Game Recap: Twins 5, Royals 6

[Matthew Taylor]

Despite a 2-homer performance from Josh Donaldson, the Twins lost yet again. This time to the Kansas City Royals. The Minnesota Twins are now 22-34 and as lost as ever.

Box Score

Happ: 5.0 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Home Runs: Donaldson 2 (7)

Bottom 3 WPA: Happ -.345, Celestino -.174, Larnach -.155

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Minnesota Twins set a strong tone early right away on Thursday night, when Josh Donaldson belted a solo home run in the top of the 1st inning to give the Twins an early 1-0 lead over the hometown Kansas City Royals. Maybe today would be the day that the Twins turned their fortunes around?

 

After the Kansas City Royals got two runs of their own in the 1st and 3rd innings, the Minnesota Twins tied the game again in the top of the 4th inning on a Nick Gordon RBI single, the first RBI of the infielder’s major league career.

After trading the lead back and forth in the middle innings, the Minnesota Twins found themselves down 5-4 in the 7th inning when Josh Donaldson blasted a tying solo shot to center field for his second home run of the game. The home run marked Donaldson’s first multi-homer game in a Minnesota Twins uniform and his first multi-home run game since August 25, 2019 with the Atlanta Braves. The home run capped off an excellent night for Donaldson who went 3-5 with a double, two home runs and 2 RBI.

 

The momentum didn’t last long though, as the Twins gave up what ultimately ended up being the deciding run in the bottom half of the 7th inning when Gilberto Celestino and Trevor Larnach misplayed a routine fly ball to left center before Celestino had a mind fart and threw the ball to first base, allowing Kansas City’s Jarrod Dyson to score from 3rd base.

 

On the mound, J.A. Happ was extremely inconsistent, allowing loud contact, highlighted by the 3 home runs combined from Salvador Perez and Hunter Dozier.

The Minnesota Twins bullpen pitched better than we’ve been accustomed to seeing, but in the end the Twins couldn’t overcome the lackluster start from Happ or yet another miscue in the field and the Minnesota Twins fell to Kansas City Royals 6-5. The Twins are now 10 games into their 13-game run against the lowly Royals and Orioles and are a meager 5-5 over that stretch. The Twins 

What’s Next

The Minnesota Twins will attempt to turn things in the right direction on Friday evening against the Kansas City Royals with Matt Shoemaker taking the hill against Brad Keller.

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[USAFChief]

Celestino certainly fits right in.

[Aggies7]

How many reasons are there to continue watching this team? Kiriloff, larnach? And even that’s a stretch. Only 4 months left to go.

[D.C Twins]

Sa-no-hitta-the-ball

[AceWrigley]

From happening dudes, to what the hell happened dudes.

[insagt1]

Baseball can be a very cruel exercise. The new kid looked so incredibly forlorn after his two game killing errors. And then our hitting hero of the night Josh Donaldson ends the game by hitting into a DP.

Twins are inventing ways to lose. It clearly is going to be a long season. Some losses are expected. Some are infuriating. Some are undeserved. This one was simply very sad.

[insagt1]

Just a quick off topic to say RIP to one of my favorite, and quirky Montreal Expos...Mike Marshall, who passed this week. He was also an ex-Twin for a few seasons. A total workhorse who could pitch every single game, he was also a 'scientist' who analyzed the art of pitching like none other. Expos traded him for Willie Davis...and Marshall won a Cy Young with the Dodgers.  He was fun to watch.

[jun]

Celestino just can't field, can't hit and he has no baseball IQ.

[Aerodeliria]

(We all have our ways of coping ?)

New Episode Tomorrow of GAME THREAD! If you thought today's show was off-the-charts map cap, tune in tomorrow!

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As this is an interactive comedy, your insightful barbs will become part of the fun. Tickets are free, so why not join?

*Not responsible for any broken furniture or injuries resulting from such actions that occur during the show.

[h2oface]

Prospect rankings? Center fielder of the future? So much overrating and home team blindness.

Do these guys know how to use they voices? Their loud voices? How does something like that even happen ..... in even college ball or minor league ball? I hate this team.

[adjacent]

I wouldn't crucify Celestino after 2 games. Probably he is not ready. He was pushed to the majors out of bare necessity, You are playing the fifth guy in the depth chart, at some point it is going to hurt. 

[bighat]

Story of the game for me was Twins pitching immediately giving back runs to KC after the Twins have scored. Check out the box score: Twins get a run, Twins give one back right away - it went on the whole game. Worst was when the Twins scratched and clawed to score a couple runs with a really hard fought effort and then Happ gave the lead back on the first pitch of the next inning. I think Happ did that twice, actually. Incredibly deflating.

Watching this team is like watching the vet put down your favorite pet. Every night. Depressing as hell, all of it.

[wsnydes]

6 hours ago, jun said:

Celestino just can't field, can't hit and he has no baseball IQ.

You can tell all of that after 2 games?  He's not played well, I don't disagree, but this seems like a bit of a leap at this juncture.  He's only here because of injuries.  Somebody has to play CF.

[wsnydes]

7 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Celestino certainly fits right in.

There's nothing worse than when a newcomer destroys the team chemistry.  

[rv78]

At some point during this dismal season some people need to be held accountable. The lack of basic baseball fundamentals is being overlooked and that falls on all of the Coaches and Managers in the entire organization. Has anyone thought it might be a good idea if they have every player know how to bunt or hit to the opposite side of a shift or know which base to throw to or call off other fielders on fly balls or pop ups? I know they teach these things in little league and high school where I live. Does this team practice fundamentals or are the players just expected to know them and execute? Kinda looks like they don't know what they are doing.

[yeahyabetcha]

7 hours ago, jun said:

Celestino just can't field, can't hit and he has no baseball IQ.

He reminded me of Eddie Rosario,  cept Eddie has a better bat.

[Taildragger8791]

4 rookies plus Garlick in the lineup. Plus another rookie coming in to PH. They're nearly fielding a AAA lineup out there. And I'm not sure they're doing any worse than if the regulars (Buxton excepted) were out there...

[Taildragger8791]

Also can someone get Nick Gordon a steak and a protein shake? The dude looks like he'd spin backwards if he connected on a 100 MPH heater. My nephews weighed more in middle school.

[Nine of twelve]

IMHO Celestino should have been the one to make the catch on the decisive play in the 7th. He was in a better position than Larnach to make the throw to third base. He should have been calling Larnach off the play. I can't tell from the replay whether he was doing that, but if he was then it was Larnach's mistake.

[garn from vancouver]

they just seem to find new ways to lose every day. that bad news bears action in centre field yesterday was awful. i am sure he feel badly but that can't happen, yet it does.

and i hate that i knew happ was going to be a bust. he's not good. my mom has a better ERA. and while donaldson hit well yesterday he's still not worth the price of admission.

on a higher note: i do like larnach's swing and he seems to have a clue out there - unless he did aid in the 7th inning dropped ball. if gordon gets some weigh on he'll be awesome and kiriloff seems like a guy that could be a full time player in  a year or so. it's AAA Twins right now.

[Dman]

This team is just so bad in all phases.  Defense, Offense, relief pitching, Starting pitching.  I mean usually a team can hang their hat on a couple of those areas I just can't remember seeing a team this bad before in all 4 phases before  Honestly any players they have in the minors that they think are a  part of the future they should bring up ASAP so they can get them acclimated to the MLB game because this team is so bad there really is no redemption for them this year. 

Honestly there is no trade value for Shoemaker so cutting him and getting someone like WInder or Canterino up makes more sense to me.  Winder has to be added by the end of this year anyway to avoid Rule V as does Sands.  Might as well see what they have ASAP as Winder is already 24 and will be 25 in October.  I guess we might have to wait for the deadline to see who we can trade to make more room but this year is lost and with all phases of the game bad the vets are not going to turn this thing around.

[wsnydes]

54 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

IMHO Celestino should have been the one to make the catch on the decisive play in the 7th. He was in a better position than Larnach to make the throw to third base. He should have been calling Larnach off the play. I can't tell from the replay whether he was doing that, but if he was then it was Larnach's mistake.

Agreed.  It's also the CF's prerogative to take control in those situations.  I'm sure that the two aren't that familiar with each other, but it would seem that they weren't communicating well enough.  

[Homer Hank]

But I'm still going to next couple homesteads to get the giveaways!

 

[prouster]

3 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

IMHO Celestino should have been the one to make the catch on the decisive play in the 7th. He was in a better position than Larnach to make the throw to third base. He should have been calling Larnach off the play. I can't tell from the replay whether he was doing that, but if he was then it was Larnach's mistake.

Disagree. The ball was hit pretty much to left field. Larnach was already settled under it while Celestino was still moving over from center. There is no way a runner is tagging to third on that ball no matter who catches it.

[puckstopper1]

SIGH!

[Dodecahedron]

I truly thought next week would be the final nails in the coffin for the season, not this week.

 

[theBOMisthebomb]

15 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Celestino certainly fits right in.

Ol' Gilber-two errors Celestino. 

[AceWrigley]

At least we have the Vikings to look forward to.

[Nine of twelve]

18 hours ago, prouster said:

Disagree. The ball was hit pretty much to left field. Larnach was already settled under it while Celestino was still moving over from center. There is no way a runner is tagging to third on that ball no matter who catches it.

Actually, if you look at the replay you'll see that Dyson WAS tagging. He's an aggressive and fast runner and a good throw to third was needed even if it's just to hold him at second. But even if he hadn't been tagging the only play was to throw to third and Celestino was in a better position.

[prouster]

1 hour ago, Nine of twelve said:

Actually, if you look at the replay you'll see that Dyson WAS tagging. He's an aggressive and fast runner and a good throw to third was needed even if it's just to hold him at second. But even if he hadn't been tagging the only play was to throw to third and Celestino was in a better position.

It seems like Dyson may have been bluffing, which is not uncommon on that type of play. Who knows, though. Larnach is a lefty, so I think the angle was fine if he needed to make a throw. Mostly, I think balls hit to left field should be caught by the left fielder.

 

At any rate, it’s over and done with. Celestino made some blunders.