MINNESOTA 9, TAMPA BAY 7 IN TAMPA BAY
Date: Sunday, June 2.
Batting stars: Miguel Sano was 3-for-3 with two doubles and a walk. C. J. Cron was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs. Jorge Polanco was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Byron Buxton was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs. Jonathan Schoop was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his eleventh.
Pitching stars: Jake Odorizzi struck out nine in six shutout innings, giving up three hits and a walk. Taylor Rogers struck out the side in a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Ji-Man Choi was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and two runs. Austin Meadows was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Brandon Lowe was 2-for-5. Christian Arroyo was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer.
The game: The first threat came in the second inning, when Choi led off with a double, was bunted to third, but failed to score. The Twins started the scoring in the third. Sano opened the inning with a single and a one-out double by Buxton put men on second and third. Mitch Garver then singled home a run and a sacrifice fly made it 2-0 Twins. With two out in the fourth, Marwin Gonzalez singled and Sano followed with a run-scoring double to make it 3-0.
The Twins had a big inning in the fourth. Buxton had a one-out single and advanced to third on a stolen base-plus-error. Garver was hit by a pitch and Polanco had an RBI single. A ground out moved the runners to second and third and Eddie Rosario walked to load the bases. C. J. Cron unloaded them with a three-run double to give the Twins a 7-0 lead.
It looked like the Twins were in control, and they were as long as Odorizzi was pitching. He came out after six, however, and in the seventh the Rays got back into the game. Willy Adames and Choi singled to start the inning. With one out, Kevin Kiermeier drove in a run with a single and a hit batsman loaded the bases. A strikeout gave hope that the Twins might get out of the inning, but Meadows had a two-run single, Yandy Diaz walked, and Lowe had a two-run single to cut the Twins' lead to 7-5.
The Twins got two back in the top of the eighth. With two out, Sano doubled and Schoop hit a two-run homer to make it 9-5 and again give the Twins a seemingly secure lead. But the Rays got back into it again, as Choi walked leading off the bottom of the eighth and Arroyo hit a two-run homer to cut the lead to 9-7. That was all the would get, though, as Rogers came in to strike out the side in the ninth and preserve the Twins' victory.
WP: Odorizzi (8-2). LP: Ryan Yarbrough (4-2). S: Rogers (5).
Notes: Gonzalez was in right field, with Max Kepler on the bench. Willians Astudillo was the DH.
Polanco raised his average to .338. Garver returned to the lineup and went 1-for-4, making his average .325. Odorizzi's ERA is 1.96. Blake Parker allowed two runs in 1.1 innings to raise his ERA to 2.61. Rogers has an ERA of 2.06.
The bullpen meltdown was discouraging, of course. Still, it should be pointed out that most of the damage came of Matt Magill, who would probably not have been in the game had the score been closer. Magill has been pitching quite well, though, and almost everyone has a bad game once in a while. It's the second poor outing out of three for Parker, but to his credit he did get the side out in order after giving up the two-run homer. It is obviously easier to be forgiving about all this when the Twins win, but even though a lot of them have pitched pretty well I don't think anyone looks at this as a lockdown bullpen.
I like Cory Provus, but for some reason this year he seems to go on and on talking about "momentum". When the Twins were ahead 7-0, they had momentum. Then the Rays scored five in the seventh and they had momentum. Then the Twins got a two-run homer in the eighth and they had momentum. Then the Rays got a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and they had momentum. Confidence and enthusiasm are important in sports, of course, but it appears that the best way to acquire momentum in baseball is to bat well, pitch well, and field well, and the best way to stop the other team's momentum is to bat well, pitch well, and field well. If you consistently do those things, momentum will probably take care of itself.
So, this team that supposedly can only beat up on bad teams took three out of four from Tampa Bay on the road. After a day off, they go to Cleveland for a three-game series which it would appear is much more important to the Indians than it is for the Twins. The Twins currently lead Cleveland by 11.5 games. A Cleveland sweep would make us all unhappy, but the Twins would still have a comfortable lead. If the Twins sweep, or even take two out of three, the Indians might be done. As it stands now Cleveland is tied for second with Chicago, and when all is said and done it may be that the White Sox will be our toughest competition. There's still a lot of season to go, however, so we shall see.
Record: The Twins are 40-18, first in the American League Central, 11.5 games ahead of Cleveland.
Projected record: We're still on track for 144-18!
this wasn’t a great win, but it was a good win.
I don't know what to think. This is a great team -- one of the two or three best in baseball, I'd say. That bullpen needs to be addressed, but how?
Kimbrell doesn't really add anything to the bullpen. If he was willing to be used the way Rogers is, then yeah, sign him up. We need a guy in the bullpen other than Rogers who can be brought into a dicey situation who can be trusted to slam the door, not a "closer". I don't see Kimbrell being as willing to be that guy.
One interesting idea that got brought up elsewhere was the idea of signing Keuchel, and switching Pineda to the bullpen. Pineda is (probably) going to be on an innings limit this year, anyway, and his effectiveness the first time through the order has been a lot better than subsequent trips. There's no guarantee that the bullpen transition would work, though.
Either way, heck of a game for Buxton, heck of a game for Odorizzi (worth noting, the guy we traded for Odorizzi is batting .155 in AA right now). Like HJ said, not a great win, but winning three of four in Tampa is a pretty good result.
I feel really uneasy about Kimbrel. The Red Sox’s apparent disinterest might be in significant part due to what Kimbrel was expecting to be paid, but those things are surmountable. Whatever else they know that suggests Kimbrel isn’t going to come close to producing value on a contract is what worries me. Much as I don’t love the idea of trading for relievers, were I in the Twins’ front office, I would be trying to figure out whether what San Francisco wants for Will Smith is a price I’d be willing to pay.
My brother & I were talking about Keuchel this morning. He mentioned Robbie Ray, who is interesting and also left-handed, but who also owns a rather unsightly WHIP. I found myself wondering about Greinke, who is still owed $70 million after this season. No team is likely to get great value from him relative to what he's owed (because overpaying old players rather than fairly paying young players is stupid). But, he's pitching pretty well this year, and he's pitched in the postseason five times with four different teams.
If the Twins offer Arizona a marginal prospect in exchange for taking most of Greinke’s remaining salary, could they get him? Would it be worth it? He's a year older than Verlander was when he went to Houston, and probably not as good a pitcher as Verlander was at that point. But what I trust Falvey, Levine, Rocco, & Wes to do is use him effectively.
I'm not a fan of Kimbrel but would love to see him in the bullpen, but with a potential bidding war, he's be getting too much for too many years and isn't ready to go right away as well.
Only two years left on future Hall of Famer Greinke's contract. I'd be fine trading for him. He has good numbers this year, presumably still good enough for the next two years when the Twins will be contending. Berríos and Odorizzi have done well and so has Gibson overall. I'm less convinced on Pérez and Pineda for the rest of the season however.
Question... is there a reason you would trust the FO/Management with Greinke and not Kimbrel?
I think what Wes Johnson has done is simply amazing, and for me, that would be the difference with being worried about Kimbrel's question marks and not. If they think it's worth a go, it might very well be worth a go.
Assuming he's open to being used like Rogers, as Nibs says. I definitely agree with Nibs on that.
As far as managing work load to keep them fresh, I think the FO, Rocco, & Wes would do equally well with both. My reservations around Kimbrel stem primarily from a couple of factors: that he hasn’t faced a batter in seven months (and didn’t look good when we most recently saw him pitch), and the amount of time it would take for him to both be ready and the team to be confident he is ready.
I'm not necessarily opposed to either Keuchel or Kimbrel, but I think it's really hard to know what you'd be getting at this point.
I really don't know how much time it would take for him to be ready. Presumably he's been keeping in game shape, or as close to it as possible. So give him, what, a week or two in the minors to get ready?
He had a bad week in the playoffs against the best teams. His second half last year still looked pretty good, though not as good as his first half. So yeah, probably on a downward trajectory. But the counter point is Perez. He looked far worse than Kimbrel. I'm willing to trust the team on this. If they sign Kimbrel, I trust it will be a worthy signing.
Here's the other thing that I think is important about Kimbrel vs. an upgrade through trade: it's just money. Teams already don't spend enough. The Twins aren't using that money elsewhere. A trade will require giving up a player. A free agent doesn't. In that regard, for the franchise's health, I feel like Kimbrel has to be a preferred option, if the Twins think he can be a stopper in the way they use their bullpen.
Tell that to the Joe haters, Mr. "It's Just Money"
I'd rather see the "it's just money" used for extensions, not a knight in potentially shiny potentially armor
I'd rather see the "it's just money" used for extensions
"Yes, that too" not "Instead of".
LEN says the Twins are interested in both, but lean toward Kimbrel.
Buxton can throw and he's fast.
I love this photo.
and Polanco had an RBI single
This would be the squeeze play.
I really don't understand why Harper was brought in. He was used the day before for two innings (thank you) and I would have thought due a rest. I guess this is part of Rocco's "keep 'em guessin" strategy.
That's the problem with not being around for the game and just relying on the printed play-by-play.
Dick's affirmation at the end of the safety squeeze: "I looove watching that play." Since there haven't been a lot of bunts and sacrifice plays lately in the Twins repertoire, Dick was just giddy with seeing that bunt work successfully.
I was also giddy. It was a rare good opportunity to pull it off with the personnel involved and game situation. And while I love the homers, it's nice to see we can score in a bunch of different ways, unlike 2017 where it definitely seemed boom or bust.
Used sparingly, it’s an exciting play that disrupts the team in the field. Used regularly, it’s a sign of a Punch and Judy offense.