Archived Game Threads

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 …

Saturday 6/18, 12:10 PM CT at Target Field TV: MLBN; Radio: Go 96.3, TIBN Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Lineups: CARDINALS (43-22): 1. Wong 2B 2. Carpenter 3B 3. Peralta SS 4. Reynolds 1B 5. Molina DH 6. Heyward RF 7. Bourjos CF 8. Jay LF 9. Cruz C Jaime Garcia, LHP (2-3, 2.06 ERA) TWINS (35-30): 1. Dozier 2B 2. Mauer DH 3. Plouffe 3B 4. Hunter RF 5. Rosario LF 6. Nunez SS 7. Suzuki C 8. Vargas 1B 9. Buxton CF Mike Pelfrey, RHP (5-3, 3.18 ERA) Game Thread preview: I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that yes, you have a Game Thread this morning. The bad news is not only that always33 got…

Etc etc etc Go twins! My prediction: dozier with a double and a home run, buxton with 3 hits, 3 runs and 1 SB. Twins win 8-2

(I am Game Thread) Game: Twins @ Cardinals, 6/16 @ 12:45pm CT 9. Byron Buxton [R] CF 8. Kyle Gibson [R] P 7. Shane Robinson [R] LF 6. Kurt Suzuki [R] C 5. Eduardo Nunez [R] SS 4. Trevor Plouffe [R] 3B 3. Joe Mauer [L] 1B 2. Torii Hunter [R] RF 1. Brian Dozier [R] 2B Minnesota Twins Symmetrical Lineups (or downs?) Saint Louis Cardinals 1. Kolten Wong [L] 2B 2. Matt Carpenter [L] 3B 3. Jhonny Peralta [R] SS 4. Mark Reynolds [R] 1B 5. Yadier Molina [R] C 6. Jason Heyward [L] RF 7. Randal Grichuk [R] LF 8. Peter Bourjos [R] CF 9. Michael Wacha [R] P Weather: Currently Partly Cloudy and 78F = 26C (within some rounding error, i'm sure) Forecast: Showers likely, with thu…

Saturday 6/13, 3:05 PM CT at Globe Life Park in Arlington TV: FS-N; Radio: Go 96.3, TIBN, BOB FM Weather: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. South wind 10 to 15 mph. Lineups: TWINS (33-28): 1. Dozier, 2B 2. Rosario, RF 3. Mauer, 1B 4. Plouffe, 3B 5. Nunez, DH 6. Suzuki, C 7. Robinson, LF 8. Escobar, SS 9. Buxton, CF Phil Hughes, RHP (4-6, 4.81 ERA) RANGERS (33-29): 1. DeShields, LF 2. Choo, RF 3. Fielder, DH 4. Moreland, 1B 5. Gallo, 3B 6. Andrus, SS 7. Martin, CF 8. Chirinos, C 9. Alberto, 2B Nick Martinez, RHP (5-2, 2.65 ERA) BIG LEAGUES, WELCOME TO BYRON BUXTON!! At first I …

Game Thread: Twins @ Rangers 6/13/2015 3:05 p.m. CDT We have a game today! The Twins have been doing awful lately, thanks to an offense that can't score more than two runs per game, and a bullpen that gets us out of the game as quickly as it can, but at least the starting rotation has done it's part. I'm going to do a short Game Thread today for all of the TLDNR people, so if this is too short I don't want to hear any complaining (or see), but I believe that people on TD believe that if you don't have anything nice to say, go say something on the Game Thread, and that is why a certain moderator is always saying "TLDNR" on the Game Thread. Weather: A 30 percent chance of s…

Looks like a warm and humid night in Arlington with just a light southerly breeze. About 87 degrees at Game time but the humidity will make it feel a bit warmer. Should have 3 days of sunny (or partly cloudy) weather – mostly in the upper 80’s. Chances of showers overnight and on Saturday and Sunday. They do not need more rain in the Dallas area right now so let’s all hope for sunny skies. Here are the line-ups for tonight: For YOUR Minnesota Twins (33-26): Dozier 2B Hunter RF Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Vargas DH Rosario LF Suzuki C Escobar SS Hicks CF LHP: Tommy Milone For the Texas Rangers (may they eat too much barbeque and get logged down) (31-29): DeShi…

Third thread in three days--hoo boy! I have to give Brian a lot of credit for being able to provide topics every day. There are some talkers going on with the Twins, so I will bring them up along with my own observation. 1) I just heard that Mauer is hitting second tonight. I have no problem with this except that there really isn't a legit #3 hitter. Molitor is going with Plouffe at #3, not my preference, but I guess shaking it up is a good idea. Joe hit like a #3 hitter for about three weeks IMHO. His slump has been longer, but not as deep as Plouffe's. 2) Polanco is in the lineup, batting ninth. I wasn't in favor of him assuming the shortstop position and I'm stil…

Today the Twins play the middle game of a three-game series against the Royals. The teams are in a virtual tie for first place, with the winner tonight assuming a one-game lead. The Twins will start Trevor May, coming off his best game as a major leaguer. The Royals counter with 36-year old journeyman Chris Young, who has pitched effectively for the Royals. He is 4-2 with a 2.56 ERA. Twins fans may compare Young's results with Mike Pelfrey's. Some random musings: the team is in a hitting slump. One guy isn't picking up another, runners are being stranded in scoring position and and extra base hits are coming with no one on. A couple timely hits could make a big differe…

The Twins take on the Royal at Target Field today. The winner of today's game will take over first place in the American League Central. The Twins and Royals have split the first six games of their season series. The Royals started the season on a tear. They have been at or near the top of the division since the season started. The Twins started slow in April, but caught fire in May. They currently hold a one-game lead in the Central. Here's a look at the prospects for today's game: Who's Hot/Who's Not--(HOT) Royals bullpen. They've been the #1 strength of the team this year and last year. If the Royals get a lead in the seventh, the game is basically over. Royals are #…

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…

Gametime Forecast: 70°F • Overcast • 0% PoP According to the Twins Daily Style Sheet supplied by USAFChief, I'm allowed to write just about anything but have to avoid "excessive negativity." Excessive negativity seems to be somewhat of a subjective term so, we'll let loose and see where things go. Last night the Twins were bad, then good, then awful. I didn't know the Twins could show three different personalities in one game. Instead of the "Three Faces of Eve" we had "The Three Faces of the Twins." That said, I think it is time to quote Donald Sutherland in "Kelley's Heroes:" Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how…

Friday 6/5, 7:10 PM CT at Target Field TV: FS-N; Radio: Go 96.3, TIBN Weather: Partly cloudy, with a low around 59. East wind 5 to 10 mph. Lineups: BREWERS (18-36) 1. Segura, SS 2. Parra, RF 3. Gomez, CF 4. Lind, DH 5. Lucroy, C 6. Ramirez, 3B 7. Peterson, LF 8. Rogers, 1B 9. Perez, 2B Kyle Lohse, RHP (3-6, 6.50 ERA) TWINS (32-21) 1. Dozier, 2B 2. Hunter, DH 3. Mauer, 1B 4. Plouffe, 3B 5. Nunez, RF 6. Roszrio, LF 7. Suzuki, C 8. Escobar, SS 9. Hicks, CF Kyle Gibson, RHP (4-3, 2.61 ERA) Special guest appearance: Bob Uecker and the late Paul Giel. I'm sure most people think "Carlos Gomez and what could have been" when Milwaukee is in town. My mind initia…

Weather: 60 degrees and partly cloudy Lineups: Twins: 1. Brian Dozier, 2B 2. Torii Hunter, DH 3. Joe Mauer, 1B 4. Trevor Plouffe, 3B 5. Eddie Rosario, RF 6. Eduardo Escobar, SS 7. Kurt Suzuki, C 8. Shane Robinson, LF 9. Aaron Hicks, CF vs. Steven Wright, RH Red Sox: 1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B 2. Hanley Ramirez, LF 3. David Ortiz, DH 4. Mike Napoli,1B 5. Xander Bogaerts, SS 6. Pablo Sandoval, 3B 7. Mookie Betts, CF 8. Blake Swihart, C 9. Rusney Castillo, RF vs. Tommy Milone, LH Things to think about: 1. Guess who's back? Tommy Milone went and dominated AAA hitters, essentially start after start. He probably has enough stuff to be an adequate fifth starter for …

A green monster with two heads! or Two for the price of... two. Dedicated to USAFChief (and Chief Jr.) who are reputably at at least one of the games, and who unequivocally and infallibly will tell you if the Twins will win or lose... "yes". and to River "Old Hoss" Brian, being inducted into the Game Thread Hall of Fame (if he can find it) as we speak. Or type. Hard to say, really. Oh, I'd heard the story of Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn, and as it is a story which sticks in the mind, i couldn't recall the name. So i looked it up, and the caption under the boston beaters photo in wikipedia is priceless. A 59+ win season as pitcher, and the first photograph of a Trudeau…

Monday 6/2, 6:10 PM CT at Fenway Park TV: FS-N; Radio: Go 96.3, TIBN, BOB FM Weather: Is it raining in Boston tonight? Is it cloudy on Cape Cod? Are the Red Sox in the race? They'll just blow it again, by God. A chance of rain. Patchy fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 51. Northeast wind 11 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Line ups: TWINS (30-19): 1. Dozier, 2B 2. Hunter, RF 3. Mauer, 1B 4. Plouffe, 3B 5. Suzuki, C 6. Rosario, LF 7. Escobar, DH 8. Hicks, CF 9. Santana, SS Mike Pelfrey, RHP (4-1, 2.77 ERA) RED SOX (22-29): 1. Pedroia, 2B 2. Betts, CF 3. Ortiz, DH 4. Rami…

Game time Weather Forecast (courtesy Weather Network) 16 degrees Celsius, Wind E/12 km/H, 20% pop. Not exactly a masterpiece but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and a win is a win. The Twins seemingly won another game by all accounts they probably shouldn’t have but 3 double play balls from Kyle Gibson, including one with the bases loaded and 1 out , a timely triple by Brian Dozier and 1 hit ball by the maligned bullpen was enough to do the trick. If I didn’t know any better I would have sworn that was last year’s Twins wearing Blue Jay uniforms yesterday. The Jays paid homage to the 2014 Twins lineup by going 0-8 with RISP, having the bullpen allow the winni…

Gametime Weather forecast (courtesy The Weather Network) Partly sunny, 15 degrees celsius, wind NW 21 km/h, 10% pop. Cola how could you? Well that sucked, didn’t it? Damn you to hell Mark Buehrle! And what kind of appreciation for giving you your MLB start was that Chris Colabello? Thanks for nothing. Two run shot in the top of the 9th against 18 for 18 closer Glen Perkins? Tip of the hat to the big Italian there, but don’t expect me to be happy for him, I’d of been a lot happier for him if he did it against the Royals or the Tigers. Cola might be a real feel good story and all but I wasn’t feeling so good about him last night, argh! Not much to remember fro…

Game time Weather Forecast (courtesy The Weather Network), 16 degrees celsius (haha), wind North 24 km/h , 90% chance of precipitation Here we go folks, The AL Central Division leading Minnesota Twins (not a typo, actually true) take on the American East cellar dwelling Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of a 3 game series tonight at Target Field. The Twins, fresh off their first series sweep of the Red Sox in 9 years look to keep the train rolling against a team who at the very least most recently took 2 of 3 against the other Sox, not exactly a difficult task this year but noteworthy because, well, we hate the White Sox and it allows me to mention them losing…….aga…

Forecast: 75 degrees and clear Lineups: Boston Red Sox 1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B 2. Mookie Betts, CF 3. Pablo Sandoval, 3B 4. Hanley Ramirez, LF 5. David Ortiz, DH 6. Mike Napoli, 1B 7. Xander Bogaerts, SS 8. Brock Holt, RF 9. Blake Swihart, C Pitching: Rich Porcello ® Minnesota Twins 1. Brian Dozier, 2B 2. Torii Hunter, RF 3. Joe Mauer, 1B 4. Trevor Plouffe, 3B 5. Eduardo Escobar, DH 6. Eddie Rosario, LF 7. Chris Herrmann, C 8. Aaron Hicks, CF 9. Danny Santana, SS Pitching: Phil Hughes ® Things to think about: 1. The chance to move to 10 games over .500. I was mildly optimistic about this team, but that optimism was based on a few things happening. None o…

Game Thread, Twins vs. Red Sox, 5/26 @ 7:10pm CT There is a division beyond that which is known to the midwest. It is a division as vast as money and as timeless as headlines. There is no middle ground between pennants and curses, between a pesky homer and a foul ball, and a 9 inning game can last more than 4 hours. This is the division of publicity. It is an area which we call... The Eastern Time Zone. And thence hail our opponents of this evening: The Boston Redsox. (Apologies to the Twilight Zone writers while i'm thinking of it...) While Twins have been losing 90 games a season, Boston has alternated winning and losing 90 games a season, and has thrown a world…

Unlike my predecessors on this thread, I will neither write 3000 words, nor have 5 thoughts. While I think my spell check could handle the 3000 words, personal history tells me that 5 interrelated and concurrent thoughts are not likely due to a significant loss of temporal lobe structure. Whether this could be the result of binge watching "The Gong Show" at too early an age, has not been determined. That said, I sure do miss that show. But I digress, on to today's game! Baaahston v Twins. Being a fan of "This Old House" and "Car Talk", I can pretty much understand most of what they say in Boston. So if I had access to NESN I could probably understand their d…

Sunday 5/24, 1:10 PM CT at U.S. Cellular Field TV: FS-N, MLBN; Radio: Go 96.3, TIBN, BOB FM (Sp.) Weather: A 20 percent chance of showers after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Line ups: TWINS (24-18): 1. Dozier 2B 2. Robinsobn LF 3. Mauer 1B 4. Plouffe 3B 5. Hunter DH 6. Escobar SS 7. Hermann C 8. Rosario RF 9. Hicks CF Kyle Gibson, RHP (3-3, 2.98 ERA) WHITE SOX (19-21): 1. Adam Eaton CF 2. Melky Cabrera LF 3. Jose Abreu DH 4. Adam LaRoche 1B 5. Avisail Garcia RF 6. Conor Gillaspie 3B 7. Alexei Ramirez SS 8. Tyler Flowers C 9. Carlos Sanchez 2B Jose Quintana, LHP (2-4, 4.13 ERA) …

Weather: I'm not far from the Cell, so when I step out onto my balcony it feels warm and sunny with a slight breeze. Mid-upper 70s. It feels good. Lineups: TWINS Dozier 2B Robinson LF Plouffe 1B Hunter RF Suzuki C Escobar 3B Nunez DH Hicks CF Santana SS May P WHITE SOX Eaton CF Cabrera LF Abreu 1B LaRoche DH Gillaspie 3B Ramirez SS Shuck RF Flowers C Sanchez 2B Sale P ------------ On the fly here ... thoughts. 1. Sale. Hmm. He's tough and we've handed him his only loss this year. He's coming off a pitcher's duel game against Cleveland. I'm hoping for a stellar outing for May as he's gonna need it going up against Sale. Unless we can do to him what we did l…

Game-time forecast: 55 deg F, partly cloudy (sunset 8:10pm), 0% chance of precipitation, winds from the ENE at 9pmh. Lineups: TWINS Dozier 2B Hunter RF Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Escobar DH Rosario LF Hicks CF Santana SS Hughes P WHITE SOX Eaton CF Cabrera LF Abreu 1B LaRoche DH Garcia RF Gillaspie 3B Ramirez SS Soto C Sanchez 2B Samardzija P --------------- Pluses and minuses are a matter of perspective. Here are mine from my perspective. You can put yours below in the comments. 1. Plus – The Twins are 5-2 against the ChiSox so far this year, including that sweep we all fondly remember. Go Twins! Keep it rollin’! Minus – The Twins are 5-2 against th…

Lineups: Twins Danny Santana – SS Brian Dozier – 2B Joe Mauer – 1B Trevor Plouffe – 3B Torii Hunter – RF Kurt Suzuki – C Aaron Hicks – CF Shane Robinson – LF Mike Pelfrey - P Pirates Josh Harrison – RF Neil Walker – 2B Andrew McCutchen – CF Starling Marte – LF Jung Ho Kang – SS Pedro Alvarez – 1B Francisco Cervelli – C Jordy Mercer – SS Jeff Locke – P -------- Afternoon Twins fans, I can safely say that it's not likely many game threads have been written whilst overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Yet, I am fortunate to say that I am doing just that here in Virginia Beach. A friend is getting married on Saturday in Norfolk, so I flew out here early with the wife and …

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…

Woke up this morning and my mind was empty except for enjoying the “rhythm of the falling rain” (we’ve really needed it and I love hearing the rain fall). Then I remembered that I promised to do the game thread intro and ….. my mind was still empty. According to The Weather Channel (a semi-reliable source), the TC will enjoy a high of 79 degrees today with a 40% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. I trust that they will hold off until after the game. Tomorrow looks a little more iffy. It was great to see the Twins get back in the “Win Column” last night. One of the most enjoyable things about this team is that after the first week was out of the way, they have man…

Game Thread, Twins @ Tigers, 5/14 @ 12:08 pm CT Today Hrbowski and I are doing the opposite of what we did yesterday; he'll post the lineups and weather report after I give you your Five Things to Think About (yeah, I decided that this is the best format to use, though at first I thought that I'd try to be original, but that just didn't work out quite how I wanted it to - I mean, I'm still pretty proud of my Take Me Out to the Ball Game OP, but if I did that every time...well, that'd be a lot of repetition going on here, so...). 1 - The Playoff Race - Here we are, approximately 1/5th of the way into the season, and the Tigers can see us alarmingly close in their r…

The Twins play the Tigers today, and Ricky Nolasco (2-1, 9.00 ERA) will face Kyle Lobstein (3-2, 3.00 ERA), always33 will have lineups and weather after your "Five Things to Think About.” 1. Roommates— Well, one of the things we are going to think about tonight is roommates, but I have a problem, one of my roommates is a sophomore in college who likes to wake me up with songs from Disney movies, and his favorite one is Under the Sea, and here are the lyrics: The seaweed is always green In somebody else's lake
 You dream about going up there 
But that is a big mistake 
Just look at the world around you
 Right here on the ocean floor
 Such wonderful things surround you …