People's, we're only two games above .500. This is hardly ideal. You know what IS ideal, though? José Berríos is the one we're trusting to right the ship.
Plus, the Royals are sending some dude out to make his major league debut, so maybe the bats can show some life.
Have a safe, happy holiday weekend, everybody. Hopefully, one accented by a much needed Twins win.
Also, doubleheader! And we've got another pitcher making his debut!
Check out that wall, something stick to it!
The landscaping needs a little sweat equity, THEN I'll see if I can help the Twins out
Would've been nice to get another couple there.
Twins had 3 straight batters reach with 2 outs, so, yes it would be nice to get more and kind of break it open but hard to be disappointed. I think Mauer saw the kid leave several breaking balls up and was looking for one, but it ended up at the bottom of the strike zone, so a ground ball instead of a line drive.
Yes, but runners on first and second and no out. So, we're lucky to get any, but it still would've been nice to get me than two when their pitcher walks in two in the inning.
Expected runs scored for 1st and 2nd no outs is 1.4 runs, so the Twins exceeded that at least. It wasn't like they were hitting the ball hard. Kepler with a pop fly that fell and Buxton with a bunt single, otherwise 3 walks.
The offense can be cut some slack once they start capitalizing in more of exactly that kind of opportunity.
That's assuming hitting in RISP is a skill instead of random chance. Best idea is to get the most opportunities to score and hit for power so you don't have to count on hitting with RISP.
That is not assuming clutch is a repeatable skill at all. No one who visits this site with any consistency believes that clutch is a repeatable skill.
Good offenses score more runs because they're good. When our offense is playing well, I'll cut them slack.
Why do the Twins never seem to pitch Salvador Perez inside? He's always leaning out over the plate and killing the Twins.
What's the word re: Sano and the all-star game? He's doing the requisite stat-padding
Had a narrow lead going into final day of voting. We'll know results tomorrow. He's already agreed to be in the Home Run Derby.
What the heck, "In play, no outs"? That was "In play, runs"
Nice to see an opponent's pitcher debut go like our's tend to. Hope he comes back next time (against someone else of course)
I was thinking about that. When's the last time we had a pitcher come up for a one-off start, like Jorge will tonight, and actually pitch well? The last one I can remember is Matt Fox in 2010. It seems like there must have been some since then, but off the top of my head I can't think of any.
Wasn't a one-off, but Andrew Albers is the only one that comes to mind.
Two in one walks, one on an infield single, a Sano home run: TWINS BASEBALL!!
Busenitz is down, Pressly is up. I understand you can make an argument for Pressly, who has pitched well since going to Rochester. But the stated reason for sending Busenitz down is that he pitched 2.2 innings last night and so is unavailable today. This seems to happen every time a reliever pitches more than two innings. The Twins claim to be looking for a long reliever, and yet every time a reliever pitches more than two innings, they ship him out even if he pitched well, on the ground that he won't be available the next day. Do other teams treat their players this way, as if they were just interchangeable parts that can shipped up and down willy-nilly?
Understand, I wouldn't be bothered by this if it was the only time it happened. But it's happened over and over again this season. I understand that it's a business, but it's a business that depends on human beings. It seems to me that treating your players like so many spare parts, with no regard for them as human beings, is not a very good way to run your business.
I remember reading MLB was unhappy with Red Sox using the PawSox bus as a 26th player. With the team so close, they would exchange players so frequently there was usually a fresh player available.
What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?
"a-going on" but this is the question that needs answering
Sounds like Berrios got squeezed in that at-bat.
Well, the good news is that we still have the lead.
I haven't umpired in forty years, and then it was in amateur baseball, so I clearly have no relevant experience. But I don't understand why the catcher makes such a difference in ball and strike calls. The umpire is supposed to call the pitch based on where it crosses the plate, not on where the catcher catches it. Why are they watching the catcher rather than the pitch?
I think with the changes in the ump's protective gear, increased velocity, etc. that they are crouching more behind the catcher, obscuring some of their view, and making them a bit more dependent on "secondhand help" like how the catcher frames the pitch, etc. My guess anyway
The umpires have definitely done the Twins no favors in this series.
peeking in and out, and i've already seen 3 bad calls.
again, walking in and out, but was dick just calling for robot umps now?
haha, now jack too.
He must be taking about a special kind of robot that never goes on anyone's lawn.
I don't know because ballpark sounds! (have I mentioned I really love ballpark sounds?)
Now wait a minute, Dazz. You constantly complain about giving up hits on two strikes. Now you're complaining that Berrios had the batter 0-2 and let him get back into the count. So what exactly is it that you want the pitcher to do 0-2? Or are you just going to second-guess any time it doesn't work, no matter what he does?
Can't be a curmudgeon if you don't second guess everything.
I engage in second-guessing all the time--it's part of the fun of being a fan. But what I don't like is the heads-I-win, tails-you-lose sort of second-guessing, where you second-guess based on whether something worked, rather than based on whether it was a good idea at the time.
Come on guys, I step away for a few minutes, and things start getting out of hand
There's one we needed!
A one-run lead. With our bullpen, that means the game's as good as over, right?
I was right, but not in the way I was hoping.
huzzah...?
At what point in the season can Dazzle assume we know that "Vargas has some power" or "Rosario with some speed at first." Less of the obvious please
Now he tells us that "Duffey has a breaking ball". Really? I thought all he could throw was a fastball. Thanks, Dazz.
TV and radio announcers don't have the luxury of assuming those listening have ever watched a Twins game before. Same thing with sports writing. When I was writing for newspapers, we were told to basically assume that people are very, very ignorant.
I agree with that to an extent. I think, though, that you can assume most people listening to a radio broadcast of a ball game are fairly serious fans.
Dazzle, the ball does not pick up speed after it hits the infield dirt.
I think technically it could if you topped the ball badly and it translated some of that spin to velocity as it hit, but I'm sure that wasn't the case there
He's remembering his Metrodome days.
I would not be playing the infield in here.
Provus really Gordo'd that one.
Does anybody here listen to "Go 96.3"? Is it any good? At this point, I wouldn't listen even if I could, just because I'm so tired of their commercials.
At least they're short
When it goes bad, it really goes bad.
Assuming the Twins don't come back, we're relying on Felix Jorge and Hector Santiago to keep this from being a series sweep. That doesn't sound terribly promising.
Handbasket - - > hell
I fully expect to hear "the call stands".
Maybe something good will happen in the second game.
I know the Twins missed some chances, but when they score six, it's pretty hard for me to blame the loss on the offense.
Yep. The Twins had an 88% chance of winning this game according to Fangraphs. And that doesn't take into account that it was Berrios that was pitching. However, considering how Berrios has pitched this season and how the Twins pitched overall in Cleveland and have done overall on the season this year, I think the Royals just may be locked in right now. Hopefully, an unfamiliar pitcher like Jorge can slow them down in Game 2.
I agree. Berríos and Duffy let us down 🙁
I had no idea that Felix Jorge pronounces his first name with the accent on the second syllable.
I didn't know that about Berríos until today, either. After getting in on the discounted MLB.tv, last night and today were the first games I've seen in at least a year, and I guess I never noticed the accent on the í before.
Want some more good news? Tyler Jay is probably going to have surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome and will be done for the season.
Hey! Other teams give up 0-2 hits, too! I wonder if the Royals' announcers gripe about it as much as the Twins' announcers do.
Of course, it would've been nice if the Twins could've gotten a run out of it.
They mentioned it on the TV play-by-play call but no griping about it. They did say something about catching the plate a little more with a breaking ball than he wanted to.
Well, I guess Jorge won't be pitching a shutout.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Two runs should not be an insurmountable lead. If the Twins weren't going to score at least two, they probably weren't going to win anyway. Jorge just needs to focus and hold the Royals down from here.
That was a definite welcome to the Major Leagues moment for Jorge. You see a swing like that on a high fastball, you don't expect to see it stay fair, let alone go out of the ballpark.
That HR at least was actually fair, but that's twice he's been late on fastballs up that go for HRs in this series. The way is swinging, he is not trying to go the other way, he was just late on it and it somehow stayed fair. Everything is going the Royals' way right now. Cleveland better watch out.
Rosario gets a hanging breaking ball down the middle of the plate and fouls it back. Next pitch, is way inside off the plate and he singles to right. Baseball is such a crazy sport sometimes.
That was bizarre. Polanco held onto the bat on the groundout until he was almost to first, then he did a pretty big batflip and it almost bounced back hit the bag. Hope the Royals don't take exception to that.
We're just under half-way through the season and the Twins have used twenty-seven pitchers. Someone involved in the management of this club ought to be embarrassed about that.
It might be interesting to see how the Rangers and the Indians have done with their pitching staffs in recent years.
Also, Jorge is 27 and he is only up because of the doubleheader, so he did not take anyone's spot on the roster. Don't know if anyone else was the same case in one of the other doubleheaders.
I guess what bothers me the most about this is that so many of these moves seem to be desperation moves. They bring someone up because "we need a fresh arm", regardless of whether the player is actually good enough to help. They bring them up, use them for a few innings, send them back down for another "fresh arm", etc., etc. Ten of the twenty-seven pitchers have pitched fewer than ten innings, and two more have pitched eleven or fewer. When you have seven or eight guys in your bullpen, you should not constantly be desperate for a "fresh arm". Yes, it partly says something about the quality of the Twins pitchers, but it also says something about the way the pitching staff has been managed.
Yeah, there have been a number of times I felt the Twins were "gaming the system." Haley's shoulder tendinitis seemed suspicious since he's a Rule 5 guy. Don't know how much MLB monitors such things to prove their legitimacy.
Supposedly, MLB was going to crack down on the dubious DL landings because of the reduction from 15 to 10 days. I think that was just lip service.
Haley has made two rehab appearances, so either this wasn't a dodge or the Twins are doing their best to make it look good.
Everyone knew the bullpen was going to be bad and little was done to fix it.
Coming into today, the Mariners have used 31 pitchers with the Twins second at 26. MLB average is 21.
Hammel has 4 Ks in 3 IP. That matches his total for the game in 3 of his previous 4 starts. He had 6 in his last start and his season high is 7.
I certainly hope Felix Jorge's career will be better than Brad Thomas'.
Agreed. Although Thomas had a serviceable year in 2010 with the Tigers.
Wow. Jorge, if you can master that pitch, throwing a 95 mph 2 seamer that breaks back onto the outside corner to righties and insider corner to lefties, you can have a very long and good career in the major leagues.
ahhh, the ol 1-5-3 double play
It seems like every time I get frustrated with Dazzle, they play a highlight of John Sterling, and all of a sudden Dazzle sounds a whole lot better.
On the board!
Bonifacio is having a hard time in right field.
holy cows Sano
hole
leee
cows
I love the Hammel's reaction. Like someone punched him in the gut.
Can we call that a third-decker?
Ah, muchos bester!
The ump looked at Drew Buteta as he called him out sliding into first like he was an idiot.
It took a few days, but I get to watch the Twins, live, for the first time in a few years. I haven't hooked up the soundbar yet, but I'm watching the home feed, so win-win.
Kudos to whomever put butter in the Royals' gloves.
They did sign Butera..
The Royals should just throw up 4 fingers because Sano is up.
I think they got away with a bad pitch there as well.
Do we really think Boshers is a better option than Jorge right now? Great, great job by him. Just a cheapy home run and that's it.
Nope. Now thanks to Boshers, Jorge's ERA went from 3.60 to 5.40.
The only "reason" to take Jorge out was that Molitor couldn't trust a rookie in his first game.
When you give up first-pitch hits, you look like you're giving up batting practice. When you get first-pitch outs, you look like you're cruising.
Relief corps batting practice bullpen revolving door crap du jour
To be fair to Belisle, that was a breaking ball way out of the zone that was off the end of the bat for a ground ball hit that went away from the shift. If the Twins can maintain the lead through 7, I think they can hold on. I just have little confidence that they can get there at least without adding to the lead.
Mauer's RBI single gave the Twins a 95.7% win expectancy for this game. They had an 88% win expectancy in the first game. I wonder if anyone has ever been swept in a doubleheader in which they had an 88% or better expectancy to win both games. Or put another way, has anyone been swept in a doubleheader in which they led by at least 4 runs in each game.
Wouldn't be surprised if it's happened in Colorado.
Maybe but in the average ballpark, by my math, you would expect it to happen 6 times in very 1,000 doubleheaders.
No way 2 runs holds with this bullpen. Need insurance runs
Will 3 be enough? I guess we'll find out.
Polanco's plate discipline has really gone south lately. That was awful.
Even his plate presence has been down in the dumps lately. You can tell he's been fighting something.
Just when you think you've got this game figured out, Matt Belisle goes and gets 4 straight outs.
I hope it's not lost on Molitor how many opps Sano has had tonight with Grossman leading off and Mauer batting second.
And a doubleplay. *Molitor never does it again*
Almonte could have saved himself a stolen base and four pitches with the intentional walk.
Sano has more home runs today than strikeouts.
It's not very often that you see most of the bat go farther than the ball in fair territory.
Kenny Vargas must be wearing Byron Buxton's shoes.
Vargas being sent home there was pretty crazy, but it worked.
well, this inning is a wild ride
What in the wide wide world of sports is a-goin on here?
Adventures in Base Running
Eduardo Escobar had the last 5-hit game for the Twins on June 13. It is the 10th 5-hit game this season. The Braves' Endar Inciarte has 2 of them. The only other team with 2 players with 5-hit games is Washington (Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon).
I predict Rosario will get the Twins' next 5-hit game. It's bizarre how many times the same player gets multiple 5-hit games for the Twins before any other player on the Twins does. Escobar had the last 2 (his first was in '14). Then Danny Santana had one a few weeks before Escobar. Then Mauer had 3 in a row ('13 and twice in '10), then Span had 2 in a row (a month apart in '09) then Mauer again in '08 and then Morneau had 2 in a row ('08 and '06).
That was easy! Belisle, Rogers and Kintzler combined to retire the final 10 batters of the game.
Sneaky strategy by the Twins to wear out the Royals by having them hit the balls really hard and running around and around the bases through the first 15 innings of the doubleheader so they wouldn't have anything left for the final 3 innings.
Dick Bremer had a pretty good call on that Sano homer.