Archived Game Threads

Welcome back to another exciting Twins Daily game thread extravaganza! The match up tonight between the Minnesota Twins and the Cleveland Indians should be another drama filled match up. I can't believe it's already August 1st. The whole calendar this year seems to be off...My college kids (all three) have been home since March and thankfully, so far they are still set to head back to school over the next few weeks. It's actually been nice to have them home this long but I think its time they leave the nest for awhile. I think they are ready to fly the coop too. I don't know if anyone else is in the same situation with college kids but my wallet could use a break as …

The home town nine went into All Star break on a roll, having gone 9-2 on this home stand. The Twins going 9-2 was enough, that it made this last week a bit hard because, well, no Twins to watch. *Maybe not Ronnie James Dio, but, front man does a good job. What do we have to look forward to, now that the team seems to have hit its stride? Will the All Star break be a momentum killer? *Hard to believe this is the same gal who fronted for 'Til Tuesday and did, "Voices Carry." The long wait is behind us and the Twins get to pick up where they left off and baseball's second half is in front of us. And what will the second half hold in store for us? *T…

Royals: SP James Shields LF Gordon 3B Bonofacio 1B Hosmer DH Butler C Perez RF Lough 2B Getz SS Escobar CF Dyson Twins: SP Kevin Correia 2B Dozier RF Herrmann 1B Morneau LF Willingham C Doumit DH Colabello 3B Plouffe CF Thomas SS Florimon Things to Think About: 1. Think about Arcia... He's not in the lineup... That Bone Bruise thing? It's a right hander on the mound. So a lefty bat would make sense. 2. Think about the Royals... They were interesting for awhile... But they are falling further back from the playoff race. They are going to have to get real hot again to make up some ground. 3. Think about James Shields... He's been a decent pitcher for the R…

Crap ... sorry ... forgot! Here they are late ... but you all probably know it by now! Forecast: Nice day! Rangers: SP, Martinez Choo DH Sardiñas SS Moreland 1B Beltre 3B Ríos RF Choice LF Martin CF Chirinos C Odor 2B Twins: SP, Deduno Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Arcia RF Willingham DH Kubel LF Pinto C Escobar SS Santana CF ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Things to Think About: 1. 24-26 -- After 50 games... The Twins remain in striking distance of .500. 13-13 at home and 11-13 on the road. Get a win today and it's a winning home record. Despite the offensive taking a vacation and leaving pitching and defen…

The order o' tonight's service will be as follows... Would the congregation please rise for the singing hymn #25 "Nothing but Raindrops" The first sermon will be given on "the 3rd strike." There will be a moment of silence as the pitcher gets the sign. Rise for hymn #99 "Third base coach is waving you on" The second sermon is "hitting the cutoff" A collection plate will be passed about for those stranded in scoring position. And finally please rise for our national anthem. The bullpen will be called in to give the benediction. Can i have an Amen? Er, and feel free to incorporate yer own variations as appropriate. I usually sleep too late to make it to…

Things to Think. 1. Bases. 2. The Ball. 3. The Bat. 4. The Field. 5. The Teams. Yankees Pi. Jordan Montgomery (L) 1. Brett Gardner (L) LF 2. Jacoby Ellsbury (L) CF 3. Gary Sanchez ( R) DH 4. Starlin Castro (R ) 2B 5. Didi Gregorius (L) SS 6. Clint Frazier ( R) RF 7. Garrett Cooper ( R) 1B 8. Austin Romine ( R) C 9. Ronald Torreyes ( R) 3B Twins P. Jose Berrios ( R) 1. Brian Dozier ( R) 2B 2. Eduardo Escobar (S) 3B 3. Miguel Sano ( R) 1B 4. Robbie Grossman (S) LF 5. Max Kepler (L) RF 6. Chris Gimenez ( R) C 7. Ehire Adrianza (S) SS 8. Jorge Polanco (S) DH 9. Zack Granite (L) CF

Emergency back up game thread intro. Jolly good show what ho, fellow sportsmen! That Dobnak can bowl a bally good game me old fellow! He sure has the wiskers for it say what! And those young whipper snappers in the outfield, they'll give him what for! And i'd rather face the ol' thunderin' judge himself than to hit into that wily infield! All in all a rousting good team yon Twins got and what of their dominable foe? Twins 0. Randy Dobnak (R) P 1. Jorge Polanco (S) SS 2. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 3. Alex Kirilloff (L) LF 4. Nelson Cruz (R) DH…

It’s a little known fact that Milwaukee was a Native American settlement long before the Brewers came on the scene. But the Algonquins didn’t know how to play baseball or sell beer. They didn’t even have a billionaire that could convince them to build a baseball stadium at the taxpayer’s expense. All those shortcomings left them behind the eight-ball for landing a professional baseball team and that created a great deal of angst around the council fires. So in a fit of pique (I’ve never had the pique, though I heard it’s gruesome) the Algonquin chiefs voted to attack Chicago. Mostly because Chicago had two professional baseball teams... okay, one and half professional tea…

I was so impressed with last night's thread, that i figured if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That, and in this heat, my cat nap turned into a tiger, and rampaged my whole day. Sadly i don't think i can match "Deer Hunter" Squirrel's one shot kill, paying attention to one play: the Rosario grand slam, and essentially catching the entire ball game. (and just to show i put some thought into this intro...) Twins: 0. Tyler Clippard (R ) P 1. Max Kepler ( L) RF 2. Jorge Polanco ( S ) SS 3. Nelson Cruz (R ) DH 4. Eddie Rosario ( L) LF 5. Marwin Gonzalez ( S ) 3B 6. Mitch Garver (R ) C 7. Luis Arraez ( L) 2B 8. Miguel Sano (R ) 1B 9. Byron Buxton (R ) CF Brewers: 0…

Bri: Will we start on time? Will we start with players in the lineup? ChiTown... Will Start later... Right Here. Chi: Well, Bri, considering the forecast, I think we'll start on time ... unless there is another deterrent other than the weather. So, here we go ... Game-time forecast: Sunny. Winds blowing in from right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 80. White Sox: SP, Noesi Eaton CF Beckham 2B Gillaspie 3B Abreu 1B Dunn DH Ramirez SS Viciedo RF De Aza LF Flowers C Twins: SP, Nolasco Santana SS Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Willingham LF Morales DH Suzuki C Arcia RF Escobar 3B Fuld CF --------------------------------------------------------- Things to Think Ab…

ANNND Welcome! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line: Price is Right Edition! I am your host for the next 2 days, Van Barker. What do you guys think of my new microphone?! ChiTown chipped in her hard earned money to make sure we were LEGIT for Trade Deadline weekend! We've got a real BARN BURNER series this weekend against the Oakland A's. Who knows, maybe this game will be good! Before we get into the debauchery, let's discuss weather and lineups. It's going to be a BRIGHT sunny evening in Oakland! 65 degrees at first pitch. Wind out of the WSW at 9 MPH... Minnesota Twins (50-51): P - Adalberto Mejia (L) - 78 overall on MLB the Show! Oakland A's (44-59): P - Chris Sm…

Game 2. Here we are! Still excited because it's baseball season ... I'm sure that will change somewhere in the middle as the season goes on. For today, I hope Odorizzi progressed from where he ended the season last year, and I hope Bauer did not. CLEVELAND 1. Leonys Martin (L) CF 2. Jose Ramirez (S) 3B 3. Tyler Naquin (L) RF 4. Carlos Santana (S) 1B 5. Hanley Ramirez ® DH 6. Jake Bauers (L) LF 7. Roberto Perez ® C 8. Brad Miller (L) 2B 9. Max Moroff (S) SS Trevor Bauer P TWINS 1. Max Kepler (L) RF 2. Jorge Polanco (S) SS 3. Nelson Cruz ® DH 4. Eddie Rosario (L) LF 5. C.J. Cron ® 1B 6. Marwin Gonzalez (S) 3B 7. Jonathan Schoop ® 2B 8. Mitch Garver ® C 9. Byron Buxt…

Sanitized Sanitaries Originally called the White Stockings, The White Sox won the 1906 World Series with a defensive-oriented team that was called the “Hitless Wonders”. The “Wonders” took on cross-town rivals, the Cubs, in the ’06 Series and faced a team that won the most regular season games (116) and had a winning percentage of .763. The Sox, on the other foot, had the lowest team batting average (.230 - reminds me of this year’s Twins team at .244) but still managed to beat the luckless Cubs in 6 games - one of the biggest upsets in World Series history. It was also the first time two teams from the same city faced each other for the title. The Sox took…

The Pitchers RHP Jason Alexander (2-1, 4.75 ERA, 17K, 36IP, -0.3 bWAR) vs RHP Josh Winder (4-2, 3.12 ERA, 27K, 40.1IP, 0.7 bWAR) The Twins will avoid the two headed monster at the top of the Brewer's rotation in Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes, and instead will be lined up with Jason Alexander in game one, making his 7th start of the season. Despite the below average surface numbers, Alexander has pretty good below the surface numbers. Alexander started against the Cubs last time out, going 5.1IP, allowing 7 runs, 6 earned, on 8 hits while allowing a home run, and walking and striking out 2. This was his first start back in the rotation, but he did throw 94 p…

Twins: SP Sam Deduno 2B Dozier C Herrmann 1B Morneau DH Willingham RF Doumit 3B Plouffe CF Thomas LF Ramirez SS Florimon Indians: SP Ubaldo Jimenez CF Bourn 1B Swisher 2B Kipnis C Santana LF Brantley SS Cabrera DH Giambi 3B Chisenhall RF Stubbs Things to Think About: 1. Think about Dead Arm... Dead Arm or Live Arm or just an arm... I really don't know what it is... Gardy has been suspicious that Deduno may be trying to deal with dead arm. I've heard the term dead arm before from following the majors but I can't recall personally ever running across a pitcher suffering from a bout of it away from the majors. Of Course... I was coaching and playing with players …

Catch-Up I'm 23 years old, if I think of the most dominant pitching performances I've been alive to watch, a few games come to mind. Roy Halladay's Playoff No-No, "Mad Max's," 20K game, and last night. What Kenta Maeda able to do was simply incredible. It wasn't velocity that got him 8 no-hit innings, it was his cadence, his delivery, and it was his smile once he allowed the hit that I think shows us all what kinda ballplayer he is and we're lucky to have him playing for us. As I said I'm 23 but I'll make this guarantee, I have NEVER seen some many ugly swings in my life and thats all a credit to our "ace," wearing that #18 proudly. Where to Listen WCCO 830, TIBN, 102.9…

Feliz cumpleaños Jose Berrios! Jose Berrios was born (only) 24 years ago today in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. You might be curious, as I was, to know how Puerto Ricans celebrate birthdays. Well, it’s pretty easy to explain, because they celebrate much in the same way Americans do. Except, in Puerto Rico the legal drinking age is 18. Jose Berrios will be starting today’s game and hopefully the Twins can help get him a ‘W’ for his birthday. Series Recap: The Mariners (31-20, 2nd in AL West) are hosting the Twins (21-26, 2nd in AL Central) for game 3 of a 3-game series. The Twins dropped the first two games of the series to the Mariners, each 1-run losses. In 1-run games, the …

Lineups: Twins: Brian Dozier 2B Joe Mauer DH Josh Willingham LF Justin Morneau 1B Trevor Plouffe 3B Ryan Doumit C Chris Parmelee RF Aaron Hicks CF Pedro Florimon SS (Kevin Correia P) Indians: Michael Brantley LF Jason Kipnis 2B Asdrubal Cabrera SS Nick Swisher DH Mark Reynolds 1B Carlos Santana C Lonnie Chisenhall 3B Drew Stubbs CF Ezequiel Carrera RF (Scott Kazmir P)

Busy days for the uniform crew! Four new players coming in over the last 24 hours who need names stitched onto their backs. This is a game thread, but I can’t resist adding my two cents to the trade feedback. I was a big-time skeptic. This team was not very good before the trade deadline. (Decent, maybe, but not very good.) At minimum, the club needed to add one quality starter and two quality relievers in order to finish the season strong and have a prayer of playing and maybe even winning a game in October. How much would this cost? Could it be worth what we would have to give up in order to create a slim chance of an October win? Could they manage to do this witho…

Another fine Mess-age... I had an epiphony* as i pondered this intro. Detroit is actually Moe-town. I leave it as an exercise to the Reader which of the other Stooges corresponds to which Central Division Rival... But of course, that leaves the eternal question of self identity... if we know who we are, do we really need to know who anyone else is? It is undoubtedly open to discussion. Could any pair of comics epitomize our beloved Twins? If we was winnin' on the Road, Bob and Bing might be an obvious choice, but we ain't. Bud and Lou always seems too obvious, what with the oft quoted baseball sketch, but i would like to consider Stan and Ollie myself. Anyway, as far…

Big game today, with Ervin Santana returning from his suspension to make his first start of 2015. He faces off against Danny Duffy (2-4, 5.44) Lineups TBA Weather: High 80s, summerlike, small chance of passing shower. Lineups TWINS 2B Dozier 1B Mauer RF Hunter 3B Plouffe DH Sano LF Rosario SS Nunez C Suzuki CF Hicks ROYALS SS A. Escobar 3B Moustakas CF Cain 1B Hosmer DH Morales LF Gordon 2B Infante RF Dyson C Butera Thoughts: 1. I was disappointed to hear that the lineups were announced for this game. Not disappointed with the players in the lineup, but that the lineup itself even existed. Instead of Lineups TBA=To Be Announced, we need something like TBRATM…

Lineups: Twins: Jamey Carroll 2B Joe Mauer C Josh Willingham LF Justin Morneau 1B Trevor Plouffe 3B Ryan Doumit RF Aaron Hicks CF Pedro Florimon SS (Mike Pelfrey P) Braves: Andrelton Simmons SS Jason Heyward RF Justin Upton LF Freddie Freeman 1B Brian McCann C Dan Uggla 2B Juan Francisco 3B B.J. Upton CF (Tim Hudson P)

Happy Father's Day to all who celebrate! The Twins have gotten through the gauntlet that was Toronto, New York and Tampa. Won a Seattle series and now have a rubber match vs the Diamondbacks this afternoon. This year marks one of my person firsts of my now five Father's Day. My wife and I were able to take our nearly five your old son to his first Twins game. He did enjoy the Twins beating the Royals the Sunday prior to Memorial Day. Although I think he enjoyed the Mall of America (Lego Store and Nickelodeon Universe) more. Hopefully his love (or tolerance) for baseball will continue to grow. He also started t-ball three weeks ago. …

Happy Sunday, Twins Fans! The Twins have a chance for a sweep today. Will they get to play??? Weather forecast is for strong storms this afternoon. If the weather channel is correct, they won’t start up until about 2 p.m. and will be spotty. I just looked at the KARE 11 radar and the whole area of the state west of the TC looks pretty green and yellow to me but it seems like the majority of it may move north of the metro area. Predicted high of 76, 60% chance of rain and winds gusting to around 14. It is a glorious morning in northwest Iowa. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, very little wind, and we’ve had some rain. Perfect day for the graduati…

Alas, the Tigers came back last night: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ltlPINPn8UU As you might guess, that weighs heavily in my thoughts today. Not that my thoughts are particularly heavy. Although i suppose they are for their size... Other things that come back: Yo-yos. Boomerangs Undeliverable first class mail Salmon TD readers, i hope. But i don't expect that to shed to any light on how to prevent it in future games. I would like to parody the whole "for want of a nail" sequence, but i am not thinking hard today. Feel free to add more steps. For want of a pitch, the game was lost. And wanting to appear helpful, but fall entertainingly short, i started thinki…

Topsy Turvy Game Thread intro: Detroit. Not too far from where you go South of the Boarder and wind up in Canada. I forget, do we expect them to pay for a wall? They might at that, if it is shown to improve health. They care. Gardenhire. Is in the other dug out. Maybe i'm a little behind the times... Should i be checking on other fixtures too? Dougie Baseball? Tom Kelly? Where will it all end? Patience. We got prospects learning their craft. Trains don't stop on a dime. And i've seen some of the pennies they've tried to stop on... Bunthorne's Bride. (It's the subtitle for Patience) It is a mildly literary reference. It's a a latter 19th century light opera about t…

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy with a 40-percent chance of rain. Winds blowing from right to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game-time temperature: Around 80. TWINS: SP, Hughes Brian Dozier 2B Kurt Suzuki C Kendrys Morales 1B Trevor Plouffe 3B Chris Parmelee RF Josh Willingham LF Eduardo Escobar SS Sam Fuld CF Phil Hughes P ROCKIES: SP, Anderson Charlie Blackmon CF Carlos Gonzalez RF Troy Tulowitzki SS Justin Morneau 1B Nolan Arenado 3B Corey Dickerson LF Wilin Rosario C D.J. LeMahieu 2B Brett Anderson P ----------------- Okay, just do it! ------------------ Things to Think About: 1. Justin Morneau -- Here it is Sunday and I'm finally thinking about Just…

Can the Twins help keep Detroit out of first place and the playoffs? As Twins fans, do we even care who makes the playoffs? Tonight, the Twins have Tommy "Hey, at least I'm back in MLB" Milone going against some guy named Robbie Ray. The Good: Milone is probably going to pitch better at some point. Probably. The Bad: Not really seeing any bad here. *looks at lineup* Oh, hey, look. Jordan Schafer is in the lineup again. There you go. The Ugly: Oswaldo Arcia's haircut. (in truth, I think it's pretty awesome in a horrible "omg look at this dude's baseball card in 20 years sort of way") Detroit: Ian Kinsler - 2B Torii Hunter - RF Miguel Cabrera - 1B Victor Martinez - …

With the scheduled starting pitcher Randy Dobnak a last-minute scratch due to a contract dispute, let’s go to the next audition tape: [ inserts VHS tape into VCR ] Hi! I’m Danny Coulombe! You may remember me from such heartwarming baseball films as, “The Day I Walked Joe Mauer on Four Pitches!” or “I Was Once Traded for Cash Considerations, Too!” or “I pitched in the Same July 2017 Game that Brandon Kintzler made his Final Appearance in a Twins Uniform! Reflections on the Last Four Years of Major League Baseball, including the Juiced Ball Controversy of 2019, Lockdown…

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature near 80. TWINS: SP, Gibson Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer DH Vargas 1B Arcia RF Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Escobar SS Schafer LF ORIOLES: SP, Tillman Markakis RF Young DH Jones CF Cruz LF Davis 1B Hardy SS Paredes 3B Hundley C Schoop 2B -------------------------------- Next up? Brian! Be prepared, be very prepared ... ------------------------------- Here's what you need for your Preparation: A. Flashlight with Extra Batteries. B. Cellphone fully charged. C. Rotary Phone for when the Cellphone dies. D. Sundial E. Tow Rope F. Jar of Butterflies G. Road Maps of Vermont H. Prepe…