Game Thread: Royals @ Twins, 9/14/22, 6:40PM CDT (4:40PM PDT)

[PDX Twin]

Just in case anyone is still interested, the Minnesota Twins play the Kansas City Royals this afternoon/evening in the battle for third place in the weakest division above AAA. After Joe Ryan’s dominating win last night, the Twins’ magic number for clinching third is down to 9: with 22 games remaining they are 14 ahead of the Royals. Sweeping tonight and tomorrow would lower it to 5 and pretty much seal third place.

On the mound for the home team is 32-year-old Sonny Gray, with a 7-4 record and 3.09 ERA. According to mlb.com, his nickname is Pickles. Opposing him will be 38-year-old Zach Greinke, who is at 4-8 and 4.00 this season. This is a rematch of the August 16th game at Target Field, in which both pitched 6 effective innings, but Greinke was tagged with a loss because he allowed one earned run (three total) whereas Pickles threw 6 scoreless innings on the way to an impressive team shutout and 9-0 victory. Greinke is not the same pitcher he was ten years ago and some of the young Twins have impressive records against him: Miranda is 2/3, .667; Urshela is 6/13, .538; Gordon is 3/6, .500; and Arraez is 4/10, .400. On the other side, you can tell from the numbers that Pickles has not pitched for the Twins very long: Salvador Perez is hitting .182 against him with no homeruns in 22 at-bats. Surely no one pitching for the Twins could compile that kind of record!

Tonight’s starting lineups are below:

Go, Twins! Let's go ahead and put this third-place battle to bed!

[CRF]

Cleve beat the Angels again this afternoon. We need to win tonight or we're 6 back. I think it's just about time for Dandy Don to start singing. 

[sampleSizeOfOne]

At last, basebal as it was meant to be. Played for the sheer joy of it.

 

Or at least discussed in a game thread without any greater expectation for a competitive result.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Can't wait to see Cave hustle, and the inscrutible juggernaut that is Leon Sandy extending the inning so Arraez gets more chances to affect his batting average.

[PDX Twin]

4 minutes ago, sampleSizeOfOne said:

Can't wait to see Cave hustle, and the inscrutible juggernaut that is Leon Sandy extending the inning so Arraez gets more chances to affect his batting average.

I do love seeing Cave hustle! It reminds me of Nick Punto, whom I always loved watching (even if the results weren't always too keen).

[tony&rodney]

I have always enjoyed watching Greinke pitch. He is among the top ten most fun to watch pitchers this century. 

After last night I cannot bring myself to be critical of the Twins any longer; it is totally self-defeating. The brains are who they are and it makes zero sense for me to even pay attention to their actions. I can tunnel in on the game itself. I hope there is good fundamental baseball played this evening. That is my only expectation/hope.

[Blyleven2011]

If the twins are going to win the division  they need to play their best baseball  and go in hot to the playoffs  and win a game or two there ...

Go on a roll twins and win , don't go on a roll and fall down  ...

[RickOShea]

Arraez is having a leg issue.

[LVTwinsfan]

The Twins have had a lot of success against Gruntke

[LVTwinsfan]

Arraez   .320

Bogaerts .317

[Cap'n Piranha]

Leaving aside the debate on whether RBI is a valid statistic, but I never understood why a hitter doesn't get an RBI when grounding into a double play.  He still put a ball in play that allowed the runner to score.  Pretty clearly should be an RBI, IMO.

[Cap'n Piranha]

3 minutes ago, LVTwinsfan said:

The Twins have had a lot of success against Gruntke

[LVTwinsfan]

That dp was big for KC

[Cap'n Piranha]

38 minutes ago, PDX Twin said:

I do love seeing Cave hustle! It reminds me of Nick Punto, whom I always loved watching (even if the results weren't always too keen).

The thing everyone forgets about Nick Punto is that he was actually a pretty good player who was imply asked to do more than he was capable of.  He put up 3.6 WAR in 2006, and 2.7 in 2008; he finished his career with over 15 WAR (coming into this season, Buxton had 15 WAR exactly).  If Punto had been allowed to bat 8th or 9th, and not 2nd in front of Mauer and Morneau, he'd be remembered very differently; as a spectacular defensive 3B with a pretty good OBP for a bottom of the order hitter.

[Cap'n Piranha]

BSN may want to re-think the home plate mics for tonight's game, at least until Greinke is out.  I've counted at least 2 very audible instances of, shall we say, fruity language.

[mnfireman]

Gordon ultimately got a base hit, but swinging at a ball out of the zone ahead 2-0 after the 4 pitch walk to Urshela could have led to bad AB. 

[LVTwinsfan]

Wow 

[Cap'n Piranha]

And now Arraez is out.  Whoever is running the departments that address injury prevention and recovery for the Twins needs to be let go this offseason.

[RickOShea]

These guys are in the job protection program.

[LVTwinsfan]

Garlick toast

[PDX Twin]

7 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

And now Arraez is out.  Whoever is running the departments that address injury prevention and recovery for the Twins needs to be let go this offseason.

I was away from the screen. What happened to Arraez?

[RickOShea]

1 minute ago, PDX Twin said:

I was away from the screen. What happened to Arraez?

An upper decker sniper shot him in the hamstring with a rubber bullet.

[LVTwinsfan]

47 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I have always enjoyed watching Greinke pitch. He is among the top ten most fun to watch pitchers this century. 

In days gone by maybe, he’s pretty much washed up now

[mrtwinsfan]

Hey Rocco you know that Palacious kid on the bench, can also play 2b and  Garlick  in l.f. ???   rather see gordon there  you know where you started him,   whats Garlick got on ya Rocco ??

[notoriousgod71]

3 minutes ago, mrtwinsfan said:

Hey Rocco you know that Palacious kid on the bench, can also play 2b and  Garlick  in l.f. ???   rather see gordon there  you know where you started him,   whats Garlick got on ya Rocco ??

I would honestly rather see garlick than palacios.

[LVTwinsfan]

Just now, notoriousgod71 said:

I would honestly rather see garlicky than palacios.

Good point 

[LVTwinsfan]

5 minutes ago, mrtwinsfan said:

Hey Rocco you know that Palacious kid on the bench, can also play 2b and  Garlick  in l.f. ???   rather see gordon there  you know where you started him,   whats Garlick got on ya Rocco ??

I’ve seen Palacios play second. I’m not impressed, his bat is nothing to write home about either.

[LVTwinsfan]

[RpR]

9 minutes ago, mrtwinsfan said:

Hey Rocco you know that Palacious kid on the bench, can also play 2b and  Garlick  in l.f. ???   rather see gordon there  you know where you started him,   whats Garlick got on ya Rocco ??

Yeah, Palacios with .156 batting average and the minus 163 Rtot, great if one is a masochist.

[LVTwinsfan]

The Twins are swinging at the pitches they were laying off in the first inning