bleedspeed177 wrote:Good to see this team still playing winning ball. So how many WC teams go? What has been the biggest surprise for this team since the All-Star break?
Without a doubt it's the contribution of Jorge Polanco. This guy that I truly thought was going to go the Danny Santana route but since the all star break he's batting .312. The Twins have the #2 offense since the all star break and with 8 games whith the white sox that shouldn't change.
I honestly waiting for the Yankee collapse I think they're a very flawed team and with that division are due for losing streak. The season rides on this 11 game stretch. They've to go 8-3 or higher, good teams beat bad teams and whitsox and blue jays are bad teams.
On his latest podcast Smalley offered up a pretty simple explanation for some of Polonco's. He said Polonco's grandfather was more of a parental figure the one who basically raised him so that's something he had to work through. In addition he said Polonco's didn't really do any baseball activities for a week and it's hard to come back with that kind of layoff as a hitter with some grief to work through as well. Regardless he seems to have come around and he did have more of a resume than Santana did. I think Part of Santana's problem was he seemed to get dinged up and that doesn't help. That looks to have continued with the Braves.
Another win for the Twins. Gibson looked early like he was going to be sent down and replaced but he got out of trouble and ended up with a good start.
Polonco's with his 3rd HR in the last 3 games. Rosario is crushing the ball right now too. Vargas isn't Sano but he has some pretty good power numbers it's nice to have a guy like that to be able to call up.
Speaking of call ups John Curtiss is next up on the shuttle from AAA.
monsterpile wrote:Another win for the Twins. Gibson looked early like he was going to be sent down and replaced but he got out of trouble and ended up with a good start.
Polonco's with his 3rd HR in the last 3 games. Rosario is crushing the ball right now too. Vargas isn't Sano but he has some pretty good power numbers it's nice to have a guy like that to be able to call up.
Speaking of call ups John Curtiss is next up on the shuttle from AAA.
Yes, really promising to see Kyle step up. I'm on vacation in Colorado so not able to watch the games, but I followed the third and 4th innings in the internet where Kyle loaded the bases twice with less than 2 outs and got out of it with a lot of K's...really good to see.
Your guy Gee really came through also. My son texted me during the game that Gee's movement was impressive. He gets another start Saturday so maybe he can do it again. We're now a full game up on the Angels and even starting to push the Yanks for the first wild card. I'm feeling pretty positive right now.
BTW, I didn't know much about Curtiss until today, but his stats this year are unreal: Combined 1.28 ERA at AA and AAA with 68 K's in only 49 innings. His walk rate is higher than we would like (22 in 49 innings) but with only 23 hits given up, his WHIP is a very good .91. Mid-90s fastball and a slider that really developed this year. Apparently he is a strong candidate for future closer.
Q12543 wrote:Three hits last night against a third rate team. Seriously?
But they scored 3 runs! Lol yeah they didn't score enough to win it and its disappointing. Polonco with a HR in his 4th straight game. Of course if the Twins could have made a play or 2 defensively they may have won.
Fun game last night with the jerseys and the team playing well. Polonco has come alive at the plate. Apparently they want to get Garver in there hitting. It's nice to have a catcher/DH that seems to run as well as he does. Colon with another nice start and the pen did its job with Curtiss getting the save.
I'm enjoying watching a Sunday afternoon game after being on the road and not able to watch for a week...up 6-2 and looks like a good chance for another win and holding on to that second playoff spot for another day.
It's fun that guys who have not helped that much throughout the season (Gibson, Buxton and Polanco to name three) are really helping this month. Today's lineup has 7 players batting under .260 and no one over .300, so timely hitting, power and pitching is how they are going to stay in this race. I'm glad Mollie is finally realizing that Mauer's 51 RBIs don't belong in the 3-6 spots in the lineup. He's getting on base better than anyone though, so I'm fine with him in the 2 hole...I've always thought it was his best place. But even with Sano out of the lineup, there's no reason he should bat in the power spots.
The Castro injury hurts a lot...pitchers' ERA is about 1 1/2 runs higher with Gimenez catching. If he and Sano can come back healthy and productive, this team could end up in a wild card game.
longstrangetrip wrote:I'm enjoying watching a Sunday afternoon game after being on the road and not able to watch for a week...up 6-2 and looks like a good chance for another win and holding on to that second playoff spot for another day.
It's fun that guys who have not helped that much throughout the season (Gibson, Buxton and Polanco to name three) are really helping this month. Today's lineup has 7 players batting under .260 and no one over .300, so timely hitting, power and pitching is how they are going to stay in this race. I'm glad Mollie is finally realizing that Mauer's 51 RBIs don't belong in the 3-6 spots in the lineup. He's getting on base better than anyone though, so I'm fine with him in the 2 hole...I've always thought it was his best place. But even with Sano out of the lineup, there's no reason he should bat in the power spots.
The Castro injury hurts a lot...pitchers' ERA is about 1 1/2 runs higher with Gimenez catching. If he and Sano can come back healthy and productive, this team could end up in a wild card game.
I saw somewhere Gimenez and Gibson have a pretty good era together so that's a positive. Somehow I missed that Castro was on the DL. That makes sense why Garver has been getting so much time.
