Game Thread: Royals@Twins 4/12 1:10PM

[Riverbrian]

Game-time forecast: Mostly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 60.

 

Royals:

SP, Shields

 

Aoki EF

Infante 2B

Hosmer 1B

Butler DH

Gordon LF

Perez C

Moustakas 3B

Cain CF

Escobar SS

 

Twins:

SP, Nolasco

 

Dozier 2B

Mauer 1B

Plouffe 3B

Colabello RF

Kubel LF

Pinto DH

Suzuki C

Hicks CF

Florimon SS

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Things to Think About:

 

1. Saving for a Rainy Day -- Most Americans are busy living from check to check. 57% of all working Americans have less than $25K in savings and investments. With statistics like that... Why are the Twins scoring 10 runs in a game on a Friday with Saturday and Sunday left to play. On the other hand after 2013... The Twins should have a ton of savings.

 

2. Ricky Nolasco -- Start Number 3 for Nolasco... 1st start... 6IP 10H 5R... Two De Aza Home Runs. He actually had 3 decent innings in that game and 3 not so decent. 2nd start... 4IP 7H 5R... Yan Gomes took him deep. The Twins spotted him a good lead which he gave up. I'd say 2 decent innings and 2 not so decent. If I can be Captain Obvious for a moment. Ricky has to stop giving up the big innings... That will help immensely. He matches up against James Shields today and he will have to match up against the top starters for awhile until things get out of kilter rotation wise.

 

3. Jason Kubel and Trevor Plouffe -- Kubel is Hotter than a pistol!!! I think he must be seeing the baseball real well right now. So what Jason Kubel do we have? The Jason who hit .216 in 2013 or the Jason who hit 30 home runs in 2012? It's too soon to tell but it sure seems like the Jason who had an OPS+ over 100 every year from 2007 to 2012. 2013 just might have been an injury nightmare. I think it's ok to let your guard down and feel good about his homecoming. If he struggles later... we can call the Twins front office terrible things at that time. As for Plouffe... I'm loving the discipline at the plate. I love that he is going the other way and opening up the entire field. A productive Plouffe is huge for the Twins.

 

4. Chris Colabello -- I'm beginning to think he should just be thought number 4 every game thread. He's a feel good story and it makes me feel good. Another clutch hit yesterday with runners to bring home.

 

5. Warmer Weather -- I can tell it's getting warmer because a fly has been flying around me and bugging me while I typed thoughts 1 through 3. Haven't seen a fly in awhile so I assume its starting to warm up.

 

I captured the Fly... I tore his wings off and then I told him that he is no longer "A Fly".

 

He is now "A Walk"

[Mr. Brooks]

4 Dozier

3 Mauer

5 Plouffe

9 Cola

7 Kubel

DH Pinto

2 Suzuki

8 Hicks

6 Florimon

[stringer bell]

Steinbach goes with the same exact lineup two days in a row.

[Mr. Brooks]

Steinbach goes with the same exact lineup two days in a row.

 

Gardy is gonna be pissed.

[Squirrel]

Steinbach goes with the same exact lineup two days in a row.

 

Yeah ... could easily cut and paste from yesterday's game thread.

[JB_Iowa]

Yeah ... could easily cut and paste from yesterday's game thread.

 

 

Why change something that worked?

 

Although in fairness, it sounded like this was Gardy's line-up yesterday.

[Winston Smith]

6. Think about Floriman hitting .080. Nolasco is a career .138 hitter maybe they should let the pitcher hit and dh for Floriman.

[mnfireman]

Maybe these veterans should pay attention to the kid. Gibson was getting squeezed all night, according to MLB Gameday's strike zone, yet he adjusted to the umpire and threw a gem. He worked the edges he was given, kept the hitters off balance and, well, he just plain threw a nice game. The only bad thing was that he hit 100 pitches in the middle of an inning. But Duensing picked up the slack very nicely and Swarzak was spot on.

[Craig Arko]

7) Tonkin is here.

 

8) Cordarrelle Patterson is throwing out the first pitch. Wonder if he's available to pinch run?

[JB_Iowa]

I'm getting the feeling this season is going to be a bit of a roller coaster ride.

 

Bright spots, low spots. Up and down from day-to-day, series to series.

 

I guess that's better than feeling like we're on a steady train to the nadir.

[big dog]

I want Cordarelle on my team if we need to break up a double play, that's for sure.

 

Looking foward to a good start by Nolasco and some hits off Shields today.

 

Go Twins!

[Mr. Brooks]

Maybe these veterans should pay attention to the kid. Gibson was getting squeezed all night, according to MLB Gameday's strike zone, yet he adjusted to the umpire and threw a gem. He worked the edges he was given, kept the hitters off balance and, well, he just plain threw a nice game. The only bad thing was that he hit 100 pitches in the middle of an inning. But Duensing picked up the slack very nicely and Swarzak was spot on.

 

You must have missed the memo that those other guys arent required to show up to work until June or so.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

1. Wait. Do we have to score runs on rainy days? I thought those games were rescheduled... Alas, imagining a game where you could save runs for when you needed them most would just be weird. "It's the September, the Tigers are 7 games ahead, which isn't insurmountable, but they have 90 runs in hand..."

 

4. That's cleanup, right! Colabello! Square up perfectly on the ball!

 

(and, as i'm commenting on perfect squares...)

 

9. Lipstick.

 

(always confused me why thoughts only went up to 5 with that 9 floating down there in the signature. But yeah, 5 are hard enough to write well on a regular basis. Gotta pace yourself for the whole season.)

 

Anyway, go twins!

[JB_Iowa]

O runs for the opponent in the first inning?

 

I didn't realize that could happen.

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

Bulldozier!

[Shane Wahl]

There might be something to batting leadoff and Dozier hitting more homers. Rickey-esque?

[Circus Boy]

There might be something to batting leadoff and Dozier hitting more homers. Rickey-esque?

 

Ricardo?

[Tibs]

Can we assume Dozier's power numbers last year are for real now?

[twinsnorth49]

There might be something to batting leadoff and Dozier hitting more homers. Rickey-esque?

 

Surely you mean Jacque-esque!

[big dog]

Let's go Skuzi!

[big dog]

Terrible bunt, Shields had Kubel at third, and Shields completely flubbed it. Let's go Hicks.

 

Great at-bat by Hicks. He had fastball swings at two changeups, then laid off changeups on 2-2 and 3-2 to get a walk.

[Tibs]

Thatta kid Hicks

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

Somewhere, Ron Gardenhire is saying, "Way to go, Hicksie!"

[Tibs]

Not a shocker that Florimon struck out, but that was a good pitch

[PseudoSABR]

"You miss none of the balls you don't swing at."

-P. Florimon

[Squirrel]

That was interesting.

[howeda7]

How much longer do we have to be subjected to Florimon?

[notoriousgod71]

I'm not going to lie- I signed it to complain about what I assumed would be ruled a hit for Dozier.

 

Thankfully Stew must be scoring the game today.

[notoriousgod71]

Dick baffled as to why the Royals aren't walking Mauer.

[mnfireman]

Mauer Power!!