IndianaTwin

All chicken posts are now competing for second-best of the year.

Bucket, nothing. I wanna buy me an entire dadgum KFC.

Daughter, yes. Dog, perhaps. Mother-in-law, not so much.

Great job, as always. Recently on TD there have been threads debating whether to offer extensions to guys like Gibson and Mauer. I have another contract issue. From his profile, it appears that Tom Froemming is finishing up his second season on TD. Have the owners/moderators considered giving him a long-term contract to buy out his arbitration years and perhaps the first couple years of free agency? The last thing we would want is to have him bolt for YankeesDaily and force us to go back to reading the crappy stuff from MLB.com.

The Rangers also have a better run differential than the Angels with a slightly easier remaining schedule. They may actually be a tougher team to put away than LA.

If this score holds, the Tigers will have averaged giving up 7 runs per game during September. That's not very good. Oh, and have scored less than 4 per game. That's not very good either.

In an effort to get a two- or three-run lead, I would have liked bunting with a real bunter instead of Vargas. Maybe it was during the Game Thread, but I heard people point to Garver, Giminez, and even Kepler as options to take over on defense for Vargas, but I didn't hear anyone point out what seemed like the best option to me: Burn the DH spot, and bring in Mauer for defense. It's a long bench and there aren't other spots that are going to need pinch hitters, so stick the pitcher in the 6 hole and pinch hit if we get around to that spot again. If we run out of pinch hitters, we've got bigger issues than a pitcher needing to hit!

Astros up 2-0 on the Angels early. And some of you thought Nolasco would never help the Twins. See?

For those not following along, Cleveland just was down to its final strike and tied the game against the Royals. Seriously, are they ever going to lose again?

Bonnie? Have you been talking to my wife too? No wonder she's fed up with all my talk about baseball. Apparently we've been telling her the same things, however, because I agree with your post.

Well, in Strat-O-Matic, Wood is now tired.

I wish Posada and Williams WOULD walk through the door for them. The former is 46 and Bernie turns 49 tomorrow. I'd rather face either of those than Sanchez and Judge.

Too much bunting -- I get the complaints, especially Grossman early in the game. The steals -- sometimes they don't work. At the same, they've been showing themselves to be more aggressive on the basepaths recently, and I think that all-in-all that's a good thing. The bullpen composition -- some of us think it's horrible, but the front office has incrementally worked to improve it, never sacrificing the long-term view in the process. But I'm not sure I disagree with Molitor's bullpen management, given the context, including the last several days. To think back... He managed Thursday well, following 7 strong innings from Gibson with an inning from Hildy and an inning from his closer. He got that win in the bag.He managed Friday well. Santana was struggling and had given up three runs in his last two innings. Needing to get four innings, he went to Duffey, one of the better candidates for multiple innings, even though he has struggled recently. Duffey got him an inning and then let the first batter reach. In a higher-leverage situation, he went to Rogers, hoping to finish the 7th with him. Unfortunately the next two guys got on, so he went to Hildenberger in what was now an even-higher leverage situation. Hildy pitched great and got out of the jam on a few pitches -- a huge performance. The Twins scored twice in the top of the 8th to make it 8-5. Rather than let this one get away, Molitor ran Hildy back out for the 8th and got him through the two innings on just 18 pitches. Then he used Belisle in the closer situation, according to the book. (We can argue about whether the book was right in this situation with a 3-run lead, but we would have excoriated him if he'd gone to someone else in either the 8th or 9th and blown it. And if the Twins score another run in the 9th, he saves Belisle.). For Saturday, then, that left him with: Two wins in the bag (three if you count Wednesday against Toronto)His two best relievers -- Hildy and Belisle -- unavailable after pitching three straight days. That's the price you sometimes pay to win three straight.His third best reliever -- Rogers -- likely not available for more than 1-2 batters after pitching three of the last four days (and 41 pitches in the process, plus warmups).That sounds like a formula for "roll the dice and hope for the best" on Saturday night. So, Berrios gets through 7 innings on 94 pitches and a 2-2 tie. I kinda hoped he'd bring Berrios back out, but I can understand the logic of not. Basically, three things can happen and two of them are not good: Berrios sails through the eight on a dozen pitches or less, leaving with a pitch count just into the 100s. That's the best case.Berrios struggles a bit. He gets through the inning unscathed, but it took him 20+ pitches, pushing 120 him to pitches in the process.Berrios gets into trouble, and Molitor has to go to guys he doesn't trust, with runners on base. Here's where the dice rolling comes in. Pressley has pitched well at times and can maybe get through the inning, so he rolls the dice with him. Unfortunately Pressley gave up two baserunners.Still tied, the ineffective Pressley has to leave. Next up is a lefty, and the choices are Boshers or Rogers. But you're not going to Rogers for more than two batters. That means he would get a lefty and a righty, so this is for all practical purposes a LOOGY situation, because Yost isn't going to PH for Perez. Waiting a couple batters later are back-to-back lefties in Moustakis and Moss. So, does he want Boshers facing one batter and Rogers two, or vice versa? He wants Rogers facing two, so he rolls the dice with Boshers here. Unfortunately, Boshers gives up a hit, which scores the first run.So then, which righty do you go to? We might have liked Busenitz, but Molitor still has more confidence in Duffey. He also knew it was a one-batter situation, so I'd like to think that he was using Duffey here and saving Busenitz for the 9th if the Twins should get fortunate enough to have a lead. Unfortunately, Perez doubles and drives in the second run.If any of Pressley, Boshers, or Duffey had gotten even one out, Molitor is sitting with Rogers to face the two lefties in Moustakis and Moss. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and Perez compounded the problem by doubling, so the logical move is to intentionally walk Moustakis to set up the double play. Molitor lets Duffey take responsibility for the four-finger salute does before he exits.And then Rogers comes in and gets his out against the remaining lefty, and it's still a two-run game. So you roll the dice with Busenitz and hope for a rally.Busenitz gets the two outs, but unfortunately, one of them scores a third run.And the Twins don't rally. The Twins lost the game, but Molitor got them through to Sunday with a generally available bullpen and an off-day Monday. Rogers may not be available today after pitching in 4 out of 5 games, but it was only 11 pitches in the last three days, so he might again be available for 1-2 batters. Similarly, Duffey may not be available after pitching back-to-back days, but it was only 11 pitches. But everyone else is available, though I'm sure he'd love a blowout to give Belisle, Hildy and others an extra day before taking on the Padres. Going to KC, I think the goal was to win 3 of 4, and they are in position to do it thanks at least in part to how Molitor handled the bullpen.

Clarification -- first old guy QS AGAINST THE SOX...

Today's game by Colon was the first Quality Start by someone 42 or older since Nolan Ryan. Yep, in the Robin Ventura game.

Great stuff, as always. I assume that you're waiting until after tonight's action to post the standings stuff. But when you do, let's not forget to note that the White Sox' elimination magic number is 13. Twins wins + Sox losses equalling 13 eliminates the Sox from playoff and ensures that the Twins have a better record than them. We want the playoffs, obviously, but finishing ahead of Chicago constitutes a successful season as well.

At the risk of going off-topic (okay -- pretty clearly I'm going off topic), there's a bio of Joe Lis at: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/8dddbbbb. No mention of Erik, but a pretty fun read nonetheless. Sounds like Joe was a character: "Joe liked the American League because of the nice people he met, people like umpire Bill Kunkel. Lis recalled one incident in particular. When he entered one game as a defensive replacement, Kunkel said, 'It's good to see you, Joe; because when I see you, I know the game is almost over.'" Article also sounds like Joe makes Vargas look like a Gold Glover.

Fun article. Is Erik Lis related to the Joe Lis who played for the Twins in 1973-74? I see that Joe Lis died and is buried in Evansville, Ind. Erik Lis graduated from high school in Illinois, but played at the University of Evansville. And when I was looking up Joe, I came across what seems like an oddity. How many players debut came on a different day than the day of the game? That is, Joe's debut came on Sept. 5, in the completion of a game listed as Sept. 4, but that was suspended and completed on the 5th. That can't have happened TOO often.

Northern Indiana, but they are also delivered fresh to several Chicago locations. Visit risenroll.com for locations. The caramel cinnamon are the local legends in the donut world. Other folks are big on the cashew crunch candy. You won't go wrong on anything you have there, including many different flavors of homemade bread.

By the way, the last four sweeps have all occurred at the beginning of one of my business trips. If you'd like to contribute to the "Keep Sending IndianaTwin on Business Trips Fund," PM me and I'll send you bank routing and account number information.

Have my co-workers been paying you off? With the second game considered the makeup, our office rules consider this to be the completion of a sweep, since the Twins won the other two games back in May. That means donuts for the office next time I'm in. AND, since it's not a normal sweep, but a sweep of the White Sox, this calls for more than your basic Dunkin' Donuts. It's off to the local Amish bakery to celebrate.

Important question -- which game today was considered the makeup and which was the regularly scheduled one? There may be doughnuts riding on the answer.

Agreed. Berthiaume is great, and Brenley may be the best color guy in baseball. And what takes them over the top is that they work so well together. The only pairs I can think of that compare are Kasper-Deshaies and back when it was Kasper-Brenley.

Statcast record of 13.85 seconds home-to-home, per the radio guys.

And with that homer, his 33rd in 805 career at bats, Der Schlagger remains atop the list in fewest ABs per homer. He's competing with Aaron Altherr, who is at 25 in 642. He moved ahead with the blast last night.