caulfield12

Couldn't quite get enough on the throw. Ramirez ALWAYS hustles. And Lambert and the Robert foul balls will possibly be the story of this game, in the end.

Knew it.

It's going to be one those fluky infield hits, isn't it?

Well, at least next year we have Diekman, Crochet AND Bummer... This bullpen all year.

LaRussa would walk Ramirez here to load the bases? That just seems foolhardy, but...

Feels like there's one big chance here and then the same hitters possibly against Hendriks if they can hold the lead these two innings...

The most expensive bullpen in baseball and still have Lambert pitching the 7th. That bridge inning in Cease starts is always tough to cover...if he can only go 5-6 innings.

Another long bullpen game likely. Robert finally showing some signs of being demonstrative out there in CF...wonder where that attitude was the entire season?

Great start to this one...

MERKIN'S MUSINGS The White Sox won’t say it, sticking to a day-by-day philosophy, but they need a three-game sweep of the Guardians (Tuesday-Thursday). Although with the way the AL Central has played out this season, it would be more plausible for Chicago to lose the series and still somehow be in contention during the final weekend of the regular season. I might have asked this before in the newsletter, but where do you make changes next year with the White Sox? They need to be better defensively and more balanced from the left-handed-hitting side. I’ve talked about finding different ways to score beyond the home run, but as was pointed out to me recently, they have potential speed if everyone is healthy Merkin's Musings, mlb.com

And it’s not as if Menechino suddenly remembered how to share his message once again in these past three weeks. “You know what you are signing up for,” Menechino told me during a weekend interview in Detroit. “You know what the job requires and all the criticism that comes with it and all that. It doesn’t bother me. “I mean, that’s what I signed up for. It’s a hard job. You have to do it every day. "Even when your team is red hot, you still have four or five guys that aren’t hitting well. It’s a day-to-day grind and you have to love it to do it. I got too much to worry about what I have to take care of and do to worry about what people think I should do.” Manager Tony La Russa left the White Sox for health reasons on Aug. 30, which just happened to coincide with when this hot streak and power burst began. I asked Menechino if the change in production had anything to do with a managerial change, to which Menechino responded, “I don’t know. You would have to ask the players on that one.” When asked a follow-up about the general philosophy staying the same as under La Russa, meaning the same basic message/approach, Menechino added, “I guess.” “Everyone is doing the same amount of work. Everyone is doing everything they have been doing all year long,” said Menechino with an overview of the offense. “It’s coming down to, ‘Hey, it’s time to go,’ and guys are bearing down, and guys have focused in and concentrated more. “You can never explain it. It’s not something where you can say, ‘Let’s just do this and this will be fine.’ So, they get it when they get it, and it comes when it comes, and it goes when it goes. That’s the nature of the beast.” Any feeling of vindication isn’t part of Menechino’s daily work. “I’m only happy when I’m pissed,” Menechino said. “The real thing is, I don’t really enjoy the good times, or the bad times don’t really bother me. At the end of this season, I look back and see what can I do to improve next year. “Even as a player, I really didn’t enjoy it when I did good. I’m happy with the players doing good. When they do good, it’s contagious. When they do good, we win.”    Scott Merkin, mlb.com

"There’s no way around the role injuries played in the Twins’ struggles. They’ve placed an AL-high 31 players on the injured list for more than 2,000 total days, and in the biggest series of the season they trotted out half of a Triple-A roster, without Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, Tyler Mahle, Royce Lewis, Max Kepler, Ryan Jeffers, Trevor Larnach, Alex Kirilloff and many others. That’s been the case all season, and it would be silly to deny the reality of how damaging that many injuries can be to a team’s ability to remain in contention. But it would be equally silly to suggest the injuries should excuse losing nine of 10 to the Guardians, or four months spent playing like the Royals and Tigers. Injuries are the reason for some things, not the excuse for everything. Twins outfielders have hit an AL-worst .202 with a .585 OPS since Aug. 1, including .167 in September, yet they didn’t call up top outfield prospect Matt Wallner from Triple-A St. Paul until their playoff odds were single digits. Lack of spending is no longer a valid excuse, either. This season’s $140 million payroll is exactly average among MLB teams and ranks second-highest in the AL Central. Cleveland is likely going to win the division with a payroll under $70 million, spending half as much as the Twins. It’s not the payroll available to the front office that’s the problem. It’s how they’ve spent it." theathletic.con aaron gleeman

Final countdown.

“We played our best baseball so far this year, and we're doing it in all facets of the game,” Quantrill said. “Head to Chicago here and have a good series there and close this thing out.” Winners of 12 out of their last 15 now. Pretty incredible. Quantrill 4-0 on the month. Thanks Preller. Against the Twins this year? We won that season series 13-6.#ForTheLand | #GuardiWinspic.twitter.com/WmEPjbcoq9 — Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) September 19, 2022 Three wins against Twins accomplished in walk off fashion.

Baserunning, bullpen, constant pressure on opponents and the will to win. Ramirez and Gimenez are far and away their two best hitters. Thanks, Mets.

Right call on Rodon though.

https://www.mlb.com/news/scott-harris-tigers-president-of-baseball-operations

If not there’s old Brad Banks and Drew Tate vs. LSU Holiday Bowl highlights.

Just change allegiance to Chiefs. Living there a decade of terrible QB’s and post season heartbreak is one qualification.

Like Cardinals last year near end

that would BE 3-4 blown bases loaded situations six walk off wins this year, half, three against the Twins alone this season

Season over.

Earlier this month....err last night. Wow. Urshela with great play but hurt.

With such high caliber defense and base running.