Game Recap: Cleveland 7, Twins 4

[Mahoning]

After the lads exhausted themselves getting eight hits scoring four yesterday, I think everyone deserves a day off. How can they be expected to play a day game after all that baserunning and stuff? 

 

Also, maybe it is time to let the pitchers hit and DH for the catchers. They can't do any worse.

[puckstopper1]

 

But, but, but ,,, we had such great exit velocity!

 

Maybe this team is built to maximize "advanced statistics" but not to win baseball games? 

 

PDX - you forgot to add the the Twins pitchers also had a strikeout per inning which is another one of those awesome advanced statistics.

[twinfan]

I read they were toying with Colombe's delivery and/or grip. Could that be a major part of his problem? He certainly has stunk this year so far. Why mess with what has been successful in the past? Maeda certainly is nothing like we saw last year. Hopefully he can regain some of that form. Much of the offense (?) is toast except for a few sparks and the defense, which has always been a strength, has been awful. These are things that happen when a team goes South. I'm surprised that, with the losing and then Baldelli forgetting about the mound visit rule, that he wasn't fired. Something has to be done to shake this team up. Usually it's the manager that is let go first. I guess we'll see.

[Dman]

I am ready to see Waddle and Farrell in relief duty this pen is such a disaster.  So Wes's philosophy is throw it down the middle those guys can't touch your stuff? Or is it just throw hard who cares where it goes even if it hits them?  I don't think I have ever seen such a pitiful group of relief pitchers for the Twins ever.  I mean if this is the best they have bring up Chalmers he can walk three guys and hit a batter like Colome did and likely strike out the side doing it.  Bring up Ober can he be any worse than Stashak has been?  Let all those guys sit and think about finding ways to throw strikes and miss bats.  Can anyone throw a clean inning anymore?  Let's get to work guys come on.

 

Hopefully the Twins learned their lesson on the Colome decision.  No one in the league really wanted him as the deeper numbers were not there.  Now we know why.  Rocco did his friend no favors leaving him out there for 30 and 40 pitches an outing and not giving him much rest but still Colome is not the kind of pitcher you hang your hat on.  K's rule and the pen needs to get back to missing bats.

 

Don't get me started on the brutal defense this year either.  There is an untimely error every game setting us back and lot's of them are not even tough plays.  This just doesn't look like a professional team right now more like AAA with a few MLB players mixed in.

 

I can't watch this train wreck everyday anymore.  Will keep a distant eye on them but this looks like a wasted season right now. 

[mikelink45]

Detroit escapes the cellar!  We did it, we boosted the morale for the Tigers and sit alone in a position where we have all the teams in front of us so we can look up and see what strategy we want to use in our climb up the ladder.

 

7 - 15 .318  to get 95 wins we need to be 88 - 52 .628 the rest of the year.  Is it possible?  

 

Buxton and Cruz are really leading the way, I put Polanco at U and Arraez everyday at 2B.  Kiriloff stays on the field at LF or 1B.  We need Donaldson and Simmons every day. Those players have enough fire power to propel us forward, seldom does an entire lineup have to be great.   So fill in with Kepler and Larnach or maybe Sano comes back and proves he is not a one year wonder.  

 

Catcher is a position where an earlier TD post bragged that we were so much better off than other teams with two starting caliber players. I still believe in Jeffers but I am so puzzled by Garver, his great year seems to have been a curse rather than a benefit.  

 

Cave gone, keep Astudillo, he has life and he is hitting and fielding wherever they put him.

 

Now the hard part - pitching.  Let's see Berrios - yes.  Maeda looks like he was a one year mirage, but I expect better.  The starters seem fine.  But the BP??? Could we call up Edwar Colina?  Shouldn't we try some more of the RP we had in the spring?  

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Among the many, many things that could be said, or asked, about this game, one stands head and shoulders above all else:

"What the **** was that 8th inning about?"

Edit: I guess it was too much to ask a beat writer to question Rocco on the monumentally stupid decision to let Colome struggle through a hit batter followed by three walks (and it should have been four walks if not for a gift K) in the 8th inning of a 1 run game: no mention in the Strib game story. Nothing.

I mean, come on!

 

To be fair, the Strib eventually published a separate story that was specifically about the Colomé appearance, which is probably why they didn't address it in the game story:

 

https://www.startribune.com/twins-alex-colome-setback/600050989/

 

Technically, the situation Colomé entered last night was a "low-leverage" situation, as defined by game-entering leverage index. It had a value of 0.55, compared to average/neutral leverage of 1.0 or top reliever leverage of 1.5+. I would have guessed higher, with only a 1-run deficit, but as the road team entering the bottom of the 8th, we had only 1 more chance on offense and our opponent had 2 more. (Also, not factored into leverage index but something Baldelli could consider, but the top 4 in our batting order had just batted in the 8th, so they were unlikely to bat again in the 9th.)

 

But it still felt a little weird, using him in that situation immediately after he lost the game Monday, and while we were trying to stop a losing streak.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I was listening to the bottom of the 2nd inning on the radio. Atteberry and Provus were dissecting every pitch Maeda threw, in clinical detail. Very weird. I am just hoping they were going down a rabbit hole, and not communicating something subtle about what the team is concerned about.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Hosken Bombo Disco

[puckstopper1]

Maeda's expression in the story picture sums up the feeling of most Twins fans.