Article: Red Sox 4, Twins 1: Sale Outduels Berrios

[Tom Froemming]

Jose Berrios pitched much better than the box score suggests, as he went blow-for-blow with Chris Sale before the Twins bullpen allowed a couple of inherited runners to score. A few questionable managerial decisions did not aid the Twins in their comeback attempt.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs)

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Download attachment: TopPlays626.png

In the early goings it looked like we might be seeing Berrios’ first clunker this season. In the first inning, he gave up two runs on four hits, one of them a homer, and a walk. It could have been much worse, but a double play in the middle of it all softened the damage.

 

Berrios recovered, retiring 13 of the next 14 batters he faced. Chris Gimenez slugged a solo homer in the third inning, tying his career high with five on the season. He cleared the Green Monster, check it out:

 

Berrios had another laborious inning in the sixth, but was sent back out with 93 pitches under his belt. Two of the first three batters of the seventh inning singled, and Paul Molitor brought in Matt Belisle.

 

Belisle gave up an RBI single to Dustin Pedroia and ended up intentionally walking Xander Bogaerts after the runners advanced on a Gimenez passed ball. Buddy Boshers came in to face lefty Mitch Moreland, who hit a sacrifice fly. That closed the book on Berrios, giving him a disappointing four earned runs over 6.1 innings. He struck out seven.

 

Sale was brilliant, striking out nine batters over 6.1 innings, and the Boston pen combined for 2.2 perfect innings.

 

Molitor made several moves that could be second-guessed. I think Aaron Gleeman summed them up about as well as you could in 140 characters or less:

 

Trailing by a run in the top of the seventh, Robbie Grossman hit a leadoff single, which was followed by a walk to Kennys Vargas (that’s where you see the big dip on the win expectancy graph). Jorge Polanco was asked to bunt, but he ended up striking out.

 

With Gimenez coming to the plate, Sale was pulled. Heath Hembree came in and induced an inning-ending double play to extinguish the threat.

 

On a positive note, Miguel Sano played third base for the first time in almost a week and made this web gem (do you still call it a web gem if the guy didn't use his glove?):

Postgame With Molitor

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

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*Dillion Gee was optioned to Rochester after the game to make room for Hector Santiago, who will be activated from the DL to start tomorrow.

 

Tuesday

Twins (Hector Santiago, 5.36 ERA) at Boston (Drew Pomeranz, 4.07 ERA), 6:10 pm CT

 

Pomeranz has some eyebrow-raising reverse platoon splits this season. Left-handed batters have a .997 OPS off him while he’s held righties to a .687 OPS. He also hasn’t been as good at home, registering a 4.89 ERA and 1.37 WHIP at Fenway Park. Santiago’s last start was June 6, though he threw three no-hit innings Wednesday in a rehab start. He’ll likely be on a conservative pitch count. Hector has been very good over his last five starts against Boston, posting a 1.88 ERA.

 

AL Central Standings

Cleveland 40-35

Twins 39-35 (-0.5)

Kansas City 37-37 (-2)

Detroit 33-42 (-6.5)

Chicago 32-42 (-7)

 

Just a heads up so nobody worries about me, I'll be off the grid for the next couple days and won't be able to provide recaps for Tuesday or Wednesday night's games. As always, thanks for reading!

 

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[Old Twins Cap]

Bunting Polanco in the 7th would be acceptable if the Twins were going to pinch-hit for Gimenez when the Sox brought in Hembree.  But they didn't and thus, Molitor = weak in-game manager.

 

Belisle = weak reliever.  Nothing going on with his pitches.

 

Twins didn't play well and lost.  The managing is correctable.

[h2oface]

No relief. Berrios gives up two, and Molitor and no relief gives up the other two. I really hate seeing Belisle coming into a game. Molitor just keeps marching him out there. Our defensive catchers sure seem to come up with unfortunate passed balls, and wild pitches that they don't catch that sure look catchable. 13 Ks by Boston pitching, and strike out the side all swinging in the 8th. That is a bullpen.

 

[Han Joelo]

Nice play, Sano. Wow.

 

Cleveland was down 9-3 when I checked, kind of nice to see someone else's bullpen implode, even though it put the Twins back in second.

[Danchat]

It's crazy how our backup catcher now has more HRs than our starting first baseman...

 

I know I keep repeating this, but why is Belisle still on this team? Eat the rest of the $3M and plug in Boshers, Busenitz, and Hildenberger in. If this team wants to be serious about winning, it's time to make the easy moves to make this bullpen better - DFA Belisle and Breslow.

[USAFChief]

If Polanco moved the runners, THEN Molitor would've pinch hit for Gimenez?

 

First, that makes no sense at all, in isolation. You need to send up Mauer there, no matter what. There's a high probability that's your best chance at tieing or taking the lead, very high chance. You have to send up Mauer, and if he's walked, ok.

 

Second, he just negated his own reasoning for not PHing...not wanting to go that long with one catcher. That "reason" is unchanged based on what Polanco does.

[HitInAPinch]

To me, just another learning moment for Berrios.  Teams will be loading up on him over the first couple innings now.  

[ThejacKmp]

 

It's crazy how our backup catcher now has more HRs than our starting first baseman...

 

Nope. They both have four.

[ThejacKmp]

The bunt was a bad idea to begin with but particularly once Sale went 2-0 on Polanco. Let him swing away from there, he's got an advantage and a walk would be killer there. Sale is going to bring something over, let the young guy hit. 

 

I will never get saving the catcher. If Castro gets injured, you lose one game you were likely going to lose anyway. And who really worries about something freak happening, especially in this day and age of no collisions at the plate.

 

Belisle. Oh Belisle, time for you to go. The Twins don't have a lot of exciting relievers coming up but someone has to be better than Belisle. I imagine there's a good chance that he reverts to the mean but sometimes it's about accountability. You just have to get rid of fringe guys who don't perform.

[mikelink45]

One of the stats that just can't be corrected -Berrios had runners on, but was not allowed to get out of the inning (an inning he should not have pitched) and then we bring in Belisle - hit and walk - but no outs.  Belisle gets credit for no earned runs, just an appearance and thus Berrios adds to his ERA since these players pushed the probability of the inherited runners scoring.   Thus Belisle will continue to look better than a record that looks bad already.  Belisle has been a mistake signing.  My relief pitchers have more up and down years than most starters and his signing may have looked good in the off season, but it's time for him to move out of the way for better prospects. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Nope. They both have four.

As the article says, Gimenez hit his 5th last night.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Glad to see Gee sent out. He can come back Saturday as the 26th man, and the rest of the bullpen spots (hopefully? finally?) can be decided on merit.

[Vanimal46]

It sure feels like Berrios has grown a ton as a pitcher over the last calendar year. Even though it wasn't his best outing, he kept the team in the game. I'm feeling more confident he can be counted on as a top of the rotation pitcher dueling against other teams' aces. 

 

As others have mentioned, Belisle needs to go. He's been causing more damage than good things all season. 

 

 

[ThejacKmp]

 

As the article says, Gimenez hit his 5th last night.

 

And as I stated, the article is wrong. Chris Gimenez has hit four home runs this year. Check baseball reference.

[Taildragger8791]

 

And as I stated, the article is wrong. Chris Gimenez has hit four home runs this year. Check baseball reference.

 

BBREF for whatever reason doesn't have last night's game in his stats. Look at the game logs. ESPN and MLB.com both have 5 HRs with 89 ABs on the season. BBREF has 4 HRs with 86 ABs.

 

Regardless, it doesn't change anything whether it's 5 to 4 or tied at 4. A backup catcher who's never been known for his stick simply shouldn't out-slug your primary first baseman this far into the season.

[Mike Sixel]

Chris Sale is good, great even. Boston probably should have been asked to give up even more for this. This is the kind of guy you make trades for, not mediocre players, imo.

[Deduno Abides]

Thanks for the bullpen usage charts. Simple data that hasn't been done previously, yet tells a lot.

 

Belisle: Washington knew they had a lot of question marks in their bullpen this year, which has proven to be the case, yet they didn't want him back. Think they might have known something?

[drjim]

Chris Sale is good, great even. Boston probably should have been asked to give up even more for this. This is the kind of guy you make trades for, not mediocre players, imo.

Alas, not often you have a top 5 (1 by some measures) prospect and the best rhp prospect laying around.

[drjim]

Glad to see Gee sent out. He can come back Saturday as the 26th man, and the rest of the bullpen spots (hopefully? finally?) can be decided on merit.

He's likely the extra callup Saturday.

 

And yes, looks like bullpen is shaking out a little. Pressly could come back too.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Alas, not often you have a top 5 (1 by some measures) prospect and the best rhp prospect laying around.

 

Agreed, it's not easy to have that talent base available. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Belisle: Washington knew they had a lot of question marks in their bullpen this year, which has proven to be the case, yet they didn't want him back. Think they might have known something?

And it's not just the job, it's the role -- no team has asked Belisle to pitch this many high leverage situations since the 2012 Rockies (and they weren't a good team). The 2014 Rockies and 2016 Nationals in particular used him in more of a Breslow mop-up role. But the 2017 Twins have him as our second highest leveraged reliever, behind only Kintzler.

[PDX Twin]

 

Belisle: Washington knew they had a lot of question marks in their bullpen this year, which has proven to be the case, yet they didn't want him back. Think they might have known something?

 

It seems like we always lose dealing with Washington. (And I'm not even thinking about politics.)

 

Ramos? Span? Belisle shows that we can't even get the better of a deal when we don't give anything up! Advice to Front Office: don't deal with the Nationals.

[Vanimal46]

 

Just a heads up so nobody worries about me, I'll be off the grid for the next couple days and won't be able to provide recaps for Tuesday or Wednesday night's games. As always, thanks for reading!

 

 

Enjoy your time off the grid Tom! Nothing better than taking a couple of days off from your phone/internet to put things into perspective. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Molitor says that if Polanco had gotten the bunt down and advanced the runners he was planning to pinch hit Mauer for Gimenez. That actually makes some sense.

 

That would have left a base open for them to walk Mauer (or at least pitch around him) and face Rosario and Buxton.

[wsnydes]

 

That would have left a base open for them to walk Mauer (or at least pitch around him) and face Rosario and Buxton.

Which may have happened even if Giminez took the AB in that situation.  They may have walked Mauer to get to Rosario and Buxton even with runners on 1st and 2nd.  We don't know how it would have played out, but I would rather be the aggressor than the reacting party.  Force the opponent to make decisions.

[USAFChief]

How many managers let Gimenez hit in that situation? Down one, Mauer available, late innings, tieing run in scoring position, RH reliever brought in that has to pitch to at least one hitter? Castro available to catch, btw.

 

The over/under is 1.5.

 

I'll take the under.

 

Monumentally bad managing.

[Oldgoat_MN]

 

That would have left a base open for them to walk Mauer (or at least pitch around him) and face Rosario and Buxton.

It would have put Rosario at bat against a RH pitcher.

Not bad odds, especially lately.

[Otto von Ballpark]

I should have clarified, I agree it was a bad decision not to PH Mauer.

 

I just think Molitor's explanation of why he didn't is even worse. I'd pinch hit him either way, but I think it is slightly more important with runners at 1st and 2nd, rather than 2nd and 3rd. But, better for Molitor to blame Polanco...

[Mike Sixel]

 

That would have left a base open for them to walk Mauer (or at least pitch around him) and face Rosario and Buxton.

 

which would be GREAT! you want the bases loaded more than you want them not.

[Mike Sixel]

 

How many managers let Gimenez hit in that situation? Down one, Mauer available, late innings, tieing run in scoring position, RH reliever brought in that has to pitch to at least one hitter? Castro available to catch, btw.

The over/under is 1.5.

I'll take the under.

Monumentally bad managing.

 

I will also take the under. Terrible decision.