MIN 4, CHW 0: Mauer Reaches 2,000 Hits, Leads Twins to Victory

Mauer's not flipping around this year, darn it. In fact, he was at batting practice, and the batboy asked him which bat was his, and Mauer finished dipping his French fry in mayonnaise, and then said, "It's the one that says Bad Mauer Flipper on it."

Mauer's a stud, and that is not fiction of any kind.

Berrios is a stud too.  A stud muffin even.

Pressly is gaining my confidence, and Moya has it.  I'll be bummed if he gets shipped out tonight.

On pace for 113 wins.  Nice job Twins.  Congrats Joe.

I could only watch the condensed game (damn those are nice btw hope mlb.com runs them all year), Berrios looked like he was eating people alive with the curve.  That is a +++ pitch when he has it going and makes his fastball a real danger as well.

Congratz Mr. Mauer, its a shame injuries made it take this long but thats a hell of a milestone.

One point of clarification...Berrios has 24 Ks on the season, not 20. So cool that he gets a start in Puerto Rico.

Pitching was dominate from start to finish. Can't say enough about Berrios, but it was also impressive watching Pressly and Moya just pickup where he left off.

It is nice that Joe's 2000th hit was one that mattered on a team that has some hope rather than a meaningless hit in a game we were sure to lose and in one of the dark seasons.  Also nice that it was at a time that he finished the night leading the league in batting average and batting over 400.  Not that the 400 is sustainable (although that would be nice).

Only real thing I want to see is Sano and Buxton cutting down on the Ks. I know Sano's OPS looks good, but I really don't think either have really taken off yet. 

Buxton has really been cutting down on the K's. He's struck out just twice in his last 18 at-bats.

Sano on the other hand....P.U.  He is hammering the ball when he makes contact, though. And at this point Logan Morrison has been so terrible that moving Sano in the batting order isn't realistic.

Gotta win about 14 against these guys. The way they looked last night I could see it happening. TheChiSox will probably be a better team at the end of the year than they are right now

Replay / review aided the Twins as well.  Without that, Buxton is caught stealing and the Twins likely do not score the 2 runs in the 3rd.  That made it a different ballgame.

It is too bad they probably won't be able to build on this momentum and take a few more from the Sox since the weather gods show they do not care about the Twins and their home stand.  Hopefully winter will be over by the All-Star break.

Tonight's game cancelled, ya think?

I think they are predicting tonight and tomorrow almost sure to be cancelled and a strong chance for Sunday as well.

  Was in KC August 2016 for Twins/Royals.  Watched Berrios LABOR through about 3 innings.  Seemed like every hitter was 3-2.  Kept hearing "he needs to trust his stuff".  What a difference 2 years makes.  This kid is special.  Don't overanalyze him folks, just enjoy him.

Berrios is becoming appointment viewing when he's on the mound. you really don't want to miss a start, because it might be something pretty special and almost certainly pretty fun to watch. That curve is filthy and he's spotting his fastball well.

I'm really happy Mauer is off to a fast start and got his 2000 last night. He looks like he's playing free and easy and that swing as just as smooth as it's always been. Kinda back to being surprised when Mauer strikes out. Hope he keeps slashing singles and knocking doubles all over the field.

Fun game, even with the replay delays and fails.

Oh hey, look who is leading the league in fWAR for all pitchers:  https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2018&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0

Big deal. Only two wins.