Archived Game Threads

Phil Hughes is pitching for the Twins, but I'm not going to say who is pitching for the opponent, because I don't want to type any naughty words on the internet today. Weather: Changing. We are having a preliminary vote for the TDGTHOF, the top five vote getters will move on to the final round. My nominees: Riverbrian - Game Threads wouldn't be around if Riverbrian wasn't around, this mutualism is similar to that of a Blind Shrimp and a Goby, because Twins Daily benefits from his intros, and Riverbrian benefits from the entertainment that USAFCheif, Gibby, Bark's Lounge, etc. provide. twinsnorth49 - This Canadian has educated us, especially on how horrible Toron…

Game-time forecast: Mostly cloudy with a 60-percent chance of rain. Winds blowing in from right field at 10-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 65. Twins: SP, Hughes Dozier 2B Suzuki C Plouffe 3B Colabello 1B Kubel LF Nuñez DH Parmalee RF (Ok, ok, it's Parmelee ... I was going to leave it and watch the response) Hicks CF Santana SS Tigers: SP, Verlander Kinsler 2B Hunter RF Cabrera 1B Martinez DH Jackson CF Castellanos 3B Avila C Romine SS Davis LF -------------------- Up next ... Riverbrian ... take it away ... ---------------------------------------------- OK... But I'm only going to take it this far. Things to think about: 1. Runaway Tigers -- The Tigers …

What was Louis saint of? If i had to guess, my first one would be the Blues, but that would be another sport, so i'm probably wrong, especially as cardinals are not blue. And they have pointy heads (some say those are hats, but i am not so sure.) But then i remember a song from my childhood, which i am pretty sure was part of a rich oral tradition passing down history that otherwise would have been forgotten, and lo and behold, the internet has the song! Of course we all know what Paul is Saint of, how he persecuted Minnesotans until Babe Ruth appeared to him in the form of a big blue ox, and he became a lumberjack, and he was okay, making bats that ca…

Minnesota: "Houston, we have a problem" Houston: "Oh, you mean you are visiting an Astros team with an undefeated home record? We don't see that as a problem... No one will think less of you if you lose. Just look upon it as a challenge!" Minnesota: "Roger that." See? I have done my research. I looked at the extended standings and seen the home and away records. I also know the entire history of Sam Houston and the city named after him can be boiled down to a Dr. Doolittle-esc "talks with the space program", so that's what i did. If you wan't greater in depth, the internet is your oyster. Dive right in, and feel free to share a pearl or two with us all! …

Game Thread, Twins @ Tigers, 4/9 @ 12:08pm CT This is it. Bottom of the eighth 2 out, Runners at the corners, Perkins comes in to protect a 1 run lead. The indomitable Miguel Cabrera shakes a weight from his bat, and saunters confidently to the plate. Perkins looks in for the sign, shakes Suzuki's first call off, and nods at the second. He gathers his thoughts for the pitch. The Tigers have had their way in the first two games of the road series, out scoring 'em 13-0, but that doesn't matter. This is now. This game. He rears back and fires... Ball 1 Ump replaces the dirty ball, Suzuki fires it back while Cabrera looks down the line. Again with the sign, this time nod…

The Twins head to daunting Yankee Stadium for their annual matchup with the Bronx Bombers, but this Yankees squad will look a little different than the one we saw last year. The Yankees injured list is better than their actual lineup, but that hasn't stopped New York from getting off to a solid start. The Pitchers Kyle Gibson (2-0, 4.88 ERA, 24 K's) vs James Paxton (3-2, 3.38 ERA, 51 K's) Kyle Gibson has started to look like last years Gibby after having a bout with E-coli during spring training, which caused him to lose a large amount of weight. James Paxton is one of the best lefties in the AL, and will be the second left handed starter the Twins have seen all year…

Game Thread: Astros @ Twins, 8/9 @ 7:10 CT Probable Starters: Mike Fiers (7-5, 4.34 ERA) vs Hector Santiago (10-5, 4.37 ERA) 1. Hector Santiago The Twins newest starting pitcher, Hector Santiago, will make his second start as a Twin today. Now, first off, I have to say I’m much happier seeing Santiago start rather than Nolasco. I was becoming afraid that the Twins would actually think he was part of the solution rather than the problem… But now we have Santiago. His numbers are kind of weird – he hasn’t been that great this season (5.15 FIP w/ MLB leading 59 walks given up), but he’s somehow got 10 wins with one of the worst teams in baseball this season (not that wins …

In the absence of a formal game thread, here is an informal one instead! (Feel free to delete this one if the real game threader appears.) National TV! (FOX over the air, for all of you cord-cutters out there.) CLE Lineup 1. Francisco Lindor (S) SS 2. Cesar Hernandez (S) 2B 3. Jose Ramirez (S) 3B 4. Carlos Santana (S) 1B 5. Franmil Reyes (R) DH 6. Jordan Luplow (R) RF 7. Oscar Mercado (R) LF 8. Roberto Perez (R) C 9. Delino DeShields (R) CF SP: Zach Plesac, RHP MIN Lineup 1. Jorge Polanco (S) SS 2. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 3. Nelson Cruz (R) DH 4. Eddie Rosario (L) LF 5. Miguel Sano (R) 1B 6. Brent Rooker (R) RF 7. Byron Buxton (R) CF 8. Marwin Gonzalez (S) 2B 9. Wil…

I started typing this thread and, through the magic of hitting the wrong keys, managed to lose everything I'd written. My loss is probably Twins Faithful gain. The Twins, after taking two from Cleveland in Cleveland suddenly seemed to remember they were guests and promptly gave back a game. I'm not sure where Miss Manners comes down when it comes to sports etiquette but it seems to me that, in pro sports, guest or not, sweeping the leg is called for. Now the Twins return home and the lineup is slowly returning to health and starting to contribute that which we've missed these last few games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q3uPysQaZY On paper, this looks to…

http://1000thingsnyc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Zoltar-from-Big.jpg ANNND Welcome! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line: FORTUNE TELLER Edition! I am Vanimal, the great gypsy, and I can grant your WISH for the next 2 days! Come see it too, no? Hope you brought many dollar bills to this game thread, because this gypsy does not work for free. *Inserts $1* Ahh, cheer up my friend. And listen to the proverbs of Vanimal. The Minnesota Twins will play a game tonight at 6:10 PM against, what you call, the New York Mets. Before I reveal weather and lineups, please, feed me money. *Inserts $1* It will be, what you call, partly sunny skies in New York City. 75 degrees F at f…

Good morning! Welcome to yet another day game in a week full of them. Six day games in eight days, though most all Twins’ games are day games in my time zone. Today the Twins finish up a five-game set at Comerica Park, which is located less than a mile from Canada, to which most of the team will escape after the game. Presumably a centerfielder chasing a hypothetical 5,000-foot fly ball today would have to be vaccinated to go into Windsor to catch it. * * * Before we get to the Twins and their desperate quest for runs, I have a question to throw out to all of you: What sports did you play growing up and what sports do you play now? From past banter, I know…

Good Day, aTwinsFanInMaryland here today with your game thread. The big news of today came this morning with confirmation that Alex Kirilloff will undergo season ending surgery to shorten his ulna, you’re guess is a good us mine as to what that is. This surgery means the Twins number one and number two prospects have undergone season ending surgery this year. Roster Moves: No roster moves to report today The Pitchers: RHP #17 Chris Archer (2-5, 4.05 ERA, 62K’s) vs RHP #34 Kevin Gausman (8-8, 3.06 ERA, 132K’s) The Lineup: Twins: 1. Luis Arraez DH 2. Jorge Polanco 2B 3. Max Kepler RF 4. Jose Miranda 1B …

Saturday 6/20, 1:10 PM CT at Target Field TV: FS-N; Radio: Go 96.3, TIBN Weather: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80. South wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west southwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon. Lineups: CUBS (35-30): [We're waiting on you, Mr. Madden...] 1. Fowler, CF 2. Rizzo, 1B 3. Bryant, 3B 4. Coghlan, LF 5. Castro, SS 6. Schwarber, DH 7. Denorfia, RF 8. Ross, C 9. Russell, 2B Jon Lester, LHP (4-5, 3.99 ERA) TWINS (37-30): 1. Dozier, 2B 2. Rosario, LF 3. Mauer, DH 4. Plouffe, 3B 5. Hunter, RF 6. Suzuki, C 7. Vargas, 1B 8. Escobar, SS 9. Buxton, CF Trevor May, RHP (4-5, 4.26 ERA) Shhh … it looks like the Twins are un-slumping. June - At one …

Game-time forecast: Mostly cloudy. Winds blowing in from left field at 10-20 m.p.h. Temperature around 50. 0% PoP. Tigers: SP, Sanchez Kinsler 2B Hunter RF Cabrera 1B Martinez DH Jackson CF Castellanos 3B Romine SS Holaday C Davis LF Twins: SP, Hughes Dozier 2B Mauer DH Plouffe 3B Colabello 1B Kubel LF Pinto C Fuld RF Hicks CF Escobar SS ---------------------------- And now for the entertainment portion of our regularly scheduled program, just after these messages ... (okay, there are no messages, but check back later for Brian's musings). -------------------------------------------------------- (Camel Walking around) What day is it? What Day is it? ChiTo…

The Twins face San Francisco in game two of a three game series this evening at Target Field. The Twins won last night, breaking a six-game losing streak, 9-0 with good pitching defense and productive hitting. We haven't seen much of the Twins' "A" game recently, so it was refreshing to see them win comfortably. Tonight, Sonny Gray will start for the Twins. His numbers look good, but he's only 95+ innings so far this season, in part due to two trips to the Injured List and in part due to only averaging five innings per start. The Giants counter with veteran Alex Cobb, who has good strikeout numbers, a losing record and averages 5 and one third innings per start. …

Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's game thread, which may turn out to be a non-game thread because of... 1. The weather. It's not whether snow will fall on Target Field today, it's when and how much. The current game time forecast is 31F with a 7 MPH wind, resulting in a wind chill of 24F. As of the time of this posting it appears that the snow will start later in the afternoon so I think there's a good chance a regulation game can be completed. If not... 2. May 14 becomes a significant date. Based on my review of the teams' schedules it appears that this is the most likely date for a make-up game in the event of a postponement. 3. Our team currently has a W-L r…

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 …

Before we go nuts about not doing anything at the deadline, let’s remember: 1. Our rotation currently consists (starting tomorrow) of Pineda, Berrios, Dobnak, Maeda, and Hill. All of these guys are good enough to win playoff games. 2. Adrianza and Vargas won’t be splitting playing time forever. When Donaldson comes back, and Arraez is fully healed, watch out. 3. Byron Buxton and Mitch Garver should also be back by the end of the season. 4.The bullpen is pretty much set. There’s 6 guys I trust in high leverage situations, plus Jorge Alcala. 5. The first round this year has 8 teams in a best of 3 format. More luck than usual will be needed to win it all this yea…

There's a wonderful thread showing much deserved love to Luis Arraez going on Twins Daily right now, and I wanted to show love to another somewhat underappreciated Twins today as well. Devin Smeltzer takes the mound today and I think he deserves some praise. He's never going to be Santana or Liriano, but Smeltzer is the kind of guy we should point to and tell our kids to strive to be. For those that don't know Devin Smeltzer was diagnosed with pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma when he was 9. He had to have a tumor removed from around his prostate and bladder followed by chemo to defeat the cancer and went into full remission in 2012. It's not the most horrific childhood cance…

Here we are, September 3 and the Twins are contending for a playoff spot. As we all know, make the playoffs, anything can happen. See: Kansas City, last year. Am I expecting the Twins to make the playoffs? I hope they do, because I want a playoff game thread. Though, with all the work by Riverbrian, USAFchief, chitown, always33, Hosken Bombo Disco, glunn and others, it may take a bit of Tanya Harding magic to make that happen. (think keyboard across the wrists) The Twins were dreadful initially, wonderful in May, tanked after the All Star break and turned their fortunes around on the road against the AL East. Yes, you read that right, a winning road trip. 6-4 no les…

SSO1 was nice enough to come up with some idea for me to crib from, I mean, tossed out as a challenge to use as game thread material. Not one to lightly cast aside ideas for game threads, much like a 10 year old me scrambling for the returnable pop bottle that would be used to buy Tops trading cards, I grabbed that list and set it aside as the treasure it is. In looking at the list, it's hard to decide if I should go in the order the ideas, I mean, challenges, as listed or should I start with the easiest one first? See archived game thread here for list of ideas: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/34601-game-thread-david-twins-vs-tigers-610pm-edt-8242019-ad/ I ough…

Photo by Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images Following the All-Star break, the Twins find themselves in a bear market, poised to sell. Hot going into the break on July 16, the Twins ‘boosted’ their playoff odds to 3%. Any last glimmer of hope is largely gone, losing 2 of 4 games out of the break and seeing their playoff odds diminish to 1%. The Twins are at 7 games under .500, and 7.5 games back of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central with 63 games remaining. On a positive note, the Twins finally welcome back Ervin Santana from the disabled list for his first start/appearance of 2018! Santana had surgery in early February on his right middle finger. After 7 re…

Good morning Twins fans and welcome back to another nerve-racking, nail biting game thread! Just to be clear, I looked up the word "nerve-racking" and the way I spelled it is the traditional way although nerve-wracking is acceptable now too. Note to Mods: It would be nice if TD could offer some editorial assistance with our intro's. I know TD only pays me $1,200 for each game thread intro but a little help would be nice for the paltry sum we get compensated for the effort...Just sayin'. Speaking of money, I have to fly to Las Vegas in a few hours for a work event. I do plan on laying some cash down for the Twins to win the whole thing this year. I just looked up the odd…

The Twins picked up a big first win out of the All-Star break featuring a fantastic bullpen performance, and some timely hitting. Taylor Rogers was dominant once again, and it is scary to think what this bullpen will look like after adding a few more impact arms to pair with Rogers. The bad news is the Twins faced the worst of three starters they would see this weekend, as they face off with Trevor Bauer in tonights matchup. The Twins send their All-Star Jake Odorizzi to the hill. The Pitchers Jake Odorizzi (10-4, 3.15 ERA, 96 K's) vs Trevor Bauer (8-6, 3.61, 149 K's) Are the Twins potentially facing a future Twin within this month? I sure hope so. Trevor Bauer ha…

Running a bit late here, as I didn't realize the start time was moved up a bit. Odd start time, but, this has been an odd season. This season has had more ups and downs than "Wild Thing" of Valley Fair fame! *No, I'm not about to bring Mitch Williams into the discussion! Oh, wait... But, and we're carrying over a theme here, it has been a magical season for the Twins faithful this year. *Yes, I'm reaching. Content is content! Even if it's youtube video! *Internet 101...cat videos, because, well, cat videos. Now, for some thoughts: 1. No matter how you look at it, Cleveland still struggled to win the last game against the Twins and the Twins were …

"Hit 'em where they ain't" aka. Potpourri intro... 1. Waiting is not the hardest part. Leastwise as mentioned in the song. I think the tip of the needle that plays the record to broadcast the song which excites one to dance... or at least listen, then scratch your head and mumble something about the needle probably having a diamond in it, which wins hands down most hardness contests... Principly scratching without being scratched. 2. AKA is a TLA, aka a three letter acronym, standing for Also Known As. 3. Safety Last. A fine silent movie starring Harold Lloyd and a building. Perhaps referencing the general importance of safety as a general consideration, usually…

Hello once again, Game Thread readers! I'm back for yet another adventure in type! Today's adventure on the baseball diamond features your Minnesota Twins taking on the Boston Red Sox. After last night's solid performance, hopefully we'll get a repeat of that tonight. Before we get to the lineups, those that know me a bit know that I enjoy me some history. Now and then, I like to look back at what's taken place on this day throughout history. And today has got some interesting stuff, both on the diamond and off. For instance, on this day in 1146, European leaders outlaw the crossbow with the intent to end war for all time. That worked splendidly, didn't it? O…

White Sox: SP Andre Reinzo LF De Aza 2B Beckham SS Ramirez DH Dunn 1B Konerko RF Garcia 3B Gillaspie C Phegley CF Danks Twins: SP Mike Pelfrey 2B Dozier C Mauer 1B Morneau DH Willingham LF Arcia 3B Plouffe RF Colabello CF Thomas SS Florimon Things to Think About: 1. Hatred... I said this when we played them in Chicago... I'll Say it again... I hate the White Sox and it's almost unhealthy. 2. Think about Starting Pitching... Deduno dead arm? Gibson Innings Limit? How do you make a shaky rotation shakier. The cloud of dead arm and innings limit ought to do it. 3. Think about Kirby Puckett... Haven't thought about Kirby in awhile. He was from Chicago. He's …

The Twins are home for a 4-game series against Cleveland, followed by a 4-game series against the White Sox, including a double-header on June 5th, followed by a 3-game series against the Angels. A lot of home play there so I’m hoping we can get it going. I know it’s been a rough season so far, and certainly not up to anyone’s expectations, but, **** happens. It really does. And when it happens when we least expect it or least want it, it makes it all that much worse. And we’re miserable and frustrated and angry and sad and all kinds of whatever. Yes, I’ve turned off the game early many a time so far this year because, I just can’t anymore; so dejected. When one of our b…

Game Thread, Twins @ Tigers, 4/8 @ 12:08pm CT First! (Sorry, just had to get it out of my system) Weather: (Forecast from weather.gov... which calls Detroit "4 miles s hamtramck mi" now that's humor!) Showers likely, possible thunderstorms after noon. Cloudy, high about 47. Er, line ups: ---to be filled in either by me if i get up in time, or some kindly moderator type saving my bacon. (if posting this without full information is a rash move, then would saving my bacon be a rasher one?) Twins Pitching: Ricky Nolasco 1.Santana, D, SS 2.Dozier, B, 2B 3.Mauer, J, 1B 4.Hunter, T, RF 5.Vargas, K, DH 6.Plouffe, T, 3B 7.Arcia, O, LF 8.Suzuki, K, C 9.Schafer, J, CF Tiger…