Game 59: Twins @ Oakland
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 8, 2009 10:00 PM EDT
in Game Threads
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PrintMinnesota Twins at Oakland Athletics, Jun 8, 2009 10:05 PM EDT
First Pitch: 9:05pm CDT
TV: FSN (and in HD, too, if you're lucky and Comcast deigns to broadcast in HD)
Radio: Twins Radio Network
Know Thine Enemy: Athletics Nation
About the A's: WE'RE GOING STREAKING!
They may be last in the AL West, but Oakland's on a hot streak. The A's have won six in a row, and swept the odious Orioles under the rug over the weekend, their first three-game sweep of the year.
Probable Pitchers
Tonight, the next edition of everyone's favorite new show, "Swarzak or No Swarzak"? The big 23-year-old righty began his major-league career with a pair of quality starts, winning one and losing one, and the world rejoiced. He pitches inside! He rares back and lets 'er fly! He's a gamer! He gave up just three earned runs in those two starts, but just as we all were ready to send Francisco Liriano to carry Swarzak's bags around for the rest of the year, the youngster came back down to earth a bit. The Indians torched him for a five-run third inning, with the entire offense - hits, runs, screaming, wailing, gnashing of teeth - coming with two out in the inning. Swarzak eventually departed after giving up six runs in four innings. We'll have another chance to see whether Swarzak is the real deal tonight.
Two things are immediately apparent about Outman:
- He has the greatest name for a pitcher in baseball history. I have high hopes for Emilio Whiff, who was in the Venezuelan league last year, and for Rich Highhardcheese, who I think is in the Dodgers' system, but until either comes through it's Outman's title to lose.
- You've never heard of him. He was a September callup for the A's last year, made the rotation to start this year, got demoted almost immediately, then worked his way back into his starting slot - and has pitched pretty well since. Since returning to the rotation May 3, he's 3-0 with a 2.49 ERA, and opposing hitters are batting just .192 against him, with a Punto-like .582 OPS..
Outman throws a 94-95mph four-seam fastball that will occasionally inch into the 96-97 range. He'll mix in a two-seamer and a changeup, along with a slider and a very occasional curve.
Lineups
Delmon Young is the designated hitter. Words... fail me.
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It's TwinkieTown Late Night tonight!
Oakland pitchers tend to work fast; here’s hoping the Twins do too, and we can all go to bed sometime before 1am.
As an A's fan that also like the Twins
It should be interesting to see how Breslow does this series. After the A’s strong bullpen at the beginning of the year started to fall apart. After the pickup, Breslow as become one of the most trusted members coming out of the pen lately.
Nice call on Morneau
Gameday had that pitch outside of one of the pitches called balls during the at bat.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
And again
Harris just got called out on a pitch that was in the LH batter’s box.
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 8, 2009 10:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Swarzak is letting go of the ball early
As Bert would say, “he needs to work out front.”
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
The ump must have an early dinner reservation
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Yeah, ball at the shoe tops
Nice swing out machine
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
BTW, great name for a pitcher
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
What's the over/under on a Delmon DFA?
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
I can't figure out what to do with him.
He’s terrible in the field and useless at bat…. but the potential is still there.
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 8, 2009 10:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Potential
David McCarty
David West
Frankie Rodriguez
Adam Johnson
.
.
.
.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
most of those are pitchers...
Pitchers break your hearts easily. One tweak of a tendon and their arm is never the same.
And people keep bringing up McCarty, but McCarty had a ho-hum year in AA at 21… he really only hit in the PCL. I’m so glad our AAA team is not at high altitude anymore.
Delmon destroyed AA at age 19. Its really odd to see a hitter win minor league player of the year and then just keep getting worse. I’m not defending his play this year, but he’s got a heckuva better resume than David McCarty.
DFA
Who would take him?
Does anyone have room for a light bat, weak fielding corner outfielder?
I would LOVE it if he sqeaked through and had to report to Rochester
by clutterheart on Jun 8, 2009 11:14 PM EDT up reply actions
our 6 through 9 hitters…
Young
Gomez
Tolbert
and Casilla are the closest thing to auto outs right now….UGH!!!
they should all bunt 3/4 the time up every time tonight!
by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Jun 8, 2009 10:50 PM EDT reply actions
"Outter half of the plate"
Ahhh. Just say outside you moron!
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
RBI on a walk
How many times will we say that about Gomez?
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
The second horseman
Tolbert drives in two runs on a single
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
called off
Cassilla first pitch swing groungout
by clutterheart on Jun 8, 2009 11:16 PM EDT up reply actions
OK, so Gomez walks and Casilla jumps on the first pitch. WTF?
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Walk the lead-off hitter
I hate those words more than death
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
So far this inning
Four-pitch walk, four-pitch walk, 6-5 putout at third
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 8, 2009 11:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Swarzak absolutely lost his command of the zone here in the 4th
now he’s seemed to find it again
now I think he’s lost it again…..
by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Jun 8, 2009 11:19 PM EDT reply actions
Effectively wild
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
OK, not so effective
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
I can't imagine what it was like to play this game before helmets
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
What was Gomez doing there?
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
ugh lets please get out of this 4th inning with a 3-3 or 3-4 game!
by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Jun 8, 2009 11:24 PM EDT reply actions
where would this inning be without Brendon Harris playing SS?
yikes, I don’t want to think about that
by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Jun 8, 2009 11:26 PM EDT reply actions
Well, it was nice knowing you Anthony
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Rookie hiccups or larger problems
I’m stuck on Gameday… how does Swarzak look generally? Is he just really raw and needs polish, or are there major issues and his long-term stock is falling?
He should be all the way to the clubhouse by now. :-)
Seriously, it’s hard to tell – he couldn’t hardly throw a strike in the fourth.
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 8, 2009 11:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Bad
He was rushing and letting everything go early. So everything was up and in to right handed batters. He had a lot of movement on his pitches, but no control. This is where Bert would be a good pitching coach for Swarzak. He always talks about keeping the left shoulder in and working out front. By that he means keeping your weight back and letting go of the ball late in your delivery. This keeps the ball down and gives you a good downward plane, which induces a lot of ground balls.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Outman has struck out Morneau and now Mauer on that exact same pitch out of the zone down and away.
I think Swarzak will be back in AAA before NL play starts up.
by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Jun 8, 2009 11:40 PM EDT reply actions
Perkins is pitching tonight for Fort Myers
He should be with the club tomorrow.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
When was the last time that happened?
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
They don't have a FRICKIN' clue
none of the Twins know what’s coming next.
they look like AAA hitters and that includes the M&M ‘boys’
and now the A’s have take the lead.
Maybe the Twins can just not show up to the park until it’s a home game for them.
WOW this team looks bad right now!
No surprise there
44 Ks on the year, 20 since he came off the Bereavement list
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
I hate dumping on a guy going thru what must be a very painful time
but someone please do an MRI on him and make up an injury so he doesn’t have to play.
of course tonight the whole team is wearing a Young jersey.
they look like crap, maybe someone should tell them to open their eyes when at the plate?
Stat adjustment
Striking out Delmon Young should only count as half a strikeout. It’s not fair to the rest of the pitchers in the league.
Gladden said Delmon jumped back to avoid the pitch
as he was being called out on a third strike!
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:02 AM EDT reply actions
It was inside
But not that far inside
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Yeah, I figured it was just Delmon's good eye again.
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:03 AM EDT up reply actions
my favorite is when he swings for a foul
and has his mouth open and has this look of surprise that it didn’t go out…
no need for film, just grip the bat tight and swing for the fences
going back to see what I missed,
I can see that it is just plain foolish to not be oart of the live blog action when Mr. Marthaler is online.
laughs and chuckles all evening.
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:04 AM EDT reply actions
Tip your waitresses.
I’m here all night! :-)
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 9, 2009 12:06 AM EDT up reply actions
Wasn't it just about 18 months when Delmon
appeared in a commercial with Killebrew, Oliva, and Hrbek and they were alluding to passing “the bat” down to him?
The humor in that piece takes on a WHOLE new meaning.
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:07 AM EDT reply actions
the problem was the old guys told him the secret to hitting
was to go eat a steak!
Hey Skates, they didn’t really mean for you to just see ball and try to hit ball, there’s more to it or else we’d all be in the bigs… dumb ass
I know this is probably pretty petty but do we have to use the nickname skates?
first of all I can’t figure out how it makes any sense, skating is the height of gracefulness, Delmon lumbers out there in the outfield,
but just as importantly, Johnny Safron gave him that nickname and so every time I read it, I think of that bitter, hypercritical, wholly unpleasant person…
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:17 AM EDT up reply actions
I think it's more because of his resemblance to Lonnie "Skates" Smith.
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 9, 2009 12:18 AM EDT up reply actions
Tolbert having a pretty good night, huh?
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:18 AM EDT reply actions
good point
I was inadvertantly adding in the “good” column, the fact that he doesn’t have a “SO” yet tonight.
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:25 AM EDT up reply actions
Gameday can be a bit blunt....
“Oakland Athletics Aaron Cunningham left the game due to an injured head”
Hope he’s OK.
Box score says he ran the bases after the HBP...
At least he was lucid enough to do that. But observation is good….
They checked him out at the plate for a couple minutes.
He eventually went to first and came home on the double… but he looked dazed in the dugout afterwards. Good to send him to the hospital, I’d say.
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 9, 2009 12:27 AM EDT up reply actions
Outman talking about getting M&M out
he sounded like a man who had all the answers against our wonder twins
activate… form of an ass bat, shape of an 0-4
As much baseball as Gordon has seen you'd think he'd have a better handle on that,
but maybe he’s trying to gin up a little excitiement.
His antithesis, Gladden (up until this year) used to call home runs by the Twins like he was doing his best “Droopy” impersonation, so…
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:41 AM EDT up reply actions
yeah, have to admit,
Gordon thinks a lot of them are going out…and they are “miraculously caught” at the warning track.
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:39 AM EDT up reply actions
wasn't listening closely as I'm squeezing in a little work
and I was temporarily totally confused by Breslow pitching to Morneau!
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:38 AM EDT reply actions
darn,
well maybe we have found a diamond in the rough in Henn?
by montanatwinsfan on Jun 9, 2009 12:46 AM EDT up reply actions
Your optimism is touching
if unfounded. :-)
by Jon Marthaler on Jun 9, 2009 12:48 AM EDT up reply actions
A 1-run game on the road....
Even if we do extremely well this year, there will be bleaker moments this season than tonight. If it was really that bad, we’d all be asleep. :-)
phoning it in....
I will grant you that phoning it in in the late innings is really annoying. The team goes down by a run in the 5th and the game is over? A MLB team should be able to scratch out a run once in a while by accident.
Game recap
Is up: Right here.
This was one of those nights where the whole thing was written by the middle of the seventh.
Jon, I fear more of those nights are ahead against the youthful Cahill and Anderson
not to mention Braden is really darn good, especially against us
We better figure out a way to split this series or at the very least win at least 1 game.
by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Jun 9, 2009 1:24 AM EDT reply actions
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