Article: CLE 9, MIN 8: Twins Fight Back, Fall Short

[Tom Froemming]

When the pitching is good, the bats go cold. When a starter gets shelled, the offense ignites. What is going on here?

 

Yesterday, the Twins trailed 8-0 after two innings, but stormed back to score the next seven runs. Tonight, they trailed 8-0 after four innings and managed to tie the ballgame. Unfortunately, neither comeback effort resulted in a victory, but it’s nice to see some life from the bats.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Current record: 22-30

Jake Odorizzi: 11 Game Score, 3.2 IP, 7 ER, 3 K, 2 BB, 60.9% strikes

Bullpen: 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 K, 1 BB

Lineup: 4-for-6 w/RISP, 5 LOB

Top three per WPA: Sano .256, Escobar .047, Duke .043

Download attachment: WinEx531.png

The comeback was capped by a Miguel Sano three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning. Had the Twins won, it would have been the biggest comeback in team history.

 

Unfortunately, Francisco Lindor homered off Addison Reed in the very next inning to put Cleveland back up for good. Lindor just destroyed the Twins tonight, going 4-for-5 with two doubles and two home runs.

 

Jake Odorizzi got eaten alive by Cleveland, giving up eight runs (seven earned) on seven hits and two walks over just 3 2/3 innings.

 

Along with Sano, Logan Morrison and Eduardo Escobar homered for the Twins. Multi-hit games came from Sano, Escobar, Eddie Rosario, Robbie Grossman and Ryan LaMarre. Tyler Duffey, making his first appearance since being called up from Rochester, pitched two perfect innings.

 

Brian Dozier and Mitch Garver were both 0-for-4 with three men left on base.

 

There were a couple of rare double plays turned in this one. The bottom of the first ended on a Sano strikeout in which the catcher back-picked Rosario, who was being too greedy on his secondary lead. Then in the top of the eighth, the Twins turned a pretty strange 3-2-3 double play. It was a grounder hit to Morrison, who went to step on first but missed the bag. He fired home and Garver tagged out the runner trying to score, then he lobbed it back to LoMo to record the out at first base.

 

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: Bullpen531.png

AL Central Standings

CLE 30-25

DET 26-30 (-4.5)

MIN 22-30 (-6.5)

KC 20-36 (-10.5)

CHW 16-37 (-13.0)

 

Next Three Games

Fri vs. CLE, 7:10 pm CT

Sat vs. CLE, 3:10 pm CT

Sun vs. CLE, 1:10 pm CT

 

Last Three Games

KC 11, MIN 8: We Can’t Have Nice Things

KC 2, MIN 1: Every Game is the Same Game

MIN 8, KC 5: Bats Break Out

 

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[DocBauer]

The baseball gods are fickle. As stated, pitching is great, no hitting. Pitching suddenly stinks, the bats come alive.

 

All teams deal with injuries and hot and cold streaks. But this is ridiculous. Castro plays hurt and stinks at the plate before going out for the year. Polanco and Santana out before the season even starts. Sano with a crazy off season and then hurt. Buxton hurt, and still hurt, out a second time. Mauer out. Guys starting cold as can be, even if warming up some now.

 

Even with injuries, still enough talent available to not be this bad offensively when the pitching has been so good.

 

Bright spot? Like a lot of times last season, there appears to be some fight in this team. Despite frustrating close losses and comebacks that fall short, it doesn't appear to be a loss of spirit on the club. Could some of the fight we've been seeing recently begin to even our karma? Could the baseball gods decide enough is enough and begin to smile on the Twins with a new month beginning tomorrow?

 

Let's hope so. June baby! 4 months left to play ball!

[h2oface]

Damn. 3 outings in a row Addison Reed has given up the game. Stats still look good, though, if you like your stats. Tonight, an 86 mph hanging slider. right. down. the. middle.

[big dog]

I thought Reed was the best signing of the offseason, but he's certainly having some miserable moments so far.

[theBOMisthebomb]

This is becoming a lost season that had so much potential. Nothing left to do except keep playing, realize it's a long season, the breaks will start falling our way, and these guys have a lot of talent.

[theBOMisthebomb]

Deflating.

[mikelink45]

Welcome to June.  Another month and the story seems to be changing again.  But the fact that we have now flipped our issues from hitting to pitching leaves us in the same place - losing.  We lost when we did not hit, we lost when we did not pitch, we lost on the road and now we lost at home.  

Reed has really let us down recently and that stands out because he was supposed to be our steady hand in the BP.  But other than that it is hard to make comments.  We are 22 - 30.  We are not in third place in our weak division and KC is just 2 behind us while we are 6.5 behind the Indians.  And we are 10 behind in the Wild Card standings.

 

We need to rattle off a 14 game winning streak to begin to regain significance. 

[beckmt]

The question is quickly becoming how much do you tear down, or do you try firing Molly first. Season is probably lost. Next few months will determine how good this FO is.

[Tom Froemming]

There were 14 AL pitchers who appeared in 14 or more games in May, so fewer than one per team. The Twins had three guys who did that: Pressly (tied for the league lead at 16 games), Reed (15) and Duke (14).

 

The main reasoning behind that is the Twins played so many close games last month, but Paul Molitor is going to find a way to ease off that trio. With 10 games over the next 10 days, that may be a challenge.

[bighat]

I think the longer we try and fool ourselves into thinking the Twins are just victims of 'bad luck', the more frustrating the season will be. At some point it becomes too painful and frustrating when you go into every game thinking "we NEED this game!" only to watch the team find a new way to extend a losing streak.

 

There's been some positive chatter about the bats waking up. Why don't they wake up early for a change? The Twins aren't taking any leads, they are constantly playing from behind. Maybe the bats aren't waking up...more like the other team is ahead 10-zip and starts throwing pitches down the middle for a while to move the game along. Even the bright spots lose their sparkle if you look closely.

 

The only possible way the season turns around is if Molitor is fired, but it seems everyone in the organization is too afraid to pull the trigger. That's the danger of hiring a hometown guy, who aside from 2 months last year has been a disaster as a manager. I think we should look forward to the July trade deadline, and the call up of Nick Gordon and perhaps a couple of young pitchers.

 

What's good on Netflix? The ladyfriend and I started watching "The Crown" the other night...it's not bad, if you like slow-moving British television with a dramatic musical score. I actually think it's OK but I'm hoping to find something else that might add a little more excitement to the evenings while I'm not watching the Twins.

[TheLeviathan]

Time to start rooting for the "sell" candidates to succeed.  Might not be the worst thing for this team to get some value for Rodney, Reed, Duke, Dozier, and others.

[Tom Froemming]

Another fun tidbit: Last night's loss dropped the Twins to 3-12 in one-run games (.200 winning percentage). Last season, I believe the Rangers had the worst record in one-run games at 13-24 (.351).

 

In four seasons under Paul Molitor, the Twins are 54-79 (.406) in one-run games. Cleveland under Terry Francona? They're 127-102 (.555) in one-run games.

[PDX Twin]

 

Another fun tidbit: Last night's loss dropped the Twins to 3-12 in one-run games (.200 winning percentage). Last season, I believe the Rangers had the worst record in one-run games at 13-24 (.351).

 

In four seasons under Paul Molitor, the Twins are 54-79 (.406) in one-run games. Cleveland under Terry Francona? They're 127-102 (.555) in one-run games.

 

This is an interesting point. It seems like there are some groups of players/managers (i.e., teams) that always find a way to win the close ones; there are others that seem to be content with "oh well, we came close." The last two days have supported my suspicion that this year's Twins are the latter.

 

Does it come back to the discussion of a few days ago about "character"?

[Mike Sixel]

Lindor is no Buxton....that's for sure. I wish Byron was close to what he was supposed to be already...

[ashbury]

Maybe the bats aren't waking up...more like the other team is ahead 10-zip and starts throwing pitches down the middle for a while to move the game along.

Concur. I'm not ready to believe the hitting slump is over, quite yet.

[wsnydes]

 

Another fun tidbit: Last night's loss dropped the Twins to 3-12 in one-run games (.200 winning percentage). Last season, I believe the Rangers had the worst record in one-run games at 13-24 (.351).

 

In four seasons under Paul Molitor, the Twins are 54-79 (.406) in one-run games. Cleveland under Terry Francona? They're 127-102 (.555) in one-run games.

I'm a big believer of doing the little things well.  Close games go beyond managing and individual play, but collectively doing the little things well reduces the impact that luck plays into the outcomes of these types of games.  Doing the little things goes back to the manager preparing his team.  The disparity between the two managers is quite staggering.

[Doomtints]

 

When the pitching is good, the bats go cold. When a starter gets shelled, the offense ignites. What is going on here?

 

This is a longtime Twins tradition. Even in their playoff years this would happen.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

 

Another fun tidbit: Last night's loss dropped the Twins to 3-12 in one-run games (.200 winning percentage). Last season, I believe the Rangers had the worst record in one-run games at 13-24 (.351).

 

In four seasons under Paul Molitor, the Twins are 54-79 (.406) in one-run games. Cleveland under Terry Francona? They're 127-102 (.555) in one-run games.

This does not equate to Francona being a better manager than Molitor. The last 4 seasons Cleveland's record was 362 wins vs. 284 losses (.560 win percentage), while the Twins had 297 wins and 357 losses (.454 win percentage)...plus Cleveland's FO gave the Indians arguably the best relief corps , while the Twins had arguably the worst. The relievers on the team had a lot to do with one run wins and one run losses. I submit the credit/blame lies in the front offices, not the field managers. But then Falvey was with the Indians FO part of that time and now with the Twins FO...I don't know how to factor that variable.

[h2oface]

Sano's homer barely made it out, yet, Sano did not run out of the box. He lollygagged and watched it and finally started toward first. What is wrong with this guy? RUN OUT OF THE BOX!!

[h2oface]

 

This is a longtime Twins tradition. Even in their playoff years this would happen.

 

Even more inclusive, this is a long time losing team's tradition. If a team is losing, it is a universal condition. Following one team so closely, it is easy to think these things just happen to the team of interest.