Good Morning Twins fans! We have an early Monday game today. This is a make-up game from earlier this year against the Detroit Tigers. After the ugly loss against Milwaukee yesterday the Twins will try to get back on track today against the lowly Tigers. For the rest of the year I'm somewhat hesitant to cheer for my beloved Twins. At this point being 18 games behind the White Sox I'm cheering for a better draft pick next year. However, I'd still like to see the new kids being pulled up from minors perform well and build that confidence for next year. 

I'm encouraging people to post comments to the Game Thread from work today (for those of us working). Make sure you leave out any NSFW comments today if posting from work. Keep it clean and professional. For those of you posting from home you can take a little more risk. Beware however, Twins Daily Moderators are always patrolling these Game Thread waters.

If you are posting from work, it would be fun to share what you do for a living. If you are participating today from home and looking for a full-time job in manufacturing, PM me and we can discuss job opportunities. We need more people asap, especially 2nd shift! Maybe Twins Daily can start a job posting section??? Subject to Moderator approval of course.

Enjoy today's early matinee ballgame! I'll be listening to it on the radio.

Go Twins!

Today's Lineups:

TWINS:

1. Luis Arraez, 3B

2. Byron Buxton, CF

3. Jorge Polanco, 2B

4. Josh Donaldson, DH

5. Max Kepler, RF

6. Miguel Sano, 1B

7. Nick Gordon, LF

8. Ryan Jeffers, C

9. A. Simmons, SS

P - Baily "it ain't" Ober (R)

 

TIGERS:

1. Akil Baddoo, LF

2. J. Schoop, 1B

3. J. Candelario, 3B

4. M. Cabrera, DH

5. Eric Haase, C

6. H. Castro, 2B

7. Victor Reyes, RF

8. Zach Short, SS

9. Derek Hill, CF

P - Casey Mize (R)

Weather: Partly cloudy and 83 degrees.

 

My pick to click this afternoon is Byron Buxton. 

Exactly why are we making up this game?  I understand making up the Yankee game, but why this one?  

38 minutes ago, Longdistancetwins said:

Exactly why are we making up this game?  I understand making up the Yankee game, but why this one?  

I assume one reason is that it would give the two teams the unfair advantage of an extra day off compared to the teams they face.

Oooh, Arraez/Buxton/Polanco/Donaldson is a nice top of the order.

43 minutes ago, Longdistancetwins said:

Exactly why are we making up this game?  I understand making up the Yankee game, but why this one?  

Gordon making his 1st career start in LF. Hmm. 

9 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Gordon making his 1st career start in LF. Hmm. 

I mean sure, why not? He needs outfield time in general.

21 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Oooh, Arraez/Buxton/Polanco/Donaldson is a nice top of the order.

I was thinking the same thing when posting the lineups.

8 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Gordon making his 1st career start in LF. Hmm. 

Inside Scoop says the Twins are going to remake Gordon into the next Tortuga. He's going behind the plate next week and gets the first closer opportunity the week after. The problem the front office has been having is getting Gordon to put on some speed pounds. They've restricted his daily diet to Big Macs, three pounds of french fries and lots of spaghetti. When his system gets plugged up they shoot him up with a horse wormer and clorox cocktail... you know, so they can clean him out and protect him against covid at the same time. Sort of a two-fer.

I don't have any first-hand knowledge of any of that, but some anonymous guy posted it on the internet so it must be true. Personally, I think Gordon will remain half the player Astudillo is... at least by weight.

 

 

I was up in Traverse City, Michigan a few weeks ago.  Note that, yes, they have a TC Bear in Traverse City.  Their TC Bear looks like it could probably beat up our TC Bear without much trouble, mind you.

Though I only saw the western half of Michigan, it was quite nice.  Mostly untouched.  One might expect it to be all farmland like Central and Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, but instead it is old forests like you would see in Northern Wisconsin.

In a way, it was like stepping back in time.  My extended family comes out of the Hastings area, and Traverse City was similar to my stomping grounds when I was growing up.  The Traverse City area is a city-not-city, much like Hastings was at the time.  One striking thing was it was demographically very white, which also reminded me of Hastings from that era.  I'm not saying they were racist or anything, of course.

Hey, there’s a ball game on… let’s talk Twins!
 

 

 

In between meetings anyways….

I don't follow other teams too much, but I'm a little surprised Robbie Grossman isn't starting today. 

Game is sure moving at a nice fast pace - everyone swinging away like they want to get this one over with quick.  

This half inning is going quite well!

Donaldson heatin up. Just in time for the pla……….golf course.

Well, this inning is definitely more interesting than the previous three. 

1 minute ago, LVTwinsfan said:

Donaldson heatin up. Just in time for the pla……….golf.

Never too early to get primed for those celebrity tournaments!

1 hour ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Oooh, Arraez/Buxton/Polanco/Donaldson is a nice top of the order.

Yeah, I thought the same thing when they used it on Saturday. And I'm not ready to give up on Kepler and Sano following them. 

4 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

Yeah, I thought the same thing when they used it on Saturday. And I'm not ready to give up on Kepler and Sano following them. 

Definitely not Sano. The guy has an OPS over .800 since June 1st. 

Following from 30k ft above ground

48 minutes ago, Dodecahedron said:

I was up in Traverse City, Michigan a few weeks ago.  Note that, yes, they have a TC Bear in Traverse City.  Their TC Bear looks like it could probably beat up our TC Bear without much trouble, mind you.

Though I only saw the western half of Michigan, it was quite nice.  Mostly untouched.  One might expect it to be all farmland like Central and Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, but instead it is old forests like you would see in Northern Wisconsin.

In a way, it was like stepping back in time.  My extended family comes out of the Hastings area, and Traverse City was similar to my stomping grounds when I was growing up.  The Traverse City area is a city-not-city, much like Hastings was at the time.  One striking thing was it was demographically very white, which also reminded me of Hastings from that era.  I'm not saying they were racist or anything, of course.

Though I'm an Iowan at heart, I've spent my 35 adult years in northern Indiana, which a lot of folks escape (appropriately, I might add) by going to the Traverse City area.

I made my first jaunt there a couple years ago, and it really is a beautiful area. Good bike/walking trails, some touristy stuff nearby. A little ways north is the "Tunnel of Trees," which truly is one of the most awesome drives one can take anywhere. My brother, an avid motorcyclist, would say the same. 

1 minute ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Definitely not Sano. The guy has an OPS over .800 since June 1st. 

Yeah it’s all coming together, they could win 75 games.( political spin)

Just now, LVTwinsfan said:

Yeah it’s all coming together, they could win 75 games.( political spin)

The offense has been a mild disappointment but the reason this team is bad is the pitching. I give most of the offense a pass because, as a whole, they’ve hit the ball and scored runs. 

11 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Following from 30k ft above ground

Or, roughly the height needed to avoid Sano's blast from the other night. 

I hate the idea of baseball banning the shift. What is better is for teams to try to beat it. The way baseball is played at this level is not taught to kids. But you can definitely teach beating the shift. All baseball players should know how to bunt, that shouldn’t even be a debate. Being able to bunt will not have a negative impact on your ability to hit. Hrbek would bunt when the third basemen was back, He would be bunting doubles if they shifted him. 

Whoa! It's already in the 6th? Smoke 'em if ya got 'em. Sounds like both teams wanna get the h*** outta Dodge. 

Cmon Sano that pitch started off the plate, you gotta be better.

20 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

The offense has been a mild disappointment but the reason this team is bad is the pitching. I give most of the offense a pass because, as a whole, they’ve hit the ball and scored runs. 

I agree, and I’m positive that if they had pitching to back them up there offense would have responded much differently.

28 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Following from 30k ft above ground

Be good up there. Don’t get yourself duct taped to your seat.