2015 Twins Game Recaps

Game 127 Recap: Rays 5, Twins 4

1 Comment

Well, shoot.

It hurts to lose a winnable game.  It was all right there for the Twins.  They led 4-2 after four innings and 4-3 through five.  But then Tommy Milone was perhaps left in a bit too long, the score was tied, and then Kurt Suzuki, who we're constantly told is a really good defensive catcher, allowed a passed ball to score what turned out to be the tying run.

It hurts to lose a winnable game.  The Twins, who had been so good with men in scoring position throughout the winning streak, went 1-for-6 in that situation last night.  Had they managed one more hit with men in scoring position, they might have won the game.

It hurts to lose a winnable game.  But on the other hand, during the winning streak, they won some losable games, too.  At some point, it was probably bound to even out.  It might have been easier to take if the winning streak had ended with an 8-2 loss, but the result in the standings would've been the same.

Still, a 6-4 road trip against three fairly good teams is nothing to be ashamed of.  We come home to play another good team, the Houston Astros.  There's a sentence I didn't expect to write this season.  Kyle Gibson, who has been alternating good and bad games, goes for the Twins.  He'll face Scott Kazmir, who's having an excellent year and who handled the Twins pretty easily the last time he faced them.  It won't be easy, but we know how it's going to come out.  Tonight we start our season ending thirty-five game winning streak!  We'll just have to settle for 100-62!

One thought on “Game 127 Recap: Rays 5, Twins 4”

  1. Escobar became the first Twins SS with at least three homers in a three-game series since Roy Smalley in August 1978 at Seattle.
    -quote from somewhere online ... can't find it.

    Fairly useless trivia, but it tied to something I was looking at yesterday after reading your Recap and thinking about our discussion pertaining to superfluous players on the current roster.

    Eduardo Escobar, who I still think can be an adequate major league shortstop, hit two home runs.

    Of SS's in the AL with at least 275 PA's, Escobar's 12th in AVG (.253), 14th in OBP (.294) but 5th in SLG (.419) and tied for 5th in RBI (39)

    Considering their options, I guess he's the answer in-house until Jorge is ready. I think they should dump Nunez and see if Santana can recapture his 2014 magic (and play SS). Career numbers, excluding last night's game:

    Name Age Level G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
    Escobar 26 MLB 351 1109 1025 123 261 65 8 16 95 6 6 62 224 0.255 0.298 0.380 0.679 87
    MiLB 657 2734 2464 359 664 94 34 19 248 84 46 164 507 0.269 0.316 0.358 0.675
    Santana 24 MLB 175 693 653 99 183 37 12 7 60 27 8 24 164 0.280 0.311 0.406 0.717 98
    MiLB 578 2493 2280 326 623 98 49 25 242 124 56 130 456 0.273 0.317 0.392 0.709
    Nunez 28 MLB 400 1208 1113 143 294 60 12 16 115 62 18 65 161 0.264 0.305 0.383 0.688 87
    MiLB 722 3035 2802 345 763 116 22 34 324 135 42 171 391 0.272 0.316 0.366 0.682
    Polanco 21 MiLB 507 2174 1936 279 557 106 24 25 247 54 37 186 278 0.288 0.348 0.406 0.754

Comments are closed.