Game Thread, Twins vs Blue Jays 5/29 @7:10pm CT

[twinsnorth49]

 Game time Weather Forecast (courtesy The Weather Network), 16 degrees celsius (haha),  wind North 24 km/h , 90% chance of precipitation

 

Here we go folks,

 

The AL Central Division leading Minnesota Twins (not a typo, actually true) take on the American East cellar dwelling Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of a 3 game series tonight at Target Field.  The Twins, fresh off their first series sweep of the Red Sox in 9 years look to keep the train rolling against a team who at the very least most recently took   2 of 3 against the other Sox, not exactly a difficult task this year but noteworthy because, well, we hate the White Sox and it allows me to mention them losing…….again.

 

 

Trevor May, 3-3, 4.95 ERA, 36 SO takes the mound vs Twins killer Mark Buehrle, 5-4, 5.13 ERA, 27 SO. Trevor is coming off his longest outing as a Twin in which he struck out an impressive 9 batters and even more impressively walked none in a win over the aforementioned White Sox. Buehrle, who needs no introduction to Twins fans from his days in Chicago as the pitcher who has collected more wins (28) than any pitcher in history vs Minnesota……..ouch! Lets’ not make it 29 fellas.

 

 

Here’s a few things to ponder before the festivities get underway.

 

 

1. Mark Buehrle……28 wins against us……….WTF?!!

 

2. Former Twins, apparently Toronto is the most recent destination of choice for Twins castoffs. Alex Anthopolous,  using lifetime supplies of maple syrup as a draw has managed to convince Chris Colabello, Danny Valencia, Liam Hendriks , R.A. Dickey and Steve Tolleson (kind of, sort of) that Toronto is a great place to live and play baseball, or maybe it’s just the fact that the Blue Jays also have a preference for infielders playing in the outfield. Having said that though, Colabello has resumed his Cinderella story   out of independent ball with the Jays and is the toast of the town at the moment, regularly showing up on Sports Centre highlights and interviews.   The Italian Stallion is currently mashing with a .386/.440/.578 slash line that includes 3 HR.   Valencia on the other hand still can’t hit righties but is again showing his proclivity to belt lefties and provide some value as a platoon player. Hendriks has been pretty effective out of the pen for the Jays but has recently been hit pretty hard in his last two outings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits to 6 Sox batters in his most recent appearance.

 

3. Runs, Toronto can score ‘em, the Jays sit atop MLB in runs scored with 255, the Yankees are the next closest with 221……ruh oh! They also lead the AL with a league best .434 SLG%.  Josh Donaldson(13) and Edwin Encarnacion (12) both rank in the top 10 of MLB HR leaders while Jose Bautista has clobbered 7 despite some injury woes. Joey Bats of course has made Target Field his personal HR Derby park, belting 11 in 14 games here.   Fortunately the Jays   also  happen to be gawd awful at preventing said runs, so buckle up and expect some potentially high scoring games this weekend.

 

4. Jose Bautista……11 HR’s in 14 games against us……….WTF?!!

 

5. Toronto, or Toronno (Trawna), as the locals call it.  The self proclaimed centre of the Universe and the city most Canadians love to hate. Toronto is the New York of Canada, big, entitled, obnoxious and full of their own self importance,  as well as having their insufferable fans located all across the bloody country.   As a Canadian it’s expected of you as a right of citizenship to be a Blue Jays fan,  by the people of Toronto of course.  I’ve rejected this since a very young age , for a variety of reasons. 1, The Twins were my grandfather’s favourite team and Killer his favourite player , so my Grandfather being my favourite guy in the world they became mine. 2, The Twins are geographically the closest MLB team to where I live, by a fair margin, which has allowed me to actually see them play live many, many times over the years (I’ve   been to 4 Blue Jays games in my lifetime). And 3, because they are from Toronto. Honestly for as much as I was euphoric over the ’91 WS win over the Braves I think I derived more pleasure from beating the Jays in the ALCS. Which was relatively short lived by seeing them win the next two WS championships, something I am forced to relive at the beginning of every season as Sports Centre presents yet another "Remember this"? special on the Jays………..barf!

 

The worst thing about Toronto though (it actually is a great city), is that they have no sense of humour, which is pretty ironic considering their hockey team and their last two Mayors, Mel Lastman and Rob Ford. Lastman, who once openly claimed on CNN that he had never heard of the World Health Organization during the SARS epidemic in 2002 and who was also quoted as saying “What the hell would I want t o go to a place like Mombasa for? I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me”, before a trip to Kenya to support Toronto’s 2008 Olympics bid………they didn’t get it.

As for Ford, well, do we really need to discuss Rob Ford?

 

http://www.thegifspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/FordGif500.gif

 

 

6. The letter U, what did Noah Webster have against it? Why did he prefer Z over S and how come he insisted on putting E before R? If only spell check was created about 140 years earlier.

 

 

 

Enjoy the game everyone……..Go Twins!!!………………or I'll never hear the end of it.

 

Starting Lineups,

 

Twins

 

1. Brian Dozier 2B

2. Shane Robinson LF

3. Joe Mauer 1B

4. Trevor Plouffe 3B

5. Torii Hunter RF

6. Kurt Suzuki C

7. Eduardo Escobar DH

8. Aaron Hicks CF

9. Danny Santana SS

 

SP. Trevor May (3-3, 4.95 ERA)

 

 

Blue Jays

 

1. Jose Reyes SS

2. Josh Donaldson 3B

3. Jose Bautista DH

4. Edwin Encarnacion 1B

5. Russell Martin C

6. Chris Colabello LF

7. Ezequiel Carerra RF

8. Kevin Pillar CF

9. Ryan Goins 2B

 

 

SP. Mark Buehrle (5-4, 5.13 ERA)

[stringer bell]

Great opening, it might be my favourite!  I hope they get the game in tonight, it looks pretty threatening here, about an hour and a half south of TF. 

[JB_Iowa]

Loved the opening - a list within a list!!!

 

The Blue Jays always scare me -- the real ones fly into windows -- and their namesakes seem to fly their hits into the seats.

 

Strike 'em out, tonight, Trevor!

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

I thought Toronto was pretty cool city - The Blue Jays tend to match up well against the Twins, but I'm hoping Trevor May can be the right kind of kryptonite tonight.

[twinsnorth49]

 

I thought Toronto was pretty cool city - The Blue Jays tend to match up well against the Twins, but I'm hoping Trevor May can be the right kind of kryptonite tonight.

Toronto is a cool city, easy to poke fun of, but a cool city. The people there do have an annoying habit of incessantly trying to convince everybody how "world class" they are though. They can't get over not being Montreal.

[glunn]

Excellent setup.  Let's hope that the Twins play at the same level as twinsnorth.

[James]

Well, I personally am hoping they get a game in tonight.  I have tickets in the homerun porch.  I try to make it to a least one of the games when Canada comes to town.  

 

Plus it's fun to meet up with the entire city of Thunder Bay, which seems to invade Minneapolis for this series.  

[twinsnorth49]

Usually a lot of Jays fans at Target when they hit town. Lots of bus tours from Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. 

 

 

[JB_Iowa]

Pouring rain here.

 

I'm about 250 miles away and rain often moves northeast so get this game on and done!

[James]

 

Usually a lot of Jays fans at Target when they hit town. Lots of bus tours from Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. 

It's ok as long as they don't bring any of those samsquanches with them.

 

[JB_Iowa]

Just looked at your weather -- total rain.  Green, yellow.  Ugh.

[Bark's Lounge]

Aw, so sad.

 

[twinsnorth49]

 

It's ok as long as they don't bring any of those samsquanches with them.

 

Just make sure you keep your shed doors locked.

[JB_Iowa]

 

Aw, so sad.

dead-blue-jay.jpg

 

You're a lot meaner than I am:

 

 

[formerly33]

TL;DNR. Couldn't handle all that baloney about Buehrle having such a better chance of winning than May. Fell asleep when you started to repeat the process in the 1st thing to think about...couldn't get past it. Sorry.

[formerly33]

From Buehrle's MLB profile:

 

Mark Alan Buehrle
Pronunciation: BURR-lee

 

Guess we've all been saying his name wrong. We're supposed to d-d-r-r-oll out the R-d-d-d's like we're speaking Spanish. At least it looks like that to me.

[Bark's Lounge]

 

You're a lot meaner than I am:

 

I am not a murderer. That is a picture of my eccentric neighbor who is past out drunk in his driveway. He has an obsession with birds and on the weekends binge drinks Old Milwaukee in his garage while wearing very high detailed bird costumes. On this day, he just happened to be wearing his Blue Jay costume.

[Hrbowski]

 

TL;DNR. Couldn't handle all that baloney about Buehrle having such a better chance of winning than May. Fell asleep when you started to repeat the process in the 1st thing to think about...couldn't get past it. Sorry.

Concur.

[Craig Arko]

Yeah, still pretty grey here. Supposed to be be better tomorrow, and I'm supposed to be going, so I hope so.

[formerly33]

 

I am not a murderer. That is a picture of my eccentric neighbor who is past out drunk in his driveway. He has an obsession with birds and on the weekends binge drinks Old Milwaukee in his garage while wearing very high detailed bird costumes. On this day, he just happened to be wearing his Blue Jay costume.

I wouldn't blame you for becoming a murderer if that's the case. But I guess taking a picture is a little wiser; you might get your butt sued off because of it, but you'll stay out of jail.

[JB_Iowa]

Looked at the "future radar" and it looks like it could be like Wednesday night .  About an 8 p.m. start.

[James]

 

Aw, so sad.

dead-blue-jay.jpg

 

The combination of that picture and all the trailer park boys references leads to this:

 

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/75/75a7153b9be79d0ce1a61097a220eb794dce90ff4295fd47e0d5099dd3e699a1.jpg

[Hrbowski]

[Bark's Lounge]

 

Wrong uniform.

 

[James]

 

Wrong uniform.

New Uni.jpg

In my opinion, that is possibly one of your best works. 

 

Bravo, sir.  Bravo.

[formerly33]

 

Wrong uniform.

New Uni.jpg

Somehow I can't see Joe wearing rainbow suspenders.

[Bark's Lounge]

 

In my opinion, that is possibly one of your best works. 

 

Bravo, sir.  Bravo.

You get lucky sometimes.

[Bark's Lounge]

 

 

Somehow I can't see Joe wearing rainbow suspenders.

Just look at that picture I posted and you will see it.

[JB_Iowa]

Circus Boy Extra:

 

KC  3

CHC  1

 

after 4 in the Windy City

 

 

[formerly33]

 

Circus Boy Extra:

 

KC  3

CHC  1

 

after 4 in the Windy City

 

Sad. I never thought I'd root for the WS either.

 

Edit: Oh, it's the CUBS. Hm. Well, don't like them either.