{"id":736446,"date":"2026-06-26T23:51:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T23:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/736446\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T23:51:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T23:51:27","slug":"game-83-rockies-at-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/736446\/","title":{"rendered":"Game 83: Rockies at Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"August<\/a><\/p>\n

August 10, 2014. No, I dunno why it\u2019s mostly dark. (Photo by Christian Petersen\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Weather: Poifect! Party cloudy, 78\u00b0<\/p>\n

Opponent\u2019s SB site: Purple Row<\/a>TV: Twins TV. Radio: head sang \u201cFake Plastic Trees\u201d and I like it<\/a><\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s Rockies starter is Tomoyuki Sugano, who, as you can guess from the name, is not Swedish. A six-time All-Star with the Yomiuri Giants, he was eligible to play for an American team in 2020, but none wanted him. So Sugano re-signed with the Giants for a few more years, before playing for the Orioles last season and having a so-so 4.64 ERA (it\u2019s at 4.31 this year). He throws a low-90s fastball and sinker\/shuuto<\/a>, plus a cutter, slider and split. It\u2019s his offspeed stuff that\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always thought of the Rockies as one of our sister teams, like the Mets. With the Mets, it\u2019s because they came into the league one year after the Twins came here, and while they\u2019ve had some stirring championship seasons, they\u2019re generally overshadowed by their Bronx neighbors. (I mean, they spend a ton of money now, so that might change, but historically, the Mets were usually underdogs.)<\/p>\n

With the Rockies, it\u2019s because Coors Field is a popular road trip \/ short(ish) flight destination for visiting Twins fans, and a number of well-liked Twins have played for the Rockies. Take this bunch, from 2014: Jason Pridie, Matt Belisle, and Wilin Rosario.<\/p>\n

OK, Pridie only played for the Twins in 11 games from 2008-2009, Matt Belisle managed to have a 9.13 ERA for the Twins in 2018, and Rosario (no relation to Eddie) never played with the Twins at all. But, for some reason, his BRef page has him in a Twins cap<\/a>. He did play for Rochester in 2019, so presumably he was an invite to spring training that year. But why not have him in a Rockies hat? He was with the team for five seasons. Got fourth place in ROY voting in 2012. Huh. He was actually quite solid his one year in Rochester, too, with a .843 OPS. But, if you\u2019ll remember, that year, the Twins were actually pretty good, and maybe didn\u2019t have room on the roster for a gritty backup September guy. Who knows?<\/p>\n

Anyways, I kid, I kid, the ex-Twins Rockies we all love are Michael Cuddyer, LaTroy Hawkins, and Justin Morneau, all of who were with the team in 2014. And all of whom had decent seasons. It didn\u2019t help the Rockies any; they went 66-96 (while the Twins went 70-92). But they still drew the fifth-biggest crowd in the National League. (We were eighth-biggest in the AL.)<\/p>\n

Maybe the Rockies\u2019 ability to consistently draw huge crowds (partly because they\u2019re the only MLB team in their geographical vicinity) makes them virtually the one American professional sports team that isn\u2019t constantly gouging taxpayers for more money by threatening to leave. Their stadium lease runs until 2047. In 2017, the Rockies got a land deal to develop some property next to the stadium. In return, they re-upped the lease. So far, so customary. (Neil deMause, as always, has the details<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the weird part; the Rockies didn\u2019t ask to be given the land for cheap\/free, or to pay no property taxes on it — that\u2019s how these things usually go. They\u2019re actually paying fair market value for the property, and they do pay property taxes on it. What the heck?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible the Rockies owners, the Monfort brothers (who inherited their dad\u2019s meatpacking fortune) are simply happy to have ENOUGH money, and don\u2019t feel the need to play \u201cwho\u2019s got the biggest, hairiest luxury boxes\u201d with all the other sports owners. I mean, it is possible that non-horrible rich people might, in theory, conceivably exist.<\/p>\n

But, nah. I\u2019m just guessing their business people went into negotiations in an Altered State and weren\u2019t exactly thinking clearly. They were, shall we say…<\/p>\n

Also, since 2017, they have mostly hovered around the middle of MLB in spending (although payroll dropped some in 2025 and dropped a ton this year). So, for the most part, the team hasn\u2019t reacted to their \u201caah we coulda got so much more free money if we\u2019d played hardball\u201d situation by totally dumping on salaries. Maybe they are, now? I duuno.<\/p>\n

Of course, the team\u2019s also mostly stunk for the majority of its existence, and hasn\u2019t won a real playoff game since 2009 (if you don\u2019t count the expanded wild-card rounds as real playoff games, and I don\u2019t). But the Twins have only won one such game since 2004, so we\u2019re mostly in the same boat.<\/p>\n

Finally, a story about a Willful Hound…<\/p>\n

We do a fair amount of dogsitting. Mrs. James loves dogs, and I don\u2019t mind \u2018em. She\u2019d prefer to own one, and I wouldn\u2019t, so the compromise is we do monthly (or so) dogsitting.<\/p>\n

As dog owners\/lovers know, each dog has its own personality and own challenges. The dog we were sitting last week is extremely friendly to humans, and tolerates other dogs, so those aren\u2019t problems.<\/p>\n

The only problems are with what it likes to eat (a common challenge with dogs). This one likes to eat under-ripe fruits, like the raspberries and apples we currently have in the backyard. If she gets to eat a ton of these, she will have bad doggarrhea, so we don\u2019t let her do it.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, when she indicates she wants to go outside, it\u2019s to tinkle or poop. Sometimes, it\u2019s just to eat unripe fruit. You have to keep an eye on this.<\/p>\n

By the end of this last 10-day stay, she\u2019d fallen into a nice pattern. After dark, when Mrs. James is asleep and I\u2019m winding my night down by watching a movie in the basement or reading and having some beers, the dog stays upstairs. When I go upstairs to use the restroom, I ask the dog if it wants to go outside. And if it does, it tinkles\/poops and comes right back in. No problems!<\/p>\n

But, things got weird Saturday night. I was downstairs watching a movie, and the dog actually came downstairs. Huh. That\u2019s new. If it wanted to sit on a chair or something in the same room, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

Nope, it was whining at me. So I went upstairs and let it outside. It went straight for the unripe fruit. I brought it inside, and went back downstairs.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes later — same thing. It came downstairs, whined, I let it out, it tried to eat fruit. Ten minutes again — same thing.<\/p>\n

Then, ten minutes after that, it came downstairs and just stared silently at me. \u201cWhat?\u201d, I asked.<\/p>\n

Still staring at me, it squatted down and took a big ol\u2019 giant dump on the basement floor.<\/p>\n

I was thinking how to respond, kinda taken aback by surprise, when the dog then promptly turned around and gobbled up all the poop. Slurp slurp slurp! Then took one more look at me, then went upstairs, and that was that. No more contact for the rest of that night.<\/p>\n

Now, some dog training experts like Steve Mann will tell you how a dog always\/only reacts to stimuli and impulse. How, as this The Guardian article says<\/a>, \u201c\u2018Your dog is never \u201cignoring\u201d you or \u201cdoing it on purpose.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

I dunno. It felt very much like this dog was sending me a pretty direct message.<\/p>\n

But, otherwise, this is a very nice dog.<\/p>\n

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