Something’s off with the guy I root for a whole lot.
Our favorite Air Force guy goes down in flame again, wasting a decent Chris Paddack outing. Ugh. Inning-by-inning notes:
1: Good crowd at Truist Field overall, but not so much in the pricey seats behind home plate.
Two pitches mean two Twins outs. Ty France at least makes Bryce Elder throw a few more. 10 more, in fact! And takes the walk. Tres bien. Trevor Larnach pushes up that pitch count before the inevitable K. He’s really struggling right now. Fix him, John Foley!
Nice defence by 3B Brooks Lee for the second out!
2: Carlos Correa also swings at the first pitch, and gets a double. Ryan Jeffers gets another! Rookie Luke Keaschall golf-swings one to right, first MLB base hit and RBI! And his first steal! Unfortunately he is no relation to Supreme Vampiric Council chair Kristen Schaal.
Apple talking to Chris Sale. Just a reminder how much Jerry Reinsdorf has s**t on the White Sox the last few years. This conversation lasts FOREVER.
You can’t assume a double play, but Eddie Julien makes a poop throw which keeps the inning alive. Then Carlos makes a poop throw on a routine grounder! This De Fence is Deez Nuts right now. Paddack gets out of it, but throws 15 extra pitches he shouldn’t have had to. Twins 2-0
3: Foley must have fixed Larnach! He has home score hit run. First dong of the year for Trevs.
Chris Paddack walks off the mound after out #3 glowering like Danny McBride in Eastbound and Down. Our big tough menacing Twinkies 3-0
4: Keaschall doubles Brooks Lee to third! Then, contact play, Lee out. F**K PUTTING ON THE CONTACT PLAY WITH NOBODY OUT I HATE THAT. Julien with a short flyout to center, but Luke’s too fast for Michael Harris II’s arm!
Home ump Lance Barrett takes a foul right off the face mask. Why do we endanger umps this way? Is Manfred a moron? It’s a rhetorical question.
Ozzie Albies BARELY beats out a good Correa throw for the first Atlanta hit. Sean Murphy gets the second. Paddack gets out of it on a popup, but that’s 69 pitches for him, which means we’re getting at least four innings of the Best Bullpen in Baseball, uh-oh. Minnesoterans 4-0
5: 90 pitches for Elder, which means he’s probably done. Too bad.
Apple says the Twins’ injuries are a “M*A*S*H unit.” The TV show or Altman classic?
Jarred Kelenic homers. Paddack strikes out the next guy on 97 MPH. Definite Kenny Powers fired up. Great stop by Correa to end things, good side 4-1
6: I feel like I’ve seen Aaron Bummer forever. He used to be a ChiSoxer, and the Twins used to play division opponents 1000000 times per season, so those seven seasons were forever, in a way.
TBBIB time; my townie neighbor Louis Varland. (Unless he lives in Edina or whatever now.) He walks a guy with two outs, and has very Thikk thighs. 98 on the black for Strike Three, good Louis.
7: I didn’t know Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia! Good Apple TV, for once. One of the many De Los Santos-es gets the Twins in order.
Danny Electric Charge Coulombe for the Twins. A leadoff single but nothing else.
8: De Los George Santos still in. Throws basically fastballs and this basically works.
TBBIB now featuring CAPT Griffin Jax, USAF. He’s been scuffling, to put it mildly. A one-out walk to Ozuna; Matt Olson singles him to third. Infield hit; Ozuna scores. Jax walks them full.
Sands in; Harris II ties the game. A Baldwin who wasn’t in Hunt For Red October knocks in two. Then somehow the inning ends. Atlanta 6-4
9: Raisel Iglesias sings “To All The Twins I’ve Stopped Before.” Twins lose
Studs: Keaschall’s fun debut and 1977 Mark Hamill hair, Correa’s batting (2-3, 1 BB), Paddack’s decent start
Duds: Oh, Griffin, baby, baby…
Comments of the gamethread: imakesandwichesforaliving with “Jax needs to work in mop-up duty for a bit”; Nagurskiinsandpoint correctly describing a certain former Minnesota sports figure’s rotten behavior; Kirillofffan19 correctly identifying what’s terrible about comments on Daily Norseman (while praising the site’s writers, as is right).
Lousy comments of the gamethread: People who show up late in the thread to throw poop in a very Daily Norseman way at the Twins for losing (and no, SooFoo, I don’t mean you, of course). I understand your frustration, and I share it. But when you pop in at the end of a gamethread that the rest of us have been on for three hours, just to chime in with your negative comments, it feels like you’re trolling us. And I don’t think that’s what you intend. So, next time, could you wait to make those comments on the recap, instead? Be as angry with the team as you like, but don’t show up just to bum out us gamethreaders. The recap’s more of the place for that.
That said, thanks to you other folks for being on the thread, it was fun! Until the game went to heck.
Tomorrow’s game will be Simeon of the Long Name against Mr. long-winded interview himself, Chris Sale, at 6:15 Central.