Article: NYY 6, MIN 3: All Too Familiar at Yankee Stadium

[Thiéres Rabelo]

After taking the season series against the Astros at home on Thursday and improving to an MLB-best record, the Twins flew to New York to face the Yankees, their long-time nemesis, and lost the series opener, 6-3. It was a night of errors for Minnesota, which allowed three unearned runs.Box Score

Gibson: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 61.0% strikes (61 of 100 pitches)

Home Runs: Cruz (6)

Multi-Hit Games: Gonzalez (2-for-4)

WPA of +0.1: None

WPA of -0.1: Kepler -.139, Adrianza -.178, Gibson -.244

Download attachment: Win53.png

Chart via FanGraphs

 

The Twins current record is still tied for their best since 2001. It’s happened three other times since (2002, 2005, 2010) and in two of them the club has finished the season with 94 wins, winning the division in both and, in one of them, reaching the ALCS. Other than that, Minnesota still sits atop of the Central.

 

Kyle Gibson couldn’t repeat the stellar performance he had in his last trip to Yankee Stadium, in April of last year, when he struck out ten batters in six innings of shutout work. This time, he pitched five innings, allowing five runs, but only two earned, while striking out five batters. His outing was tainted by two key-errors by C.J. Cron and … Byron Buxton (yes, you read it right).

 

The offense couldn’t take advantage of the bad outing that James Paxton was having in the first three innings, before he departed due to a knee soreness. They loaded the bases twice against him, but scored only one run. Due to his recent struggles, Eddie Rosario didn’t start in this game. The Twins were held to only four hits and had 16 consecutive batters retired from the second inning until the eighth. A two-run homer from Cruz in the eighth helped create a late threat, but it wasn’t enough.

 

Story of the Game

After a 1-2-3 inning by James Paxton, Gibson had a shaky first inning. Buxton made a rare mistake when he couldn’t catch a line drive from Brett Gardner landing near second base, despite being able to get under it in time. This allowed Gardner to reach third. Immediately afterwards, Gibby gave up a walk to Luke Voit. Gleyber Torres scored Gardner later on, with a ground ball towards the gap between Ehire Adrianza and Jorge Polanco. Marwin Gonzalez, playing left field, made a great one-hop throw to home plate after a Gio Urshela single, in time to get Voit to end the inning.

 

The Twins offense started to make some noise in the top of the second, despite not being able to score in the end. Cron led off with a liner for a single, followed by another one by Marwin Gonzalez. Jonathan Schoop earned a one-out walk which loaded the bases, but Adrianza grounded into a double play to end the inning. Gibson's struggles continued in the bottom of the inning, as he he needed 13 pitches to strike out Mike Tauchman and then allowed the next two hitters to get on base. Voit drove in Cameron Maybin from second with a single, but he was put out at second after another great assist from Gonzalez to end the inning.

 

Minnesota cut the Yankee lead in half without a base hit. Buxton walked to lead off the third, after falling 0-2 in the count. Later, the bases were loaded after an error from Torres and another walk, for Nelson Cruz. Cron made it a one-run game with a sac-fly to score Buxton, before Max Kepler flied out to end the inning. Gibson had no major problems to get through the bottom of the inning. Two Yankees reached, but a double play got the job done.

 

Paxton didn’t come back to pitch the fourth, being replaced by the righty Jonathan Holder. He had a 1-2-3 inning, striking out Schoop — on a very questionable check swing — and Adrianza.

A series of mistakes allowed the Yankees to score two more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Tauchman reached on an error from Cron. Then, after the runners moved up, the same Tauchman scored on a wild pitch. Gardner grounded out before the end, to score Maybin, making it 4-1 New York. At this point, only one of the four runs scored by the Yankees were earned.

 

Holder came back to cruise through the fifth, once again with a 1-2-3 inning. Gary Sánchez hit a 429 ft leadoff home run in the bottom of the inning, to make it 5-1 Yankees, before Gibby retired the following three batters. Adam Ottavino entered the game and also had a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the sixth, as the Twins hitters continued to have one of their worst games of the season. Recently promoted righty Mike Morin came in the game to pitch a perfect inning on 16 pitches, 11 of which were strikes.

 

While the offense was again dominated by the Yankee bullpen in yet another 1-2-3 inning (this time with Tommy Kahnle on the mound), New York struck again in the seventh. Sánchez hit his second solo homer of the game, off Morin, who had retired the first two batters he saw before him, making it 6-1.

 

After having 16 consecutive batters retired, the Twins struck back in the top of the eighth. Polanco drew a two-out walk and Cruz followed up with a bomb to left field, making it a 6-3 game.

Fernando Romero worked a scoreless eighth, with the help of the Twins’ second 6-4-3 double play. He got the job done with nine pitches (six strikes), giving up no hits or walks, but hitting Urshela. In the ninth, Aroldis Chapman gave up a leadoff single to Gonzalez and nearly saw Schoop get another hit two batters later, but he managed to close the deal with a near 100 mph fastball to strike out Adrianza.

 

Postgame With Baldelli

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:Download attachment: Bullpen53.png

 

Next Three Games

Sat at NYY, 12:05 pm CT (Odorizzi-Happ)

Sun at NYY, 12:05 pm CT (Pineda-German)

Mon at TOR, 6:07 pm CT (TBD)

 

Last Game

MIN 8, HOU 2: Twins Win! Take Season Series vs Astros!

 

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[h2oface]

"I used to be a good baseball player but the Yankees make me a Chump."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhcrg-bigJY

[jimbo92107]

Jet lag. Get back there and beat 'em senseless on Saturday. 

[bluechipper]

That horrible called strike 3 on Cruz to end the first set the tone for the game.

[AlwaysinModeration]

Twins first thirty games:

 

6-4

7-3

6-4.

 

Keep on moving, next ten starts tomorrow. Forced them to use six innings of bullpen today. Not a great game, and bad umpiring, but shake it off and beat them tomorrow.

[wallyrichards]

Just one game not that big a of a deal but god dang it Gibson! Pull your head out and pitch like you have a set. Quit nibbling and try to get a head in the count for once. Missing the strike zone by a foot and a half is a wasted pitch. I don't think it's a lack of control its a lack of nerve. I'd rather he give up a homer throwing strikes earlier in the count than giving them up by having to throw strikes late in the count because has to. Like someone said jet lag. They've bounced back after a bad game before so there shouldn't be an issue.

[wallyrichards]

 

Twins first thirty games:

6-4
7-3
6-4.

Keep on moving, next ten starts tomorrow. Forced them to use six innings of bullpen today. Not a great game, and bad umpiring, but shake it off and beat them tomorrow.

Its going to be interesting seeing how Cleveland does without there 2 best starters. 

[jimbo92107]

One thing I noticed right at the end - Aroldis Chapman is NOT as overwhelming or unhittable as Mariano Rivera used to be. Yes, he brings it 97 to 100, but he does not mask his off-speed stuff that well, so careful observation can tell when he's bringing the gas, and when he isn't. Also, his gas is straight, and his off-speed stuff is not wipe-out on its own. 

 

Oh, and one other thing I noticed...just pitch around Sanchez. 

Edited May 4, 2019 by jimbo92107

[Aerodeliria]

I hate this song always skipping in the same place...

[oldguywithanitch]

Rob Drake had an absolute horrible night behind the plate. I'm sure he'd admit it. Calling Schoop out when he cleary checked his swing, calling a foul ball when a Yankee hitter swung under the ball, Cruz strikeout. When an umpire is that bad it sets a tone for the game and leads to sloppy play.

[Platoon]

I sort of thought the umpires lost interest when neither team could catch a fly ball, field a ground ball, block a ball in the dirt, throw a ball 60' to 1B or decided to run into an out at the plate by 15'. Or maybe they fell asleep during the 16 consecutive outs the Twins made. While the umpires didn't have a good game, nothing they could have done would have changed the outcome. The teams made sure of that.

[mikelink45]

Some curses just won't go away.  This Yankee team - with a AAA lineup behind two good MLB hitters could still handle us like they always have and even when their good starter goes down.  Now Happ - who has not had a good year comes up.  Can we wake up and see this is not a dominate team, at this time, and beat them like we beat the Astros?  Damn Yankees!

[Riverbrian]

It's easy to focus on the surprising bad defense from Buxton and Cron because it clearly played a role in last night's result. Three unearned runs as the result of those two hard to explain errors. Not to mention how the errors kept a struggling Gibson on the mound longer than he should have been on the mound. 

 

However... I'd like to talk about the positive... Marwin defensively.

 

For those who watched the game last night, I know you saw what I was talking about in an earlier thread.

 

Marwin doesn't just play OF... He can play OF at Rosario/Kepler level... This is why I posed the question earlier... Why Astudillo in RF and Marwin at 3B if they are both in the lineup. There's another thread for that discussion... so for this thread... Hey Marwin made a couple of nice plays out in LF!!! 

[Blake]

I think last night showed how much Astudillo is missed from the lineup.

 

I was disappointed in the game, understatement of the year, because I thought the Twins would go into New York and pound the Yankees into dust.

 

Today is another day and, hopefully, the Twins regroup.

 

 

[tbhysgb]

Theres absolutely no reason for Astudillo in the corner OF when you have Gonzalez available to do it.

 

 

[rdehring]

Don't know if the called strike on Cruz made much difference, but the game was lost when Gardner's line drive was missed by Buxton.  Not only did it get the Yankees their first run, the additional pitches that resulted from it put a lot of additional stress on Gibson.  

 

But today is another game, looking forward to Odorizzi being at the top of his game and the Twins evening this series at 1-1.  Even though they are facing another lefty, hopefully, Rosario is in the game and puts one in that short right field porch.

[jorgenswest]

A response in the other thread made sense to me about Gonzalez and Astudillo. I wondered about Astudillo at 3B also.

 

With the amount of shifting that happens in the infield it makes sense to me now that Gonzalez is a much better fit there. Gonzalez is a good left fielder and clearly better than Astudillo at that position also but I think his better infield glove is more important than his better outfield glove. We lose range in the Of with Astudillo but get plus range from the other two spots in the outfield.

 

That response coupled with the amount of experience Astudillo has playing in the outfield every winter and the decision made more sense to me.