Games 36 & 37: Rockies at Twins

DOUBLEHEADER ALERT! I figure one game log can serve both easily enough.

Game 1: German Marquez (1-2, 4.88 ERA, 3.37 FIP) vs. Ervin Santana (6-1, 1.50 ERA, 4.19 FIP)

Game 2: Tyler Chatwood (3-5, 5.25 ERA, 5.31 FIP) vs. Jose Berrios (1-0, 1.17 ERA, 2.78 FIP)

The Twins definitely have the best combination of starters ready to go for today's day-night doubleheader with Santana and Berrios. Despite the crowded bullpen, not all of those guys are very good so having at least one of the starters go deep into their game will be a big help. The Twins also could really use some good starting pitching after getting a couple of craptacular starts in a row. I think we all knew pitching would be a weakness for this squad, and while maybe it isn't totally dire (Duffey, Breslow, Rodgers and Kintzler look to be mostly bright spots in the bullpen while the starters appear to be about 60% competent) we were pretty much correct as the Twins have accumulated -2.3 WAR from the pitchers so far this year, most of which can be attributed to the bullpen.

Fortunately, the new administration looks to be much more willing to make a change when it's needed. Under Terry Ryan 2.0, I would have expected another few starts being given to Gibson before a move was considered. It will be interesting to see what they do with Phil Hughes, who quite frankly looks like he's at the end of his career. He hasn't been good since his first year here and injuries look to have drained his velocity.

As for the games today, Santana rebounded incredibly well in his last outing coming off of his only bad start of the season to date. While I know he'll have bad games here and there the rest of the way, he looks locked in on the mound and gives the team that top of the rotation guy who can come in after a couple losses and give the team a good chance to keep moving forward.

Jose Berrios had a heck of a 2017 dayview that I wish had happened the first week of the season. But, can't change that. Hopefully he can build on that first outing and keep his confidence up on his way to mowing down some Rockies hitters. I haven't seen a ton of him over his young career, but he looks to be one of those guys that is a lot of fun to watch when he's rolling.

First game is at noon and the second is at 7.

 

34 thoughts on “Games 36 & 37: Rockies at Twins”

      1. Actually, given what the score was, you could say he was pitching to the score.

  1. Seven innings, 10 K, no walks or runs, and two hits. Berrios has nothing to learn in MLB.

    1. You sure about that? I have 87. 50 + 23 outs + 2 * 3 innings completed after the fourth + 11 strikeouts - 2 hits -1 BB.
      50 + 23 + 6 +11 -2 -1 = 87. If he hadn't walked that last guy and got him out instead, he would have been right at 91.

        1. So are there different formulas for calculating a game score? Or is just a case of someone getting it wrong?

          1. I think they have it wrong. I wrote a calculator and get 85, like BR. I'm not aware of any other ways to calculate it except what James created.

            Edit: Actually, they're using Tango's "Game Score 2.0". Using his formula, I get 91.

            1. Do you have any opinion on which is better, or about the relative strengths and weaknesses of each?

              1. Knowing Tango, I would prefer his automatically. Looking at it, it's simpler to calculate. James's version requires changing the calculation if the pitcher went more than four innings and checking which runs are earned or unearned. Tango simplified it so it's pure multiplication and addition. I think it fits slightly better with the game and has a better underpinning since I'm positive he used linear weights to inform the game score weights. An example is removing the distinction between earned runs and unearned runs. I get why the unearned run is an unearned run for the pitcher, but a run is a run.

                I now recall threads about him working through how to update it but didn't realize other sites adopted it. That unfortunately makes it rather confusing that BR, something approaching the encyclopedia of baseball history, uses one method but MLB, the official entity of professional baseball in the US, uses a different method.

  2. For the most part, LaTroy has been enjoyable to listen to, but he says "young man" A LOT.

    1. And he's forgiven for telling Dick how nice it was in the NL that guys would give you an out by bunting.

  3. Provus wondered, and answered, about young Twins pitchers with 10 K in a game. Provus said within their first 16 career games, but I stretched it to 20. Yes, Marrero debuted at 39.

    Rk Gcar Player Age Date Tm Opp Rslt AppDec IP H R ER BB SO HR UER Pit Str GSc
    1 13 Bert Blyleven 19.120 1970-08-04 MIN MIL W 5-2 CG W 9.0 7 2 2 1 12 0 0 76
    2 19 Dave Boswell 20.166 1965-07-05 (1) MIN BOS W 6-2 GS-9 W 8.1 6 2 2 2 10 2 0 71
    3 3 Pat Mahomes 21.261 1992-04-26 MIN OAK W 8-4 GS-5 W 5.0 5 4 4 3 10 1 0 93 57 48
    4 19 Joe Boehling 22.109 1913-07-07 (2) WSH NYY W 8-1 CG W 9.0 5 1 1 3 10 0 0 80
    5 13 Frank Viola 22.115 1982-08-12 MIN CAL L 1-3 GS-8 L 7.1 5 3 3 0 10 1 0 66
    6 4 Doc Ayers 22.132 1913-09-30 WSH PHA W 3-0 SHO W 9.0 4 0 0 0 11 0 0 90
    7 10 LaTroy Hawkins 23.126 1996-04-25 MIN DET W 11-1 GS-6 W 6.0 3 1 1 2 10 1 0 95 59 70
    8 15 Matt Garza 23.245 2007-07-29 MIN CLE W 4-1 GS-6 6.0 5 1 1 3 11 0 0 109 68 66
    9 8 Trevor May 24.356 2014-09-14 MIN CHW W 6-4 GS-6 W 6.0 5 3 3 0 10 1 0 93 70 60
    10 5 John Romonosky 29.015 1958-07-22 (2) WSH CLE L 3-5 CG(8) L 8.0 6 5 5 6 10 1 0 54
    11 8 Connie Marrero 39.037 1950-06-01 WSH SLB L 4-5 CG(12) L 12.0 10 5 2 5 10 0 3 73
    1. I remember Joe Decker striking out 15 in a game and thought of him as just starting out, but he'd been with the Cubs a few years before that.

  4. In this century, this was only the 7th time that a Twins pitcher had a game score of at least 90 and only the third time it was done by a pitcher not named Santana. Liriano never did it for the Twins and it was never a no-hitter.

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