MIN 3, DET 2: Colomé Holds on for 6-Out Save

[Andrew Thares]

Alex Colomé didn’t make the best first impression, blowing a lead on Opening Day, but he certainly impressed this afternoon in Detroit. The veteran right-hander protected a one-run lead over both the eighth and ninth innings to secure the victory. Continue reading for more on today’s series-clinching win.Box Score

Maeda: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

Home Runs: None

Top 3 WPA: Colomé .374, Polanco .235, Robles .114

Bottom 3 WPA: Garver -.185, Sanó -.080, Cruz -.032

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

Download attachment: chart.png

 

Baddoo Stays Hot

 

Akil Baddoo continued to torture his former organization in today’s game. In the bottom of the second, Baddoo got the scoring started with an RBI triple. He followed that up in the next half inning, when he made a great play and throw to nail Andrelton Simmons, who was trying to turn a single into a double, to leadoff the inning.

 

Matthew Boyd Controls Twins Bats Early

 

The Twins stacked their lineup with right-handed hitters against the lefty Matthew Boyd, but they were unable to get anything going against him through the first four innings of the game, as they mustered just two singles, with five strikeouts. It wasn’t until Byron Buxton drilled a double off the right-field wall to leadoff the fifth that the Twins even had a runner in scoring position. The Twins were able to capitalize off Buxton’s leadoff double, as he advanced to third on a groundout from Miguel Sano, and then came in to score on a sac-fly off the bat of Willians Astudillo, evening the score at one a piece.

 

Wilson Ramos Home Run

 

The game didn’t stay tied for long, thanks to Wilson Ramos who drilled a one-out home run down the line in left. Off the bat, the ball didn’t appear to be hit high enough to get out, but the ball was hit hard enough that it stayed up just enough to clear the fence, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

 

Twins Have Big Sixth Inning

 

After the Tigers reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fifth, the Twins put together a strong sixth inning to give themselves the lead. In the top of the inning, the Twins bats put together a two out rally that started with a single from right-fielder Kyle Garlick. Nelson Cruz followed that up with an infield single, where he was initially rule out, but after a successful challenge from Rocco Baldelli the call was overturned. Jorge Polanco then came up huge, driving a double in the left-center field gap that was able to bring Cruz to score all the way from first, giving the Twins the 3-2 lead.

 

In the bottom half of the inning, it was the defense that bailed out Kenta Maeda, who was struggling to get hitters out. First it was Andrelton Simmons, who completed a strong relay on a Miguel Cabrera double to throw out Willi Castro at home. After a Jeimer Candelario walk and a Nomar Mazara single, the bases were loaded with just one out, with Jonathan Schoop coming to the plate. Maeda was able to get Schoop to flyout to Kyle Garlick, who ended the inning with this great throw.

 

 

Kyle Garlick’s Big Start

 

With a lefty on the mound for the Tigers, it was not surprising that Kyle Garlick replaced Max Kepler in the lineup. However, it was surprising that he was he was hitting second in the order ahead of Nelson Cruz. Garlick proved that to be a great move, as he collected two singles to get on base in front of Cruz, which included the two-out single in the sixth that sparked the Twins rally to take the lead. Then he backed it up in the field with that throw to get Miguel Cabrera at home to preserve the Twins 3-2 lead.

 

Colome Secures Two Inning Save

 

With Taylor Rogers and Tyler Duffey having pitched yesterday, and Alex Colome coming off three days rest, Rocco Baldelli turned to Colome in the eighth inning to get six outs to end the game, and that is exactly what he did. Colome allowed a single in the eighth, but that was erased with an inning ending double play. He then got the middle of the Tigers order 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the game with Akil Baddoo standing in the on-deck circle.

 

Postgame with Maeda

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

Download attachment: bullpen.png

 

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[Mill1634]

Game lacked quite a bit of energy once again, but we got the win. 2 of 3 is exactly what we need against teams like the tigers with an occasional sweep. Maeda hasn’t been sharp all year but hasn’t been giving up runs. Robles looks like a steal for 2 million dollars. Polo best swings of the year. Garlick looks like he belongs vs LHP. Simbas fielding is as good as advertised. Colome wasn’t throwing well today, but got the job done.

 

Twins win!!

[Dodecahedron]

3 double plays, including a play at the plate.

[ashbury]

Game lacked quite a bit of energy

Repeatedly seeing the third base coach windmilling doesn't get the pulse rate up any?

 

[Dman]

Dang Boyd is tough on our hitters.  1st pitch strikes by the buckets and second swing hacks by the dozen put our guys in a tough spot.  Thankfully Buxton finally had a long at bat that ended in a double and scored run or he might have made it all 9 innings.  After Buxton trying to single handedly bring them back they scored two more in the 6th on a big Double from Polanco that scored Cruz al the way from first base.  That was it for the bats.

 

Maeda pitched well but he gave up some hard contact as well. he only gave up two runs and his pitch count was low but he was far from dominant IMO.   Robles came in and did a nice job.  Colome got the job done but gave me major heartburn doing it.

 

Sano and Garver take the black hole bat awards today.  Garver K'd three times and mainly let strikes go by and swung at stuff out of the zone.  Absolute horrible eye at the plate today.  Maybe swing at a few of the meatball first pitch strikes you were given almost every at bat.  I can see Sano is trying and he did make some contact today so that is a start but but he has too many three pitch strike out at bats to be a MLB player.

 

The waiver claim Garlick was the only player with two hits today and looked like a huge improvement over Rooker at the plate.  Simons was his pesky self and Astudillo did what Kepler couldn't do twice yesterday which was get a sac fly to bring Buxton home.  Polanco has a lot of weak contact and then in the last two at bats powered the ball one for a double with the game winning runs.  Hopefully those at bats get him rolling.

 

Have to say I was very impressed with Boyd today.  He was aggressive and made the batter uncomfortable and kept them guessing mostly incorrectly for the first 4 innings. Buxton got to him in a hard fought battle and he had a bit of a tough luck 6th but to me he looked better than Maeda today.  He had to face a tougher lineup and he made it 7 innings and had the Twins guessing early.  He almost won the game for the Tigers but fell just short.

 

Happy the Twins won a close one on the road to a team that seems to give us trouble.  Starting pitching has been incredible (Am I really typing that) and the Bullpen has been pretty good too although a couple of failures have cost us wins. 

 

We are off to a good start just need to have a strong homestand to keep pace in the division.

[tony&rodney]

Overall the Twins have looked pretty good. When you remember that 70 losses is a really good year you understand what a battle 162 games can be and the tactic of winning a series is always huge. Plenty of long at bats this series and players grinding through even when it results in outs. Polanco came up big. Nobody should worry about him if he can stay healthy.

[Monticore]

The defense was superb. Good to see Colome' come thru. Nice SF by the Turtle.

[KFEY93]

Do the people who were crying for brining Garlik with from ST instead of Rooker feel stupid yet? Its a long season. Everyone who deservers it will get the chance to contribute at some point. 

[Dantes929]

Colume didn't really even pitch that poorly on Opening Day.    A bad decision along with a bad throw to 2nd and then a very catchable ball that Kepler dropped made what probably should have been a relatively stress free save into extra innings.    I'm sure Detroit is kicking themselves a little today for getting thrown out at home with no outs but that was a really nice relay.   The mistake was probably the way he approached 2nd base while Cave was diving.    Jerking to a halt rather than timing it so he can accelerate or go back probably made the difference.   Its what makes the game interesting.   Good decisions can turn out badly and bad decisions can become golden and there is always a team on the other side doing the same thing.

[Doctor Gast]

Was impressed by the defense, key hitting and Colume'. Happy that we won

[bobs]

Not a guy to panic.  At all.  But, MAN...how can a waiver claim like Garlick take professional at bats but Sano just seems to have no approach.

[Squirrel]

 

Do the people who were crying for brining Garlik with from ST instead of Rooker feel stupid yet? Its a long season. Everyone who deservers it will get the chance to contribute at some point. 

 

No one here is stupid. Please keep that in mind. Even if the loudly expressed opinions might have lost a lot of air today ... they still aren't stupid.  

[Brock Beauchamp]

Not a guy to panic. At all. But, MAN...how can a waiver claim like Garlick take professional at bats but Sano just seems to have no approach.

Sano has an approach, he’s just not executing. He is walking at a good clip and is going deep into counts, he’s just having the same problem he has every year to open a season: he can’t hit the damned ball.

 

Which is really frustrating to watch every single season.

[USAFChief]

Really nice to see Polanco hit the ball hard into a gap twice today, even if one got caught.

 

1st half 2019 Jorge would be pretty huge for the offense.

[Shaitan]

 

Do the people who were crying for brining Garlik with from ST instead of Rooker feel stupid yet? Its a long season. Everyone who deservers it will get the chance to contribute at some point. 

In Rooker's defense, he may have been playing with an oblique injury. 

[MNT1996]

Very impressed by Simmons so far. Of course his defense is top tier, but also he's been an on base machine. 

[KirbyDome89]

 

Do the people who were crying for brining Garlik with from ST instead of Rooker feel stupid yet? Its a long season. Everyone who deservers it will get the chance to contribute at some point. 

I know I sure do. After racking up 2 hits in his lone start this season I'm ready to pencil him in at the top of the lineup for the the foreseeable future.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I know I sure do. After racking up 2 hits in his lone start this season I'm ready to pencil him in at the top of the lineup for the the foreseeable future.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/srcstc.gif

[Mill1634]

I know I sure do. After racking up 2 hits in his lone start this season I'm ready to pencil him in at the top of the lineup for the the foreseeable future.

I know this is a joke, but in all seriousness I hope to see garlick in the lineup the next 2 days against a lefty. He looked like he was locked in and hit two balls hard off of Boyd in a day where not many did. I’d much rather have him in the outfield against a lefty instead of Kepler or Cave.

[jimbo92107]

Andrelton Simmons: Key play of the game. How many Twins shortstops in the last 20 years make that play? Not a one. Simmons is faster, stronger arm, and better baseball IQ than all of them. Plus he's a scrappy good hitter. Gold bars for his weight. 

 

Maeda: He said it in the post game interview - he's been trying out stuff he'd been working on in spring training. I saw him try a few of his new-look curves. They didn't work, so he resorted back to last year's pitches. He looked irritated, like "what am I doing different?" I suspect he'll figure it out.

 

Boyd: I agree with Morneau on this one. Put in a L/R/L/R lineup against him. He'll be less comfortable. 

 

Baddoo: Ghaaaaaa!

[Brock Beauchamp]

I know this is a joke, but in all seriousness I hope to see garlick in the lineup the next 2 days against a lefty. He looked like he was locked in and hit two balls hard off of Boyd in a day where not many did. I’d much rather have him in the outfield against a lefty instead of Kepler or Cave.

In all seriousness, if Garlick isn’t starting against lefties, he shouldn’t be on the roster.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Baddoo is an interesting story.  I wonder how he will be doing in 1 month? But so far, he has been awesome for the Kittens. We were thinking and posting that there was no place for him to play and so the Twins were correct to let him be selected...plus the Twins did not think he woud be selected. I sure wish he was still on the Twins. The Kittens lineup looks like it is full of former Twins.

[jkcarew]

Dominate the opener, then lose a game you should have won, then win a game you should have lost.

 

That’ll do.

[MadCheeseKev]

 

In all seriousness, if Garlick isn’t starting against lefties, he shouldn’t be on the roster.

 

Garlick will definitely be a Twins asset.  Plus, Garlick is good for the clubhouse immune system.

 

[ashbury]

Garlick will definitely be a Twins asset.  Plus, Garlick is good for the clubhouse immune system.

He certainly was a pesto the TIgers.

 

[jmlease1]

solid start for what should be a good team. Can't say I love having 9 #@$^%#^%@#$# pitchers in the bullpen, though. It's just a waste.

 

Hard to complain too much about a team that's only lost in extra innings so far.

[h2oface]

 

Baddoo is an interesting story.  I wonder how he will be doing in 1 month? But so far, he has been awesome for the Kittens. We were thinking and posting that there was no place for him to play and so the Twins were correct to let him be selected...plus the Twins did not think he woud be selected. I sure wish he was still on the Twins. The Kittens lineup looks like it is full of former Twins.

 

If he hadn't been taken, he wouldn't have even started playing yet, and the Twins would have trapped him in the low minors in some A ball all season probably, and it would have been a waste. All these so called "experts" that say a player isn't ready. Baddoo is proof that some are, and the only way you find out is to get them in the show sooner than later to see. Too bad he couldn't have stayed unhurt and played the last two years.

[h2oface]

So speedy Polanco can't be sent from second but Cruz can from first. Looks like Diaz got a talkin' to..... 

 

The sure thing is..... that if you don't send the runner, he definitely can't score.

[stringer bell]

 

Do the people who were crying for brining Garlik with from ST instead of Rooker feel stupid yet? Its a long season. Everyone who deservers it will get the chance to contribute at some point. 

 

I know I sure do. After racking up 2 hits in his lone start this season I'm ready to pencil him in at the top of the lineup for the the foreseeable future.

Garlik's bust will be next to Baddoo's in the Hall of Fame.Seriously, we're a week in to the season and there's a lot of baseball to be played. At this moment, Garlik is contributing, as is Astudillo, the two guys who were being debated about as far as their place on the roster. 

 

I am concerned about two Twins hitters at this early point in the season--Garver and Sanó--both seem to be getting beat on breaking pitches and fastballs. Garver's 2019 season is looking more and more like an outlier and frankly I hope he can be as productive as he was as a rookie. I don't think he as good an overall receiver as Jeffers, so he needs to hit. Sanó seems to be descending into Mark Reynolds territory. The droughts are too deep and periods of dominance are too short. 

 

Maeda hasn't had great command in his first two starts, but I'm less worried about him. He seemed to find his groove in the middle innings today, but lost it in the sixth. 

[Dr. Evil]

As I said in another thread, I would make Kiriloff the every day first baseman. The Sano occasional bomb is not worth the automatic outs.