First pitch: 7:10 Central
Weather: Partly sunny, 44°
Opponent SB Site: Red Reporter. Independent site: Redleg Nation
Television: Twins Television. Radio: There is no real WKRP in Cincinnati (there is a low-power WKRP radio station in Raleigh, North Carolina)
The Reds come to town with a record of 11-8 (the same as the Twins), after finishing 83-79 last year and being swept in the wild card round. If, like me, you don’t think a playoff series win is a “real” win unless it involves winning the division series, then the Twins haven’t done it since 2002… but the Reds haven’t done it since 1995. They made it to Game 5 in the 2012 NLDS, behind the bats of Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto, and I’m having a hard time remembering who those guys were. The last Reds I really remember were Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey, Jr.
Advertisement
The current team is led by rookie Sal Stewart (7 home runs) and skilled SS Elly De La Cruz (who Snoop Dogg loves).
Their starting pitcher today is Brandon Williamson, a 28-year-old left-hander who spent much of the 2024/2025 season on the injured list. He throws a low-90s fastball and a cutter, plus a changeup against RHB and a slider/sweeper against LHB. Those off-speed pitches are his best pitches.
Williamson is officially One Of Us and was born in Fairmont, MN. Fairmont is a city in south-central Minnesota with about 10,000 residents (that’s pretty big for the region!). His Wiki entry “Notable People” lists the 2018 Education Minnesota Teacher of the Year and a gentleman who wears a homemade costume to science fiction conventions and calls himself Tron Guy:
Hey, I bet he has more readers than me.
Advertisement
Some links for your reading:
Simeon of the Three Names collapsed in the fourth inning last Friday, but a case of food poisoning may have been partly responsible, according to Bobby Nightengale. star tribune history.
Woods Richardson “was throwing up before the game,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I mean, after the third, he wasn’t in a great situation. We were hoping to get more out of him, and it looked like he was out of gas.”
Woods Richardson told the coaching staff he could throw after throwing away his pregame meal. The Twins were already short-handed on a bullpen and missing a reliever as Cody Laweryson heads to the 15-day disabled list.
“I think it’s going to be the last day I eat Subway for a long time,” receiver Ryan Jeffers said.
Well, it’s probably just a worker who didn’t wash their hands properly, it can happen anywhere, not just at Subway. Still, kudos to SWR for doing everything they could to help the team. (Let’s hope he didn’t eat from Crazy Eddie’s Sushi Truck on Wednesday.)
Of course, that’s better than that time in 1972 when Reds management sent a pitcher with a sore arm to… the dentist. The dentist pulled out his teeth to cure the pain in his arm. It didn’t cure the pain in my arm.
Advertisement
According to Eric Strack and Ted Schwerzler on this site, Tom Pohlad got cranky with a fan wearing a “Sell The Team” hat at Sunday’s game and called her “classless.” Apparently the woman took some pictures of Pohlad (I don’t like having a camera pointed at me either), but if she was just in a bad mood about the hat, that’s a little silly.
Yet another story about how sports betting ruins lives. Yet another story about how sports betting companies are trying to subvert laws that protect residents in all 50 states (and lower the legal age required to gamble). None of this is going to end well.
DeserterDiana Moskovitz talks about being a female sports journalist. It’s what you would expect in terms of rotten things. Doesn’t make it any less infuriating.
“Talking Points Memo” is a terrible name for a website, but Peter Dreier has a good post about how Jackie Robinson’s legacy is much more radical than MLB tends to highlight.
Advertisement
And ESPN, the channel, may be the sports betting network and Screaming Bro right now, but the website still has good stuff sometimes, and here’s a fun article about what players think about ABS so far. Basically they like it, although each has a different idea of how the system could be improved. I like Reese McGuire’s idea that the offense and defense should each face two challenges. Travis d’Arnaud made an interesting comment that I hadn’t thought of before; Referees like to be proven right. I was thinking more about referees who trip up their ego and don’t want to be proven wrong… but for good referees who are really trying their best not to be fooled by their ego, it must be nice to know that they got a tough call right.
Why doesn’t that ESPN article have the author’s name? Was it compiled by a group of interns? Independent workers? Who knows. Moms, don’t let your babies grow up to be writers, it’s usually not the best thing.