stringer bell

Mauer, Escobar and Grossman shape up!

OK, when is the last time this club has hit six homers in one game?

Good for Ozzie.

If the score holds, does this make up for the two close losses?

For the season.

If the Twins manage to win, the back-to-back-to-back will be one of their few highlights.

99 mph BP.

Gotta get Dozier fixed.

Well I saw the new Yankee Stadium last night. It was determined before we got to New York, that we would see Lions vs. Christians er Yankees vs. Twins on Friday night. My son, serving as tour guide/babysitter had us heading for the Bronx by 5 PM. After spending all afternoon in a museum, I was ready to go. We got to a subway station and headed towards the stadium. An uneventful 20 minute ride later and we were there. But wait! We hadn't eaten and the majority of our party didn't want ballpark food. We decided on seafood and the nearest place was only nine minutes away on foot. What we didn't know was that it was nine minutes straight uphill. We walked through what can charitably called a mixed neighborhood, broken bottles on the sidewalk, cars stopped/parked in unusual locations and Latin music blasting from stereos. The seafood place was small, smelled like fish, and had zero seating. We waited for our food and decided to walk back to the stadium to eat and wait for my son's fiancee, who had to work late and was to meet us. We got back and started exchanging texts with the fiancee, Irina, who just missed the subway train she thought she had to take. She was going to be late, so we split up we us old folks getting seated, while Jon waited for his sweetie. It turned out that Irina got on the wrong train and would not arrive until 7:30. Anyway, for me it was game on! Almost! A day of travel had drained the battery of my phone, so I tried to find a recharge station. After looking awhile, I found an AT&T place, but it took almost an hour to charge my phone. Meanwhile, the Twins grabbed an early lead, gave it back, took another lead and then gave it back for good. My observations--Milone was Milone, working the corners, hurt by bad defense and squeezed by the ump.After the first, Milone pitched from behind and he doesn't have the stuff to do that. Grossman made a couple of OK throws, but a good throw would have gotten Beltran. Escobar is supposed to be super reliable. He hasn't been this year. Buxton's first AB was great--he needs to go the other way more. The back of the Yankee bullpen was dominant.Chapman was something else. Yankee fans weren't very obnoxious and the stadium is functional, but not anything special. My son called new Yankee Stadium "soulless". My opinion is if you're a baseball fan and are in NY, it's worth the trip.

There is a logjam of major league ball players, including two second basemen and two shortstops, why in the world should they add Beresford, unless they have to? Isn't Beresford just more AAAA fodder. He may have a place in the majors, but it shouldn't be with the Twins.

True story. Telling my future daughter-in-law about Aaron Hicks, recounting how he just would never hit enough to be a corner outfielder. "Looks like I'm right. I wish him well. Who knows, he'll probably hit a homer on the next pitch."..................and wattayaknow?

Beer is not $8 here in Gotham. 16 oz cup is $11. BTW an absolutely gorgeous day and evening in the Bronx.

Damn autocorrect! Unhittable.

Aabout half the time Pressly looks unhurt able.

Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.

Mastro is on the DL. I presume once he's healthy, he will get DFAed.

Mauer should have fielded Hicks' grounder, once it rolled away, he had no chance.

Malone works the corners (has to) and didn't seem to get the corners from the ump. Three errors hurt, especially Esco's.

Hello from "the Stadium". Twins 3 Evil Empire 4. Much to say, not much positive. Bad defense has hurt the most so far.

Agreed. Great run for "Zuke". I hope it builds his trade value at the deadline. As a pending free agent he still wouldn't get much, but it would be better for all concerned for Suzuki to be playing elsewhere on 8/1/16.

I certainly think that the Twins could go .500 the rest of the way. There's more talent than the last Gardy teams and there's a chance that a couple of guys could go nuts (Sano, Kepler, Rosario, Buxton) in the second half. As was written above, the big issue is pitching. The veterans on the staff can fill the back end and the back end of the bullpen needs to be established. That is a lot of work. Regression to the mean would garner more close wins and also from some players. If the right amount of trades are made at the deadline, the club could emerge from this disaster of a season with some palpable improvement. Not sure that will happen, but I still have hope.

There are 40-man issues with Darnell, Albers, and Wheeler. All have been DFAed once and so would be lost if sent back to the minors. I don't think any of them have options, although it is possible that Wheeler does. That Dean was sent down before he was out of the shower after getting rocked by the Yanks tells me that the Twins want him available as soon as possible to return to the team. Is it ten days he has to wait? Whatever, I expect Duffey would be replaced by Dean after one more start. They could get fancy and use a BP by committee or someone could get put on the DL. I want to see Berrios, but I think it makes sense for him to get it together in Rochester and dominate before he gets another recall.

Don't necessarily agree with this, but if Buxton were returned to Rochester, I'm pretty sure that Danny Santana would get the bulk of the playing time as the center fielder.

Didn't want to waste the specialist on Howard. It appears anyone can get him out.

Yeah, he does. He needs one, he's like 6'4".