stringer bell

Well, this is a nice round number of posts for me. I will not go with Brian's suggestion to include Tommy Herr, Kingston Ontario and learning Klingon on computer (no he didn't say that last one, but it is a real thing). It's a lot easier to write about the Twins after a victory and a noteworthy one at that. The optimist in me says Pelfrey and Milone are big-leaguers and have some value. The pessimist says they only impress enough to stand in the way of younger guys. 6-9 and going to Seattle. I'll have a chance to watch most of those games and maybe somebody will break out. Good night everyone and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Buxton will be fine, but he is not close to ready. Four of the Twins top prospects in Chattanooga were brutal today. Tomorrow is another day.

Pelfrey throws 7 shutout innings (as expected). The Twins score three and have only one out and the bases loaded in the first and don't score the rest of the night and it doesn't bite them in the butt. Is it possible that Pelfrey can put it together? He sure throws hard enough and the secondary pitches show some promise

Shades of '06. Torii dives and misses.

OK, OK, I wasn't watching then, but Mauer got thrown out and somebody reached, correct? That someone ended up scoring and hence it didn't matter.

Gonna be a long baseball game and I am guessing it will be pretty lonely at about 8:40.

Its the same thing with Mauer's adventures on the bases. While it was brutal, the bad base running didn't cost runs.

Lineups to follow Danny Santana - S - SS Torii Hunter - R - RF Joe Mauer - L - 1B Brian Dozier - R - 2B Kennys Vargas - S - DH Trevor Plouffe - R - 3B Oswaldo Arcia - L - LF Kurt Suzuki - R - C Jordan Schafer - L - CF Mike Pelfrey - R - SP Alcides Escobar - R - SS Mike Moustakas - L - 3B Lorenzo Cain - R - CF Eric Hosmer - L - 1B Kendrys Morales - S - DH Alex Gordon - L - LF Salvador Perez - R - C Paulo Orlando - R - RF Christian Colon - R - 2B Jeremy Guthrie - R - SP

The Twins managed to lose last night. With their current bullpen, leads in the middle innings look very fragile. The Royals shut down bullpen shut the Twins down and the Twins bullpen allowed the tying and winning run to score. No surprises in that. The Twins stand at 5-9 and are looking up at the rest of the division. Meanwhile, the Royals are tied for first with a nice 11-3 start. The pitching matchup is probably the #5 starter for each club. Cuddy's old pal 36 year old Jeremy Guthrie has started twice. He has a win and a no-decision, he allowed four earned runs in each start and has toiled 13 innings in his starts. Gurthrie has had a bit of a resurrection since coming to KC, after being one of the worst starters in the National League while pitching for Colorado. Mike Pelfrey toes the slab for the Twins. He, too, has two starts to his credit, going five innings in each. More accurately, he has labored for five innings in both starts. The Twins gave Pelf a nice lead in Chicago, which he managed to squander (four runs in five IP), and he battled Cleveland and Cory Kluber for five innings, yielding a run but keeping the club in the game. Pelfrey got a no-decision in each start. Despite scoring five runs last night, the Twins lineup continues to struggle. Four "regulars" who could be optioned or DFAed probably are beginning to feel a little pressure--Schafer, Vargas, Santana, and Arcia. I expected some regression, but so far these guys and really every starter, have struggled. I am expecting a couple of the guys to break out soon and perhaps the hittable stuff of Guthrie will be the turning point. Pelfrey has a tough order holding down the Royals. Besides the fact that they are hitting very well, they have a lot of guys who can take advantage of his less than speedy delivery to the plate. Probably the best thing for him would be a big lead, but we saw him squander that type of lead in his first start. I want to point out how early it is in the season. That, in and of itself, doesn't give us Twins fans a lot of hope, but perhaps reminding ourselves that a lot can change can keep us interested. I do believe that many of the guys hitting around the Mendoza line will start to swing better. I am not as hopeful over the woeful state of the bullpen (without different faces). My prediction for tonight is a veritable slugfest. Because I am a Twins fan, I will predict a 10-8 victory several home runs. That's all for tonight, enjoy the game!

Not confident that the Twins can hold a one-run lead with nine outs to go.

The Twins like singles so much they turn doubles into singles.

Oops! I thought today was Ash's BD. My apologies. I guess we can make it like all the other holidays--Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. It's Ash's birthday eve!

Wait, what? Back to back doubles and no runs? We can predict a K from Vargas and not score a run.

Two homers both by left handed batters.

I don't care how comfortable Hunter is in the #2 spot, Dozier needs out of the cleanup spot.

Has Zuke been letting a lot of balls get past him lately, or is it just me?

Well, I just passed 1000 likes on TD. Thank you everyone. Next up, 5000 postings.

Oops, got a little too much of the plate.

Lineups to follow: Danny Santana -S SS Torii Hunter - R RF Joe Mauer - L 1B Brian Dozier - R 2B Kennys Vargas - S DH Trevor Plouffe - R 3B Oswaldo Arcia - L LF Kurt Suzuki - R C Shane Robinson - R CF Tommy Milone - L SP Alcides Escobar - R SS Mike Moustakas - L 3B Lorenzo Cain - R CF Eric Hosmer - L 1B Kendrys Morales - S DH Alex Gordon - L LF Salvador Perez - R C Paulo Orlando - R RF Christian Colon - R 2B Jason Vargas - L SP - taking the liberty of filling this in for you - thanks for a great opening writeup - ashburyjohn

This is my inaugural run at the mighty Game Thread. I thought I would follow Brian's design since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but decided against it. A copy of a Rembrandt is a pale imitation. Brian's format can be imitated but not duplicated IMHO. I instead will talk about why the Twins are 5-8 going into tonight while the Royals are 10-3. Maybe we can summarize and say "they have better players", but what fun is that? I don't claim to be a stats whiz, but we can see why what has happened has taken place. Royals: They are 10-3 because they have hit well and pitched well. How well? They are first in runs scored, have a team OPS of .810 (.66 better than second-best Oakland), and while notorious for their lack of power, they have hit some long balls. The team batting average is .310, far better than any Twins regular. Their pitching is also ranks highly. They are fourth in team ERA, and have held opponents to a .221 batting average. The Royals' staff has allowed 13 homers. We know that the Royals are strong defensively, as well. Their fine defense probably makes the pitcher numbers more gaudy. Twins: Comparing the Twins stats to the numbers the Royals have put up shows a pretty stark contrast. The Twins are dead last in the AL in runs per game and have the league's worst team OPS. They are last in homers and RBI. There isn't a silver lining with pitching either. The Twins rank last in team ERA, having allowed the second most runs and hits per inning, while striking out the fewest hitters. We also know that the Twins' leaky defense hurts the numbers that the pitching staff manage to post. Today the pitching opponents are Tommy Milone and Justin Vargas. Milone has had one fine start and battled his way through his second outing when he opposed Vargas. Milone has the only road win for the Twins. Vargas owned the Twins last year, but they touched him up for 10 hits and four earned runs in 3+ innings last week in Minnesota. The only Twins swinging a remotely hot bat of late is Trevor Plouffe. He was hitting .118 when he hit the walk-off homer against the Indians on Friday night. Since then, he is 5-7 with a couple of doubles. With a team BA of .310, almost everyone is swinging well for the Royals. I want to thank all involved for the opportunity to post the game thread. I will try something completely different tomorrow, but I don't do zany. BTW, happy birthday to Ashbury John. A lot of people I know have April birthdays, maybe it has something to do with those hot July evenings. Let's bring home a winner tonight or at least have a good time trying!

I would classify it as an easy catch. The ball was hard-hit and slicing back to Arcia who was positioned pretty far into left-center. When the ball went off the bat, I thought double. He played the ball poorly, fundamentally and then didn't look it into his glove.

I think Joe's beard would look a lot better if he were hitting .330 with seven or eight extra-base hits.

Here's a glass half-full thought: Not one starter is hitting up to his career batting average or OPS. That cannot last. Nothing makes a team look like it is going through the motions more than them not hitting. Milone versus Vargas tomorrow.

Another disappointing day at the ball yard.

Schafer needs to get a hit.