SoxBlanco

Interesting mix of capital O’s and zeros.

Bump. Another solid effort from Ryan in a big spot. Love it.

Hitting is contagious.

Wrong!!

If the over/under for Yermin’s hits today was 0.5, I’d be taking the over!

My first thought after reading the initial post was, “Wow, this is a @Chicago White Sox style game thread. Let’s f***ing GO!”

The most impressive thing is that he has an ERA of 0.0 AND 0.38. That’s tough to do.

Big win. If you could go back and change the final score of the game to 7-3, where our bullpen shut them down, would you do it? Or would you rather have it play out exactly like it did? I guess it’s a question of which is more important: Confidence of the guys in the pen or excitement/momentum that a game like that can give our club moving into the next series.

I don’t think that scenario is very plausible. With 55 hits, I don’t think there’s any way that only 5 are of the extra base variety.

Agreed. I think there’s about a 30% chance he calls it a strike. Either way, awful pitch to swing at in that situation. I just posted it in case people were curious exactly where the pitch was.

The pitch actually had the corner of the “strike zone box”. Terrible pitch to swing at 2-0, and it might have been called a ball, but it was not 3 inches outside.

Sore thumb. Just getting more rest.

This is exactly what I’ve heard. So it doesn’t need to touch the back of the glove, right? Who said that?

Do you have a link to that rule?

That’s what I always thought and what makes the most sense, but that’s why what an announcer said (maybe Benetti?) is sticking out to me. I was surprised when I heard it.

On a close play at first base, is the runner out when the ball enters the glove or when the ball touches the back of the glove? I swear I have heard announcers say it just needs to enter the glove, but I can’t find an official rule on that through my various Google searches. Anybody have a link for that rule?

I’m not stating it fact, but I can see how it reads that way. There are some arguments where I can see both sides. But for this argument, I am completely on one side. So I ABSOLUTELY think he should have swung. I’m not on the fence about it.

Once the Twins put a guy out there throwing 47 mph lob balls, then all bets were off. Yermin absolutely should have been swinging there. Taking a walk would be like taking a walk in slow-pitch softball when your team is up by 10 runs. That should be more frowned upon than swinging 3-0. If Yermin had grounded out on the 3-0 swing, there would be zero issue and the Twins would probably be happy that he swung. It's a classic case of judging the result instead of the process. Having said that, I also absolutely think Yermin needs to listen to his signs. He was given the take sign, so he needs to take. The problem is that he should have never been given the take sign to begin with.

Done!

I've been called upon to start the game thread early. Let the discussion begin. Hoping Rodon uses that strategy where he doesn't give up any runs. Or maybe even the one where he doesn't give up any hits. Both have seemed to work this year.

Boom! Great pitching combo today. Best Liam has looked with that slider.

Time for Giolito to step up after that brutal loss. Be an ace, Lucas. Big game.

Who is this Granite guy, and should I be intrigued? A quick google search of his age tells me I should not be.

The crazy thing about the Yermin home run is that as I was watching, I felt like taking a walk on four pitches would be more frowned upon. When it got to a 3-0 count, I was thinking, "Alright Yermin, swing the bat." When the guy is just lobbing it up there and you take a walk while up by so many runs, it would feel like a football team kicking a field goal in the 4th quarter while up 42-0. At some point, it's better to just go for it on 4th down. That's how I felt about Yermin's at bat. Having said that, I don't think a team/player should ever feel bad about something because of how many runs they are up. Mercedes should be able to take a walk or hit a 3-0 home run whenever he wants to. If the other team doesn't like it, then don't get down by so many runs next time.