Archived Game Threads

Good afternoon Twins fans and welcome back to more Game Thread fun! Well the big news that most everyone has already heard is Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson will be leaving the organization after Thursday's game against Cleveland to be the new pitching coach at LSU. I can't believe he would leave in the middle of the season but I guess he has his reasons. I suspect he wants to get there sooner in order to recruit new players to LSU. I've read he will be making more money but I doubt that was the reason. I know its all speculation at this point but I bet the MLB schedule, being away from family played a role. He might just like the amateur ranks more than the pro ranks..…

The Rockies and Twins will play the rubber match today, and the matchup heavily favors the Twins. After allowing 1 run over the last three games, the Twins will send out RHP Joe Ryan. Ryan had a very ugly start to his matchup against Cleveland, but corrected course to eventually provide the Twins with a quality start that the bullpen would wipe away. But we don't need to rehash that game at the moment. In terms of transactions, it appears that LHP Jovani Moran will be added to the roster, according to Phil Miller of the Strib. The Twins have not made an official move as of this moment. EDIT: The Twins are placing RHP Joe Smith on the 15-day IL with upper…

Welcome to yet another Saturday evening edition of Game Thread action sure to be packed with fun and frivolity! First off, I must apologize as I am feeling a bit nauseous as of this writing. I'm not sure if it is due to yesterday's contest or the rough flight I took this morning, but the show must go on! But if I suddenly bolt to the bathroom, you'll know why. Thank you in advance for your understanding. Today's tilt will once again feature the Rockies of Colorado and the Twins of Minnesota. Speaking of feeling nauseous, the last time I was in Denver, I had such a bad case of altitude sickness that I spent my first night there emptying the contents of my stomach…

The Twins entertain the Rockies tonight. It is Colorado's first visit since 2017, so previous matchups probably don't matter much. The Rockies are 30-40 in the tough NL West. They feature former Twin CJ Cron at first base. He leads the team in homers and RBI. I frankly don't recognize many of their players other than shortstop Jose Iglesias. Starting for the Rockies is German Marquez, who has poor numbers, but who doesn't when you pitch half of your games at Coors Field. The Twins are coming off losing two straight series, first losing two of three in Arizona and then losing two late-inning leads to Cleveland and surrendering first place to the Guardians. For the th…

Good morning Twins fans and welcome back to the ever popular Game Thread! After last nights punch to the gut, the Minnesota Twins will try to put up a "W" in the win column to prevent a sweep from the Cleveland Guardians. Just typing that makes me sick to my stomach. I'm going to repeat what many here on Twins Daily have already echoed too many times this year, this bullpen needs some help. Falvey and Levine, I know you read this site multiple times a day. Please hear our advice and bring some help to this bullpen. Bring up some younger arms or start making a few trades. This team has a ton of potential but please don't let it go to waste with an anemic bullpen.…

For the first time in 59 days, someone is writing the game thread intro with the Twins no longer in sole possession of first place. While this is disappointing, it is also fantastic the the Twins are giving us meaningful baseball in June, and hopefully will continue to do so into July, August, and September. It is easy to get caught up in the rollercoaster of the season, and I myself do it just as much as anyone, but I am so thankful we are in the position to care about this team -- and baseball -- again. The Pitchers RHP Triston McKenzie (4-5, 2.96 ERA, 61K, 70IP, 1.4 bWAR) v RHP Sonny Gray (3-1, 2.09 ERA, 42K, 38.2IP, 1.3 bWAR) Two of the m…

Impingement - having an effect or impact, especially a negative one Seems the Twins have adopted a new three-syllable word to replace an old, out-of-fashion one-syllable term. Players used to get stiff, or sore in the old days. Now they get impingements. Advanced metrics or something I guess. A guy feels a pull in his hip; impingement. A pitcher feels a twinge in his elbow; impingement. Another pitcher feels a tightness in the shoulder of his throwing arm; impingement. Makes you wonder if impingement isn’t a new viral epidemic. Impingement does sound more serious than “strain”, or “ache”, or “sore” doesn’t it? A guy’s got a sore arm, big deal. Throws s…

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. …

apologies to ol' Billy Boy) Shall i compare thee to a baseball game? I might as well despite your sullen glare, The lineups have each player's place and name And if you wait a moment, those i'll share: Minnesota Twins: 0. Dylan Bundy (R) P 1. Luis Arraez (L) 2B 2. Carlos Correa (R) SS 3. Max Kepler (L) RF 4. Gio Urshela (R) 3B 5. Alex Kirilloff (L) 1B 6. Gary Sanchez (R) DH 7. Trevor Larnach (L) LF 8. Ryan Jeffers (R) C 9. Nick Gordon (L) CF Arizona Diamondbacks 0. Luke Weaver (R) P 1. Daulton Varsho (L) RF 2. Alek Thomas (L) CF 3. Josh Rojas (L) 3B …

Good evening Twins fans and welcome back to more Game Thread fun! Have you ever attended a MLB game and sat next to some over zealous fans? Did you sit next to fans that were knowledgable about the game and the teams that were playing? The Game Thread experience is all about that and more... As Twins fans this is our forum to debate and play arm chair quarterback. Don't be shy! Speak up and tell us your opinion about a specific play, umpire mistake or coaching move...Most of the Moderators on the site allow a little bit more leeway in what people say during the Game Thread. Please don't swear but remember, games that start this late a majority of Mods are aslee…

Twins fans awoke this morning to an unfamiliar sound: footsteps. Minnesota’s sat comfortably atop the AL Central standings for the past several weeks, but after getting shutout by the Mariners on Tuesday night, the division lead is down to just 2.5 games over the Cleveland Guardians. This afternoon the Twins (36-28) need a stopper on Getaway Day and will look to Sonny Gray, who returns to the rotation to face the Mariners (28-34) in the series rubber match. After a 2-week stint on the IL with a pectoral injury, Gray (3-1, 2.41) will hope to pick up where he left off. His last outing was May 29, when he notched a 6-inning, 4 strikeout performance in a win against KC. …

Roster Move: The Twins DFA'd IF Elliot Soto, who had his contract purchased by the Twins yesterday to take the spot of Cole Sands, who was optioned Sunday. Soto did not appear in a game with the Twins. I am fairly confident he will clear waivers. Joe Ryan was activated from the COVID-IL and will start tonight. A move will be made for Sonny Gray tomorrow. Chi-Chi Gonzalez was claimed on waivers by the Brewers. The Pitchers: RHP Joe Ryan (5-2, 2.28 ERA, 42K, 43.1IP, 1.5 bWAR) vs RHP Logan Gilbert (6-2, 2.41 ERA, 70 K, 71.0IP, 2.0 bWAR) Joe Ryan will make his first big league start since landing on the COVID-IL a few weeks ago. He appeared in a rehab sta…

Good evening Twins fans and welcome to the Game Thread "late edition"... The Minnesota Twins (35-27) head to the west coast to take on the Seattle Mariners (27-33) tonight. These west coast series are tough for the early risers in the midwest and east coast. However, our Twins Daily members on the west coast and Asia finally get some normalcy in their viewing schedule. If you're a night owl this is also a great game time for you! Speaking of owls, if you're from the midwest, remember Red Owl stores? Whatever happened to them????? The AL Central division leading Twins will try to protect their 3 game lead over the Cleveland Guardians tonight. Seattle is 6-4 in th…

The Twins have a chance to sw***p the Tampa Bay Rays today, in a matchup that pairs RHP Cole Sands against LHP Jeffrey Springs, with a righty-stacked lineup. More on that matchup is below, but first I wanted to take a moment to remember Chi Chi Gonzalez's tenure as a Twin. ROSTER MOVE - Ciao to Chi Chi Gonzalez was designated for assignment this morning, after two starts for the Twins. He pitched 7 innings with an era of 7.71 and a 1.71 WHIP. While it wasn't pretty, the Twins won BOTH Chi Chi starts against tough AL East opponents in Toronto and Tampa Bay. Chi Chi activated an opt-out clause earlier this week that required the Twins to call him up in a few days,…

The Twins return to Bally Sports North this afternoon looking for their second straight win against the Tampa Bay Rays. And while you don’t need to plunk down your credit card to watch the team play on TV today, Byron Buxton definitely has Twins ownership checking their wallets. Incentives in Buxton’s new $15M per year contract include at least a $3M bonus if the electric center fielder finishes in the top 10 in the AL MVP vote. With two more home runs last night, the molten-lava hot Buxton now has 17 on the year and it would be hard to imagine Byron finishing lower than 5th in that race. Furthermore, after playing in his 4th straight game last night, Bux is on pace …

Hello everyone! Welcome to the game thread for Friday against the Rays. What has happened in the last 24 hours? Well, the Twins hit five homers against Gerrit Cole in two and a third innings and still lost. Veteran players made baserunning mistakes and fielding blunders. As soon as a mistake was made, the Yankees (usually an ex-Twin) jumped on it. Oh well, only a game. Of course, the Twins also lost their number one prospect to injury for the season. None of the three starters for the Tampa series were in the original rotation probably the top three starters are on the Injured List, although Ryan and Winder could be back within a week. Tampa is a good team and going…

The Pitchers: RHP Gerrit Cole (5-1, 2.78 ERA, 81K, 64.2 IP) vs RHP Dylan Bundy (3-3, 5.57 ERA, 36K, 42IP) The Twins are tasked with trying to get to one of the top 5 starters in baseball in Gerrit Cole tonight, the head of the dominate Yankee’s rotation. Cole is coming off of a 7 inning performance against the Tigers where he allowed 2 hits, walked none, and struck out 9. He has gone at least 6 innings in his last 9 starts. Cole relies on a dominate high 90’s fastball, which opponents are hitting just .204 on. Opponents are fairing even worse on the slider which has an OAA of .159. He also features a cutter, changeup, and curve. I don’t need to tel…

Game Thread: Yankees @ Twins 6:40pm 6/8/2022 Lineups Nestor Cortes LHP (5-1, 1.50 ERA, 68 SO) Chris Archer RHP (0-2, 3.89 ERA, 32 SO) NYY 3B DJ LeMahieu R CF Aaron Judge R 1B A. Rizzo L RF G. Stanton R DH J. Donaldson R 2B G. Torres R LF Aaron Hicks S SS I. Kiner-Falefa R C K. Higashioka R MIN CF Byron Buxton R DH C. Correa R 2B J. Polanco S 3B Gio Urshela R 1B Jose Miranda R RF Max Kepler L LF G. Celestino R C Ryan Jeffers R SS Nick Gordon L For today's game thread content, let’s flash back to September of last year, to a certain recap thread of a Twins-Yankees matchup: 9/13/21. This is a post from me a…

Every MLB season is full of measuring sticks. Baseball fans measure a team’s potential by looking at the standings on Memorial Day or at the All-Star break. For individual players, there are the classic measurements for a successful season: a .300 average, 30 homers or 100 RBI for a hitter, 20 wins for a pitcher. And for a generation of Twins fans, one surefire way to measure their team’s success is the answer to the following question: “How’d we do against the Yankees?” That’s right, the Yanks are in town and we’re ready to see how our boys stack up. It’s been a lopsided matchup as of late: since 2017, the Twins are 7-23 against the Evil Empire and you have to go ba…

Welcome to the Game Thread, Sunday morn edition, where we'll discuss all things not being math and politics. This series has been a mixed bag thus far. Friday night showcased the Twins team that we know and love. Saturday's tilt featured the Twins team that we know and love but aren't quite sure of why. It's likely that we'll see one of those two teams in today's matinee rubber match. On the hill today, Devin Smeltzer looks to continue to show that he belongs in the rotation. Gilberto Celestino returns to the starting lineup to help him out. It'll be interesting to see how Smeltzer's stuff fares against a good lineup like Toronto's. After a short outing by B…

The Pitchers RHP Dylan Bundy (3-2, 4.76 ERA, 34 K, 39.2 IP) v RHP Jose Berrios (3-2, 5.62 ERA, 36 K, 49.2 IP) The Twins face off with old friend Jose Berrios, who has not been good thus far. His last time out against the Angels, Berrios made it through just 2.1 innings, allowing 6 runs on 6 hits with two long balls. Berrios has allowed at least 3 earned runs in his last 5 starts, and has allowed 5 or more earned runs in three of those 5. He isn't missing bats like he used to, and the statcast page looks exactly like a guy who has a 5.62 ERA. His expected ERA is 7.21, and his FIP is in the 5's. Nothing is going right for the former Twin. He still throws th…

Our Minnesota Twins head up to the Great White North for the first and only time this year for a three game set looking to find some momentum. Seems that they’ve been spinning their wheels of late. It doesn’t seem like it but the Twins are 6-4 in their last ten versus the Blue Jays dating back to 2019. Covid news: Kepler, Thielbar, Pagán, and Megill inactive for Toronto series. Speaking of Canada, here are some random Canada facts: Canada has less gravity than anywhere else in the world. Santa Claus's official address is in Canada. Canada is the number one donut consumer in the world. It is illegal to kill a Sasquatch in British Columb…

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…

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Two starting pitchers with sub-3.50 ERAs facing each other in a June MLB game that weren't drafted in the first round?! Or second round?! Or third, fourth, or fifth rounds?! This is crazy! Bailey Ober, the 2017 12th round pick out of College of Chaleston, will face Tarik Skubal, the 2018 9th round pick out of Seattle University, tonight in Detroit, MI. Bailey and Tarik took different routes to the majors after being drafted, but both were guys that returned to school after being drafted in a round in the 20s (Bailey 23, Tarik 29). After their return to school both saw a jump in their draft stock and were drafted significantly higher before starting …

Good Day, aTwinsFanInMaryland here today with one thread for two games against the Detroit Tigers. The big news of the day is Carlos (C4) Correa landed on the COVID-IL, joining fellow teammates Joe Ryan & Gilberto Celestino (insert look of disgust). Also, in Game 2, we will see Roger Clemens youngest son, Kody, make his MLB debut for the Tigers. Roster Moves: With Correa on the COVID-IL, we will see the MLB debut of Jermaine Palacios in game 1 today, playing shortstop. Important to note, because of COVID-IL rules, Palacios can be removed from the 40-man at a later time without having to clear waivers. Also, Cole Sands was added to the active roster as the 27th ma…

in honor of Memorial Day, the succinct response and most eloquent expression of the spirit of the day is attributed to Brig. Gen. McAuliffe: "Nuts!" Us: 0. Dylan Bundy (R) P No Lineup Released Them: 0 Beau Brieske (R) P 1. Harold Castro (L) DH 2. J. Schoop (R) 2B 3. Javier Baez (R) SS 4. J. Candelario (S) 3B 5. Spencer Torkelson (R) 1B 6. Willi Castro (S) LF 7. Daz Cameron (R) RF 8. T. Barnhart (S) C 9. Derek Hill (R) CF (On a borrowed phone)

“Riding on the City of New Orleans…” Well, actually, I’m on Amtrak’s Texas Eagle, which goes through Joliet and St. Louis on the way to Dallas and beyond, rather than through Kankakee and Memphis on the way to the Big Easy. But we still rolled along past houses, farms and fields. I love traveling by train, so I took the two-hour ride to Chicago’s Union Station yesterday morning and then got on board for the 24-hour therapeutic jaunt. Mrs. IT flies in tonight, and we embark on the “Take a Tums Tour,” searching for barbecue and chili (no beans). Next Sunday, we’ll take in a game in Arlington, allowing me to recheck the Rangers’ stadium off the list and return to b…

Good afternoon Twins fans and fellow game threaders! After last nights offensive explosion by the Twins I think this team is just now starting to get hot from an offensive perspective. Can we score another 10+ runs today? Tune in to find out! I fully expect the Twins will score a ton of runs today as they get deeper into the Royals bullpen. I would love to stick around and post some witty comments and sage observations but I have a tee time today at 12 noon. It will be my first round of the year so I'm not expecting much...As sure as I am the Twins will dominate today I'm not so sure about my golf game. Can I keep the ball in the fairway? Can I avoid the dreade…

During the past couple years, a lot of things have changed for me personally. I graduated from college, I got my first job within my field, the unnamed events of 2020…. the list goes on and on. With all these rapid changes, I have had to learn how to be better as a person in multiple facets. I try to at least work on one, if not multiple, of these objectives everyday, so I can fall asleep knowing I am doing something good each and every day. Below is a current list of objectives I am working on: 1. Be a better friend/family member. This one is pretty obvious. COVID slowed down a lot of my relationships with friends and extended family, so pursuing those relatio…

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…