Archived Game Threads

After yesterday's game thread, i think i'll go for short and sweet, so as not to think so hard. Fifth day of the fifth month... that's like... 5 squared, or 25. Is that Buxton day? Yes, but that's a trick question, 'cause every day is Buxton day. It is also el Cinco de Mayo, or Mexican Independence day. I claim no Mexican wisdom, but i support Independence for all! I'm not sure i would trust the accuratcy of much in the video, but i bring it up for the catchy music, animation style, and determination not to compromise. And i hope the last aspect rubs off on the Twins! We welcome Sano back to the roster, and hope he picks up _right_ where Kirilloff _left_ off. …

I think i got the honor of introducing the game thread... 2 years ago? And so i've probably worked out a well travelled groove of Star Wars jokes already. You all are welcome to make them, i'm going to devote this here intro space to pontificate upon the acknowledged inspiratoin for Star Wars: The Hidden Fortress. I highly recommend you watch it if you're into that sort of thing. Indeed, pretty much any Akira Kurosawa movie is worth seeing at least once (with subtitles as needed) If i had to (and that's the corner i'm painting myself into) summarize a baseball related theme of the movie, it's... Free Agency (with nod to player development) it has epic showdowns. Our R…

Hi Ho Silver! Away! I grew up listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio. Yeah, that’s right; the radio. TVs didn’t start making their way into homes until the ’50’s and I was six and about ready to graduate from kindergarten when we got our first TV; a black-and-white Sylvania. We maybe got two channels and you had to watch ‘em through a snowstorm. So it was a slow transition from listening to radio to watching TV in our household. Anyway, radios back then came in big wooden cabinets with lots of dials, tubes and antenna leads. Things weighed about forty pounds. Not something you were going to carry over your shoulder blasting out eardrums over a square block…

The Twins look to bounceback on Sunday after taking a beating in yesterdays game. The Twins started off the homestand with a convincing win over the ALC leaders after 3 weeks, and look to close out the series with a victory today. We know the Twins aren't going to go on a 30+ game win streak like the Indians did a few years ago, so they must take these small victories as they come, and that starts with winning series. The Pitchers RHP Jose Berrios (2-2, 3.04 ERA, 33 K's, 26.2 IP) vs RHP Brad Keller (2-2, 9.00 ERA, 13 K's, 18 IP) The Twins turn to arguably the best starter we've seen this year in Jose Berrios, while the Royals will send out one of their worse arms in B…

Good Morning Twins fans and welcome back to another game thread extravaganza! Happy May Day too! Last night we took home a great 9-1 victory over the Royals. We also got a glimpse of Alex Kirilloff's talent. Between Kirilloff's two homers and Buxton's defensive greatness I actually got excited about this teams potential over the next month or so. I think we'll climb our way back up in the standings in no time (assuming the bullpen can pick it up). Speaking of May Day, My daughter turns 21 today. I'm not sure how 21 years can go by so quickly but they do! If she wasn't away at college I'd take her to my favorite watering hole and buy a few rounds of beer and watch the …

As April enters on a day of silliness, it stands to reason it ends on a day of seriousness... seriosity? seriodom. It ends on a serious day, irregardless the propper noun form of seriositude. You may well ask "but sampleSize, if we can't tell if someone is sarcastic, how can we tell their being serious???" That is where you are wrong. The truly serious are emphatic and use expletives. And to cut it off at the source, sure all the boring, easy to use ones are banned and even filtered by this site. That just makes it more interesting. Beat the shift, by gum! Dagnamit, hit it where they ain't! Zounds! It is easy if you just go with the goldarn pitch! Now that's out o…

Note: This game is not on Bally Sports North, and can be found exclusively at this link. It is a free viewing experience. The Pitchers LHP J.A. Happ (1-0, 1.69 ERA, 10 K's, 16 IP) vs LHP Logan Allen (1-3, 6.28 ERA, 11 K's, 14.1 IP) The Twins turn to J.A Happ, who turned in a no hit bid through seven innings last time we saw him against the Pirates, and is responsible for one of two wins over the past 15 games. Happ has done a great job at limiting right handed hitters this year, as he has only gone up against 9 left handed hitters this season. He's having great success with his fastball and sinker, limiting hard contact. The slider has been the main swing and miss …

This has been a tough stretch of games to watch. An anemic offense, a horrendous bullpen, a COVID outbreak.... what's more to love? What does this team need to succeed? We just have to remember: Season is not over.... yet. 2011 was a bad year as a Twins fan. After a great 2010 opening season at Target Field, the team fell flat. Cuddyer was the strongest hitter in a sea of bad players: Luke Hughes, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Matt Tolbert, Rene Tosoni, Jason Repko, Drew Butera, Brian Dinkelman.... yeesh. Mauer and Morneau are not right. Joe Nathan and Matt Capps were both bad. A lot of talent severely underperformed, but there were also some bad players forced to be up for signi…

Twins visit Cleveland with an early start. Could someone post the lineups?

Roster Move The Twins recalled RHP Cody Stashak prior to the game today. Today is the first day that Stashak was eligible to return as he was sent down 10 days ago. To make room on the 26 man roster, the Twins sent LHP Devin Smeltzer to the alternate site. Devin pitched 4.2 innings yesterday, and looking very good in doing so. This move was made to give the Twins a fresh bullpen arm, as Devin would've been unavailable for at least 2 days The Pitchers RHP Matt Shoemaker (1-1, 6.28 ERA, 12 K's, 14.1 IP) vs RHP Wil Crowe (0-2, 12.00 ERA, 10 K's, 9 IP CAREER #'s) The Twins turn to Matt Shoemaker for the 4th time this season. We last saw Matt pitch in game one of the doubl…

Quick’s The Word And Sharp’s The Action Pirates Logo 1960-66 You gotta love the Pirates, if for no other reason than their team name and logo. I mean what kid hasn’t grown up playing pirates, jumping around the living room, slashing the air with a toy sword, maybe stabbing the kid brother a few times until he runs to momma crying like a baby? Advancing from playing pirates to becoming a Pirates baseball fan seemed like a natural transition for me back in 1960. You could say their logo shivered my timbers and because of that Pirate baseball cards were probably my first attempt at collecting anything. I’d save up my pennies (yeah, kids used to earn penn…

In a hole in the ground there lived... a Gopher. (Well, this is Minnesota we're talking about) It was neither filled with great green gobs of... nor was it a dry sandy hole where TC the bear might be hibernating. It was gopher hole with no gopher, which can only mean one thing: some one hit a gopher ball! (cue the 2019 Twins promo... oh right... i'm trying to parody great literature, and they didn't do multi media back then) So much for trying to play off shorter attention spans... Which is my way of saying i'm lazy. And all that by way of saying give the young ones a chance to find their feet. I'd like to have made it to the scene where Rocco answers a bunch of doubtin…

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…

Roster Moves As we all know, the Twins have been dealing with a mini-COVID outbreak through the weekend, and today is their first game back. We know that Simmons was already on the COVID IL, and he was joined by LHP Caleb Thielbar, OF Kyle Garlick, and OF Max Kepler. Kepler tested positive for COVID, as did Kyle Garlick. Thielbar is on the IL as a close contact. The Twins recalled IF Travis Blankenhorn, selected the contract of RHP Luke Farrell, and reinstated OF/1B Brent Rooker from the IL. The Pitchers RHP Matt Shoemaker (0-1, 4.71 ERA, 26 K's, 28.1 IP in 2020) vs LHP Sean Manaea (4-3, 4.50 ERA, 45 K's, 54 IP in 2020) The Twins turn to Matt Shoemaker, who last pitc…

It’s always thrilling when your team snatches victory from the jaws of victory, as the Twins did yesterday afternoon at Target Field against the Red Sox. The Twins lost 3 of 4 in the series, but were 1-0 in games played in the sunshine. That’s a good sign, right? There will be plenty of sun out in LA this weekend for the three game series against the Angels. Here I have selected five Twins-Halos memorable moments to think back on, from over the years: 1. May 23, 2019: Draining the Opposition Seems like so long ago. The Twins laid waste to the Angels 16-7 to complete a three game sweep in LA and on their way to a 8.0 game lead in the standings. This game was actually p…

Stopper Thread! 5. Big Mike is our Stopper. Like a rubber cork in a fine wine bottle, nothing's getting through. I'm glad to get the "first to worst" losing streak over with now when it only had to be 5 games long, rather than later in the season when it would have to be a week or more... 4. Sequencing. Really important in setting up a hitter. But if they see it coming, doesn't that defeat the purpose? Unless... the object is to achieve non-sequitor effect. 1. Give the visiting Bostonians credited. They have executed so far. If nothing else, the are fine executioners*. And Boston has seen more than its fair share of historical events, some of which will be celebrat…

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…

The Minnesota Twins will play today! (I think, anyways....) Although the weather is ghastly today, the precipitation will come down as snow, and not rain. Will Nelson Cruz slide into second on a homerun today like fellow slugger Miguel Cabrera did on Opening Day? (Edit: Nelson Cruz was a late scratch due to an illness, so he will not) https://twitter.com/ActionNetworkHQ/status/1377675605932699648 It amazes me that guys like Cruz and Miggy can still go out there almost every day and still be insanely productive at the plate. I'm just over half their age, and seem to get more injuries just living normally, and not having to deal with sprinting, getting hit by a 99 MPH…

The Twins come off a disappointing series against Seattle, dropping the last 2 of 3 against one of the worst rosters in the league. The lineup failed to do anything against the Seattle bullpen, and Alex Colome continues to be a roller coaster. The Red Sox roll into town hot, but do not bring any warm weather. The weather will likely be an issue all week, and we could see a delay today due to rain, but I think they should be able to get it in. Josh Donaldson is healthy and eligible to return, but Rocco said they did not activate him to avoid playing in these conditions. The Pitchers: LHP J.A Happ (2-2, 3.47 ERA, 42 K's, 49.1 IP, 2020 Stats) vs LHP Martin Perez (3-5, 4.50…

Greetings all, and welcome! For today's game thread intro I'm going to use the time-honoured (Canadian spelling to acknowledge Twins fans living in the Dominion) 5-topic introduction. 1.) Today is the 67th anniversary of 11 April 1954. On this date there were so few events of significance that it has been designated to be the least noteworthy and least interesting day in modern history. Feel free to do an internet search and you'll see that to be the case. Of course, there is significant irony in this. The fact that it has this designation makes it noteworthy and interesting. 2.) Today is also the birthday of one of this site's more noteworthy members. I'm not going…

Welcome back to the Twins Daily game thread party! After a rare Friday night off the Minnesota Twins will take on the Seattle Mariners this afternoon at Target Field for the second home game of the season. I have high hopes for the Twins today. Big Mike Pineda will be throwing the ball and our lineup looks decent. I still wish Donaldson was playing today, although I think he will be back in the lineup next week. I'll be listening to the game today and trying to post some as I pack up our basement. After 16 years in the same house my wife and I decided to sell our home as the kids have all moved out. Do you realize how much crap we accumulated over the years? I've mad…

5 things to think about before the game. Or at least to think about thinking about. 1. Home Opener. I really should have some epic music cued up (or is that queued up?) I'm sure something will suggest itself. 2. The other team. The Mariners. No, not the merry nurse. Neither the Ancient Mariner for those of you who are Coleridge fans or Iron Maiden fans. They were an expansion team in 1977 from just before St. Helens blew. Er... I haven't paid much attention of late to how they are doing nowadays... 3. Our team. The Twins. We aren't playing too badly so far. But modesty and humility are virtues. Besides, i wouldn't want to jinx us. 4. Baseball. It is a game requiring a…

Welcome to Game 6 of the 2021 season! Just as with my other game, we’re coming off an extra-innings defeat. I’ve heard of being a jinx for a team, but never via a time-reversal. We have two opening-day starters squaring off today, so the batters may not have an easy time of it: Kenta Maeda, RHP, 0-0, 2.08 ERA, 5 SO Matthew Boyd, LHP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 SO Carnac the Magnificent: <holding envelope to forehead> “Today’s lineup” Ed McMahon: <solemnly> Today’s lineup. Carnac: One of us is redundant here, and I’m pretty sure it’s not me. Ed: My apologies, your Magnificence. Tell us the extraordinary import of your divination. Carnac: The whatinary what of my…

Since my last game thread intro, the Twins have went on a run to win three ballgames in a row, and looking dang good doing so. The starting pitching has been fantastic, and the bats have come around the past two games. There is always the cloud of injuries over our head, but that is the life of being a Minnesota sports fan. Let's get into game 2 of the midweek series with Detroit. The Pitchers - LHP J.A. Happ (2-2, 3.47 ERA, 42 K's, 49.1 IP) vs RHP Casey Mize (0-3, 6.99 ERA, 26 K's, 28.1 IP) The Twins turn to offseason free agent signee J.A Happ to round out their rotation. The lefty has bounced around the league during his long career, most recently playing for the …

Good morning Twins fans and welcome to the "just another manic Monday" workday edition of a Game Thread extravaganza! I'm writing this introduction sitting at my desk and trying to get WCCO to come in more clearly on the radio. The building I'm in does an excellent job of keeping out radio signals...I might have to migrate to internet radio so I can listen to the ball game this afternoon if I can't get the antenna dialed in. I am expecting another fun filled game like yesterday's Easter smack down on the Brewers. Detroit has been playing ok but I believe the Twins will run away with this today. It will be fun to see if Arraez can keep up the torrid pace of making it on …

Happy Easter, my peeps! Hope you find all the eggs! And the chocolate bunnies hatching from cadbury eggs aren't too numerous. I myself have been enjoying my Broccoli: Albert R. Broccoli, producer of James Bond films. Just finished the Roger Moore era. I feel i should be able to work it into a the game thread intro cleaverly... Mitch Garver is batting 7th. Perhaps he shall kill a fast ball? Or Jake Cave may gun another runner down? Could even happen in the 7th. Certainly yesterday had many zeros before the seventh. Twins line up looks like they just changed the battery. I hope it is fully charged. Twins: 1. Luis Arraez ( L) 3B 2. Jorge Polanco ( S ) 2B 3. Byron B…

Welcome to Game 2 of the 2021 season! Pretty fun Game 1, eh? I have some commitments on Friday and during the day on Saturday, and so I am for once not procrastinating, and am writing this intro on Thursday during the mid-inning break, heading into the bottom of the ninth. Solid outing by most in the lineup, with enough hitting to rack up 5 runs. Would have liked a couple of insurance runs when Garver almost hit one out just now, but those surely won’t be missed. Great to have Buxton go yard - not like he swings for the fences every time, and it’s nice to see him mix in the occasional dinger. Too bad Donaldson got an owie while legging out his double in the first inni…

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…

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