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GAME THREAD: 5/11/21 Minnesota Twins @ Chicago White Sox, 7:10 PM CDT

Mill1634

By Mill1634
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Mill1634 Minnesota Twins

Mill1634

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Roster Move

The Minnesota Twins activated 2B/OF Luis Arraez prior to the first game of the series against the White Sox. Arraez was placed on the 7-day concussion IL last week after colliding with a catcher on a play at home. Arraez missed the minimum amount of games possible, which is a good thing for both himself and Arraez. The Twins sent down MIF Nick Gordon to Saint Paul (AAA) to clear space on the 26 man roster. Gordon appeared in one game, where he reached based 3 times and stole two bags.

 

The Pitchers

RHP Kenta Maeda (2-2, 5.02 ERA, 28 K's, 28.2 IP) vs RHP Dylan Cease (2-0, 2.37 ERA, 40 K's, 30.1 IP)

If you were to look at these two names prior to the game, you would think there was a mistake and the numbers should be flip flopped. Kenta was coming off a cy young caliber year, and Cease looked like an AAAA arm that couldn't find the strike zone. However, Cease has improved a ton in 2021, and Maeda has taken a step backwards. Maeda was good his last time out, but has struggled with command that we saw him dominate 2020 lineups with. Cease has always had really good stuff, but struggled throwing completive pitches to put together a quality game. He's still walking a lot of hitters at 4.5 per 9 innings, but is striking out nearly 12 per 9. Cease has only given up 2 HR in 30 innings, while last year he gave up 12 in 58 innings thrown. Cease relies on an upper 90's fastball, which he throws over half the time. Cease works his slider off the fastball, which is only getting hit at a .212 clip. He'll mix in a curveball and changeup, but he throws both less than 10% of the time. If the Twins are patient, they should be able to draw walks. 

 

The Lineups

Twins

LF Luis Arraez (L)

3B Josh Donaldson

DH Nelson Cruz

CF Max Kepler (L)

2B Jorge Polanco (S)

RF Trevor Larnach (L)

1B Willians Astudillo

SS Andrelton Simmons

C Ben Rortvedt (L)

 

White Sox

SS Tim Anderson

RF Adam Eaton (L)

3B Yoan Moncada (S)

1B Jose Abreu

DH Yermin Mercedes 

C Yasmani Grandal (S)

LF Andrew Vaughn

CF Leury Garcia (S)

2B Nick Madrigal

 

Much like the Twins missing Byron Buxton and Alex Kiriloff, the White Sox are without their two best outfielders in Eloy Jiminez and Luis Robert. The top of the White Sox is very good, but the bottom half, much like the Twins, struggles to put much of anything together. Arraez is once back in the leadoff spot, and Max Kepler slides up to the 4 hole, playing CF. I think this is the best outfield that the Twins can put together without Byron Buxton and Alex Kiriloff, but the defense will be an adventure at times. Trevor Larnach gets his second start of the season, this time playing right field. La Tortuga gets the start at 1B over Miguel Sano, which I am just fine with. Rortvedt gets the start behind the dish, which is not shocking as the Twins will see two lefties the next two nights.  The Sox will start a fellow rookie in LF, Andrew Vaughn, who has been up and down, but is a top prospect. 

Vegas Odds: Twins -105, White Sox -118, O/U 7.5

This Day in History - 2016: Max Scherzer ties a major league mark when he strikes out 20 batters in a nine-inning game, joining Roger Clemens (1986, 1996 Red Sox), Kerry Wood (1998 Cubs), and Randy Johnson (2001 Diamondbacks). The 31 year-old right-hander, who goes the distance in Washington's 3-2 victory over the Tigers at Nationals Park, has an opportunity to establish a new record with two out in the ninth, but James McCann grounds into a force out at second base to end the contest.

Pick to Click: Kenta Maeda finds his good stuff, going 7 strong innings allowing only 2 runs, striking out 9. 

Prediction: Twins 5, White Sox 3

Go Twins!!

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twinbythebay College Ball

twinbythebay

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Congrats @Mill1634 for helming the maiden game thread voyage of the new and improved Twins Daily! Let's hope this  helps return the mojo that the Twins have been missing for the past month or so...

Squirrel GOAT

Squirrel

Community Moderator
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2 minutes ago, twinbythebay said:

Congrats @Mill1634 for helming the maiden game thread voyage of the new and improved Twins Daily! Let's hope this  helps return the mojo that the Twins have been missing for the past month or so...

Plus a spiffy announcement banner at the top of the page! There is the color blue people were missing ... although now it makes this look like a website from France ... lol

Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

Site Manager
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20 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

There seems to be an advertisement batting 4th for Chicago...

Easy out!

The ads have gone completely crazy since the redesign launched. Personally, I find it pretty funny but once the site stabilizes a bit, I'll be addressing completely nonsensical ad insertions like the one above (amongst other ad oddities I've logged over the past few weeks).

twinbythebay College Ball

twinbythebay

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10 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Plus a spiffy announcement banner at the top of the page! There is the color blue people were missing ... although now it makes this look like a website from France ... lol

I just noticed that, very nice touch! Considering France are the defending World Cup champs, maybe that's a good sign? I'm just grasping for optimistic straws at this point...

Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

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And remember, everyone, if you want a paragraph return (white space before next line), hit enter.

If you want a traditional return (no white space before next line), hit shift+enter.

Paragraph return

Another paragraph return
shift+enter return

For those of you unaware why this happens, it's the default configuration in the publishing world.

howeda7 FCL Twins

howeda7

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I take no Sano and no Cave as an admission that Rocco realizes the grim reality of this series. No Garver is concerning though. He was in the line-up Sunday before the rain-out....

stringer bell Cooperstown

stringer bell

Verified Member
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6 minutes ago, howeda7 said:

I take no Sano and no Cave as an admission that Rocco realizes the grim reality of this series. No Garver is concerning though. He was in the line-up Sunday before the rain-out....

The next two starters for the Pale Hose are lefthanders. If Rortvedt is to start one game in the series, it should be tonight. 

Mill1634 Minnesota Twins

Mill1634

Verified Member
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9 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Dylan Cease vs the Twins

Opponent
I Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO SO/W BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+
  Minnesota Twins 3 63 53 14 22 3 0 3 0 0 9 11 1.22 .415 .492 .642 1.134 34 4 0 0 1 1 1 .475 188
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/11/2021.

How are you doing these?

h2oface Wichita Wind Surge

h2oface

Old-Timey Member
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So when you swing through a hanging slider at 85 mph right down the middle (second to last pitch to Cruz), is the pitch a mistake, or not. Same pitch hit out..... surely a pitcher would claim a mistake.

Aggies7 MVP

Aggies7

Old-Timey Member
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Tough news today for Oakland fans as the team may start to explore moving to a city that does not yet have an MLB franchise. Potential candidates include Portland, Las Vegas, Nashville and Minneapolis/st. Paul

bighat Cedar Rapids Kernels

bighat

Verified Member
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Cruz has been ice cold lately - would be nice to see Nelson hit the ball hard this series. He normally hits well in Chicago.

Aggies7 MVP

Aggies7

Old-Timey Member
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1 minute ago, RickOShea said:

Nelson just looks tired and or frustrated.  Still smiling, but not as much.

So he’s like the rest of us, minus the limited smiling

bighat Cedar Rapids Kernels

bighat

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Nice 'D.

Twins seem to have been on the other side of too many double-plays like that in recent memory.

Squirrel GOAT

Squirrel

Community Moderator
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3 minutes ago, bighat said:

Cruz has been ice cold lately - would be nice to see Nelson hit the ball hard this series. He normally hits well in Chicago.

I think everyone will remain ice cold this series ... because it's cold here

Danchat Minnesota Twins

Danchat

Verified Member
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Maeda got 2 strikes on Eaton and Moncada and gave them a couple hittable pitches in the upper zone... that's going to lead to some CWS runs if he keeps throwing like that.

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