Game Recap: Cleveland 5, Twins 3

[Nate Palmer]

The Twins extra-inning record moves to 0-5 as Jordan Luplow hits a walk off homer off of Colome to open the series. Read more about the game in tonight's recap.Box Score

Berríos: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Home Runs: Brent Rooker (1)

Bottom 3 WPA: Jeffers -.394, Simmons -.251, Colome -.185

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

 

Download attachment: chart-3.png

 

Another extra-inning game, a similar result for the Twins as they lose their fifth straight extra inning game to open the 2021 season. The Twins would strike first Monday evening, but in the end it would be the Indians and Luplow who would get the last laugh.

 

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead the Twins were greeted to Cleveland by their former teammate Eddie Rosario. Berrios was able to work around a single by Rosario in the second inning, but the next time around Rosario got the better of his friend. Eddie dropped a double over Arraez's head in left field to score a run and then came around to tie it up on a Reyes single.

 

Arraez would redeem himself by slapping a single to left field that would bring Jake Cave around after he reached on an infield single and then advanced on a contact play. The 3-2 lead wasn’t enough as the bullpen couldn’t hold it once again.

 

Duffey came in to pitch the eighth and gave up a solo shot to Jose Ramirez to tie the game 3-3. Then stop me if you heard this before. Colome came in to try and force the 11th but instead gave up that two-run shot to Luplow that gave Cleveland the victory.

 

 

Rooker Gets Revenge

 

Rooker just hasn’t been able to get his bat going this season after fracturing his forearm in 2020. Monday night was the night that hopefully changes Rooker’s offensive trajectory. The second inning brought one of the positive moments of the night as Rooker sent a home run to the opposite field to collect his first home run of the 2021 season.

 

If Rooker’s bat does get going with that home run it may become a bit of a full circle event. Since it was a Plesac pitch that ended the Twins outfielder’s season in 2020, and it would now be a Plesac pitch that gets him back on track.

 

 

Baldelli with Another Puzzling Managerial Move

 

For those who have been frustrated with Baldelli’s management of games, we witnessed another reason to be unhappy. With two outs in the sixth inning and following the aforementioned Rosario score, Baldelli came out to check on and have a conversation with his starter.

 

The manager walked away with what appeared to be the intent to leave Jose in to finish out the inning. What Baldelli had seemingly forgotten is that pitching coach Wes Johnson had already used a mound visit earlier in the inning requiring Berrios to have to leave the game.

 

We will never know what would have happened if Berrios would have remained in the game, but clearly the Twins manager thought he had something left in him. Thankfully, Hansel Robles entered the game to get the final out of the inning and made it through a scoreless seventh as well. No matter what, the course of events certainly invites more scrutiny for Baldelli.

 

Kirilloff's First Hit

Alex Kirilloff broke his 0-for-15 slump with a double in his second at-bat tonight. Here's a look at that hit, as well as a quick review of everything that preceded it.

 

 

Postgame Interview

 

 

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

Click here to see the bullpen usage over the past five days (link opens a Google Sheet).

 

Click here to view the article

[Aggies7]

Not too early to start discussing trade pieces. Twins blew two great chances in two years to go deep in to the postseason. Wrong guy at the helm and a bullpen that could never be trusted even if we somehow qualified for the postseason. This amalgamation of players will not win a World Series this year.

[Vanimal46]

Give the White Sox credit... They showed zero interest bringing Colome back after a career year giving up only 3 runs in 22 appearances. That signature cutter pitch doesn’t look fixable at the moment. IMO it’s not crazy to discuss DFA’ing him very soon.

[USAFChief]

It's not just Colome, although I didn't like the signing at the time.

 

It's more the lack of power options. Who can be trusted in that pen?

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

Did Rocco get dropped on his head? Early Alheimer's? "Game on line. Who should I bring in? The guy who loses the game EVERY TIME he pitches? Or any other pitcher? Hmm. I'll bring in Alexander the Great. I'm sure it will work out."

[h2oface]

More than one poster has kept defending the pen with the probability of the runner on second scoring being 1.058 or something like that. So what. Then why can't we score? (I guess we did one out of 5 because of Buxton's homer, which Colome found a way to let 3 runs in instead of just one). 

 

2-12. Just keep doing the same thing, Baldelli, and expect different results.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

The Twins are short Kepler and Sanó, and decide to carry five starters and eight relievers into the series with a day off Thursday. There’s little chance to make good late inning substitutions. When Baldelli does make a substitution, it’s to remove someone like Arraez, one of his best players.

 

The double Rosario hit to left to Arraez should have been caught. It had an expected batting average of .150 — in other words, 85 of 100 of those balls are caught. I’m not blaming Arraez. We saw Eduardo Escobar shy away from a ball just like that in 2014, because he wasn’t familiar with the outfield. But we do need his bat in the lineup.

[Dr. Evil]

Ron Davis says Colome is deserving of more tries.

[h2oface]

 

Not too early to start discussing trade pieces. Twins blew two great chances in two years to go deep in to the postseason. Wrong guy at the helm and a bullpen that could never be trusted even if we somehow qualified for the postseason. This amalgamation of players will not win a World Series this year.

 

World Series?

World Series?

WORLD SERIES?!?!?!

 

This team has only one team with a worse record than them in MLB!

Folks really drank the kool-aid about this team being so good. And not just here. Baseball fans everywhere..... power rankings, etc....

Fools all.

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

Matt Capps is thinking of making a come-back as the Twins closer. "I was bad, but nowhere as bad as this guy."

[bobs]

Broken.  Is there any part of this team that isn't broken right now?

[Aggies7]

 

World Series?

World Series?

WORLD SERIES?!?!?!

 

This team has only one team with a worse record than them in MLB!

Folks really drank the kool-aid about this team being so good. And not just here. Baseball fans everywhere..... power rankings, etc....

Fools all.

I only said that because that should be the goal of a team who’s qualified for the postseason 3 of the last 4 seasons. If we’re as far away from that as we appear, then perhaps there needs to be a total revamping of things. Still have a lot of young guys but cruz and Donaldson aren’t, and some main pieces look like it will be a struggle to pan out (sano namely), but also a really solid player like buxton simply can’t stay on the field. These were to be franchise cornerstones. Not in a good place right now.

[Vanimal46]

Ron Davis says Colome is deserving of more tries.

Look on the bright side... Colome kept his pitch count low tonight so he’ll be ready to go tomorrow!

[cHawk]

Since blowing that 6-0 lead to Seattle, nothing has gone right for the Twins. Absolutely nothing. The pen has been shelled, the offense has been non-existent, starters have been leaving early, and the defense has been BAD.

 

This team is not playing well at all. It will be up to the players and Rocco if they are ever to turn this ship around. Colome is terrible and it’s blatantly obvious. He should be mop up at absolute most. Rogers is our only reliable reliever. Make him the closer. Robles has been...fine? He’s succeeding in every stat besides ERA. Duffey, what’s up with him?

 

IDK what needs to happen. But something needs to happen. And fast.

 

I still don’t want to hear any talk about trading JD, or Buxton, or anyone else like that. We’re trying to win, we shouldn’t give up after <15% of the season.

[USAFChief]

Telecast seemed to imply Rocco mistakenly had to remove Berrios due to a 2nd mound visit.

 

Anyone know if that's true? Was it covered in post game presser?

 

If true, that's...not really acceptable.

[Danchat]

I'm not surprised some of the soft-tossing relievers are struggling, but everyone in the bullpen has regressed with no exceptions. Rogers may have a 0.00 ERA, but he's let in most if not all his inherited runners and he's leaving meatballs down the middle. Duffey looks out of shape, velo down, no command. Stashak looks hurt. Thielbar has been beaten up. Alcala can't stop giving up HRs. How can they all be sucking at once? Rocco has done a poor job managing, but he's got nothing to work with here. Wes and the FO have failed him.

 

And the 6th inning mound visit debacle aside... how do you pull Arraez for Lin in LF?! Sure, Lin has a little bit of OF experience (78 innings in the majors and 50 starts in the minors), but you can't pull Arraez's bat out of the lineup in a close game. These have been some baffling moves being made...

[Aggies7]

 

I'm not surprised some of the soft-tossing relievers are struggling, but everyone in the bullpen has regressed with no exceptions. Rogers may have a 0.00 ERA, but he's let in most if not all his inherited runners and he's leaving meatballs down the middle. Duffey looks out of shape, velo down, no command. Stashak looks hurt. Thielbar has been beaten up. Alcala can't stop giving up HRs. How can they all be sucking at once? Rocco has done a poor job managing, but he's got nothing to work with here. Wes and the FO have failed him.

 

And the 6th inning mound visit debacle aside... how do you pull Arraez for Lin in LF?! Sure, Lin has a little bit of OF experience (78 innings in the majors and 50 starts in the minors), but you can't pull Arraez's bat out of the lineup in a close game. These have been some baffling moves being made...

It was so baffling I assumed Arraez was injured. It’s Linsanity I tell ya

[USAFChief]

It was so baffling I assumed Arraez was injured. It’s Linsanity I tell ya

Yeah, my first reaction was "great, now Arraez is hurt again."

[USAFChief]

Look on the bright side... Colome kept his pitch count low tonight so he’ll be ready to go tomorrow!

someone's itchin' for a bannin'...

[Otto von Ballpark]

Telecast seemed to imply Rocco mistakenly had to remove Berrios due to a 2nd mound visit.

 

Anyone know if that's true? Was it covered in post game presser?

 

If true, that's...not really acceptable.

I’ve seen some speculation that Rocco was intending to remove him, with Berrios lobbying to stay in — then the lobbying was for naught when they were reminded of the rule.

 

Seth suggested that Rocco bought time for a few more warmup pitches for Robles.

 

No official story that I have seen yet.

[jkcarew]

Time to think about postponing the development of Ober or Duran as a starter and add one of them to the bullpen? Really no other option other than sticking with Colume or bumping everyone up, which exposes guys we don’t want to be pitching in leverage. What a mess.

 

But none of it matters if they don’t start hitting. You can’t expect to win games scoring 0-3 runs every single game. Even with a solid bullpen, you’re talking about...realistically...4-10 (instead of 2-12) in the last 14 games. Results would still be catastrophic. There is zero basis to expect that the Twins will score a run in any late inning, when they consistently fail to score in the 10th.

[bighat]

It's fair to say it's time to panic. I'm done trying to be reasonable and listen to everyone telling me that it's still April. Yeah, it's April (almost May 1st but OK), the games count and the Twins are the worst team in baseball thus far. They've won SEVEN games! Seven!

 

They don't look like a good team that's snakebit. They look plum terrible. There is nobody waiting in the wings to save them on offense, Kepler and Sano were actually hurting this team on offense (can't believe that's possible at this point but it's true). The bullpen is awful from top to bottom. No help on the way.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Change of subject: This lineup batted a collective 5/34 (yes, that's .147, folks) with a walk today.

 

The club has scored an average 2.8 runs in the past 10 games. At an average of 4.0 the Twins would be in a completely different place. Not even finished with April and it is getting late.

[Otto von Ballpark]

And the 6th inning mound visit debacle aside... how do you pull Arraez for Lin in LF?! Sure, Lin has a little bit of OF experience (78 innings in the majors and 50 starts in the minors), but you can't pull Arraez's bat out of the lineup in a close game. These have been some baffling moves being made...

I have heard really good things about Lin defensively, suggesting he could be a defensive super-sub.

 

And we were protecting a 1-run lead, and Arraez had already contributed to blowing a 2 run lead in LF.

 

And Arraez’s spot in the order never even came up again, so it didn’t ultimately hurt us at all.

[AceWrigley]

The main drawback of being a Minnesota sports fan are the Minnesota sports teams.

[jkcarew]

 

I’ve seen some speculation that Rocco was intending to remove him, with Berrios lobbying to stay in — then the lobbying was for naught when they were reminded of the rule.

Seth suggested that Rocco bought time for a few more warmup pitches for Robles.

No official story that I have seen yet.

Watching it, he absolutely meant to leave him in the game. Which would have been the right decision IMO. They’ll spin it. As will the local media.

 

The majority of Twittersphere seems to agree with my take...(which causes me to doubt myself).

[BD57]

I've long believed no team is as good as it looks when it's winning, or as bad as it looks when it's losing.

 

This bunch is proving the last half of that "saying" a lie.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

 

I’ve seen some speculation that Rocco was intending to remove him, with Berrios lobbying to stay in — then the lobbying was for naught when they were reminded of the rule.

Seth suggested that Rocco bought time for a few more warmup pitches for Robles.

No official story that I have seen yet.

Berrios sure looked like he wanted to stay in.

[Mill1634]

Just for fun if the Twins are sellers...pieces by value, imo..

 

Berrios (Not happening)

Buxton (also not happening)

Cruz

Maeda

Polanco (probably not happening)

Big Mike

Simmons

Rogers

Kepler

Donaldson (probably not happening)

Duffey

Robles

Garver (If he gets any semblance of his swing back)

Happ

Shoemaker

Colome

Thielbar

 

 

[tony&rodney]

Take a sip, but don't jump - it is still April. Bad baseball often happens in April. This year it was our turn. I'm still optimistic but there are some real concerns.