On Pablo López Night, López gets hurt; a forearm strain from a dive to make a defensive play. The Twins’ bullpen ain’t great. Inning-by-inning notes:
1: Stephen Kwan, who went to college in Oregon but attended high school at a place called Washington but is in California, so not confusing at all, any of that, breaks up the perfect game with his leadoff single. Which one of you started talking about it too early and JINXED EVERYTHING? Pablo walks José Ramírez, a flyout advances both runners, and both score
on a single by .188-batting Bo Naylor. Hooray. Guardians 2-0
2: Radio going on about Joe Charboneau, who was originally drafted by Minnesota, but traded to Cleveland after getting into a barroom brawl in the minors. (Heck, I though that was almost REQUIRED of minor-leaguers back in the 1970s.) He got stabbed by a fan at an exhibition game in Mexico, won the Rookie of the Year award in 1980 (not exactly over stellar competition), and was out of MLB by 1983. Kris Atteberry says he was in The Natural, and yup, IMDb backs this up.
Is this worth discussing on radio? I guess so.
3: The Twins aren’t scoring and have six strikeouts already. I guess Parker Messick is the short Randy Johnson now. Pablo makes a slick defensive play.
4: Now Dan Gladden is discussing the unibrow of former Cardinals player Wally Moon. OK. He does have one.
5: Pablo is gone after throwing 61 pitches. Gladden says “we don’t want to speculate.” I will. It’s incurable Space Herpes. Cody Lawyerson is now pitching. I have no clue who this guy is. If he’s named for his father’s profession, as in Olde English, then his dad works for Meshbesher & Spence. Or is a civil rights attorney. You never know.
6: Austin Martin gets on the only way the Twins can against this guy; on a Messick error. So Martin gets to second. Luke Keaschall doubles, but Martin thought it was gonna be caught; he gets to third. And scores on a WP! Infield in, first batter, it works; for Royce Lewis, it doesn’t. This baby is all tied up. Lewis steals second; Trevor Larnach comes in to PH with two out. IBB; Ed Julien comes in. It doesn’t work; still 2-2
7: It’s All the Kodys, or at least another one. Funderburk pitching. He gives up the leadoff double to Gabriel Arias. Because Pareda was catching and pinch-hit for, Mickey Gasper is now doing that job. Gasper can’t corral a two-out WP and Arias gets to third, but Kody strikes the last guy out. Hooray for all Quodeez.
Jakob Junis now pitching for Cleveland; hey, a pitcher I’ve actually heard of! He is better than the Twins hitters here.
8: Cole “Alberta Tar” Sands in for the Twinsers. I thought he was the closer now? I guess not. With two outs, Ramírez doubles, and Atteberry thinks he’s gonna steal third’ Gladden doubts it with two outs. But he does. Here’s why:
The Twins IBBed Kyle Manzardo after Ramírez’s steal. And that means Manzardo can steal second against a guy who’s not usually a catcher. (He can’t throw to second, or Ramírez might take home.) And then Naylor singles both guys in. Oh, well. Former Spiders 4-2
9: Michael Tonkin, he of the three teams last year, gives up the leadoff single and WPs the guy to second. Brayan Rocchio doubles him in. Kwan doubles him in. The Guardians are the lowest-scoring team in baseball; not tonight. Cade Smith shuts the proverbial door. Twims lose (yes, we spell it wrong here sometimes).
Studs of the game? Um, Lewis, I guess. López for the great play, but alas, it messed him up. Duds of the game? The bullpenners not named Lawyeryson and Funderburk.
COTG go to Matt for explaining that the OK Computer album cover is a freeway interchange in Connecticut, BobbyDarwinFanClub for relating how Joe Charboneau crapped all over the city of Cleveland, and nagurskiinnortheast for identifying the true nature of our existential reality. Thanks to everyone on the gamethread, you folks are fun!
Tomorrow’s game is at 1:10 (weather permitting) and features something called a Slade Cecconi against our own Deadhead, Joe Ryan. Enjoy the weekend if ya got one, folks!
