Riverbrian

1. Rangers -- The Rangers were rolling pretty good but I'm hopeful that the Seattle Mariners cooled them off by taking 2 out of 3 this past weekend. Maybe this is a sign of the Rangers' hot streak running out of gas and maybe... just maybe... we will be facing just a normal run-of-the-mill squad. The Texas Rangers were named after the New York Rangers. To be called a Ranger doesn't really narrow things down. You can be a Texas Ranger... a New York Ranger... a Park Ranger... a Forest Ranger... an Army Ranger... a Power Ranger... a Lone Ranger... a Night Ranger (Don't Tell me You Love Me)... an Iron Ranger... a boat or a Ford Truck. Prince Fielder is the Ranger that most resembles a Ford Truck.
2. One Turn Through the Rotation -- On our latest trip through our rotation the Twins gave up 52 runs. Thank God we had 9 pitchers in the bullpen or it could have been worse. This may be the 1st time in history where a front office is looking at an exhausted 9-man bullpen and openly discussing the need to call up a 10th bullpen arm.
3. The Last 15 Games -- Here's a list of Twins players hitting below .230 in the last 15 games: Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano, Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe, Torii Hunter, Kurt Suzuki, Joe Mauer, Eduardo Escobar, Eduardo Nunez and the backup catcher combo of Herrmann and Fryer. That's everybody except Aaron Hicks. Ladies and Gentlemen... Aaron Hicks is carrying the Twins and I'm afraid that we are too heavy for him to carry right now.
4. The Last 15 Games -- On the Pitching Side... Here's a list of Twins Pitchers with ERA's over 5.00 in the last 15 games. Ervin Santana, Phil Hughes, Kyle Gibson... Oh God!!! I Can't go on!!! Let's just say... thank God for Mike Pelfrey... His 4.76 ERA is keeping this from being a total disaster.
5. Starting out with Nothing -- I don't want to be totally negative because of the results of this last road trip. I think it's helpful to remind all that the Twins came into the 2015 season and they started out with nothing and they still have most of that.
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Game-time forecast: 78 deg F, clear and sunny heading toward clear and moon/starlit, 0% chance of precipitation, wind from the N at 6mph. I'm hoping that this lovely-sounding evening isn't spoiled by a baseball game. (ChiTown's addition, not RB's.)
Lineups:
RANGERS
DeShields CF
Choo RF
Fielder DH
Beltre 3B
Moreland 1B
Hamilton LF
Andrus SS
Odor 2B
Gimenez C
Gallardo P
TWINS
Hicks CF
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Sano 3B
Plouffe 3B
Hunter RF
Rosario LF
Suzuki C
Escobar SS
Gibson P
Go Twins! Play ball!