Well, we're officially in the last week of the season now. A mercy killing, to be sure, but it's always sad to see baseball wind down, as we Minnesotans know what that means... disappointment from the Vikings instead of the Twins. And sometimes the Wild.

Sorry, Timberwolves, you're just pathetic and no one expects anything of you, ever.

With only six left to play, the Twins have a chance to pull out of the cellar (2.0 GB Kansas City). And if they sweep all three from Detroit, they have a remote chance at erasing the 6.0 GB they currently sit behind the Tigers, provided you're truly terrible at math.

The upside is that the Twins have been kinda exciting the past few weeks with both Ober and Ryan looking pretty good and making the 2022 pitching outlook turn from dismal to pretty-scary-but-maybe-okay-if-you-squint-really-hard.

Of course, neither one of those pitchers will take the mound tonight, as we will see at least one more CBE before this wretched season concludes.

It's not as if I dislike Charlie Barnes, I simply think he's a very bad starting pitcher.

On the offensive side, Buxton always makes a game worth watching and we've witnessed some prime time Byron Buxton of late, as he has posted a 1.289 OPS over the past week of baseball. And Mitch Garver is back, too! And he looks like the Mitch Garver of 2019 again, absolutely crushing the ball between taking walks.

Damn, it sure would have been nice to see those two accumulate more than 14 plate appearances between the two of them.

Better luck next year, Twins fans!

Detroit:
1. Akil Baddoo (L) CF
2. Jonathan Schoop (R) 1B
3. Robbie Grossman (S) RF
4. Miguel Cabrera (R) DH
5. Jeimer Candelario (S) 3B
6. Isaac Paredes (R) 2B
7. Eric Haase (R) LF
8. Dustin Garneau (R) C
9. Zack Short (R) SS
P - Tyler Alexander (L)

Twins (lineup TBD, this is my prediction):
1. Willains Astudillo (R) C
2. Willains Astudillo (R) 1B
3. Willains Astudillo (R) DH
4. Willains Astudillo (R) SS
5. Willains Astudillo (R) 2B
6. Willains Astudillo (R) 3B
7.  Willains Astudillo (R) LF
8. Willains Astudillo (R) CF
9. Willains Astudillo (R) RF
P - Charlie Barnes (L)

Here is the actual Twins lineup:

 

HITTERS	H-AB	RBI	HR	SB	AVG
B. BuxtonCF	61-210	28	16	7	.290
J. Polanco2B	154-568	91	31	11	.271
M. GarverC	51-196	32	13	0	.260
J. Donaldson3B	107-436	67	24	0	.245
M. SanoDH	98-448	71	29	2	.219
B. RookerLF	35-174	15	8	0	.201
W. Astudillo1B	48-201	21	7	0	.239
M. KeplerRF	87-407	52	19	10	.214
A. SimmonsSS	90-401	31	3	1	.224

 

And pitching matchup:

 

PLAYER	W-L	ERA	WHIP	IP	H	K	BB	HR
T. Alexander	2-3	4.10	1.30	94.1	98	77	25	15
C. Barnes	0-3	6.61	1.53	31.1	36	15	12	4

I like Brock's line up better.

 

He has the shortstop batting cleanup.

They didn’t send Buxton on a 3-2 pitch which resulted in a double play. They send him and avoid a DP, they score a run on Garver’s single. 

I tuned in for the pitcher trying to stop mid pitch as ump called time, and ended up flinging it into the stands. 

 

That's gotta make highlight reels for years to come.

So who thinks Baddoo gets offered back to the Twins inthe coming week?

 

Who thinks he starts on opening day next year?

Wait... Schoop at first?

 

What kinda bizarro baseball world do we live in?

4 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

1. Willains Astudillo (R) C
2. Willains Astudillo (R) 1B
3. Willains Astudillo (R) DH
4. Willains Astudillo (R) SS
5. Willains Astudillo (R) 2B
6. Willains Astudillo (R) 3B
7.  Willains Astudillo (R) LF
8. Willains Astudillo (R) CF
9. Willains Astudillo (R) RF
P - Charlie Barnes (L)

I finally got the joke.

1 of these things is not like the others...

Buxton....

 

Walk, stolen base, advances on two flies.

16 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

I tuned in for the pitcher trying to stop mid pitch as ump called time, and ended up flinging it into the stands. 

 

That's gotta make highlight reels for years to come.

I’m at the game and didn’t see the ump call time.  I was wondering why they didn’t give Rooker 2nd base cause I thought it was a wild pitch.

Byron 1, Detroit 0 after 3.

 

CBU

"We don't serve time travellers here" yelled the barkeep.

 

A time traveller walks into a bar.

8 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

Wait... Schoop at first?

 

What kinda bizarro baseball world do we live in?

Wait...Who's on first?

Nice inning from Alcala

Time for an insurance run or two 

4 minutes ago, downunder twins fan said:

Time for an insurance run or two 

There's a Sano smash for an insurance run!

And a Kep sacrifice fly for the two.

Nice to see Garza getting used in a high leverage situation. I would've like to see more of the young relievers get chances like this.

Anybody surprised?  Colome never holds runners on.

Okay.  Once again, making it interesting…

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

"We don't serve time travellers here" yelled the barkeep.

 

A time traveller walks into a bar.

It just dawned on me... I laughed at that 3 years ago.

 

Thanks for the reminder.

1 hour ago, Longdistancetwins said:

And a Kep sacrifice fly for the two.

Looks like we made good use of both insurance runs.

3 hours ago, kydoty said:

I’m at the game and didn’t see the ump call time.  I was wondering why they didn’t give Rooker 2nd base cause I thought it was a wild pitch.

I inferred time, as the umps hands were up after the pitch was thrown, but had to see a replay to be sure. It was really split second timing.

4 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Wait...Who's on first?

Exactly.

 

Oh yeah....

 

Winnah!

 

(Sorry... someone might have been asleep at the wheel.)