Kansas City’s Danny Duffy silenced the Minnesota Twins’ hot bats en route to an easy win for the Royals. Read more about the game in today's recap.Boxscore

Matt Shoemaker: 3.1 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 0 K

Home Runs: Alex Kiriloff (3), Nelson Cruz (8)

Bottom 3 WPA: Shoemaker -.347, Garlick -.045, Buxton -.039

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

 

Download attachment: chart.png

 

Well, the Minnesota Twins’ winning streak was fun while it lasted.

 

The Twins dropped to 9-16 following their drubbing at the hands of the Kansas City Royals Saturday afternoon.

 

The long and short of the team’s loss was that Royals’ pitcher Danny Duffy dealt, while Twins’ pitcher Matt Shoemaker decidedly did not.

 

Duffy threw seven innings of one run ball and allowed only six runners to reach base, three coming via walk and two via hit, including Alex Kiriloff’s third home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh.

 

Unfortunately for the Twins, for as effective as Duffy was, Shoemaker was equally ineffective.

 

He allowed two runs in the top of the first inning, in large part due to Byron Buxton coming up short on a dive on a sinking line drive off the bat of Salvador Pérez that resulted in a double, and things only went downhill from there. Shoemaker exited in the middle of the fourth inning after serving up two home runs and allowing eight runners to cross the plate.

 

 

Shoemaker — whose ERA ballooned to 7.83 during the loss — had difficulty locating his pitches all afternoon. His fastball sat in the low-90s and was frequently placed in the middle-middle portion of the zone, which isn’t exactly a great recipe for success, particularly when the sinker and splitter aren’t missing bats, either.

 

 

 

Nelson Cruz’s two run home run in the bottom of the eighth after Willians Astudillo singled was the only other source of offense for the Twins.

 

Cody Stashak provided 1.2 solid innings of relief after Shoemaker exited, striking out two and bringing his strikeout to walk ratio to 15:4 on the season. Randy Dobnak also appeared out of the pen, pitching three innings and allowing two home runs, both to Andrew Benintendi.

 

The Twins and Royals will meet Sunday afternoon for the rubber match of the series. José Berríos is set to face off against Brad Keller with first pitch slated for 1:10 p.m. CT.

 

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

On the positive, Kiriloff is finally getting results.

On the bright side, Kirilloff has awakened!

Thank God the Twins minor league teams start playing soon. That'll be more exciting to keep track of than watching these big league pretenders. 

If you flirt with disaster long enough, eventually you'll get a date. That's what Matt Shoemaker teaches us. His fringy stuff reminds me of a few veterans the Twins have brought in for a one-year deal, then regretted it. 

Time to end the Shoemaker experiment...

Shoemaker opened the floodgates which was hard to close. KC's Duffy was pretty stingy. Cruz and Kiriloff keep up the good work. That's all I'm going to say about that.

I feel bad for Shoemaker. He looked so demoralized out there along with his lackluster attempt at backing up home plate at the end. Many of the big hits came in 2 strike counts. Hopefully the Twins can come out tomorrow and kick some ass.

 

I feel bad for Shoemaker. 

I was in the left field stands in the Dome for Steve Carlton's last major league game. I felt bad for him too, but when the end comes it cannot be stopped. I think it was worth it to take a flyer on Shoemaker but I think the end is near, if not here. I suppose we could give him one more start on a very short leash just in case, but if the results aren't there it's probably time to thank him for his hard work and wish him well in his future endeavors.

 

Edit: And Colome is in a very similar position.

This is what happens when you start to believe you can fix everyone. I would switch Shoemaker and Dobnak right now. Give Duran and Balazovic a couple minor league starts and work them in soon.

 

This team was at least two arms short at the start of the year and we are seeing the results. This is on Falvine. I just hope they haven’t screwed us for this year.

 

This is what happens when you start to believe you can fix everyone. I would switch Shoemaker and Dobnak right now. Give Duran and Balazovic a couple minor league starts and work them in soon.

This team was at least two arms short at the start of the year and we are seeing the results. This is on Falvine. I just hope they haven’t screwed us for this year.

 

This is what happens when you start to believe you can fix everyone. I would switch Shoemaker and Dobnak right now. Give Duran and Balazovic a couple minor league starts and work them in soon.

This team was at least two arms short at the start of the year and we are seeing the results. This is on Falvine. I just hope they haven’t screwed us for this year.

 

I mean I can't fault him for taking a gamble on Shoemaker, or Colome for that matter. Both signings have not worked out. This is like what happened with
Lance Lynn. Even then we probably would've been a bit short.

I don’t know what they should do about Shoemaker.

 

But I know they shouldn’t give his slot to Dobnak. Dobnak?

Colome, Robles, and Shoemaker. All horrible signings. J A Happ. Surprising me. 1 out of 4 for the FO. Not so great for pitching experts.

 

Colome, Robles, and Shoemaker. All horrible signings. J A Happ. Surprising me. 1 out of 4 for the FO. Not so great for pitching experts.

 

Robles? He's allowed 8 baserunners in 9.1 Innings and ZERO xBHs. Not horrible. That ERA should even out.

I didn't see it but Colomé's 9th inning went single, line out, line out, line out. Doesn't sound like a recipe for long term success to me.

 

I don’t know what they should do about Shoemaker.

 

But I know they shouldn’t give his slot to Dobnak. Dobnak?

Sure, why not Dobnak? Team's got more data on him at the mlb level than any other candidate. He is young, strong, intelligent, and his stuff produces a lot of ground balls. Dobnak has also been developing strike-out stuff, and it has been starting to show. 

 

Tell you what - short leash starts for a few games, with long relievers ready to go. If Dobbs flounders, then it's time to go fishing in the minors. Basically you're swapping roles with Shoemaker, assuming the Twins don't just release the old dog.

It's time again for The Dobnak to get another shot as a starter in the rotation. I hope Shoemaker likes St. Paul.

 

It's time again for The Dobnak to get another shot as a starter in the rotation. I hope Shoemaker likes St. Paul.

Right on. Thanks Matt, but you are what you are. Balzovic and Duran coming up? Yes please

Woof

 

Woof

 

Woof woof

Who let the dogs out?

 

Sure, why not Dobnak? Team's got more data on him at the mlb level than any other candidate. He is young, strong, intelligent, and his stuff produces a lot of ground balls. Dobnak has also been developing strike-out stuff, and it has been starting to show. 

Apparently, we’re watching two different Dobnak’s. The one I’m watching has progressively done worse each year as the league has seen more of him. The one I’m watching still has a K ratio well below league average and has given up 4 HR now in 14 innings...fly balls that go over the fence, not ground balls. He has atrocious numbers across the board and has amassed a bWAR of -.7 in only 14 innings, a pace that’s worse than Shoemakers -.9 in 23 innings.

 

If that’s the standard, go with Duran right now. I’m sure he hasn’t been golfing the last several weeks. He won’t do materially worse than what Dobnak has been doing...and at least you’re developing a realistic potential top-end arm.

 

I didn't see it but Colomé's 9th inning went single, line out, line out, line out. Doesn't sound like a recipe for long term success to me.

I watched it.

 

He was getting hit very hard. Royals were on the button every time they made contact. Colome looked as bad as he's looked all season, zero improvement whatsoever. Might have even been worse.

Shoemaker, Robles and Colome. Desperate horrible signings at the time of the ink. 

 

Shoemaker, Robles and Colome. Desperate horrible signings at the time of the ink. 

 

Were any of them desperate signings?

 

Shoemaker is on a 1 year $2M deal brought in as depth starting pitching.  

 

Colome is coming a very good 5 year stretch and a 2020 where he was near un-hittable.  He does have some control issues, but this was a move to bolster the bullpen.

 

Robles was a buy low $2M signing after a pretty bad 2020 following a very good year in 2019.  So far he has only allowed hits in 3 of his 11 outings and seems to be a decent signing.

 

I don't see how any of these reek of desperation, they all had their purposes.