2017 Twins Game Logs

Game 79: twins @ royals

126 Comments

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.

126 thoughts on “Game 79: twins @ royals”

  1. Also, doubleheader! And we've got another pitcher making his debut!

    Check out that wall, something stick to it!

    1. 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.

      1. 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.

        1. 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.

            1. 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.

              1. 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.

    1. 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.

  8. Two in one walks, one on an infield single, a Sano home run: TWINS BASEBALL!!!

  9. 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.

    1. Do other teams treat their players this way, as if they were just interchangeable parts that can shipped up and down willy-nilly?

      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.

  13. 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?

    1. 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

      1. He must be taking about a special kind of robot that never goes on anyone's lawn.

    2. I don't know because ballpark sounds! (have I mentioned I really love ballpark sounds?)

  16. 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?

      1. 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.

  19. A one-run lead. With our bullpen, that means the game's as good as over, right?

  20. 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

    1. Now he tells us that "Duffey has a breaking ball". Really? I thought all he could throw was a fastball. Thanks, Dazz.

    2. 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.

      1. 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.

    1. 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

  24. 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.

  26. 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.

  30. 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.

    1. 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.

  31. I had no idea that Felix Jorge pronounces his first name with the accent on the second syllable.

    1. 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.

  32. Want some more good news? Tyler Jay is probably going to have surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome and will be done for the season.

  33. 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.

    1. Of course, it would've been nice if the Twins could've gotten a run out of it.

    2. 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.

  36. 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.

    1. 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.

  37. 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.

  38. 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.

  39. 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.

  40. 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.

    2. 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.

      1. 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.

        1. 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.

          1. 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.

            1. 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.

    3. Everyone knew the bullpen was going to be bad and little was done to fix it.

  41. 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.

  43. 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.

  45. 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.

  49. The ump looked at Drew Buteta as he called him out sliding into first like he was an idiot.

  51. 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.

    2. The only "reason" to take Jorge out was that Molitor couldn't trust a rookie in his first game.

  55. 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.

    1. 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.

  57. 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.

    1. Even his plate presence has been down in the dumps lately. You can tell he's been fighting something.

  62. Almonte could have saved himself a stolen base and four pitches with the intentional walk.

  70. 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).

  72. 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.

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