Article: Astros 10, Twins 5: Berrios Bombs

[Tom Froemming]

The 2016 version of Jose Berrios showed up, unfortunately, as the Twins were once again handed a lopsided loss at the hands of Houston. Brian Dozier got things started off great, clubbing a lead-off homer, but the Astros eventually built a 10-1 lead and cruised to victory.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs)

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If Twins fans were a little shell shocked heading into a series at Houston, you couldn't blame them. Not only are the Astros the best team in baseball, but they also destroyed the Twins in a sweep at Target Field earlier this year.

 

Welp, things didn’t go much better at Houston. Berrios lasted just 1.2 innings, giving up seven runs, though only two were earned. Jorge Polanco made an error with one out in the second inning, which ended up being an eight-run frame for the Astros.

Dozier had an excellent game, going 2-for-5 with four RBI, but he was one of very few bright spots for the Twins. Zack Granite got his first MLB hit, a double, and drew a walk.

 

Phil Hughes gave up three runs over 1.1 innings, but the rest of the bullpen was solid. Ryan Pressly (1.0 IP), Buddy Boshers (1.2 IP), Trevor Hildenberger (1.1 IP) and Matt Belisle (1.0 IP) combined for five scoreless innings.

 

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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Saturday

Twins (Ervin Santana) at Houston (Joe Musgrove), 6:10 pm CT

 

Musgrove has been scuffling of late, giving up 18 runs over his last 15 innings pitched. His changeup, which he throws about 12 percent of the time, has been getting crushed of late. Opponents are slugging over 1.000 on that pitch since the start of June per Brooks Baseball.

 

Ervin ended the first half on a high note, throwing a complete game in a 2-1 loss to the Angels. Santana pitched well against the Astros on Memorial Day, holding them to two runs (one earned) over 7.0 innings. The bullpen blew that game in spectacular fashion, giving up 14 runs over the final two frames. Carlos Correa is 5-for-7 with a home run and a double off Ervin over his career.

 

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[Old Twins Cap]

Why did Twins take out Buxton? He okay?

 

Baseball is a funny game. If you don't get outs when you are supposed to get outs, the balance tips and sometimes it can tip dramatically. Looked like Jose did not get a couple outs when he could have in the second, didn't have command and that was the game that inning.

 

It happens. And, it happened to every Central team last night.

[ScooterDance]

Buxton pulled a buxton by windmilling his arms to stave off a fall while collecting his two bagger. In the process he ran mega funny and seemed to have tweaked something.

 

Just run at normal speed bruh. You were in easy with 2.

[Darius]

The Twins defense giveth, and taketh. I think it's time to end the Polanco experiment. That potential tailor made double play ball he booted was absolutely brutal. Berrios should've been out of that inning, and 8 runs followed.

 

I don't care if you're Nolan Ryan. It won't end well if your defense is giving the most dynamic offense in the game extra outs.

[h2oface]

Other than Hughes, the bullpen picked a relatively worthless game to perform well. 9 walks, 2 errors, a HBP.... and the bats managed to get only 5 hits and went 1-13 with RISP. 11 LOB and 13 Ks. Our pitchers, especially Pressly (2 out of 25 pitches), couldn't buy a swing and miss, and Hughes is toast. Berrios lost his cool, for sure, and 2 of his seven runs were let score by Hughes and the 0-2 meat to McCann. Houston left the door wide open for a comeback, and the Twins couldn't step through the threshold, inning after inning. It happens. And against Houston this year, it happens every game. 

[COtwin]

Hughes needs to be done. He needed one pitch and instead threw meat. He can't be trusted at all. Game wasn't lost until he put the finishing touches on. Cut him and be done.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I'm getting a little peeved at all these poundings. Falvey brought in his own people, including his catchers, and they are all supposed to have analytical insights about how to pitch to teams. They had a week to prepare for this series.

[adorduan]

I said this in the game thread and I'll say it here.  Yes the error hurt, but Berrios was terrible.  He was going 2-0, 3-0 on almost every hitter.  A lot of his pitches weren't even close.

[Han Joelo]

I don't like the underlying implications of this game.  Not ready for prime time.  This will hopefully be a painful learning experience, but it is in the zone of proximal development at least for this team.  They got the bases loaded a bunch, they got to two outs and even two strikes in tough situations.  They just need to learn to get over that proverbial hump.

 

Kudos to the bullpen (sans Hughes) for keeping things in check.  This could have been another 16-5 loss, further skewing that all important run differential statorama.

[mikelink45]

Berrios like every pitcher is going to have bad games - note that our best pitcher, Santana on June 3,14, 20 gave up 7,5,6 runs.  It happens.  Fielding is another issue.  Polanco has an error every 7 games and often it is on a DP ball and his rating in the fielding stats is really poor here.  That does not excuse Berrios, but we also cannot excuse Polanco. The ESPN site fielding rankings have him number 11 at SS in the American League - not MLB so number 11 of 15.  We do not have anyone better to put in at this time, but with his current batting stats he could be replaced by Adrianza or Vielma.    http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/ss/league/al/order/true

 

Hughes reminds me of the Pelfrey years.  Starters do suffer from relief pitchers who quickly give up the inherited baserunners, but more important, he has not shown any ability that is worth a position in the pen.

 

Let's hope this is an anomaly and not a sign for the second half. 

[drjim]

I'm starting to think the Twins might not be quite as good as Houston.

[PDX Twin]

 

I said this in the game thread and I'll say it here.  Yes the error hurt, but Berrios was terrible.  He was going 2-0, 3-0 on almost every hitter.  A lot of his pitches weren't even close.

 

I agree, but I think that is partially attributable to the crushing error. He's a young pitcher with sky-high ambition. We've seen this before that when something goes awry behind him, he starts trying to get a swinging strike on every pitch, nibbles at (and often misses) the corners, gets behind in the count, and gives up thunder when he has to come in with a 3-0 or 3-1 pitch.

 

This seems fixable to me with more maturity and experience.

[adorduan]

 

Berrios like every pitcher is going to have bad games - note that our best pitcher, Santana on June 3,14, 20 gave up 7,5,6 runs.  It happens.  Fielding is another issue.  Polanco has an error every 7 games and often it is on a DP ball and his rating in the fielding stats is really poor here.  That does not excuse Berrios, but we also cannot excuse Polanco. The ESPN site fielding rankings have him number 11 at SS in the American League - not MLB so number 11 of 15.  We do not have anyone better to put in at this time, but with his current batting stats he could be replaced by Adrianza or Vielma.    http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/ss/league/al/order/true

 

Hughes reminds me of the Pelfrey years.  Starters do suffer from relief pitchers who quickly give up the inherited baserunners, but more important, he has not shown any ability that is worth a position in the pen.

 

Let's hope this is an anomaly and not a sign for the second half. 

Yeah, we do.  Escobar.

[Otto von Ballpark]

I'm starting to think the Twins might not be quite as good as Houston.

"Houston, we have a problem."

[terrydactyls]

A couple of observations.

 

1. I hope this convinces people that it would be idiotic to trade potential MLB players for a stopgap pitcher. The Twins are not ready now. Vegas has them at 70-1 to win the series.

 

2. The highlight of the game was Altuve throwing his glove after he mis-timed his jump on Granite's double.

 

3. Hunter's laughter after Altuve threw his glove.

[HitInAPinch]

Well, the Astro's lineup last night had 5 players in it who are hitting over .300 and another just a few points behind.  On the mound for the Twins, a young pitcher who's still trying to find his way.  I was hoping for something under double digits, but Berrios isn't just quite there yet.  

 

If there was anything good coming out of this game, they didn't run out their 3 core bullpen pitchers (Duffey, Rogers and Kintler) and the number of walks they had.  

[Tom Froemming]

FYI, just updated this to include video of the Polanco error.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

A couple of observations.

 

1. I hope this convinces people that it would be idiotic to trade potential MLB players for a stopgap pitcher. The Twins are not ready now. Vegas has them at 70-1 to win the series.

 

2. The highlight of the game was Altuve throwing his glove after he mis-timed his jump on Granite's double.

 

3. Hunter's laughter after Altuve threw his glove.

Who are the stopgap pitchers people have been demanding to trade for? Quintana?

[Willihammer]

Looks like Vargas fouled another ball of his foot yesterday and could hit the DL.

http://www.startribune.com/updates-on-buxton-vargas-and-mauer-after-loss-to-astros/434617393/

 

 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Mauer could be activated today too.

[D.C Twins]

It is time for everyone to get comfortable trading our 34-year-old “ace” at his peak value (yes, there will be a good market unlike for Dozier). I am super optimistic about our core, but our window really opens in 2019 if we are being honest with ourselves. Santana will not be part of that….I promise

[Aggies7]

Hopefully Santana throws a gem tonight and we can trade him to someone willing to overpay

[Deduno Abides]

Berrios and Polanco are decent major league players. They mostly need experience, and with that will come better poise.

 

The last thing they need is the dangling withdrawal of managerial confidence and managerial under-the-bus-throwing, which we as fans became accustomed to over the last several years, until it reached a point where projecting a young player to never be any good because he made a mistake or had some bad games (or didn't play to his potential because of injury, or hyperactivity, or . . .) appeared to pass for baseball wisdom.

[h2oface]

 

Berrios and Polanco are decent major league players. They mostly need experience, and with that will come better poise.
 

 Berrios? I totally agree. Polanco? I see a Florimon playing a lot of AAA ball and bouncing around as a utility throw away over and over and over.

[drjim]

I'm starting to think the Twins might not be quite as good as Houston.

I take it all back.

[Mr. Brooks]

Berrios? I totally agree. Polanco? I see a Florimon playing a lot of AAA ball and bouncing around as a utility throw away over and over and over.

Well so far he's amassed 1.2 WAR and he's only in his age 23 season - or the same age that Florimon was putting up a .483 OPS in AA.