The Jays are leading a close wild card race for the AL with the Red Sox and Yankees in a dead heat. Every game counts for the Jays, and I for one, will be rooting for them in the post season (but not tonight!). The Jays are a spicy team, tons of interesting players, and I love watch Vlad Jr play. It will be a tough series for our Twins...

On the bump: Twins: Michael Pineda vs Jays: Hyun Jin Ryu

 

Lineups:

Twins:

Buxton CF

Polanco SS

Donaldson 3B

Sano 1B

Refsnyder LF

Arraez 2B

Rooker DH

Kepler RF

Jeffers C

 

Jay’s:
Springer DH

Semien 2B

Guerrero 1B

Bichette SS

Hernandez RF

Dickerson CF

Gurriel LF

Jansen CF

Lamb 3B

Whoa, a game thread before 11am!

Plenty of time to bake some fresh cookies to wash the beer down.

You know, this season has really sucked but MLB has some really exciting players. Vlad is probably my favorite non-Twin since Ichiro. I don't expect we will win this series but it could be a fun one to watch and a very hard test for our pitchers.

18 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

You know, this season has really sucked but MLB has some really exciting players. Vlad is probably my favorite non-Twin since Ichiro. I don't expect we will win this series but it could be a fun one to watch and a very hard test for our pitchers.

I feel similarly about Tatis. So much fun to watch and it’s a bummer his infield play has been so limited this season.

As a whole, the Jays are one of the most fun teams in baseball. 

Looks like no Simmons for this series.

Dustin Morse (probably): Come see _______ play for _______!!! 2022 season tickets go on sale today!

2 hours ago, Unwinder said:

Looks like no Simmons for this series.

Put Gordon there and see how he does, even if he is lousy, his on base speed can help.

2 hours ago, Unwinder said:

Looks like no Simmons for this series.

yep ... was just coming to post this here ... and I hope that they give Gordon those 3 games at SS ... or at least 2 of 3.

 

 

4 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Whoa, a game thread before 11am!

Several meetings this afternoon, but I had a gap this morning… I didn’t want to let down Gamethreader faithful! We have a dedicated crew 

3 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

You know, this season has really sucked but MLB has some really exciting players. Vlad is probably my favorite non-Twin since Ichiro. I don't expect we will win this series but it could be a fun one to watch and a very hard test for our pitchers.

I hope the Twins can keep the Jays in single digits for at least two of the three games. If I were a betting person, I would bet they don't.

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

I hope the Twins can keep the Jays in single digits for at least two of the three games. If I were a betting person, I would bet they don't.

I think Kenny would agree

2 hours ago, Squirrel said:

yep ... was just coming to post this here ... and I hope that they give Gordon those 3 games at SS ... or at least 2 of 3.

 

 

Polanco @ SS tonight, hopefully tomorrow and Sunday

At this point, I hope the Jays sweep us. I hope our offense does well, but the Jays continue to march toward the first wild card birth, and the Red Sox (or some other team that doesn't seem likely) and Jays take the Yankees out of the playoffs. I hope they blast Pineda, so we can be convinced to move on from him and sign a better Free Agent as his contract expires. Looks like we won't get to see Berrios this series..... or Ryan. This team looks like a 90 plus game loser, and not really inspired to be anything but at this point. No chance of seeing either of the players Berrios traded for contribute this year, and maybe next for that matter.  We get to see Semien, the shortstop we could have had..... Toronto sure has been fun to watch this year. I hope we don't spoil it for them. They deserve it, and we don't.

Blue Jays Lineup:

• 
  MIN Lineup
• 
  TOR Lineup

 

HITTERS	H-AB	RBI	HR	SB	AVG
G. SpringerDH	60-233	37	17	3	.258
M. Semien2B	158-585	94	39	15	.270
V. Guerrero Jr.1B	173-545	103	45	4	.317
B. BichetteSS	169-577	93	25	22	.293
T. HernandezRF	150-490	103	27	11	.306
C. DickersonCF	78-300	26	5	4	.260
L. Gurriel Jr.LF	130-459	80	19	1	.283
D. JansenC	33-150	19	8	0	.220
J. Lamb3B	27-134	18	7	0	.201

Pitching stats:

W-L	ERA	WHIP	IP	H	K	BB	HR
M. Pineda	6-8	3.87	1.22	93.0	95	79	18	15
H. Ryu	13-8	4.11	1.19	157.2	153	131	34	20

At this point I am on board with giving Gordon many starts at SS, not because I want to see his defensive stylings at a position I expect him to be overmatched at, but to get some peace from the voices who advocate that the Twins' talent evaluators must have missed something at AAA that will reveal his arm and range to be suddenly sufficient at the MLB level.

I suspect he's not going to get more than one start against Toronto, though, because the latter is in a pennant race and there's an unwritten law about not tanking in such situations.  Maybe against the Cubs, maybe in the final two series too.

16 minutes ago, ashbury said:

I suspect he's not going to get more than one start against Toronto, though, because the latter is in a pennant race and there's an unwritten law about not tanking in such situations.  Maybe against the Cubs, maybe in the final two series too

It's a tankless job, but someone has to do it.

 

And Gordon has some say in the matter, as they obviously wouldn't be tanking if he plays lights out and dominates the game...

34 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Pitching stats:

W-L	ERA	WHIP	IP	H	K	BB	HR
M. Pineda	6-8	3.87	1.22	93.0	95	79	18	15
H. Ryu	13-8	4.11	1.19	157.2	153	131	34	20

I like how the columns are askew in my display so they have whips around 4... That is like, facing 7 batters an inning? This will be a long game. 

7 hours ago, Sconnie said:

Jay’s:
Springer DH

Semien 2B

Guerrero 1B

Bichette SS

Hernandez RF

Dickerson CF

Gurriel LF

Jansen CF

Lamb 3B

I know it's a typo, but I had some fun thinking about a lineup with no catcher and two centerfielders.

Actually, I'm not sure the rules allow no catcher...

49 minutes ago, Sconnie said:

Polanco @ SS tonight, hopefully tomorrow and Sunday

Polanco is lousy as a short stop, so I assume Arraez is at 2nd; that is Arraez only decent poiition fielding but that still means poor defense at SS.

16 minutes ago, PDX Twin said:

I know it's a typo, but I had some fun thinking about a lineup with no catcher and two centerfielders.

Actually, I'm not sure the rules allow no catcher...

Sounds like a softball numbers work around.

 

I approve!

Buxton K.

I am sad...

123....

 

Buxton catches that.

So would Kepler, had not Buxton called him off.

Sano....

 

Walks.

Good job!

Rooker!!

Drives Sano in for the lead!

A run! A run! We got a run!!!!

Need a bit more of that from Rooker, nice job.