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Despite their late, ninth-inning rally, the Twins were unable to stop the Royals from taking another game from them at Target Field tonight. Their win notches Kansas City's 8th in a row against the Twins, and gave them a series win this evening.
Though Kevin Correia gave up about a million hits (okay...maybe only 10), he only allowed 2 runners to score in a solid-enough 6 innings pitched. He didn't walk any Royals, which is a vast improvement over his last start, and he even managed to strike out three of them. If we ignore the number of hits given up, Correia had a pretty good start tonight. Some might even call it a 'quality start'. Unfortunately for him, Caleb Thielbar took the loss tonight, as he gave up two unearned runs in his 2/3 innings pitched. Thanks to a booted ball (Florimon) and pretty bad missed catch (Hicks), Thielbar 'allowed' two earned runs to give the Royals the one extra that would prove to be the Twins' demise. Casey Fien, Jared Burton, and Glen Perkins All Star (TM) all combined for a scoreless remainder of the game, and definitely kept the Twins' chances at winning alive. Unfortunately, the offense wasn't able to pull through and pull out a win...
The main story of tonight's offense is that the Twins were 3-for-17 with RISP. THREE. FOR. SEVENTEEN. This is not how you win games, and is a good indicator of why teams weren't exactly busting down Minnesota's doors trying to pick up trade pieces. The Twins had the game tied until the 7th inning, when the incidents with Thielbar occurred, and tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth, until Ryan Doumit and Justin Morneau both struck out on the same pitch with the tying runner on second base. Fin game.
Lazy Mauer Tracker
2-for-4 with a walk. LAZY, no home runs.
ROLL CALL
| # | Commenter | # Comments
 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | twinsgirl197 | 147 |
| 2 | kenzertz | 75 |
| 3 | less cowbell, more 'neau | 58 |
| 4 | blakem95 | 43 |
| 5 | amiller92 | 40 |
| 6 | Collin Kottke | 35 |
| 7 | myjah | 18 |
| 8 | Sportsavenue | 12 |
| 9 | archie2227 | 12 |
| 10 | ColossusOfRhode | 10 |
Win Expectancy
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-07-31&team=Twins&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2013-07-31&team=Twins&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>
Coming Up...
Tomorrow, the Twins take on the Royals and look to avoid getting swept during a day game at Target Field. First pitch is at 12:10 pm CST and features the intense pitching matchup of James Shields and Scott Diamond. Make sure to stop by Twinkie Town for all of your game time needs!