Results tagged ‘ loss ’
Come together, right now … with Crede?
** BEATLES REFERENCE, IN HONOR OF THE REMASTERS, FTW!! **
Wow, the happenings of the past week. Last post, we won against the White Sox and were 3 1/2 back from the Tigers. Oh, cruel fate …
Well, we dropped down to 7 back from the Tigers after losing – horribly – the next two games. Our losing streak went as follows: one to the Sox, two to the Indians, and one to the Blue Jays yesterday. Since the 1st, we’ve had four wins and four losses. It looked bleak. And then …
I’m going to say something I never thought I’d say: thank you, Kansas City Royals.
The Royals WON TWO IN A ROW against the Tigers the past two nights, taking us to a more manageable 5 1/2 games back. Now I know we should be playing our best, winning games, blah blah … but: anyone who helps us catch up to Detroit, I am more than okay with.
Points to touch on:
- WTF was with the game on Saturday (the 5th) being called the “Fox Game of the Week” and then NOT EVEN BEING SHOWN?
- Our pitching staff is still making me cry tears of blood. Example: Duensing was doing so well yesterday against the Jays, then suddenly completely loses it, and none of the relievers could remedy the awful situation. We had a 3-0 lead until the 5th. And guess what happened next?
But all of that came to a crashing halt in the sixth inning when the Twins pitching suddenly went awry.
Duensing faced three batters and didn’t retire a single one, loading the bases before being replaced by right-hander Jon Rauch.
Rauch had found early success in Minnesota, having not allowed a run in his first four appearances for the Twins, totaling four innings. But on this night, things would not go so well for the newcomer.
Aww.
- But speaking of pitchingfail: the most upsetting one in the past week lies squarely on the shoulders of Joe Nathan. I hate even typing that, but that was some SERIOUS choke. Our 2-0 lead with J-Nate closing became a tie after two back-to-back homers. Then two walks. Then all hell broke loose. Guerrier came in, and, well … let’s just say the game ended 4-2. FROWN.
- “Big Rauch,” or as I like to call him, CockRauch, has been doing fairly well since he came to Minnesota in late August. That dude has some serious tattoo action going on, no joke. Our 6’11″ beast of a reliever can be a sad sack of terrible sometimes, but I think he’ll be good for the Twins, even if it’s just the intimidation factor to the batter. Also, apparently Rauch makes Gard-Dog say some pretty awesome things:
“He’s big,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Really, really big.”
Hahaha. Right.
- Morneau finally broke his streak of sucking tonight, hitting a homer off of the apparently impossible to beat Halladay. Well, we beat him. It was 51 at-bats since our Canadian Wonder hit a home run, bringing the count up to 30 on the year. I think SOMEONE had a plate of poutine before the game …
- I have to ask: If I make inappropriate, off-color comments to Brendan Harris, does that make it “Sexual Harrisment?”
- My babycakes Joe Crede still is MIA, but word is that he’s doing better. I am seriously going to have a funeral for my Crede shirt if this is how his career with the Twinsies ends. Supposedly, like I said last week, retirement is not in his future. But after reading this article, I need a hug. Or a martini. Such a bummer.
That’s all I got. Our last game in my fave city Toronto is tomorrow, and hopefully we can walk away with a third win and take the series. And by “hopefully we can” I mean “WE BETTER OR I’M BECOMING A FRICKIN’ TIGERS FAN.” And I really don’t want to do that.
Bleeding Kansas (City).
Forecast for today’s game: partly sucky with a 75% chance of frown.
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.
Doooooon’t even want to talk about the score tonight.
But what I will mention: CUDDYER! YOUNG! OH SNAP!
My dad is a Cuddyer-hater for whatever reason (I’m sure I and pretty much anyone could name one easily), but excuse me? TWO home runs?? That shut him right up. I straight up ran through my living room screaming like a swarm of bees were after me in the aftermath of numero two.
A lot of good, and plenty of bad. As for ugly? Hmmm …
Dirt McGirt.
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{page:Section1;}HOW dirty was that game last night? No, I’m not talking about the loss, 8-10, to
the Tigers. No, not about the
sprinkling of errors (MORNEAU! HOW COULD YOU??) or the MIA players (CREDE!).
I’m talking about those umpires. RIDICULOUS.
Gardy received his 46th career time-out. I saw the tirade, and I assumed he was in
the wrong. He has several gifts as a
manager, one being explosive expletive power.
But after several questionable calls, I have to wonder …
Basically, after two possible balks by Galarraga in
the first and second innings, Gardy and the dugout were not amused. Gard-dog went to umpire Wendelstedt
for the second time about it, and was tossed out.
Here’s what Gardy said after
the game, though:
“He threw me out, and he said, ‘How do
you like that?’ ” a still-hot Gardenhire fumed. “Well, that’s
the second time I’ve run into this with this guy. A lot of problems with Hunter
[Wendelstedt]. He’s got an attitude. At home a few years back he said,
‘You’re just out here for showtime.’
“He’s got a smart (expletive) mouth, and tonight was
ridiculous, really. A lot of calls, (were) no good. He had a bad night. He
didn’t probably think so because he’s god as umpires go, but not good, really
not good by him. I was really disappointed. There was no reason for me to get
thrown out of that game tonight.”Gardenhire stopped his tirade there, but
seconds later, when asked a question about a different questionable call — they
were numerous on Friday night — he relaunched.“Calls are calls,” he said. “Sometimes they go
your way; I just get real disappointed when an umpire has an attitude like that
and thinks he’s a big shot and throws you out and feels good about it, feels
good about a game in the second inning. That’s too bad, too bad. It doesn’t
have to be that way, shouldn’t have to be that way, but I’ll get fined, and
he’ll be fine. He’ll be fine. Anything else before I get suspended here, if I
already haven’t?”
Somehow, I can’t really blame Gardenhire. Harris’ tag was right there; Granderson
was SO out. Mauer DEFINITELY
tagged Guillen out before he reached the plate. And yeah, you can’t have instant replays and
change the ump’s call, but those were two glaringly wrong calls that cost us a
game. And even so, a fan touched the
ball when it got away from Morneau, and the two possible balks by Galarraga
weren’t even questioned.
Well, here’s what the ump had to
say:
“The only questionable call of the whole night that he
might have is whether the fan might have touched the foul ball down the line,
which we couldn’t see on the tape; everything else we were 100 percent,” Wendelstedt
said after reviewing the game tape. “And then when I get my ball and
strike disk, I’ll bet I’m 97-99 percent, and we’ll look at that tomorrow.”
On Gardenhire’s assertion that Galarraga was
balking, Wendelstedt said, “I would challenge him to sit down and
watch the replays. Because he was wrong on whether the pitcher was balking or
not, and we can sit down, and I’m going to invite him to my umpire school, if
he wants to learn what is a balk, he can come down in January to umpire school
and we’ll teach him.”Wendelstedt said he warned Gardenhire
“numerous” times and that the dugout complained “five times in
an inning and a half” about the alleged balking. He went on to say that he
“is not a pincushion,” and that Gardenhire’s ejection was a
simple decision to make.“There was some not-so-kind things said to me, which is why
when he was ejected, and that’s when I said, ‘How do you like that if you’re
going to be that way?’ ” Wendelstedt said after Minnesota
fell 5 1/2 games back of Detroit in the AL Central race.
Seriously. “Umpire school?”
So
here’s the deal. We need to win REALLY
bad tonight and hopefully tomorrow.
This is out of control – literally – and hopefully Gardy won’t,
um, get a longer time-out for his kind words above. And hopefully new jack can help us with the Tigers, too.
NOTE: I will not be continuing liveblogging for a while since, like the genius my mom tells me I am, I smashed a chapstick in my MacBook, cracking the screen. So, no more live comments about the snugness of Nick Punto‘s pants until that screen is fixed.
Scalped.
Lost 2
of 3 to the Cleveland Injuns. Ew. I thought we could’ve took
it yesterday afternoon, but instead we were 0-20 with leaving players on base. Eh, at least Blackburn
held it down pretty well, unlike, oh … some dude that rhymes with “Stickey.”
Listen, L.J. Stickey, you’re in a world of trouble if you don’t get your
affairs in order! Oh … too
late:
To accommodate Pavano on the 25-man Major League roster,
the Twins optioned right-hander R.A. Dickey to Triple-A
Rochester.
After
our suckfest, the Indians were kind enough to leave us with a
parting gift, which I think the team, the coaches, and the fans are MORE
than fine with. Plus, that’s a pretty sweet last name, which I’m sure I
can mangle and turn into another super-lame string of nicknames.
But,
hey, at least we didn’t get swept by the team that was in 4th place by like a
million games. And let me just say this: I love Cabrera. A
LOT. And apparently so does Gomez and Casilla:
Since Cabrera arrived, Gomez and
Casilla have been at the shortstop’s side during pregame warmups and
during chats inside the clubhouse.
… Cabrera is more than happy to be a mentor to the two
players. He said he’s embraced the role of being what he calls “a
liaison” between the coaching staff and Gomez and Casilla.
While other Twins players have tried
to help Gomez and Casilla improve their games, Gomez admitted
that the language barrier has sometimes gotten in the way.
“The other guys here help me,” Gomez
said. “Like [Mike] Redmond, Michael [Cuddyer], but it’s
different because I spend more time together with Cabrera and Casilla
because we’re the three [position] guys on the team who speak Spanish.
That’s fun to talk to a guy like Cabrera with 13-14 years in the big
leagues.”
For
seriously, if that doesn’t warm your heart a little, you are made of
stone. Cold stone. Apparently, you’re made of ice cream.
Anyway, I saw a little piece of the interview with Gomez when he was
talking about the influence of Cabrera (it was adorable), and if nothing
else, Cabrera is someone both of the boys respect and can easily talk
with. I think that if his influence can help both Casilla and Gomez‘s
attitude and game, then he’s done a major service to our team outside of his
playing. I really think that’s what those two need; a really great player
they can respect and get advice from. He’s like Padre Orlando to
them (sooooo his new nickname).
So tonight it’s on in D-Town. I am hesitant to say that we will win a game, because apparently that’s not what we’ve been all about the past couple weeks, BUT I will say I hope we win several games against the Overgrown House Cats, because being third in the division blows.
Speaking of cats and being low in the division … POOR LITTLE GUY!!
Swept away.
I think we all neede a little more Crede.
Oh, Joe Crede. Can you BE any more awesome? Last night, Crede managed to hit two homers against the Shite Sox, helping the boys get at least a little closer to winning. But, they fell short, 7-8:
It took several innings, but the Twins finally seemed to find their offense in the fifth on the first off Crede’s two home runs. The former White Sox third baseman blasted a three-run shot against starter Gavin Floyd that scored Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel, who both singled ahead of Crede.
It was Crede’s eighth game against his former squad, but he insists that wasn’t in the back of his mind during either of his home runs.
“I never really thought about any of it, other than the fact that we’re just out there trying to win ballgames,” Crede said.
Oh, and WHO was that Crede superfan chick in the stands with “I Neede Crede” painted on her face? THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME. I’m at LEAST fifty percent creepier than her.
Anyway, Crede was pretty much the only highlight of a game gone wrong, full of bad pitching and good playing from the White Sox. But with the series split going into the game this afternoon, it looks like the rest of our lineup took Crede’s lead, winning with a very nice 13-7 final score:
The Twins delivered an early offensive outburst against a pitcher that’s given the team plenty of trouble in recent years, tagging White Sox left-hander Mark Buehrle for eight runs without any help from the club’s top two hitters Joe Mauer and Morneau.
They watched as that lead was whittled away in the middle innings — narrowing to as little as a three-run gap — before the Twins delivered another offensive punch to capture a 13-7 victory over the White Sox at the Metrodome.
Span, Harris, and Gomez hitting the homers? ME LIKEY! The only thing that bothered me about the game today was Morneau and Mauer’s total lack of power, neither hitting anything good and especially Mauer striking out FOUR times. You REALLY are hitting up the Homerun Derby and All-Star Game? Hopefully it was just a bad day for Dreamyburns, because that’s just sick to see.
But seriously, WOW. The game today helped me forget about that one team we played earlier this week … I dunno, some little group of rag-tag misfits … might rhyme with Blankies …
In other news:
- Mauer accepts the invite to the Home Run Derby, but still has not accepted my marriage proposal.
- Alexi Casilla is called up from the minors, reuniting him with his life partner, Carlos Gomez. Awww.
- Speaking of Gomez, he does not appreciate Milkwaukee’s ghosts screwing with his iPod.
- Fatties love all-you-can-eat! For example: ”I’ve done four hot dogs, three nachos, a pretzel, some popcorn and about four of these pops … It’s only been an hour.”
- Derek Jeter said thinks the Metrodome gives the Twins a home advantage. Meanwhile, the Yanks sweep the Twins.
- And finally, I still hate A.J. Pierzynski.
There is no clever title for this.
Seems as though we took the series this weekend against the division-leading Detroit Tigers. The Twins (43-40) are now just two games behind Detroit (44-37), and are currently leading the division in my heart. Awww!
So, while I was busy getting sunburn and blowing my fingers off with firecrackers at a cabin this weekend, it looks like the boys held it down despite that EPIC game which ended in a loss Friday (which I was only aware of thanks to a friend with an iPhone):
That’s exactly what happened in a marathon at the Metrodome on Friday night, as the Twins fell to the Tigers by an 11-9 final in a game that took 16 innings, a combined 35 hits, 15 total pitchers and over five hours to finish.
After checking the score nine hundred times, my fragile little heart broke when I read Crede struck out, ending the game. I was like, “no … no! NOOOO! HE’S GRAND-SLAMMED BEFORE!“ But then he didn’t and all Twins fans died a little inside.
So no big deal, we just lost one game, right? Oh, no:
Right-hander Kevin Slowey was placed on the 15-day disabled list after the contest with a strained right wrist. The Twins have called up right-hander Anthony Swarzak from Triple-A Rochester to take his place on the roster.
Slowey, who entered [Friday's game] trying to become the first pitcher in the Majors to win 11 games, tossed just three innings against Detroit as he gave up a season-worst six runs on five hits.
That is super awful. I loves me some Kevin Slowey-Children; hopefully his wrist will be alright ASAP. Because, you know, he kinda needs his right wrist A LOT.
So, major bummers abounded Friday, but it all turned around on Saturday, July 4th with a 4-3 win. God bless America, and apparently Nick Punto:
Punto singled up the middle in the fourth inning, but it was his jam shot to left in the eighth inning that allowed pinch-runner Matt Tolbert to score from second base and break up what had been a 3-3 tie.
Aww, yeahh! And today was another win, an almost-shutout for Blackburn:
Spotted six runs in the fourth inning by his offense, Blackburn continued to pound his sinker low in the strike zone, holding the Tigers scoreless for eight innings while allowing just four hits.
But an error in the top of the ninth was followed by a two-run home run by Brandon Inge, and Blackburn’s bid at his first career shutout evaporated.
Whatever, that’s the third complete game that guy’s pitched in the past few weeks; it’s just the Twins’ nature to choke somewhere in the 8th or 9th despite his best efforts. You’ll get one again someday, Dreamyburns II.
Other stuff:
- Morneau not starting in All-Star game, but joins starters Nathan and Mauer as a reserve.
- My fave Canadian not likely to go to the Home-Run Derby, but a certain set of sideburns just may make an appearance …
- I was watching FSN or something last week and the story of these reality show winners from India who got signed with the Pirates pretty much sucked me in. WELL, looks like they made their pitching debuts. Such an interesting story!
- Oh. My. God. Seriously??
I’m too tired and in need of a tub of aloe to make sense anymore, but as a reminder: a day off tomorrow, and then it’s on to the effin’ Yankees (A.K.A. America’s Sweethearts vs. That Team That’s from Almost Canada)!
Goin’ to Kansas City …
I took a vacay away from blogging this weekend in favor of supporting my gay brothers and sisters at Pride in Minneapolis this weekend. Oh, and binge drinking. So, do baseball and gays mix? Judging by the plethora of Twins shirts I saw at the parade, this straight girl would say … YES.
With a runner at second, no outs, and the Twins leading by two,Pujols stepped to the plate against Nathan as the potential tying run. He led the Major Leagues in home runs and RBIs, and the two hitters hitting behind him — Ryan Ludwick and Rick Ankiel — were hitting .226 and .240, respectively. … So, arguably the game’s greatest hitter stepped into the box at a sold out Busch Stadium on Friday night with a chance to tie the game and Nathan and the Twins went right after him. … After Pujols laid off a slider in the dirt to even the count at 2-2,Nathan threw one of the nastiest sliders of his career to get the two-time MVP swinging for the first out. “That’s about as good as I can throw it,” Nathan said. “If he didn’t swing at that one, I would have just tipped my cap and said ‘Wow.’” With the hard part out of the way, Nathan then coaxed a groundout from Ludwick and struck out Ankiel to preserve the third win of the year for starter Glen Perkins. “I loved it,” Perkins said. “That was awesome. One of the best pitchers against one of the best hitters and that’s the kind of stuff we like to see. … “That was nasty,” Gardenhire said. “That ball fell off the table. That was a really nasty slider.”
What a BEAST. So great that we got Pujols that game, because OH DON’T WORRY, he managed to take us over his knee and spank us the next game … Saturday: Lost, 5-3. Probably because Pujols is actually a cyborg from the future, designed to hit multiple home runs in a game and make Minnesota Twins fans cry and wish they were Cardinals fans:
Kevin Slowey finally found out what the rest of the National League has known for a while: Albert Pujols is pretty darn good. “He’s very special,” Slowey said. “He’s great for the game of baseball. He’s a tremendous hitter and a tremendous athlete. From everything I’ve heard, he’s a tremendous person, too. It doesn’t make it any easier to give up a couple home runs to him, but he’s very good.” The slugger hit a pair of two-run homers off Slowey in his first two at-bats as the Twins fell to the Cardinals, 5-3, on a hot and muggy Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
My farvorite sentence of that selection from the article is ‘”He’s very special,” Slowey said.’ Teehee, special! Slow(ey)! I am also quite possibly a moron. But, the Twins weren’t the only thing to fall at Busch Stadium this weekend (I may or may not be going to Hell for that sentence):
The fan, identified by a friend as Chris Hoffman of O’Fallon, Ill., was seated in the front row of section 454 when he apparently passed out during
WHEW, at least he fell on Cardinals fans … Sorry, I’m truly awful. And yesterday, Sunday: Won, 6-2. Twins fans out there can send their thank you cards to Liriano and Morneau for that:
The Twins lefty looked like a different pitcher against theCardinals, pounding the strike zone and giving up two runs in seven innings to pick up his fourth win of the season as Minnesota took the series from St. Louis with a 6-2 win. … The Twins lefty had a 3-0 lead befor
Good stuff. Up against Kansas City and their Royals tonight. I really like the Royals logo … it’s very olds-chool. I’ve been through KC twice. Well actually Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas is such an awful place, its city moved to a neighboring state! I’m kidding of course, unless you realize I actually hate Kansas – then I’m not. Anyway, big ups to the boys for playing great this weekend, that Cardinals fan for diving off into the stands, and my main man Blackburn in hopes he’ll do well tonight.
the National Anthem and fell over the railing. Hoffman landed on two Cardinals fans seated in section 354, about 10-12 feet below, who were unharmed but visibly shaken.
e he even took the mound thanks to a three-run blast off the bat of Justin Morneau. With runners at first and third, Morneau took a 2-2 fastball from the Cardinals‘ Joel Pineiro and belted it 432 feet, well into the right-field seats.
Milwaukee Boo-ers.
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