I think we all know how important it is for the Twins to win today; 57.74 % important.
Game time: 1:10 pm CDT
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Pitchers
Twins:
Nick Blackburn (8-7) tRA+ 103 WAR 1.7
Indians:
Aaron Laffey (6-3) tRA+ 114 WAR 1.0
Nick already got ruffed up once in the last 7 days; it'd be a nice time for his smoke and mirrors via his deal witht he devil to reappear today. LEN3, Rick Anderson, and Blackbeard have all mentioned that Nick "corrected" a "mechanical flaw" in his bullpen session this week. I guess we'll have to wait for today's game, but don't color me optimistic. We all know how hittable Nick is, but then again shouldn't expect blow outs every week, should we?
We don't need no GOSO talk today; Go Twins!
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I have 2 episodes of Mad Men to finish this afternoon before the 3rd season starts tonight. I will be checking in on the game sporadically. I hope to come back to an out of hand contest, in favor of the home team.
Blackburn with a non-non-strikeout!
I thought mauer got all of that one
stuck on a conference call (converting our production DB from Oracle 8i to Oracle 10g) so I might pick up later...
Ghost town in here. Did the Convention go into a second, drunken orgy of a day?
If so, New Guy is the person to go to for details, I'm sure.
Hee hee! He must keep extensive notes on bedside manner.
well, nothing has happened in the game really..except for a few Blackie strikeouts
Swinging K!
on the board!
Crede just about snuck it through the hole there.
Twins Lead!
DELMON!
he smoked that one
it seems like the few he gets are always smacked but good...
He really does have the power...he just normally doesn't seem to see the ball. If that guy invests in LASIK...well, I shouldn't get my hopes up.
Delmon actually gave the ball a ride!
Free Delmon Young?
WHOOOO! HE'S ONLY 23!!!!!!!1!!!1111!!
delmOn!!!
awwww, punto sad...
Yikes, he got all of that. Blackburn, you don't necessarily have to pitch like the Twins just gave you three.
WTF x2
See above.
Looks like Blackburn's adjustment is really paying off...
Uh, Nick, I know they want you to pitch to contact with a lead, but I don't think that's quite what they had in mind.
heh. got you by 6 seconds...
Hitting guys is not the best way to deal with not allowing homers, Burnsy.
Good grief.
Come on, that's not funny.
Okay, honestly, I just laughed at that last one.
unbelievable
..........................................................................................................................
F*&^ing Blackburn. Get him out of there...he's absolute toast.
Wow, what a terrible sequence of pitching! Supernatural comeuppance explanations gain weight ...
Blackburn had not allowed three HRs in a game all season and then he allowed three in a matter of four batters. Unbelievable.
Well, he's getting better. He held the hitter to a single.
I take it Blackburn is not keeping the ball down in the 3rd?
This is getting ridiculous.
Wasn't kidding, Gardenhire. Get this shitty pitcher out of the game.
(going a little nuts with the pics, i know... damn blackburn)
The didn't really wait until now to start getting someone warmed up, did they?
Looks like I picked the wrong day to
give up sniffing gluecheck back on the gameThank gosh we have Crain warming up, although it would be nice in this situation if we had a "rubber arm"-type guy to deal with long relief. Wouldn't that be killer?
Alright, I'm going to throw this out there--Delmon Young is cursed. I think it goes back to when he tossed that bat at an umpire. That sort of misdeed requires a lot of karmic payback, and Delmon is still paying off his debt. For now, I have two signs that he is cursed:
1) The Twins have lost every game that Delmon has homered in this year, although the outcome of today's game has yet to be decided
2) This game. Sure, he didn't actually have to do anything--he might not have even touched the ball--but there's no denying that when he went in the game, it was tied, and then the Angels immediately scored 6 runs in one inning.
So really, our problem with Delmon goes far beyond his performance on the field--no matter how well he does, his curse will find a way to make us lose.
I was thinking that same thing, but I was too lazy to actually go and check to see whether it was true that the Twins had lost every game in which Delmon homered. True, this one isn't over yet, but it's not looking good now.
he might not have even touched the ball
which does not exactly imply that the ball wasn't hit at him.
I think the ball may not have been anywhere near him, actually. (Except on grounders that got past Harris.) His mere presence just caused everyone to fall to pieces.
Delmon Young is cursed
If this was suggested by anyone else, I'd have poo-pooed it, but I'm sure you have many additional stats to back it up, and I will nod my head "yes" to all of them.
Our "Ace" bombed.
Six guys in a row reach base off this waste of space, and Choo, one of the team's best hitters, "does his job" by making an out? Blow me, Bert.
Hmm. I'm not happy anymore, though I do find humor in this.
I think that anytime a pitcher brags about having made a successful adjustment before he actually makes his next start, he is tempting fate.
It's even worse when a story is done about a slumping player "regaining his confidence," but I'm with you.
Well, he did last longer in this game than in the previous one.
Oh my gawrsh, you're right. Uh...I guess that's something.
I guess you've got to crawl before you can toddle.
don't forget the 2 K's, which are 2 more than last game
that's an infinite improvement, percent-wise.
It's not just Bert. Dazzle said the same thing.
I would've been shocked if he hadn't.
I know it's just a lame thing that jocks do to pump each other up - tell the guy with the fragile ego that his out helped the team and slap his ass - but c'mon, guys. You're announcers now. Don't perpetuate the myth.
Gardenhire! Nice to see you!!!!!
Have I mentioned how annoying I find the Summit radio ads?
"I would say yes. hee hee."
It's a...more meaning...full...brew.
They could have Shatner do those ads.
Everything is better with Shatner reading the cue cards.
Now that would be good.
On the bright side, I just tuned in, so my presence was not responsible for Blac_burn's cr@ppy performance.
i see what you did there
ack. blackburn's just sucking at life today.
Starts of less than four innings: Are this year's Twins the champions?
Pretty sure they aren't, but I'm off to baseball-reference.com to find out (I've got to find something else to occupy myself).
The number is 22.
22 starts of four innings or less by Twins pitching this season.
No idea of how that compares yet? It sure feels like it's got to be top-ten pace.
I would be shocked. This is a mediocre team, not a truly bad team.
Yeah, but it's a truly bad staff, isn't it? Or maybe I've been spoiled for too long.
Twins had 22 last year in the entire season.
I got a count of 20 so far this season. The record, since 1954, is 56 by the Royals in 1964. Here's the top 200. The Twins' worst year is 1977 with 40. The Senators in 1956 had 49 such games.
You're the man, man. 1977, eh? I blame my birth.
that list says their 12 worst years were between 40 and 35 such starts.
So...we're not on that pace. Makes me glad I didn't suffer through most of those seasons.
Color me impressed that there are so many of 40 and above. A quarter of all starts? Jeebus.
since when is crain the long reliever?
I wonder if they might be thinking about going with Manship for multiple innings but since Manship has mostly been a starter, they'd rather put in a normal reliever in the middle of an inning and then go to Manship when he can start an inning.
I'm smelling a productive day at the office....
anybody want to turn this into a golf game log?
No thanks. Too early for my nap.
And as I plan to move to the couch, a nap seems inevitable.
The PGA is soon to have my undivided attention.
that pitch was up, according to Gordo. Why wasn't it hammered?
Can't anybody here play this game?
What a pile of suck.
ugggg
the inning that will never end
when it rains, it errs
I resemble that remark.
you would have booted it.
Hey, guys. Do you 'member when this game was going pretty quickly?
With each passing day, I'm more and more enraged that the Twins thought they pulled this coup de grace with an okayish infielder while ignoring the most glaring need of the roster.
getting rid of The Curse of _elm_n (TCOE)??
Naturally.
a little jizz from Dazz and Gordo about that "sacrifice fly".
Showing spunk?
everyone's still just upset about blackburn blowing his
loadlead.Pasted.
Loads of excitement!
Damn it, Hungry One...
sorry. if you want, i'm sure i can work a "spookymilk" joke into this...
That's all I ask, homeboy.
that was just a stellar promo by the span man. god i love that guy...
for those of you planning to switch to golf, read this article first. Tiger the Intimidator.
rally time
I would eat that entire thing right now. It hurts to see it.
tasty looking sombrero.
Those last two runs were really killer for the Twins. This is definitely not a comeback team. Not even close. They haven't rallied from a deficit of three runs or greater since May 14 when they scored six runs in the seventh to beat the Tigers 6-5. That's insane. This offense has had plenty of big days. They should have more comeback wins than that.
It does seem like they've had couple huge deficits, have come back, and then still blew it in the end.
If memory serves, they've tied the game a couple times and then lost, but for the most part they have been awful at putting rallies together once they fall behind by more than a couple runs.
i just realized it's only the 4th inning. i might have to join some of the citizens on the couch.
Bolt just ran a world record 9.5 100M. Insane! Gay sets an American record at 9.71. Finishes second.
Make that 9.58.
UsInsain??More or less.
It was into the wind, as well.
It always blows my mind when a guy can accomplish an amazing, memorable feat of athleticism in the time it takes me to hobble over and get another slice of pizza.
i've got a solid prediction of a DP on the first pitch here...
close enough.
1 for 2, unfortunately...
That's not a solid prediction. That's an easy one.
see, that's why it's solid. it's like, 2:1 odds.
We all knew that was going to happen. The guy has just walked the bases loaded to bring up Delmon Young. You knew a double play was coming. And of course he swung at the first four pitches he saw in the at-bat.
Carl Willis looks hauntingly like Brian Doyle Murray.
Hmmm.
Is Rhu_Ru still here? Got the Man Ship ready to launch?
Oh, hooray for this. This also reminds me that I should move the TV Funhouse disc up in my queue. I'm going to need something like that after all the heavy fare I've been catching.
Ace and
GaryGardy!still dealing with the DB conversion aftermath...
I just accidentally switched over to the HOU-MIL game, and I haven't found myself switching back yet. Notes from this contest: Jason Kendall looks kind of like a corspe, and the announcers are even more statistically simplistic than our own.
I'd be afraid that Kendall would get blasted by someone accidentally after the Zompocalypse happens
Yeah, man. Not a single splash of color in that guy. Has that always been true?
Huh. Well, there's proof: at one point, Jason Kendall was alive.
Another note: JJ Hardy apparently has his confidence back, so expect him to hit .400 for the rest of the year.
after today's game, i think they need to bring in all the fence at the `dome about 10 feet...
Switched to TOR-TB for a minute. Nothing stupid enough to mention in the couple of outs I saw. Now watching WAS-CIN. If nothing stupid happens in a game featuring the Nationals and Dusty Baker, I'd be surprised.
mlb.tv users: what's up with those doom ads? it sounds like they're streaming at about 12 kbps...
Isn't it Wolfenstein? Yeah, man. They really are a mess.
oh, yeah, right. getting my late `90s video games confused. but still...
An acceptable mistake. Doom was an unapologetic ripoff in the days before FPSs became an entire genre.
ripoff? they're both by id software; that's like calling the Rochester AAA team a ripoff of the Twins.
Oh, for realsies? I should've known that. Don't mind me, everyone.
agreed. didn't play doom much, but i've killed a fair share of nazis in my day.
Nationals win...they're 11-4 since the break. Mike MacDougal closes out the Dustys. The announcers aren't great, but besides one of them claiming Zimmerman made a no-look throw after four replays showed he had time to see the base, they weren't too stupid. Good job, guys!
Over to KCR-DET. For those not ready to give up on their will to live, the Royals have scored in the top of the 10th to take a 3-2 lead.
Trey Hillman brings in Yuniesky Betancourt as a defensive replacement. That's the dumbest thing so far today, besides maybe Nick Blackburn.
Soria finishes the Tigers in the 10th. For the record, the announcers were talking about the exploits of the White Sox, but they appear to be at the point where they're ignoring the Twins. I don't blame them.
yay Royals!
There's (false) hope yet!
Now in Baltimore, where the Orioles trail the hated Angels by one in the 9th. Roberts leads off with a ground-rule double. You know, there's some exciting baseball with some good teams today...it's not so terrible that the Twins game is "temporarily unavailable."
Roberts steals third. Ballsy. It works.
Adam Jones misses the walk-off jack by feet. Roberts ties it on the sac fly.
Brian Fuentes strikes out some shank named Nolan Reimold to finish the 9th. They go into extras, I go to the Twins game, find out it's still unavailable, and head to BOS-TEX for the Wild Card Spectacular.
Lunch today is pretty good, not as nice as yesterday's dinner though.. A little sweet but it will help me get through the afternoon. Someone should make a high alcohol content beer named GOSO.
I'm on it.
bert's pontificating that o-cab should be signed to an extension... i guess it's better than some of the alternatives.
Texas announcers claim that with two on and two out, Alex Gonzalez might be the worst Red Sock to have at the plate because of his World Series experience. That is so weird in so many ways that I can't even work up anger for it.
Stupid-pretty curve by CJ Wilson strikes out World Series Hero Gonzalez to end the threat. The Texas faithful, before the last pitch, finally bothered to cheer enough to drown out the "Let's go Red Sox" chant.
From the looks of her skin, that gal needs to lay off the hat...
Ok, I'm so bored that I'm gonna go work. The Boy has decreed that we are going to go see District 9 late this afternoon. So I gotta actually get something accomplished.
Back to TOR-TB because commercials are for losers. The first words I hear are "Home run, because the ball was just left up in the zone." TB leading 5-2 in the 9th. Twins game still unavailable. Spookymilk still uninterested with it anyway. Bleh.
TB wins in a game paced by a Gregg Zaun slam. Back to LAA-BAL, probably?
and span takes strike three.
Neither Orioles nor Angels score in the 10th. Twins game up yet? Nope!
LaTroy throws a 1-2-3 8th as the Astros are now up 7-5 in the 8th. I saw three seconds of that before the commercial. Well, dumb. Twins game? Nope.
Three GIDP today. One with the bases loaded and the other two immediately preceding the best hitter in the AL. Oy.
Texas on Pedroia: "Now the diminutive second baseman who swings like a big, hulking DH." Petunia is the next Jeter. Couldn't we have had a year or two off from the hero worship of a slightly-better-than-average player?
Petunia's called out on strikes. He bitches like a bitch. Replay shows it's a strike.
Francisco finishes off the Red Sox and the Rangers take the Wild Card lead. I don't care that they have an unfair scheduling advantage...I'm happy.
Couldn't we have had a year or two off from the hero worship of a slightly-better-than-average player?
I understand that Petunia is not loved in these circles, but...
Pedroia ......league-avg 2b ... Year
ba/obp/slg ...... ba/obp/slg ....
317/380/442... 284.339/416.. 2007
326/376/493... 282/339/410.. 2008
296/372/434... 275/335/424.. 2009
Pedroia is just a tad bit better than an "average" player. This year, his worst as a full-time player, he ranks 6th in the Majors in VORP amongst 2bs (26.0; Utley leads at 51.4). In 2008, he was second to Utley (60.3 to 63.7). In 2007, he was 7th in the Majors at the position as a rookie (34.5). His bRAA's have been 10.1, 24.1 and 7.9, respectively.
His WARs and imputed FA salary value have been 3.8 ($15.6M), 6.6 ($29.9M) and 3.7 ($16.7M), respectively. That 6.6 WAR is higher than Joe Mauer's career best.
Just sayin. Plus, I gotta represent a little for the Hometown Hero.
Brian, don't confuse me with the facts.
What did Gameday have to say about that GIDP by Cabrera? Was that on an offspeed pitch? It looked to me like a fastball on the oustide half of the plate that he tried to pull, which is absolutely horrible situational hitting.
It's hard to be annoyed that I'm not seeing that.
Gameday said it was a fastball on the outer half of the plate. Good call.
Bases loaded for the Angels in the top of the 11th. Today reminds me, if nothing else, that I'll be able to see everyone clinch and get close to it because of MLB.tv. I mean, I would've loved to see the Twins do it, but...meh.
FotF hits into a bases loaded double play, of course! No score for the Angels in the 11th.
Well, there we go. The Twins game is available again. I can't tell if I'm happy about that.
Afternoon , folks.
Hey meat, you have been missing out on another lousy game.
Oh, and don't be confused because Nathan is pitching. It might as well be Punto.
and I thought you were kidding about Nathan pitching.
I have been drinking all afternoon so I understand why you figured I was joking.
I've been drinking since last tuesday, that may explain why I'm a little off balance.
Dude, I live in Buffalo.
You must be painters...
That's not all I've missed out on. I'm driving to arlington next week to see the Twins take on the Rangers, maybe I'll catch the pig flu while I'm there.
But I watched a lot of good ones while the game was unavailable. No lost afternoon here!
Although I'm with the Twins again now, so it's not so awesome again.
And suddenly, CLE-MIN seems to be the only available game. Do I have laptop gremlins?
oh god...right off Nathans leg
Nathan gets ankled? In this meaningless appearance? Of course he does.
Gotta tell ya, rumors of O-Cab's defensive demise seem pretty premature.
great. they're aiming at his head now (nice stab by o-cab).
15/20 in save opportunities. fingers crossed.
that was ball four when span took it 4-5 inches higher.
The Runs!
Well, that blew, though I now recommend MLB.tv more than ever.
4-8 against the central in the past 12 games (with 2 cleveland series and a KC thrown in). eff this.
The Twins have now lost five consecutive series. They haven't done that since May 2007. The good news is after getting swept by the Indians for their fifth consecutive series loss, the Twins won 10 of their next 13 games. So, you never know, although I just don't see it happening. Deolis Guerra, how soon can you get here?
Can they bench KG with a fake injury and get into the lottery?