Virtual Twins Baseball Megathread

[thuuuuney]

7/2/20: Minnesota Twins (53-34) @ Detroit Tigers (33-53) 7:10pmCT

 

Catch-up
The season series at 5-4 in favor of Minnesota, this series tied at 1 as the Twins won game one behind some bombas and the Tigers winning game two from an incredibly unlikely source, their bullpen. The series comes down to tonight behind some of the best starting pitchers in the American League.

 

Pre-game
6:45pmCT

 

Where to watch.
Virtual Twins Network
 

AL Central Standings

 

1. Twins 53-34
2. Indians 45-43 
3. Royals 44-43 
4. White Sox 44-44 
5. Tigers 33-53 

 

Starting Pitchers

• Twins: Kenta Maeda 4-3, 3.25 ERA, 74.2 IP, 108 K's
• Tigers: Daniel Norris* 8-4, 2.50 ERA, 100.2 IP, 83 K's

*=Daniel Norris: 1st in American League, ERA (2.50, ahead of 2nd place Lucas Giolito 2.59 ERA).

 

Minnesota Batting Order

 

RF Max Kepler .265 BA, 25 HR, 48 RBI
SS Ehire Adrianza .311 BA, 2 HR, 11 RBI
1B Miguel Sano* .279 BA, 27 HR, 65 RBI
DH Nelson Cruz .282 BA, 22 HR, 61 RBI
C Mitch Garver .299 BA, 23 HR, 58 RBI
LF Eddie Rosario .273 BA, 21 HR, 52 RBI
3B Josh Donaldson .263 BA, 14 HR, 36 RBI
2B Marwin Gonzalez .246 BA, 1 HR, 4 RBI
CF Byron Buxton .247 BA, 9 HR, 28 RBI
*=Miguel Sano: AL Offensive Player on the Month, June

 

Detroit Batting Order

 

CF Cameron Maybin .268 BA, 12 HR, 43 RBI
SS Niko Goodrum* .308 BA, 13 HR, 42 RBI
DH Miguel Cabrera .286 BA, 15 HR, 47 RBI
1B C.J. Cron .258 BA, 13 HR, 34 RBI
2B Jonathan Schoop .221 BA, 7 HR, 27 RBI
3B Harold Castro .281 BA, 6 HR, 28 RBI
RF Victor Reyes .291 BA, 5 HR, 31 RBI
C Austin Romine .289 BA, 11 HR, 35 RBI
LF Christian Stewart .201 BA, 4 HR, 17 RBI
*=Nike Goodrum: 1st among qualified AL SS's in Batting Average (.308), 9th in RBI's (42), 5th in Stolen Bases (6), 3rd in Gold Glove vote for SS.

 

Bomba Tracker
- 2020: 165
- 2019 through 85 games: 156

 

Storylines
1. It all comes down to tonight. With the Tigers being 19.5 out of the division, it may seem like this season series should go the Twins way, but Gardy's Tigers have given us some of the most dramatic loses this season. At Target Field back to back doubles by former Twins C.J. Cron and Jonathan Schoop, the walk-off 1B by Cameron Maybin, and the Walk-off HR by Niko Goodrum. Should be another thriller tonight.
2. Tonight's match-up isn't all about the lineup cards either, the Twins leader in K's in Kenta Maeda (13.02 K/9 averaging 4.2 IP per start), versus the American League Leader in ERA Daniel Norris (His only start this season against Minnesota on 5/12/20: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K's and a ND).

[thuuuuney]

Regular Season Finale: Playoffs start Sunday 7/5 and will move to a blog.

 

7/3/20 Doubleheader: Minnesota Twins (54-34) @ Cleveland Indians (45-43) 6:00pmCT, 8:00pmCT 

 

Moving Forward
Tonight will feature the Twins and the Indians playing a doubleheader for the game they were supposed to play tonight and July 4th's game because I will be out of town. So here is the plan moving forward to get us geared up for the REAL Twins returning. I am going to sim to the playoffs on July 5th and although I can't guarantee how it will go, this is the plan if the Twins go the distance.

 

July 3rd-July 4th Regular Season Twins @ Indians
July 5th-July 9th Wild Card/ALDS TBA
July 10th-14th ALCS TBA *if Twins make it.
July 19th-22nd/23rd World Series TBA *if Twins make it.

 

Pre-game
5:45pmCT
 

Where to watch.
Virtual Twins Network
 

AL Central Standings

1. Twins 54-34
2. Indians 45-43 
3. Royals 45-43 
4. White Sox 44-45 
5. Tigers 33-55 

 

Starting Pitchers Game One

• Twins: Randy Dobnak* 7-1, 3.71 ERA, 63.0 IP, 42 K's
• Indians: Aaron Civale 7-4, 3.39 ERA, 104.0 IP, 58 K's

*=Randy Dobnak: Mostly has appeared out of the bullpen this season, this will be his 6th start and 3rd spot start of the year.

 

Minnesota Batting Order Game One

 

RF Max Kepler .264 BA, 25 HR, 49 RBI
SS Jorge Polanco .277 BA, 12 HR, 51 RBI
3B Josh Donaldson* .266 BA, 15 HR, 38 RBI
DH Nelson Cruz .285 BA, 22 HR, 62 RBI
LF Eddie Rosario .279 BA, 21 HR, 52 RBI
C Mitch Garver .307 BA, 24 HR, 59 RBI
1B Miguel Sano .278 BA, 27 HR, 65 RBI
2B Luis Arraez .316 BA, 2 HR, 16 RBI
CF Byron Buxton .251 BA, 10 HR, 29 RBI
*=Josh Donaldson: 12 Game Hitting-Streak.

 

Cleveland Batting Order Game One

 

SS Francisco Lindor* .294 BA, 21 HR, 46 RBI
DH Cesar Hernandez .248 BA, 7 HR, 30 RBI
1B Carlos Santana .267 BA, 15 HR, 49 RBI
3B Jose Ramirez .277 BA, 11 HR, 47 RBI
RF Franmil Reyes .268 BA, 22 HR, 53 RBI
LF Domingo Santana .336 BA, 18 HR, 58 RBI
C Roberto Perez .153 BA, 3 HR, 16 RBI
2B Christian Arroyo .276 BA, 6 HR, 23 RBI
CF Oscar Mercado .234 BA, 7 HR, 31 RBI
*=Francisco Lindor: First in AL SS All-Star Vote with 629K votes (2nd overall in votes and ahead of 2nd place for SS's, Andrelton Simmons .302 BA, 13 HR, 50 RBI, 9 SB).

 

Bomba Tracker
- 2020: 168
- 2019 through 88 games: 157

 

Storylines
1. I've covered 5 Walk-Offs, 6 Extra Inning games, 88 regular season Virtual Twins games, and it all comes down to this. Sunday begins the Virtual Playoffs and tonight we close the door on the regular season with games 89 & 90 before giving you all a taste at what the Twins can really do.
2. Game one starter for Minnesota will feature the lights out Randy Dobnak who outside of one blemish, has a sub 2.00 ERA as a starter this season and will come in for a spot start in game one before turning it over to Odorizzi in game two.

[thuuuuney]

The 91st Mid-Summer Classic, Major League Baseball's All-Star Game

 

AL vs. NL

 

4:10pmCT

 

Where to Watch

 

Since I am horrible at formatting on this wesbite, I am just going to share my post for the pre-game from the Minnesota Twins subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesotatwins/comments/hl4mni/game_thread_7420_the_91st_midsummer_classic_major/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x