Article: MIN 11, CWS 4: Twins Make Home Run History

[Thiéres Rabelo]

José Berríos scared us a little bit early in the game, but an Eddie Rosario-led offense scored in all of the first five innings to promote a powerful comeback and win the fourth in a row. The Twins hit three home runs on the night, becoming only the second team in MLB history to hit at least 100 home runs in the first 50 games of the season. They also maintain the MLB-best record, at 34-16.Box Score

Berríos: 6.2 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 75.5% strikes (74 of 98 pitches)

Home Runs: Rosario (15), Sanó (5), Kepler (11)

Multi-Hit Games: Kepler (3-for-4, 2B, HR), Rosario (4-for-5, 2B, HR)

WPA of +0.1: Rosario .270, Kepler .210, Sanó .160, Buxton .100

WPA of -0.1: Berríos -.120

Download attachment: Win524.png

(chart via FanGraphs)

 

We don’t know when this Twins offense will slow down, but it’s safe to say that there are no indications that that’s going to happen anytime soon. They lead the league in runs scored, with 300 — a club record — to go with an endless list of offensive stats in which they are the best in baseball. It’s unbelievable.

 

Rosario had a four-hit night, including a home run and an RBI single. He leads Minnesota with 15 homers, becoming the sixth Twin in history to hit that many in the first 50 games of the season, the first since Justin Morneau in 2007. Miguel Sanó is sustaining his unexpected good return to the majors. He now has five home runs in seven games.

 

Berríos had yet another unusually shaky start. Although his final line showed only one earned run allowed and the defense out on the field made some serious mistakes, the Twins ace was not nearly as dominant as he had been earlier in the season. After posting a 2.53 ERA in the first seven starts, Berrios has pitched to a 5.29 ERA in the last three outings. The bullpen held the White Sox scoreless in 2 1/3 innings of work. Making his season debut after being promoted from Triple-A Rochester earlier on Friday, Zack Littell pitched two clean innings, striking out two.

 

Nearly 30,000 fans came to Target Field on Friday night, the first Joe Mauer bobblehead night of the year, to watch the Twins, who not only remain the best team in baseball, but also maintain an eight-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central. This was only the first of 19 games against the White Sox in the season.

 

Story of the game

After a quick, nine-pitch top of the first from Berríos, Kepler ledoff the bottom of the inning with a double to the corner of the right field, fair by a foot. He was later brought home by a two-out single from Rosario, making it 1-0 Twins.

 

But then, Berríos and Minnesota fielders got into trouble. Eloy Jimenez reached to lead off the second, taking advantage of a throwing error from Polanco to first. The ball went over Cron's head. Tim Anderson doubled after another fielding mistake, this time from Gonzalez, playing in the right field. He couldn't catch the line drive coming his way...it hit the tip of his glove and fell on the ground. Yonder Alonso then singled to left field to beat the Twins shift and score the two runners on.

 

With two outs, having trouble stopping the bleeding, Berríos hit Charlie Tilson for the second time in the game. Immediately afterward, Yoan Moncada and José Abreu hit back-to-back singles to score two more runs for Chicago, making it 4-1.

 

 

But Chicago’s lead didn’t last long. The Twins put two men on early in the bottom of the second, with Sanó being walked and Schoop being hit by a pitch. Then, Buxton hit his MLB-leading 19th double and plated Sanó. Kepler followed by hitting a sac fly to center field to score Schoop and move Buxton to third, cutting the visitor's lead to one.

 

Minnesota retook the lead in bottom of the third. Rosario and Sanó hit back-to-back solo home runs. Those two homers were the 99th and 100th from Minnesota this year, making them the second team in MLB history to reach the 100 homer mark in the first 50 games of the season, along with the 1999 Seattle Mariners (who hit 102).

 

After Berríos allowed two men on, but was then saved by a double play in the top of the fourth, Minnesota went on to score three more runs in the bottom of the inning. Kepler hit a blast to center field for his 11th homer of the year and Gonzalez doubled to score Polanco, who had been walked before him. After a pitching change from Chicago, Rosario got his third hit of the night, to bring in Gonzalez, making it 8-4 Minnesota. All of this after two outs.

 

The Twins never slowed down. After a uneventful top of the fifth for Berríos, Sanó (walk) and Schoop (double) got on, only to be brought home by Kepler’s third hit of the night, a two-out single to right that scored both runners, putting Minnesota in double digits. At this moment, Chicago was already using its second pitcher in relief of starter Reynaldo Lopez. Nothing seemed to work against this Twin lineup.

 

Berríos kept shaking off his bad second inning, pitching his first 1-2-3 inning of the game in the top of the sixth, totaling only 83 pitches. The offense kept pushing, with Rosario smashing a double off the right field wall and Cron reaching on a hit-by- pitch, but for the first time on the night, they had a scoreless inning.

 

Minnesota scored again in the bottom of the seventh. Jason Castro, who was having a quiet night, led off the inning with a double against Brazilian reliever Thyago Vieira. He was brought home when Kepler hit a line drive to right field, scoring the eleventh run of the game for Minnesota. Littell came in and pitched two scoreless innings, in the eighth and ninth, to secure the win. He didn’t give up any hits or walks, while punching out two batters.

 

 

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:Download attachment: Pen524.png

 

Next Game

Sat vs. CHW, 1:10 pm CT (Gibson-Banuelos)

 

Last Game

MIN 16, LAA 7: Twins Slug 8 More Home Runs, Sweep Angels

 

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[Post-Concussive Blues]

They are playing out of their minds. I’m afraid to go to a game and jinx our squad.

[MMMordabito]

My take is that Berrios navigated some extra outs and tough luck grounders until that luck evened out on a nice fielding play by his first baseman. He then went on to shutdown the Sox for 3.2 until his pitch count met a single when May was ready. Not shaky.

[Rosterman]

Unbelievable!

 

[jimbo92107]

Two things:

 

1. Twins hitters are barreling up the ball and mashing line drives more than I have ever seen this team do. 

2. Zach Littell is another succeeding Wes Johnson project, a guy with new life on his heater and a new pitch (combo slider/splitter). He looked great. Everybody in the pen except Harper is now throwing mid-90's heat. 

 

I approve of these developments. 

[MMMordabito]

Berrios' FIP for this game = 1.91

[D.C Twins]

D.J Khalid's Hot Take:

 

...And anotha one!

 

(thats for the kids on TD if there are any

[MMMordabito]

Correction 2.81 ... Forgot the HBPs

[D.C Twins]

...and I misspelled Khaled....just to prove that I'm not one of those kids

[AlwaysinModeration]

Twins season by tens:

 

6-4

7-3

6-4

6-4

9-1

 

That’s a nice run. Particularly impressive that two of their last three games they have been down three runs and still won.

 

Still hard to fathom they are putting up these kind of offensive numbers with Cruz and Garver out. The Twins have scored 90 runs in their past 10 games.

[twinsfanstreif]

After last night the Twins have the best run differential in baseball at +97 runs, the Astros are just behind with +91 and the next highest teams are in the +60s. That's nuts, it's basically us and the 'Stros. I could get used to this

[Diesel]

Eddie Rosario has rather quickly put himself in All-star consideration

[mikelink45]

Cruz is becoming a luxury instead of a necessity.  I look forward to seeing him in the lineup again.  I missed the Littell call up. I hope he can continue to be good in the pen.  I am afraid the BP move for Romero was disastrous.

[adorduan]

It's crazy looking at how many in the lineup are slugging over .500, and Buxton is close at .490...

[rdehring]

How many of you remember back when Rosario and Sano were teammates in Elizabethton?  Eddie won the Appy League Home Run Crown with 21, Miguel hit 20.  Remember there were a lot of games like last night when they went.....BOOM.....BOOM!

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Nicely written summation. Thanks.

[Riverbrian]

 

Twins season by tens:

6-4
7-3
6-4
6-4
9-1

 

 

Average 6 wins every 10 games. You will win 97 games. 

Average 5 wins every 10 games. You will win 81 games. 

Average 4 wins every 10 games. You will win 65 games. 

 

Average 6.8 wins every 10 games. You will win 110 games. 

 

[Riverbrian]

 

Still hard to fathom they are putting up these kind of offensive numbers with Cruz and Garver out. 

 

It isn't when you consider that Castro, Astudillo, Cron, Schoop, Arraez, Sano, Polanco, Adrianza, Rosario, Buxton, Kepler and Marwin are in. 

[jmlease1]

I think its fair to describe Berrios as a little wobbly last night. He wasnt at his best, but with the offense clicking like this he didn't need to be. He settled down eventually and got through it.

 

The bats just don't stop. I think we're seeing a Three True Outcomes out of Sano, which is fine considering the rest of the lineup. As long as he's hitting dingers and drawing walks, he's going to be fine. Looks solid enough in the field too.

 

Gleeman said something the other day on PA's show on the Fan: with this team you just don't worry too much if they get down early, and it's the first Twins team in a long time you could say that about. A three run lead just isn't safe at all against this team.

[terrydactyls]

The replay from behind home plate of Buxton's double was interesting.  It showed a very hard hit ball going to the center fielder on three hops.  The fielder picked it up cleanly and began his throwing motion when Buxton appears on the screen starting his slide into second.  Did he skip running to first?  No one can be that fast.  Impressive.

[BJames]

Maybe this should be the start of a different thread.  I was so glad to see Littell get his two innings in with out falling apart.   We all saw Berrios struggles (and he was a top rated pitcher) with his call-ups and how long it took him to adjust to the Bigs Hitters.  I hope as the year goes on we'll be able to do the same with Thorpe, Romero, Stewart, Gonsalves,Eades and Reed.  It seems to me, the more these young guys get innings in (better under low stress situations) the quicker they will be able to adapt (or not) so we will be in a better place with the whole  of the pitching staff come Sept.  One more thing, I like to see May go back to AAA, to build some confidence and throw strike after strike.  Seem he's trying to learn on the job and it;s not working. 

[big dog]

 

The replay from behind home plate of Buxton's double was interesting.  It showed a very hard hit ball going to the center fielder on three hops.  The fielder picked it up cleanly and began his throwing motion when Buxton appears on the screen starting his slide into second.  Did he skip running to first?  No one can be that fast.  Impressive.

Yeah, and it looked like his head-first "slide" was from a starting platform in an Olympic pool, and he did the last 20 feet of the double through the air and then sliding on his belly.  That was an incredible finish to that run.

 

Replay of the hit from my living room:

Ball takes second hop in outfield

Big Dog says to Mrs Big Dog "That's a double"

Screen shows Buxton doing Superman dive/slide into second

Big Dog giggles uncontrollably

Steve Stone says "For any other player in the majors, that's a single, but it's a double for Buxton"

Big Dog rewinds DVR to show slide to Mrs Big Dog.  Three times.

 

[Riverbrian]

 

Yeah, and it looked like his head-first "slide" was from a starting platform in an Olympic pool, and he did the last 20 feet of the double through the air and then sliding on his belly.  That was an incredible finish to that run.

 

Replay of the hit from my living room:

Ball takes second hop in outfield

Big Dog says to Mrs Big Dog "That's a double"

Screen shows Buxton doing Superman dive/slide into second

Big Dog giggles uncontrollably

Steve Stone says "For any other player in the majors, that's a single, but it's a double for Buxton"

Big Dog rewinds DVR to show slide to Mrs Big Dog.  Three times.

 

According to the Baseball Bill of Rights... That ball had no right to be a double. 

[VATwinsFan]

One of the lessons from last night for other teams is that if you dare to take a lead against the Twins, all you're going to do is make them mad.

[Aerodeliria]

It's been great. I love the fact that they called up Littel instead of Stewart.

[rdehring]

 

Average 6 wins every 10 games. You will win 97 games. 

Average 5 wins every 10 games. You will win 81 games. 

Average 4 wins every 10 games. You will win 65 games. 

 

Average 6.8 wins every 10 games. You will win 110 games. 

What's amazing is the consistency with no ten game period with less than 6 wins.

[Han Joelo]

 

D.J Khalid's Hot Take:

 

...And anotha one!

 

(thats for the kids on TD if there are any

Get off my virtual lawn! [goes back to watching Seinfeld on DVD]

[ashbury]

Average 6 wins every 10 games. You will win 97 games. 

Average 5 wins every 10 games. You will win 81 games. 

Average 4 wins every 10 games. You will win 65 games. 

 

Average 6.8 wins every 10 games. You will win 110 games. 

[ashbury]

According to the Baseball Bill of Rights... That ball had no right to be a double. 

Ditto for the one Tim Anderson hit in the second inning.

[ashbury]

 

Yeah, and it looked like his head-first "slide" was from a starting platform in an Olympic pool, and he did the last 20 feet of the double through the air and then sliding on his belly.  That was an incredible finish to that run.

 

Replay of the hit from my living room:

Ball takes second hop in outfield

Big Dog says to Mrs Big Dog "That's a double"

Screen shows Buxton doing Superman dive/slide into second

Big Dog giggles uncontrollably

Steve Stone says "For any other player in the majors, that's a single, but it's a double for Buxton"

Big Dog rewinds DVR to show slide to Mrs Big Dog.  Three times.

The beautiful part, to me, was this: my attention was split between TV and keyboard, taking part in the game thread. Buxton gets a double, which I watched out of the corner of my eye while typing something. Nice. Good for him. Wait... how was that a double? The dawning realization as I turned to watch the replay meant that this is basically routine for him.

 

In this aspect of the game, just as with tracking the ball on defense, it's the cliche where he has come down from a higher league. He has great instincts/experience with these, which is why it's so baffling that he has had trouble with low breaking pitches for so long.