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Updated Twins lineup: Arraez Urshela Gordon Sanchez Cave Celestino Wallner Palcios C Hamilton at 1B. Miranda scratched after the lineup was posted.

Happy to see you playing out the season, RpR!

Yeah, I'd want it too. That, and I just want to play.

Well ladies and gents, we've made it to the finish line. It hasn't always been pretty. It hasn't always been fun. It hasn't always been entertaining. It hasn't always been winning. But it has been baseball. About a month ago, the local squad was in first place in the division. Fast forward to today and they're closer to the cellar than the attic. That's a bit on the disheartening side. This team has assured themselves of having their second straight losing season. That's not fun either. That's not entertaining. Now to the good news! After today, it's all over! No more suffering (for this season)! No more losing! No more botched grounders! No more strikeouts! No more runners left in scoring position! No more runners left in scoring position! No more runners left in scoring position! No more David Hasselhoff laden Game Thread openers! We can watch the playoffs! We can do something entirely different! We can come to Twins Daily and talk about the offseason and reset and focus on next season. As a baseball fan, I'm always curious how other fans spend their offseason time when there's no baseball to eat up their time and energy. Do you stay invested and watch every playoff game possible? Do you retreat to the abyss, grow a long, thick beard and hide in a hole away from the light until Spring Training starts? Do you fall somewhere in between? Me, I'll usually follow the playoffs a bit. I'll follow my other favorite team, the Cardinals if applicable, but otherwise I shift my focus to enjoying the fall weather as best I can. Fire pits and fall cocktails become my sanctuary. College football becomes more prominent in my schedule until college basketball starts up. Hockey works its way in there eventually as well. By the time ST rolls around, I'm ready to jump back into baseball. Now to today's contest. The visiting Twins will put Louie Varland back on the hill to face off against Davis Martin of the Pale Hose. Varland looks to to finish his first taste of the big leagues on a strong note. Of other interest is Luis Arraez and his mission to stave off Aaron Judge's pursuit of the Triple Crown. Beyond that, I'm just going to try to enjoy Twins baseball one last time this season. Lineups: Twins DH - Arraez 1B - Miranda 2B - Gordon 3B - Urshela LF - Cave C - Sanchez RF - Wallner CF - Celestino SS - Palacios White Sox DH - Andrus 3B - Moncada 1B - Vaughn RF - Sheets 2B - Harrison LF - Payton SS - Gonzalez CF - Engel C - Perez Enjoy the game everyone!

This seems like a pretty good summation for not just the past week, but the bulk of the second half.

We're talking two different things. I'm referring to expectations relative to the start of the season not generally speaking over the long term.

I've maintained all season long that I don't believe that the FO planned to be as competitive as they were. I think they were trying to avoid bottoming out and build for 2023 by getting the prospects big league time and allow the next batch of minor league players to be on the cusp. That's one area where the putridity of the division actually hurt them. It allowed an average team (at best) to lead a division for most of the season and it raised expectations.

Can you tell that I wrote the opening before the lineups were posted? Woof...

Hello Game Threaders and welcome to another double header edition of the game thread! Today, your Twins try to remain above .500 on the season and keep their ever fading hopes of staying alive in the division alive. Before we get too far into this, I'd first like to welcome Matt Wallner to The Show! He'll man right field today as Kepler was put on the IL. At the very least, that gives us something to look forward to today. Good luck in your debut, Mr. Wallner! Of other interest to many, myself included, is that today is the birthday of my favorite cartoon character! Wile E. Coyote debuted on this day in 1949 in "Fast and Furry-ous". How can you not enjoy the endless fails, antics and crazy schemes hatched by this guy. All to be outsmarted by a road runner. Over. And over. And over. And over again. Maybe it's because misery loves company, but as a Twins fan, I have some sympathy for him. He tries and tries and tries to catch that damn bird, but ultimately comes up empty every time. It's akin to the Twins playoff win drought. ACME may as well be a sponsor! Since we've got some time before first pitch, or even for the break between games, I've linked a nearly 32 minute video of all 641 epic fails of Mr. Wile E. Coyote below. Enjoy! Now, on to the contests of the day. In the first game, Louie Varland takes the mound for his second big league start opposite Shane Bieber. This could be a fun and intriguing pitching matchup. In the nightcap, the Twins will send Josh Winder to the bump to take on Konnor Pilkington. Not quite as interesting a matchup as in Game 1, but a relatively even one in my estimation. Lineups for Game 1: Twins DH - Arraez SS - Correa 1B - Miranda 2B - Gordon 3B - Urshela LF - Cave RF - Wallner CF - Contreras C - Leon Indians LF - Kwan SS - Rosario 3B - Ramirez DH - Naylor RF - Gonzalez 2B - Gimenez 1B - Miller C - Hedges CF - Straw Game 2 lineups will be posted when they're, umm, posted... Enjoy the games!

I don't think anything happens to the FO. They were charged with rebuilding the entire organization and the Polhad's have always been patient owners, so I don't see the FO going anywhere. I hope that there are adjustments to the medical staff and procedures, but not much beyond that. Their first draft classes are just now making their way to the big leagues, so I do think that a full evaluation can start to be made now. Now that they are able to implement their full plan from the ground up, results will be expected.

Before the season, my biggest concern was the depth of the pitching and production of the younger players. And I believed that the season would go as the younger players did. The pitching blew through the depth that they did have, and then some as the injuries kept piling up. The younger players actually played pretty well, but then they fell to the same injury bug. I didn't expect this team to be all that competitive. I saw it as more of a bridge to next season while getting the next group of prospects MLB experience. I figured they'd end up with a win total in the upper 70s. That's probably about where they will end up, but in a much different manner of getting there. And they were more "competitive" much longer than I expected. With the lineups that they've had to trot out there, it's pretty obvious why they have faded away. The FO and coaching staff deserve some blame, but I don't know how anyone can reasonably expect them to be able to keep the ship upright with so much of the top end talent of the team on the IL. The medical staff and procedures do really need to get an full evaluation. Two years in a row with a squad decimated by injuries isn't a fluke anymore.

They may stack up fairly well in the rotation, but beyond that, I'm not as certain. Sure, shortening the bullpen down with an off day between each game helps considerably, but I'm not sold. And the bats, even if Polcano is healthy, Larnach and Buxton come back, can't produce runs consistently without the benefit of a home run. I'd absolutely love to be proven wrong, in fact I'd encourage it, but I'm not seeing any sort of October force to be worried about if I'm an opponent.

I rarely listen to the TV announcers...for any sport aside from golf. I do listen to the radio frequently enough and I like Provus. I don't mind Dazzle. But the vast majority of the time, the TV is muted and I've got music going on in the background. If I don't like what I'm hearing, I have only myself to blame!

The frustrating part about this is how much the FO really needed guys like these to play a role in the big league clubs season. Perhaps not a large role, but at least be there for depth. Particularly in the pitching department. Having a healthy Canterino and/or Balazovic added to the rotation or bullpen could have been huge given all of the injuries to the staff. Hopefully they'll all rebound for next season. Martin might not be as important as the other two, but you can never have too much talent.

St. Louis seems like a fitting place to end such a quest. The town bleeds red and loves their baseball. Hard not to get intoxicated by it. I haven't seen the new Busch, but was at the last iteration in 2001 over the 4th of July. I'm biased as a Cardinals fan, but the two games that I attended were as fun as I recall attending outside of playoff games. Pujols was even in LF for one of the games, which happened to be where we were sitting. Little did we know at the time what a legend we were witnessing. As for the Trop, buy a ticket, stand outside the gate, walk to Ferg's to get a bucket of beer and a burger and then head home. Save yourself the misery!

Awesome night for Gordon. Love seeing him play well after everything he endured on his way up. And he's playing well at the right time.

And a quick inning in the field to get the bats right back up. I like it!

Nah, that's why they added the extra active roster spot for this year.

He wouldn't have been in position to drive in 6 runs if they were swapped in the order.

Gordon having himself a day.

So...all of it then?

How much of the vinegar was bought as wine?

I'm a little surprised that MLB isn't making a bigger deal of the chase for 700. Easy marketing with a future HoFer chasing a huge ultra rare milestone.

Pujols hit 700. Good talker!

That's crazy! If only Biggio would have gotten a hit instead of Bichette getting two!