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Category Archives: 2015 Twins Game Recaps
Game 49: AL’s Best 6, More AL Least Fodder 5
What a way to finish off a month for the ages. The Twins woke up today on June 1 in first place with the best record in the American League.
The Twins went an incredible 20-7 in May. The Twins haven't had that many wins in any month since June 1991. That, of course, was when the Twins had their amazing 15-game winning streak that jump-started their run to their most recent World Series victory. In other words, most of those that are graduating from college this spring weren't even born the last time the Twins had a month like this. I wonder had many Citizens weren't even born yet.
It's not hard to figure out who were the main contributors on offense to the 'Mazing May. The trio of Brian Dozier (.985 OPS in May), Torii Hunter (.957) and Trevor Plouffe (.951) carried the Twins' offense in May and Sunday was no different. Dozier had three hits and scored three runs, Plouffe had a game-tying two-run home run in the sixth inning and after Josh Donaldson homered against the Twins, again, Hunter had a two-run double to put the Twins ahead for good.
Hunter's big hit looked like it was misplayed by former Twin Chris Colabello, but when you put a guy like Colabello out in left field, you can't complain when that ends up costing you some runs. Colabello also dropped a line drive sac fly by Joe Mauer in the first inning, but Mauer was eventually erased on a double play. Still, it was really nice to see the other team be punished for playing a DH in the outfield. At least the Twins have been putting athletic middle infielders in the outfield.
On the pitching side, Ricky Nolasco was attempting to go to 6-0 in May despite an ERA over 4.00. However, he had to leave the game early with an injury. It appeared at first to be an arm injury but turned out to be just an ankle injury. Even if Nolasco is out for a while, the Twins should be just fine with Tommy Milone dominating in AAA.
This is the main difference between this team and those of the previous four years is its depth. When injuries occurred, the Twins usually ended up looking to journeymen or worse to fill the void. A couple years ago, Milone probably would have been considered the team's ace. Now he has to wait in AAA for a spot to open up.
The Twins' best pitcher in May was Kyle Gibson, who went 3-1 with a 1.36 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. Mike Pelfrey was 2-1 with a 3.21 ERA, but he had a 1.36 WHIP and a convenience store of a BB-K ratio (7 BBs to 11 Ks), so he's overdue for some serious regression. Phil Hughes went 4-0, but he had a 4.64 ERA and struggled to keep the ball in the park (6 HRs allowed) and to locate his backdoor cutter to lefties, which meant just 15 Ks in 33 IPs.
The bullpen was pretty much lights out with the lead, which seemed like almost every day. Glen Perkins was 13-for-13 in save opportunities in May. In fact, Blaine Boyer was the only Twin to be given a blown save in May despite Boyer having a 0.68 ERA and 0.98 WHIP while filling in as primary setup man to Perkins with Fien injured for most of the month. And again the Twins have shown great depth in the bullpen because Ryan Pressly and Michael Tonkin were called up when Fien and Tim Stauffer were injured and, if anything, the bullpen was better than before. Pressly pitched well enough that the Twins decided to go with a 13-man staff for now when Stauffer returned. Stauffer allowed two runs, including a home run, in 2 1/3 innings on Sunday. A few more outings like that and maybe the Twins will finally jettison him and bring Tonkin back up.
That bullpen depth was tested on Sunday when Nolasco left without recording an out in the second inning. Stauffer was the only reliever to allow an earned run, although J.R. Graham did allow a pair of inherited runners to score after relieving Nolasco and then allowed an unearned run in the fourth.
What was even more amazing about this May is it wasn't like the Twins were completely healthy. Not only were Fien and Stauffer hurt, but so was Oswaldo Arcia. However, Eddie Rosario was called up and instantly improved the outfield defense (how could he not?) and his OPS has actually been slightly better than what Arcia was doing. Also, Joe Mauer has one of the worst healthy months of his career with a sub-.700 OPS. However, he still came through with 17 RBIs, which would put him on pace for 102 over a full season.
Many, many Twins fans spent most of May asking how long this will last. Well, the longer this continues, the harder it is to consider it a fluke. Even more exciting, the longer this continues, the sooner the Twins can fill holes with top prospects like Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano and Jose Berrios. My advice for nervous fans is to stop worrying about the future and just enjoy the now. Because as of right now, no one in the AL has been better than the Twins.
Game 44: Twins 7, Red Sox 2
Yesterday's game featured great examples of the various facets of what makes for winning baseball, and highlighted why it is the Twins (26-18) have moved to only 2 games behind AL Central-leading Kansas City. Their recent improvements on offense, defense and pitching were all on display in the first four innings. To start the game off, we saw:
-a 6-run second inning (12 men batted),
-a diving catch by Hicks in the second to save a run with the game at 1-0, and
-Ricky Nolasco striking out 3 (of his 5), inducing 3 ground outs (one a nifty around-the-horn double play -more defense!- to end a first inning threat) and bearing down to get some important outs in the third after the Red Sox put their first two batters on base to start the inning.
Every Twins player contributed to the 16 total hits and only Kurt Suzuki didn't score a run or notch an RBI.
Ricky Nolasco (5-1, 5.12 ERA) ended up going 7 2/3 innings, scattering 7 hits and allowing 2 earned runs while striking out 5 and walking none. With Mookie Betts standing on second, Aaron Thompson replaced Nolasco and got David Ortiz - he of the .509 batting average at Target Field (prior to yesterday) - to line out. Boyer pitched the 9th, allowing only one hit, and the Twins won for the third day in a row, 7th out of their past 10 games, and for the 16th time in May.*
*Last year, Minnesota was 23-21 after 44 games. The Twins won their 15th home game on May 27th. They'd lost 13 games on the road by May 26 of last year; they're at 12 road losses so far in 2015.
Game 43: Twins 8, White Sox 1
I keep waiting to wake up from this dream, but it hasn't happened yet. The Twins will start Memorial Day with the third-best record in the AL, only three games out of first place and in position to be host to the AL wildcard game.
After a 1-6 start, the Twins have now gone 24-12 and have outscored their opponents 181-139. They finished this road trip at 4-1 to give them they're first winning road trip of the season. After starting 1-5 on the road, the Twins have since gone 10-7. They've also played three more road games than home games this season. They are 2-7 against the Tigers on the season and 23-11 against everyone else. They are 3-3 vs. the Royals and have a winning record against everyone else.
They've done all this without any truly great performances outside of closer Glen Perkins, whose perfect start to the season would go largely unnoticed if he didn't already have 16 save opportunities.
Other than Perkins, the closest thing the Twins have to legitimate All-Star candidates were on display Sunday. Brian Dozier led off the game with a home run and then added a three-run shot later in the game to essentially put the game out of reach. Dozier now has 9 HRs on the season to lead all AL second basemen and is on pace for career highs in HRs, 2Bs, 3Bs, RBIs and even runs scored. He finished second in the AL in runs scored last year with 112.
The offensive firepower allowed Kyle Gibson to cruise through his latest good start, with this one probably being his best. He went 8 innings, only allowing an opposite field solo home run to Jose Abreu when the Twins led 5-0, and struck out a career-high-tying eight batters with 0 walks. Gibson is now 4-3 with a 2.72 ERA. His peripheral numbers on the season aren't anything to write home about, but he's heating up at the right time. He's 3-1 with a 1.32 ERA in May, which includes a 21-5 K-BB ratio after having a 6-12 K-BB ratio in April.
Game 41 recap: White Sox 3 Twins 2.
It started with a bunt.
White Sox starter Jeff Samardzija was struggling in the first and second inning. He was running counts 3-2 on batters and the Twins got 2 runs in the first and Ed Escobar led off the 2nd with a walk. Then a bunt. A first pitch bunt by Eddie Rosario halted all that momentum. Sure he was trying for a base hit and was credited for a sac but that pitch, that play seemed to have thing click on for The Shark. Next batter Aaron Hick swung at the first pitch and hit a lazy fly ball and Santana struck out and that was all she wrote for the Twins offense.
Phil Hughes pitched well except for the 4th inning where the wheels fell off. A walk, a defensive misplay and a misplaced pitch led to 2 runs. Hughes was lifted after 7 inning even though he had 89 pitches (72 strikes!) and was in control. Aaron Thompson came in and walk the second batter he faced and that run came around to score Twins lose 3-2.
NOTES
- Joe Mauer stole third base in the first inning and it led to sac fly by Plouffe. Mauer is 3 for 4 in stealing 3rd. His last attempt was in 2010.
- Mauer has 25 RBI this season, a team high.
- Mauer has 9 doubles, giving him 12 extra base hits this year. That is 4th most on the Twins (Dozier, Plouffe, Hunter)
Game 40 Recap: Twins 4, Pirates 3 (13 Innings)
Extra-inning home runs are cool.
Continue reading Game 40 Recap: Twins 4, Pirates 3 (13 Innings)
Game 39: Twins 8, Pirates 5
The Twins posted a nice albeit oddly uncomfortable win in their first inter-league game of the season, carpet bombing the F-Bomb by scoring early and often on Pirate's starter and former Twin Francisco Liriano. Brian Dozier led off the Twins offensive attack with a solo homer in the first. In a wild six-run second inning, Suzuki started things off by scoring on a wild pitch. Trevor Plouffe capped the inning with a two-run blast that in between saw Joe Mauer drive in three runs with a bases-clearing single. The Twins ended their scoring in the third when Suzuki crossed home on a ground-ball double play off the bat of Robinson. With eight on the board and a seven run lead after three, it seemed like the game was in the bag, but this is baseball and there would be cause for concern before this one ended.
The Pirates got on the board in the bottom of the second when Jose Tabata sort of singled on a two-out ground ball that Dozier should have handled to end the inning but didn't, allowing Jung Ho Kang to score from third base. The Bucs added another run in the fourth inning when Pedro Alvarez literally boated a blast off Nolasco over the right-field wall and into a docked runabout. With two runners in scoring position and one out in the bottom of the fifth, the Pirates chalked another run on a 6-3 putout off the bat of Kang, driving in Neil Walker. Nolaco gave up another run in the sixth inning when Walkers double to right field with runners on the corners scored Josh Harrison. With Aaron Thompson relieving in the seventh, Marte scored the last Pirate run on a Harrison single.
Damn near a quarter of the way through the season, the Twins find themselves in fairly unfamiliar territory, holding third place a half game behind the Tigers and just three games the behind division-leading Royals. I have to admit that I'm enjoying the ride so far, even as I wonder how long the engine will hold up when it's sort of low on oil and coolant, and the gas gauge is broken so I'm not sure if we're going to run out of fuel next week or next month, and at least a couple of the tires are nearly bald and could blow out any time now. There are problems with this team's pitching and defense (Danny Santana has ten of the Twins' 25 errors this year, contribution greatly to his team-low -0.7 WAR) but so far the offense has been good enough to get us where we are - five games above .500 and averaging 4.5 runs per game with a +2 differential. It ain't exactly championship caliber, but it's good enough to make things interesting and keep the puppy photographers in business for the time being.
Game 38: Rays 11, Twins 3
Once again, the Twins seemed more than willing to allow fans to lose interest early and spend time with friends and family on a Sunday afternoon. The Twins had already won the other two games of the series and homestand against a good Rays team, so this again could be considered a case of losing efficiently.
This was the first time in about a month that we didn't see Good Kyle Gibson. However, he only gave up three runs in five innings. It was the middle relievers that got hit hard and turned the game into a blowout. This was not the Bad Kyle Gibson we had seen last year. If this is this year's version of Bad Kyle Gibson, he and the Twins could have a very good season.
One thing I noted recently is that manager Paul Molitor is showing his preference about veterans vs. non in his lineup construction. The five most veteran hitters for the Twins have been occupying the first five spots in the order. This has led to Kurt Suzuki and his career .375 slugging and 88 OPS+ batting fifth regularly and occasionally second and fourth. Suzuki had Sunday off, so at least Molitor dropped light-hitting Chris Herrmann down in the order, unlike previous manager Ron Gardenhire, who often seemed to have lineups with preprinted positions on them and would fill in the names of backups in the same spot in the order. Continue reading Game 38: Rays 11, Twins 3
Game 36 recap: Twins 3, Rays 2.
It looked like it was going to be one of those games where a Twins starting pitcher goes strong but the offense cant score enough runs. But, thats not what happened as the Twins rallied in the 7th to win 3-2 at Target Field Friday night.
The Rays took the lead in the 2nd on a David DeJesus solo home run. The Twins answered back in the 3rd with a Brian Dozier birthday blast. In the 5th is where things got frustrating. 2 outs and a runner on second and Kevin Keirmaier hits a soft pop up to left field. Eduardo Escobar looks like he had a play on it, then pulled up and let the ball fall in and Joey Butler easily scores. Im pretty sure Delmon Young makes that play.
I like Double E, but is it worth having a guy whose career batting slash line of .254/.297/.365/.662 and playing wobbly, but average defense out there when the potential future mainstay Eddie Rosario is up and sitting on the bench (although he made a pinch hitting appearance tonight)? I suppose if the team is winning more games than losing you dont want to rock the boat too much and keep the same guys out there.
Anyway, the Twins took the lead in the 7th on a Aaron hick single, Danny Santana triple, and Brian Dozier sac fly. Blaine Boyer pitched a scoreless 8th and Glen Perkins saved it in the 9th.
NOTES
- Glen Perkins now has 100 career saves. Joe Nathan, Rick Aguilera, Eddie Guardado, Ron Davis, and Jeff Reardon are also in the 100+ Save as a Twin Club.
-The Twins have hit at least 1 triple in 3 of the last 4 games (5 total in that span)
-Phil Hughes was credited with a win, his 19th as a Twin. Other Twins players with 19 wins include Keith Atherton, Matt Guerrier, Ron Davis, Roy Smith, and Scott Diamond.
-Did Brian Dozier score a run? Yes. He is now at 26 for the season. A little bit behind last years pace where he had 34 runs scored after 26 team games.