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MLB: Big series this weekend

Bader

Bader

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Jul 25, 2007
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Well, when the Tiggers head West to the Dome this could very well decide the Central. Detroit has had so many opportunities to put the Twins/Pale Hose away, but haven't been able to do it. If the Twins can take 2/3 or sweep things get really exciting.

The Tiggers are down 5-0 to the Royals right now, and Grienke is looking good so far. Twinks could be back only 4 games coming into tomorrow.

Matchups:
Duensing(3.53 3-1) vs Porcello(4.21 13-8)
Pavano(4.91 12-11) vs Verlander(3.34 16-8)
Baker(4.35 13-8) vs Washburn(3.78 9-9)

Should be a couple great games, I've got tickets for Sat/Sun and might head over to the game Friday night with my bro
 
The Twins or the White Sox have to sweep Detroit at this point in the season to make up this much ground! Can't rely on other teams to beat Detroit if you aren't going to sweep them! Taking 2 out of 3 at this point only nets you 1 game in the standings...too late to do that! Gotta think sweep or gotta think about going home!

It seems weird that as a White Sox fan I will be rooting for the Twins to sweep the Tigers!
 
Bader said:
Matchups:
Duensing(3.53 3-1) vs Porcello(4.21 13-8)
Pavano(4.91 12-11) vs Verlander(3.34 16-8)
Baker(4.35 13-8) vs Washburn(3.78 9-9)
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The Twins seem to have their three best pitchers of late going up against the Tigers. Duensing has come out of nowhere to be solid in the rotation, Pavano has owned the Tigers back to when he was an Indian (and it has carried over), and Baker has all but become the ace of this staff. The Tigers are bringing in three of their best as well, although Washburn has been quite the disappointment since coming in from Seattle.

cyfanatic said:
The Twins or the White Sox have to sweep Detroit at this point in the season to make up this much ground! Can't rely on other teams to beat Detroit if you aren't going to sweep them! Taking 2 out of 3 at this point only nets you 1 game in the standings...too late to do that! Gotta think sweep or gotta think about going home!

It seems weird that as a White Sox fan I will be rooting for the Twins to sweep the Tigers!
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While a Twins sweep would do wonders for the team (they'd be just one game back if the 8-0 Royals lead holds up), even losing 2 of 3 doesn't put the Twins out of this thing. About the only thing that puts this thing out of reach is if the Tigers sweep the Twins in the Dome. Other than that, yes, if the Twins are going to push the Tigers for the division, this three game set is where they have to make their statement.
 
cyfanatic said:
The Twins or the White Sox have to sweep Detroit at this point in the season to make up this much ground! Can't rely on other teams to beat Detroit if you aren't going to sweep them! Taking 2 out of 3 at this point only nets you 1 game in the standings...too late to do that! Gotta think sweep or gotta think about going home!

It seems weird that as a White Sox fan I will be rooting for the Twins to sweep the Tigers!
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I'm hoping for a repeat of the 2006 regular season - any Tigers/White Sox fans remember what happened then?
 
Twins have their 3 best options going. Put up or shut up time. This team is amazing. Losing Morneau, Perkins, Blackburn, Crede, Neshek and still in the hunt.
 
jdoggivjc said:
Blackburn is fine (or at least last I checked). Don't you mean Slowley?
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I would assume he means Slowey, and Neshek has been gone for the last two years so the team hasn't been counting on him anyway(hanging out in Fort Myers the last 2 years trading baseball cards, rough life Pat)

Point still stands. Losing Morneau really hurts, but the team is 8-2 without him, so we'll see how long the rest of the order is able to pick up the slack.
 
Don't forget they lost Liriano too. Blackburn was great at the start of the year, but very inconsistent since. He was good a couple of days ago though, so we shall see.

You would think losing Morneau would hurt, but you can also look at the fact that for the last month he has not been much of a factor. In fact, it probably hurt to have him in the lineup more than it helped.

Tigers will be pitching their best in Verlander and Porcello. The Twins have beaten Verlander the last two times they have faced him. In fact, the last time they saw him they lit him up for 5 runs. The last time they faced Porcello at the Metrodome, they scored 6 runs off him in 4 innings. Washburn was injured in his last start, and is not likely to pitch this series. He will probably be replaced by Nate Robertson, but Robertson has been nursing a groin injury, so who knows?

Should be a great series. Hopefully the dome will be packed.
 
If the Twins sweep this weekend, they'll be 1 back heading out on a 10 game road trip before ending at home w/ the royals.

If this is really going to be a close race, the Twins will have to win some important road games.
 
They HAVE to get 2 of 3. If they don't, no chance left.
 
My blood pressure is rising just thinking about the remainder of this season......the Twins will probably sweep the Tigers and then lose 2 or 3 straight, then come back and get a couple games in a row and it will eventually come down to the Twins beating the Royals in the final game to tie with the Tigers and force a 1 game playoff in Detroit, where the Twins will then take a 5-0 lead by the 3rd inning only to end up giving it away in the end......Sound familiar Twins fans? :confused:

Regardless, I'll be cheering them on as usual and hope for the best - it would be great to have a playoff series in the final season of the Metrodome.
 
Jonecy said:
My blood pressure is rising just thinking about the remainder of this season......the Twins will probably sweep the Tigers and then lose 2 or 3 straight, then come back and get a couple games in a row and it will eventually come down to the Twins beating the Royals in the final game to tie with the Tigers and force a 1 game playoff in Detroit, where the Twins will then take a 5-0 lead by the 3rd inning only to end up giving it away in the end......Sound familiar Twins fans? :confused:

Regardless, I'll be cheering them on as usual and hope for the best - it would be great to have a playoff series in the final season of the Metrodome.
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Since the Twins currently lead the season series 7-4, and, in response to last year in which the Twins won the season series against the White Sox and still had to play the playoff in Chicago based on coinflip MLB changed the rule that the team that wins the season series hosts the playoff game, the Tigers would have to win 5 of the remaining 7 games against the Twins in order to host that one game playoff for the division if the division ends in a tie. Which means if the Twins sweep this series they own the tiebreaker. It also means if the Twins win 2 of 3 in this series, the Tigers will have to sweep in Detroit. Then again, if the Twins lose 5 of 7 to the Tigers down the stretch, they're not going to be in the position to get to the one game playoff anyway.

To summarize, based on MLB rule changes and the current situation, if the Twins and Tigers end in a tie at the end of the year, the playoff will be in Minnesota as Detroit can't win the tiebreaker from Minnesota without running away with the division itself.
 
FDWxMan said:
The Twins 74-72 record would have them over 10 games back in every single other division in the game. The geographic location of the team is what's amazing.

The team itself? Hopelessly mediocre? Underperforming?...just about any other unflattering adjective you can throw in there unfortunately.
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Thanks Sunshine. I saw a group of puppies outside playing if you want to go kick them or something.
 
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FDWxMan said:
The Twins 74-72 record would have them over 10 games back in every single other division in the game. The geographic location of the team is what's amazing.

The team itself? Hopelessly mediocre? Underperforming?...just about any other unflattering adjective you can throw in there unfortunately.
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My opinion? If the pitching staff as a whole didn't have their heads up their collective ***** from say about the All Star Break to about the midway point in August (well, except Baker, as he's basically been a stud during that time frame), the Twins might have run away with this division by now.

Yeah, the Twins are staying in the division because of the division's overall weakness as opposed to the team's overall strength. But then again, keep in mind that the St Louis Cardinals won the 2006 World Series powered by an 83-78 record, and the NL Central that year was just as weak as the AL Central is this year (the 2nd place Astros finished 82-80 and the 3rd place Reds finished 80-82). In fact, the Cardinals would have finished 3rd in the NL East, 3rd in the NL West, 4th in the AL East, 4th in the AL Central, and 3rd in the AL West in 2006. In other words, they wouldn't have even been the second best TEAM in any other division in baseball that year - yet they ended up winning the World Series that year.

What people seem to forget is winning the World Series isn't about being the best team in baseball that year - otherwise the Yankees would have won 6 of the last 8 World Series when they haven't won a single one. What it is all about is which of the 6 division winners + 2 teams can get on the hottest roll during the month of October. The way the Twins have been playing the last several weeks, there are some indications they could get on that kind of roll. They'd just have to get by the Tigers and Yankees first.
 
jdoggivjc said:
My opinion? If the pitching staff as a whole didn't have their heads up their collective ***** from say about the All Star Break to about the midway point in August (well, except Baker, as he's basically been a stud during that time frame), the Twins might have run away with this division by now.
QUOTE]

True, but that's the weird thing about this team that I've been so frustrated with...they haven't had a single good run all season where everything was clicking at the same time. Not ONCE. Either they were scoring runs but couldn't pitch...or they were pitching well, but couldn't score any runs.

Mauer Morneau and Kubel would be on fire, but the rest of the line-up would gag...and then Mauer had his slump a while back and it seemed like the other parts of the line up were coming around. There's just something missing from this team that has kept them from playing for more than about a week at a clip greater than .500 baseball. And I'm afraid the problem is going to require a 3 or 4 BIG patches rather than just that one extra guy that it seems like they've needed in years past.
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GeronimusClone said:
Thanks Sunshine. I saw a group of puppies outside playing if you want to go kick them or something.
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I know, I know. But I just don't want to get all sucked in again just to see them get completely smoked by Anaheim or Boston. Seriously, what is their record against the Angels the past 5 years or so 6-57?
 
FDWxMan said:
I know, I know. But I just don't want to get all sucked in again just to see them get completely smoked by Anaheim or Boston. Seriously, what is their record against the Angels the past 5 years or so 6-57?
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Meh whatever team that comes out of the Central is going to get smoked by the Yankees anyway.

At least this way I can catch maybe 1 playoff game in the Dome :wink:
 
...and the Twins take game 1 of the series, 3-0.

Seriously, who would have thought Duensing would have been as good in the rotation as he has been? If he keeps pitching like this, the Twins may have to find a spot in the rotation for him next year...
 
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