Article: NYY 11, MIN 3: Twins Crumble At Yankee Stadium (Again)

[Tom Froemming]

The Yankees completed their sweep with a bang, blowing out the Twins 11-3. That’s the bad news, and it definitely stings. The good news? The rest of the AL Wild Card contenders are steeped in mediocrity. No matter what happens with the Angels tonight the Twins will maintain their lead in the Wild Card race.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs)

Download attachment: Snapshot920.png

Bartolo Colon struggled today and has been a mess of late. Over his last three starts, he's has given up 16 earned runs in 11 innings pitched. Today, Colon gave up six runs on seven hits, two of them home runs, over 3.1 innings pitched.

 

What made matters worse was the bullpen couldn’t stop the bleeding. Tyler Duffey gave up three runs over 0.2 innings and Nik Turley gave up a pair while recording just a single out.

 

That implosion was especially depressing because the Twins had jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Kennys Vargas got things going in the third inning with a one-out infield single. He then advanced from first to third on a Jason Castro single. I guess that silent “s” stands for speedy.

 

Brian Dozier drew a walk to load the bases before Joe Mauer put together what may have been the team’s finest at-bat of the entire season. Facing Luis Severino, who has been among the best pitchers in the American League this season, Mauer fell behind 0-1 and then 1-2. He fouled off seven of the next nine pitches, taking the other two for balls. On the 13th and final pitch of the at-bat, Mauer pulled a 99 mph fastball through the infield for an RBI single.

 

Jorge Polanco followed with a two-run single and the Twins were up 3-0. But just when it was feeling like they might get the monkey off their back, Colon gave up two homers in the bottom of the inning to tie it up.

 

It was a bad day that ended a bad series for the Twins, but luckily they’re still in control of their own destiny. Even if the Angels win tonight (UPDATE: they didn't), they’ll still be a half game back. Plus, seven of the Twins last 10 games come against the Tigers, who have been the worst team in baseball over the past month. Coming into today, Detroit was 9-21 over their last 30 games.

 

AL Wild Card Standings

WC1: Yankees 85-67 (+7.0)

WC2: Twins 78-74

Angels 76-75 (-1.5)

Rangers 75-76 (-2.5)

 

Postgame With Molitor

Bullpen Usage

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

Download attachment: Bullpen920.png

Looking Ahead

Thu: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) at Tigers (Jordan Zimmermann), 6:10 pm ET

Fri: Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Tigers (Matt Boyd), 6:10 pm ET

Sat: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Tigers (Buck Farmer), 5:10 pm CT

 

Looking Back

NYY 5, MIN 2: Tough Night For Berrios, Twins

NYY 2, MIN 1: Garcia, Yankees Bullpen Dominate Twins

MIN 13, TOR 7: Mauer Grand Slam Among 4 Twins Homers In Comeback Victory

 

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[h2oface]

Live from New York! Staring the "Not Ready For Prime-Time Players!", our Minnesota Twins!

 

Brutal. Embarrassing. Pitiful. But..... someone has to go to NY and play the Yankees (probably) in the Wild Card Game. Whether it is the Twins or the Angels (who have 2 more against Cleveland and 3 against Houston) .... they are limping in. Neither can compete with the other playoff teams. It almost isn't fair to have a second Wild Card when there is so much distance between the 2nd and 1st.

Nothing entertaining to me about Colon. It was so obvious that he had been lucky. Even when he got a few wins and results. But some fans were easily impressed, and the Management was too. Pressing the luck. He deserves one more start. Me.... you retire him before he gets the chance to fail three games in a row down the stretch, dont' push the luck. (My personal hell, Colon and Duffey). So here we are. With a cane. And we might just limp into the Wild Card game. Somebody has to.

[mikelink45]

Is there some surprise - Colon has been bad in 21 of 28 starts this year.  Those who want to resign him are on a different planet than I live on.  The Yankees are patient and they know there will be a big fat one in the selection  Colon should not be starting for a contender (I think we are).   http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/3602/bartolo-colon

 

I wish I was as confident of beating the Tigers and of Mejia doing well as the rest of the fans, but I am not.  

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Really disappointing. We needed Colon to pitch a good game today but he did his usual thing.

[Han Joelo]

This just builds the suspense for that WC game. Love it. Sano ("damp," "Sami," and "sanity" according to autocorrect's preference) makes his comeback and smacks a homer, while Judge ends the game with a strikeout. High drama. Can't wait.

 

Every time I've thought "oh this is it, the dream is over," they get back up off the mat.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Every time I've thought "oh this is it, the dream is over," they get back up off the mat.

Based on recent Twins history, this offer is not valid vs NY, or in the postseason.

[Old Twins Cap]

Imagine how hard for the Yanks to get up for the Wild Card game.

 

And, imagine how hard for Twins to lose that game at the hands of the Yankees yet again.

 

But, maybe the Twins are sand-bagging.

 

One good game, come out swinging, catch them off-guard.  I like it.

[AlwaysinModeration]

Hey, only one game away from the offense breaking out for double digits when Gibson starts again.

[blindeke]

This sweep was just to lull New York into submission for when we defeat them soundly in the playoffs.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Slept on it. Still am disappointed.

 

40% of our rotation consists of guys who have no stamina to go six innings and usually need to be pulled between the 3rd or 5th inning, another 20% of our rotation consists of Kyle Gibson, and the other 40% are good pitchers who are not getting wins right now, when wins are all that matter. Gonna be a bumpy ride.

[ThejacKmp]

I think we're overacting a bit on this. Yeah they got swept. It wasn't great. But two of the games were close and the one that wasn't was a Colon game. He's not good enough to face the best teams. Hopefully the Twins will use the off day next week to skip him so he only has one more start, against the Tiggers.

 

Teams get swept sometimes. The Twins swept the Indians earlier this year. Just gotta bounce back and take 3/4 from Tiggers.

[h2oface]

 

Hey, only one game away from the offense breaking out for double digits when Gibson starts again.

 

Best for all pitchers to where Gibson's number when pitching now.

[Mike Sixel]

 

I think we're overacting a bit on this. Yeah they got swept. It wasn't great. But two of the games were close and the one that wasn't was a Colon game. He's not good enough to face the best teams. Hopefully the Twins will use the off day next week to skip him so he only has one more start, against the Tiggers.

 

Teams get swept sometimes. The Twins swept the Indians earlier this year. Just gotta bounce back and take 3/4 from Tiggers.

 

Aren't most games close, though? What matters is winning. And, as we saw right before the deadline, and again this week, is that that is unlikely against good teams. They've made progress this year, but need pitching.

[prouster]

Aren't most games close, though? What matters is winning. And, as we saw right before the deadline, and again this week, is that that is unlikely against good teams. They've made progress this year, but need pitching.

Yeah, they've wet themselves against some good teams. But they also swept Cleveland and Arizona earlier this year. I agree they need pitching.

 

My main point: this is a weird team.