Article: KC 4, MIN 1: Good, Great, GRAND, WONDERFUL!

[Tom Froemming]

The day before the Vikings start their regular season, the Twins went out and nearly gave up a perfect game to rookie Jorge Lopez and the Kansas City LOLoyals, excuse me, Royals.

 

It’s almost as if the Twins are trying to fade into oblivion. They might as well hang up a sign outside of Target Field that says “Nope, nothing to see here.”Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Berrios: 68 Game Score, 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5 K, 2 BB, 62.8% strikes (59 of 94 pitches)

Home Runs: I don’t wanna talk about it, OK?

Multi-Hit Games: EVERYTHING IS FINE!

WPA of 0.1 or higher: Berrios .197

WPA of -0.1 or lower: Mauer -.104, Duffey -.195

Download attachment: WinChart98.png

Lopez, 25, had just six MLB starts heading into tonight. His longest MLB outing came just in his last start when he went seven innings.

 

The last time he recorded an out in the eighth inning at any level was back on Aug. 25, 2016 when he was in Double A. The last time he completed eight innings was Aug. 1, 2015, again at the Double A level. In 197 career games as a professional, Lopez had never recorded an out in the ninth inning. Never ever, at any level.

 

He still hasn’t, thank goodness.

 

Lopez carried a perfect game into the ninth inning, but walked Max Kepler to open the final frame. That was followed by a single up the middle from Robbie Grossman to break up the no-hitter. Crisis averted, I guess.

 

That was it for Lopez, but if tonight was any indication, we’ll be seeing quite a bit more of him over the next several years. The Royals’ defense deserves some recognition, as well. Lopez only struck out four batters, leaving a lot of outs to be made in the field.

 

On the positive side, Jose Berrios went more than five innings for the first time in six starts. In his previous five outings, Berrios had given up 16 earned runs on 26 hits and 13 walks over 21 2/3 innings (6.65 ERA, 1.80 WHIP), so it was great to see Jose back on track Saturday evening. He gave up one run over six innings.

 

Tyler Duffey was the first man out of the bullpen. He faced five batters and managed to give up three runs while recording two outs. Andrew Vasquez (0.2 IP), John Curtiss (0.2 IP) and Addison Reed (1.0 IP) shut out the Royals from there.

 

The Twins even managed to score a run in the ninth inning on an Ehrie Adrianza sacrifice fly (yay!).

 

If you’re still here, bless your heart. If you need to blow off some steam in the comments section go ahead and fire away, but remember: NO YELLING ON THE BUS!!!

 

Next Three Games

Sun vs. KC, 1:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Ian Kennedy

Mon vs. NYY, 7:10 pm CT: TBD

Tue vs. NYY, 7:10 pm CT: TBD

 

Last Three Games

MIN 10, KC 6: It’s a Lot Easier to Beat Bad Teams

HOU 9, MIN 1: The Astros Are Really Good At Baseball

HOU 5, MIN 2: Rough Opener, Strong Stewart Homecoming

 

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[ashbury]

Looks like I picked the wrong game to give up snark.

 

[108Stitches]

Glad to see the Twins being so benevolent. The goal of the season now is to make the new guys look like seasoned studs all in an effort to boost their self esteem. Kudos. Somebody’s gotta do it

[Tom Froemming]

Along with the Vikings getting started tomorrow, the Gopher football team improved to 2-0 and the St. Paul Saints advanced to the American Association Championship Series tonight.

 

At least the Twins still have a couple minor league affiliates fighting for a title. Speaking of which, check out tonight's Minor League Report for some more positive news out of Fort Myers.

[theBOMisthebomb]

Why not just take the gas pipe and let the guy complete the perfect game? I was there and by the late innings was pulling for the perfect game to happen. Why the heck not? Major letdown. What were you thinking Grossman? At least let us see a no hitter if the chance at perfection is gone.

[Platoon]

It was fun to watch. KC defense was exceptional last night. Without several outstanding plays, the drama would have been over much sooner. What was funny was you could see he know it was in his grasp by the sixth inning. He was very demonstrative. Sadly, you could almost feel the walk coming in the ninth. I bet he was gripping the ball so tight you could have found indentations from his fingers on that last pitch. Kudos to the Twins for making this such an interesting evening!

[mikelink45]

We've gotten to a point in the season where The Only Thing Worth cheering about and looking forward to just to see what the other team is going to accomplish. Nice to Berrios do well that was a positive but boy has Duffy fallen. it's been really hard to see anything positive is a sign for the future in any of his call UPS this year. I know he was upset with it twins for sending them down but he's given them nothing to work with and no promise for the future I hope he moves on to another team world is a different chance a different coaching system

[MABB1959]

Why pull Berrios?  He was having a good game. 

[bighat]

Woof, things are getting rough. The Twins prospects have looked pretty terrible since their call-ups. Stewart had that once nice appearance in middle relief...that's what we're clinging to at this point.

 

Nice to see Berrios do well.

 

Do the Twins have anyone they can count on to play good baseball next season besides Rosario, Polanco, and Berrios? They seem to have 3 decent players and the rest are just in a junk heap in the corner.

 

I know I'll be way more optimistic on March 29th, but from where I'm sitting now, 2019 looks like it's going to be a rough year.

[Vanimal46]

We need to save Tom from the 2018 Twins!

[BobAzar]

I was at this game with my 3 1/2 year old son. He wanted to go home around the 6-7th inning (I dont blame him), but I kept telling him that something is happening in this game that has only happened about 20 times in the history of baseball, so we would be staying. He was not impressed. And after the hit, when everyone cheered, he yelled "WE WON!". I didnt tell him otherwise, we left after the hit.

 

[ashbury]

I was at this game with my 3 1/2 year old son. He wanted to go home around the 6-7th inning (I dont blame him), but I kept telling him that something is happening in this game that has only happened about 20 times in the history of baseball, so we would be staying. He was not impressed. And after the hit, when everyone cheered, he yelled "WE WON!". I didnt tell him otherwise, we left after the hit.

His first walk-off!

 

Oh wait, wrong thread.

 

Anyway, I can tell you're a good dad. Raising him right.

[Riverbrian]

Woof, things are getting rough. The Twins prospects have looked pretty terrible since their call-ups. Stewart had that once nice appearance in middle relief...that's what we're clinging to at this point.

 

Nice to see Berrios do well.

 

Do the Twins have anyone they can count on to play good baseball next season besides Rosario, Polanco, and Berrios? They seem to have 3 decent players and the rest are just in a junk heap in the corner.

 

I know I'll be way more optimistic on March 29th, but from where I'm sitting now, 2019 looks like it's going to be a rough year.

I question weather we should count on Rosario, Polanco and Berrios.

 

We tried that counting on people stuff this year and it didn’t work out.

[Steve Lein]

I also was at this game, and it was a major disappointment to see the Perfecto and No-hitter go away so quickly.

 

I was definitely rooting for the pitcher at that point...