Article: TB 10, MIN 1: Snell Stifles Twins Bats

[Andrew Thares]

It was a rough night for the Minnesota Twins, as they were walloped 10-1 by the Tampa Bay Rays. For the better part of seven innings, this game was a pitchers’ dual, but it quickly turned into a route in favor of the Rays.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

 

 

 

Blake Snell was dealing tonight for the Rays. The Twins played some small ball to put up a run on him in the first, but then Snell shutdown the Twins for the next six-innings before he stranded Robbie Grossman on third to end his night in the seventh.

 

Snell was one of the Rays more highly touted pitching prospects as he was coming up through the minors, but he struggled with control issues during his first two seasons in the majors. However, Snell appears to have found his form in 2018, and is showing off his nasty stuff with pitches like this one to strikeout Eddie Rosario in the second.

 

 

Kyle Gibson was having a strong start, having given up just a two-run home run through his first six innings of work. However, things unraveled in the seventh, where Gibson and Gabriel Moya combined to give up five runs to let the Rays blow the game open.

 

C.J. Cron had himself a day, belting two two-run home runs, one in third and the other in the five-run seventh. Both home runs were carbon copies of each other, as the second lander just four seats over from where the first one ended up.

 

Denard Span came up big for the Rays again tonight after he came up with a two-out, two-RBI base hit up-the-middle during the seventh inning to expand the Rays lead to 5-1, the Rays would late expand the score to 7-1 in the seventh off Cron’s second home run of the night.

 

The Twins tried to get a rally going in the eighth, getting the first two runners on with the top of the order coming up. However, Rays reliever Matt Andriese quickly shut the door by striking out Brian Dozier and getting Joe Mauer to ground into an inning-ending double play.

 

The Rays added onto their lead in the bottom half of the eighth when Daniel Robertson blasted a 431- foot bomb to centerfield off Tyler Kinley bring the score to 8-1. That was followed by a walk and three more singles, including another RBI single from Denard Span. When all was said and done the score stood at 10-1 in favor of the Rays.

 

The Twins did have a sparkling night defensively. First, Ehire Adrianza robbed Denard Span in each of his first two at-bats with defensive web gems at short. Here was the second one during the third inning.

 

 

During the 4th inning Miguel Sano showed off his rocket of an arm to nab Daniel Robertson to get the second out of the inning. Then Mauer followed it up by spearing a ground ball off the bat of Wilson Ramos to end the inning.

 

 

Next Three Games

Sun at TB 12:10 pm CT

Mon at NYY 6:05 pm CT

Tues at NYY 5:35 pm CT

 

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[Rosterman]

Molitor got the reserves to play: Grossman, Garver, Ehire and LaMarre started. 

 

Stayed a close game. Low pitch count meant you tried to get 7 out of Gibson, but is it really necessary top push starters anymore.

 

The two kids were horrible.

 

Luke Bard cut by Angels. Should the Twins pay $50,000 to get him back?

[mikelink45]

Not inspiring.  Isn't it time to look at the minors and bring up Gonsalves and Romero?  This is not a small sample size for Gibson, no matter how many innings he pitches the last one will be a disaster.  Moya and Kinley are not MLB relievers and if we really thing we are going to compete they need to go.  

 

I hope I am wrong about Hughes, but other than his big contract why is he starting?

 

Pitching was our weak point.  The FO got lots of credit for addressing it.  I am not one of those saying good job.  Except for Reed - the one exception.  The percentage is not good.  

 

And Sano gets an RBI.  Great, he made contact once.  I am bored with him and I hated the lineup.  Grossman batting Number 4????  Call up the young bats.  Do something interesting.  

[bluechipper]

At least the Twins finally get a break in not facing an ace or a #2 starter for once tomorrow. I'm expecting a lot of runs.

[SarasotaBill]

Falvey needs to face his big blunder and cut Kinley.

 

He's not a pitcher. He's a thrower which doesn't work against MLB hitters.

[Dave The Dastardly]

 

Falvey needs to face his big blunder and cut Kinley.

 

He's not a pitcher. He's a thrower which doesn't work against MLB hitters.

Couldn't agree more. Kinley is dead weight. Use the roster spot for somebody that might actually be able to get an out. Lots of choices in AAA.

[jtkoupal]

1. I can't understand why we suck so bad against lefties. We have the talent to hit lefties better than this... We had that problem last year too, which leads me to another major curiosity...

2. If hitting lefties was such a huge weakness, then why did we decide to bring Logan Morrison into town? He crushed righties last year, but was barely above league average (105 sOPS+) against lefties. Also, only 6 of his 38 homers were against lefties. That being said, those numbers are better than any other in-house options that were available (sorry, Kennys Vargas enthusiasts) to hit lefties. Just to clarify, Vargas did hit righties at a decent clip last year (115 sOPS+) but only a 62 sOPS+ vs lefties. That is all strictly inferior to Morrison, who will still heat up.

3. Kinley could still remain in our system if we worked out a trade, but I hear that they are waiting to find out if we are going to be offered Luke Bard back, at which time Kinley could be expendable.

4. I don't think last year's postseason run was a fluke by any means, but I also think that too many teams are powerhouses and we are just a rung below them. Returning to the postseason will be difficult this year. (Current playoff odds at 24.1% according to Fan Graphs)

 

[Darius]

Are people really blaming this on Gibson? He certainly pitched well enough. Everyone needs some bullpen help in a game at some point.

 

He rebounded from an early homer to get the team through to a point where they could get some key bullpen pieces a break.

 

I've been learning the thing with Gibson is expectations. He's a back-end starter. Not an ace. He'll never. E one. Going into the 7th inning last night, his season ERA to that point was down to about 3.5 (4.29 after the inning - we've seen worse from Twins "aces" over the decades). That can be extended back to about July of last year.

 

The guy has been doing his his job serviceably for some time now. People just need to drop this expectations that come along with the first-round label. For comparison, guys like Rosario, Kepler, Buxton, Polanco who have also been historically inept offensively can put together a couple of good weeks at the plate and they've arrived as superstars. It's a perception thing.

[Andrew Thares]

 

2. If hitting lefties was such a huge weakness, then why did we decide to bring Logan Morrison into town? He crushed righties last year, but was barely above league average (105 sOPS+) against lefties. Also, only 6 of his 38 homers were against lefties. That being said, those numbers are better than any other in-house options that were available (sorry, Kennys Vargas enthusiasts) to hit lefties.

First, like you mentioned, despite Morrison's modest numbers against lefties he is still an upgrade over what the Twins had on the roster, and second the biggest reason for the Morrison signing has to be the incredibly low price they signed him for. I would be surprised if he was on their radar much at all to begin the offseason, but when free agent prices plummeted the Twins saw an opportunity to take advantage of it and they did.

[Franz]

 

Are people really blaming this on Gibson? He certainly pitched well enough. Everyone needs some bullpen help in a game at some point...

...I've been learning the thing with Gibson is expectations. He's a back-end starter.

 

I think that is a very good point. I feel much more comfortable with Gibson in a rotation that goes:

Berrios

Santana

Lynn

Odorizzi

Gibson