Article: MIN 4, DET 2: It’s All Coming Up Rosie

[Tom Froemming]

Ron Gardenhire made his return as a manager to Target Field, but the Twins made sure it wasn’t a triumphant one. Jose Berrios was excellent over eight innings and Eddie Rosario helped put the Twins over when the team desperately needed some late life.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Download attachment: Snapshot521.png Download attachment: WinEx521.png

This one was tied at 2-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning and at that point Eddie Rosario basically decided the Twins were going to win this ballgame. After Eduardo Escobar drew a one-out walk, Rosie hit a pitch that was about eyeball high for a double. The Tigers intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases and then unintentionally walked Logan Morrison on four pitches to give the Twins the lead.

 

But Rosario was far from done.

 

Robbie Grossman sent a fly ball to shallow center field and Eddie initially looked like he was simply bluffing a tag up to home, as you often see. Nope. After a few of those bluff steps, Rosario realized the defender hesitated, so he broke for home. The urgent throw sailed way over the catchers head.

 

That gave Fernando Rodney a nice insurance run, which wouldn’t be needed … because Eddie Rosario.

 

Rodney retired the first two batters he faced, then old friend John Hicks sent a rocket out to left field. Rosie caught the line drive and crashed into the wall simultaneously to secure the final out of the game. A fitting and spectacular finish.

Things got off to a poor start for the Twins. Berrios gave up a homer to the second batter he faced. The Tigers scratched across another run in the third to go up 2-0.

 

In the bottom of the fifth, Max Kepler destroyed a pitch from lefty Blaine Hardy for a two-run double. It was apparent Kepler thought that ball was gone, and I guess to be fair in most parks it would have been.

 

Could Kepler have made it to third if he had been hustling out of the box? Maybe, maybe not, but it wasn’t the only time Twins fans were left wondering “what if?” in concern to Max’s base running that inning.

 

The very next batter sent a single out to left field, Kepler stutter-stepped around third base on his way home, but it initially appeared that he scored on the play. Detroit challenged the call … and it still appeared Kepler was more than likely safe on the play, but the thing that cost him was he lifted his lead foot. Max must really like that pair of cleats, I guess.

 

The call was overturned and the inning ended with the game remaining tied at 2-2. Thank goodness that didn't matter.

Berrios gave up three hits and two walks while striking out nine batters in his eight innings of work.

 

Postgame With Rosario

Bullpen Usage

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

Download attachment: Bullpen521.png

Next Three Games

Tue vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT

Wed vs. DET, 12:10 pm CT

Thu OFF

Fri at SEA, 9:10 pm CT

 

Last Three Games

MIN 3, MIL 1: Odorizzi Ks 10, LoMo Delivers Go-Ahead Hit

MIL 5, MIN 4: Jake Cave Homers in MLB Debut

MIL 8, MIN 3: Gibson Falters, Mauer Exits Due to Neck Injury

 

More From Twins Daily

Twins Minor League Report (5/21): Kernels Win Late, Gordon Homers

A Whole New LoMo

Week in Review: Crisis of Leadership

The Evolution of Jose Berrios

 

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[Aerodeliria]

It's a great win for the Twins, especially after the overrule nonsense on Kepler's scoring play. I can't guess how they overturn that play. It's supposed be incontrovertible proof of a mistake, isn't it? That was laughable only because the Twins won.

 

Tomorrow, it's Lynn. Hold on to your hats boys and girls.

[twinsfanstreif]

Kepler was totally safe, not sure what they saw there

[FormerMinnasotan]

It's a great win for the Twins, especially after the overrule nonsense on Kepler's scoring play. I can't guess how they overturn that play. It's supposed be incontrovertible proof of a mistake, isn't it? That was laughable only because the Twins won.

 

Tomorrow, it's Lynn. Hold on to your hats boys and girls.

You have to wonder, with the Twins DFA’ing Hughes if they might be making room in the bullpen for Lynn if he struggles once again as it seems there are a few in the minors (namely Slegers or Gonsalves) who are ready for a look with the Big league club.

[jokin]

 

You have to wonder, with the Twins DFA’ing Hughes if they might be making room in the bullpen for Lynn if he struggles once again as it seems there are a few in the minors (namely Slegers or Gonsalves) who are ready for a look with the Big league club.

 

Trevor May seems most likely going to be taking Lynn's spot in the rotation, probably based on if he does well tomorrow night for Rochester.

[wsnydes]

 

Kepler was totally safe, not sure what they saw there

I do feel that he was out, but with the replay views shown I have no idea how they overturned the call on the field.  Nothing was definitive enough in my view.

[ThejacKmp]

 

 Gonslavtuntil

You have to wonder, with the Twins DFA’ing Hughes if they might be making room in the bullpen for Lynn if he struggles once again as it seems there are a few in the minors (namely Slegers or Gonsalves) who are ready for a look with the Big league club.

 

Lynn won't be replaced by Slegers or Gonsalves. Slegers is a depth starter and they don't want to rush Gonslaves/start his clock.

 

Lynn has until May or Santana is ready. That gives him a few starts at least, maybe up to 3-4 if the Twins want to baby May (not crazy coming off surgery). Hopefully this lights a fire, it makes no sense that he's been this bad.

[ThejacKmp]

Rosario's play was totally a slowpitch softball move. Tagging on an infield fly. I will always love Eddie. :-)

[Platoon]

I thought replay was going to resolve controversial calls. . I am NOT comparing Rosario to Oliva, with the exception that neither ever saw a pitch that they considered unhittable.

[USAFChief]

 

I do feel that he was out, but with the replay views shown I have no idea how they overturned the call on the field.  Nothing was definitive enough in my view.

I agree there wasn't enough there to change the call, from what we saw. But I have read in multiple places that the replay office in NY has views from additional cameras that are not part of the broadcast crew, and therefore we wouldn't see them. 

 

They also have the ability to sync two or more views so they possibly could have compared the image of the tag being made to the image of his back leg hitting the plate, two views side by side. 

 

I strongly doubt they would have changed the call from what we saw. There almost had to be more. 

[Longdistancetwins]

My only perspective was as a scoreboard watcher at the Mets game here in New York.  Very disconcerting when you are sure it was says MIN 3, and it becomes MIN 2!  Fortunately, I had a friend with me who confirmed what I had seen and that I wasn't nuts.  

[wsnydes]

 

I agree there wasn't enough there to change the call, from what we saw. But I have read in multiple places that the replay office in NY has views from additional cameras that are not part of the broadcast crew, and therefore we wouldn't see them. 

 

They also have the ability to sync two or more views so they possibly could have compared the image of the tag being made to the image of his back leg hitting the plate, two views side by side. 

 

I strongly doubt they would have changed the call from what we saw. There almost had to be more. 

Interesting.  I was under the impression that we got to see the same views they were watching.  That's good to know though.  It makes seemingly blown calls more understandable.

 

I was at the game and they showed three different angles I believe.  One clearly showed that Kepler's front foot didn't touch the plate.  Another showed that his back shin did.  Another showed when the tag was applied.  None of them showed definitively how that timing worked.  I don't know if the TV coverage had more angles or not.

 

That would seem to be a flaw in the system though.  If the idea is to get the calls right, would it not make sense that the fans watching get to see the views that make those types of calls correct?  It's kind of like the adage about a tree falling in the forest, does anyone hear it?  In this case, if the correct call was made but the fans don't understand or see what makes it correct, is it really correct?

 

Thanks for the insight.  That helps clear some things up for me.

[bighat]

 

I do feel that he was out, but with the replay views shown I have no idea how they overturned the call on the field.  Nothing was definitive enough in my view.

 

I also think he was out - based on watching the play live it seemed the ball beat him there and perhaps he got swiped before his back leg came down. But I also agree with you that the call should not have been overturned.

 

You couldn't see on the replay when exactly his back leg touched the plate. Essentially his leg was over the plate and the replay officials decided to make a guess and just assume his leg wasn't touching the plate at the time. Seems crazy to overturn a call based on an assumption, rather than video proof.

[Mike Sixel]

Berrios being really good again is the story here for me. They need it.

[ashbury]

I also think he was out - based on watching the play live it seemed the ball beat him there and perhaps he got swiped before his back leg came down.

I think not enough credit has been offered to the catcher, McCann, who made a very fine play, one that might be considered bread-and-butter at the position but gets bollixed up often enough. Nice throw by JaCoby Jones, as well, unless you are adamant about hitting the cutoff man in every situation.

[bighat]

I'd love to see a 7-run outburst tonight. Let's see some spark from the offense.

[TFRazor]

 

Kepler was totally safe, not sure what they saw there

I don't think he was "totally safe" but I also don't think there was enough evidence there for them to overturn the initial call. That should've been a prime example of the call "standing" rather than being confirmed or overturned

[Otto von Ballpark]

I agree there wasn't enough there to change the call, from what we saw. But I have read in multiple places that the replay office in NY has views from additional cameras that are not part of the broadcast crew, and therefore we wouldn't see them.

 

They also have the ability to sync two or more views so they possibly could have compared the image of the tag being made to the image of his back leg hitting the plate, two views side by side.

 

I strongly doubt they would have changed the call from what we saw. There almost had to be more.

My guess is that explanation is a bit of CYA (and that stands for "covering your" something, not Cy Young Award ). The broadcast crews have a ton of cameras, I doubt the replay office has meaningfully more/better ones.

 

Although syncing multiple cameras is interesting, I wish they would do it more often on the broadcasts. (Originally they couldn't even do it at the replay office, so they didn't allow challenges on tag-up plays, but that has changed and they are now allowed.)

[puckstopper1]

 

Berrios being really good again is the story here for me. They need it.

 

I agree Mike. 

 

Great for Jose to go 8 and get the win! 

 

Bullpen nice and rested (except for Rodney) for Lynn's likely 3.1 inning outing tonight.  

Edited May 22, 2018 by puckstopper1

[Circus Boy]

 

Berrios being really good again is the story here for me. They need it.

Now that he's not tipping his pitches, he's doing fine. And I really liked the bats coming through at the right moments. But a laugher in our favor would be nice.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Circus Boy

[puckstopper1]

I know it is a fairly small sample size, but Kepler's splits are the opposite of what they were last season. 

 

Left
 .333  /  .396   / .690  / 1.086

 

Right 

.218  / .312  /  .382  / 0.694

 

That to me is an incredible flip-flop.

[ashbury]

 

I know it is a fairly small sample size, but Kepler's splits are the opposite of what they were last season. 

 

Left
 .333  /  .396   / .690  / 1.086

 

Right 

.218  / .312  /  .382  / 0.694

 

That to me is an incredible flip-flop.

We need to bring up another left-handed bat pronto, and platoon Kepler with him.

[laloesch]

Twins need to extend Escobar and start thinking about a long term deal for Rosario.  Imagine where this team would be without those two.

[Mr. Brooks]

Lynn won't be replaced by Slegers or Gonsalves. Slegers is a depth starter and they don't want to rush Gonslaves/start his clock.

 

Lynn has until May or Santana is ready. That gives him a few starts at least, maybe up to 3-4 if the Twins want to baby May (not crazy coming off surgery). Hopefully this lights a fire, it makes no sense that he's been this bad.

Lynn was almost equally as bad last year, 4.82 FIP vs. 5.35 this year. He's just not getting lucky like he did last year.

This is why there wasn't much interest in him around the league.

It's not just 8 starts. He's been bad since the surgery, he just got really lucky last year.

[Wyorev]

It seems to me that the Twins do not play the "don't want to start his clock" game as much as some other teams do. For that matter, seeing how few guys really live up to their potential, it seems like a fool's errand using that criteria in trying to decide which guys to hold back, and which to promote.

One more thing.

Nobody mentions this, but it seems to me that with catchers no longer allowed to block home plate, runners should approach home the way they run to first. No slide. Nobody mentions this, but most of these close plays would not be close at all if the runner ran through the base.

At the same time, sliding is ingrained in the runner's mind and actions, I imagine it is pretty hard to break the habit.

[bluechipper]

Lynn was almost equally as bad last year, 4.82 FIP vs. 5.35 this year. He's just not getting lucky like he did last year.

This is why there wasn't much interest in him around the league.

It's not just 8 starts. He's been bad since the surgery, he just got really lucky last year.

I think walking nearly a batter an inning this year has more to do with it than this luck I keep hearing about.

[ashbury]

Nobody mentions this, but it seems to me that with catchers no longer allowed to block home plate, runners should approach home the way they run to first. No slide. Nobody mentions this, but most of these close plays would not be close at all if the runner ran through the base.

If McCann's not blocking the plate, he's sure impeding progress toward it.

 

 

I agree it's good to re-think strategies, but this picture suggests to me that Kepler's a larger and (more importantly) higher target to swipe at if he doesn't slide.

[KirbyDome89]

 

Lynn was almost equally as bad last year, 4.82 FIP vs. 5.35 this year. He's just not getting lucky like he did last year.
This is why there wasn't much interest in him around the league.
It's not just 8 starts. He's been bad since the surgery, he just got really lucky last year.

This.

 

Once you look beyond his ERA last season it's apparent he isn't the same guy prior to the surgery. 

[Wyorev]

 

I agree it's good to re-think strategies, but this picture suggests to me that Kepler's a larger and (more importantly) higher target to swipe at if he doesn't slide.

That is a good point, but I wonder: - It could be that if he doesn't slide, the swipe tag misses him because he's going faster than the catcher can swipe. Kepler possibly could have stayed on his feet and brushed past McCann there.

I've seen many plays at home where sliding was the wrong option. Not that I would have been able to suppress the instinct to slide - but running through is always faster...

[USAFChief]

IMO the way to maximize his chances of scoring there, a head first slide on the foul side of the line was the way to go. Hand extended, it gets to the plate the quickest, and there is way less chance of it being off the ground like his lead foot was. He's also lower to the ground and therefore a bit more difficult to tag. Plenty of space to avoid contact there, too, so not a lot of increased chance of injury.