Riverbrian

It was a late flight from Florida to Minnesota as the Twins get ready for the battle of nobody thought we'd be here. Both the Astros and Twins were overlooked as possible playoff teams in 2015. 2020 was supposed to be the year of playoff contention for both clubs. The Future is here and it's on display at catwalk-less Target Field this weekend. Here are some things to think about: 1. Astros -- If you would have asked 100 people on opening day, "Do you think the Astros will be in 1st place on August 28th?" 80 would have said, "No"... 7 would have said, "Yes"... and 13 would have asked why August 28th was chosen as the date for a survey question on opening day and then would have refused to participate out of principle. Nearly all the experts were saying the Mariners were the team to beat in the AL West; and those who didn't pick the Mariners to win the division picked the Padres because the Padres were supposed to be so good they would win every single division in baseball. 2. Correa/Buxton -- Let's go back to June 4th, 2012. That was the day that Carlos Correa became the #1 pick in the baseball draft slipping in ahead of consensus #1, Byron Buxton. It was always supposed to be Buxton until this Correa kid started getting rumored in the 11th hour as the #1, and those rumors ended up being true. After the draft it was Buxton who became the darling as the #1 rated prospect in baseball until injuries knocked him back a little. Fast forward to today... Correa is the new darling at the major league level. Speed, power, and extraordinary defense at the SS position. This weekend at Target Field you will see the 2012 draft on display along with Lance McCullers Jr. who went 1A (41st overall) and Jose Berrios who was also a supplemental 1st rounder at 32nd overall. Oops Sorry... Berrios isn't here yet. It's possible that someone will bring that up later in a post. 3. Catwalks -- Oh My... Miguel Sano struck the Catwalk last night. According to Dick Bremer... if that ball wouldn't have struck the Catwalk it would have landed somewhere outside of the domed stadium. This leads to the obvious questions: how many cats are kept at Tropicana Field and who is in charge of changing the litter? It shouldn't be the responsibility of the grounds crew if it's that high off the ground. 4. Wild Card Race -- With the Twins loss and the Rangers win, we are a half game back from the final spot. Truth be told... only the A's are truly out of it. The 2nd worst record in the AL belongs to the Red Sox and they are only 7 and a half out. If the Red Sox get hot they could find themselves back in contention, and this is more possible now that Dave Dombroski is playing LF for them. If the Red Sox can get themselves into the race so can anybody else with a hot streak. The Twins can't focus on the Rangers... the Twins need to focus on the Twins. 5. Being Ignored -- You really start to understand what it's like to be ignored when you get a cat. -------------------- Game-time forecast: 68 deg F, partly cloudy to clear, rain possible earlier in the day, but at game time it looks good, winds from the SE at 9mph. Lineups: ASTROS Altuve 2B Lowrie 3B Gattis DH Rasmus RF Gomez CF Valbuena 1B Gonzalez SS Castro C Marisnick LF Kazmir P TWINS Buxton CF Escobar SS Dozier 2B Plouffe 1B Rosario RF Hunter DH Nunez 3B Suzuki C Robinson LF Gibson P Play ball! Go Twins! (despite this lineup) Click here to view the article

BTW... I didn't mean to single out anybody in the intro. However Vodka fit the theme so Dave went under the bus. He's tough... The Bus won't slow him down.

Are the Twins done? NYET. It's a roller coaster ride folks. This is the way it works when you play hard ball. You lose three in a row to the Yankees and Twins Daily goes nuts. You win 4 in a row and Orioles Daily goes nuts. This isn't just a Twins thing. All across America and St. Petersburg... fans lose their minds with every win and loss and in baseball... there are a bunch of wins and losses to fuel this roller coaster. Let's hope the Twins can keep this streak going because a winning streak will make everyone, including the guys on the field, feel good. Except for VodkaDave... of course. 1. Tampa Bay -- This is not the name of the city and I just discovered this. The city is simply Tampa... The bay is what is called Tampa Bay. The team called Tampa Bay plays in St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg is the 2nd largest city in Russia. Baseball isn't very big in Russia and this explains why nobody attends Rays home games. The club is desperate to build a stadium on American soil to cut down on the travel time, play games on real grass, increase club revenue with all the modern amenities and, perhaps most importantly... because the Russian accents were scaring people away. 2. The Rays -- They used to be known as the Devil Rays... However, some guy named Ray was able to convince them that they should drop the Devil and a new religion was formed. The Rays are currently 62-62. This puts them right behind the Twins; and the Twins are right behind the Rangers for the final playoff spot. The Rays don't believe in playing games on paper... they play games on plastic instead. Historically they are low budget and this leads to James Loney batting 4th. It doesn't seem to matter... they win games 50 percent of the time. 3. Sano, Buxton and Rosario -- The talented youngsters are up and finally playing together. So far the results have been fantastic. With these 3 in the same lineup the Twins are 4-0. To put this in perspective.... when any of these three are not in the lineup... the Twins are 4331 and 4395. However, it should be pointed out that despite a losing record when either Sano, Buxton or Rosario are not in the lineup, the Twins did manage to win the World Series in 1987 and 1991. 4. Swing and Miss -- The Twins need to go up to the plate with a plan against the Rays starting pitching. Karns tonight, Archer tomorrow and Smyly on Thursday. All three of these guys average over a strikeout an inning or very close to a strikeout per inning. I'd like to joke about this but strikeouts are not funny. 5. Sorry/Apologize -- My whole life I thought I understood the English language. I've always believed that saying "I'm sorry" and "I apologize" was the same thing. I've tested this theory many times with my wife. I've told her "I'm sorry" and I've told her "I apologize" many many times because I left a towel on the bathroom floor or I forgot to mow the lawn. I've used "I'm sorry" and "I apologize" interchangeably and it's worked every time. It was clear to me that they mean the same thing... until I apologized at a funeral yesterday. ---------------------- Game-time forecast: It'll likely be hot, humid and maybe rainy in Tampa/St. Pete's today, but not to worry ... the game is indoors so who cares about the forecast. Lineups: TWINS Buxton CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Sano DH Plouffe 3B Rosario LF Hunter RF Suzuki C Escobar SS Santana P RAYS Sizemore RF Jennings LF Longoria 3B Jaso DH Forsythe 2B Cabrera SS Loney 1B Kiermaier CF Casali C Karns P Go Twins! Play ball! Click here to view the article

Perfectly Put Levi. Thank God someone is coming. It's like Dinner at 9PM... Too Bad it wasn't at 6PM but I'm absolutely starving now so Thank You!!!

Cool I outlasted Chief. And with that... I'm off.

With the Plastic Eyeballs... Spray Paint the Vegetables.

With this Bullpen?

BTW... You should game thread with us more often. You've been an awesome addition tonight.

Ahh... That explains it. It's also probably why I was the only monkey in ND.

BTW... I'm not talking about Michael Wacha or Wong. But Cardinals are awesome birds. Never saw one in North Dakota. But they got em in MIchigan and a pair of them will sit in a tree on occasion outside my patio window. Stunning Birds. I also like Owls and I'd like to be able to do what they do with their necks.

Dude... you gotta try and spell it.

Thumbs Up Bark... You are the best. Now I can go to bed. OK... One more Buxton at bat... and then ZZZZ's for me.

What was that... I dozed off.

Yeah... Cuz Surgery is always much cheaper.

Plus One for you... Just the mere attempt at trying to spell this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6cI3YB5rTY

Oral Surgery? I'm against that... I'm a believer in free speech.

How bout... Torii Hunter with a walker.

I see what you did there

Good News: I didn't expect to see this game because I had an event to attend but the rain delay gave me enough time to get home and watch. Bad News: It's Free kin Eastern Time around here. I'm getting tired.

Post of the Night

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/RJpFdYTsORI/0.jpg

Look at the bright side... This Bird will be much much easier to watch.

And the Caddyshack Gopher