Scoreboard Watching

[gil4]

We haven't done much September scoreboard watching around here the past few years, but we are in that mode now.  Last night was a great night to keep an eye on the other teams in the race, because they all did their part to help the Twins.

 

   First, Houston shut out the Angels 3-0. Next, Chicago beat KC 7-6 after what looked like a game-tying base hit after the right fielder fell down turned into a wild game-ending 9-2-4-6 DP after he recovered to throw out the runner trying to score from second.  Finally, Oakland topped Texas, 4-1, leaving the Rangers and Angels 3.5 games back and the Royals 4.5 out.  (The Rays and Mariners are 5 back - not quire close enough for me to pay attention to them.)

 

   Today, the Astros are seem to have their game against the Angels well in hand, leading 6-1 in the bottom of the 8th.  The rest of the games of note will be tonight:

 

Royals at White Sox - Duffy (8-9, 3.71) vs Covey (0-6, 8.18)

Rangers at A's  - Gonzalez (8-11, 4.75) vs. Manaea (11-10, 4.56)

 

While watching the Twins tonight, feel free to keep one eye on the out of town scoreboard. It's even OK to root for the White Sox for the coming week, as hard as it may be to do that.

 

Note:  Astros 6, Angels 2, now final.  

 

 

[gil4]

Middle of 3, White Sox 1, Royals 0. Royals are in danger of becoming irrelevant. 

[tvagle]

 

Middle of 3, White Sox 1, Royals 0. Royals are in danger of becoming irrelevant. 

 

Not sure there's any danger there...they are

[gil4]

Twins keep winning, so the other scores might not matter after all. Texas just lost to Oakland 1-0.  The  Astros beat the Angels 6-2, and the Royals were the only contending team to win, beating the White Sox 8-2.

 

If the worst thing that happens all day is the White Sox losing, then it has been a great day. (OK, the worst thing might be Kepler's hip injury, depending on the severity, but we're just going to keep out fingers crossed on that one.)

 

The Twins are now 81-74 with 7 to play (including 4 more vs. Detroit.)

KC, LAA, and Tex are all tied at 76-78, 4.5 games behind.

 

I want to say it's over, but I think I will wait until all the candidates concede (and the Twins survive the series in Cleveland.)

 

[gil4]

The Twins look like they have the finale of the 4-game sweep in Detroit wrapped up as we take a look at the scoreboard.

 

Just under way:

KC (Kennedy,4-12, 5.39) at CHW (Giolito, 2-3, 2.58)

 

3:05 CDT start:

TEX (Perez, 12-11, 4.70) at OAK (Cotton, 8-10, 5.81)

 

7:05 CDT start:

LAA (Skaggs,2-6, 4.30) at HOU (McCullers, 7-3. 3.97)

[gil4]

Royals lost to the White Sox 8-1 - time to check the condition of their golf clubs.

 

Texas and Oakland are still coreless in the bottom of the 5th. 

 

I'm glad I didn't have to watch these teams all year.

[brvama]

Bottom of the 6th and A's up 6-0 and still batting.

[gil4]

 

Bottom of the 6th and A's up 6-0 and still batting.

 

We have a final - 8-1 in this game too. This scoreboard watching thing is easier than I thought it would be.

[gil4]

Morning update - the Angels came back and beat the Astros 7-5, which keeps them 4.5 games back. They are still on life support, but probably not quite ready to pull the plug.

 

The Royals and Rangers are done, however. Mathematically they are still alive, but their elimination number is two - any combination of Twins wins and their losses adding up to two makes it official. Even if the Twins manage to lose all six remaining games, I can't see either of those teams winning six of seven. KC travels to NY to play one against the Yankees before going home for three each against the Tigers and D-backs. Texas also finishes at home, three against Houston followed by four against Oakland.

 

The Angels chances are still pretty slim, but they play four in Chicago vs. the White Sox before finishing up at home with the Mariners. It's possible that both of their opponents mail in the final week and the Angels win out, forcing the Twins to win three of six against the Indians and Tigers.

 

If you have made travel arrangements to see the wild card game in New York, weather and ticket availability are more likely to be problems than the Twins not making it.

[drjim]

LOL

[Sarah]

My favorite scoreboard watching experience was when I was in Colorado for the end of the 2007 season - the Rockies had won something like 14 of their last 15 games and had to beat the Diamondbacks to force a one game playoff with the Padres. So any time we heard a random cheer in the middle of the game we knew it was because they had put something on the scoreboard that the Padres were losing. I'm not even a Rockies fan but it was a really fun experience to be part of, Coors Field is a great ballpark and we had beautiful fall weather in Denver too. We were all very jealous because we had all flown out to Denver so had to leave but one of my friends had driven out there so he stayed for the tiebreaker game the next day. And then the Rockies went on to the World Series that year so it was pretty fun to watch that after having just been there.