Twins pregame: March of the lefties
Posted on August 30th, 2008 – 5:00 PMBy Joe Christensen
OAKLAND — The Twins will face their fifth consecutive lefthanded starting pitcher tonight, in Oakland’s Dallas Braden.
As we’ve reported, Oakland’s Greg Smith will make it six lefties in a row on Sunday.
Well, now the Blue Jays probables are out for the next series, and the Twins are scheduled to face lefthander David Purcey on Tuesday. That will make it seven in a row.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no team has faced seven lefties in a row since the 1991 Mets.
Toronto is scheduled to use righthanders A.J. Burnett and Jesse Litsch to close out that series.
Updates to come…
Update (7:15 p.m.): Just heard the A’s are placing Frank Thomas on the DL. I will get the updated lineup to you shortly.
Update (7:55 p.m.): Thomas has a strained right quadriceps muscle. The A’s also activated righthanded pitcher Keith Foulke from the DL and selected outfielder Aaron Cunningham from Class AAA Sacramento.
They sent Friday’s starter, Dan Meyer, to Class AA Midland. I posted the new lineup below.
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. Kurt Suzuki, C
3. Bobby Crosby, SS
4. Emil Brown, LF
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)
McAfee Coliseum. First pitch: 8:07 p.m.
199 Responses to "Twins pregame: March of the lefties"
I have a GREAT feeling about tonight,
DELIVER US FRANCHISE!
GO TWINS!
The Twins proved last night they can handle lefties. With Liriano pitching, I say they can make it two in a night tonight. Woohoo!
I mean two in a ROW
[…] Originally published by Around the Majors […]
Two in a row is as good as two in a night. Red Sox are throwing in the towel tonight against Chicago. They are starting a rookie they called up who was 0-3 in the minors. White Sox are pitching Mark Burly and have won his last four starts.
Looks like no chance to grab first place tonight. I sure hope I’m wrong.
Boston is 19-10 against lefties
i would like to see more of ruiz……
LNP had the impressive 0 for 6 night while the rest of the team could only scratch out a mere 20 hits. Gardy is rewarding him with another start & batting 2nd. I can understand putting your best defensive left side of the infield out there for Franchise. But how about batting LNP 8th instead? 
Here’s hoping the team can finish road trip at 8 & 6. That would be great.
Boston is leading 3-0 bot 1
Red Sox beating up on Beuhrle. After the way he has talked about the Twins in the past I enjoy everytime he gives up alot of runs.
Seattle beat Cleveland again today
Boston is leading Chicago 5-1 right now.
–Scott aka sploorp
Wrong time for Bad Buehrle to show up
Nora, I hear you!!
I have just heard Hawk say “Yes!” when the Sox made a good catch, and “Dangnabit!” when a play didn’t go their way.
Please remind me how these guys are any kind of respectable again?
They’re some of the most irritating announcers to listen to…
Is there a drinking game for these guys? There almost have to be with the catchphrases and “we” “us”.
Those alone would likely get you blacked out before the 2nd inning…
I would be happy if the game was blacked out…
“He gone.” I want to retract my previous statement. They’re THE worst announcers.
And I can’t watch the broadcast on mute to change anything…because they keep putting the same fan on screen with his “Good guys!” sign.
They found the one White Sox fan in the crowd…
I think Bowden is getting a little jittery
Their are no ‘good guys’ for the either Sox team. LOL
He is doing better then Buerhle though.
That was a really good slide by Pedroia
2 days in a row Gardy is keeping his best RH hitter on the bench against a lefty… bad move
Buehrle didn’t even make it through five, good news for the twins…
2 days in a row Gardy is keeping his best RH hitter on the bench against a lefty… bad move
Worked fairly well last night.
It looks like the same lineup from yesterday, which seemed to work OK
Cust is the As DH
LNP can go 0 for 6 again, if rest of team scores 12 again!
For as much as we get people (aside from the schizo Tommy/Herb/Bob) commenting on how Gardy jumbles the lineup too much…I like the idea of taking the same lineup that clicked last night back out there.
Especially when the offense is having trouble scoring runs. And as far as Casilla batting lower in the order, he responded.
If Casilla continues to hit, and Punto struggles…then yeah. Switch them back again. But it’s possible that something about being lower in the order clicked for both players.
In which case, this team would no longer have a #2 hitter OR a #3 hitter. 
The A’s jerseys are green, not black, right?
PHANTOM tag.
Looks like Mauer was safe
he missed the tag there didnt he?
I am getting tired of missing the first pitch due to FSN
Look at Kevin Slowey on that list as well…
Should have been a called third strike
That third strike was literally on top of the first pitch called strike…
Good pitching there Larry Ahno, You betcha!!
The problem with the pick off call is that the ump wasn’t in position.
So he saw Mauer dive back, and he saw the 1B swipe his glove BEFORE Mauer got to the bag.
But what he didn’t see was that the tag was never there.
If it makes you feel better, we miss seconds of college football games too…. and basketball games… you would think that is something we would work on, oh well
Speaking of THE worst baseball “announcer” in the history of baseball, tell me of another - ANY announcer in MLB radio or TV, who has ever referred to the visiting team in such a derogatory manor as Idiot Harrelson? I’ve listened to baseball on the radio and TV for over 40 years now and have never heard anyone so classless. I’m sure most of you’ve heard it over the years, how he calls the Twins “Twinkies.” My God, you’d think someone would tap him on the shoulder and explain something to him about professionalism. Doesn’t happen.
This clown actually challenged Hrbek to a fight ON THE AIR several years ago.
A flippin idiot.
Couple of nice hits in this inning.
“Harris showing some patience” I think he leads the team in called third strikes….
Harris please stop hitting into routine DP’s even though it wasn’t turned
Boy. Harris was just as safe as Mauer…
hooray inconsistancy.
How bout the rays coming from behind again, that road trip out east scares me, we have done ok in baltimore, but tampa is going to be really tough, isn’t that a 4 gamer to?
But the series against tampa might not matter because it is late in september and the rays might have wrapped up the division by then…
Wasn’t LAA supposed to be tough? Then, we’re disappointed with only a split. Let’s not give them more credit than they deserve. They have a nice team, but we can go in there and win. I don’t think a split is asking too much.
Liriano has a good pitch count through 2…
It could be stated that the Rays are a much better home team then the Angels are.
Chicago’s about to get blown out again, so if we take care of business, we’ll be in first by the morning.
than the Angels are that is
Twins,
Yes, I thought even though everyone was talking about this trip as “crucial”, I thought the 9 game road trip through Balt, Cleve, and TB followed by 3 at home with the Whities would be the deciding set of games.
Good point though Gatty, the Rays may be resting some guys by then.
I hope that is called for Liriano
correction… 10 game road trip (4 with TB)
The fans in Oakland are booing Punto. After an 0-6, you’d think they might be cheering…
There goes that Punto fellow getting hits and such.
He gone… game over! Mighty Whities get slammed again!
Balk, and he did it twice. Idiot.
There goes the no-hitter…
jeez. with the white sox struggling it’s too bad the twins fell out of the race in seattle.
It is of note that Liriano has pitched very well from the stretch since his call up.
Comparing two players:
Player A has the following numbers:
.281 58 RBI’s 67 Runs 14 SB’s
Player B has the following numbers:
.277 67 RBI’s 75 Runs 12 SB’s
One is considered All-Star level, the other as having a down year.
Anyone know who I’m comparing?
Young had no business hitting that ball into the outfield.
Harris has killed this inning.
im ready for buscher
Lefties are hitting .298 off of Braden
Righties are hitting .265
54 pitches, maybe Liriano will make in through 7…
Way to go denard that was a poke
“Fell out of the race”
I don’t understand. If we win tonight we are in first…
Let’s see if Harris cannot GIDP.
hey don’t ruin it for me!
mlb gameday is slow, Kubel is still up
Man that is slow.
If we score in this inning, we win the game.
But of course we don’t…
Liriano has begun to over-pitch
Nice to see liriano still throwing 93
Liriano’s pitch count is now 86, let’s hope he can finish the seventh, then it is eddie time…
Franchise in or out next inning? I think they send him out.
“Major League Level” first time
Great walk by Denard
And punto takes a walk away from himself…
Wow, that was an awesome slider.
I wonder why gameday is so slow today…
Liriano is looking like a #1. 7 great innings tonight. He is nasty.
Wow, Liriano was really good in that inning.
it’s lnp’s fault. ;>)
Send him back out for the 8th. No one in the pen would be better than a Liriano at 95 pitches or whatever he is at.
The franchise does 7 - wahoo!
what’s with Huston in this situation?
He has struggled at times this year, I think they put Ziegler in the closer role.
Time for the bullpen to step up now
Pls, do not bring in _________ (insert random name from pen).
Jeez, where was that 1-1 pitch. Strike for sure.
“The Twins just announced their September minor-league callups: pitchers Bobby Korecky, Philip Humber, Jose Mijares; infielders Matt Tolbert and Matt Macri, outfielder Jason Pridie and catcher Ryan Jorgensen.”
New JoeC bog.
I hope Joe Nathan is warming… just in case. Gardy better not hesistate to use him if things get rough in the 8th here.
… Gardy better not hesistate to use him if things get rough in the 8th here.
Yes, must be willing to take the horse out of the barn.
Jorgenson must be added to the 40-man-roster.
Great job by Guerrier
Nice job Matty G. Let’s get another run.
Maybe Guerrier should pitch the 8th and 9th.
Hit a home run harris!
That would be if Harris can hit for himself….. I think Buscher might be used and wasn’t Bass supposed to come back up, that was probably promised to him if he took the assignment…..
I think Gardy will keep him in for the defense
no runs left over from last night. :>/
yeah, must suck for oakland. Oh, you were talking about the twins…
It is up to Nathan
Come on Nathan, don’t allow a run.
Something is wrong with Nathan, he can’t pay to throw a strike
Nathan does not look good at all, this is horrible.
Nathan blows this, I’m all for going to stopper by committee. well, not really.
god damnit joe
A hit will win the game
Nathan must have lost his release point or something.
Wow. So if Nathan decides he wants to suck…there’s NOTHING this team’s going to be able to do.
Ladies and gentlemen: Joe Nathan.
you have got to be shitting me
Nathan lost the game, he took away a win from liriano and I am in shock.
f*cking sick.
Time to cancel my mlb.tv subscription. Nathan, tonight you really really really suck ass!!!!!!!!!!!! Time for a huge joint, I need to relax!
That moron Gardy going to that loser Nathan.
FIRE GARDY! DISPOSE OF ANDERSON!
TRADE NATHAN!
Ahhhhh, that’s what I’m talking about.
That is by far Nathan’s worst outing of the year, he didn’t even get an out for crying out loud.
What was that? He was absolutely horrendous!
Piss on it gents, come back tomorrow and get them! At least the sox lost too.
I hope that Nathan isn’t injured because he sure pitched like it.
Oakland isn’t exactly a hot offense. Nathan made them look good.
Heck, Oakland scored two runs faster than Denard hit the HR
Probably has grown cobwebs because he hardly gets to pitch lately.
turn your frickin’ glove to right way. why are you trying to catch that throw with the heel of your glove turned up? stupid, stupid play. and come on nathan. what the hell was that tonight?! get em tomorrow.
Wow, he is human, it happens. You guys act like your team has never lost a game on a bad play, just hope Nathan gets it out of his system soon and that the spikes and the slight roll that it looks Harris’ ankle took aren’t that bad, athough come Tuesday I am pretty sure you are going to have to send a search team out to find him on the bench with the call ups. Tomorrow is another day, the Sox will still suck.
Twins took a page out of the BoSox book allowing a walk-off sac bunt.
It is just a hard one to take with a 1 run lead. It happens trying to calm down now. At least the Sox lost.
Oop. Cust just said they “battled”…
Has it dawned on Gardy and the Twins that, in a night game at Oakland (since the All-Star break), the first team to score three runs will win. Duh!! Great game Harris and Nathan!
Pathetic.
The A’s are 9-24 since the break, and FOUR of those wins are against the Twins.
Pathetic.
Joe probably doesn’t care his era doesnt take any punches
What a way to ruin a Saturday night. Maybe Nathan couldn’t get loose with that Northern California air or something. He looked completely out of sorts. Tough play for Harris, but turn your glove the right way. Combined with his awful night at the plate, Buscher will start at third tomorrow you can count on that. Liriano pitched much better as the game went along and deserved a win. Again after 20 hits the offense didn’t get anything done besides Span’s bomb.
I will bet anything Harris sees the pine here now
It should have been enough though. Through the season there are going to be low scoring games.
wasn’t harris fault.. tough ball to catch thrown at his feet from 45 ft away
Talk about taking you bad at bats into the field. Harris sure seemed to.
the toughest part about this trip is the way we are losing games. how many of these losses has our defense had to walk off the field??
Ladies and Gentlemen..#39 Ron Davis has just left the building. Just not use to seeing a Nathan meltdown.
come on mighty casey. quit making excuses for harris. these guys are paid big time money to make those catches. it’s not like they are amateurs and play for free. i am not going to take it easy or try and apologize for one of them when they make as stupid a mistake as not turning their glove the right way when catching a throw. piss poor play.
it’s almost comical trying to predict how the relievers will lose games in late innings! pretty soon they will have blown leads in every possible way and will need to start over!!! hahaha, I can’t even get mad anymore, I just laugh because everyone knows it is coming!!!
Harris has to backhand that, although i’m not defending Joe. You should have at least played baseball before you make dumb comments on here. Watch the replay again, Harris should have caught that if he backhands it. Horible throw though.
You would think that teams would stop doing that. That’s what killed the Tigers in the WS 2 years ago — pitchers throwing to 3rd. Get the out at first. Cust and Barton are barely hitting over .200.
Don’t recall Nathan ever looking as out of sorts as he did tonight.
I hate this team sometimes. 12 runs then 2 runs 12 runs then 2 runs. Stop losing to these crap dreg teams when the White Sox are trying to hand a division lead over on a silver platter. Can we just wipe out the entire bullpen so we actually have a chance to win a close game or two?
Cust has hit 2 homers so far in this series.
I told my wife on the drive home that Oakland will win the game in less than 10 minutes in the 9th inning somehow someway…..oh well, the Vikings start in a week, then we only need to watch them blow leads once a week instead of 4 or 5, hahaha
does nathan have some health issue with the twitching? is that just nerves? early signs of parkinson’s? i am not being a smart ass. serious question. it doesn’t seem to impact his pitching. just wondering.
Every play looks easy in slow motion people. Not a great throw and Harris got handcuffed. If we lose by one game, this will be the one everyone will remember.
See, even Gardy said the ball has to be caught.
No, if we lose by one game, everyone will remember the AJ interference call.
maybe they can get circus midgets to pitch in relief, I seriously think they would choke less often, very serious
In the words of Stan Marsh: “That whole experience sure did suck.”
This Twins team is the most chiken-s bunch that I have ever seen and that includes Ron Davis and the 84, 85 rendention of Twins baseball. Brendan Harris’ useless at bats early on in this game were an omen to the painful conclusion. Three sticking runs in a night game in Oakland wins. Pour me another one, bartender!
catching a pea thrown at your feet from 45 with a running barring in on you is not as simple as just turning your glove around. it’s nathan’s error, not harris.
See, even Gardy said the ball has to be caught.
So wait, now we’re taking Gardy at his word? I thought Gardy just spouted the company line…
Buff, Everyone says that when the Twins lose a game. The one I will remeber is the game that was handed to the White Sox based on ‘interference’ Which the MLB apologized for. I think that Rays should get that win or they continue the game. Apologies are not enough in a race this close.
gatty790. Good point. And it was the same ump who made the bone-head call in the White Sox-Angels playoff series.
Actually, this caps off a horrible game for Harris because he hit into a DP and should have hit into another one and he left 6 runners on, not advancing a single one.
well then Punto is off the hook for Seattle….. a worst team? see there is a bright spot? I don’t know from the A’s side it looked like one set of spikes in the knee and the other in the ankle, that makes it kind of hard to concentrate on catching a ball…… oh well, there are still more games to be played. And all can relax, the almighty Tolbert is on his way so Harris and Buscher will be on the bench so there will be no more issues
maybe Webster plays ball, he could pitch in late inning situations…anyone know if he cleard waivers?
Daniel, don’t watch the team then.
The Twins relievers got their starters 35 blown leads this year for Christmas, seriously
you guys whine like brewers fans….
Name fans of a teamthat doesn;t whine occasionally. You won’t find one.
Kind of surprised that Gardy didn’t pinch hit for Harris or at least move Punto to 3rd and Everett to short….
I’m a pyschic, seriously, tomorrow, if the Twins have a 1 run game going into the 8th or 9th, I’m guessing they, uh, um, blow it? it’s just a wild guess
Most Brewer fans that are on the internet have never watched their team play in the playoffs.
watching the Twins come up with creative new ways to blow games is funnier than watching Saturday Night Live these days!
brewers fans are all idiots btw, every last one of them….
Celebrity Jeopardy Twins edition: Alex Trebec (all you need to do is say the word Pumpkin and you win) Twins Relievers (Cantelope)…crap, blew another one!
Ms. Nora, With all due respect, stuff it. I have purchased enough Twins’ season tickets to comment. I don’t need a lecture from you. I’ll continue to watch the Twins, as I have for over 40 years, and will cheer them on when they play well and comment accordingly when they stink up the joint…which they did tonight.
You stuff it. If you don’t like the team I just gave a suggestion.
Twins in 1-run games this year: 24-23
Twins in 1-run games in 2006: 20-11
2006 is in the past. 2006 twins get swept in the 1st round.
2005 and 2007 are also in the past and the twins this year have comparable records in 1-run games to this year. What happened in the playoffs then?
Doesn;t matterthe past is the past and Twins are 1/2 game out.
Rewrite:
2005 and 2007 are also in the past and the twins those years have comparable records in 1-run games to this year. What happened in the playoffs then?
Ms. Nora, I wish I could but I guess I’m addicted to Twins baseball. That said, I refuse to accept mediocre performances and take lectures on my future fandom from Pollyanna-ish people like yourself and a few others on this and other threads. Of course, the Twins are great, they never mess up, Gardy and his staff are perfect and anyone who says anything to the contrary should respectfully hush up and no longer watch them. Now I know why people like Garrison Keillor hold such sway in the North Star State.
Again, this the past means nothing is silly. Without past reference all statistics are thus rendered meaningless.
2005 finished 83-79.
Yes, that is correct
When did I ever say any of that Daniel? I agree that complaining and whining will happen after a bad game. I have done it, tonight included. Sometimes it seems to be taken too far.
White Sox haven’t exactly pulled away. There are still games to be played. At the end of the season if they don’t make the playoffs the 1 run games can definately be considered a factor.
Pollyanna-ish people
That is a great line and I will probably never hear or see anyone else say that again…
One hour anniversary!
what is the one hour anniversary?
to the end of the game
oh….. so I don’t think that would be a happy anniversary…..wonder if anyone is still chewing them out, if it they are all internally chewing themselves out for this game….
I don’t care about the game, but I do hope that Joe Nathan isn’t hiding an injury from the trainers…
I think Nathan ABSOLUTELY is hiding an injury….two horrible blown saves in the same week? When was the last time that he did that, I honestly cant remember.
Also, he did look very uncomfortable out there tonight–he didnt hit any of his spots and he was wild as hell too!
I bet he feels the pressure of the under performing bullpen and isnt going to say anything and try and tough whatever it is that is wrong with him, out. I just hope for the teams sake, it doesnt end up hurting us more in the long run….
