thuuuuney

This made my night.

Catch-Up Randy Dobnak actually had some double plays turned behind him, Sano might've very well found his swing, and today already marks the final game of the season (pending playoffs) between the Twins and KC. We're nearly at the halfway mark of the season and it's a three horse race at the top of the AL Central with Cleveland 0.5 games back and Chicago a game back so, as we all expected in this shortened season, every game counts. Where to Listen WCCO 830, TIBN, 102.9 The Wolf Where to Watch Fox Sports North Starting Pitchers Minnesota: Matt Wisler, 0-1, 1.50 ERA, 12.0 IP, 1.00 WHIP, making his second start as an opener.Kansas City: Kris Bubic, 0-3, 5.12 ERA, 19 K's, last start vs.MN went 4.1IP, had 2ER in the loss.Minnesota Batting Order Kansas City Batting Order Storylines 1. Already, this is the finale of the season against Kansas City and a win today would mean the final season series would be split at 5-5, but right now the season series is at 4-5 which means against the rest of the schedule, the Twins are 14-5. The Royals bullpen, along with a stellar performance from the batting order, have made for some eventful baseball this August and I'm assuming the regular season finale between these two clubs will leave no spots unchecked and should be an awesome game. 2. I'll go full Tim "Quirkjian," here. In games against Kansas City where Max Kepler records an RBI this season, the Twins are 3-0, so...I think we'll need some "Max Power," today. Outside of Kepler, Sano and Rosario are seeing the ball well and couple that with a warm beautiful day in KC, the Bombas may be flying out of the yard in a flurry today.

Catch-Up Baseball is..weird. We went from an assault on batters in Kenta Maeda to, yesterday. But the beauty of this is there's always more baseball and tonight the Twins have an opportunity to bounceback and speaking of bouncing back, we get to see if Jose Berrios can tonight. The Twins are also estimated by nearly every playoff projecton metric to be at or above a 97% chance to make the postseason so more caution will be exercised with Buxton and Garver being put on the IL, although Garver's injury sounds like the worst blow so far as Jeffers has been called up to split time with Avila. Where to Listen WCCO 830, TIBN, 102.9 The Wolf Where to Watch Fox Sports North Starting Pitchers Milwaukee: Brandon Woofruff, 1-1, 3.16 ERA, 1.05 WHIP in 25.2 IP.Minnesota: Jose Berrios, 1-3, 5.92 ERA, 1.64 WHIP in 24.1 IP. Milwaukee Batting Order Minnesota Batting Order* *Jeffers makes his big league debut! Storylines 1. Jose Berrios breakdown via Twins Daily writer Ted Schwerzler (Notebook 8/20), To say Jose Berrios has been scuffling in 2020 would be putting it lightly. He’s been relatively ineffective, and ultimately inefficient. He’s failed to make it past four innings in two of his five starts, and his longest outing was six innings of one-run ball against the Pittsburgh Pirates. For a staff ace and an Opening Day starter, you need better.There’s been plenty written about what may be going wrong thus far. One thing of note is that Berrios has actually experience a career high spike in velocity with his fastball averaging 94.9 mph. His 11.1% whiff rate is near a career high, but the chase rate is down four percent from 2019. He’s dipped five percent on his first pitch strike rate, working from behind nearly 40% of the time. His hard-hit rate is where things are really going awry however, as the Puerto Rican is seeing the ball launched a whopping 49% of the time (33% is his career average).

Catch-Up I'm 23 years old, if I think of the most dominant pitching performances I've been alive to watch, a few games come to mind. Roy Halladay's Playoff No-No, "Mad Max's," 20K game, and last night. What Kenta Maeda able to do was simply incredible. It wasn't velocity that got him 8 no-hit innings, it was his cadence, his delivery, and it was his smile once he allowed the hit that I think shows us all what kinda ballplayer he is and we're lucky to have him playing for us. As I said I'm 23 but I'll make this guarantee, I have NEVER seen some many ugly swings in my life and thats all a credit to our "ace," wearing that #18 proudly. Where to Listen WCCO 830, TIBN, 102.9 The Wolf Where to Watch Fox Sports North Starting Pitchers Milwaukee: Brett Anderson 0-2, 4.91 ERA, 1.64 WHIP in 3 starts this season.Minnesota: Rich "Dick Mountain, Sabormetrics Darling" Hill 1-0 5.0IP, 2H, 2K's, and 0ER in debut.Milwaukee Batting Order Minnesota Batting Order* *Vargas makes his first start in a Twins uniform after being used off the bench in yesterday's extra inning thriller.Storylines 1. Rich Hill breakdown via Twins Daily writer Ted Schwerzler (Notebook 8/19), In his lone start of 2020 Hill was nothing short of spectacular. He cruised through five innings of work against a good St. Louis Cardinals squad. Throwing 68 pitches, he recorded two strikeouts while walking one and allowing just two hits. Coincidentally that would be the final game for the Cardinals until just a few days ago, and Hill himself is just making a return to the mound tonight.Despite having a bottom of the barrel velocity on his fastball, Hill does everything else at an elite level. Because of his ability to spin the bender, Hill has been one of the best pitchers in baseball for quite some time. Yes, he’s 40 years old, and yes, he’s often injured, but when a team has had him on the bump, they can feel pretty confident about their chances.2. After the Twins blew their chance to award Kenta his much deserved W, they still rallied late to win and I think it's those two moments that will prove successful for the Twins tonight. Rich Hill's teammate back in LA is here with him in Minnesota and after throwing a gem last night, I'm sure Hill will want to keep up the same drive. Meanwhile the Twins bats came alive, albeit not pretty, but they came alive late to get the job done and now face a starter who struggles to make it to the 5th inning. My prediction, Twins win 11-2.

Catch-Up How did you all enjoy your day off? I'm sure the Twins did. Buxton is playing arguably the best all around baseball of his career, the Twins so far have gotten an incredible return on investment in Kenta Maeda, and now we get to see if Odorizzi can bounceback after his rough start back from injury against a Royals team who has the 12th most strikeouts as a team batting and amongst the teams who have played every game this season, rank last in walks as a team (25th overall). With no off day in sight for 21 days, starting off this long stretch of games with a win is vital. Where to Listen WCCO 830, TIBN, 102.9 The Wolf Where to Watch Fox Sports North, MLB.TV Free Game of the Day (If you're lucky enough to not have it blacked out). Starting Pitchers Kansas City: Ian Kennedy, Royals Manager Mike Matheany is electing to go with Kennedy as an opener tonight with starter Jakob Junis (Last Friday against MIN: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 K's).Minnesota: Jake Odorizzi, In first start back from IL, went 3.0 IP scattering 4 hits, 2 Earned, and earned a no-decision.Kansas City Batting Order Minnesota Batting Order Storylines 1. Odo breakdown via Twins Daily writer Andrew Thares (Notebook 8/14),After beginning the season on the IL with a right intercostal strain, Jake Odorizzi finally made his first appearance of the season last Saturday against the Royals. It was clear there was still some rust that Odorizzi needed to shake off, as he didn’t have his sharpest of stuff. In just three innings of work, Odorizzi gave up two walks and a home run. Of the 71 pitches he threw, just 40 of them were for strikes.The Twins will be hoping for a better performance tonight, as Odorizzi gets a second look that this Royals lineup, which has been surprisingly better than expected so far this season. In 19 games this season, the Royals are averaging 4.42 runs per game and have a wRC+ of 100. While this isn’t specular by any means, being even league average is a massive uptick from where they were the past couple of years. 2. Today is my wife's birthday and I am taking advantage of her taking a nap to write this and as a result of her birthday I will be active on the game-thread at all tonight. So cheer loud for me and let's all hope the Twins get to Kennedy early because I have a feeling Junis is going to look good tonight.

Catch-Up What if I told you being tied for the best start in club history was not the leading headline for the Twins yesterday. What if I also told you Eddie "Destroyer of Junkballs," Rosario wasn't the leading story either after two awesome RBI singles. The leading story centers around arguably the most peculiar delay in baseball history, a drone hovering over Target Field. Despite this, the Twins pushed forward to route the Pirates 7-3 thanks to a good bounceback game from Berrios, timely hitting again, and Jake Cave see below. Where to Listen WCCO 830, TIBN Where to Watch Fox Sports North Starting Pitchers Minnesota: Randy Dobnak*, 1-1, 1.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 1.11 WHIP in two starts this season.Pittsburgh: Trevor Williams, 0-2. 5.40 ERA, 8.1 IP, 1.56 WHIP in two starts this season.*=Randy Dobnak: A word of caution| Per Twins Daily writer Andrew Thares, some caution should be exercised on the hot start by Dobnak because the batted balls against him through two starts have been hot as well. Again per Andrew Thares notebook entry for today, A quick glance at Dobnak’s Statcast numbers, and they tell a slightly different story. Opposing hitters have been making loud contact off Dobnak, to the tune of a 93.1 MPH average exit velocity, so far this year. For comparison, that is nearly as high as Nelson Cruz’s 93.7 MPH average exit velocity in 2019, which ranked second in all of baseball. Dobnak has also struggled a bit with walks to start the year. So far, Dobnak has already walked four batters, which is just one less than he walked in his 28 and 1/3 regular season innings in 2019. Avoiding walks and hard contact will be the thing to watch from Dobnak in his start tonight. Minnesota Batting Order* Pittsburgh Batting Order Storylines In my 23 years on this earth I don't believe I have seen a better bullpen for the Twins than the current one being touted out by Minnesota. We know the light's out nature of Taylor Rodgers and the surge of emotion Trevor May and Sergio Romo can bring but I am invested in every arm. From Cody Stashak's K to BB ratio, to Tyler Duffey ridiculous K%, it feels good to know that not only our bats can awaken at any time, but our bullpen can hold down the fort as well. My key guys to look at tonight are two players who are on opposite sides of the spectrum in regards to production right now, those players are Luis Arraez and Marwin Gonzalez. Marwin firstly has had some very competitive at-bats and currently has an OBP of .400 and with Donaldson out on IL, it really goes to show how deep this team is that with a huge free-agent piece banged up, you'd hardly notice it looking at the box scores. Now with Arraez I'll always remember that at-bat last season when he came in for Schoop inheriting an 0-2 count and then we all know the rest. Although we are seeing moments like that in flashes, Arraez is struggling right now as he is 0-16 in his last at-bats. Look for Marwin to continue to take advantage of his playing time tonight and look for Arraez to have a strong bounceback game against a struggling RHP.

I know it's one inning but I LOVE how fast Bailey is working on the mound. Reminds me of Pavano on the bump.

Happy you enjoyed the write-up and I'm happy we're enjoying a great game! 1,2,3 from Kenta looks good early

Catch-Up What's the best part of baseball? I would argue its the fact that unlike other sports, you get an opportunity to write a wrong the day after a rough game and now the Twins have that chance. A fully rested bullpen, a trade acquisition with high aspirations making his debut, a full blown nerdy analytical lineup from Rocco, let's do this. Where to Listen WCCO 830, TIBN Where to Watch Fox Sports North Starting Pitchers Minnesota: Kenta Maeda*| 10-8, 4.04 ERA, 153.1 IP, 1.07 WHIP in 26 starts and 11 relief appearances in 2019.Chicago: Reynaldo Lopez**| 10-15, 5.38 ERA, 184.0 IP, 1.46 WHIP in 33 starts in 2019.*=Kenta Maeda: History lesson for you all. Garver switched to #8 because of this man on the bump. Maeda is honoring a tradition that has been a mainstay in Japanese baseball that the "ace," of the rotation adorns the #18 and now today we get to see him earn that number. A tradition started with the Yomiuri Giants in the 90's carries to the Minnesota Twins today, and we're all better off for it. **=Reynaldo Lopez: Led MLB in ER's (110) last year. Minnesota Batting Order* *=Per Twins Daily Writer Matthew Taylor on twitter: Twins splits vs. Lopez Chicago Batting Order Storylines 1. Per Twins Daily writer Tom Froemming on Kenta Maeda, Notebook 7/26 Maeda threw 84 pitches in his final tuneup outing of Summer Camp, so he should be close to full stretched out. It’s going to be interesting to see how he performs away from Dodger Stadium. He has a career 3.23 ERA at Chavez Ravine and 4.54 mark everywhere else. In his only previous outing at Guaranteed Rate Field, Maeda delivered five innings of one-run ball back in 2017.Maeda has been death to right-handed hitters over his career, holding them to a .199/.251/.339 batting line (.589 OPS). That bodes well, as this is a very right-handed White Sox lineup, but switch hitters Yasmani Grandal (.799 OPS) and Yoan Moncada (.839 OPS) have been better against righties over their careers. 2. Since the Twins got thumped yesterday, their bullpen is fully rested. On the other hand the White Sox still tooted out some of their best arms yesterday so again on paper, the Twins should have this one. I would look to Maeda to make a strong debut, look for Arraez to have a good day, and in honor of Maeda from @TwinsCave on twitter, 行くツインズのズ行こう!!