Time: 7:11 CDT
TV: FSN
Radio: TRN, XM 181
Starting Pitchers: Francisco Liriano (2-4, 5.21 ERA, 1.37 WHIP) vs.
John Danks (2-3, 4.82, 1.37)
This is a matchup of two top young lefties that are going in opposite directions this season. Liriano struggled in his first four starts, going 0-4 with a 7.06 ERA, but has bounced back to go 2-0 with a 3.60 ERA in his last four starts. In Danks' first three starts, he was 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA, but in his last five starts, he's 1-3 with an 8.84 ERA.
Neither pitcher has fared well against their opponent for their careers for the most part (Danks' domination of the Twins in the one-game playoff notwithstanding).
This will be the third straight left-handed starter the Twins will face. They are 5-7 in games against left-handed starters. It will be interesting to see the lineup considering the Twins' left-handed batters have an OPS of .922 vs. left-handed pitchers. The Twins have a .615 OPS batting right-handed vs. lefties, but that includes Punto (.396 OPS) and Casilla (.182), who have been beyond horrible when batting right-handed. When batting right-handed vs. lefties, the Twins as a whole have a BABIP of .255, so you would expect those numbers to improve.
The Twins have lost the first five games on this road trip, so they really need to put an end to that streak to give themselves a chance to salvage a series victory tomorrow. The good news is that Interleague play is just around the corner.
GO TWINS!
Cuddyer at first, Span in right, Kubel in left, Harris at short, Tolbert at second, Morneau at DH.
Stat of the night: The Twins have outhomered the White Sox (39-38) this season while playing one less game. The White Sox, of course, are last in the AL in runs scored.
I AM SICK OF THE LOSING!
so, you are ready to drop some F-Bombs tonight, Boss?
No, tonight's gonna be a win.
Corky Miller behind the plate tonight, so, uh, yea, we'd better get a win.
It better be a win. I have to go to friggin Memphis again tomorrow, and a win would help my mood in the morning.
I believe in personal accountability... you know, doing your part.
So in the spirit of breaking a losing streak "Red Dawg Style", I will be listening to the first inning in the nude.
I have my shirt off, so meeting you half way
I'm considering taking my tie off in solidarity.
I'm always nude. I'm Tobias Funke's polar opposite.
+1 arrest
I'm totally nude under my clothes.
speaking of Red Dawg, did anyone hear his radio pregame bit tonight? He was talking about how the Clubhouse was busting up over RA Dickey's dance moves. Apparently, he's a break dancer
Hey, Span didn't make a baserunning mistake! (silver lining)
What did you say?? Fial.
+ an epic.
make up yer friggin' mind, Gordo.
well, that was ... dissatisfying.
Twins have fewest errors in AL? Really?
Can't make an error if you don't get to the ball. We seem to have a strange mix of good defenders and defenders with almost no range. The Twins also have a strong selection bias against defenders who make errors, even if they have good range. (See: Bartlett, Jason.)
What are you talking about, Delmon gets to plenty of balls...... eventually.
Add in the Dome's very friendly scoring, and it is easy to see why the Twins have a low number of errors.
are there park effects for scoring decisions? I'd have to imagine that every park is generous to the home boys.
I think that tends to be the case, though it's not impossible that there could be some bias there. It'd be tough to find it, methinks.
I would guess so, but I remember a series of decisions in the Castro/Batista era that will always make me think the Dome is at the extreme end of homerirsm.
My favorite was the "double" off of Batista's foot and into the bullpen...
For Batista, bending over to get a ball off his shoe tops did not constitute "ordinary effort".
That was a classic.
... and that's why Morneau plays first base. Screw you, Gardy.
Considering that Morneau has an OPS 100 points worse in the second half of the season than in the first half (for his entire career), I'm totally okay with Gardy giving him some days off at DH early in the season. We don't have a great backup, but that's not Gardy's fault.
More rest will make him less of a pussy??!!
Does giving him "days off" at DH really prevent him from falling off in the second half?
Maybe? I don't really know, but it seems like giving a guy a break from not standing around for 1.5-2 hours every now and then could add up. It seems worth a shot, anyway. I know it's mostly "just standing around," but I think it probably takes a toll on the players, especially in these long stretches with no off-days.
(Also, this seems like a question that Justin Morneau might be able to answer better than any of us. Of course, then we don't know how honest he would be with us on top of that.)
I'd venture to guess that DH days would have a bigger impact on his performance than, say, the HR Derby.
I'm just wondering if DHing is really effective as a "day off". I wonder if it would be more effective to give Morneau actual days off once in a while.
One question about the Twins' broadcast -- does Ron Coomer always watch the game from the first-base dugout? Because he always has to point out what a great view he has every time they go to him, when they're only going to him because he's there.
I wasn't watching, but when in doubt, assume that Coomer is just making stuff up to kill time because he doesn't have anything substantial to say.
Oh my god, kill it! Kill it! (Seriously, Sox Machine - welcome back. Please do us all a favor and ditch the McHale avatar. I would rather stare at just about anything else - even Hawk Harrelson!)
I thought it was Lurch, who I like.
You rang?
Give the man a hand.
Yep, he's always in the dugout area.
Gardy ripping into two players for bunting. I can't believe my ears!
I thought that was a pretty good tirade.
Especially when he implied the shortstop could take Span's bunt and throw Redmond out at home
When I read that line, I had an image of Redmond in the background nodding his head approvingly.
There's been numerous times this season that the No. 2 hitter has bunted in the first inning, and I was pretty sure that that didn't come from the dugout, they just did it on their own. I think a couple times it was with the runner at second, which really made little sense.
Where can we get a Corky Miller?
$82 bucks for the cheap plate.
I may go there tomorrow.
He's the best fourth catcher we've ever had.
Sure would be nice to get Mauer up this inning.
Indeed, he's gotta be pissed about that strikeout. (Of course, it'd be even better to get everyone up this inning.)
Well, they got him up but then Span gets picked off during his at-bat. Nice.
So I've missed most of the past few days - is this 1999 bad or first half of 2006 bad?
More 2006, IMO. It's got a spicy hint of 1999 though, well played.
We don't have guys like Bartlett in the minors.
Point, although Bartlett's emergence coincided with better play from the test of the team.
It's called leadership, Gutzon. That's why he was an MVP last year.
It's easier to hit a pitcher without runners on base? What the hell are these dumbasses smoking?
Fewer people to come and stop you?
Yeah, wouldn't want to face a guy in his stretch. Roy, you are kidding, right?
errorshortstop!
Do you get residuals for that, Bootsy?
Dude. C'mon!
Germaine Dye threw pretty good there for a girl.
The jumping jacks finally started working!
w00t.
Fast Canada!
Ooo, that E-6 was costly.
Smelling more and more like 1999.
I love bunting. It's so pretty.
Nice.
That's my favorite Palehose 9.
Alright, now back to Sheenie and my 2nd trip through The Wire. It's unbelievable how much stuff we missed the first time.
I'm not liking this.
Ruh-roh.
Twins doing the little things to f^ckin' piss me off.
Sorry, Padre.
Liribomb seems outta control. Pitches 3 and 4 in the stratosphere.
Corky Miller doubles? We're doomed.
Okay, so where was that 3-2 pitch?
I don't think I can handle much more of this. Fucking A.
Jermaine Duy - bane o' the Twin.
I'm really not liking this.
Who are we the freakin' Royals?
Who are we the freakin'
RoyalsTwins?You know what guys? I'm tired of watching this garbage. Love ya'll, but I'm going to go do something else
Well, I think I'm gonna try one of those "Oh man, you never should have left, the Twins made an amazing comeback and you missed it" scenarios and go pack for my trip.
No Network, indeed. The fabulous play at the plate by Mauer against the Yankees appears to have been removed from YouTube. If anyone knows where I can find the video, I'd like to show it to Me Boy. Better than watching this garbage.
Impeccable timing.
Bright spot: Cuddyer is hitting.
Halftime: LeBron has 26, Cleveland by 15.
Ayala has pitched two perfect innings, in 16 pitches (14 strikes). What is the world coming to?
Well, nobody else cares, but watching http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090517&content_id=4796334&vkey=news_min&fext=.jsp&c_id=min&partnerId=rss_min might make you feel a little better.
Ayala and Crain combine for four scoreless innings?
What else is new?
Wow, a five-game losing streak'll turn this place into a ghost town.
Hard to get up the energy for this. Bleecchchchhchch.
that game was Eiffel.