Archived Game Threads

No Rhyme, No Reason They diddled, they daddled but it was a bum horse they’d saddled And the front office was in denial. The Twins bumbled and fumbled and in the standings they stumbled As their free agent signings went down the Nile. They stink, stank, stunk and were caught in a funk Until the team was at the bottom of the pile. But through it all loyal fans stood tall And they laughed and joked and smiled. Cold beer here! they cried a tear in their eye And for a shot of Jameson they'll go the extra mile. Sadly, a number of Twins fans have been jumping off the Beer Wagon (Minnesota has worn out its allotment of Band Wagons…

Senior Circuit rules, Junior League rules and ground rules With the NL Brewers in town, I thought I'd take a stab at one of the most controversial things currently happening in America. Real America. The America of Apple Pie, hot dogs, beers, brats, baseball parks, and, of course, baseball. But there is seething cauldron of discontent simmering beneath the placid and joyful existence of Real America. That discontent is, shudder, Senior Circuit rules versus Junior League rules. Yes, I'm talking about the dreaded "DH" versus "pitcher flailing wildly" rule. While I know it is a sore subject for a lot of baseball fans, I thought the controversy should be brought to ligh…

The rubber game. So named in the hope that we bounce back. Rubber was originally made from a tree in india i think. But when synthetics started, maybe it got made in Cleveland, and they could be harking back to the old days in the tree? Or maybe they just wish they were in Indiana rather than Ohio. Which brings me to a favorite franchise. The adventures of Henry Jones Junior. But in Houston they are more about the future. Meet George Jetson... Now to tie it all together, Elroy will have very fond memories of his dog. And that's how Houston named it's major league franchise... Next topic: Glue. Strong stuff. If it is a rubber game for us, does it not follow that…

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…

Good Evening, I sampleSize De Un will be your waiter today. 1) Would you like a booth or the bar? 2) The wait time to be seated is 45 minutes. Here is your pager... may i recommend a stroll by the mighty Mississippi. 3) I'm sorry we are classy restaurant. If you do not have overalls or a Feed Hat one will be provided for you. 4) Oh i'm sorry. You are still waiting for one of your party to arrive? Can i get you sometthing to drink or some appetizers? No? 5) Finally you are all here! Here are your menus... I'll be back to take your orders momentarily... Menu Le Field Targe Rangers P. Martin Perez (L ) 1. Shin-Soo Choo (L) DH 2. Elvis Andrus ( R) SS 3. Nom…

Cubs, Curses and Canadians My cousin was a rabid Cubs fan despite growing up in Winona, MN. How rabid was she? Well, you didn’t want to be sitting in the same room with her when she watched her beloved Cubbies on TV; beer cans, ashtrays, knick-knacks and curses filled the air as the Cubbies choked, stumbled and sucked like a twenty-five cent lollipop ( youngsters may have to look that one up). Speaking of Cubs and curses, most baseball fans know of the Curse of the Billy Goat, supposedly put on the team by an irate fan after the cubs banned his goat from a Cubs game. After the Curse was issued, the Cubs for decades resembled the current Twins team; ine…

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature near 50. Mariners: SP, Young James Jones CF Michael Saunders RF Robinson Cano 2B Corey Hart DH Justin Smoak 1B Kyle Seager 3B Dustin Ackley LF Mike Zunino C Brad Miller SS Twins: SP, Gibson Brian Dozier 2B Joe Mauer 1B Trevor Plouffe 3B Chris Parmelee RF Kurt Suzuki C Jason Kubel LF Josmil Pinto DH Aaron Hicks CF Eduardo Escobar SS ------------------------- And after much pencil chewing and head scratching, Brian will let us know what he's thinking when he figures out what he's thinking! -------------------------------------------------------------------- I was ne…

Twins (4-9, 5th AL Central) vs Brewers (5-8, 5th NL Central) Santana (0-1, 3.00 ERA) vs Peralta (0-3, 10.13 ERA) Target Field, Minneapolis, MN Forcast: Overcast, 50F, 50% of Precip. TV: FS-N+ Radio: Go 96.3 Minnesota Twins Lineup: 1. 3B Eduardo Nunez ® 2. 2B Brian Dozier ® 3. DH Joe Mauer (L) 4. RF Miguel Sano ® 5. LF Oswaldo Arcia (L) 6. 1B Byung-Ho Park ® 7. SS Eduardo Escobar (S) 8. C John Ryan Murphy ® 9. CF Byron Buxton ® Milwaukee Brewers Lineup: 1. 3B Colin Walsh (S) 2. 2B Scooter Gennett (L) 3. LF Ryan Braun ® 4. DH Jonathan Lucroy ® 5. 1B Chris Carter ® 6. CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis (L) 7. SS Jonathan Villar (S) 8. RF Ramon Flores (L) 9. C Martin Maldonado ® …

Just want to say as a lead up to a heartfelt thanks to TwinsDaily and these here game threads, this pandemic related self isolation routine is old hat to me. I just splurged for the mlb tv package, and am watching most of the Twins games assuming i don't nod off. Last time i watched Twins games on a regular basis, i was taking care of my father during his last couple years. Dad was also a fan of the Twins, who were our first hometown winners back in '87 and living in Rochester MN, not counting the fact Dad grew up in NY state, and it is hard to imagine the Yankes didn't win sometime in his youth. Anyway, games were something regular to plan around that Dad enjoyed wa…

ANND Welcome! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line – Game Thread Edition! I am your host for the next 2 days, Vanimal. I wish I knew what kind of spell the Yankees have on our favorite ball club over the last 13-14 years, but it’s continuing this season. Well guess what? The spell is ending TODAY! Let’s get some things out of the way like weather and lineups before the fun begins.... It's a beautiful day for a baseball game. Sunny skies and 85 degrees for the first pitch. Getting hotter as we go along. Winds coming from the East at 7 MPH. Minnesota Twins (23-50): Molly's still thinking things through. P - Ervin Santana ® - Redemption Game! New York Yankees (36-36): Y…

Oh, where to begin. Wish I could be cheery, upbeat and witty, but I'm not sure I know how anymore with how the Twins have been playing. This is truly NOT their year ... even if there is still a sliver of hope to beat out the Indians and make the playoffs ... this is just NOT their year. So many things wrong, so many things to think about. We can bemoan the roster, who's up, who isn't, who gets picked up, who gets let go; we can bemoan the manager and the decisions he makes; we can bemoan individual players and their production, or lack thereof; we can bemoan the coahces; we can bemoan the FO. There is lots there. That said and out of the way ... for this one game ... no…

Preface: Astute observers may note the year 2023 in this thread title. I am aware of this, but I'm not correcting it, because the 2021 Twins currently have a 1-0 record when the game thread title contains that typo (coincidentally, the only other game thread started by me). In fact, this may be the very last remaining superstition associated with the Twins winning, after the first two months of the 2021 season have laid waste to so many others. So the typo remains, for now. Baseball is practically founded upon superstition, of course. Pitchers never step on the baseline on their way to and from the mound, a practice so ingrained in American culture that Stevie W…

Since no one jumped in, this will have to be it. Phone posting limits me a bit. Will fill it in with lineups when I'm not on the run. TWINS: Brian Dozier® 2B Jorge Polanco(S) SS Max Kepler(L) RF Trevor Plouffe® 3B Kennys Vargas(S) 1B Eddie Rosario(L) CF Juan Centeno(L) C Robbie Grossman(S) LF Kyle Gibson® P BRAVES: Ender Inciarte(L) CF Adonis Garcia® 3B Freddie Freeman(L) 1B Matt Kemp® LF Nick Markakis(L) RF Anthony Recker® C Jace Peterson(L) 2B Dansby Swanson® SS Mike Foltynewicz® P Weather: partly cloudy, 89(94) deg F, slight chance of rain, winds from the WSW at 6mph. Go Twins!

Tigers: SP Justin Verlander CF Jackson RF Hunter 3B Cabrera 1B Fielder DH Martinez LF Dirks 2B Infante C Avila SS Santiago Twins: SP Mike Pelfrey CF Presley RF Herrmann 2B Dozier LF Arcia C Pinto DH Willingham 1B Parmelee 3B Escobar SS Florimon Things to Think About: 1. The Tigers... Playoff Bound... They can hit and and they can pitch... Fielding is a work in progress but the other two things seems to make up for it. 2. Justin Verlander... He won't be a fun guy for the Twins to face no matter how average he has been... He's not the ace of the staff anymore... Right now you got to put Scherzer over him in the rankings. 3. Think about Cabrera... Miggy is t…

Annd Welcome back! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line: GAME THREAD edition. Yesterday's game happened. It wasn't very fun, so I hope you all went to the Great MN Get-Together instead! The only update from the intern is that Mike Pelfrey has now decreased from 72 to 65 overall in MLB The Show. Meanwhile JO Berrios is sitting there in AAA, all 74 overall of him..... It's a day game today, which is prime drinking weather for Vanimal. I'm going to prepare a bloody mary while the intern goes through all of the garbage again. Intern, you're up........ Hi. It's going to be nice again. Sunny. 77 degrees for the first pitch. Getting hotter as we go along. TWINS Lineup: Dozier 2B …

Happy Sunday and welcome back to another exciting installment of the Twins Daily game thread! We've got a lot to talk about today. The final All-Star rosters will be posted today, the Twins look like they have their offensive mojo back and Aussie Lewis Thorpe makes his first major league appearance today starting for the Twins. 1. Who else on the Twins team will make the All-star roster today? Stringer Bell started a nice post about this topic earlier so I won't go into this much but I expect the Twins will have another 5 players named: Berrios, Odorizzi, Kepler, Cruz and Cron. I would add Rosario to this but since he's on the IL I doubt he'll make it. That's an impr…

Game Thread, Twins @ White Sox, 4/12 @ 1:10pm CT 0. Gusts, partly sunny and nearing Twenty Celsius Spring becons baseball Line ups in haiku would a thing of beauty be. they must write themselves. 1. The windy city welcomes pitcher Chris Sale back. Are twins on attack? 2. Phil Hughes to the mound What need he prove or improve. Have no second thoughts? 3. But 3 have 4 hits: Dozier, Mauer, and Schafer. Road trip ends; sun shines. 4. Accountable remarks: crime of high jinx guilty found a-needlin' game thread. 5. Battles for last place Some day shall end, but how long Must we sing this song? (Extra bonus haiku for next game... just because it inclu…

Game Thread, Twins vs. White Sox, 5/2 @ 1:10pm CT Weather. Line ups. 1. Ssssh, this is the "don't wake 'em up" game thread. Those who follow the Wild probably had a hard night last night. I bear some responsibility, perhaps jinxin' 'em at the end of the Twins game thread. Also the Twins game wasn't over until the end, with only a run lead and runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out, when Perkins reared back for the 3 pitch strike out to end the game. So yeah, let 'em sleep. It might improve their disposition. Speakin' of not sleeping in (as obviously i'm not) is it true that the historical institution of Saturday Morning Cartoons has finally seen it's last? I heard the rumo…

Since I have too much time on my hands of late, I thought I'd get this game thread started early. Once there's a lineup, it's game thread time. Pineda vs Buchholz. The best lead-in to a game thread I think one could write, has already been written. So read Matthew Lenz' article on Pineda. I think that's the best place to start. Lineups: BLUE JAYS Eric Sogard(L) 2B Freddy Galvis(S) SS Randal Grichuk(R ) CF Justin Smoak(S) DH Teoscar Hernandez(R ) LF Rowdy Tellez(L) 1B Brandon Drury(R ) 3B Billy McKinney(L) RF Danny Jansen(R ) C Clay Buchholz (R ) P TWINS Max Kepler(L) RF Jorge Polanco(S) SS Nelson Cruz(R ) DH Eddie Rosario(L) LF C.J. Cron(R ) 1B Marwin Gonzal…

Captains log, stardate 94307.18, My negative self is under restraint in sickbay. My own indecisiveness growing. My force of will steadily weakening. On the planet, condition critical. And so here we are, 165 days into what is still on track to be the worst season in franchise history since the arrival of the team in the TC's. The words of Captain James T. Kirk, pretty much epitomize my current state of being when it comes to watching this team. I wonder if, in like a reverse kind of way, the '82 Twins will start assembling like the '72 Dolphins do. Their record of futility in Twins lore is in jeopardy and their immortality threatened. My guess is corks will be popped i…

The Twins are currently riding a three game winning streak fresh off two strong pitching performances from newcomers Homer Bailey and Rich Hill, which led to a short sweep of the Cardinals. The Indians sit at 4-2 and just took 2 of 3 from the Chicago White Sox, but were shutout last night by Giolito and the rest of the Sox bullpen. Tonight features the best arm the Twins will go up against all year in Shane Bieber, with Jose Berrios taking the bump for Minnesota. This is a key 4 game set that will set the tone for the Central. The Pitchers: RHP Shane Bieber (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6 IP, 14 K's) vs RHP Jose Berrios (0-0, 11.25 ERA, 4 IP, 1 K) Bieber was outstanding on Openi…

Greetings, and welcome to the game thread. 1.) As almost all of us know, this weekend the organization is recognizing the 30th anniversary of the 1987 World Championship team. Here is a summary of today’s events copied from the Twins web site: • 1987 World Series Championship Stein will be given away to the first 10,000 fans 21+ through the gates (presented by Budweiser) • Pregame alumni photos at the Digital Clubhouse from 4:15-4:45 p.m. and near Gate 29 and in the Puckett Atrium within the Delta Sky360 Club from 4:45-5:15 p.m. • Twins 1987 World Series Reunion pregame with emcee Dick Bremer begins with an introduction of the 1987 World Championship Team. The cerem…

SPITSBERGEN - Baseball Style I had this buddy growing up; we called him LB, though it wasn’t his real name. He became LB when a high school nun who made a habit (chuckle) of misremembering names called him “Little Boy” because he was only five and a half feet tall. We teased him about it of course, but out of the kindness of our hearts we eventually cut Little Boy down to LB and he was thus christened from there on ever after. Me and LB were a Mutt and Jeff team. I hit six feet in junior high while LB labored to reach 5’4”. We took a lot of kidding about the discrepancy in our heights, but LB had a bigger heart than I did, so I over…

Happy Mother's Day and welcome to another Twins Daily Game Thread experience! I apologize for posting this early but it's fishing opener weekend in Minnesota and I need to head back out onto the lake. My fishing buddies are pacing the dock and giving me the ugly eye while I type up this Game Thread introduction. I've tried explaining to them I'm doing a favor for Chief and Carole by volunteering today but it doesn't seem to help. They've mumbled under their breath a few times now, "who the hell is Chief and Carole"?... Anyway, sorry to get off topic. What a great day it was yesterday! It was fishing opener, I fished all day with my son who is back from college at …

Because we're winding down into the All Star break, I thought today would be a good day to look back. With a quick Google Search, I came up with some stuff that will allow me to escape the rigors of putting together a real game thread and, instead, dine off the work of others, while taking credit for my complete lack of inspiration. Without further ado, here goes: 1687 Isaac Newton's great work PRINCIPIA published by Royal Society in England. Outlines his laws of motion and universal gravitation. *How we got Launch angle, spin rate, WHIP and WHIP. 1904 NY Giants 18-game winning streak ends as Phillies win 6-5 in 10 innings at Huntington Park *I'm going…

Myth Or Musical Once upon a time in world now far, far away but still in this galaxy, it was rumored that BoSox club owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in order to finance the Broadway musical “No, No, Nanette” which opened in 1919 as the non-musical “My Lady Friends”. “No, No, Nanette” the re-write, didn’t open as a musical until 1925 and was first made into a movie in 1930. Due to its popularity “No No” has been redone several times since as both a play and a film. Babe, at least so far, hasn't been redone. I guess you could say Frazee let Ruth go for a song and a dance. Odd too that today a “No No” refers to a no-hitter. Which sort …

Game-time forecast: Clear. Winds blowing in from right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 60. TIGERS: SP, Porcello Kinsler 2B Hunter RF Cabrera 1B Martinez (Victor) DH Martinez (J.D.) LF Kelly CF Castellanos 3B Holaday C Romine SS TWINS: SP, Nolasco Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Escobar SS Hicks RF Schafer LF --------------------------------------------- Brian? Thoughts? I'll leave you to it. ----------------------------------------- OK... Step Aside... Give me some room! (Cracks Knuckles) Things to Think About: 1. Winning/Losing -- I guess it all depends on your attitude. I was encouraged by the comeback last night...…

This is an early bird game thread intro, largely by necessity as i have something from noon to 2 and typically am foodening or driving up until game time. So today i promote the values of preparation. I am not entirely sure what they are, myself, so it is likely my means of doing so is by way of cautionary tale. I can't even post the line ups, it is so early. All i can say is Maeda and Bieber? Epic pitching match up. Hitters might not wish to fall behind. Swing early and often. Enjoy! Ps. Is it Duke of Earl, or Earl of Duke? Yes: Now keep those hits a-comin'! TWINS …

After the success enjoyed by the Twins, and, by extension, SampleSizeof1, who, by the way, has a 4-0 record on this home stand, I'm not feeling sanguine about taking over for SSo1 over the next few days. In fact, I sort of have an idea I might have all the success of my favorite coyote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJkuCB3ArrI *Just sort of goes with the way the season has gone, right? But, that's okay, because, we'll always have 1987 and 1991. Remember 87? The team that wouldn't quit? Yeah, what a fun team and cast of characters. With that, I'll drop this little gem right here: *That was a fun year. This year, though, well, still a work in progress. Twins …

Happy Labor Day weekend Twins fans and welcome back to more game thread action! The Twins are on a roll and finally playing with a little more fire in the belly. Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer (technically it's September 22nd but whatever) my point is, there is not a lot of regular season baseball left to play. I would really like to see a 12+ game winning streak heading into the playoffs. Momentum will be the key to making it through the Covid type playoff system MLB designed this year. Also need to do a quick shout out to Byron Buxton, nice work last night!!! When I walked outside this morning to survey last nights hail damage, I turned on the radio to s…