BK432

Apparently, you can only edit a post once before you lose that ability - should have left that slight spelling error in place.... LINEUPS: Twins 2B Brian Dozier 1B Joe Mauer 3B Trevor Plouffe DH Miguel Sano RF Torii Hunter LF Eddie Rosario CH Aaron Hicks C Kurt Suzuki SS Eduardo Nunez P Phil Hughes Blue Jays SS Troy Tulowitzki 3B Josh Donaldson RF Jose Bautista 1B Edwin Encarnacion DH Russell Martin C Dioner Navarro 2B Ryan Goins CF Kevin Pillar LF Ben Revere P Marco Estrada

Awful is relative - we can agree on not very good. And yesterday's game in and of itself is not predictive of what will happen today. Had the Twins won 11-2 yesterday, it wouldn't mean the Twins were any more likely to win today. As you said, talent levels are different and more or less static.

LINEUPS (These will be added in a couple of hours when posted): Twins P Phil Hughes Blue Jays P Marco Estrada No team is as good as you think when things are going well. No team is as bad as you know when things are going poorly. It is true for the Jays and the Twins today at Rogers Centre in Toronto. The Blue Jays have won 5 of 6 and looked really, really good yesterday with Troy Tulowitzki and David Price being showcased on a national holiday in Canada. The Twins, meanwhile, continued to struggle to get on base, much less score. Ervin Santana wasn't exactly sharp for his second straight outing. And we once again got the opportunity to see Blaine Boyer give up a couple of runs. But today's a new day. Yesterday's performance is not predictive of today's results. The Twins remain in a 3-way virtual tie with the Blue Jays and the Orioles - with a win tonight, they can push the Blue Jays a game back again. As I write that, I even believe it! So, here are some things to look for tonight in Toronto (and elsewhere): Hughes v Estrada As is typical for me, I like to take a look at the pitching matchup. Let's be frank: this may not be the ideal matchup for Phil Hughes. The Blue Jays rank 3rd in MLB with 141 HR and 4th in HR/FB at 13.6%. At home, that number jumps to 15.1%. On the other hand, Phil Hughes ranks with the 3rd-lowest ground ball rate among qualified pitchers in MLB. So while his HR/FB rate is above average but not alarming at 13.1%, because of the number of fly balls he gives up, his HR/9 of 1.66 is 4th highest in the league. What does all this mean? Hide your children, hide your wives. Donaldson, Encarnacion, Tulo, Bautista....it seems that it's not a matter of if they go yard, but when, and how often. The one caveat I will submit is that the Blue Jays hit a LOT of infield fly balls, especially at home (14.7% at home, 14.4% overall) which is the highest in baseball by quite a bit. So if Hughes can get his cutter and sinker working nasty and induce popups instead of long drives, he may get some quick outs and have a surprisingly productive start. The Twins have made a lot of pitchers lately look like Cy Young candidates. Many of them have been less of the actual candidates like David Price, and more like #2/#3 kind of guys like Hisashi Iwakuma. Today's pitcher Marco Estrada is much more of the latter and should be hittable for a team that can score runs. Unfortunately, the Twins have struggled mightily in that category as of late. Estrada's traditional stats tell a story that he may be having the best season of his career. 3.53 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP over 22 appearances including 16 starts. However, there may be some luck involved here: .252 BABIP and 7.2% HR/FB are career lows, while his ground ball rate has steadily decreased and also sits at a career low of 32.4%. His last two starts, he failed to finish the 6th inning, giving up 7 runs over 9.2 IP. So there may be a bit of a chink in the armor that the Twins can exploit. Joe Mauer We thought he was back. He had a relatively great July; through July 22, his month slash line was .338/.377/.492. He was being Joe Mauer, and the Twins were still winning games. However (WARNING: SMALL SAMPLE SIZE ALERT) over the last 10 games since, he has slumped badly at .189/.250/.243. He is hardly the only Twin to have gone missing in the batter's box, but this slump is disheartening in that it seemed he had started to figure things out. None of us want to give up on the Joe Mauer we knew and loved pre-concussion, but every run that started to give us hope has proceeded to fizzle out; his season slash line now sits at .269/.333/.379. Not awful, but just a 93 wRC and ranking 20th in MLB among first basemen. If the Twins hope to start winning again and stay in contention, they'll need their first baseman to be somewhat passable with the bat. Owens and Gray Let's have a little fun with prospects, shall we? Two hyped prospects make their debut tonight - Jon Gray will take the mound for Colorado, while Henry Owens will hurl for Boston. Both youngsters have been highly touted at times, but have had their rapid ascents temporarily halted by command issues in the minors at times. Once the Twins are blowing out the Blue Jays tonight (!), I'll be using my MLB.tv subscription to check in on these two newly minted MLB pitchers to see how they stack up. I think that's it for today. At least our friends to the north should be back at work today like us Americans. I mean, how many holidays do they get up there anyway? Enjoy the game.

LINEUPS: Pirates RF Gregory Polanco LF Starling Marte CF Andrew McCutchen 3B Aramis Ramirez SS Jung Ho Kang 2B Neil Walker DH Pedro Alvarez C Francisco Cervelli 1B Travis Ishikawa SP Francisco Liriano Twins 2B Brian Dozier CF Aaron Hicks 1B Joe Mauer DH Miguel Sano RF Eddie Rosario 3B Eduardo Nunez SS Eduardo Escobar C Kurt Suzuki LF Shane Robinson SP Ervin Santana I think it's time for everyone to take a deep breath. In. Out. In. Out. RELAX. I'm going to try hard not to play the role of "It's Cool No Matter What" guy here, because I don't find that to be particularly interesting or compelling (or honest) writing. The fact of the matter is, the Twins aren't winning games. The bullpen has been atrocious lately (#asexpected) and they just aren't playing very good baseball. But there are some things that I think are important to keep in mind for context. First, the Twins really aren't a great baseball team. I'm not even sure they're good (I realize these are completely subjective labels). While we want them to compete for a wild-card spot (and I think they still can) the ride we're getting this year has been completely unexpected. The Twins will likely enter August in a wild-card spot, which nobody could have said on here in March without getting laughed off the boards. Second, every team goes through a stretch like this. Especially versus the level of competition the Twins have faced since the all-star break. These things happen. Just because the bullpen has been pretty awful, and Perkins has started to miss his spots, doesn't mean those things will continue to happen. Past performance over the course of months is a much better indicator of future performance than that of just mere days. Of course, we all still reserve the right to be frustrated. We're fans. Part of what we argue about is how to get better. And how to stay in wild-card contention. Definitely beats the alternative that Indians fans are probably arguing about right now. 1. The Race. Believe it or not, the Twins are still two games up on the Orioles for the second wild card spot. Looming just behind them are the Rays and the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays made their move for Tulo and LaTroy and look like the team to hold off at this point. Just behind them are the (ALERT: SWALLOW YOUR COFFEE NOW!) White Sox, who have won six straight to be on fringe of this race. If the Twins can right the ship, they are still in prime position to steal a playoff spot. 2. The Schedule. After today, the Twins won't play a team that currently has a winning record until they visit Yankee Stadium on August 17. That's nearly 3 weeks playing teams that are significantly below them in the standings right now. So as bad as it's been, they have some games where they can roll up their sleeves and get some of the games back that they've given up. 3. The Pirates. That's right, the game today. As I stated back in May, the Pirates are my 2nd team. I love watching them and fully expected them to be in solid playoff position by the second time we played. That has turned out to be quite true. Jung Ho Kang hit the big HR last night (bat flip be damned) and he is now smack in the middle of what is a pretty potent Pirates lineup. We see our good friend Francisco Liriano throw today against Ervin Santana. Runs should be at a premium early, unless we get "bad" Francisco. That hasn't happened much lately; in 2015 he has been pretty consistent, posting a 10.1 K/9, a 2.77 xFIP and a 1.03 WHIP. Those number, by the way, are the best he's posted since before his TJ surgery 8 years ago. Santana, of course, has been phenomenal since coming back from his half-season suspension. If the Twins can pull off the split todayk, they remain in good position and 6 games on the right side of .500. No matter what you think of their recent play, or recent FO/managerial decisions, that's not a bad place to be.

Wow, I went practically off the rails when they were 1-6....but this seems awful short-sighted. Let's all relax a bit. I actually thought you were joking until I saw a couple of your responses. That's how ridiculous this is.

The guy with whom I had an odd infatuation with as a young Twins fan who also followed the Mets. Played with San Diego, the Mets and Kansas City in his career. Career slash of .265/.328.447 and a career OPS+ of 115. Not a particularly good defender, he still managed a career bWAR of 29.9 in 12 season, including 30 seasons of 4.2 or greater. Finished 3rd in NL MVP voting in '88, in a season where he slashed .288/.336/.496 with 27 HR, 21 SB and 99 RBI. Kevin McReynolds. Accomplished MLBer.

No, Dave is 100% right. AJ is a fringe starting C. No way is a team going to take on Johnson unless Atlanta pays virtually his entire salary thru '17. And they won't do that.

Hard to disagree with anything he writes. OF defense in my mind continues to be the biggest difference. Get Buxton back and it's hard to sit Hicks. OF defense becomes even better.

Reading some of the responses here makes me think some may need a bit of a refresher course on 25 man roster versus 40 man roster. With Fryer doing the Pan Am thing, I'm hard pressed to come up with an internal move outside of Taylor Rogers. So....Rogers? Feliz? Some sort of trade? Hmm.....

I may regret saying this later, but Buxton has had some pretty tough matchups for a kid who has had just a couple hundred ABs over A ball. Maybe he'll get a couple hits tonight.

Happy birthday Bark! Enjoy 40 - I'll join you in just over 4 years.

Sorry everyone, but I feel fairly confident in saying that Buxton has a far better shot batting 6th or lower than he does batting 1st. I'd be pretty surprised to see a guy with 60 games above class A batting leadoff in his MLB debut.

Jimbo, I'm not trying to pick on you. What you're saying.....who knows, it could be right. But how the heck do we know this (especially the part in bold)? Why would someone just decide "hey, I'm going to try and drive in runs now?" and then just do it? How does that work? Sometimes I feel as if there is actual intent by some to ignore facts. I don't know why we would want to stick our heads in the sand instead of trying to figure out why the Twins are outperforming expectations. The answer is in the article: the Twins are doing an inordinately superb job in high-leverage situations, both on offense and defense. The rest is pure speculation: is it luck? Is it that Molitor is the greatest manager of all time? Is it Hunter's dance parties? Nobody knows. I'm comfortable with that. Cameron gives historical context that shows the Twins BaseRuns performance would be a historical outlier of crazy proportion. Draw your own conclusions from there, I guess. I am having so much fun this season watching the team win. During the game, I couldn't care less about BaseRun score. But between games, it enhances my love for the game and for the organization to try and understand what's happening. And the great thing is, like it's been said, the wins count the same. No matter what happens, it's very likely that July and August and maybe even September will be pretty damn intriguing around here. And we have four years' experience that tell us that 'intriguing' is way better than a very depressing alternative.

This topic has gone 4 pages? Unreal. The answer is no. And it's a no muddled in laughter that the Phillies even suggested it. Yes, Ryan Howard was once an all-star caliber player that you would want on your team. He wasn't great in 2011 and then basically had his productive career end on the final play of their elimination from the NLDS that year. He has been awful since, and not just on defense. A guy who can hit .230 and 20+ HR while striking out in more than 1 of 4 ABs in your DH spot IS NOT production that you go out and pay for. Let this be the last we all hear of this

Lineups: Twins Danny Santana – SS Brian Dozier – 2B Joe Mauer – 1B Trevor Plouffe – 3B Torii Hunter – RF Kurt Suzuki – C Aaron Hicks – CF Shane Robinson – LF Mike Pelfrey - P Pirates Josh Harrison – RF Neil Walker – 2B Andrew McCutchen – CF Starling Marte – LF Jung Ho Kang – SS Pedro Alvarez – 1B Francisco Cervelli – C Jordy Mercer – SS Jeff Locke – P -------- Afternoon Twins fans, I can safely say that it's not likely many game threads have been written whilst overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Yet, I am fortunate to say that I am doing just that here in Virginia Beach. A friend is getting married on Saturday in Norfolk, so I flew out here early with the wife and the 2-year-old to do some beaching. Life feels pretty damn good right now. Has to feel pretty good for Paul Molitor and Twins too. Somehow, some way, they are 22-17 and just a 1/2 game back of Detroit for 2nd in the AL Central. There's a great thread posted here on TD about if people are ready to change their season record predictions. I have not posted on the thread, because I fear looking silly later in the year. I still think 75 wins is right, and there's plenty of season left for the Twins to drop to 75-87 by season's end. But (obviously) the longer they play well and win games, the more we'll all have to reevaluate this team. 3 Things To Look For Tonight at PNC: 1. Fun Baseball From Pittsburgh. Look, I am biased. I absolutely love the Pirates and will watch them probably 30-35 times on MLB.tv this year. But seriously, enjoy this team. Andrew McCutchen is the answer to "What player besides Mike Trout would you draft first in an imaginary draft of MLB players?" And no, I don't care that he's hitting .225 this year so far. Much like the Twins record, it's very likely a mirage that will change over time. He and Starling Marte form a highly impactful LF-CF combo, and despite this play the other night from Gregory Polanco, he completes a very fun OF to watch. It's only a matter of time as well before Clint Hurdle benches the enigmatic (and ineffective) Jordy Mercer for the young Korean Jung Ho Kang, who looks like he could be a star. Pair him with Josh Harrison, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez, and all in all, this is a team that I still believe will be back in the postseason for the 3rd consecutive season. 2. Mike Pelfrey vs. Jeff Locke Sometimes I like to get my brother (on Twitter @mattkummer) going a bit. Hey, it's what siblings do. When Ervin Santana's suspension was announced, I told him that there was very little difference between Pelfrey and Santana (if Pelf was truly healthy) so it really wasn't a big deal. Do I really believe that? Sort of. There is a difference; clearly Santana has had the better career and has stayed quite effective for long stretches. But he benefited from great defenses in Anaheim and KC and had xFIPs between 4.3 and 4.5. When healthy, Pelfrey has been a 2-3 WAR player with xFIPs near the same range. As good as Santana? Not quite. But at best, over a half season, it's half a win. So I claim victory. I digress - Pelfrey is off to a pretty good start in terms of results. But if you wanna talk FIPs, we might have seen just the first chomp from the regression monster in his last start. His opponents' BABIP is a way-too-low .275. If his K rate doesn't drastically improve (currently just under 4 per 9 IP) he'll be a candidate for replacement by Santana or one of our youngsters. Jeff Locke, on the other hand, has been a bit better than his ERA shows. He gives up a ton of HRs (his 2015 rate of 13.2% HR/FB is only slightly above his career mark of 12.1%) so if Joe Mauer wants to get off the snide and end his HR drought, tonight may be a good night. There will likely be plenty of runs in this game tonight thanks to a couple pretty good offenses and a couple of end-of-the-rotation starters. 3. Outfield Defense With another lefty facing the Twins tonight in Locke, we may see Shane Robinson again in LF. Or maybe Molitor gives Rosario a shot against the southpaw. No matter. With Hicks manning center and either Robinson or Rosario in LF, the Twins can far more easily mask the less-than-stellar defense Torii Hunter provides in RF. In fact, I tweeted on Saturday that if Hicks and Rosario had both not made pretty nice, rangy catches in the outfield that the Twins may have fallen short against the Rays instead of coming out on top. The Twins rank 19th out of 30 in OF defense (ranked by UZR/150) so far this season (they were 28th last year and 26th in 2013), and this should only improve with two legitimate MLB-level defenders out there. Far too often overlooked, outfield defense can be the difference between a playoff team and a .500 team. Or, probably more pertinent for Twins fans, maybe the difference between a .500 team and a 90-loss team. Go Twins, enjoy the game! Ben Kummer Twitter: @BK432

It will almost certainly be Schafer DL or DFA - my money on DL. It's the right move. At 25, if he's playing well and with confidence, there's no need to wait. Bring him up and see if he's got what it takes. Well done, Terry and Paul.

The problem with that logic, though, is the new TV contract money. Many expect salaries to explode in the next 5 years. Lots more money to spend out there.

I appreciate your conservative approach, but I just flat-out disagree. I'm not sure what the point is of making anyone 'master' AAA at age 25. He's either going to be serviceable in Minneapolis or he's not. If he's found his stroke and confidence, get him up. He'll be better than Robinson/Schafer immediately.

Thanks for this write-up. Awesome stuff.

Now that's something to which we can ALL gravitate! #UNITY

Yeah, awful may be a bit further than I'd go, but he's not missing bats at all. Not good....though Hughes isn't getting whiffs either.

Lineups for today's game: Indians 1. CF Michael Bourn 2. 2B Jason Kipnis 3. LF Michael Brantley 4. 1B Carlos Santana 5. RF Brandon Moss 6. DH David Murphy 7. 3B Lonnie Chisenhall 8. C Roberto Perez 9. SS Jose Ramirez PITCHING: TJ House Twins 1. 2B Brian Dozier 2. RF Torii Hunter 3. 1B Joe Mauer 4. DH Kennys Vargas 5. 3B Trevor Plouffe 6. C Kurt Suzuki 7. LF Oswaldo Arcia 8. SS Eduardo Escobar 9. CF Shane Robinson PITCHING: Trevor May ------- Today's matchup: TJ House vs the House DJ [borrowed from someone on Twitter, I honestly cannot remember who, sorry to that person]... Trevor May, as many fans know, moonlights as a DJ spinning as DJ heybeef. Let's hope that instead of spinning records today, he's spinning from the mound and keeping Cleveland's hitters off-balance. Yesterday's loss to Danny Salazar and the Indians snapped a 3-game winning streak for the Twins. More disappointingly, it was the third straight start that Phil Hughes bore little resemblance to the dominant starting pitcher we saw last year. As Mike Berardino noted on Twitter during the game yesterday, it took until pitch 73 for Hughes to get his first swing and miss of the game. Hopefully as Hughes' cutter comes around, we'll start to see the guy who signed the big contract over the offseason. Salazar, meanwhile, was dominant. He struck out 10 in 6+ innings as the Twins' bats caused some extra wind to swirl in the stadium. It was a great 2015 debut for Salazar; we will likely hear lots more about him as the current season progresses. Today acts as the rubber game for the 3-game series between teams off to disappointing starts. Here are 3 Things To Watch For: 1. Once Again, Starting Pitching Maybe there's a little less star power today, but still plenty of intrigue. Trevor May, pushed into duty at the home opener thanks to Ervin Santana's 80-game suspension, failed to get out of the 6th, allowing 5 runs. Last year's starts against Cleveland both came in September, when May had supposedly gotten the bugs out and was pitching better than how he began in August. He had a decent five innings on Sep 9 in Cleveland, but on Sep 20 at Target Field, he was rocked for 7 runs in just 4 2/3 innings. TJ House clearly didn't have the start he wanted 7 days ago, when Detroit pounded him for 6 runs and House was only able to get 4 outs before being lifted. But last year against Minnesota, he was able to handle Minnesota pretty well, allowing only 5 R while scattering 27 H/BB and getting 20 K in 22 1/3 IP over 4 games. Neither pitcher will get a ton of Ks, meaning there should be plenty of balls in play today. Defenses will need to be up to the challenge. 2. Who's batting first? We see Brian Dozier make the classic cleanup to leadoff change in lineup spot today with Danny Santana taking the day off. Danny Santana, in two weeks to start the season, is hitting .195 and hasn't taken a walk. While no one expects him to hit THIS badly the rest of the season, his ability to draw a walk made many question whether he could truly be an effective leadoff man for the Twins. Dozier makes the move there today, but it's difficult not to wonder if the Twins have the perfect guy in their #3 slot: Joe Mauer. Mauer's ability to get on base is well-documented. What flies a little further under the radar is his baserunning skill. During 2014, Mauer rated as the 17th best baserunner in MLB according to UBR. What he lacks in speed, he makes up for in savvy angles and decisions. And while it's fair to note that Brian Dozier ranks #1 on that same list, Mauer's higher OBP and Dozier's better pop make him suited to bat 2nd or 3rd, ideally. It's quite easy and typical to dream of having that Rickey Henderson-esque leadoff guy, and Mauer certainly doesn't fit the mold from a speed and SB perspective. But in the absence of a classic leadoff guy, Mauer may be their best option. It will be interesting to see how Molitor handles Santana days off throughout the season. 3. Weather Okay, it's an easy one, but after several beautiful days at Target Field this week, the skies turn grayer today and it will be a bit cooler. This will likely negatively impact the beer sales a bit, but how it will impact performance and ball flight is more of an unknown. They likely won't have a problem getting the game in (a delay isn't out of the question, however), so hopefully the Twins get the ball in play plenty and make an otherwise depressing sort of day a bit more exciting. The Twins take off for Kansas City after the game and will hopefully usher the gray skies out of here with them (though the forecast tells us otherwise....) Enjoy the game today - perhaps after starting the season with two series losses, we'll have a second straight series win under our belts by dinner time.

Ain't this the truth! But baby steps...

Ha - you must have posted right as I was making a VERY slight edit to the date

Lineups Indians: 1. CF Michael Bourn 2. 2B Jason Kipnis 3. LF Michael Brantley 4. 1B Carlos Santana 5. DH Brandon Moss 6. RF David Murphy 7. 3B Lonnie Chisenhall 8. C Roberto Perez 9. SS Jose Ramirez PITCHING: Danny Salazar Twins: 1. SS Danny Santana 2. RF Torii Hunter 3. 1B Joe Mauer 4. 2B Brian Dozier 5. DH Kennys Vargas 6. C Kurt Suzuki 7. LF Oswaldo Arcia 8. 3B Eduardo Nunez 9. CF Jordan Schafer PITCHING: Phil Hughes Well, how do we all feel compared to 5 days ago? Monday night at dinner our food probably tasted pretty bitter and, despite the fairly nice weather, our feelings toward spring and the upcoming summer were more negative than one might expect. Fast forward to Saturday morning, as we get ready to enjoy yet another beautiful spring day, and we've certainly regained that rosy outlook. Three wins in a row will do that, despite this streak really being no more meaningful than the 1-6 start. More than results, it's been nice to watch a crisper and better brand of baseball the last three days. Twins baseball has been far from perfect, but it's been watchable, and it's kept them competitive and able to win some games. Compared to the alternative, we'll take it. Plouffe's bomb last night to win it in the 11th gave this team a moment to celebrate, and those remaining in the Target Field seats seemed to enjoy the big hit as well. If momentum means anything, we'll have some extra bullets loaded up to try and go win a fourth game in a row. And given our matchup for today, we may need them. Here are your 3 Things To Look For today: 1. Starting Pitching - a key component of any game, today's matchup holds some extra interest. Danny Salazar is recalled from AAA Columbus to make his 2015 debut today at Target Field. Despite a decent effort at the MLB level last year in 110 IP, he didn't make the big league club this year out of spring training, largely in part to four appearances in the Cactus League that ranged from mediocre to frightening. But after six shutout innings in his only AAA start, he was added back to the 25-man roster. Salazar has been discussed by many as a breakout candidate for 2015 due to a fastball that runs in the mid 90s and his ability to miss bats. Salazar faced the Twins 3 times last year (including his 2014 debut as well) with mixed results: 17 IP, 6 ER and 17 K. A successful start today in Minneapolis would go a long way toward establishing himself as yet another young Indians pitcher with a bright future. Phil Hughes is making his 3rd start of the season. After a 2014 season that defied any expectations, he has yet to capture that magic here in 2015. Hughes faced Cleveland just twice last year, ending up with 14 IP, 5 ER, 13 K and of course, 0 BB. Perhaps today is the day the day he bounces back to that 2014 form and shuts down the Indians. They very well may need him to do so if they hope to win. 2. Bringing The Pack Home - the last thing we'd want to do is overreact to a negative trend over just 18 innings, especially when the Twins are winning games. But the Twins, while scoring just enough to win, have left 17 runners on base the last two days. Additionally, when you take into account some futility with the bases loaded (with a GIDP with the bases loaded in each of the last two days) and you can't help but want the Twins to do a better job cashing in on their opportunities. Clutch hitting is a debated skill set, which might be more luck and opportunity than anything else...but if the Twins want to score enough to win, they'll have to take advantage today when they have runners aboard. 3. Managerial Strategy - many fans have been looking for Molitor to make the moves that the previous manager wouldn't have, a strategic decision to give his team an advantage, or to keep them in a game. Putting Mauer in the 2-spot, taking an aggressive approach with platooning in CF...we hadn't yet had our desires filled, until Friday night. Having pitched on Wednesday and Thursday, and the whole "not wanting to use your closer in a non-save situation", there could have been every reason in the book to not use Glen Perkins in the 9th inning. Yet, Molitor pulled the trigger and brought in his best reliever in order to get the game to the bottom of the 9th with no change in score. The Twins didn't end up winning until the 11th, of course, but this aggressive move satisfied many who were looking for Molitor to distinguish himself from his predecessor. We can only hope this is the beginning of moves that, while against common baseball thought, are continued to be made to help make his team more statistically likely to win the game. Which, of course, is the whole point of managing a baseball team. Enjoy the game today, Twins fans!