Game Thread: Twins v White Sox, 9/1 @ 7:10pm CT

 

 

That's Perk's fault, but Mauer always seems to want to toss it to the pitcher rather than take it himself with some hustle.

That is for sure a pitcher cover play, so easy, why should the first baseman have to make that play, he is expecting the pitcher to be there.

"Good" enough tonight!  The Sox are very sweepable. Let's do it.

OK, restarting the heart now.  Big win.

Man, that HR from Sano might be one of the bigger hits of the year.

 

 

That's Perk's fault, but Mauer always seems to want to toss it to the pitcher rather than take it himself with some hustle.

Mauer has earned lots of flak this year. That argument isn't fair though. The pitcher needs to be there every time.

Edited September 2, 2015 by Intramural Legend

Chicken Dinnah.

 

That's Perk's fault, but Mauer always seems to want to toss it to the pitcher rather than take it himself with some hustle.

 

That was a fantastic play by Joe

 

That is for sure a pitcher cover play, so easy, why should the first baseman have to make that play, he is expecting the pitcher to be there.

In case that happens, or the pitcher steps on his shoe lace and falls.  You never count on someone to be there, and always assume you have to make a play.  

 

 

Now take it to this "Carlos Rodent" character tomorrow, whoever the heck that is.

 

 

To reiterate, I clearly said that was Perk's fault.  Did y'all miss that?  Sheesh.

 

 

In case that happens, or the pitcher steps on his shoe lace and falls.  You never count on someone to be there, and always assume you have to make a play.  

 

You sound like my wife.

Well, just started new job yesterday, so my TD time is severely diminished.  But looks like I'm in time for DINNAH!!!!!   Yummmmm..... and it tastes even better when served up by the Sox!  Oh, what I wouldn't have given to hear Hawk's silence on that Sano blast!  Hmmm... weren't we musing on that earlier?  

 

You sound like my wife.

I was going to say "smart woman," but then I considered who she married.

 

Well, just started new job yesterday, so my TD time is severely diminished.  But looks like I'm in time for DINNAH!!!!!   Yummmmm..... and it tastes even better when served up by the Sox!  Oh, what I wouldn't have given to hear Hawk's silence on that Sano blast!  Hmmm... weren't we musing on that earlier?  

I would've preferred to hear his description of the bottom of the 8th, but either would've been sweet.

 

You sound like my wife.

Come to bed.

Didn't catch the game as I was at the U.S. Open

 

/lights fine cigar

//drinks expensive brandy

///lights $100 bill on fire.

 

But omg what a win! Following on the phone I thought they were in trouble after giving up the lead.

 

Why would any team pitch to Sano up one run, in the 7th with Hunter on deck? To that point, they absolutely need someone other than hunter hitting behind sano. Ideally it would be dozier or Mauer(he is clutch this year)

Also Rosario got a couple hits off a top LhP in the game. Looking more are more like an everyday important player. Jacque Jones he is not.

Jacque Jones he is not.

Especially throwing!

Observations from the game (I watch on a computer that isn't good at streaming video and getting on TD at same time):

 

--How does a pitcher lose a strike zone as quickly as Duffey did?  That was scary bad.  Would love to hear or see his quotes about that outing.  Kid looked like a world beater to start out and then looked like a Red Land pitcher from Saturday at the end of the outing.

 

--Speaking of losing the strike zone, CB Bucknor, go home you're drunk.  He is 2nd on my list of umpires that have no business being above me in priority of doing a MLB game (Angel Hernandez is #1).  What's funny is he was bad for both teams and I'm shocked that Molitor didn't get after CB when Plouffe yapped back at after the K.  The guy is terrible and needs to go find a tee-ball game to go screw up.

 

--Agree with the above comment about pitching to Sano like that.  The way you get him out is work him down and away.  If you leave it up with no velocity, you might as well fish it out of the upper deck.  A fellow Twins friend of mine and I have come to call him The Beast.  He never gets cheated on his dingers.

 

--Perkins still has the closer disease.  Still don't feel comfortable when he's out there.  Big brain fart not getting over on that ball to Mauer.

 

--Amazing resiliency by these guys to keep after it and light up Duke in the 8th as well as taking advantage of the Sux treating the ball like it's a hand grenade.

 

--Great (albeit stressful and frustrating) start to this series.  Easier to win 2 of 3 when you get the first one.  Sux don't have much success against Milone so hopefully we can get game 2 tomorrow night.

 

Here's the telecast:

{Crack}...crowd roars...silence..."dadgummit"...sound of shuffling papers, door closing.  Fade to commercial.

I think you may have nailed it. Probably happened after the Sano home run.

MLB Tonight crew talking about Grienke being the frontrunner for the NL CY Young.  Harold Reynolds get contradictory and says that yeah, he's got the great ERA but he never finishes games.  That's his complaint. They try and explain it's a new age, and Reynolds keeps going on.

 

The man does only have one CG this year, but he also leads the NL in innings pitched.

Somebody posted Mauer's slash line with RISP earlier in the thread (thank you; I'm much too lazy to backscroll three or four pages). I've been wondering about how the defense has to play him with runners in scoring position. A lot of the Twins Daily write ups of his decline have asserted that he is losing hits to the aggressive shifts opposing teams put on him, which explains some of the decreased production.

 

It seems reasonable that having runners on second or third or both would take away the infield shift, but would it affect the outfield shift? Does anyone who has been able to see more games than I have have eyes on how the defense aligns with risp? Does anybody who understands how on earth to use Fangraphs have any saberoptometry that evinces something? In a word, what situations make it too risky or too impractical to shift on Mauer in infield or outfield, and how much does that affect his "clutch" production or his otherwise production? Just a thought