Mauer gonna get all those required PAs tonight, looks like. I think he is currently 4 short from qualifying.

Was at the game. Pretty depressing loss but you can't really do anything but hand it to the Tigers. Given that Slowey got shelled we were lucky to even be in it, and we got a lot of encouraging bullpen performances. Delmon Young looks like he's decided to start hitting too.

Slowey has an injured wrist and goes to the DL. Twins recall Swarzak. Which, imo, is surprising given how the bullpen was used up last night. Why not call up a reliever for 4 days and then call up Swarzak when it's his turn to start?

Our 40-man options were Armando Gabino and Jesse Crain. But, our 40-man roster only holds 39 players and two of those (Bonser and Neshek) don't count if we don't want them to. So adding a player to the 40-man wouldn't have been a problem.

Evidently Sean Henn was designated for assignment, passed thru waivers and then accepted assignment to AAA when his roster move happened. I guess he was out of options. He's currently not on the 40-man roster.

gardenhire said that swarzak will be used as a reliever for a while until slowey's spot in the rotation gets close (maybe there's an off day that will allow them to skip him one time around?)

The all star break is coming up, so Swarzak can work in the bullpen for a few games.

Also, FU Magglio.

ugh god liriano was throwing great too

even worse is it was magglio's ****ty ass that hit it

Mauer needs 5 PA in tonights game to finally have enough on the season to qualify for the leaderboards. I dont think I'm gonna make my .400 thread with him hitting <.400 though, but as soon as he gets out of this slump and gets it back comfortably around .425, I'll start it. 4 PA gives him .6 less PA than necessary to qualify unless I made a mistake.

Batting stance guy = def. Morneau.

damn what a catch

from the charlie walters column:

imo, with no other AL pitcher having more than ten wins, if Slowey had made it to 12 wins he would have made the all-star team. Not saying that he would have deserved it, but that he would have made it.

Someone wake me when the Yankees leave town.

+1.

Our combination of playing horribly and running even worse against this team is absolutely ridiculous. At least this series it looks like we're just going to get our asses kicked every game instead of playing them really close and suffering a bunch of soulcrushing losses.

It's almost like we're scared of the Yankees or something. I know it sounds stupid but things like Span getting picked off 2nd base never seem to happen against any other team.

Broken bat, bloop and ground ball singling your way to a blowout isn't exactly intimidating. I'll go with running bad. Plus, you have to just groan at the thought of the Twins trying to hit Sabathia.

Punto watch:

Consecutive games with a walk: 6
Major league record: 22 Roy Cullenbine

Yeah I agree. It's just really hard for me to think rationally about the Yankees.

Also a big FU to that ump for calling the third strike on Harris in the 9th on a pitch that almost hit him. Not like he was going to get a hit anyways, but the last thing Rivera needs is help from the umps. I'm ready for the robot era personally.

Rivera was especially nasty tonight. That cutter was cutting big-time. I thought our only shot in the 9th was if the RH Harris was able to slice one over the baggie. It was just cutting to hard into the hands of LH hitters. Mauer did about the best he could and hit a weak liner to short to end the game.

It's so unreal that he has only one pitch and has been so awesome for so long..

a few notes about tonight:

- i'm generally a cuddyer hater defensively - i think he's a slightly below average RF with an outstanding arm who makes easy plays look hard most of the time, but that was legitimately a hell of a catch tonight. his only chance to catch it was to do exactly what he did.

- i'm a huge span fan but i think his intensity in the outfield was higher last year. i've seen multiple balls in CF this year that i feel like he has a chance on that he gives up on and plays off the wall fairly early (cuddyer is normally the king of that). tonight i'm thinking of the one pierzynski hit to RC. it probably would have taken a running leap into the wall, which is a very dangerous play, and who knows if he gets it anyway, but i know that he'll never know for sure when he puts the brakes on 25 feet from the ball. i think gomez and hunter both try to catch it everytime and usually get it. and it's not like it's a huge baseball gamble with AJ running and cuddyer right there.

- nice bunt by gomez. fun to watch. i know a lot of people would have moaned if it wouldn't have worked, but i don't know. i think bunting a lot is probably +EV for him considering metagame. he's a pretty crappy hitter

- i tilted so hard when bremer wouldn't stop with his amazement at putting in jenks in the bottom of the 8th sox down 1 since there was still a chance he could get a save if the sox got 2 in the top of the 9th.

I got tilted when it looked like Duensing was warming up for a high leverage 7th inning and then tilted when Gardy sent Blackburn out in the 7th, though he got a 1-2-3 inning. Blackburn did not have it tonite but was helped in the field by Crede twice, Harris, Cuddyer, his own catch on a liner, and a bunch of good to very good plays by Punto. It could have been a ton worse for him tonight without the defense.

MattyG's inning was a work of art. Every pitch looked to be exactly where he wanted it.

Also tilted that the Twins got their 4 runs in the first and then thought that was it for the night. Bats go a-slumbering when we, in times past, piled it on and put teams away.

Yeah, thank god we won or I'd still be bitching about this. Cuddyer getting picked off when their pitcher can't throw strikes or get any outs was especially brutal. We definitely had a shot to pretty much win the game there; thankfully we came out alive anyways.

Also, Mauer being in the HR derby is pretty lol. It's funny because I'm pretty sure he's capable of cranking some monster home runs and might catch people by surprise. I'm hoping Ichiro got in too, I was voting for him every time on the all star ballots.

Make sure Not Lolo doesn't find the thread.

Gardy brings in Duensing in a situation taylor made for Mijares. Clueless mgr decision.

And Gardy Completely butchers the pinchrunning substitutions at the end of the game when we are rallying. Down 3, runners on 2nd and 3rd, he pinchruns Tolbert for Crede at 2nd. His run means nothing so it's a wasted move. Buscher, pinchhitting for Gomez, then gets hit by a pitch and stays in the game to run for himself despite being a tank.

Morales, pinchhitting for Punto, then singles in 2 runs. Buscher stops at second. Because he's a tank. Almost everyone on the team makes it to third on that play, including Tolbert and Young. Gardy then pinchruns Young for Morales, leaving Butcher the tying run, the most important run of the inning out there at 2nd. Span GIDP's and game over.

Now. You leave Crede alone because that run doesn't matter because it'll take a few more hits to tie this anyway, so who cares if he only goes from second to third on a single. THEN you pr for Buscher and Tolbert gets to third on Morales's hit easily. Now if you want to pr Young for Morales, you can possible steal second on fielder indifference. Or all Span then needs is a flyball to the OF to tie it up instead of a basehit.

Just Butchery at the end. FIRE GARDY

before the season i thought cuddyer should be moved or even be the 4th OF. i was wrong - he's having a very effective season.

never thought i'd see gomez with 5 RBI in a game

It's funny to see our lineup put all these runs while Mauer has probably the worst game of his career.