Radke feeds Tigers

[Durango53]

Radke seeks win as Twins eye sweep
Detroit (3-5) at Minnesota (5-3), 7:10 p.m. CT

The Twins will try to wrap up their three-game series vs. the Tigers with a sweep Thursday at the Metrodome.

Seeking his first victory, Brad Radke will start for Minnesota against Detroit left-hander Nate Robertson.

Radke was charged with five earned runs on six hits over 6 1/3 innings in an 8-5 loss to Chicago on Saturday. It was the first time he started a season 0-2 since 2000.

[Durango53]

Pitching matchup
MIN: RHP Brad Radkehttp://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/120878.jpg
• 0-2, 6.07 ERA in 2005
• 2-2, 6.75 ERA in 2004 vs. DET

DET LHP Nate Robertsonhttp://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/images/gameday/mugshots/425146.jpg
• 1-0, 1.29 ERA in 2005
• 1-1, 4.12 ERA in 2004 vs. MIN

[Durango53]

Player to watch
After a night off, Matthew LeCroy will be back starting at first base. It's a good matchup against Robertson -- he's 10-for-15 lifetime with two home runs and five RBIs off the Detroit hurler.

[Durango53]

Quotable
"We had a big night tonight. Hopefully we'll carry it over into tomorrow. That's all we can do." -- Twins right fielder Jacque Jones after Wednesday's 8-4 win over Detroit

[Durango53]

Quick hits
Shannon Stewart has a hit in all eight games this season. ... Terry Tiffee now has two homers and seven RBIs in only 17 career at-bats against the Tigers. ... Juan Rincon has nine strikeouts in five innings of work. ... Joe Mauer's three hits on Wednesday were his most in a game since he had four hits July 7, 2004, vs. the Royals.

[Durango53]

On television
• MIN: FSN North
• DET: FSN Detroit

On radio
• MIN: WCCO 830-AM
• DET: The Sports Station 1270-AM

[LesPaul]

How about Tiffee? Correct me if I am wrong but didn't he hit a HR in his first game in the majors?

[Timberwolf]

Twins will go for the sweep this evening as they finish out the three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. Dimitri Young, the mouth that roars for the Tigers, was talking about how Minnesota is not in Detroit's radar or level. Dimitri is exactly right. Twins have better pitching while the Tigers don't. It showed in this series.

Brad Radke will be on the hill for the Twins. Brad needs to do a lot better than he is capable off. He hasn't been that bad, but still he is not pitching to his standards like last year. He is giving up home runs and he is giving up pitches that are easy to hit. He needs to get it going. Brad is going to be a big part of this team's success so he has to pitch well to his capability.

Look for Joe Mauer not to play tonight.

Robertson vs. Radke

I will be on for gamethread chat later tonight if anyone is interested.

[T-Wolves]

Looking forward to seeing Young choke on his own words tonight. A series sweep is exactly what they need to get there confidence up after a pretty slow start. Not sure if I'll be on tonight but I'll see what I can do. I've got a little math to work on tonight so I may be a little busy.

[Durango53]

Brad Radke has always had a problem giving up home runs.

The Minnesota Twins hope Radke snaps out of his early funk in time to help them complete a three-game sweep of the visiting Detroit Tigers.

Radke has compiling a 6.08 ERA in dropping his first two starts. The veteran right-hander has already given up four home runs in just 13 1-3 innings, continuing an alarming trend which has dogged him throughout his 11-year career.

Last season, Radke allowed just five homers through his first 11 starts, but ended up giving up 23. He is averaging 1.2 allowed per nine innings in his career, a span of more than 2,100 innings.

However, Radke doesn't seem overly concerned about his slow start, despite allowing six runs and six hits over 6 1-3 innings on Saturday in an 9-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

"I thought I threw the ball pretty good tonight," Radke said. "I also made a couple of mistakes."

Radke has enjoyed plenty of success against the Tigers over the years, going 17-6 with a 4.48 ERA in 30 career starts. However, Radke went 0-2 with a 10.13 ERA in a pair of home starts against Detroit last season.

Minnesota extended its winning streak over Detroit to eight games with an 8-4 victory on Wednesday. Terry Tiffee and Jacque Jones homered as part of a 12-hit attack that included six for extra bases.

Twins shortstop Jason Bartlett went 2-for-5 on Wednesday and has hit safely in all six of his games, batting .360 (9-for-25) in that span.

Brandon Inge homered and notched his third multi-hit effort of the season for the Tigers, who have dropped three straight.

Outfielder Magglio Ordonez was sent back to Detroit on Wednesday due to recurring symptoms from a viral infection that has forced him to miss five games.

Ordonez went 0-for-4 in Tuesday's series opener.

"He woke up and he was sore so we decided to send him back to Detroit for some more tests," manager Alan Trammell said. "His stomach hurt and we just want to make sure we take care of it."

Radke dont give up big HR hardly so that is one big thing.

[Durango53]

STANDINGS: Tigers - 3rd place (tied), 3 GB, AL Central. Twins - 2nd place, 1 GB, AL Central.

[Durango53]

TIGERS PROBABLE STARTER: Nate Robertson (0-0, 1.29 ERA). Robertson allowed two runs - one earned - and five hits over seven innings in the Tigers' 4-3 loss to Cleveland on Friday. The 27-year-old left-hander is 1-2 with a 4.55 ERA in six career appearances, including five starts, against the Twins. Robertson is 1-1 with a 4.34 ERA in three career starts at the Metrodome.

TWINS PROBABLE STARTER: Radke (0-1, 6.08 ERA). Radke is 7-7 with a 3.25 ERA over his last 20 starts at home.

[Durango53]

OFFENSIVE LEADERS: Tigers - Carlos Guillen, .400 avg.; Dmitri Young, 3 HRs, 9 runs and 9 RBIs; Guillen, Jason Smith and Craig Monroe, 1 SB. Twins - Bartlett, .360 avg. and 5 runs; Jones and Torii Hunter, 2 HRs; Hunter 9 RBIs and 4 SBs.

[Durango53]

SEASON SERIES: Twins, 2-0.

[Durango53]

STREAKS AND NOTES: Tigers - OF Bobby Higginson needs two more runs for 738 in his career, which would tie Rudy York for 13th place on the franchise's all-time list. ... C Ivan Rodriguez is 20-for-52 with seven homers and 20 RBIs against RHP Radke. ... OF Monroe is a career .336 hitter against Minnesota. Twins - C Matthew LeCroy is 10-for-15 against LHP Robertson. ... Minnesota has failed to score first in all eight games this season. ... RHP Juan Rincon has yielded only two hits and has struck out nine in five scoreless innings this season.

Today Twins score first!!!!!!!

So I hope.


:wedgie: <---- Hey new smiley

[Durango53]

ROAD/HOME RECORDS: Tigers - 0-2 on the road; Twins - 3-2 at home.

[Durango53]

And there you are updated with your pre game data......

[T-Wolves]

lol, gotta love that wedgie smilie

and what time does the game start at tonight

[curt4074]

not a great start so far... 2 out.... 2 runs so far....

Come on Radke...get it together

[Durango53]

Well lets get on base and some runs now Twins

[Durango53]

Well 3 up and 3 down for Twins. Damm

[T-Wolves]

wow hes off to a great start (note the sarcasm)

[Durango53]

Nice inning by Radke now!!!!

[Durango53]

WOW I take a phone call and the Twins take the lead!!!!

[Durango53]

Ron gets the boot!!!!!!!

[Durango53]

Wow why warn Brad!!!! You put the tieing run at the plate?!?!?!

[T-Wolves]

you should start taking more phone calls.

[T-Wolves]

what about ron gettin the boot??

[T-Wolves]

WOW, just WOW -_-

[T-Wolves]

o about that everybody, LeCroy got robbed of a homerun -_-

[curt4074]

Ron Getting booted is pathetic...his complaints were COMPLETELY legit.... The Tigers have plunked 2 Twins batters already without a warning...and Radke while up 5-2 gets a warning! ...its not like it was intentional...putting the tieing run on the plate..... This ump should have at LEAST warned Robertson as well

[T-Wolves]

Jacque Jones hits the Twins first triple this season, Ford scores

Twins lead 6-2

[T-Wolves]

just started watching the game so I didn't see him get booted.

Runners on first and third with one out and M. Redmond is up to bat

[T-Wolves]

Redmond hits it to the shortstop
Thats a double play ladies and gentlemen

[T-Wolves]

League Update

Thu Apr 14, 2005
Seattle 10
Kansas City 2
Final

NY Yankees 5
Boston 5
Bot 8th

Chi White Sox 5
Cleveland 8
Top 7th

Arizona 3
Washington 5
Final

Houston 3
NY Mets 4
End 7th

Baltimore 7
Tampa Bay 12
Mid 8th

Toronto 2
Texas 1
Mid 7th

Detroit 2
Minnesota 6
End 5th

[curt4074]

Redmond hits it to the shortstop
Thats a double play ladies and gentlemen


Meh... Redmond has already done enough.... I was waiting for something to happen... IMO he just got about a week's worth of production today...so we probally won't see him hit again till sometime next week :)

[T-Wolves]

LOL...would have been nice to see the ball jump over the shorts head though

[KingDave]

Ron Getting booted is pathetic...his complaints were COMPLETELY legit.... The Tigers have plunked 2 Twins batters already without a warning...and Radke while up 5-2 gets a warning! ...its not like it was intentional...putting the tieing run on the plate..... This ump should have at LEAST warned Robertson as well

I think the ump warned him BECAUSE the Tigers plunked 2, like he was retaliating, shouldn't have been booted though.

[curt4074]

I think the ump booted him BECAUSE the Tigers plunked 2, like he was retaliating, shouldn't have been booted though.


I'd understand that, if the Twins didn't already have runners on.... But this was just a pitch that he lost control of...Nothiong malicous about it...

[T-Wolves]

Tigers score one run in the top of the sixth.

Twins continue to lead 6-3

[T-Wolves]

Robertson was taken out and Tiger bullpen replaces him with pitcher K. Farnsworth

[T-Wolves]

runners on first and second for the twins and Castro is up to bat

0 outs

[T-Wolves]

Home Run Lou Ford

Twins Lead 10-3

[Durango53]

Man love to see a good old shut your mouth game!!!

[T-Wolves]

damn right
you gotta love'm

[PissedPrincess]

Love Lew Ford. :wavey2:

[T-Wolves]

Fransworth gets taken out and Tigers bullpen replaces him with F. German

[T-Wolves]

Gonna have to leave you guys on your own the rest of the game.
I'm going to bed.

[KingDave]

The Twins 3rd base coach is one cool dude.

[Durango53]

Have a good one.

Hey PP we love Lew!!!!!!!!!

You got to like most of the Twins coachs Dave. They all are some great baseball minds.

[PissedPrincess]

Sox shoulda never traded him. :bonehead

[Durango53]

Twins have some problems. To many good players not enough places to play them. I think Lew could be a star.

[curt4074]

Have a good one.

Hey PP we love Lew!!!!!!!!!

You got to like most of the Twins coachs Dave. They all are some great baseball minds.


Yep...the only one i'm not a huge fan of is Ulger...he hasn't done much to improve the discipline of our hitters..which is one of the largest weaknesses in the game of many of our hitters (jones, Hunter are a few)

[Durango53]

You are right curt.

[Timberwolf]

The Twins 3rd base coach is one cool dude.

Al Newman rocks. He is a class act. A guy who does a darn good working with the infielders. A guy who comes to work with a smile in his face. A guy who is everyone's best friend. I am so glad he is in the Twins organization.

[Timberwolf]

Yep...the only one i'm not a huge fan of is Ulger...he hasn't done much to improve the discipline of our hitters..which is one of the largest weaknesses in the game of many of our hitters (jones, Hunter are a few)


Scott Ulleger has been a joke forever. I am amazed he is still the hitting coach. Twins hitters has been horrible under Scotty's leadership. You realize some hitters look to Shannon Stewart or even Al Newman when it comes to hitting.

[Timberwolf]

I am so glad Twins shut Dimitri Young up in this series. I hope they impressed him by sweeping his Tigers. Young really should know better than to open his mouth and ripping the Twins. It's one thing to say that he believes his team will win the division, for him to diss the Twins was uncalled for. Whatever. I am just glad the Twins made a statement against a team who is probably going to give the Twins fits this year.

In this series, the Tigers pitching has stunk. Twins hitters has just had a field day against the Tigers pitching staff from starters to relievers.

Jason Bartlett and Joe Mauer was fantastic in this series. I really can't say enough about those two especially Jason.

Brad was okay. He struggled in the first and there were times where he had control problems again. I don't know what to make of him right now, but I am not very happy with what he is doing out there in the mound. He got by tonight thanks to the run support he got. Brad is just off right now.

I am glad the Twins got the sweep. It was important to make a statement to the Tigers especially Dimitri Young. I will end my take with Dimitri Young's quote.

"They humbled us," said Dimitri Young, who went 2-for-4. "We definitely wanted to show them this was a different team. Unfortunately they beat us the way they've been beating us.

[Durango53]

Leslie I wouldnt be to worried about Brad. This is the AL and these guys are going to hammer pitchs that aint close to perfect. The AL is about scoring runs. Still early in the season and Brad will keep getting better. He is a bit off but will soon be back to what we know. He just knows how to win for the Twins and that is what he is doing.

Jason and Mauer was great. Love to see Joe breaking out of the slump he had going on.

But good series the Twins had. Hats off to them and I hope this fired them up for the season and get them going.

[Durango53]

TWINS NOTES:
• The Twins have won four straight games, it is their longest win streak since they won nine in a row from 9/7-16/04.
• The Twins have not scored first in any of their nine games this season, Twins opponents have scored in the first
inning in eight of the nine games.
FINAL: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
etroit Tigers 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 4 9 3
Minnesota Twins 0 2 3 0 1 4 0 0 X 10 11 0
• For the series, the Twins had 32 hits and 23 runs scored.
• With the win tonight, Radke tied Jim Perry for third place in career wins (128) on the Twins All-Time list.
• Radke gave up his first walk of the season in the first inning, a span of 13 innings.
• Radke improved to 18-6, 4.48 (199.0 ip, 99 er) in 31 career games vs. the Tigers.
• In the fifth inning, Gardenhire was ejected for the first time this season, and the 16th in his career.
• Jones had his third multi-rbi game of the season, the second time he has had two rbi in a game.
• Mike Redmond had his first multi-rbi game since he had three rbi on 5/21/04 vs. Arizona.
• Michael Cuddyer walked a career-high three times in tonight’s game.
• The Twins batted .333 (4-12) with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base in tonight’s game.

Cuddyer is seeing the ball real good right now. Huge blast and three walks in two games!!!!!!! I like this kid and love the glove he has brought with him to the park.

32 hits and 23 runs!!!!! That is great. You dont lose to many games when you get that many guys home that go with your hits.

[Timberwolf]

Jason Bartlett has been so consistent with his hitting.

Joe Mauer is a guy that would make Billy Beane, the fine A's GM, proud. Beane is a guy that loves guys who have high OBP and Joe is one of them.