Game Thread: ST Game #3, Twins @ Pirates, 3/4 @ 1:05pm

[Squirrel]

 

TWINS:

Santana 3B

Nunez SS

Vargas 1B

Quentin DH

Sweeney RF

Murphy C

Arcia LF

Kepler CF

Polanco 2B

 

Milone P

 

PIRATES:

Harrison 2B

Polanco RF

McCutchen CF

Matte DH

Cervelli C

Mercer SS

Jaso 1B

Rodriguez 3B

Figueroa C

 

Liriano P

 

For those interested, it's being televised on the MLB Network, which means it's also probably streaming online for free.

[Squirrel]

Pirates up 1-0 at the end of one.

 

Twins went down in order: K, backwards K, K

 

Pirates had 3 hits and a SB for one run.

 

Harrison scored on Marte triple; according to announcers ball caught the wind and just kept carrying to hit the top of the wall over Kepler's head.

 

And the 2nd begins with another strikeout.

[bluechipper]

I would have liked to have seen Kepler make that catch on the Marte triple. It would have been a great catch.

[DrNeau]

John Ryan Murphy with a hose... guns down the runner at 2nd. 

[gocgo]

Frankie in mid season form?

[DrNeau]

John Ryan Murphy guns down another runner. Nice arm! Something we have been really missing around here. 

[bluechipper]

 

John Ryan Murphy guns down another runner. Nice arm! Something we have been really missing around here. 

Yeah it'll be nice to get to watch someone other than Zuke try to "throw" guys out.

[Brock Beauchamp]

An interesting tidbit about the Pirates, one that Twins fans should acknowledge:

 

The Pirates are playing John Jaso at first base this season. He has played all of three games at first in his MLB career (spread over a half decade of play). He wasn't a first basemen in the minors, either, logging 14 games at first way back in rookie ball (2005).

 

Other teams do it, too. Maybe not quite as haphazardly as the Twins but these kind of positional adjustments aren't unknown to the rest of baseball.

[spinowner]

 

An interesting tidbit about the Pirates, one that Twins fans should acknowledge:

 

The Pirates are playing John Jaso at first base this season. He has played all of three games at first in his MLB career (spread over a half decade of play). He wasn't a first basemen in the minors, either, logging 14 games at first way back in rookie ball (2005).

 

Other teams do it, too. Maybe not quite as haphazardly as the Twins but these kind of positional adjustments aren't unknown to the rest of baseball.

The Twins are making a positional adjustment? Who knew?

[DrNeau]

Kepler showing good speed and beats out a grounder to 2nd. 

[DrNeau]

Eduardo Nunez triples to right center. He's already on fire. 

[DrNeau]

What happens when Quentin by far outplays Danny Santana? 

[DrNeau]

I guess it depends how Arcia plays. 

[DrNeau]

Vargas with a RBI base hit to right center. 1-1. 

[DrNeau]

Quentin grounds into a 6-4-3 double play. 

[bluechipper]

Nice 2 strike liner base hit to right by Arcia, but then Kepler grounded into a double play.

[Sir_Eugene11]

Another DP...

[DrNeau]

Top 9 - no outs - runner on 1st. Mastroianni's bunt attempt results in a pop out. Failed to get it down. 

[DrNeau]

Carlos Quentin with an RBI single to take the lead in the 9th. 

[Mill1634]

That a boy Carlos! 

[DrNeau]

Bot 9, 1-out, bases juiced. Santana saves the game on the grounder and gets the force at home.

[DrNeau]

Full count. Bases loaded. Do or die.

[DrNeau]

Melotakis induces the fly out to LF, and the game ends in a tie. 

[Willihammer]

Twins with 15 strikeouts thru their first 3 games. For those of you counting at home that's a K/9 of 5.0.

[Mill1634]

Didn't know you could tie in spring training. Is that something new?

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Didn't know you could tie in spring training. Is that something new?

It's been that way for awhile, don't know how long. No need for extra innings in the spring, as it's about development and pitch count, not wins.

 

I'm drawing on hazy memories of attending in the 90s and I can't recall a team going into extra innings.

[Squirrel]

It's been that way for awhile, don't know how long. No need for extra innings in the spring, as it's about development and pitch count, not wins.

 

I'm drawing on hazy memories of attending in the 90s and I can't recall a team going into extra innings.

Yup, correct. In all my years of being here ... 16th in a row plus a good handful of other years ... I don't recall extra innings.

[Platoon]

An interesting tidbit about the Pirates, one that Twins fans should acknowledge:

 

The Pirates are playing John Jaso at first base this season. He has played all of three games at first in his MLB career (spread over a half decade of play). He wasn't a first basemen in the minors, either, logging 14 games at first way back in rookie ball (2005).

 

Other teams do it, too. Maybe not quite as haphazardly as the Twins but these kind of positional adjustments aren't unknown to the rest of baseball.

"haphazardly" Love it!

[Platoon]

Twins with 15 strikeouts thru their first 3 games. For those of you counting at home that's a K/9 of 5.0.

I don't see a problem, most teams would love to only strike out at 5/9............ Whoops, I might have misread this post?

[Halsey Hall]

I thought I'd seen some games go 10 innings if both managers agreed, but not past 10.