TwinsCD

They were showing shots of people just sitting in the stands in the rain. What possesses someone to just sit there in the rain when there's nothing going happening on the field (different from football) and there's plenty of protection (and beer still!!) in the concourses??

Yep, that's the Blaine Boyer I remember...

Ha, I'm slightly taller than Eddie...I was talking about my strike zone as an umpire.

Blue has a bit of a low strike zone. My kind of umpire. Reminds me of a heckle I got because I have a low strike zone.

Rosario is leading the league in bad routes taken to balls hit down the left field line (Frazier's double today and the Hosmer triple on Sunday). Can anyone get him a Google Maps app? Is Lew Ford available?

The throw back to Escobar for the tag beat Dozier by a step but if he could have run full-bore into Escobar before the throw got there, yeah, he definitely could have gotten an obstruction call. Whether or not the umpires would have seen it that way is a different story, though.

At this point, I'll be happy with 20 wins TOTAL for the season.

Not sure what some of these guys are using as their approach when they go to the plate but it's pretty f-ing terrible. Bruno needs to sit a few of these guys down (Bux, Sano especially) and drill into them what a strike looks like and to swing at it and what a strike doesn't look like and to not swing at it. Yeah, easy to say when you're sitting on a leather couch but these first 4 games have been a comical, pathetic effort.

Welp, that was a colossal fail with 2 outs and nobody on. But just in time for the national title game. Get em Wednesday.

Hmmmm, I remember advocating May to be the 7th/8th inning guy a la what the Royals were doing with their staff. /vindicated (at least in game 1)

Not a very patient at-bat by Eddie in a big spot there.

I'm surprised that Buck didn't come out and at least question that foul out. The ball hit the fan's hand before it was caught and he could make a case for interference and send Park back to 3rd base. I'd have to get my rulebook out for that one but I think he'd have a case. Glad he didn't think of it.

Sano still swinging for the fences on just about every pitch. Yep, these seem to be roughly the same Twins I left back in September. =)

Hopefully he pitches A-good.

I hardly paid much attention to these guys in spring training because of my work with golf and watching college basketball, etc. But it's nice to see Fien still sucks.

That was a good read, thanks for sharing. Plenty of memories came flooding back as I read it. I grew up in Pennsylvania and somehow got hooked on the Twins in 85-86 as a 10-year-old after seeing them play on TV against the Orioles or the Yankees, can't remember which (we were in a part of Central PA that could get both teams' home games) and just really enjoying the way Puck and the rest of those guys played. Back then, it was a bit more difficult to get Twins merchandise in Pennsylvania but I had a shirt during the 87 Championship run. 1st Twins game I attended was a 1990 game at Baltimore and Puck hit a pair of dingers in that game. In 91, I threw a huge temper tantrum after they got blown out in Game 5 by the Braves and thought all was lost and that they had screwed up a great opportunity. As a Penn State football season ticket holder at the time, I went to that game on the day of Game 6 (it was a 3:30 start) and listened to the game on the radio, urging my dad to drive home faster and got inside just in time for the beginning of the top of the 11th. In 1996, there was so much excitement because of the signing of Molitor and that this was going to be the year that they at least get the WC and get back into the playoffs. Then Puck gets the glaucoma. He had his eye treatments at St. Joe's outside Baltimore which was right across the street from where I was going to college at Towson. Yes, I considered paying a visit...never did. Later in '96, Puck was being honored in Williamsport at the Little League World Series. I wore my Puckett jersey and hoped to get him to autograph it. Instead, I got to shake his hand and he thanked me. Crap, I'm the one that should have been thanking him...for all of those great moments and excitement he brought me and the fans on the baseball field. The day I heard the announcement of his passing, I was eating dinner and just dropped my fork and stared off into space for I don't remember how long. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years. It's hard to believe it's been 20+ since he was dazzling us on the diamond. I had forgotten that today was the day so I guess it was either a higher power or just plain dumb luck that I wore a Twins golf shirt to work today. RIP Puck, we'll never forget ya.

MLB Network just flashed a stat on their bottom line saying Perkins has a 7+ ERA since the All-Star Game. You think of the game he blew against the A's, allowing the 3rd HR to A-Fraud at home in July, and his other meltdowns, instead of being the fire extinguisher, he became the gasoline. Closers can't have that kind of ERA and he lost his job as a result of it.

For a first-year manager to come in to a stale environment where losing was becoming the norm and to work with this mix of players to cobble together a winning record, I'd give Molitor at least a B. Hell, if it wasn't for Hinch's job in Houston, Mollie could very well be the AL Manager of the Year. This team exceeded just about every expectation (most had them as the 3rd worst team in all of baseball back in March). Yes, he had some interesting decisions with bullpen personnel or who he had to pinch hit but given the groceries in the cabinet, I think he did pretty well with what he had...for a first-year manager. If you want to tell me that Stengel or Sparky or LaRussa were Hall-of-Fame perfect in their first seasons, have at it. Those of you who want to nitpick every blessed move, I don't think you'll ever be satisfied. This year's team set the foundation much like the 2001 team did for the rest of the decade. Management now has to bolster what is there on the field to get them over the top. As we've seen this year, they are a lot closer than we think to being back to a regular playoff team.

Not dead yet but the priest has been summoned. Weren't we 2 down with 3 to go against the Tigers a couple of years ago and they pulled it out? Dumber things have happened but now they still have to win 3 games to get to the playoffs. Nice pitching performance out of Young and when they took Santana out, I went to the kitchen figuring it was May that was going to come in. Was a little surprised to see Perk and then he crapped the bed again.

Haven't been this worked up for a non-Yankees game since 2010. If only I could see this on my TV instead of hoping for no lag on the computer.

When I saw that Hughes was out and Milone was getting the ball, my heart dropped. But Tommy pitched a terrific game and the bullpen did their job. All they can do is take care of their business each night. Now Gibson has to figure out his life and take care of things tomorrow night.

Totally agree. Can't control the Angels. Just have to hope to get help in that department. And if the Twins don't take care of Cleveland, it won't make any difference anyway. It's September 28th and there's meaningful baseball in our world. That's a terrific concept.

Holy crap, you're not kidding. While Angel Hernandez is my #1 to dislike, Bucknor is right up there probably in the 2 spot. Speaking from an umpire's perspective (11 years doing HS), you should not be missing pitches over the batter's inside corner because you're standing right there. CB missed at least 3 by my count last night. The backdoor curve was mentioned by someone on this thread and he was grossly inconsistent with that pitch. One inning it was rightfully called a ball and the next inning, the same location made it a strike. When Duffey was struggling, Suzuki was on the inside part of the plate and the pitch ended up on the outside corner. But because bad umpires watch catchers' gloves rather than the pitch, they don't call that pitch a strike, even though it catches the plate. Bucknor is horrible all over the diamond and I wouldn't be surprised to see him be the subject of at least 2 replay reviews over the next 2 games.

Observations from the game (I watch on a computer that isn't good at streaming video and getting on TD at same time): --How does a pitcher lose a strike zone as quickly as Duffey did? That was scary bad. Would love to hear or see his quotes about that outing. Kid looked like a world beater to start out and then looked like a Red Land pitcher from Saturday at the end of the outing. --Speaking of losing the strike zone, CB Bucknor, go home you're drunk. He is 2nd on my list of umpires that have no business being above me in priority of doing a MLB game (Angel Hernandez is #1). What's funny is he was bad for both teams and I'm shocked that Molitor didn't get after CB when Plouffe yapped back at after the K. The guy is terrible and needs to go find a tee-ball game to go screw up. --Agree with the above comment about pitching to Sano like that. The way you get him out is work him down and away. If you leave it up with no velocity, you might as well fish it out of the upper deck. A fellow Twins friend of mine and I have come to call him The Beast. He never gets cheated on his dingers. --Perkins still has the closer disease. Still don't feel comfortable when he's out there. Big brain fart not getting over on that ball to Mauer. --Amazing resiliency by these guys to keep after it and light up Duke in the 8th as well as taking advantage of the Sux treating the ball like it's a hand grenade. --Great (albeit stressful and frustrating) start to this series. Easier to win 2 of 3 when you get the first one. Sux don't have much success against Milone so hopefully we can get game 2 tomorrow night.

2 out of 3 is the absolute minimum to win in this series. Gotta keep the heat on Texas. At this point, the goals are the same -- win your games and root against the team that you're chasing. Pointless to worry about the Angels or the Rays or anyone else because if they catch the Twins, that means the Twins are losing and if the Twins are losing, they're not going anywhere.