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Keeping Track

2019 Recap: Game One Hundred Thirty-one

MINNESOTA 3, CHICAGO 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Tuesday, August 27.

Batting stars:  Nelson Cruz was 2-for-4.  Marwin Gonzalez was 1-for-3 with a home run, his fifteenth.  Jonathan Schoop was 1-for-4 with a home run, his nineteenth.

PItching stars:  Michael Pineda struck out eight in five innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk.  Sam Dyson pitched a perfect inning.  Tyler Duffey pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.  Sergio Romo struck out the side in a perfect inning.  Taylor Rogers pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.

Opposition stars:  Lucas Giolito struck out nine in six innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks.  Yolmer Sanchez was 2-for-3.  Tim Anderson was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fourteenth.

The game:  The Twins put two on with one out in the first, as Jorge Polanco walked and Cruz singled, but nothing came of it.  In the second, however Gonzalez led off with a home run and Schoop hit a two-out homer, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead.  Pineda got through the first three innings without allowing a hit, but that changed when Anderson led off the fourth with a home run, cutting the margin to 2-1.  The White Sox also got a pair of two-out singles in the inning, but a ground out ended the threat.

Chicago got a threat going in the seventh, getting singles from Ryan Goins and Sanchez with one out.  Matt Skole struck out and Leury Garcia lined to third to end the inning.  The Twins got an insurance run in the eighth on singles by Polanco, Cruz, and Eddie Rosario.  The last eight White Sox were retired and the game belonged to the Twins.

WP:  Pineda (10-5).  LP:  Giolito (14-7).  S:  Rogers (21).

Notes:  Jake Cave was in center in the continued absence of Byron Buxton.  Gonzalez was in right in place of Max Kepler.  Kepler pinch-hit for Gonzalez in the eighth and went to center field, with Cave moving to right.  Rosario returned to the lineup in left field.

Duffey has an ERA of 2.80.  Rogers has an ERA of 2.47.

Pineda pitched well, but threw just five innings and eighty-nine pitches when he was removed from the game.  When that decision was made, we knew that either one of our top three relievers would pitch more than one inning or that we'd see Tyler Duffey with the game on the line.  Rocco clearly decided that was a better option than trying to push Pineda into a sixth inning, and he was proven to be right.  Duffey was a little shaky, but got the job done.

Duffey has, in fact, pitched very well lately.  He hasn't given up a run in over a month.  On July 23 his ERA was 3.82 and today it is 2.80.  That's fourteen appearances and twelve innings.  He has given up just six hits and five walks.  I still not sure how much I trust him with the game on the line, but he's been getting the job done.

This felt like a big game to win.  Time will tell if it actually is, of course.  But while the White Sox are not a good team, Giolito is a really good pitcher and he had shut the Twins down just last week.  The pitching matchups for the rest of the series seem much more favorable, although as we've said many times, it's baseball and you never know.  That means the Twins should have a good chance to sweep the series.  That would be good, because Cleveland is playing Detroit, and the Indians don't seem to be having any trouble taking care of business against the weak teams of the league.  As we approach September, the Twins need to do the same.

Record:  The Twins are 80-51, in first place in the American League Central, 3.5 games ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We're still on track for 111-51!

2019 Twins Game Recaps

2019 Recap: Game One Hundred Twenty-seven

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CHICAGO 4, MINNESOTA 0 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, August 21.

Batting stars:  None.

Pitching stars:  Ryne Harper pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  Sam Dyson pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.  Tyler Duffey struck out two in a perfect inning.  Trevor May pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Lucas Giolito struck out twelve in a complete game shutout, giving up three hits and no walks.  Jose Abreu was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Leury Garcia was 2-for-5 with two runs.  Tim Anderson was 2-for-5.

The game:  The Twins helped the White Sox get two runs in the first inning.  Garcia led off with a single, and runners were on first and second when Jorge Polanco failed to touch second on what should have been a force out.  Abreu then singled home a run, a wild pitch moved runners to second and third, and Matt Skole singled to make it 2-0.

In the third, singles by Garcia, Anderson, and Abreu made it 3-0.  In the fifth, Abreu doubled, went to third on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.

Meanwhile, the Twins could get nothing accomplished on offense.  Polanco had a bunt single in the first, Nelson Cruz had a one-out single in the fourth, and Jonathan Schoop had a one-out double in the eighth.  That was all the offense the Twins had, with Schoop the only Twin to get as far as second base.

WP:  Giolito (14-6).  LP:  Jake Odorizzi (13-6).  S:  None.

Notes:  Max Kepler remained in center field, with Jake Cave in right, in the continued absence of Byron Buxton.  Luis Arraez was at third base, with Miguel Sano moving to first.  Eddie Rosario started in left, but was removed in the fifth inning due to a tight hamstring.  Rather than use an outfielder, the Twins moved Arraez to left, Sano to third, and put Ehire Adrianza in the game at first base.  I'm not sure why you'd rather have Sano at third than Adrianza, but I admit that I haven't looked at their defensive stats at third base.

Arraez was 0-for-3 and is batting .341.  Cruz was 1-for-4 and is batting .303.  Duffey has an ERA of 2.95.

The Twins made another error and threw three more pitches to the backstop.  I'm probably sounding like Johnny One-note mentioning this all the time, but I'd be happy to stop mentioning it if the Twins would stop doing it.  I could easily have missed it, but I don't remember Rocco or the front office publicly addressing the defensive lapses.  The only thing I've hears is the occasional comment that "No one feels worse about that than [the responsible player]", which is probably true but doesn't do anything to solve the problem.  I have no idea what may be going on privately, of course, nor is there any reason I should.  But whatever they may be doing privately doesn't seem to be helping, and publicly they don't seem very concerned.  They should be.  When you play bad teams, you can sometimes rely on your batting to overcome your defensive woes.  When you play good teams, you can't afford to give them free bases and extra outs.  The Twins had better get the defense tightened up pretty soon.

It's obviously disappointing to lose two of three to the lowly White Sox, and it's tempting to get really upset about it.  But the thing is, that's baseball.  A bad team takes a series from a good team sometimes.  Giolito is a very good pitcher, and he'll shut a team down sometimes.  Ivan Nova is not as good as Giolito, but he's good enough that he'll have an occasional really good game, too.  And the Twins did not have a lot of luck in this series--fourteen hits with only four runs in the first game, lots of soft-contact hits for the White Sox in the last game.  It happens.  Yes, the Twins made some contributions to their bad luck, but it was still a factor.  It happens, because it's baseball.  That's why there's no such thing as an upset in any particular baseball game.  As Joaquin Andujar told us, the one word that describes baseball best is youneverknow.

The good news is that Cleveland lost, too.  The Twins don't have to win any specific number of games to win the division.  They just have to win one more than the Indians.  Right now, they've won three more.  I'm not saying "All is well", but I'd still rather be three games up than three games back.

Record:  The Twins are 77-50, in first place in the American League Central, three games ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We'll just have to settle for 112-50!

2019 Twins Game Recaps

2019 Recap: Game One Hundred Twenty-two

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MINNESOTA 4, TEXAS 3 IN TEXAS

Date:  Friday, August 16.

Batting stars:  Marwin Gonzalez was 3-for-4.  Jonathan Schoop was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, his seventeenth.  Max Kepler was 1-for-4 with a two-run homer, his thirty-third.

Pitching stars:  Sam Dyson pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.  Taylor Rogers struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.  Sergio Romo pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.

Opposition stars:  Mike Minor pitched seven innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on eight hits and a walk and striking out five.  Nomar Mazara was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs.  Willie Calhoun was 2-for-3 with a walk.

The game:  The Twins got two on in the first inning, but couldn't do anything with them.  The Rangers got two in the second, but a double play took them out of it.  The Twins broke through with one out in the fourth.  Miguel Sano reached on an error and Kepler followed with a two-run homer.  Texas immediately got one back in the bottom of the fourth on singles by Elvis Andrus and Calhoun and a wild pitch by Odorizzi.  Still, it was 2-1 Twins through four.

The lead lasted until the sixth.  Shin-Soo Choo led off with a double.  He had only made it to third with two out, but Calhoun then walked an Mazara delivered a two-run double, giving the Rangers a 3-2 advantage.

That lead lasted until the next half-inning.  With one out in the seventh, Gonzalez singled and Schoop followed with a two-run homer, putting the Twins up 4-3.

Texas threatened after that, but could not put the tying run across.  They had men on first and third with one out in the seventh, but a double play ended the inning.  They had men on first and third with two out in the eighth, but a strikeout ended the inning.  They got a one-out double in the ninth, but again could not score him.  The Twins held on for the victory.

WP:  Dyson (5-1).  LP:  Minor (11-7).  S:  Romo (20).

Notes:  Luis Arraez was in left field, with Eddie Rosario given the night off.  Rosario came in for defense late in the game, with Arraez moving to second and Schoop coming out of the game.  Jorge Polanco was at designated hitter in the absence of Nelson Cruz, with Ehire Adrianza playing shortstop.  Kepler remained in center and Gonzalez in right in the absence of Byron Buxton.

Arraez was 1-for-4 and is batting .353.  Rogers has an ERA of 2.63.

The Twins did not make any errors and only threw one pitch to the backstop.  Improvement!

The game featured a matchup between Odor and Odorizzi.  Odor walked once and flied out.

It may have been mentioned during the broadcast, but Kepler's home run gave him the record for most home runs in a season by a European-born player.  He broke the record of thirty-two set by Bobby Thomson in 1951.

When the Twins went down 3-2 in the sixth, I was confident that they were going to get the lead back.  I was not confident that they would keep it, but I was confident that they would get it back.  I can't tell you why, I just was.  And, of course, they did.

I did not hear an explanation for why Rogers pitched the eighth and Romo pitched the ninth, rather than the other way around.  There may have been some matchups that influenced Rocco's thinking.  Rocco has never said that Rogers is the closer, even though he's been using him that way.  As we observed early in the season, if you don't announce that someone is your closer, then you don't have to explain why you didn't use them in that role.

We've talked about the Twins losing winnable games.  One might say that here, the Twins won a loseable game.  The only scored two runs in the first six innings, and only had four total.  They lost the lead in the sixth.  The Rangers had men all over the bases in the last three innings but did not tie the score.  They went just 1-for-11 with men in scoring position, while the Twins went 0-for-2 in that situation.  The Twins had more runs at the end, and that's all that matters.

Record:  The Twins are 74-48, in first place in the American League Central, 1.5 games ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We're still on track for 114-48!

2019 Twins Game Recaps

2019 Recap: Game One Hundred Twenty

MILWAUKEE 6, MINNESOTA 5 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Wednesday, August 14.

Batting stars:  Mitch Garver was 1-for-5 with a home run, his twenty-third.  Eddie Rosario was 1-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-sixth) and a walk.  Miguel Sano was 1-for-4 with a home run (his twenty-first) and a walk.

Pitching stars:  Sam Dyson struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Trevor May struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.

Opposition stars:  Eric Thames was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.  Trent Grisham was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer (his second), a walk, and two runs.  Keston Hiura was 2-for-4 with a walk.

The game:  It looked good for quite a while.  Garver led off the game with a home run and Rosario hit a two-out homer to give the Twins a 2-0 lead in the first inning.  The Brewers got one back in the bottom of the first when Grisham singled, Yasmani Grandal walked, and Hiura delivered an RBI single.

Each team scored once in the third.  Sano hit a one-out homer in the top of the inning.  In the bottom, a one-out single by Hiura and two-out singles by Lorenzo Cain and Thames made the score 3-2.

With one out in the top of the fourth, Max Kepler walked, Jonathan Schoop doubled, and Kyle Gibson walked to load the bases.  Garver struck out, but Jorge Polanco came through with a two-run single to put the Twins up 5-2.  Milwaukee again got one back in the fifth when Mike Moustakas doubled and scored on a Thames single.

The score stayed 5-3 until the eighth.  Ryan Braun led off by reaching on a Polanco error.  Hernan Perez singled and Grisham followed with a three-run homer, giving the Brewers their first lead of the day at 6-5.  The Twins tried to rally in the ninth.  With two out, walks to Polanco, Sano, and Rosario loaded the bases.  Unfortunately, Matt Albers then found the strike zone again and retired C. J. Cron on a deep fly to center to end the game.

WP:  Junior Guerra (6-3).  LP:  Sergio Romo (2-1).  S:  Albers (4).

Notes:  Kepler remained in center and Marwin Gonzalez in right with Byron Buxton out.  Schoop was at second base rather than Luis Arraez, who was used as a pinch-hitter in the ninth.  Arraez went 0-for-1 and is batting .348.

It's probably past time to admit that Gibson is never going to take that step forward and become a top pitcher.  He is what he is--an average major league starting pitcher--and as he approaches his thirty-second birthday it's unlikely that he'll ever be more than that.  That's not a criticism, exactly.  There's value in being an average major league starting pitcher.  Teams have missed the playoffs because they didn't have one.  But I think a lot of the frustration with him comes from people thinking that he could be better than that and that he ought to be better than that.  It's just not likely to happen.  It's time to simply accept what he is.

We've discussed the number of winnable games the Twins have lost this season.  The term "winnable game" is not easy to define.  The only way to really know how many the Twins have lost would be to go back through all their games, and even then the definition would be somewhat subjective.  And yes, one of the reasons that they've lost more winnable games this year is that they've played more winnable games--there haven't been that many times when they've been blown out.  Still, if you want to be a top team, you have to win a pretty high percentage of your winnable games.  That's the only way you get a good won-lost record, and that's the way we determine what teams are the top teams.  Every time you lose one of those winnable games, it costs you.

The good news, though, is that the Twins are still a half game up on Cleveland.  They don't have to win a specific number of games or achieve a certain winning percentage to win the division.  They just need to win one more game than Cleveland does in the last forty-two games of the season.  We'll see if they can.

Record:  The Twins are 72-48, in first place in the American League Central, a half game ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We'll just have to settle for 114-48!

2019 Twins Game Recaps

2019 Recap: Game One Hundred Nineteen

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MINNESOTA 7, MILWAUKEE 5 IN MILWAUKEE

Date:  Tuesday, August 13.

Batting stars:  Marwin Gonzalez was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer (his fourteenth) and two runs.  Eddie Rosario was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and two runs.  Mitch Garver was 1-for-5 with a two-run homer, his twenty-second.

Pitching stars:  Martin Perez pitched six innings, giving up an unearned run on six hits and four walks and striking out three.  Tyler Duffey pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.  Sam Dyson pitched a perfect inning and struck out one.  Sergio Romo pitched a scoreless inning.

Opposition stars:  Yasmani Grandal was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer (his twentieth) and a walk.  Manny Pina was 2-for-4 with a double and a hit-by-pitch.  Keston Hiura was 2-for-4 with a walk.

The game:  Each team missed chances early.  The Brewers had men on first and third in each of the first two innings and did not score.  The Twins put men on first and second with one out in the second and did not score.  In the third, however, Max Kepler led off with a walk and Garver followed with a two-run homer.  With one out, Rosario walked, went to third on a Miguel Sano single, and scored on a ground out to put the Twins up 3-0.

Milwaukee again put two men on in the third and did not score.  They got on the board in the fourth, though.  Hernan Perez got a one-out single.  Chase Anderson's bunt should have resulted in an inning-ending double play, but an error instead put men on first and third with one out.  A force out brought home a run, cutting the lead to 3-1.  The Brewers again missed a chance in the fifth, as they failed to do anything with a leadoff double.

The Twins got an insurance run in the seventh, as Gonzalez singled, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Ehire Adrianza's pinch-hit double.  It was 4-1 and looking good for the visitors.  In the bottom of the seventh, however, Hiura led off with a single and scored on a Christian Yelich double.  Catcher's interference put men on first and second and Grandal delivered a three-run homer, giving Milwaukee its first lead at 5-4.  Suddenly, things weren't looking so good for the visitors after all.

But the Twins would not be denied.  Rosario led off the eighth with a double and Sano walked.  The next two batters went out, but Gonzalez came through with a three-run homer for the Twins, putting them up 7-5.  Dyson and Romo came in to slam the door and make it a Minnesota victory.

WP:  Duffey (2-1).  LP:  Drew Pomeranz (2-10).  S:  Romo (19).

Notes:  It remained Kepler in center and Gonzalez in right, with Byron Buxton remaining out.

Luis Arraez was 1-for-3 with a walk and is batting .350.

Perez got through six innings and gave up just an unearned run.  It wasn't pretty, as the Brewers had a threat in pretty much every inning.  For the game, Milwaukee stranded twelve runners and went 1-for-12 with men in scoring position.  It's hard to tell whether Perez actually pitched better or just got lucky.  Whatever it was, though, we'll take it.

It may well be that this is well-known and I just missed it (I went to bed before the ninth), but I don't know why Romo was used to close the game rather than Taylor Rogers.  I saw a game story that said Rogers was "apparently unavailable", but it didn't say why.  It worked out, but the Twins definitely need a healthy Taylor Rogers coming down the stretch.

This felt like a really big win for the Twins.  Yes, momentum is as good as the next day's starting pitcher, and if the Twins go on to lose five of the next six this game won't mean much of anything.  But when the Twins lost the lead in the seventh, a lot of people (including me) thought, "Here we go again".  Another winnable game lost.  Another game blown by the bullpen.  Couple that with Cleveland appearing to come back on Boston, and it looked like the Twins would lose yet another game in the standings.  Instead, they gained a game and find themselves back in first place.  Time will tell how big this game actually was, but it feels pretty big right now.

Record:  The Twins are 72-47, first in the American League Central, a half game ahead of Cleveland.

Projected record:  We're still on track for 115-47!