Archived Game Threads

The Twins are right in the middle of the slump, and that shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. They probably aren't the best hitting team to ever grace the fields of the MLB, and their pitching wasn't going to hold up. Jake Odorizzi isn't, and was never going to be in the conversation for Cy Young for the entire year. Martin Perez was going to get figured out, and the bullpen wasn't built to hold up the entire, and that is okay. We're in June, not October. This roster will look different come August 1st. But for now, lets get back to our winning ways against the Royals. The Pitchers: Martin Perez (7-3, 4.09 ERA, 74 K's) vs Jakob Junis (4-6, 5.33 ERA, 76 K's) Martin P…

Last night, the Twins...never mind, that's all in the past, let's look to the future, the Twins playing KC at Kauffman Stadium. Whenever I think of Kauffman Stadium, I think of the days when KC wasn't good and the stands had as many Twins fans as Royals fans. Then, KC became a baseball powerhouse, sort of like the guy who was turned into a newt and got better. For a bit, it looked like KC was turning back into a newt, and their record indicates this may be so. However, the last time Twins played KC...oh wait, that's in the past and we shall refrain from looking back. Forward, ever forward. Currently, the Twins have almost the opposite record of KC: Twins are 4…

I don’t see a game thread for tonight, but whoever is doing the thread, I feel like this photo of Alex Cora during last night’s game needs to be included:

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…

The Twins are coming! The Twins are coming! I was sitting at the computer one afternoon, hammering away at my baseball novel (doesn’t everybody have a baseball novel they’re writing - you know, for the last decade or so?) when my blonde sister-in-law called. “When did we get married?” she demanded in frustration. “I got nothing.” Okay, before you start thinking I’m involved in some sort of kinky relationship, let me explain. My wife and I were married the same year my sister-in-law and her husband tied the knot. And my sister-in-law was at work trying to fill out some family health insurance form and drew a blank when the form asked for the year of their marriage. …

First and foremost I would like to wish a Happy Father's day to all the dads out there, including my own! I am not a father, but what a great day it is. Not only do the best team in baseball go for a sweep of the Royals today, we get Sunday at Pebble Beach for the US Open Crown. Golf has been a past time with my father and we will be hitting the links this afternoon with Twins game on the radio. I hope all of you get to spend some time with your fathers today, or with your kids and make some long lasting memories today. In a favorite film of mine, Little Big League, when the front office is talking about letting Billy the kid manager the ballclub, they utter the lin…

Hello everyone and welcome to the game thread for the Royals vs. Twins on Joe Mauer Day. The weekend is all Joe Mauer all the time and his elevation to the Twins' Hall of Fame along with the retirement of number 7 has brought back many Twins' greats and Mauer teammates. There will be a sellout crowd tonight and I would expect the game to start later than the posted 6:10 start time. Mauer and his career have been discussed to death on this site, so I will leave that topic and concentrate on the game. First thought--With now a two-catcher rotation and ten very capable players everyone is getting days off. Adrianza is in the lineup at least twice a week and Gonzalez gets f…

After the nail-biter of yesterday's game, divisional rival KC come to town. This is a team the Twins beat, well, didn't lose to, earlier this year. Now, later in the season, the Twins are a legitimate MLB powerhouse and KC, well, KC is not. Are there some cracks in the Twins machine? Yes, but they are limited to the bullpen and, with Seattle being one of the best hitting teams in the league, it made a 10-5 game a bit closer than the score would otherwise indicate. Now, on to KC. KC has fallen on hard times. With a record of 22 and 46, and a winning percentage of .324 (checked twice this time!) KC is very beatable rather than a "didn't lose to" team. The Twins shou…

Breathe in. Breathe out. The Twins have been through a bit of a rough stretch, but I do feel that people are overreacting justttttt a bit. Yes, the Panic!! Thread is incredible, but I really don't think people should be too worried about this team. I'm just going to give a few reasons why to be hopeful about this team. The Twins have three guys at Rochester that would be on the majority of rosters leaguewide in Cave, Astudillo, and Arraez. As much as an injury to a star hitter would suck, the Twins have guys to fill in! The Twins have an impressive and deep prospect list. Through the next few years, many of these guys will turn into really good players, while others w…

"And he stoppeth one of three..." I'll take one for the team. This is the one we listen to what the ancient mariners really have to say. Personally i hope we get the spruce goose, rather than an albatross. I also hope we win, and not because the rest of the leauge dies off. Things to think about... Coleridge: I had this wonderful dream* where it was the 80s, Reagan was preisdent, and there was an epic game thread intro that i read. Then i woke up and started writing it down, and well something distracted me, and when i got back to writing it, i had forgotten most of it. So i had to make up the rest, so it won't be any different than the rest of mine. In Minnesot'…

Seattle Slough I went through Seattle once. Maybe a few other towns out that way, too. Mind’s not that clear about that trip, uh, journey, but I don’t recall seeing any sloughs. So I never could figure out why horse people get so excited talking about Seattle’s sloughs. Imagine what all that water could to a horse race… But this is about baseball so let’s talk about baseball people. You know who I’m talking about… those little round guys dressed in faux horsehide and leather gloves. They’re a little unseamly (went a long way to get that one), but once you get to know them you realize they’re often well grounded and only occasionally fly off the handle. For God’…

Name of the game. Someone i was just hanging out with used the phrase "name of the game" a couple times, and it finally sunk in. They name hurricanes, but we don't (yet) name Twins games. Admittedly, naming things is a serious undertaking. Not something to be done lightly, and in the interest of proving that rule, today's game is "Pablo" I know it's Sunday. The summer is up and running. The current intro writer regulars have better things to do, and so it falls through to me. I humbly apologize for any inconvenience my irregularities cause you. I take pride in my irregularity and wouldn't have it any other way. If i were old enough, i hope i woulda been a Baker Stre…

The Twins take on the Tigers in Detroit this afternoon starting at 3:10 PM Central Time. I'm sure the starting time has something to do with television or TV rights. Shadows may or may not be a factor in the game with the odd starting time, but I'm confident the Twins will find a way to score some runs against the Tigers. This is the ninth game of a 10-game road trip for the Twins. They have already guaranteed a break-even trip, winning five of the first eight games. The Twins have the best record in baseball once again, having a fraction of a percentage point higher winning percentage than Houston despite being one less game over .500. The news overnight was that La…

The Twins leave Cleveland, eking 1 win out of a three game series. However, this also means the Twins are currently 4 and 3 on this road trip. Which leads me to a "fun with numbers" edition of game thread openers. If a team were to go 4 and 3 every 7 games, the math says the team will, in the course of a season, wind up with a record of 92.56 wins and 69.98 losses. Adding in another bit of math, if a team goes 6 and 5 every 11 games, the team will end the season with 88.32 wins and 73.60 losses. Currently, the Twins sit at 41 wins and 20 losses, which, according to real math, done by someone who actually has mathematical ability, gives the Twins a 10.5 game lea…

Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to the Twins Daily game thread experience. Let me begin by saying everyone needs to take a deep breath and relax! It's not time to panic yet! By the way, did you read the thread Brock started the other day about "it's time to panic"? Loved it. Made me laugh out loud. But seriously, the two game losing streak the Twins have been on stops today. We have our big boy Ace Berrios throwing tonight and our lineup looks ready to again score a bunch of runs. I know our bullpen is the weakest link at the moment. However, I feel confident this front office will bring in reinforcements soon. The way this team is structured right now …

http://in2english.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/turkey.jpg Welcome back to another exciting Twins Daily game thread! The place where snappy conversation and arm chair quarterbacking are the norm. A place where fun banter and the occasional friendly jab at your Twins Daily counterparts is not only encouraged but allowed (please note I said friendly jab). Before we post the lineups tonight, I wanted to share with you, our gentle readers some things I was pondering at work today. I know we're still 6 months away from Thanksgiving but for some reason I'm just feeling thankful today for our Minnesota Twins. I started to think about all the disappointment and anguish we'…

After passing the test of Tampa, the Twins move on to the test of Cleveland. Today is the opening day of a three day test of the Twins against Cleveland, with the Twins hoping to put the boot on the metaphorical throat of the Indians and apply tremendous pressure, to the point the Indians tag out for the rest of the season. *Heh. Found the gif after I started writing Our very own highly esteemed RiverBrian put together some excellent thoughts on the portent of this series, which I am shamelessly plugging, because it's a good read and it's good to once again read RB's thoughts at TD. http://twinsdaily.com/topic/33382-twins-indians-series-possible-long-term-cons…

It is June 2, and the Twins still have the best record in baseball and have yet to have a 3 game losing streak. Is the sky falling?!? Sadly, it quite literally is. While this isn't necessarily close to me, it reminds me of a lot of flooding I saw going down to Kansas City last weekend. In my area, many fields won't be planted, and some roads and bridges were taken out by the floodwaters. Many major roads will be closed in need for repair for quite some time However, this is nothing compared to the devastation I saw heading south on Interstate 29 (which is currently closed due to flooding). Houses halfway under water, cattle desperately clinging onto little islands of…

Dear Twins Daily, I think some time ago i promised my next game thread would be a resignation letter. Now i have always been some confused between resigning and re-signing. Especially those reports about players resigning for millions of dollars. And you all know me well enough to know i was counting on that when i said it, so by now you should be resigned to the fact that i meant the other one. Well. It turns out TD didn't just give me a raise... TD gave me the Rays. As my next game thread assignment. Namely this game. Whatcha think of that? Oh... Sorry. Things to think about is the next section. Slow work days. Only the Ump can call a Strike at TD, so one has to…

Welcome to today’s game thread. I’m your host, USAFChief. Here's a recent photo: For those of you who have been around a while, you might remember me (along with Carole) as the keeper of the game thread duty log. Well, Stringer Bell was gracious enough to volunteer this year, and wouldn’t you know it, he immediately pulls rank and assigns me today’s game thread. Thanks for nothin’. Tonight, the Twins kick off a three game series vs the Tampa Bay Rays. So here goes, in honor of RiverBrian’s time honored “Five things” format. For those of you who have been around a while, you might remember RB. Back in the early days of TD, he used to do all the game thread intro’s, …

Two things happened that caught me off guard this last Tuesday: Jack Morris choking up when talking about Devin Smeltzer And Dick Bremer mentioning Wednesday was an off day. I didn't believe I'd heard what I'd heard until I checked the schedule and reviewed the clip provided in the game wrap up on the best baseball site on the web, Twins Daily. The off-day thing I put off to Bremer being Bremer but the Morris thing, well..... As for the Twins beating Milwaukee, eh. Sort of expected it. Now, the Twins move on and play the Rays, which should be another excellent test for the Twins. With that, here are some things to think about; 1. Wednesday as an off …

The Twins look to come back after falling to our rival Milwaukee last night following a two run blast from Orlando Arcia off of Twins' legend Taylor Rogers. We will also be starting a rookie pitcher who is making his MLB debut in Devin Smeltzer, while the Brewers bring out Zach Davies. Let's hope we can split the series against our boarder rivals. The Pitchers: Devin Smeltzer (3-2, 1.15 ERA, 48 K's in 54.2 MiLB innings) vs Zach Davies (5-0, 2.43 ERA, 38 K's) The Twins placed last nights starter Michael Pineda on the injured list today with an injury to his right knee, and purchased the contract of left hander Devin Smeltzer. Smeltzer was acquired in the Brian Dozier …

In memoriam of all of those who served and gave everything they had so we can enjoy one of our favorite pastimes, baseball.

Memorial Day Weekend My dad, “Ten-Cent” Harry and Gib “The Mutilator” took me and two of my brothers and two of the Mutilator’s boys to our first Twins game at Metropolitan Stadium way back in 1961. “Ten Cent”, who’d acquired his nickname by always betting ten cents whether he had a good poker hand or not, was one of my many uncles and “The Mutilator” was one of my dad’s WWII Army cronies. He’d gotten his nickname because of his penchant for mutilating the English language. The eight of us packed into the Mutilator’s 2-door Ford and made the two-hour drive to the Met, us young’uns bouncing around like pinballs in the back seat, seat belts hadn’t been invented yet, rep…

No Altarations If You Please Okay, I’m going to throw myself at the foot of the High Altar of Analytics and beg for mercy. Well, maybe not “throw” as I might hurt myself. Bad shoulder. Got pitched off a horse once. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to get back up. Two bad knees (football and volleyball). Right ankle, also bad (football, basketball, baseball and basketball again). I could maybe try to pull myself up with my left arm because I’m ambidextrous, but my left wrist, the one I broke about a hundred years ago (football), well… that’s bad too. I guess you could say I’m Anyway, like opposing pitchers, I beg for mercy because although I’ve been a guy who has…

"Red-headed step-children are mollycoddled compared to this thrashing." ----Halos Heaven game thread, last game of the series against the Angels. The above statement can be applied to multiple teams this season, with the way the Twins have been swinging the lumber. And, even better, the Twins have also had their share of close games, yet found a way to win. But, the White Sox are in town, and, as a division rival, cannot be overlooked, because things tend to be tough within the division. Witness what happened when the Twins played Detroit and split the series. Currently, the Twins own an 8 game lead over Cleveland and take on a Chicago team that, with the young …

Nothing like an unplanned baseball game taking place on a should be off day! The Twins were part of the third rainout in Los Angeles since 1995, and will finish their season series against the Angels this afternoon. Minnesota has already locked up the season win, as well as the series win. They will also travel back to Minnesota with another successful road trip. The Pitchers: Martin Perez (6-1, 2.89 ERA, 53 K's) vs Matt Harvey (2-3, 6.35 ERA, 34 K's) Martin Perez would be the clear cut choice for most improved player in the American League if the season were to end today. However, it does not. The former top 100 prospect has put together an amazing year on the bump f…

A get-away game thread intro... The theme for today is getting away with things. I'm tempted to end here and see if i get away with it, but i don't want to set a bad example. I will try to get away leaving lineups for someone else, because i'm posting this wicked early, as i'm getting away, by which i mean that i am travelling. Perhaps i can post them from the road. Certainly that's easier than this entire intro. Twins may not get away until after a night game, so it perhaps isn't a typical such game. I suppose it still is an away game though. I must say the Angels have been fine hosts. Angelic, even? I like to think i've got a way with words, but the…

I love these west coast games as a night owl. It gives me something to do while I lay in bed, but having no intentions of sleeping. It is especially fun when you are winning these games, and the Twins secured a winning road trip with the victory yesterday. They have yet to drop a stand, whether it be home or away. I think if we keep doing that, we get to raise a trophy at the end of the year. Don't quote me, though. The Pitchers: Michael Pineda (3-3, 5.55 ERA, 41 SO) vs Trevor Cahill (2-4, 6.95 ERA, 33 SO) Michael Pineda hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but he did look better in his last start out, but did have an advantage of pitching with a fairly large lead. …

I got up this morning, thrilled the Twins swept a three game series from Seattle. Then, someone whispered in my ear and said, "Blake. It was a 4 game series and since when was Sunday an off day?" "Oh, and the Twins dropped the last game of the series." "Bummer," I replied. Which caused a bunch of people sitting near me to turn and look at me in a strange manner. I quickly tried to mask the fact I had replied out loud to my inner voice by pretending I was using my cell phone but, that didn't exactly work either because it was then I realized I was sitting in the hotel lobby in my boxers while writing this post. Traveling across multiple time zones has obviously sc…