Game 136: Twins @ Athletics

Come on, Frankie! Let’s go seven tonight, eh?

Twins (76-59)

1. Denard Span, RF
2. Nick Punto, SS
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Jason Kubel, DH
6. Delmon Young, LF
7. Brendan Harris, 3B
8. Alexi Casilla, 2B
9. Carlos Gomez, CF

Starting pitcher: LH Francisco Liriano (4-3, 3.83 ERA)

Athletics (62-73)

1. Rajai Davis, CF
2. Bobby Crosby, SS
3. Emil Brown, LF
4. Frank Thomas, DH
5. Ryan Sweeney, RF
6. Kurt Suzuki, C
7. Daric Barton, 1B
8. Cliff Pennington, 3B
9. Eric Patterson, 2B

Starting pitcher: LH Dallas Braden (4-3, 4.13 ERA)

..take a series split tonight and then go for the win tomorrow. We can’t afford anything less that two wins here in Oakland.

..trail Boston 5-1 in the second inning. Hopefully we can move into first tonight and start moving ahead tomorrow. Go F-Bomb!

Mauer is still in the goove. Two out signle to raise the average to .326

we would give Buscher some at-bats at third and let Harris play short for Punto. It looks like he needs a break out there.

Mauer looked safe at first on the pickoff.

for Liriano. Threw a few pitches to the last batter, but just 14 overall in a 1-2-3 inning.

picking up the hits thus far for the Twins.

hits by Kubel and Young and we have a threat with one out here in the second. Hopefully we can give Franchise an early lead tonight with the Red Sox up 7-2 on the White Sox.

what a great second inning for Liriano. Just 7 pitches for three quick outs.

3 ground outs, though his control was lacking.

after three. I just have a feeling we’re going to have a break out inning soon though. We’ve been hitting pretty decent so far.

this Pennington guy just get called up?

5 and a half minutes left in the game, 3rd and 9, down by 3

Gopher Ball, down by 3

francisco wins the battle!

but Liriano gets the job done. Hopefully that was the “long, tough” inning for him tonight.

is doing well tonight.

threat with two on and one out. Lets do something this time around!

is killing me tonight. That is twice now that with two one he’s grounded out. The first time they just got one, this time they end the inning.

25 SECONDS LEFT

GOPHERS LEAD 31-27

4 innings, 5 hits, 1 walk and 0 RUNS!!! Whahoo!!!!

has his first real threat. Runner at second, just one out.

needs to get a bunt down. Enough of these fouls.

Span goes deep for the 2-0 cushion.

That in each of Liriano’s four wins, he pitched the club into first?

Didn’t see that coming, Span continues his odd domination versus lefties!

moves him over with some small ball and Alexi puts one over the fence. 2-0 Twins!

anyone else’s not working right now?

Should be an epic battle to the end for the batting title. Pedroia is a best, saw the game on WGN today. He was just pounding Buerhle and the White Sox

Liriano needs a quick inning now to get us back to the plate with a lead.

kills us.

other than that leadoff homerun.

That’ll happen playing baseball, Cust just took the first pitch in the inning. Not really Cisco’s fault

I’ve been a big promoter of Harris over the past 2 months, but he’s been a black hole in the lineup tonight

U-G-L-Y

having good nights….

6 LOB.

I would rather see Macri up there as Buscher’s RH platoon partner.

Setting himself up to go 7, maybe 8 if he gets a couple of quick outs.

after six, should go seven at least.

wasn’t a prelude of more to come. Twins handed another QS (quality start) to an inferior MLB pitcher.

this is the only page of my internet that’s working, so i can’t check.

Macri and Harris are similar players. Macri hasn’t hit well in the minors, but was good during his time in Minnesota. I like Macri because he’s big and has some power.

What I don’t like about Harris was shown on a couple grounders to the left side. He doesn’t move until the ball is almost upon him. He really has poor range and was a disaster on the DP pivot at second.

It’s absolutely infuriating and downright bush league. Send him down to the minors to bunt the ball like that.

Man, he seems to be getting stronger. I suppose 7 is enough. We will have choices about who to pitch the eighth.

An insurance run or two for the bullpen please.

to get to Nathan. Let’s go 8th inning guys.

But it would be nice if Gardy got him up at the first sign of trouble

With Davis’ speed, allowing him to get on is like allowing a double.

Much better on this road trip. I still wince when he pitches in the eighth, though,

As that terrible stretch he had. Him and Crain have basically taken turns being the scapegoat for the entire bullpen. Though I suppose Bass took a lot of heat too. But he was always pretty much bad. Good to see they got him back into a starting gig down in Rochester.

Very appropriately

K!!!

0-4…….

vs. Nathan in the ninth. This is what he gets paid to do.

The offense is very sorry for their ineptitude tonight, but this is one game we fans don’t need to be made any more interesting.

Time to have a little twitch fit and put these guys away

Two on, none out.

Nathan blows it and throws it away…..

that is upsetting

I think he should have caught that ball.

I didnt expect Nathan to be responsible for two losses on this road trip

this is what happens when you don’t put crappy teams away. They up and do something heroic.

his fastball was pretty slow, and when he did try to throw harder he was just plain erratic.

With Nathan being So Erratic

times the bullpen has blown winnable games on this trip. This is not a playoff team if they can’t cap off games.

fricken times in less than two weeks. I’m pretty sure the White Sox have lost a few of those times too. It is so sickening to see us blow great starts every single game. Guerrier finally finishes a scoreless inning and Nathan looks like crap.

He tried to overpower everybody instead of pitching. Then he tried to work himself out of his jam with a stupid play. There is no way he was going to get the runner at third. If we don’t split tomorrow, we’re in big trouble.

I’m still sick from this. I hope we kill them tomorrow to get my spirits up. I’m not sure I can handle a 3-1 series loss to the A’s.

and how are we just a half-game back with these blown games on the trip? Oh well, I’ll take it.

we still have a decent shot at a 7-7 road trip.

I am hoping that this will end some of the talk about exhausting Nathan as much as the rest of bullpen, ie, let’s trot him out in the 8th of every close game. I think the bigger problem is figuring out why our bullpen is Cy Young at home and Tony Young out of town.