Thursday's Thoughts

Tragedy in Minneapolis

I'm sure everyone has heard about the I-35W bridge which crosses the Mississippi River in Minneapolis which collapsed around 6:00 pm on Wednesday Night. The cause of the collapse is currently unknown, but the speculation is that it's due to the construction that was being done on the bridge. There are reports of 50 vehicles that are in the water and there is a report of 6 deaths at this point that have been confirmed. I send my thoughts and prayers out to everyone and their families that are affected by this. Hopefully there are no more deaths.

This is a horrible tragedy.

And in regards to the Twins, La Velle E. Neal III said that the Twins let the game go on as schedule so that it would "lessen traffic stress on the area. That way, first response teams can get in and out of the area."

But in regards to tomorrow's afternoon game and groundbreaking ceremony, those have both been postponed.

Writen by Joe Christensen, Twins president Dave St. Peter said this about the status of this weekends games:

“In terms of the weekend, we have not made any decisions about the Indians series,” St. Peter said. ”We’ll deal with those one day at a time. Right now we’re focused on tonight and tomorrow and hopefully a lot of prayers and thoughts go out to those families who are impacted by this.”

Twins Notes

Rincon, Twins lose to Royals.

It's hard to write about the Twins with an event like that happenening so close to home. I will do just a brief recap of the game.

Boof Bonser 7 solid innings. Allowing just 2 runs on 8 K's. The Twins had a 3-2 lead (courtesy of 2 RBI's by Jason Kubel and 1 by Jason Bartlett) until the 8th inning when a leadoff single, later advancing to second along with a bad play by Lew Ford and a wild pitch by Matt Guerrier let the game tied, 3-3. The run was charged to Pat Neshek.

Later we went to extra innings when Juan Rincon gave up a game-winning 2-run HR to Alex Gordon to put the Royals ahead, 5-3.

The Twins couldn't counter and the hopes of a 3 game sweep against the Royals was gone.

Jason Kubel went 2-4 with 2 RBI's. Newbies, Brian Buscher went 1-2 with a run scored, and Alexi Casilla went 1-4. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Torii Hunter all had 1 hit each.

With the Thursday game being postponed, the next scheduled game will be on Friday when C.C. Sabathia and Matt Garza get to have a rematch of Sunday's matchup. Although, I do think that Matt Garza's start may be pushed back a day to allow Johan Santana to pitch on (somewhat) regular schedule. Should be an interesting couple of days for the Twins and the Twins Cities.


Santana and others Speak out.

In Wednesday's paper, Joe Christensen wrote an article about some of the reactions (Johan Santana's in particular) about the events that went on during the trade deadline.

He said:

"You always talk about future, future. ... But if you only worry about the future, then I guess a lot of us won't be part of it."

"Why waste time when you're talking about something that's always going to be like that? It's never going to be beyond this point. It doesn't make any sense for me to be here, you know?"

Howard Sinker has a great opinion of the situation (along with a great title), "Kwityerbitchin’andsticktopitchin’"

But all that I am going to say is that right now, unless the Twins rebound and make it to the playoffs or unless Terry Ryan adds a guy like Kevin Millar (leader, someone who could help, good clubhouse guy), it looks slimer and slimer that Torii Hunter and Johan Santana will be apart of our future plans. I will say that a lot of them are just very upset right now and that they'll likely cool off with time, but that's just an optimistic view of the situation.

I think that if the Twins don't resign Torii Hunter, Johan Santana will not come back and the Twins will likely have to look to a team like the Yankees to trade some high-profile prospects like Phil Hughes, Jose Tabata and/or Joba Chamberlain.

I will hate it if it came to that point, but it's looking like a real possibility at this point.

Minor League Scores

Rochester Red Wings lost to the Syracuse Chiefs, 6-2.

Kevin Slowey allowed just 1 earned run (and one unearned run) in 6 innings of work. He wasn't struck out 3 and walked 2 while throwing 102 pitches. Carmen Cali who has been great as of late, allowed 2 runs (1 unearned) in one inning of relief. Jay Sawatski gave up 2 more in another inning of relief. Jose Morales had two hits to go along with his 27th RBI, and Tommy Watkins drove in RBI #42. Darnell McDonald had 2 hits, one being his 25th double. Doug Deeds hit his 2nd triple of the season.

New Britain Rock Cats lost to the Erie Sea Wolves, 5-0.

Oswaldo Sosa continued to progress in his starts, this time he allowed 3 runs (1 earned) in 7 innings of work. Jose Mijares did his part by pitching 1 inning of scoreless relief and Angel Garcia gave up 2 in his inning of relief. The only batters to get hits were Garrett Guzman, Matt Moses and Brandon Roberts.

Ft. Myers Miracle lost to the Dunedin Blue Jays, 2-1. (Game 1)

Jay Rainville pitched a good game, he went 6 innings and gave up just 1 run while striking out 9. David Shinskie came on in relief and gave up an unearned run to lose his 4th game of the season. Erik Lis drove in the only run. Luis Ugueto and Steven Tolleson both had 2 hits each.

Ft. Myers Miracle lost to the Dunedin Blue Jays, 3-1. (Game 2)

Zach Ward lost his 15th game of the season by allowing 3 runs over 5 innings. Rob Delaney pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief and struck out 4 batters in the process. Brian Dinkelman had 2 hits. Chris Woodward hit a triple in the 6th with one out, but was not able to score.

Beloit Snappers beat the Fort Wayne Wizards, 5-4.

Finally a win for the System! Alex Burnett gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in 4 innings of work. Danny Vais blew a save in the 9th by giving up a game tying HR. AGAIN Anthony Slama was not braught into the game and AGAIN Danny Vais blew a save. I hope the Snappers will not let history repeat itself again anytime soon. Luckily Aaron Craig and Jose Lugo (finally) stepped up to hold the Wizards in the extra innings. Eli Tintor and Wilson Ramos both had 3 hits but Ramos drove in 2 runs (including a game-winning triple) compared to Tintor's 1 run. Garrett Olson went 2-6 with his 13th double of the season. Chris Parmelee broke out of an 0-16 slump with an RBI single in the 3rd inning. Joe Benson (who on the otherhand has been great recently) continued to improve by going 1-3.

GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox.

Game postponed due to rain.

Elizabethton Twins beat the Princeton Rays, 5-3.

Mike Tarsi pitched 6 innings and only gave up 1 unearned run in the process. Bradley Tippett pitched 3 no-hit innings of relief to improve to 5-0. Blair Erickson allowed 1 run in the 9th but picked up his 4th save of the season. Ozzie Lewis had 2 RBI's to go allowing with 3 hits and 2 runs scored. Greg Yersich also had 3 hits (2 which were doubles) and drove in his 15th RBI. Rene Leveret and the hot hitting, Rene Tosoni, both had 2 hits each.