Game 56: New York at Minnesota
Posted by ubelmann on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Darrell Rasner vs. Nick Blackburn
I think Darrell Rasner stole Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy's mojo. He's way closer to a 5.00 ERA pitcher than he is a 1.80 ERA pitcher, but he's had a good first four starts of the season. Inability to miss bats is probably his biggest weakness, so hopefully the Twins can find some holes with they are putting the ball in play.
28 wins over their first 55 games puts them roughly 3-4 wins better than a 73-win pace would be. I could spend a lot of time on this topic, but if the Twins really want to show that a 73-win prediction was way off the mark, they've got a long way to go. In the meantime, I'm happy that the team's been pretty fun to follow so far this year.
It weird not seeing Mauer in the lineup
Bunt single for Gomez, then thrown out trying to steal
whoa Redmond pulled the ball!
And he's batting third. Gardy's back!
Cuddy with 2 ribbies! sweet
My NSMC is alive again!
lets see a big blast kubes
nice inning for Blackburn
Looks like a promising start - too bad I have to miss most the game.
Blackburn yawns in the general direction of Choke-rod
sweet little curve ball to A Rod to strike him out. Too bad that was like the 78th pitch in that at bat
It's nice to have Carlos Silva back on the team
Looks like most everyone is outside enjoying the nicest day of the year...
I was out and about. Stopped back at my crib just in time see Dreamboat homer and Blackburn take it in the kisser.
Think I'll go back out (and about.)
Blackburn's curve ball is really beautiful
Over/under on the double play?
bases drunk, no outs for RonDelmon...how will he screw this up
Brenden Harris is having a tough day at the plate
Jeter
1st HR for the Yanks this series
Man, we didn't need this
Blackburn hit in the face. He was bleeding from the nose and possibly mouth, but he got up almost immediately.
Yikes.
If he's lucky, his nose/mouth absorbed most of the energy from the impact and there won't be much (if any) internal damage.
Word is he did NOT break any teeth.
Radio earlier said the ball deflected off his glove an into his face, so that took a little energy off th ball, I assume. Still a nasty blow to take.
Scary scene. Abreu's reaction out of the box said it all. His hands went to his head and he grimaced in anguish. He looked distraught at first base.
Dicknbert talking about aluminum bats in college. It seems like it should be possible to make a composite bat that acts nearly like a wooden bat but would be as strong as a metal bat. I can see why someone would want to get rid of metal bats in college, though.
Moss agrees...it can't be that hard to engineer a bat to perform like a wood one. Moss would think you could probably fill an aluminum one with a deadening filler, or use a fiber-reinforced polymer matrix, or something like that.
Casilla showing off out there at second
Yeah, still not convinced about Casilla's hands.
I miss having Neshek available for the 8th.
I had to look up the 2000 team. I could only name 4 catchers for that team
that was pretty
Well, then
Not the brightest idea in the world from Melky.
Rasner looks done.
on that Morneau play, its was scored a triple and an error on Cabrera's throw. Why is there no error for him falling down?
I think it's somewhat possible that Morneau could have gotten a triple even if Cabrera had picked up that ball cleanly. Usually scorekeepers today err on the side of giving the hitter too much credit.
Dunno. Is there a double jeopardy clause in the rulebook? Like, you can't be charged with two errors on one boneheaded play, no matter how ridiculous you look?
I think you can get charged with separate errors on a play, but I can't remember it happening recently.
I've seen it happen on a flubbed ground ball and an overthrow on the same play.
I seem to remember someone, I think it was a pitcher, once getting three errors on the same play, but I'm too lazy to try to find out who or what happened.
Tommy John, 7/27/88.
4th inning: With a runner on first, he booted a groundball (1), then overthrew the first baseman, allowing the runner from first to score (2). Somehow, he ended up cutting off the throw to the plate and threw the ball away trying to relay it to the catcher (3) allowing the batter to score as well.
Retrosheet
I'd love to hear Bob Ueker's call of that play.
Dicknbert unsure how Patterson made it on the Yanks roster, but the google tells me that they released Morgan Ensberg and added Patterson to the bullpen. It's a pretty tough assignment for Patterson to make his debut in the intimidating confines of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
Gomez like straight balls. No like the curving balls.
Gomez no like not knowing if straight ball or curving ball coming.
That was a nice job by Brian Bass. This was his 3rd appearance in as many days
It was. Hey, nice DP started by Crain!
nice turn by Harris on that DP
Anybody else cringe when Jesse was throwing that ball to second?
Only a little. I cringed more when he gave up the single up the middle on what looked like a pretty good 1-2 curveball.
Is Slowey really warming up to come in the game or just getting some work in on the side? Are we really that short in our 7-man bullpen that we need an 8th?
Cuddyer with a nice game at the plate.
Indeed. I'm a big fan of insurance runs.
He homered last night, but he also had a couple of horrible at bats in the late innings. Hopefully his finger is getting to the point where he can get back into hitting form and generate some power.
Cuddyer has has a nice series so far
6-14, triple, HR, 6 RBI
Kubel still suffering from the "no photo" ignominy of ESPN's MLB Gamecast.
They're so far behind on the majority of their mugshots that they might as well just abandon that feature altogether.
It's downright annoying seeing Ponson pitch with a "TC" on his hat still. Torii, too.
"Hey, this is Victor Martinez."
"Hey, this is A.J. Burnett."
MAKE IT STOP!!!
This isn't really a complaint as much as an observation, since it hasn't really hurt either team more than the other, but there's been some horse crap umpiring in this series.
the umpire behind the plate, this is his first time doing that in the Majors
Okay, I'll accept that, but Meals was pretty poor behind the plate on Friday, and last night's zone seemed a bit erratic, too. No complaints on safe/out calls really, but the ball/strike calling has been less than good.
Meals was awful on Friday. One of the worst performances I've seen in a while.
Here's the deal with that check swing--even though Abreu didn't break his wrists, he had the bat hanging across the plate, and could have definitely fouled the ball off with where his bat was. Considering that the check swing rule is the most vague rule in the game, I don't think he has a lot of room to complain.
Why didn't we see this curveball from Crain last night? It looks pretty good today.
Is Matt Guerrier hurt? He pitched to all of one batter last night, but it's Crain who has to go two innings today? (And don't get me started on Gardy having to burn up one reliever for the fearsome Jose Molina last night).
Crain looked pretty good today, though. I was more upset last night when we had to get a second inning of Rincon. I pretty much knew we were sunk at that point.
Jason Giambi does not look good with a moustache
Twins have scored at least five runs in five straight games and at least four runs in seven straight.
One game back!
Unreal. This division could be won with just 85 wins.
I'm too lazy to look up the rule right now, but does the official scorer really not have the option to give the win to Blackburn? I mean, Bass pitched fine and all, but given the circumstances, it seems kind of wrong for Bass to get the win since he pitched fewer innings and didn't get hit in the face with a line drive.
starting pitcher has to go 5 innings (rule 10.17 (a))
Blackburn only went 4.1
Seems kind of silly since the win winds up going to someone who also pitched fewer than five innings and we're already forcing the scorekeeper to make a subjective decision about who was the most effective, but whatever, I guess.
The great ubelmann worrying about a junk stat? Unbelievable