Twins!!

Last night, Odorizzi was better than Verlander.

Adrianza hit the Twins 50th home run of the season, and with another strong bullpen performance the Twins won 1-0.

We still have 3 more with the Astros.

Go Twins!!!

Twins!!

Two home runs, another great start. Solid relief.

We face Verlander again, today. As good as the Twins have been, I'd like to see them compete with him today. This is the difference between good and great.

Go Twins!!!

Twins!!

Five more home runs, 2 by Kepler.

14 strikeouts by the pitching staff.

I can't believe how much fun the Twins are this season. There has never been a Twins' squad remotely like this. There have been eras of this type of power (Allison, Oliva, Killebrew), (Puckett, Brunansky, Gaetti, Hrbek) but I've never seen so many home runs from so many in the order so often.

And even though the pitching staff looks unsettled every few games, the number of strikeouts is also amazing.

Most games, most INNINGS are worth watching. And I AM watching. I just hope this can continue against better teams like Houston. If it does, we might be in it for the long haul this season.

Go Twins!!

Twins!!

5 home runs, TWO by Cruz, and Rosario now leads the American League with 11 (2nd in RBI).

Plus, Perez was great in his start.

Go Twins!

Marvel Universe

I know the Marvel movies over the last decade aren't everyone's cup of tea, but this weekend, the grand finale hits theaters worldwide. Most experts and critics expect Avengers: Endgame to break every conceivable box office record when all is said and done.

What's nice is that the movies have been very, very good. And they deserve that kind of attention.

I'm looking forward to the ending AND what comes next.

Go Marvel!

Go Twins!!

Verlander Better Than Twins

That was a good game to skip.

Twins Lose

At least it wasn't close.

Twins!!!

Polanco, 4 hits, including a two-run blast.

Odorizzi, just 2 earned runs in the start.

Four wins in a row for the team. (13-7 for the year. The season is 1/8 over.)

Wooo!!!

Twins!!

That ninth inning was rough, but...

TWINS win!

Enthusiasm is back.

Go Twins!!

Twins!!!!

Wow.

What a Saturday of baseball.

Two wins. ELEVEN home runs, and Rosario now has 9 homers and 20 RBI in just 18 games.

AND

I got to listen to Jim Kaat and Bert Blyleven on commentary the entire time.

I forgot how much I enjoyed baseball.

WOW!!

Double Header Today

At least they didn't lose Friday night...

Twins Lose Three Out of Four at Home

To Toronto.

Slowly losing interest...

The Viking Experience

One of the best NXT tag teams has recently been promoted to WWE RAW.

The problem is that with the location change Vince decided to give this Viking Warrior team a new name.

They were originally called War Machine, but that probably got them into trademark trouble with Marvel Comics. It was also a nickname of one of their older wrestlers,  Rhyno (that spelling is correct).

They became War Raiders. Not as good a name, but at least no one had trademark problems with it.

They decided on "The Viking Experience" when they debuted on RAW Monday night.

Fans laughed. The name sounds like a silly Disney fun park ride. Or a honeymoon suite room at  a cheap Vegas brothel.

I'm just giving you a list of names I came up with, off the top of my head, that are not worse than that name.

Dozens more variations of these names could also be made.

I just needed to say something.

Heirs of Odin

Lost Sons of Odin

Last Sons of Odin

Heirs of Asgard

Lost Sons of Asgard

Last Sons of Asgard

Thunder Raiders 

Night Raiders

Dark Raiders

Ragnarok’s Forgotten

Ragnarok

Warriors of Ragnarok

Sons of Blood and Thunder

Sons of Drums and Thunder

Heirs of Thunder

Twins!

Almost an hour of rain delay.

The Twins beat Toronto 4-1.

Odorizzi had 5 2/3 good innings. The bullpen did not fail.

FINALLY.

Polanco? Two more hits. He's now batting .429.

One Bad Inning

The sixth.

Another loss.

8 Great Innings

And lousy relief in the eighth.

Twins!

Those last two innings of relief were excruciating

BUT

those last two strikeouts made it all worthwhile.

The Twins seem way better than I imagined, and guys like Polanco and Buxton are on fire.

Enthusiastic but cautious. And really enjoying the season so far.

Twins!

Going into last night, the Twins were the least walked team in baseball.

At the same time, they were fourth in hitting.

Last night, they only had 5 hits. BUT they were patient enough to draw SEVEN walks.

Result? One BIG inning by putting both things together at once.

Great relief pitching did the rest.

By the time it was all over, the Twins found themselves all alone atop the division.

And Berrios piches today.

I refuse to get too enthusiastic knowing its still a Minnesota team, but I've watched more Twins baseball this year so far  than all of last year combined.

They're starting to become a habit.

And they are scheduled to play (weather permitting) 24 of the next 25 days.

The next 3 1/2 weeks should tell us a lot more about who this team is.

And right now, I'm looking forward to it.

Go Twins!!

Chris Davis

Does anybody remember Chris Davis of the Orioles?

The guy hit 53 homers in 2013 and led the majors in home runs again in 2015 with 47. He's had 2 other seasons with more than 30.

The Orioles signed him to a 7-year year $150 million deal at the end of 2015.

He hit .165 last season.

And going back to LAST season, he currently has a 53 straight at-bats without a hit.

No player (who plays a position other than pitcher) in the majors has ever done that before.

There are ways that teams have wasted money over the years, but very few have wasted it like Baltimore this time.

.165 was bad last year.

.000 is worse this season.

Twins Postponed

So MLB baseball starts the regular season earlier than usual, and the Twins have an open air stadium.

What happens when the Twins are scheduled to open on Friday night after a three-day Minnesota snowstorm?

The game gets postponed.

I hate Target field.

It might be a nice facility for playing baseball when the weather's nice, but it's a really good way to wreck your pitching staff with all the snow and rainouts throughout the season.

There's a really good reason that the Twins never won a World Series until they played indoors.

There's a really good reason that they may never win another.

It's hard to be your best when weather forces you to compromise. Those compromises catch up with you. And the difference between being the best and being pretty good has always been a game or two.

Awful Pitching

That was an awful game.

Enough said.

Twins!!!

The Twins have beat two recent Cy Young award winners already this year.

Jacob deGrom, last night, was just the latest.

They also hit SIX home runs.

9 games do not make a season, but a 6-3 record at this point is far more than I was expecting.

Go Twins!!!!!

A Number One Seed Wins!

Remind me again why nearly 70 teams are in this tournament...

One Pitch

The hardest thing about watching baseball is that a single pitch can change the outcome of a game.

The Twins were up 1-0.

One pitch later, they were down 2-1.

The last 3 innings were merely delaying the inevitable.

sigh

Twins!

Great pitching.

Home runs (3)!

Byron Buxton.

Now 5-2 on the season.

And I saw most of it.

Woooo!!!!

Jorge Polanco Hits For the Cycle!

But the Twins lost 10-4.

I missed it, watching the NXT Takeover special instead. Now, THAT was incredible.

I always know that the NXT people will do an unbelievable job, and last night could have been their best. Watching it with my nephews made it even better!

Twins Stats

For a team expected to hit home runs:

ONE in five games.

I'm not worried. Cleveland's pitching staff is fantastic. And Kaufman Stadium in KC is the hardest in all of baseball to hit home runs. AND it's been on the cold side.

The Twins are 2nd in the league in doubles and 3rd in slugging percentage. And there are lots of games left.

Oh, and did I mention that they're 4-1?

I am afraid I won't watch much Twins this weekend, however. It's Wrestlemania weekend. A PPV tonight (NXT), the Hall of Fame ceremony tomorrow, and Wrestlemania's 7-hour show on Sunday.

Yes, the WWE  is hard to watch right now, but this weekend is like Super Bowl weekend for wrestling fans. I'll just sit back and try to sustain by disbelief.

(Though NXT tonight should be as great as ever...)

Twins Rally Late! Win!

If nothing else, the Twins are worth watching so far this year.

I can't turn off most games early, because, let's face it, the fat lady hasn't had many opportunities to sing as yet at Twins games this year.

Buxton. Hurt. Needed in the ninth? Check. Pinch runs, steals second, scores on the hit by Rosario.

Win.

Wow, this is really fun.

Also fun? Watching the roley poley Willians Astudilla hit. You'd never guess by looking that he is a ball player. I mentioned him about a month ago, but actually seeing him a game is pretty cool.

The Twins MAY come down to Earth this weekend. They are playing at Philly who now feature some of the very best players in baseball.

It's a test to be sure.

Go Twins!!

Twins!

They squandered a "bases loaded with no outs" situation in the seventh that could have broken the game wide open, yet still won it in the 10th.

Go Twins!!!

Standings

The Twins, still tied for first, face the other team in first tonight.

Twins!

2-1 on the season.

The starters have only given up ONE run in three games, and the staff has 39 strikeouts in three games.

Yesterday? The offense finally arrived!!!

Go Twins!!!