups will be posted in-thread as we continue into the next game. Yes, one big long thread for two games! Woohoo! And tonight's lineups and tonight's game thread begin here: http://twinsdaily.com/showthread.php…

First, a brief history of the number zero: According to Live Science, the Babylonians borrowed the concept of zero from the Sumerians, the first people in the world to develop a counting system. (probably invented the accountant, tax shelter and tax collector, too) Also, thanks to the invention of Zero, we’re able to perform sabermetrics, calculus, differential equations, algebra and show the real balance of a checkbook. (yeah, yeah, I know, sometimes the balance of the checkbook is less than zero. However, negative numbers aren’t a part of this thread. The TD Game Thread style sheet expressly forbids mentioning anything negative) Now that we’ve covered nothing, let…

Watch this space for the starting lineups from the lovely and talented ChiTown Thanks, Bri! Gametime weather forecast: cloudy, rainy, windy, 35 degrees. My umbrella blew out on me 3 times just walking 2 blocks to the bus stop this morning. Just sayin'. Rain is to abate around 3 ... we'll see if we have a delayed game or a postponed game. Twins: SP, Hughes Dozier 2B Mauer DH Willingham LF Colabello 1B Plouffe 3B Arcia RF Pinto C Hicks CF Escobar SS Sox: SP, Quintana Eaton CF Semien 3B Abreu 1B Gunn DH Garcia RF De Aza LF Ramirez SS Flowers C Garcia 2B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Things to Think About: …

The Twins took two steps forward toward the goal of winning the division during the series of games against the Sox. Unfortunately, after that second step, the Twins paused and, well, Cleveland decided they need to keep pace. It's hard to watch when one can almost touch or see the Twins with the division title. *So what if I had to reach a bit to fit in this song. On the upside, if the Twins keep trucking on they should win the division. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQ8r-SwR2c Now, KC is in town and the Twin will need to keep moving on toward a division title. And, with that, another chapter in series game thread openers comes to a close. Please sta…

Well ... it's 'Two for the Price of One' day today. What does that mean? If you are lucky enough to have tickets for today's game, you get to see two for the price of one. For the rest of us at home, it's still a two-fer, which means, double the time sitting and watching, double the game-time beers, if that's what you do, double the time being productive elsewhere while having the game on in the background, double the joy if there are two wins, double the grief and disappointment if there are two losses. If we get a split? Probably still double the grief and disappointment. For me, it means, time spent working on the two wedding presents I need to make more progress on. Y…

Everyone better get ready for World War III! Last nights game was probably one of the most drama filled regular season games I've seen in years. I will not call it the best regular season game I've seen in years as the Twins lost. However, it was drama filled. I expect the last game of this series tonight will be a lot like the first two. As I mentioned above, better get ready for World War III. I fully expect the Twins will come out charging hard and playing with something to prove. My take away after watching the entire game last night is that this Minnesota Twins team will not roll over to the Yankees. They seem to have a confidence I've seen lacking in other Twi…

There once was a guy named Cruz, Who liked his afternoon snooze. And, once his nap was done, He'd hit more baseballs a ton, Yet another pitcher gets the blues! Tonight brings the Braves to town for a three game series and, if recent history is any guide, opposing pitchers need to be brave when facing the Twins lineup. *Our very own Tom Froemming came up immediately when I searched You Tube. The Twins have been putting on quite the power display, to the point it seems like fans would be disappointed with a 10-0 win, if there weren't any home runs hit. (okay, not really. Or, are we that spoiled by this team?) And, with that, I realize I've run ou…

The Twins face Oakland this after noon in the finale of a difficult road trip to the West Coast. The Twins are currently 6-10, having lost eight of their last nine games. They've lost two doubleheaders and three extra-inning games. Sixteen games is roughly one-tenth of a season and the Twins have had spotty pitching, poor hitting and have also made too many defensive mistakes. In other words, they have been a bad ball club. The opponent today, the Oakland Athletics, started slowly, but is now perhaps the hottest club in baseball having won ten straight games. The lineup is swinging well, they have a decent pitching staff and a fine defensive team. Today's starting p…