Archived Game Threads

You have to love a summer day game during the week! It's a great day to be unproductive at work. Lewis Thorpe is making his return today, his first appearance with the major league team since May 20th. I'll be hoping his fastball velocity is over 90 mph, but he should have a chance to make-it-or-break-it for the next 1.5 months of the season. He's out of options next year, so this is a pivotal time for the Aussie. The Twins won't be able to send him down under to the minors after 2021. Speaking of Aussies, who is your favorite from the list of ex-Twins below? (Whitefield is still in the Twins org, and still very, very fast) 1. Grant Balfour 2. Luke …

What an exciting finish to last night's game! And this from the previous day ... leading up to the Polanco walk-off sac fly: We've been experiencing a lot of that lately ... and while too little, too late for the end result to the season as we were hoping, it's still fun anyway ... even the 3.5-4 hrs of it! The Twins just seem to be clicking lately and it's a good ride. I'm hoping for a good night from Ober, was hoping to see Gordon in the lineup, but onward we must go. May the clicking continue! And we still don't know who tomorrow's pitcher will be ... Ryan? Thorpe? All will be revealed in time! See? There's still some excitement to be had. 'Nuf…

Let the battle for the division begin! With 10 games remaining vs Cleveland, and 4 vs Detroit, the Twins pretty much control their own destiny: W L GB CLE 57 59 -- DET 58 62 1 MIN 52 66 6 KCR 49 67 8 Wait -- what's that? You say there is a team above Cleveland in the division standings? And their record is? Oh. Let the battle for *second place* in the divis…

Hey all, it's been a while since I've covered a game thread. Today the Twins will face the Rays in a rubber match for another series win. While some fans may have expected the Twins to flirt with 100+ losses this season, they've inexplicably gone 7-5 since the trade deadline against some of MLB's best teams. Baseball can be weird sometimes. I've got 3 topics on the docket today: #1: Rays starter Luis Patino Acquired in the Blake Snell trade (which may go down as a highway robbery the way it's looking), Patino was pitching in AA at the ripe age of 19. The Colombian native joined the Padres' roster in 2020 and even pitched in 3 playoff games at the age of 20.…

The Rays are in town with our old friend Nelly Cruz. Not having him in the offense anymore makes me sad so I don't want to talk about the Twins offense today. The Rays are known for being one of the most creative teams and finding a way to get the most out of their pitchers by using them in unique ways. Or ending their season by pulling Blake Snell too early in the World Series. Either way. But, in honor of the Rays, I decided to get creative with the Twins 2022 pitching staff. Here's my idea: "Full" Starters: Kenta Maeda, FA1, FA2 "Half" Starters: Bailey Ober, Randy Dobnak, Griffin Jax, Prospect1 "Big 3" Relievers: Taylor Rogers, FA1, FA2 Mid Reliever…

The Twins host Tampa Bay on a Friday the 13th evening. This is also the start of a reunion weekend for the '91 Twins. Who will be gray, who will have gained weight and who will have a new trophy spouse? Well, we probably won't know about the latter, but we will see many of our old favorites and remember when the team won playoff games. Personal moment: I shook Jack Morris' hand in Fort Myers several years ago. Jack shook my hand and kept walking. Pretty sure that moment was more memorable for me than him. Tampa is the first place team in the tough AL East, the third straight first place team the Twins will face. Minnesota has won five of seven versus Houston and Chic…

Gee whiz, i was having such a wonderful dream, how Colume saved a game against his old team, and we made up a coveted game against our heated rivals. then i looked at a box score and saw how many more we needed to make up. How soon do they start publishing magic numbers? Just let me revel in my team's success one more game, until they have left for Iowa... Wait, there isn't a MLB team in Iowa?! What gives? Oh, right, they were going on last night about the field of dreams game, and how it would be if Kevin Costner rotated his crops and players had to disappear into beets. Obviously beets would be where football players go. Don't they know an…

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…

Good evening Twins fans and welcome back to more Game Thread excitement! The Twins did a nice job in Houston and now kick off a 9 game home stand against the Chicago White Sox tonight. Hopefully they can keep up the momentum. Not that it really matters this year but I would like to see some of our younger players start getting into the groove and build some confidence heading into 2022. Speaking of confidence, I'd like to see the following players hit above .220 so I can have confidence we can actually score runs in 2022. I know batting average stats are no longer in vogue but let's look at some averages. The players: Kepler (.211), Rooker (.176), Garver (.220), Sano…

"In the 8th month, the winds are willing!" Words from a medallion, that mean adventure to all true believers. Not sure what's so important about the number 8? Just listen to this! In fact, i was lead to believe that 8/8 is an auspicious wedding day, so let's get started... "Mawige, what bwings us togethah today. That bwessid awangement, that dweam within a dweam (stand your ground!)" Skip to the end! "I now pwonounce you man and wife. You may pitch the ball!" Twins: 0. Kenta Maeda (R) P 1. Max Kepler (L) RF 2. Brent Rooker (R) DH 3. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B 4. Mitch Garver (R) C 5. L…

Well, here we are. The day following a first for the 2021 Twins: grasping victory from the jaws of defeat. Having spent the previous four months mastering the inverse, last night the Twins - led by unlikely defensive hero Miguel Sano - did something right and actually won a game it looked like they were going to lose. Which means the Twins are on the verge of a... Exciting, right? Leading the charge into today's game, we have Michael "Inexplicably Still on the Twins" Pineda toeing the rubber, looking to enhance his non-existent trade value for the no-longer-in-existence August waiver deadline. Sorry, Mike, but you're stuck here. Try to make the most of…

It's Friday... and i feel this is about all i need to say: For those of you who, like me, are still bummed to see Berrios go, a friend pointed out that he drew comps to Pedro Marinez because he was slight of build, not you imposing presence on the mound, and suggested i should try to look at the bigger pitcher. Well, no better time to do that, than today with Ober on the mound, which adds like, 6 inches. Twins: 0. Bailey Ober (R) P 1. Max Kepler (L) RF 2. Brent Rooker (R) LF 3. Jorge Polanco (S) DH 4. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 5. Luis Arraez (L) 2B 6. Mitch Garver (R) C 7. Miguel Sano (R) 1B 8. Rob Refsny…

I can't think of a more "Dog Days of Summer" locale than Houston, TX. I believe Kris Atteberry mentioned yesterday that the Twins are entering their third and final leg of the "Humidity Tour", consisting of St. Louis, Cincinnati, and now... H-Town. At least there's a roof at Minute Maid Park, unlike Busch Stadium or Great American Ballpark. Now I want some orange juice, but absolutely no pulp. The last time the Twins visited Minute Maid was in April of 2019. Check out these pitchers of record for a blast from the recent past: April 22nd Twins 9, Astros 5 Winning Pitcher: Jake Odorizzi Losing Pitcher: Brad Peacock April 23rd Tw…

RERUN WARNING I’m pressed for time, it’s an early game and I happen to really like this game thread intro I did way back in 1918. Result: Cop-out Re-run. Maybe if we're lucky we'll have a rerun win from yesterday. Read ‘em and weep. You’re on your own from here. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus It’s a little known fact that Cincinnati was actually named after a Roman general, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. According to legend, Cincinnatus, as he was called for long, Quint for short, had retired to his vineyard on the outskirts of Rome for a little R&R (rose˙ and roscato) with his main squeeze (get it? grapes... squeeze…

Olympic Trials The Little Woman (she’s got all of two inches on the 4’8” Simone Biles) and I enjoy watching the Olympics; especially women’s gymnastics and all swimming events. So you can imagine our disappointment when Biles got the “twisties”, which is apparently a real thing that causes gymnasts to temporarily lose their spatial awareness, and had to withdraw from most of the Olympic competition after displaying symptoms during warm-ups. So it occurred to me, professional baseball players don’t deliberately chose to go into a slump, loose control of their fastball, forget to hit the cut-off man or how to play a hot grounder. It just happens, and sometimes …

Good Morning Twins fans and welcome back to more Game Thread banter and fun! We have moved past July and are now entering the hot month of August. The Twins ended July on a high note with a win last night. Hopefully they can start the month with a win this afternoon. Entering August 1st our team is dead last in the Central with a .419 winning percentage...Got to admit I didn't see that coming when we started in April. Oh well, we have each other to entertain us and a bunch of new young talent from the Rays and Blue Jays to watch. Speaking of game thread fun, it was suggested in last nights game thread I do a survey on what your favorite beverage is while watching th…

What was Louis saint of? If i had to guess, my first one would be the Blues, but that would be another sport, so i'm probably wrong, especially as cardinals are not blue. And they have pointy heads (some say those are hats, but i am not so sure.) But then i remember a song from my childhood, which i am pretty sure was part of a rich oral tradition passing down history that otherwise would have been forgotten, and lo and behold, the internet has the song! Of course we all know what Paul is Saint of, how he persecuted Minnesotans until Babe Ruth appeared to him in the form of a big blue ox, and he became a lumberjack, and he was okay, making bats that ca…

Ah, the summer doldrums. The dead period in a baseball season where absolutly nothing much interesting happens. The Twins, coming off an off day, travel down river to St Louis, losing approximately 400 feet of elevation along the way, to take on the Cardinals. I wish there were something, anything, that would give us a topic of discussion for tonight's game, but I got nothing. ZERO happened today, or yesterday, as far as I can tell. And let me tell you, I follow this stuff pretty closely, I'd KNOW if there were things to talk about. Anywhoo, it's J.O. Berrios on the bump for the Twins tonig....wait, wut? Mrs Chief just interrupted me with something about "a tra…

Not seeing a Game Thread, so here it is! Enjoy the game!

Happy Tuesday Twins Fans! Tigers (47-55) vs Twins (43-58) 7:10 CST 7/27 Twins - 225 / Tigers +185 / O/U 9 (-115) Following Monday night's ELECTRIC win in extra innings, the Twins hope to make it 2 in a row vs division foe, the Detroit Tigers. On the bump for the Twins tonight is last nights game winning, pinch runner, Kenta Maeda. Better known for his pitching abilities, Maeda has been solid in his last 7 starts with a 3.89 ERA and 46 K's in 37 IP. Tyler Alexander will get the start tonight for the Tigers. The left hander has been used primarily as a reliever this season, as this will be just his 5th start of the season in 23 games. Sporting a 4…

Good Evening Twins fans and welcome back to more Game Thread fun and entertainment! The Minnesota Twins kick off a 3 game series tonight against the lowly Detroit Tigers. We are actually lower than the Tigers but I still think of them as lowly. I'm not sure what to cheer for tonight. Maybe we should turn this game thread into trade discussions before the deadline...what else is there to talk about? Speaking of the trade deadline, it sounds like the Yankees may be interested in Max Kepler. With that ultra short right field wall in Yankee Stadium he might be the next Babe Ruth! Before we get into tonights lineups I thought I would opine about the Twins organization as…

Game four of the 4-game series. I'm hoping the Twins will even the score. I bought some chicken at the grocery store today, and am planning to have it for dinner tonight. But it wasn't at all because I was concluding, or even hoping for a win ... because that would be a huge jinx, and you know me about that. Or should. I'm quick to hush y'all up when one of you issues a jinx-like statement. I just wanted some chicken and hadn't fixed some in a while. Maybe, just to be on the safe side, I won't fix the chicken until tomorrow. Toi! Toi! Toi!* So, I was excited about the potential of today's game because I thought Ohtani was going to pitch. It was going to be my opening…

An ancient text was unearthed in southern Minnesota. Roughly translated, it reads as follows. The first 4 parts were smudged, and bits and pieces about the existance of Rally Monkeys for every game, and being infinitely extendable, wasn't coherent enough to translate, but the 5th part was largely intact. 5. That, if a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior Angels on the same side less than two right Angels, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely, meet on that side on which the Angels are less than two right Angels. And this last bit was found in the margins, added by a later scribe... Angels 0. Patrick Sandoval (L)…

The Twins host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim tonight in game two of a four-game set. Los Angeles won the first game of the series 3-2 and have won three of the four games played between the teams this year. Scheduled pitchers for tonight's game are JA Happ for the Twins versus Alex Cobb for the Angels. It could be Happ's last start as a Twin, if the Twins can find someone to take him. The news off the field is that the Twins have traded Nelson Cruz to the Rays for two AAA starting pitchers. Trading a 41 year-old DH for two pitchers who could help the club as soon as next year is the right move IMHO. The trick is whether Falvey and Levine identified guys who will…

Archangels and Other Spirits Angels. On a baseball team. Only in America, where the farther from the truth something is, the more people tend to believe it. And sometimes they don’t. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB-AlDfE_vQ But we’re talking the LA Angels here. Nothing spiritual or magical about them. Or so everyone believed. Then Shohei Ohtani came along and suddenly the Angels have an Archangel on their team. But don’t take my word for it, Strib columnist Patrick Reusse and sports reporter Phil Miller have said it better than I can. Patrick Reusse Star Tribune https://www.startribune.com/enjoy-the-phenomenon-that-is-shohei-oh…

In a lost season, TD "selected" my "contract" and brought up a scrub! I'm a longtime Game Thread participant, but have never dared to dip my toes in the Introduction waters...UNTIL TODAY! Please, no applause, please! Games against the White Sox have always been among my favorite games to attend. I enjoy the rivalry. I enjoy the interaction between the fan bases (when it's good natured). I enjoy the great games that have been played, particularly late season games with playoff implications. I enjoy the atmosphere that all of those things bring to the game. Which brings me to the topic of today's intro: Game day experiences at the ballpark. With the pande…

Twins July, 20 8:10pm White Sox Bailey Ober (R) Dallas Keuchel (L) 1. Luis Arraez (L) LF 2. Mitch Garver (R) C 3. Nelson Cruz (R) DH 4. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 5. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B 6. Max Kepler (L) RF 7. Miguel Sano (R) 1B 8. Gilberto Celestino (R) CF 9. Andrelton Simmons (R) SS 1. Tim Anderson (R) SS 2. Gavin Sheets (L) RF 3. Jose Abreu (R) 1B 4. Brian Goodwin (L) LF 5.…

See below post for @twinssporto intro…

Preface It's often said that you can't spell "Twins" without "win" but that's not strictly true, if you spell "Twins" incorrectly. And doing something incorrectly would be a fitting tribute to the 2021 Twins. Some also say the 2021 Twins are hapless. That's not true either -- we have one of the only two Happs in major league history. In that sense, we could be considered "Happful". His full name is James Anthony Happ but he famously goes by J.A., prounounced "Jay". If I was his coach, or I played one on TV, I'd ask him to try going by "Ja" like rapper and "The Fast and the Furious" actor Ja Rule, or like the Rastafarian god "Jah" -- like a new pitch grip, …

Yawn. I am having trouble waking up after the all-star break. I had this weird dream, that lots of our players were getting injured and nobody knew how to pitch, and that we were in the bottom of the standings. Anyway, time to stretch out those disused baseball commentary muscles, throw the ol' ball around, and settle back into the season. Let's check the line ups... Minnesota: 0. Charlie Barnes (L) P 1. Luis Arraez (L) LF 2. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B 3. Trevor Larnach (L) RF 4. Nelson Cruz (R) DH 5. Alex Kirilloff (L) 1B 6. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B 7. Max Kepler (L) CF 8. Ben Rortvedt (L) C 9. Andrelton Simm…