MIN 7, MIL 1: It's a Blessed Jose Berríos Day!

[Cooper Carlson]

José Berríos had his best start of 2020 and Nelson Cruz hit another bomba in a 7-1 Twins victory Thursday evening at Target Field. Come check out the full recap, including details on the memorable major league debut of Ryan Jeffers.Box Score

Berrios: 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K

Home Runs: Cruz (9)

Top 3 WPA: Berríos .383, Vargas .069, Jeffers .063

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

Download attachment: Wchart.png

 

He’s back, baby! (and Eric Sogard does it again)

 

We all missed Jose Berrios throwing some elite innings on the mound, but he showed up today. He was as dominant as we have seen him in a long time and the Twins needed it. After a rough start to the season Berrios went out and shoved six elite innings with a bunch of strikeouts. He also did not allow a single hard hit throughout his entire start. He gave the Twins a great shot in a game where the offense took a while to get going. He had a no hitter into the fifth but Eric Sogard ended it yet again.

 

Offense starts slow, but does enough.

 

The Twins certainly didn’t struggle to get a lot going tonight, but scoring runs was not easy. In the third inning Iledarmo Vargas hit a triple and top catching prospect Ryan Jeffers got his first base hit of his career, driving in Vargas. He will hopefully be the catcher of the future in Minnesota. Later in the game, the Twins loaded the bases twice but only scratched one run across on a sacrifice fly from Vargas.

 

In the bottom of the 8th inning the Twins loaded the bases once again with two walks and an infield hit from Adrianza, Jeffers, and Vargas. Kepler came to plate and...also walked. Anticlimactic. Luckily, Polanco drove in two with a double to make the score 7-1.

 

The bullpen gets it done.

 

After Berrios came out we saw Tyler Duffey, Sergio Romo, and Zack Littell. There’s not much any team is going to do against that group. Duffey gave up a solo homer, but he got through the inning easily after that. Both Romo and Littell were able to get out of their inning without allowing a run, allowing the Twins to win 7-1! Twins win the series!

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

Download attachment: BP.png

 

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[4twinsJA]

Hope Berrios found his rythym, Jeffers looked good behind plate-hitting a bonus. Solid defense and bats starting to come around, In first place with all pitching injuries and now Berrios and possibly Odo hittimg their stride with Pineda coming back soon.

[Vanimal46]

Congrats to Jeffers who had a memorable MLB debut! Berrios’ outing is very encouraging, but it can’t just be one start. We need to see this on a consistent basis.

[Monticore]

Meanwhile, the Indians keep winning.

[D.C Twins]

And Cruz!    Never take an over 40 year old PROFESSIONAL hitter for granted!

[Dantes929]

Maybe Berrios found the right catcher.   Nice win.

 

[DocBauer]

I've never pretended to be any sort of scout or expert. But I've watched enough baseball to think I know a few things here and there. And I really hope I don't have to say these things again I about to say, but I probably will because there will be yet another Berrios article later this year, or at the start of next season. Buuut...here we go.

 

Berrios has shown each of the last 2 seasons what he can do. Berrios faded down the stretch in 2018. NO expert, but I speculated his heavy training routine needed to be commended, but re-structured to provide endurance for a full season. He again stuttered in 2019 late before adjusting his routine, and the result was a good finish after a short bad spell. He and the Twins spoke about adjusting his in season routine going forward, along with continued experience and maturation, to maintain himself for an entire season.

 

Flash forward to 2020 when expectation was he didn't have to worry about a full season, just let it rip for a 60 game season. Except, he's obviously been working on a few mechanical issues. But with a short ST and a short ST.2 he's been working on these adjustments on the fly. And it doesn't take a genius to look around baseball this season and see a lot of guys, batters and pitchers, have had a hard time getting in to groove/rhythm.

 

We can debate over and over again for the next few months as to whether or not Berrios will ever develop in to a true ACE. But he is young, talented, still projectable, and every team in baseball would love to have him. I'd rather have him struggle early and get himself straight rather than the opposite.

[DocBauer]

Player of the game, to me, is Jeffers, despite what Berrios did. 2 for 3 with a run and a RBI in his MLB debut, and good behind the plate, despite never playing a game above AA. He looked comfortable and natural to me in everything he did. My only, small complaint, was while trying to frame pitches he "snatched" at a few balls and tried to drag them in to the zone. He needs to be a little more subtle in his movements as he may irk a few veteran umps.

 

I was a bit surprised he was called up over Astudillo or Telis, even though Astudillo has had little time to ramp up. But it shows the belief/faith the Twins have in Jeffers. Goes along with the comments made by Falvey with the promotion.

 

Makes me feel all the better about what is taking place at the alternate site and what the coaches are doing over there.

 

Side note: What's going on with the idea of each team adding an additional 15 players to the reserve list? Unless I missed something, this should already be done and should have been done from the beginning.

[rghrbek]

Question, did Dick mention that Duffy had not given up a run or homer before it happened?  He's on a real streak with that stuff...not that I believe in any of that.

[h2oface]

 

Ata buddy, Jose! That's what I'm talkin' about. Bring it.

[bighat]

Jose looked great. His next start is against Cleveland, good to see him warming up!

 

Jeffers with a dream start to his career.

 

Despite the throwing error a few games ago, this Vargas character seems like a nice addition. He seems to be able to hit.

 

Season's just about half over, how crazy is that.

 

 

[mikelink45]

I believe that it was usually in August that Berrios had his bad streak, I guess we should have expected to have a rough start since the season was mostly August.  So now that is done - Berrios keep giving us your quality pitching like last night. 

 

Are we ready for Cleveland?  Francona keeps them going.

[jmlease1]

Congrats to Jeffers, who looks to have a bright future. He's doesn't a great job in working on his defense while showing a nice bat at a position where a lot of teams don't generate much offense, so it was nice to see him immediately grab a couple of hits.

 

I'll admit I was surprised Astudillo wasn't the pick, but maybe the Twins learned a lesson from Sano's comeback from COVID and are going to give him a much longer recovery and ramp up time before dropping him back in MLB.

 

Great start by Berrios. Hopefully this starts a roll for him. His stuff has been good all year, it's been his command that's been messed up. I think there's a good chance this was just what he needed to get locked in and start dominating.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

I'm very excited to play Cleveland. I spent a week there one night. 

[USAFChief]

I'm very excited to play Cleveland. I spent a week there one night.

Bah-dum-tschhhhh

[Ruven]

So many hits, so few runs. One can understand the 3B coach sending Eddie on the double to the wall, it took a perfect relay to get him by a hair. If and when the team starts clobbering up and down the lineup it won’t feel as necessary to risk all for a single run when playing it safe puts runners at second and third with one out.

 

Well played game, the boys are starting to look sharp.

[puckstopper1]

 

Meanwhile, the Indians keep winning.

As do the White Sox :-(