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The Twins couldn't pull off the sweep in Houston today, as they fell in the ninth inning to the Astros at Minute Maid Park. Liam Hendriks had a very rough start, needing 32 pitches just to record the first out in the bottom of the first inning. Soon enough, the bases were loaded the Twins found themselves in a familiar position--down 3-0 early on in the game. Hendriks only lasted 4 1/3 innings, throwing a whopping 98 pitches during that time. He allowed at least one hit every inning, and a total of 8 hits, 5 runs (only 3 earned), with two walks and a couple Ks. Not a very pretty line by any means, but as they have been wont to do, the bullpen came in (read: Ryan Pressley came in) and kept the game under control for the next two innings. In the top of the ninth, Ryan Doumit homered to left field to tie the game 5-5, but in the bottom of the ninth, Brian Duensing gave up a walk-off single to Trevor Crowe, and that was that--no sweep for the Twins, but a solid road trip nonetheless.
The new guy (Alex Presley, who came over in the Justin Morneau trade with the Pirates) had a pretty good day at the plate today, however. He hit his first home run in a Twins uniform in the top of the third inning. It was a 3-run blast that ended up tying the game 3-3. In today's leadoff spot, he went 2-for-4 with a homer and 3 RBI.
Seven of the Twins starters today went 0-fer at the plate. Hard to win games when you can't score runs.
Roll Call
| # | Commenter | # Comments
 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WestRiverTwinsFan | 30 |
| 2 | darren004 | 11 |
| 3 | SaintAugustine | 9 |
| 4 | Spinyourhead | 8 |
| 5 | Gunnarthor | 8 |
| 6 | fischean | 7 |
| 7 | ColossusOfRhode | 6 |
| 8 | myjah | 5 |
| 9 | twinsbrewer | 4 |
| 10 | MNWildcat | 4 |
Congrats to WestRiverTwinsFan for your day-game commenting achievements! Look for your cookie in the mail.
Win Expectancy Graph, courtesy of FanGraphs
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-09-04&team=Astros&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=2013-09-04&team=Astros&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>
Coming Up...
The Twins have an off-day tomorrow and start a weekend series at home against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. Game time is 7:10 pm CST and will feature starters R.A. Dickey for Toronto and Mike Pelfrey for Minnesota. Make sure you stop by Twinkie Town for all your game time information!