May 6, 2011

G32: Twins 9, Red Sox 2

Twins    - 130 041 000 - 9 12  0
Red Sox  - 010 100 000 - 2  7  2
Before tonight, the Twins had scored more than five runs only once in 29 games. They had no problem swinging the lumber tonight, as Wakefield (4.1-9-8-4-1, 84) allowed four runs after only ten Twins had batted. That hole was deep enough, as Boston could do nothing with Baker (8-7-2-1-8, 106).

Trevor Plouffe homered in the first inning, Denard Span singled in two runs in the second, and Danny Valencia doubled in a pair in the fifth. The other runs scored on a balk called by the incompetent home plate umpire Angel Hernandez (his jaw-droppingly bad ball/strike calls have to be seen to be believed) and two more came around on one of Jed Lowrie's two errors.

J.D. Drew and Adrian Gonzalez hit solo home runs for Boston. ... Alfredo Aceves, back up from Pawtucket, pitched very well (4.2-3-1-1-2, 67) in relief. ... Jacoby Ellsbury singled twice.
Example
Scott Baker / Tim Wakefield

Wakefield makes the start tonight, as Daisuke Matsuzaka was scratched after his relief appearance in Wednesday's 13-inning loss.

Before yesterday's game, the Red Sox placed Bobby Jenks (right biceps tendinitis) and Dan Wheeler (left calf) on the 15-day disabled list and called up Rich Hill and Scott Atchison. Both pitchers worked in relief of John Lackey and after the game, Atchison was sent back down to Pawtucket. Alfredo Aceves is expected to be with the Sox tonight.

The Herald's John Tomase offers some cliched Eye-of-the-Tiger silliness:
Theo Epstein hit all the relevant checkmarks when he assembled the 2011 Red Sox: talent, track record, makeup. But maybe he missed one that's more crucial than we realized - hunger.

The drawback of building an uber-team that features a bunch of eight-figure contracts ... is that no one has to fight for anything. ... [T]hey lack the desperation to turn a very good club into a great one.
After tonight, one-fifth of the season will be complete, and the Red Sox are no closer to first place (4 GB) than they were almost a month ago: April 10. (They were 3.5 GB for a few days about two weeks ago, but quickly dropped back.) It's been frustrating, but we're about four months away from "desperate".

AL East: Tigers/Blue Jays and Rays/Orioles at 7 PM; Yankees/Rangers at 8 PM.

39 comments:

allan said...

Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Drew, RF
Lowrie, SS
Crawford, LF
Saltalamacchia, C

allan said...

Span CF
Plouffe SS
Morneau 1B
Kubel DH
Cuddyer RF
Valencia 3B
Revere LF
Butera C
Casilla 2B

The Twins are the worst in the AL and 28th out of 30 MLB teams in batting average (.230), and the worst in MLB in on-base percentage (.292), slugging percentage (.323), and runs scored (89).

Could we maybe win some games against these fucking sad sacks?

Amy said...

I sure hope so, Allan. If not, we are truly in serious trouble.

Jerry still sick??

Amy said...

And...we are already behind.

allan said...

Jeez.

Kathryn said...

How about an out?

allan said...

come on, wakedini.
get out of it.

Amy said...

Wake-a-dini?

Amy said...

SHIT

LOL, Allan, I typed Wakeadini before I saw your comment.

Unfortunately, Wake did not get out of the mess unscathed.

allan said...

fuck, some very luck.

OUT!

BALK???

FUCK YOU TWINS
FUCK YOU UMPS

allan said...

fuck, some very luck.

OUT!

BALK???

FUCK YOU TWINS
FUCK YOU UMPS

Kathryn said...

I guess I should have asked for three outs.

Amy said...

I think baseball used to be fun, but lately I can barely remember why.

Francona pissed off as much as I have ever seen.

allan said...

hey why cam umps touch tito but tito can't touch umps?

Amy said...

Was it really a balk? Can they replay taht?

allan said...

i seriously hate joe west.

angel hernandez can go fuck himself too

allan said...

ON FIRE dong!

Amy said...

Yay, Drew.

Kathryn said...

That whole mess with West grabbing at Francona was ridiculous. West should be ejected. I always find it funny when umpires "protect" the other umps. If you're man enough to make the call, you're man enough to get cussed out.

allan said...

GIDP!

Amy said...

Nice! First real smile of the game for me!

Jere said...

'scatch

allan said...

BERT DONG!

Jere said...

Monster Gong

Amy said...

Smile #2!

allan said...

i could get used to that.

allan said...

Angel Hernandez is one of the shittiest umps in the history of ever. This is from tonight.

allan said...

WTF was that?

Jere said...

what the fuck was that Jed??

Jere said...

i never noticed you can't spell Lowrie without "ole"

allan said...

red sox starters give up 8 runs in consecutive games.

in addition to not being hungry enough, they are also not very thirsty.

Crito said...

That (Brooks location chart) is damning. Wow, Hernandez really is horrible. I suspect Wakefield is harder to call than other pitchers, but the number of missed strikes is just eye-popping.

allan said...

i want to look at various iindividual batters later tonight, but the number of green balls in the heart of the plate is astounding.

he is often voted the worst ump in player polls, along with bucknor.

allan said...

oh fuck this asshole.

allan said...

okay, that was legit. he still fucks goats.

laura k said...

This team is not making it easy to like them.

I mean, I love them, but I'm not liking them very much.

Amy said...

I agree, Laura. They are really no fun to watch...so far.

laura k said...

That winning streak was fun. Would be nice to have another.

Dr. Jeff said...

That was lame.