Riverbrian

Rain Delays... Ump Delays... Patience may be needed at the airport Gibby.

Parm likes em low

Pino looking good!!! Hammer looking good... The Clock doesn't look so good. Dang this one is gonna go late.

Game-time forecast: Sunny. Winds blowing out to right field at 10-20 m.p.h. Temperature around 85. The Lineups are coming soon... It's an early start today and Gardenhire probably hasn't woken up yet. ChiTown will post them right here. Bri, it's not Gardy who hasn't woken up yet ... it's Chi. But I'm getting there. At least enough to post these: Twins: SP, Gibson Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Willingham LF Morales DH Parmelee RF Escobar 3B Fryer C Florimon SS (And after looking at that, maybe I'll go back to bed.) Red Sox: SP, Lackey Holt RF Bogaerts 3B Pedroia 2B Ortiz DH Napoli 1B Nava LF Pierzynski C Drew SS Bradley CF ---------------------------------------------------- Things to Think About: 1. The Rubberband - 32-37... 5 games back of .500... The majority of us knew that the Rubberband couldn't last forever... Is this it for the rubberband? I don't know but the offense is killing the rubberband right now. It's the offense... It isn't the pitching. Has the offense done enough damage to it to render it useless from here on out? I don't know but it will probably take the offense getting it together to get the rubberband back together. So come on people now... Smile on me Brother. 2. Slumps - We are pretty happy with the performance of Danny Santana, Eduardo Escobar and Kurt Suzuki this year and lately. Joe isn't Joe like but he is 7/24 in his last 7 games and his OPS is 2nd on the team over the last 7 games. Just when it seems like Gardy has settled on an everyday lineup... (minus Plouffe of course). We are seeing the wheels come off in key places. Oswaldo Arcia is 2 for his last 32. Both of those hits came June 11th in Toronto. Take that game out and he is 0 for 27 surrounding June 11. Not just 2 for 32 but I'm swinging and missing at everything 2 for 32. Since his pinch hit home run after coming back from a back injury... Brian Dozier is 0 for his last 10. Josh Willingham is 1 for his last 15. Kendrys Morales is 3 for his last 20. Sam Fuld is 2 for his last 13. That's 5 people... 4 people in key spots in the lineup who do not have more hits than Eric Fryer has in the past 6 games and Eric Fryer has only played 1 game. 3 People on the bench could fill in for these Slumping Twins. 1 of them Nunez has been injured... 1 of them... Parmelee hasn't been played since X-mas and the other 1... Florimon probably shouldn't be counted on to break the team out offensively. 3. Repeat performances -- Kyle Gibson has been the opposite of our offense lately. Kyle Gibson hasn't allowed a Run in 15 straight innings. Taking it a little further... In his last 4 starts since May 28th... Kyle Gibson has hung a zero in 24 out of 26 innings. In the two innings where he allowed a run... Both came in Milwaukee. In the 4th inning... It took a bunt single and ill advised throw to advance a runner on a LuCroy single to give up an extra base to produce two runs and in the 5th inning it was a two run shot by Mark Reynolds. Otherwise you are seriously talking about a 26 inning scoreless streak. Can Gibson shut out the Red Sox... Maybe... It's a lot to expect but the point is this... Gibson is rolling right now and that's awesome. If the offense doesn't get it going... He'll need to be awesome. 4. John Lackey -- He's 35 years old from Abilene Texas... That put him smack dab in the middle of the part of Texas that doesn't count. Abilene is a city just kinda stuck in the middle of miles and miles of open range. To get to interesting places like Dallas or Lawton Oklahoma from Abilene you have to drive until you can't see straight but the temporary blindness is OK because there is nothing to run into if you drift off the road. Lackey is fastball slider guy for the most part but that's good enough for a 3.24 ERA. 5. Emergency Rooms -- A friend of mine drove himself to the Emergency Room last night. I stopped by to see him... He's doing good... He wasn't having a heart attack but he thought he was having one. He said the scariest part was finding a parking spot and then walking across the entire parking lot to the Emergency Room. No Valet Parking!!! They may want to consider that. Because you'll never know when someone eats a burrito too fast.

I can't tell... It's stretched but I can't tell if its broke on the side.

I think you play the French Horn the same way... No matter how you are dressed.

I bet Glunn would love to watch that.

Its getting to the point... Where he's no fun anymore.

I think Bullpen

Arcia is broken... Paging Bruno...

I think that means Deduno gets one more start. I think Correia is safe for now.

I intercepted a thrown fish at the Pike Place Market.

When they stock it with Walleye... The people will come.

No I have not and it's sincerely a hole in my life.

This... This... This... Fine examples of the triumph of human spirit!!!

Yeah I know... But.. That's how life goes whizzing by.

LOL... You and I need to road trip and experience one of my plans. You'll never forget it. You get down with real people. You feel the heartbeat of a nation.

I've seen it... Stayed at the hotel behind it. No hot water but I still loved it.

It is... Without question. I savor every moment like that on my road trips... I love road trips... I don't want to go to Epcot... I want to see the building made out of pants.

I've never been sold on Drew as a defensive shortstop but he comes in on a ball as good as anybody.

He may be here soon enough.

We gotta solve Rubby now... That's the first time I've ever typed the above sentence.

Thats why you got to divide it up in little segments... Stop and smell the roses. Admire the monuments of the human spirit. See 60 canoes on a pole... The Giant Soup Can.

Stephen Drew looks like a Eric Sogard now.

How is May doing tonight?