SEA 8, MIN 6: Mariners Score Eight Unanswered Runs

[Dr. Evil]

Managing with the bigger picture in mind is what I am seeing at this juncture of the season. Frustrating loss of course. But, I'm confident in the process.

[howeda7]

Colome is Fernando Rodney all over again. Continuing to let him close is a joke. 

[Dantes929]

Calume has a 3.00 lifetime ERA and much better than that the last three years.   I might be missing something here.  Did he have surgery or something?     You don't usually become a bum overnight for no reason.    Not ready to pull the plug yet.   Its a long season.

 

[h2oface]

 

 

 

 

Photographic evidence of the Chief witnessing the duel.

 

Today's result shows a clear difference in the performance of the top and bottom halves of the batting order. Hitting still has much more to do with these four losses than pitching, but after this game there is a fair amount of nostalgia for last year's bullpen.

 

 

Because if you give the pitching staff 6 runs.... 6 runs.... that isn't enough and the offense is responsible? Oh. Just ignore today.... and opening day? Where the offense gave the bullpen 5 runs and a 3 run lead with just 3 outs to get? And the 3 extra inning debacles.... not once could the pitching staff hold for just one inning?

[h2oface]

 

Calume has a 3.00 lifetime ERA and much better than that the last three years.   I might be missing something here.  Did he have surgery or something?     You don't usually become a bum overnight for no reason.    Not ready to pull the plug yet.   Its a long season.

 

Calume? Even when getting defended, he gets no respect. 

[rv78]

Have to hang this loss on the Manager. Blocko pulls Pineda after 75 pitches on Saturday but lets Shoemaker go to 91 pitches even though he clearly ran out of gas starting the 6th inning. No way does a GOOD Manager let him pitch to a 3rd batter in that inning. 

[MMMordabito]

The sky is falling, but there's another game today.

[cHawk]

 

And the 3 extra inning debacles.... not once could the pitching staff hold for just one inning?

A runner on 2nd with no out is a 1.068 run expectancy. I’d say it’s more the on the hitters for not scoring 3/3 times in that scenario.

[DMN13]

Why not Alcala in the 8th today and Robles in the 9th?  I believe we will need to get Alcala into higher leveraged situations eventually and I thought we were going to mix and match "closers."  Given the analytics related to pitching guys on back to back days, it seems these two were well-rested.  Thoughts?

[KFEY93]

 

What in the world has happened to Jorge polanco

Nothing. 2019 was a fluke. And he still cant field well. He's the same player he always has been. 

[Dodecahedron]

I have not seen such negativity about a team doing well since the yahoo forums 10-12 years ago. I will admit, this is slightly less annoying than the throngs of people in the following years saying Terry Ryan was doing a good job after he came back. Less annoying or not, it's equally daft.

 

It's a long season. Baseball players are streaky, almost all players are mediocre or bad for at least a month or two over the course of a season. If the Twins were 2-5, then there'd be something to gripe about. The Twins losses have been close, and the Twins are doing a good job plating runs. The starting pitching is playing as well as I expected them to (which is to say, much better than most others expected).

 

I agree that a couple of the losses, if not most or even all of them, seem to be due to Baldelli's midgame decisions. I'm not sure if he is executing a pre-game plan, and thus not analyzing the game as it unfolds, or if he is very poor at analyzing what is going on. Either way, his decisions border on being bizarre. Molitor may have been bad at knowing when to make pitching changes, but he would never march Dobnak out to close a game. Twice. And I like Dobnak!

[LewFordLives]

Message to Mr. Falvey and Mr. Levine:  You are currently paying someone $5 million to give up 3 run homers in the ninth. I can do that for only  $1 million!   Savings = $4 million!

[tarheeltwinsfan]

 

    Its a long season.

Dantes929,   Are you Ron Gardenhire in real life? 

[Shaitan]

Colome was bad, but there's a lot of blame to go around when you give up 8 unanswered runs.

 

Not to defend his performance, but 73 pitches in a week is a lot for a one-inning specialist.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Why not Alcala in the 8th today and Robles in the 9th? I believe we will need to get Alcala into higher leveraged situations eventually and I thought we were going to mix and match "closers." Given the analytics related to pitching guys on back to back days, it seems these two were well-rested. Thoughts?

I’m all for it. I see the same as you. Rocco seems to have gotten much more conventional with his player usage in 2021 than in 2019. For example, bullpen. In 2019 he mixed and matched according to game situation, Rogers, Hildenberger, Blake Parker were the guys early in the season. But this year it looks like he’s going with the closer role, and also the more conventional “7th inning” and “8th inning” guys as well. That said, I’d bet someone else gets the next save opportunity.

[Brock Beauchamp]

While I tend to give managers a fair amount of slack in bullpen usage - it's a difficult decision on the fly with a lot of variables we don't see as spectators - I have been... not impressed... with Baldelli's usage so far this season, none moreso than yesterday's game.

[Dantes929]

 

Because if you give the pitching staff 6 runs.... 6 runs.... that isn't enough and the offense is responsible? Oh. Just ignore today.... and opening day? Where the offense gave the bullpen 5 runs and a 3 run lead with just 3 outs to get? And the 3 extra inning debacles.... not once could the pitching staff hold for just one inning?

Well.   In the wins they gave up under 3 a game or are we ignoring the wins?   In the Opener the relievers held them scoreless for 4 innings.   In the next game they held them scoreless for 4 innings and only gave up a run with an automatic runner on 2nd.   In their next loss they gave up 1 run in 3 innings and then gave up an run with an automatic runner on 2nd.    So, in your question, not once could the pitching staff hold for just one inning the answer is yes they held for many innings.

[Dantes929]

 

Dantes929,   Are you Ron Gardenhire in real life? 

LOL.   Well, He did win a lot of division titles so hard to argue that he was wrong.    Also, Cleveland is in 1st place and KC is in 2nd.   Are we really concerned that it is  going to stay that way?     A little history.   If we had started 5-4 in 2008 we would have won the Central without having to play the Sox in a one off.    In 1987 we started out 4-5 and in 91 we started out 2-7.    I don't think there is a season in my 45 years of being a fan where I wouldn't have banked a 5-4 start to the season if given a choice.  

[Dantes929]

 

Calume? Even when getting defended, he gets no respect. 

See?    Its too early for me to even get his name right.    I'll get better.   I'll cut him the same slack.

[h2oface]

 

Well.   In the wins they gave up under 3 a game or are we ignoring the wins?   In the Opener the relievers held them scoreless for 4 innings.   In the next game they held them scoreless for 4 innings and only gave up a run with an automatic runner on 2nd.   In their next loss they gave up 1 run in 3 innings and then gave up an run with an automatic runner on 2nd.    So, in your question, not once could the pitching staff hold for just one inning the answer is yes they held for many innings.

 Context, my friend. Please. Don't throw out the context.

[cHawk]

 

 Context, my friend. Please. Don't throw out the context.

 

In context, it's expected for at least one run to score with a runner on 2B with no out.

[Aerodeliria]

I'm not panicking, but ya know, we usually like to spread the ugly losses out over one season. We have three very ugly losses out the four games lost to date.

[Doctor Gast]

I don't trust any of the Twins rotation at this point to go beyond 5 except Berrios. We need to go to our long relief sooner. Because of this situation, we need to bring in Dobnak sooner and have Thorpe also up to help out because of this situation. Even if they want Thorpe to focus on starting, they could have used him until the minors begin.

[Doctor Gast]

I think I am with you.... but there is Alex(ander) Colome, and Danny Coulombe (who we also signed to a minor league contract this off season), but who is this Columbe guy?

 

After the double after the lead off homer in the 6th, that was the pull time for Shoemaker. Absolutely. As much as I have little hope and faith for Dobnak, that was the time to put him in for a long relief outing, maybe to finish the game if he held. I guess Baldelli is not so keen after the Dobnak mess the last outing in low leverage in the ninth. And the pitch to Seager that Shoemaker was still complaining about after giving up a double, single, and another home run, and finally got tossed 3 runs later? Clearly a high pitch, by at least 6 inches.

We can't put a lot of stock in the innings that Dobnak has pitched. None of those situations fits Dobnak's strengths. That mop up game had no meaning other than to be treated as a ST game, to tinker with his pitches.

[Trov]

This is the second game in early season we gave away.  Yes, we will lose some games that should have won, but two this early in season does not put good taste in mouth.  Colome was rocked today.  I knew after the second batter it was not going to go well because both first two hits were solid liners.  

 

Overall, I am not too concerned for the team long term.  If Colome continues to not do well others will pitch 9th and he will be earlier in game or just released.  

[VivaBomboRivera!]

 

Because if you give the pitching staff 6 runs.... 6 runs.... that isn't enough and the offense is responsible? Oh. Just ignore today.... and opening day? Where the offense gave the bullpen 5 runs and a 3 run lead with just 3 outs to get? And the 3 extra inning debacles.... not once could the pitching staff hold for just one inning?

Should have gotten to this on the off day. Please refer to the box score along with this reply.

 

"Hold for just one inning" - that is what these guys get paid for. In this game, however, we had a 2-run lead to protect over 4 innings. Any opponent can overcome such a deficit in that span. 

 

Shoemaker should have been pulled before giving up that dong. Instead, he left the game after 5 innings with the score 4 - 6. At that point, the Twins still have to be thinking about piling on runs in support of the pitching and defense. They did not. If the Mariners could score 4 runs in 4 innings, the Twins ought to be able to do so, as well.

 

The fact is that the Twins got no production from the bottom half of their batting order. 

• Batters 1 - 4 totaled 7 H in 15 AB with 3 BB
• Batter 5 managed to go 1/4
• Batters 6 - 9? O-fer 15 with a walk

Hard to win a game with half a squad.

 

Add to that a RISP of 2-10 and 8 LOB and you have a real problem. The Twins have shown an ability to score early, but as others have remarked their situational hitting needs work and their ability to manufacture runs has been spotty. Today's 4-2 loss to the Scarlet Hose (0-8 RISP, 10 LOB!) reinforces the point. This offense is dangerous, but it won't be truly scary until it becomes more consistent.