I'm working on a post for later about Joe Mauer's place in Twins history. Meanwhile, I've got the game on. F-Her against Fliriano. ubelmann's at the game and the rest of us are just watching it. Comment on the game here.
Here's the lineup:
| NO. | MINNESOTA | SEATTLE | |||
| 1. | Castillo | 2B | Suzuki | RF | |
| 2. | Kubel | LF | Beltre | 3B | |
| 3. | Mauer | C | Lopez | 2B | |
| 4. | Hunter | CF | Ibanez, | LF | |
| 5. | Cuddyer | RF | Sexson | 1B | |
| 6. | Morneau | 1B | Johjima | C | |
| 7. | White | DH | Bloomquist | CF | |
| 8. | Batista | 3B | Morse | DH | |
| 9. | Castro | SS | Betancourt | SS | |
What? Castillo is hitting first? Oh, and STOP THE INSANITY!
I was taken aback when I saw Beltre in the 2-hole. (teehee)
Go, Fliriano!
The Twins have gotten some hits (Mauer two) early, but so far no runs.
God, Torii swings at ball four with runners on second and third and grounds out to the pitcher.
Anytime you use "F-Her" please append "(copyright Moss 2005)". Moss doesn't want to have to go to the trouble of drafting a cease-and-desist letter.
Watching this team loaf through game after game makes Terry Ryan's "urgency" quote about Bartlett that much more laughable.
Mauer & Liriano are the only things making this game palatable. I guess Kubel's not too bad right now, too.
Does that constitute permission? Or are you just worried about marking?
Moss, your comment is more entertaining than at least 7/9ths of the Twins batting order. Thanks!
Hunter just loafed back on a ball that didn't go out.
And I'll take Fliriano.
Funniest statement of the night actually goes to Dick when he called this sHIT-fest a pitchers' dual.
I haven't watched a game in several days - maybe a week. Good to see the Twins are rounding into 2005 form. Hopefully management recognizes the spade for a spade real soon.
Hunter had no chance at catching that ball, and he wound up positioned perfectly for the carom. I don't see what else he should have done there.
I don't know, he looked pretty damned surprised when it stayed in the park. Based on Torii's body language, I was stunned it stayed in the park.
Like I said in the post, I'm working on a post about Mauer's place in Twins history, specifically about his 2006 season. It's timely with his third hit and second extra base hit.
I'm sorry, but I don't recall Mauer getting RBI's on those first two hits. So I contend they should not count.
Okay Bump.
Ugh. This bottom of the sixth is ugly.
i think the top of most innings are uglier
Gardy says:
Give this guy a Nobel Prize.
Always with the Gardy cheapshot - even when he makes a good decision
Very nice night for Kubel. It will be interesting to see if he stays in the lineup when Stewart comes back. That could spell the end of THE INSANITY.
Ed-die! Ed-die! Ed-die! And Mauer with four hits.
I say Stewart will be your DH..with his recurring injuries Ryan will want to try and keep him healthy and force Gardenhire's hand.
Mauer stinks. Can't hit for power. Did you see atrocious fielding and lousy baserunning.
I felt for sure Castillo hitting second wasn't a decision Terry Ryan was involved in.
Torii, Torii, Torii.
Here comes a three run bomb.
Garden-puppet?
On June 6, 2006, Jesse Crain comes into the game with a 6.66 ERA.
Why am I still watching this?
Because you were waiting for my post on VORP and who has had the best Twins offensive season in history, position adjusted.
oh yeah..
I don’t know, he looked pretty damned surprised when it stayed in the park. Based on Torii’s body language, I was stunned it stayed in the park.
That was a really weird play to watch in person. Like you, I often look towards the fielders to get a better idea of where the ball was hit (also, because I often sit in infield upper deck seats, my depth perception is all mucked up, but I'll take that negative over having to sit a mile away from the infield any day). It looked like a toss-up between Torii just totally giving up on the ball OR positioning himself in exactly the right spot to field the bounce of the wall. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here, though. I've complained about the defense, but I'm convinced that Torii is not the problem. (Also, compared with M's CF's in Safeco, where there's a lot of ground to cover, Torii seems to play shallower and get to more, even though Reed has a good defensive repuatation. Bloomquist is flat-out terrible in CF, though, and comparing him to Torii is like comparing Batista's fielding to Beltre's.)
Ed-die! Ed-die! Ed-die! And Mauer with four hits.
Eddie draws more ire from the fans in Seattle than anyone else on the team. I find it kind of sad, actually.
Also, the end of the game was a ridiculous exercise between managers trying to out-"by-the-book" one another. There's no reason anymore to believe that Mauer is worse against lefties than he is against righties. Keeping Guardado in there for platoon purposes alone was a silly move. Also, there was no reason to mess around with Mateo facing Hunter and Cuddyer, when Hargrove has a right-hander in the bullpen who has 38 K's in 28 innings, and he's willing to put that right-hander in later in the inning. The move to put Sherrill in the game was a good one, because Morneau remains bad at hitting LHP, but if he'd put Putz in the game earlier, Putz could certainly handle Morneau, and Morneau wouldn't necessarily have even hit that inning, given Putz's groundball tendancies on top of his K-rate.
Fortunately I stopped watching sometime in the 6th or 7th inning. I have to say that the comments here are definitely more entertaining than the top half of the innings were.
What was your favorite moment of the night? Mine was Rondell White taking a called third strike (that seemed to be right down the middle) on a full count hit-and-run. That pretty much sums up the Rondell White experience in one AB.
Whiffers... I stopped watching about the same time.
My fav moment? Castro hits a ball down the line that takes Beltre into foul territory. Beltre double clutches and still throws out Castro by 5 steps. Unbelievable!! Castillo also fails to put pressure on the opposing infield by not hustling out the slow bouncers. What great leadership these two are showing! By the way, Castro has only 8 runs this year thanks to his inability to get on base, his putrid baserunning skills and our horrible results in the 1 and 2 slot of the lineup. Bartlett has 39 runs scored in Rochester. Castro's OPS is .576. Bartlett is over .800 OPS. Does anyone think any other organization in the league (other than the Royals) would still be sitting on their hands on this topic??
My second favorite moment was watching Batista perform horribly on a rundown.
Also thought of a new drinking game--on balls hit to the left side of the infield, take a drink if the SS doesn't enter the picture. It seems like a sure way to get hammered.
I don't keep enough booze in the cupboard to play that game Whiffers.
However the thought of getting hammered while watching these guys play is very enticing!!
SBG,
You mispelled the names for the 7-9 spots on the Twins line up above.
The correct spelling is "f-o-r-f-e-i-t-t-h-e-o-u-t"
I remember playing softball and being short a couple players on a few nights. We would have to forfeit and out each time through the line up at the bottom of the order... just like the Twins do.
I am actually amazed that Morneau has produced at all with absolutely no protection behind him in the lineup. Would you pitch to him with White, Batista and Castro due up?
Line up on July 13th (post all star game):
Castillo 2B
Stewart DH (until he is traded)
Mauer C
Morneau 1b
Cuddyer RF
Kubel LF
Hunter CF
Bartlett SS
Punto / LRod Platoon 3B ( with Moses coming up in September)
zoomx wrote
I would with a lefty on the mound....
Me, too. I hate seeing him go through that. Unfortunately for Eddie, Seattle fans have a tormented history with closers who imploded, melted down, and betrayed their hopes through the '90s. When Kubel hit that HR last night, they didn't just see Eddie on the mound; they flashed back to bad years from guys like Schooler, Ayala, Charlton, Timlin, and Mesa, too. Even the Sasaki era ended badly. Now Eddie is just the latest to enter this string of tortured relationships.