Game Thread: Twins @ White Sox, 5/22 @ 7:10pm CT

[Squirrel]

Game-time forecast: 55 deg F, partly cloudy (sunset 8:10pm), 0% chance of precipitation, winds from the ENE at 9pmh.

 

Lineups:

 

TWINS

Dozier 2B

Hunter RF

Mauer 1B

Plouffe 3B

Suzuki C

Escobar DH

Rosario LF

Hicks CF

Santana SS

 

Hughes P

 

WHITE SOX

Eaton CF

Cabrera LF

Abreu 1B

LaRoche DH

Garcia RF

Gillaspie 3B

Ramirez SS

Soto C

Sanchez 2B

 

Samardzija P

 

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

 

Pluses and minuses are a matter of perspective. Here are mine from my perspective. You can put yours below in the comments.

 

1. Plus – The Twins are 5-2 against the ChiSox so far this year, including that sweep we all fondly remember. Go Twins! Keep it rollin’!
    Minus – The Twins are 5-2 against the ChiSox so far this year, including the sweep in the near-distant past. This could fuel the Sox for some revenge on their home turf. Plus they seem to be playing better these days.

 

2. Plus – Phil Hughes seems to have found his groove and is on a roll winning his last three starts, including a very nice win over the Rays in his last appearance.  (2 runs over 7 innings, blah blah blah, you look up all the stats). He also has a better record over the Sox than Samardzija has over the Twins. (yeah, yeah, SSS and all. Whatever. I’m going with it )
    Minus – While Samardzajin has had good and bad this year, he also comes off a good start in his last appearance. Plus he is pitching to the ‘hometown’ crowd against a ‘hated’ rival. These things can always fuel an up moment.

 

3. Minus – The weather. It’s cold.
    Plus – There is no plus in this. Except maybe tomorrow will be nice and warm (70s), but Sunday will be rainy, icky, thunderstormy.  So we’re back to the minus.

 

4. Plus – Torii is not the worst at what he does. But he is ‘fiery.’ The Sox still boo him when he comes up to bat … not sure if it’s because of the Burke crash thing, or the fact that he almost signed with them (according to rumors at the time), then went to the Angels, or because he is the most ‘rivalous’ of them all when it comes to playing the Sox. (Yes, I made that up without any stats to prove my statement because I can.)
    Minus – Torii is not the best at what he does. In some (most?) minds, not even close.
    Plus – Whatever would we have to talk about, discuss, debate, argue, gnash our teeth if not for Torii. Such a polarizing force!
    Minus – Such a polarizing force!

 

5. Minus – I’m not Brian. (Well, for me personally that’s a plus, but for you it’s not, in terms of the game thread start.) I did the game thread today because Brian had Brian stuff to do in his last day at work prior to his vacation and move to a new job.
    Plus – Since I did the game thread today it will make you miss Brian even more while he’s off on his Baseball Odyssey Tour and onto a new job. To Brian, I wish you safe travels on the road and safe journeys in life to a new chapter. (Get an iPass already!)   (that final aside was an inside joke)

[JB_Iowa]

Great Job, Chi!!!

 

I think Torii is mostly a polarizing force to the TD fanbase (and to fans on other sites).  I don't think he's much of a polarizing force if you just take Twins fans in general.

 

And I hope Sox fans do boo him -- would be the kind of thing he feeds off of.

[diehardtwinsfan]

Grand Rapids isn't that far from Chicago... The real problem is planning all of your westward trips around Chicago traffic...

 

Oh, and I feel sorry for Brian already... having to spend most of his times surrounded by Tigers fans... ick... or is that ish?

[Squirrel]

 

Grand Rapids isn't that far from Chicago... The real problem is planning all of your westward trips around Chicago traffic...

Oh, and I feel sorry for Brian already... having to spend most of his times surrounded by Tigers fans... ick... or is that ish?

Well, maybe at some point in the future, you will have to come up, and he come down, for a Twins game vs the White Sox at the Cell? We'll call it MiniModCon.

[glunn]

This was a very solid setup. A minus for all of us is that we are not Brian, but this was informative and very well written.  Great job!

[Bark's Lounge]

 

Oh, and I feel sorry for Brian already... having to spend most of his times surrounded by Tigers fans... ick... or is that ish?

Maybe that is not a bad thing.

 

Maybe we should view Brian as a disciple of the MN Twins and we should have faith that he will spread and teach the gospel of the Twins while he is entrenched in the Unholy Lands of Detroit Tiger fandom.

 

It might be a tough task to execute, but we may end up with some MN Twins fan converts.

 

Twins Bless You All.

[Bark's Lounge]

... or River Brian is converted to being a follower of the Detroit Tigers and he will be lost to us all.

[formerly33]

 

... or River Brian is converted to being a follower of the Detroit Tigers and he will be lost to us all.

If that is the case we will have to confine him to TD and, if absolutely necessary (but only as a last resort), torture him until he recants his beliefs.

[Craig Arko]

This is why we're all here isn't it? Brian tells a good story.

[Craig Arko]

While the freakout battalion does their bit in the Meyer thread...

 

"@MikeBerardino: It's possible Alex Meyer will remain in the pen going forward, but "that's not the plan," Rob Antony said. Trying to raise his arm slot."

 

Shocking.

[Blake]

I signed up for http://www.southsidesox.com/ just so I can troll the Sox fans. Much to my surprise, no game thread yet.

 

I did announce on the Sox game thread Thursday evening that I was going to be back to give and take abuse Friday evening.

 

Have the Sox fans given up already?

 

By the way, the Sox site posted a picture of the actual lineup card, which I thought was pretty cool. 

 

Going through the game thread, though, it appears a lot of Sox fans are, shall we say, unhappy with their team.

 

hahahahaha...may the Twins bats beat the Sox into oblivion.

[bulldozier14]

So Vargas has two bombs tonight so far...good thing we sent him down to get straightened out. I like what the Twins have been doing, but I had to question that one. Hopefully it was just to get him at bats every day temporarily. 

[Craig Arko]

So Vargas has two bombs tonight so far...good thing we sent him down to get straightened out. I like what the Twins have been doing, but I had to question that one. Hopefully it was just to get him at bats every day temporarily.

 

Sounds like the plan is working. Hopefully it will for Arcia, too.

 

[formerly33]

 

I signed up for http://www.southsidesox.com/ just so I can troll the Sox fans. Much to my surprise, no game thread yet.

 

I did announce on the Sox game thread Thursday evening that I was going to be back to give and take abuse Friday evening.

 

Have the Sox fans given up already?

 

By the way, the Sox site posted a picture of the actual lineup card, which I thought was pretty cool. 

 

Going through the game thread, though, it appears a lot of Sox fans are, shall we say, unhappy with their team.

 

hahahahaha...may the Twins bats beat the Sox into oblivion.

I took a look - and I must say that TD knows how to do game threads better. But that's to be expected. And maybe you beat the Sox fans into oblivion. They probably read your comment, pondered for half an hour how to block you, and then decided that a safer method would be to cancel the game thread for today.

 

Just an idea, and it probably won't fly: How 'bout we all head over to SouthSideSox and teach 'em how a real Game Thread is done?

[JB_Iowa]

 

[MileHighTwinsFan]

I know Santana is our everyday shortstop, but is he better defensively than Escobar?  Seems like putting Escobar in the DH slot doesn't take advantage of his defense and given Santana's struggles it seems like it would make more sense in this lineup to DH Santana.

 

 

[formerly33]

 

 

You have me eagerly anticipating the next release when the Twins put on the other pair of Sox.

[bulldozier14]

 

Sounds like the plan is working. Hopefully it will for Arcia, too.
 

He was just starting to crush with the Twins and doesn't really have much to prove in AAA at this point. I think the fact that we are actually playing well forced it, but I would have much rather had him work through stuff up here. 

[Blake]

I have checked Hawk a time or two, haven't heard him repeat his "Good team, bad baseball" line. However, I'm not willing to listen to Hawk for more than an inning or two.

 

The Hawk makes Dick and Bert sound like Shakespeare, though. 

[Craig Arko]

I have checked Hawk a time or two, haven't heard him repeat his "Good team, bad baseball" line. However, I'm not willing to listen to Hawk for more than an inning or two.

 

The Hawk makes Dick and Bert sound like Shakespeare, though.

 

Dick Burton.

 

[Hrbowski]

BUXTON HITS HIS TENTH TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bark's Lounge]

 

BUXTON HITS HIS TENTH TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn, the young man is on quite the triple streak.

 

I can't wait till that soup is done cooking and we get to have some.

[Craig Arko]

BUXTON HITS HIS TENTH TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoever hits behind him may be an RBI king.

[Winston Smith]

 

Grand Rapids isn't that far from Chicago... The real problem is planning all of your westward trips around Chicago traffic...

Oh, and I feel sorry for Brian already... having to spend most of his times surrounded by Tigers fans... ick... or is that ish?

Clearly you've never been in North Dakota!

[JB_Iowa]

Okay, Twins .... I returned the broom to the closet. 

 

Make use of it this weekend.

[Squirrel]

Ugh ... time to turn on Hawk Harrelson. 

[Bark's Lounge]

Shark!

 

[GP830]

Why does Soto always look like he's keeling over when he throws back to the mound?

[Hrbowski]

NICE JOB, JOE!!!!

[JB_Iowa]

LOVE 1st inning runs!