Time: 7:05 CDT
TV: FSN
Radio: TRN, XM 189
Starting Pitchers: Nick Blackburn (6-2, 3.09 ERA, 1.25 WHIP) vs.
Braden Looper (5-4, 5.21, 1.39)
The quest for a winning record continues. I like the matchup today since the Brewers have a RH heavy lineup and have just a .746 OPS vs. righties (.780 vs. lefties). Righties are batting just .201 vs. Blackburn this year.
Looper has given up a ton of homers, 16 in 77 2/3 innings, which is 3rd in the NL. Lefties have an .871 OPS vs. Looper (RH .787), so hopefully Jason Kubel will feel up to playing left field today. Looper has also done well the first time through the order (.613 OPS), but has been lit up after that with batters having a .947 OPS the second PA and .987 after that.
Here's a Guess the Players to get things started today. One of these players is a current Twin and the other is a former Twin. The links will reveal the players, so if you want to guess, do so before clicking the link:
Career with Twins
Player A: .275/.334/.462
Player B: .279/.327/.455
Career vs. LH
Player A: .230/.313/.339
Player B: .230/.278/.350
Career vs. RH
Player A: .286/.339/.493
Player B: .290/.340/.476
Through age 27 season
Player A: .275/.334/.462
Player B: .288/.331/.465
The numbers are so close, it's almost scary.
Now, on to the game. GO TWINS!!
Update: Kubel is back and playing left field. Punto out again with sore ribs and Matt Tolbert is playing second base and batting eighth. Gomez is playing CF and batting leadoff again. Delmon to the bench.
No spoilers here! I have heard that comparison before. I need the current player's autograph. I already have the old guy's.
I want to say Kubel and Hunter, but no way did Hunter have that reverse split.
Okay, I wasn't thinking. That is scary. I hope that Kubel is better than that.
Word.
Yeah, SoCal. Way to give us all nightmares.
The other dude's best season was at 27 with an OPS+ of a mere 123, so it looks favorable for Kubes who currently sports a nice OPS+ of 148. I have high hopes! Higher than some at least.
Kubel obviously is no leadoff hitter. The other guy...well, he wasn't either.
Kubes is also well below the other dude's K rate, so I don't see him declining as sharply.
Also, I couldn't have told you who the other guy currently plays for. When I THT'd him up just now, it was news to me.
Have fun, kids. I'm off to watch The Girl in a socker tryout for a new team.
This game log hardly knew ye. I will promise you that in your absence, the team will pull within one game of .500.
Official New Guy Prediction: This barbecue brisket sandwich from Famous Dave's will be the most delicious thing I've eaten all day.
So, did you spend a lot of time driving the shoreline in Buenos Aires? I hear it's beautiful.
Gomez is on fire!
Hopefully Morneau, the catcher, or the other guy can get him home!
Nice. One of the greatest quotes in Twins history.
Bert helpfully points out that Looper's goal in this situation is to get Harris out. This is the kind of pitching insight only Bert Blyleven can provide.
Mauer seems to be taking some poor swings lately. I guess even Jesus makes mistakes
I just thought of about fifty jokes that I'm just not going to make.
I question your ability to fulfill Fox's expectations, spooky.
evening, folks.
evenin' Meat!
hi meat
Hola Carne!
hard hit, but in the park.
I've lost my favorite Chicken Korma recipe, anyone have any indian / spicy yogurt chicken ideas?
Evening folks! I was watching X-Files: I Want to Believe (I thought it appropriate to the game at hand)
Joe "run-saver" Crede, to the rescue
oh for cryin' out loud
Hey! Bremer called him D-Span!
Even NewGuy wouldn't predict the opposing pitcher getting more hits than Joe. This needs rectifying.
Okay Kubes, your time to shine
How many times do you see a player ground out meakly for the third out, and then immediately make a running catch in the outfield? no, me neither.
Where is everyone? Are people giving up on the season, having long since gotten tired of the .500 thing?
Breaks my heart, it does.
Most of the games lately have been pretty uninspiring. Even the wins.
Very similar to the last month and a half of 2008. The Twins and White Sox were in a pennant "chase," but to watch the two teams play, you'd never have known it.
My dead grandmother can run faster than Crede
I am currently sitting faster than Crede runs.
Gamel is not exactly gold glove caliber.
*searches for something more exciting than this game so far*
A favorite of mine, also Pride and Predator.
When are you and Dr Chop gracing the land o' lakes? The TC in particular?
We were just talking about that. I'm pretty sure that we'll be around the 7-8 ish of july, then straight through the end of the month, (23-26 ish), we have a few dates that are already obligated (the 10-12), but we would like to go to the walker some day, you up for meeting there and grabbing dinner / booze?
I'm In like Flint.
dude.
I'll drop you a note at some point, any days better for you?
A Tuesday night would get us to the Modern Cafe for pot-roast and 1/2 price bottles of wine. Several fun bars in the hood, too. Plus, it's close to my studio.
This sounds like the beginnings of a plan, let me check with the Dr., we'll get sumptin' nailed down soon.
That's supposed to be good. Seriously...
It's not bad.
I tell ya... I was super excited for this to come out, and bought it almost immediately. I'm about half way through it right now, but I don't know if I'm ever going to finish it. I've never been a fan of Jane Austen, and underneath the thin zombie veneer it's still the same dumb ol' Jane Austen book.
Clueless is still the best Jane Austen adaptation.
No, seriously. ;)
And 10 Things I Hate About You is the best adaptation of Shakespeare.
Just checked the Twinsbaseball.com community auction Dick'n'Bert were talking about, and yes you can still bid on all of Luis Ayala's crap.
I got two cents.
Man, I'm sure glad these bore-fests have been in Milwaukee and not MN
Hoooooooo baby!
KUUUUUUUUUUBELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!
DUDE. Me, neither.
Abidus Maximus!
Sounds like a few Twins fans at the game tonight, not so much last night.
Cuddy!
Boom boom sticks are out.
My dude comment was misplaced up above.
That's a pair of well struck balls.
Everyone here works for Fox.
Crede!
Make that a trio.
Joke Ready!
Wow, this game flew by while I picked up my pizza. Nice to see yet another homer I didn't see.
Is Blackburn living on the edge, as usual?
Nice to see yet another homer I didn't see.
I'd leave this one out of the screenplay, Hemingway.
It was intentional clunkiness, homeboy. Anyway, I write comedy. Of what use would Hemingwayan turns-of-phrase be to me?
Also (yes, I'm going to split MORE hairs), there was very little dialogue in Hemingway's writing. Odd choice to make the screenplay comparison.
Ball's in your court, Peein' Ian.
I write comedy.
We need more funny, dammit.
Anyway, I write "comedy."
Fixed that for you. And leave it to a FOX writer to intentionally dumb down his writing!
Rough crowd, see below.
Okay, just so you know spookymilk, this is 100% joak. Believe me, I think it's awesome what you do, and I'm incredibly envious that you are able to do it!
The young guy's got quicker hands.
Positively McCartneyian:
w00t! The runs.
I've been watching accounts of how great vacationing in Argentina in June can be.
that whole thing made me chuckle...
Appalachian, Argentina -- whatever.
seriously, they're right next to each other. alphabetically...
Now, I have banned politics at the site. But this is non-partisan. Guys on both sides do this kind of stuff. And man, this is a doozy.
politicians being idiots in general is kind of non-partisan in my opinion, but if i step too far, let me know.
evening all. i see it's a hoot and a holler up in here so far...
Nice to see yet another homer I didn't see.
Huh? Clarity, pal. This ain't no sitcom.
Really? I write a purposely-dopily-worded sentence, and two of you get all up in my grill? Everyone here is grounded.
We expect better. Ah, hell. No we don't...
Six, did I run over your dog or something?
Sorry, man. I'm just f*ckin' with you.
As meat said, It's a tough room. :)
Honestly, I'm glad you said so. Normally sarcasm is easy to gauge here, but when it comes from every direction for five good minutes, it gives one pause.
Dude, if you're going to quote genius, get it right. No quarter given, non expected. /heh
Did I accidentally quote something there? I didn't have anything in mind.
No. E-6 quoted meat as saying Tough room when what he said is "rough crowd".
I'll say this, a boring game has not stopped the game log from breaking out into a snarkfest.
Ah. Well, it seems perpetual confusion is the order of the day. I haven't had anything to drink yet...must be the problem.
And, dude, I've had a lot to drink tonight. Must be the problem. Wait, I don't have a problem.hadsgherag;kolndvuernk habf;kjzcnx renkleyqga
so, this winter, i was thinking that this was finally the year i got to go see the twins play up at miller. aiding this was the fact i'm about an hour and a half south of there. but noooooo, they had to have a weekday series. stupid saving up vacation time for japan grumble grumble....
How far are you from St. Louis? *hint hint*
i'd consider that one too, but... uh... well, the missus is dragging me to pride in chicago this weekend.
Nice to see yet another homer I didn't see.
Huh? Clarity, pal. This ain't no sitcom.
New Guy replied on June 24, 2009 at 8:46:46 pm
Nice to see yet another homer I didn't see.
I'd leave this one out of the screenplay, Hemingway.
Rough crowd.
Very odd, too. I thought it was obvious what I was doing with that sentence. In fact, I do dopey wording like that all the time. What caused such a fuss this time?
Most of the time, the game holds our attention. Not so the last couple.
Word to the wise: don't even think about joking about brunch.
The above comment is intended to be funny!
At this point, I'm not going to say anything. I hope everyone is playing around...I'm honestly hurt. Yeah, I'm a writer...fragile and all.
We're all yanking your chain, dude!
Painters feel, too. (Back me up, meat.)
crickets...
wait, I'm just slow on the draw(ing)!
Lawyers feel nothing.
*runs away slowly.
I got it, Boss. Frankly, I was thinking the same thing. Spooky, I've felt cornered too. Sometimes tone is hard. As far as I can tell in my short time here, folks are equally supportive and churlish. Feathers get ruffled, but your still in good company.
But brunch is still off limits...
This is probably the worst possible time to point out that you used the wrong version of "you're."
Err, I mean, thanks!
Thanks for that. And everything I wrote above is retracted. You're a hack.
I didn't know whether I should continue the joke there, or let it die. This is why we all need to be in person on occasion.
Agreed. How about August 1?
I hope very much I'll be in the area that week. It's all contingent on how soon Fox pulls the trigger and buys the show. If they sit on it, I won't be going anywhere. Then again, if they go ahead, they might want to go into production as early as August 1st, so who knows?
But brunch is still off limits...
But, I love brunch.
You should join us at Salut when you get into town. The crepes are divine.
Well I meant my comment with a wink and a nudge. If I didn't know you were a professional writer, I wouldn't have said anything.
Cool, thanks. Damn...I can't believe how cornered I felt just now.
bS isn't here, so it's no wonder you felt singled out
Now that's funny.
Hey, you yourself said we were all just waiting for a guy like you to come around. :)
Ha! Nice callback...
baby jesus finally gets a hit!
Baby Jeebus creates a miracle
w00t! Mauer out of the 0-11 slump.
13 straight outs via strikeout. Any wonder why the nation is surly?
Not outs by the Twins. Outs by this pitcher. A team record, apparently.
And really, a stupid record. It's not any number of "straight outs" if there are hits interspersed with the outs.
Okay, not in this game. I see. I haven't see the whole game.
At least the heat broke. (Sort of.)
No kidding. I felt like Barton Fink for a couple of days.
holy cr@p - I just looked at his game-by-game, pretty impressive
Now that I've staved off suicide for another day at least, I do have a serious (well, not "serious") question:
Where did "joak" come from? Is that a joak that came from this site, or elsewhere on the internets?
I don't know, except to say that the first time I saw it was by brianS... maybe he made it up.
bS tried to explain to someone here that he was only 'joaking' and that everyone should calm down, and hoooo-boy did that start something.
I'm pretty sure I got it from brianS. Lord only knows where that guy gets his shtick!
+1 typo
Austin, MN.
He obviously makes that shit up himself.
There's a really fine line between clever, and bad speling...
We don't call him bS for nothin'.
From the Ministry of Information Retrieval...
You are really talented with the google.
I absolutely love reading detailed wiki articles on plots and stories I have never heard of. I'm not joaking either, I actually find it entertaining.
Oh, so that's how it happened!
That's fun to do with animes. This girl I used to work with was always trying to shove anime down my throat, so I'd check out the storyline. After reading the first-episode synopsis for a good three hours, I'd think, does my mind have the patience for this?
that was pretty. nice job mountie. nothing gets past your border...
Except BC Weed.
Is that better than Iowa Ditch?
i've been told it's a step or two above.
(by the way, the italics made me lulz a little)
Heh.
Interesting strategery...Brewers bring in a lefty last inning to face three straight lefties...and now they bring in a righty to face two righties and a tolbert...
how exactly does one quantify a "tolbert"?
With low expectations.
The lowest. He makes Punto look like Tony Oliva.
Good evening all.
And also with you.
It looks like you are trying to make all the friends you can tonight, huh spooky? /sarcasm/
We hashed it out, but dude, the makeup sex was so worth it.
It looks like you are trying to make all the friends you can tonight, huh spooky? /sarcasm/
Buffalo brings it.
cheaptoy taught me how to be funny this week.
That's who's been missing in these game-logs.
Yeah, me neither.
if he gets out of this quickly, does blackburn come back for the 9th? anyone care to venture bert's opinion?
"H3ll yes! That's not even in question!"
ummm.... nevermind.
I'm late to the party, but I saw the reaction from Gomez to his batted ball off the pitcher. I hope those besides me and Jobu saw him bunt the ball off his forehead last Sunday. High comedy. I can't decide if he's "full of personality" or just a maroon. I go back and forth.
Six of one, half dozen of the other.
that was quite a moment. like i said then: "only gomez"
I wanted to respond, but I was internally banned from blue screens on Sunday, which didn't mean I couldn't sneak a look on my Touch.
Listened to Dazzle and Gordo try and describe it. Hi Kawmedy. (ain't that how Doc spells it?)
There was a great shot of it in the dead-tree version of the Strib.
Do you think that Blackburn is really, honestly getting stronger as the game goes on? I mean, he's exerting quite a bit of energy out there. I would think he's getting tired. But, Bert completed 5,000 games, so he should know.
Well, that throw into LF was pretty strong...
Ha!
Good one.
The last Twins pitcher to throw back to back complete games was Pascal, brilliant.
dick and bert claim it was radke...
Anyone know the temp at game-time?
Oh, and Bert is a tool.
actually, i was listening to XM on the way home, and i clearly heard the announcer say that it was 92 degrees right before the first batter came up.
Shit.
Crap.
Poop.
Excrement
cacca.
Well, then
That was not good.
AW HELL NO
Well, fuck. That was a little league play if I've ever seen one.
Looks like a T-ball game broke out to interrupt the snarkfest.
To be fair, I think the snarkfest is over.
It's now the sobfest.
Well. That sucked.
Le sigh
apparently, Blackburn not used to throwing the ball 90 feet
FTW?
by the way, how was that scored?
I would guess 2B, E-6, E-1
booting life's grounders, eh?
But making the occasional wild throw into the left field corner.
It's a gift, really. ;)
So much for Blackburn getting stronger as the game goes on.
I came home from an 11½ hour shitty day at work just in time to watch that shit transpire in the bottom of the 8th. Fuck me running.
That does suck. If it makes you feel any better, the first two hours weren't much to see.
As boring as the game's been, up to that moment, I thought the Twins were still getting a win out of it. It really turned to shit quickly.
It's been that kind of night for you, spooky.
I knew you had some Buffalo in you, meat.
Dirty.
anyone else actually think gomez should be batting now?
Gameday Mini still has the Twins up 3-2, so I'm going to continue to live in denial.
Okay, DazL and Gordo, we get it, blackburn made a stupid play and well, yes the Twins would still be in this game if he didn't throw the ball away, now get off my lawn.
I really wish that just once DazzL would say, "Alright, everyone, I'm sorry...I just really wish I was still young enough to be on the field."
Come on, Joe. There are kids in the stands.
We could really use a Jason Morneau moment here.
a Morneau-ment?
I second.
why not?
Fuck
well, THAT didn't work...
Toss it, Jobu. It's been soiled.
gone.
I blame spookymilk and his poor grammar.
Your a buthead
Ha!
Is it just me, or did the end of this game really suck?
Like a gaping chest wound.
Like a gaping chest would.Like a FOX sitcom. Fixed that for you.Hey, I thought this was over!
Believe me, I intend to make a show closer to "Arrested Development" than most...huh, I probably shouldn't talk loudly about this.
that's 2, Buffalo in da house!
A "Swish"
You Bison got game.
RIP Randy Smith.
So, our record at or above .500 must be like 3-746 this season. God fucking dammit. I hate when we lose games like this, since we know Gardenhire will trot out the JV squad tomorrow.
tolbert, punto, and buscher, oh my!
- 1 punto
oh... right. f**in' idiot...
This game made me sick.
now that's classy. worthy of brewer fans.
Okay. I've had it up to here with Viagra commercials.
That's what she said?
oMG.
En fuego!
man, I jump into the car after Board Game Night, and Gordo sounds real bored of the game, so I figured we were losing, but nope up by 1 heading to the bottom of 8. Then the circus arrived
on the plus side, Blackburn gets a complete game! two in a row!
Seriously, what the hell was that throw by Dirty Harry? He hit the mound! Oy. And then Blackburn lost his mind. I despise the outcome of this game.
Strange that the best defense in the major leagues did all of that.
Come to think of it, I blame SoCalTwinsFan. He brought up Jacque Jones. Then, on the fateful play we see Harris with a type one Jones throw and Blackburn with a type two Jones throw.
My main point was to show that Jones was underappreciated. It wasn't his fault that he was used incorrectly. Factor in his defense and speed on the bases, I would be hard-pressed to take Kubel over Jones at age 27. I do think Kubel will age a lot better, but there's no guarantees, especially with his knees.
I also think it's odd that I never read complaints about Kubel allowed to start against lefties, especially when he has zero defensive or speed value, unlike Jones.
Telly Hughes is on my telly!
better than on your belly.
or on Dino Ciccarelli!
Or Mario Batali.
Wait, I'd much rather have him on the telly. Nevermind.
Blackburn has pitched into the eighth inning with a lead on the road three times this season and all three times he coughed it up. The last time was on the previous road trip when he gave up a game-tying two-run homer to Adam Kennedy. The first time was at Yankee Stadium and he had first base open with the tying run at third and was allowed to pitch to Mark Teixeira who got his fourth hit of the game off Blackburn. That one I blamed on Gardy.
This one. Wow. This was a bad flashback to last year and all the late-inning collapses. And it was stunning how quick it happened. Especially since Blackburn had retired seven batters in a row. Plus, Kendall came into the game "slugging" .268! And Hardy was "hitting" .218. This really sucks. And now a day game road game tomorrow. Ugh. Nice to have a quick turnaround, but the Twins really need to win, especially since Detroit won again and is now five games up. Stupid Cubs.
Also, how bad were the Twins hitters in the late innings? After taking the lead and knocking Looper out of the game, the Twins struck out six times in the last three innings. Nice job. Way to give your pitcher some help.
This was actually very clever of Blackburn. He's been listening to Bert, and he knows that, for a starting pitcher, the most important thing is to get the complete game. He knew if the score stayed 3-2, Nathan would come in to pitch the ninth, so no complete game. He knew if the score was tied, he'd also not get a complete game. The only way he could get the complete game was to go behind 4-3 with two out in the eighth, so he made it happen.
:lol:
==
speaking of complete games, from JoeC's post game blog: