Summer Solstice:

When that pitch which is the earth's orbit begins to break.
(It must be a pretty good spitball, as no one's managed to hit it yet!)

Forecast for Today:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. (Old Mother) West Wind 5 to 10 mph.

Happy Thursday!
Fa-thursday, that is.
With a tip o' the hat to Riverbrian and his tree elephant:

I meant what I said and I said what i meant.
An Elephant's faithful. One Hundred Percent!

And more as the exception that proves the rule:

My name is Sue
How do you do!

Both quotes from well known poems on the subject of Fathers,
i figure they need no further explanation?

Anyway
enjoy
The Day of the Dad

Alright
Now..
Forcus on this game:

Their Pitcherin':
Jake Arrieta
(North Paw)
Walked 6 batters last time.
Patience may be a virtue.

Our Pitcherin':
Kyle Gibson
(North Paw)
Almost a month since his last win.
Though a Quality Start in Busch Statium
is nothing to sneer at.


Their Batterin':

1. Dexter Fowler CF
2. Anthony Rizzo [L] 1B
3. Kris Bryant [R] 3B
4. Miguel Montero [L] C
5. Starlin Castro [R] SS
6. Chris Coghlan [L] LF
7. Chris Denorfia [R] RF
8. Kyle Schwarber [L] DH
9. Addison Russell [R] 2B

Our Batterin':

1. Brian Dozier [R] 2B
2. Eddie Rosario [L] LF
3. Joe Mauer [L] 1B
4. Trevor Plouffe [R] 3B
5. Torii Hunter [R] RF
6. Eduardo Nunez [R] DH
7. Chris Herrmann [L] C
8. Eduardo Escobar SS
9. Byron Buxton [R] CF

The basepaths are not to be traveled lightly.

Don't stop to smell the flowers.

Reflexively, cut off the hit-man!
Er, i mean hit the cut-off man.

Right.
More succinctly...

Play Ball!

Nicely done!

Great intro!

 

In addition to Father's Day, today would have been my dad's 88th Birthday.  Miss you, dad.  (But Happy Birthday to his twin, my Aunt Sis!)

 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, granddads and for all I know great-granddads who post here at TD!

Good job JB. Greetings from Target Field. First game of the year.

 

Good job JB Sample Size of One.  Greetings from Target Field. First game of the year.

 

FTFY.

Hope you have a great afternoon, SB.  And let's get the series win here!!

Happy Father's Day to every father on here (and those who aren't - I wouldn't want to exclude my dad)! And for those who aren't fathers, remember your dad or at least hopefully somebody who serves as a father figure in your life. They sure do make a difference.

 

And ... our starting pitcher, Kyle Gibson!

 

 

I like Kyle. He was really our only decent starting pitcher last year besides Phil Hughes, and if it wasn't for him, who knows how high of a draft pick we would have gotten (see, I'm trying to be positive about a not-so-good thing). He might have just gotten 2 consecutive losses to make his record 4-5, but in this month he's made 3 starts so far and got a no decision in the first while giving up 5 runs, and the next time he gave up 5 runs but fate did not smile on him and he picked up the loss. The last time he gave up 3 runs and got the loss, but the Twins were playing in St. Louis and didn't back him up like they should have. Now if he can keep it down to 3 runs again today, all he needs to do is go 7 innings to have a quality start and all the rest of his teammates need to do is hit 12 triples and not allow any more runs, and we'll win this game by one run.

 

Sample already said that Arrieta walked 6 in his last start, so the Twins should be patient at the plate today and see how Arrieta and the ump are going to handle the zone.

 

Good job JB. Greetings from Target Field. First game of the year.

 

Enjoy the game!

Good job JB. Greetings from Target Field. First game of the year.

Oops Posting with a kindle in bright sunlight is hard.

Great intro!

 

In addition to Father's Day, today would have been my dad's 88th Birthday.  Miss you, dad. 

Mine's 92 and still going strong. Phone call to him coming up...

Maybe don't put the shift on when Rizzo is batting from now on.

Couple of strikeouts are a good way to start.

Montero sets a major league record by striking out twice in one at-bat.

 

^{_{/ I think that one pitch was strike three}}

Exceptional Game Thread opener Sample Size!!!

I'm not bothered by Buxton hitting .091

 

I am bothered by Joe hitting .254

 

His swing is too sweet to produce that little.

Ah, Father's day...the day Father's everywhere wind up getting roped into going out and celebrating when in reality Dad would like to stay home, maybe putter about the house, catch a Twins game and generally be left alone.

 

Ah, Father's day...the day Father's everywhere wind up getting roped into going out and celebrating when in reality Dad would like to stay home, maybe putter about the house, catch a Twins game and generally be left alone.

 

The day when fathers pretend to be excited about the tie their wife bought them and told them was from the kids.

Man, I thought that was out! Can't catch a break!

I am bothered by Joe hitting .254

He's not hitting that low now, not after that double.

Man, I thought that was out! Can't catch a break!

Now that Joe is above .255.. I'm not bothered anymore

Infield hits. Bleh.

Infield hits. Bleh.

Based on this series... The Cubs are good at it

Escape!

Gibson's a bit of an escape artist this game, isn't he?

I wonder if a hamburger joint ever had an infield fry rule promotion...

Gibson's a bit of an escape artist this game, isn't he?

Not complaining...

 

Oh, 0-0 in the bottom of the second, after stranding 3 cubs in the top.

We hit the ball hard, but not in the open spots.  That will come. 

He's working pretty slowly today, with a lot of pitches. He needs to get that efficiency up if he wants to keep zeroes on the board.

 

Ah, Father's day...the day Father's everywhere wind up getting roped into going out and celebrating when in reality Dad would like to stay home, maybe putter about the house, catch a Twins game and generally be left alone.

 

   I went to a concert with my kids last night, so today is mine.

May's tossed 67 pitches to get nine outs. Not a good ratio.