GAME THREAD 5/21/2021: Twins @ Cleveland, 6:10 CDT

[denarded]

Dobnak, even without the 'stache and glasses, I like you

[Danchat]

Donaldson's fielding abilities have taken a dive the last week... can't say I know why.

And of course, gotta love how we get a 6 inning shutout start in a game where we really didn't need it... because of course!

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Y'know, this Dobnak fella is throwin' it pretty good. Maybe we should extend him or something?

[ashbury]

29 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I don’t know if this team will put together a “good” stretch of baseball this season but it feels like we’re past that atrocious stretch. 

Reconstruct the inning with an eye toward the opponent not being prone to self-destruction with an error and many walks, and see if your outlook is quite so rosy.

[ashbury]

33 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

Like the opposite of a catch 22.

Catch 27 and you give yourself a good chance for a win.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

1 minute ago, ashbury said:

Reconstruct the inning with an eye toward the opponent not being prone to self-destruction with an error and many walks, and see if your outlook is quite so rosy.

It is still slightly redshifted.

How often have we actually made a team pay for their mistakes of late?

 

[h2oface]

7 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Donaldson's fielding abilities have taken a dive the last week... can't say I know why.

And of course, gotta love how we get a 6 inning shutout start in a game where we really didn't need it... because of course!

An error a day for the last three days. 3 errors in 3 days.

I was hoping we would be saying things like 3 homers in 3 days instead of this.

[h2oface]

5 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

Y'know, this Dobnak fella is throwin' it pretty good. Maybe we should extend him or something?

Yup. A definite building block.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

2 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Catch 27 and you give yourself a good chance for a win.

Jeffers is still in AAA...

(Though the thought of Sano donning the tools of ignorance is mildly entertaining)

 

[stringer bell]

Not concerned yet, but it seems that Larnach has a problem with pitches on the outer half of the plate. All of the hits I've seen from him have been pulled and the pitches were middle in.

[ashbury]

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Not concerned yet, but it seems that Larnach has a problem with pitches on the outer half of the plate. All of the hits I've seen from him have been pulled and the pitches were middle in.

He's just lulling the opposition into a false sense of security. Get ready for a barrage of opposite-field homers!

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Alcala time!

 

Nice job, Dobnak!

[Brock Beauchamp]

16 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Reconstruct the inning with an eye toward the opponent not being prone to self-destruction with an error and many walks, and see if your outlook is quite so rosy.

That particular inning had little to do with my opinion other than “the Twins don’t look like garbage tonight”.

My point is that the team isn’t creating ways to lose right now. Even their 2-1 loss to Chicago was a relatively solid game, they just happened to lose it.

And if this team doesn’t create ways to lose, they’re going to be a solid team at minimum. There’s too much talent for the water level not to rise if they stop sabotaging themselves. 

[sampleSizeOfOne]

6 minutes ago, ashbury said:

He's just lulling the opposition into a false sense of security. Get ready for a barrage of opposite-field homers!

Clever!

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Fans holding up letters to spell OHIO i find amusing for some reason.

[ashbury]

6 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Even their 2-1 loss to Chicago was a relatively solid game, they just happened to lose it.

The game they got no-hit? (Except for Cruz.)

This edition of the team needs to do more than that, to win me back over.

[Brock Beauchamp]

2 minutes ago, ashbury said:

The game they got no-hit? (Except for Cruz.)

This team needs to do more than that, to win me back over.

Dunno if you watched that game but Giolito was filthy. That was just a dominating performance, it happens (the Twins pitching also performed quite well that day).

And no one is winning me over, remember i couched this in “not atrocious”. 

[Danchat]

Donaldson has taken some uncharacteristically bad swings tonight... something is up with him.

[ashbury]

Just now, Brock Beauchamp said:

Dunno if you watched that game

I did not. But trying and f(l)ailing against good pitching is what bad teams do. I'm waiting to see good performance against good opposition.

[bighat]

18 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Reconstruct the inning with an eye toward the opponent not being prone to self-destruction with an error and many walks, and see if your outlook is quite so rosy.

I just re-watched it on MLB.TV, and you're right:

- With the bases loaded and nobody out, Larnach hits into a double-play...but it was botched. The Twins were up 1-0 at the time and should have been up 2-0 after the DP was completed.

- Later in the inning with 2 outs and the Twins up 4-0, Donaldson struck out with the bases loaded. But strike 3 was called a ball and Donaldson walked to make it 5-0.

- Next Kepler comes up and hits a double - the outfielder took a bad route. A catch wasn't likely, but there are right fielders who make that catch.

- Sano hits a double later in the inning, they may have had Kiriloff out at home but the shortstop bobbles the relay throw.

If Cleveland played things perfectly, it's very likely still just a 2-0 game. If they just played average defense and got an ump's call it's likely just 4-0. Did the Twins take advantage of what the opponent gave them? Absolutely. Might it light some hope and fire in the clubhouse? Hope so. Are they crushing the Indians as soundly as it looks? Probably not.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Sano at the hot corner..

 

Positional flexibility in action.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Just now, ashbury said:

I did not. But trying and f(l)ailing against good pitching is what bad teams do. I'm waiting to see good performance against good opposition.

As am I, which is why I set the bar so low at “not atrocious” and still questioned if they’d even play a “good” stretch of baseball this season. 

[ashbury]

6 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

As am I, which is why I set the bar so low

Low indeed. Everybody Limbo!

 

[IndianaTwin]

If Farrell’s girlfriend/wife trims his hair, is that a Honeycutt?

[ashbury]

2 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

If Farrell’s girlfriend/wife trims his hair, is that a Honeycutt?

If her name is Delilah, we may have just pinpointed the cause of his career inconsistency.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

5 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Low indeed. Everybody Limbo!

 

I thought limbo was were they put ya if they couldn't decide between heaven and hell.

 

Are frogs invertibrates?

[sampleSizeOfOne]

22 with 2 doubles.

[ashbury]

2 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

I thought limbo was were they put ya if they couldn't decide between heaven and hell.

"Get under that bar, rookie, or face eternal perdition!"

[Nine of twelve]

It has been over 5 months since the Cleveland team announced it would be changing its name, then partially reneged saying it was too late to have new uniforms made. (I guess it takes more than 2 months to fabricate uniforms.?) Well, here it is 5 months later. They'd better make up their mind about the name change very soon because there are "only" 9 months until uniforms are needed for spring training. Has anyone heard what the new name will be?

[bighat]

2 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

It has been over 5 months since the Cleveland team announced it would be changing its name, then partially reneged saying it was too late to have new uniforms made. Well, here it is 5 months later. They'd better make up their mind about the name change very soon because there are "only" 9 months until uniforms are needed for spring training. Has anyone heard what the new name will be?

I think the Spiders would be awesome, hope they bring that back.