Jose Berrios vs. Corey Kluber had all the makings of an epic pitcher’s duel, but our guy had a ton of trouble finding the strike zone today. Berrios issued a career-high six bases on balls and lasted just four innings. Still, the Twins stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game in the sixth inning. The Bullpen locked things down until the Twins suffered yet another walk-off loss, their 12th of the season.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Jose Berrios: 31 Game Score, 4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 5 K, 6 BB, 55.7% strikes (54 of 97 pitches)

Home Runs: Jorge Polanco (1)

WPA of 0.1 or higher: Moya .172, Polanco .180, Rogers .106

WPA of -0.1 or lower: Adrianza -.130 Berios -.190, Reed -.325

Download attachment: chart.png

Jorge Polanco sure picked a good time to hit his first home run of the season. With the Twins trailing 4-1 in the sixth inning, Polanco pulled a 1-0 cutter out of the park for a game-tying tater.

 

So we all know Kluber is already unreal on his own, right? Well it really makes things difficult when he’s fooling even the umpire. I try really hard to avoid mentioning balls and strikes in these recaps because I feel like things typically even out over the course of a game, but there’s no avoiding the impact home plate umpire Adrian Johnson had on today’s contest. Immediately after Polanco’s game-tying homer, it was as if a switch went off in Johnson’s head that he was going to start giving an extra couple inches to Cleveland’s ace.

 

Right after Ehire Adrianza was called out on strikes to open the seventh inning, Twins hitting coach James Rowson had enough and was ejected from the game. You don’t see coaches getting tossed like that often, but it’s nice to see Rowson standing up for his guys. Here's Kluber's called strikes via Baseball Savant:

Download attachment: KluberCalls.png

That one way above the top of the zone was the call on Adrianza. One guy who didn't have to worry about getting bad calls was Eddie Rosario. That's because he's swinging at everything right now. Check out the location of some of these pitches Rosie swung at today:

Download attachment: RosieSwings.png

This game remained tied thanks to some strong performances from the Twins bullpen. Gabriel Moya threw 2 2/3 no-hit innings and was followed by a perfect inning of work from Taylor Rogers. Addison Reed came in and got the final out of the eighth inning and stayed in for the ninth. It didn’t go so well.

 

Greg Allen hit a leadoff single, stole second base, advanced to third on a ground out and scored the winning run on a Michael Brantley single.

 

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: Bullpen89.png

AL Central Standings

CLE 64-50

MIN 53-61 (-11)

DET 47-68 (-17.5)

CHW 41-73 (-23)

KC 35-79 (-29)

 

Next Three Game

Fri at DET, 6:10 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. Jordan Zimmermann

Sat at DET, 5:10 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Francisco Liriano

Sun at DET, 12:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Matt Boyd

 

Last Three Games

CLE 5, MIN 2: Cleveland Prevails on Lindor Walk-Off Homer

MIN 3, CLE 2: Mitch Garver Makes it Rain

CLE 10, MIN 0: Who Needs Chris Gimenez?

 

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Would Molitor ever get thrown out?  Has he ever as a player or manager?  Did Rowson break ranks?

 

I'm bummed with losing, but nice to see the rally.  Once again for the 12th time, the right puzzle pieces aren't present...or they aren't being put in the right places.

 

Ultimately, though, come on Jose.  This is just one game that doesn't matter anymore this season.  We need Berrios to be an Ace, among a few other things, of course. Otherwise, we can expect mediocrity to continue.

OK, this has been updated with some of the usual bells and whistles.

 

Would Molitor ever get thrown out?  Has he ever as a player or manager? 

 

I remember him getting tossed as a bench coach under Gardy at one point. I think he threw a bat out into the field or something like that in frustration.

I remember him getting tossed as a bench coach under Gardy at one point. I think he threw a bat out into the field or something like that in frustration.

Actually, I believe he threw out a batting tee. It was a game in Cleveland. Mike Fichter was the ump. He was terrible. Joe Mays was the Twins pitcher. Even the Indians’ pitcher Chuck Finley said something like “he (Fichter) missed some for me too. He missed more for Joe, but he was pretty tight tonight.”

 

And there was no fine after those comments. In other words, MLB acknowledged he was right. It was Fichter’s first year as a regular ump at the MLB level and I don’t think he lasted 5. He was one of the guys hired after the union’s strategy of mass resignation failed miserably.

I keep looking for the real prospects in the system to show up, but I must have missed something on my travels - who is Field in LF?  Where did he come from and when?