10/3 Game Thread: Oakland Athletics @ Minnesota Twins

Unfortunatly

I won't get to watch about the first hour of this, but I'm going to hurry back to watch the rest!

Tomorrow I may miss even more, about the first 2 hours :(

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 3, 2006 4:41 AM EDT reply actions

I never saw a final playoff roster. I'm curious about who will be our DH (assuming White is in LF). I'm guessing we didn't keep 3 catchers, but I was thinking Redmond would almost be our best DH option.

Anyone know where the roster is posted?

by adam @ Twinkie Town on Oct 3, 2006 8:20 AM EDT reply actions

Nevin

Nevin is the DH today.

by diehardtwinsfan on Oct 3, 2006 10:17 AM EDT reply actions

Is anyone else

surprised at the number of "experts" that have the Twins winning it all? The Twins are ahead in ESPN.com's poll of its experts. Even the rube in my local paper picked the Twins.

Does this mean the Twins are no longer underdogs?

by wcooley on Oct 3, 2006 12:19 PM EDT reply actions

I saw

I was surprised to see the Twins have more picks than Yankees, but the Yankees are still definitely the heavy favorite though.

But the Twins, of all the other teams, are getting the second most votes. Everybody else is all mixed togetehr with very little attention. O fll those 20 ESPN "experts", not a single one picked the Tigers o beat the Yankees in teh ALDS.

I think the one team who isn't getting any attention (aka not the Yankees or Twins) who is the biggest threat is definitly the A's, if Thomas starts troking it and Harden piches on top of his game, I'm not sure if I see ANYONE beating them.

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 3, 2006 12:22 PM EDT up reply actions

LINEUPS

Oakland Name POS Kendall C Kotsay CF Bradley RF Thomas DH Chavez 3B Payton LF Swisher 1B Scutaro SS Ellis 2B

Minnesota Name POS Castillo 2B Punto 3B Mauer C Cuddyer RF Morneau 1B Hunter CF White LF Nevin DH Bartlett SS

by Jesse on Oct 3, 2006 12:46 PM EDT reply actions

Swisher?

I know their lineup has been jumbled around more than the Twins 2005 season, but how often has Swisher hit out the the 7th hole? If he's getting on base so much why would you put him in front of Scutaro and Ellis who haven't hit a lick this year?

break the 30 HR curse!

by caseintheface on Oct 3, 2006 12:53 PM EDT reply actions

My

only guess would be because Bradley, Thomas, Chavez and Payton can also make contact more often. They all reach base VERY well, from Bradley through Swisher, but my guess is that they're putting more focus on actually getting a hit rather than getting the home run, with OBP being equal. Chavez had a sub-par year, but all bets are off in the playoffs.

by Jesse on Oct 3, 2006 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions

WOW

Zito showing us how it's done through two...Cuddyer, Morneau, Hunter retired on 8 pitches.

This does NOT look good right now. Or sound good, since I'm at work and can't watch...

by Jesse on Oct 3, 2006 1:42 PM EDT reply actions

I'm watching

Zito is not throwing very well. He has poor command of his fastball, but the Twins are being overly aggressive, acting a little nervous and letting him off the hook and just can't get anything going. Hopefully the Twins' late inning rally tendencies will kick in and we'll win this game.

Santana is pitching great, but Thomas and Scutero happened to get a bat on good pitches.

by krakoose on Oct 3, 2006 2:21 PM EDT reply actions

zito

Well, I guess Zito did throw well. Or the Twins batters sucked today. Zito certainly put in a good performance and I gotta give him credit for it.

by krakoose on Oct 3, 2006 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Ugh! Bartlett! Two out error.

Brutal error by Bartlett on a simple sure double play ball. It forced Santana to throw a bunch more pitches, but he worked out of the 7th inning 1st and 2nd nobody out / bases loaded 1 out jam.

Now it's time for the Twins bats to come to life.

by krakoose on Oct 3, 2006 2:48 PM EDT reply actions

WHITE!!!! HOME RUN!!

Rondell White sends it deep baby! Finally something happens for the Twins. Lead is cut to one with two innings to play. Let's win this thing!

by krakoose on Oct 3, 2006 2:54 PM EDT reply actions

White

Huge HR by White. Hopefully that fires the team up a bit. Santana still looks great. Gardy better let him go out for the 8th.

by vagabond on Oct 3, 2006 2:55 PM EDT reply actions

ESPN Announcers, idiots

Morgan can't stop bitching about Castillo's steal attempt in the 1st and it's the 8th inning. Miller keeps referring to somebody supposedly playing for the Twins named Josh Bartlett. Can't somebody in the control truck correct these bozos?

by krakoose on Oct 3, 2006 2:59 PM EDT reply actions

PUNTOBER!!!!

What a play by PUNTO on the foul ball in the 8th! That cowboy hat wearing Twin fan is lucky he didn't pull a Bartman and interfere with Punto making that catch!

by krakoose on Oct 3, 2006 3:01 PM EDT reply actions

Gardy

Why did Gardy not have Castillo bunt?

I just don't get his tendencies. One inning, he's all about small ball and moving the runner over, and in the next, he's letting Castillo swing away.

I have no faith in him during the pressure of the playoffs.

by MauerPower @ Twinkie Town on Oct 3, 2006 3:13 PM EDT reply actions

CRAIN!!

WHY IS JESSE CRAIN IN THE GAME! I saw than and just KNEW he was going to jack one. UUUGHHHH!

SoDakTwinsFan

by sodaktwinsfan on Oct 3, 2006 3:18 PM EDT reply actions

Frigging Thomas

The guy is clutch with 2 HRs. All the Twins look like a deer in headlights. Very frustrating.

Bottom of 8th was frustrating. MauerPower is right, that was a wasted chance to tie it up. What Castillo was doing on his own or at Gardenhire's instruction is a mystery. Bartlett was flustered on the bases and almost got thrown out. The whole Twin team is in floating in space right now.

I think the Twins don't know what to do when they don't have a hole to claw their way out of. So if we lose this one, which seems likely, they'll be in familiar territory and will win the next three.

by krakoose on Oct 3, 2006 3:19 PM EDT reply actions

Nice Work Gardy

No bunt from Castillo? Crain instead of Neshek? I keep thinking Gardy will learn to manage in the playoffs, but we keep seeing the same questionable decisions over and over. His managing becomes even more crucial when the Twins are not likely to score many runs and when the young guys are as nervous as they were today. However, Gardy seems to blow it consistently when the pressure is on.

I hope he doesn't cost us a playoff series again like he did with the 2 prior NYY series.

by MauerPower @ Twinkie Town on Oct 3, 2006 3:33 PM EDT reply actions

I think the loss

might have had a little more to do with Mauer and Morneau going oh-fer. The swings in the early innings were pitiful. The whole team save Castillo looked like kids at the candy store. Welcome to the playoffs, boys.

by wcooley on Oct 3, 2006 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions

I Agree Somewhat

I agree with that assessment too. However, I also feel that Gardy doesn't do much to take control of the game or calm the players. You just can't leave runs out on the basepaths when the game is so tight, and I get the feeling that Gardy is as nervous, or more nervous, than the players are. When the heat is on, his moves are erratic and he seems too reactive when the game is on the line.

Overall, I guess I'm primarily upset with Gardy's inconsistency. During the regular season, Castillo would probably have bunted just about every time in that situation. Also, Neshek had been the primary reliever against tough righties for the last 2 months of the season. Suddenly, the playoffs start, and Crain is in the game during a crucial situation, while Castillo decides or is told to swing away with a runner on 2nd and no outs.

I would have handled the loss better if there weren't wasted opportunities and we looked a little more composed.

That's the end of my rant. I really hope Gardy proves me wrong.

by MauerPower @ Twinkie Town on Oct 3, 2006 3:55 PM EDT up reply actions

No doubt

that the Yankee series from a couple years back has left us all doubting Gardy's postseason chops. But even if he makes "all the right moves" the Twins need the 3-4-5 guys to produce. Forget the Pirahnas, without those three the Twins are the Royals.

I think they will rebound tomorrow. Morneau actually had a couple near misses today and had some good swings.

by wcooley on Oct 3, 2006 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions

Reply

I think we'll fare better tomorrow against the right-handed Loaiza. Mauer and Morneau really don't hit for much power against lefties, especially one as tough as Zito.

I just hate to see the Twins lose a winnable game. This is the playoffs, and we will need to win some games without our 3-4-5 hitters at their best if we're going to go very far. I really feel that Gardy didn't give us the best chance to win today, despite the struggles of our primary hitters.

With that said, I'm a lot more calm now...I just needed to get that Gardy rant off my chest to feel better. I wouldn't count out the Twins by any means, but it gets a whole lot more dicey going forward with Boof, Radke, and Chief going the next three games.

I really wish we had Liriano right about now, but I am confident that Boof and Radke can get it done.

by MauerPower @ Twinkie Town on Oct 3, 2006 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions

The Dazzle Man

Listening at work and "The Dazzle Man" was pissing me off. He was so cocky the entire game...as if we had the game the entire time.

"Oh you can feel the momentum swing now!"

"Bartlett is virtually guaranteed 3rd base with the way Castillo handles the bat."

Try calling the game Danny, not predicting it.

by Dale on Oct 3, 2006 3:37 PM EDT reply actions

Dazzle

Well Dazzle would have been right if Gardy had Castillo bunt again.

Gardy-0 , Athletics-1

by Twins2006 on Oct 3, 2006 3:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Frusterating

The young Twins players really showed their jitters in this one. They were swinging at piches out of the strike zone all day. The morons who work for ESPN said it was just because we are agressive, but that hasn't ben our offensive style all year. We let Zito off the hook repeadetly. That is how the 2002-2004 Twins played, not the 2006 Twins. They will need to calm down if they want to turn this around.

The difficulty of watching was also badly magnified by the fact that I had to hear about Castillo's steal attempt the whole game, as well as a whole host of things that indicated the announcers really didn't know anything at all about the Twins. From thinking our approaches at the plate were the way we were all year, to pausing at Neshek's name before reading it for the first time, ever, ever painful moment was difficult to listen too. I seriously wanted Dick N' Bert. Plus, both announcers kept totally misdiagonsing both pitcher's pitches, especially Santana's. it isn't that hard to tell the difference between his 87 MPH slider and his 80 MPH changeup dipsh*ts.

On the bright side, i learned about our new player Josh Bartlett!

The fact that Frank Thomas is smoking it scares me quite a bit, and it should scare everyone else in baseball too.

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 3, 2006 3:45 PM EDT reply actions

According

to Joe Morgan, getting caught stealing in the first inning of the first game ended the Twins' playoff hopes.

by wcooley on Oct 3, 2006 3:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Though

To Morgan's credit, it was a very stupid thing to do, but I didn't have to her about it for the entire rest of the game.

They probably only talkd about a couple things all game. That play, The starter's different pitches, Josh Barttlet's mistakes, and zito supposedly using our agressivness against us.

Vomit.

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 3, 2006 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions