GAME THREAD: Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals, 7/4/2021, 1:10 PM CDT

[Nine of twelve]

Cripes, I almost forgot. Here's the opening post of today's game thread.

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday today. By the way, they do have the 4th of July in other countries too. They also have the 5th, 6th 7th and so on.

Even in the throes of a lost season there is reason for players to have hope and joy. Veterans hope they can wind up on a contending team, rookies and prospects hope they can become part of a winning team in the future, and everyone gets the joy of playing baseball.

Here are the lineups:

Pitchers:

Kenta Maeda (R) 3-3, 5.56

Brad Keller (R) 6-8, 6.67

Twins:

1. Luis Arraez (L) 3B

2. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B

3. Trevor Larnach (L) LF

4. Alex Kirilloff (L) 1B

5. Ryan Jeffers (R) C

6. Max Kepler (L) RF

7. Miguel Sano (R) DH

8. Nick Gordon (L) CF

9. Andrelton Simmons (R) SS

 

Royals:

1. Whit Merrifield (R) 2B

2. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF

3. Carlos Santana (S) 1B

4. Salvador Perez (R) DH

5. Ryan O'Hearn (L) RF

6. Hunter Dozier (R) 3B

7. Jarrod Dyson (L) CF

8. Sebastian Rivero (R) C

9. Nicky Lopez (L) SS

 

[Squirrel]

There is a certain beauty in brevity ... let's hope for a beauty of a game!

[insagt1]

EVen the biggest piece of optimism in me is gone. I could see us blowing 3 to Chicago, but carrying that forward to two lousy efforts against KC....unacceptable. Our entire pitching staff is throwing batting practice. No one is reliable. And you can see the malaise settling in. The guys have no confidence. Even if Buxton comes back in August for another 3 or 4 games, it isn't going to help.

[Nine of twelve]

This Ford commercial has my vote for worst of 2021.

[wavedog]

Here is our ray of hope - historically even very bad baseball teams win about 1 out of every 3 games.   Hoping for either a competitive game for a change or a blowout win for the Twins.   

[wavedog]

Echoing others previous comments but I do really enjoy listening to Kaat announce the games.  Even these losses to the Royals.   At 82 years old he is sharper than anyone else in the booth.    

[Matthew Lenz]

26 minutes ago, wavedog said:

Echoing others previous comments but I do really enjoy listening to Kaat announce the games.  Even these losses to the Royals.   At 82 years old he is sharper than anyone else in the booth.    

I agree! He has a good mix of bringing up the how things were in his day without completely bashing on how things are done now-a-days like some of these old-timers can do.

[wavedog]

Nice steal of 3B by Arraez due to the shift!  

[wavedog]

...and Larnach delivers the run in - which thanks to another poster - I saw he is having some difficulty in those situations this year.   Nice to see the Twins produce a run on 2 singles.   Maybe I will leave on that positive note and enjoy some of this nice 4th of July weather.   

[Matthew Lenz]

Man, Maeda looks good today! Really hoping that 2020 wasn't a total fluke and he can be our ace ahead of Berrios.

[Danchat]

8 minutes ago, wavedog said:

...and Larnach delivers the run in - which thanks to another poster - I saw he is having some difficulty in those situations this year.   Nice to see the Twins produce a run on 2 singles.   Maybe I will leave on that positive note and enjoy some of this nice 4th of July weather.   

He's just 6 for 42 in RISP situations, but he's still young, and I expect that to improve. What concerns me more is that Donaldson has a .590 OPS in RISP. Don't know why he's fantastic with nobody on, but awful when it counts most.

[Matthew Lenz]

 

[Matthew Lenz]

Couple good ABs from Sano. Laid off three straight sliders under the zone down 1-2 to take a walk

[Matthew Lenz]

 

[Matthew Lenz]

 

[operation mindcrime]

This Brad Keller is a horrible pitcher! How we've only managed to score one run is an absolute miracle for the Royals! Every other pitch seems to land in the dirt. Helen Keller would've been more accurate than this! 

[RickOShea]

Bremer's talking about how often the Twins have a lead and then blow it.  I don't think leading  1-0 after the first half inning, then allowing the competition to come right back to tie or take the lead. really qualifies concerning the spirit of his remark.

[LVTwinsfan]

I just tuned in, but Maeda looks good 

[LVTwinsfan]

1 minute ago, RickOShea said:

Bremer's talking about how often the Twins have a lead and then blow it.  I don't think leading  1-0 after the first half inning, then allowing the competition to come right back to tie or take the lead. really qualifies concerning the spirit of his remark.

I wouldn’t even qualify 3 runs in the first inning, but when you have a 3 run or more after 5 that qualifies and the Twins have done that plenty of times this season

[LVTwinsfan]

How can an umpire see something that wasn’t there 

[operation mindcrime]

1 minute ago, LVTwinsfan said:

How can an umpire see something that wasn’t there 

LSD!

[LVTwinsfan]

37 minutes ago, Matthew Lenz said:

Couple good ABs from Sano. Laid off three straight sliders under the zone down 1-2 to take a walk

I think it’s sad when we all we have to compliment Sano on is a couple of walks

[RickOShea]

3 minutes ago, LVTwinsfan said:

How can an umpire see something that wasn’t there 

Never heard of magic? LOL

[RickOShea]

1 minute ago, LVTwinsfan said:

I think it’s sad when we all we have to compliment Sano on is a couple of walks

 

[operation mindcrime]

Way to go Kepler!!!!!!

[RickOShea]

I think it's time for Kepler to Bauerize the competition.

[operation mindcrime]

Just now, RickOShea said:

 

Where's your response?

[LVTwinsfan]

Haha Whit

[Matthew Lenz]

16 minutes ago, RickOShea said:

Bremer's talking about how often the Twins have a lead and then blow it.  I don't think leading  1-0 after the first half inning, then allowing the competition to come right back to tie or take the lead. really qualifies concerning the spirit of his remark.

Completely disagree. One of the biggest things you can do is shutdown a team after you score a run. The Twins have won 33 games and have held a lead in 30/48 losses. They've had the lead in 69/82 (including today) games they've played this year an will have 33 or 34 wins pending todays results.

[Matthew Lenz]

Just now, LVTwinsfan said:

Haha Whit

Fantastic play by Arraez. Whit was looking at him like what the heck!?!?