Game Recap: White Sox 8, Twins 5

[Matthew Taylor]

The Minnesota Twins followed up Wednesday’s drubbing with another letdown on Thursday evening. The Minnesota Twins are now 33-46 and any potential hope that was remaining for a comeback season has once again been washed away.

Box Score

Berríos: 5.0 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Home Run(s): None

Bottom 3 WPA: Sanó -.257, Alcala -.241,  Berríos -.221

 -Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

Prior to today, José Berríos had been a staple of consistency for the Minnesota Twins this season. That was not the case today, though, as  Berríos was anything but his typical, sharp self. Berríos allowed the White Sox to run all across the basebaths today to the tune of 10 hits, a walk and 3 earned runs across 89 pitches in just 5 innings of work.

For the White Sox, the scoring got started early when Berríos allowed a solo home run to right center to White Sox center fielder, Brian Goodwin. The White Sox added on again in the 3rd inning with two more runs to give the Sox an early 3-0 lead.

The Twins bounced back in the 5th, though, as the bottom of the Twins lineup erupted to lead a 4-run rally in the inning highlighted by a Celestino single, Simmons double and a Nelson Cruz, happy birthday, RBI single to help the Twins take the lead back 4-3.

 

After Berríos allowed the White Sox to tie the game in the bottom of the 5th inning, the game quickly turned into a battle of the bullpens, which has typically not been a battle the Twins have fared well in this season.

The bullpen failed to show up once again for the Minnesota Twins as Jorge Alcala and Hansel Robles combined to allow 4 earned runs in 1.1 innings, giving the White Sox an 8-4 lead. 

The Minnesota Twins tried to make things interesting against Liam Hendricks in the 9th inning, but they were unsuccessful in mounting a comeback, ultimately losing with a final score of 8-5.

The Minnesota Twins have now been swept again by the Chicago White Sox and are 1-8 against the South Siders on the season and 14.5 games back in the American League Central.

Bullpen Usage Chart

What’s Next?

The Minnesota Twins will continue their road trip on Friday as they will travel to Kansas City to kickoff a 3 game series against the reeling Royals. The Twins will turn to southpaw J.A. Happ who will oppose Royals’ right-hander, Brady Singer.

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[twins_89]

It's tough to be competitive when the pitching staff gives up 28 runs in 3 games. Any remaining hope that the Twins could turn things around has to be completely gone now.

[Chet]

Why do they keep sending Sano out there for the automatic out?

Please send him down or somehow get rid of him!!

[Platoon]

I have my TiVo set for 4 hours! I don’t think it rained? And the "tape" ran out before the game was over…….  Sheesh

[Aggies7]

Start rebuilding now. Cut sano, eat the money. Hope someone overpays for berrios. Trade Donaldson and Cruz before the deadline. Probably stuck with buxton and his myriad injury issues. Get a new manager for next year. Suffer through these last 3 months and try not to lose 100 games. That’s all that’s left. It will be years before we are serious contenders. Sucks but true.

[Brock Beauchamp]

2 minutes ago, Platoon said:

I have my TiVo set for 4 hours! I don’t think it rained? And the "tape" ran out before the game was over…….  Sheesh

You didn’t miss anything.

Really. 

[RpR]

They won't be a serious contender till they get a manger who wants to win the World Series , not one that makes excuses for pissant playing.

Detroit who is supposed to be a worse team than the Twins swept the Yankees in New York, (hmm, they have Schoop and Grossman, we have Cave and Arraez)  until the Twins get a manager who insists on doing that, supposed rebuilding will just be more decades of a losing team , without exception.

They need to try to win now, not in 2031.

[darwin22]

Another day of getting sand kicked in our faces by the White Sox.  Remember when this was actually a competitive rivalry?  Not the case anymore as the Sox have dominated winning 8 of 9 this season outscoring the Twins 76-39. Posted this a few weeks ago...but the Sox have a very good chance (with 10 games remaining) to score 160 runs in our 19 games. Sox are averaging 8.4 runs in their 8 wins.  With 10 games left if they can maintain that average that would get to 160. 

Best news of the day:  DFA of Shoemaker.  This should've happened a month ago, but glad to see its over.  At the time of his signing, I was hopeful he'd contribute (mid 4 ERA) and give us a chance to win.  Not the case.  Wish him the best in his future.  Just add Shoemaker to the LONG LIST of Dollar Tree/General buys this front office has bought over the last 15+ years.

Worst News of the day:  I'm sure others will argue------but can anyone make the argument of why Derek Law was promoted to take his place?  Yes, Law is healthy and has a functional right arm, but his numbers at Saint Paul-------4.61 ERA in 11 games with a 1.54 WHIP and an opponents batting average of .304-------beg the question of---Why him???

Not that it makes a big difference with this rancid bullpen, but if I'm Ian Hamilton, I'm not happy about this.  What does Hamilton need to do to get a look?  His numbers, imo, strongly prove he was the BETTER option than Law.  Hamilton's ERA in 14 games is 1.31---3 runs lower than Law.  Opponents are hitting the Mendoza line (.186) and he has 29K's.  Other than a poor WHIP (1.50)---18 walks-----he deserved the call up.

See the Royals got pulverized again today---------so they'll be chomping at the bit to get home to tee off on Happ tomorrow night.  Living only 20 minutes from Kauffman Stadium, I'll take a hard pass on witnessing that pre 4th of July barrage.

 

[LA VIkes Fan]

Well, that was ugly. An ugly end to an ugly series. And now it is officially over. Nothing left for us to do but debate the extent of the necessary housecleaning, who should get a shot, and who's head should roll as result of all this.

The good news is that we all have Twins Daily to debate these and other critical topics. That will be my primary source of Twins entertainment for the rest of the season. It sure won't be the team.

 

[TheLeviathan]

Good god what a hideous baseball game.

[PDX Twin]

36 minutes ago, Chet said:

Why do they keep sending Sano out there for the automatic out?

Please send him down or somehow get rid of him!!

According to FanGraphs, his current WAR is -0.2, He's worse than a replacement player! When he comes up with a man on first and less than two outs, I want there to be an "intentional strikeout" so that he won't hit into a DP. Just wave your hand to the umpire and he's out.

[KirbyDome89]

I get the Sano angst, but this team isn't paying him $30M to go away. They'll have to eat money in a trade, how much and what they get in return is the sticking point. Going that route at least provides potential salary relief, or at the very least it can be spun as purchasing talent. 

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, KirbyDome89 said:

I get the Sano angst, but this team isn't paying him $30M to go away. They'll have to eat money in a trade, how much and what they get in return is the sticking point. Going that route at least provides potential salary relief, or at the very least it can be spun as purchasing talent. 

I don't think anyone takes him for free right now. You'd 100% have to eat almost all of the deal to get someone to take him, and at that point, why? I literally believe you could pay, say, 80% of his deal, and get nothing in return for him.

[Major League Ready]

6 minutes ago, KirbyDome89 said:

I get the Sano angst, but this team isn't paying him $30M to go away. They'll have to eat money in a trade, how much and what they get in return is the sticking point. Going that route at least provides potential salary relief, or at the very least it can be spun as purchasing talent. 

Actually it's about $17.5 between the rest of this year and 2022..  2023 is a team option.   That said, they still are not going to just cut him and pay the money in a lost year.  They will play him hoping he rebounds enough to give them options.

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Actually it's about $17.5 between the rest of this year and 2022..  2023 is a team option.   That said, they still are not going to just cut him and pay the money in a lost year.  They will play him hoping he rebounds enough to give them options.

That's my theory.....especially if Cruz is dealt (if he's not, the FO failed).

[KirbyDome89]

3 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I don't think anyone takes him for free right now. You'd 100% have to eat almost all of the deal to get someone to take him, and at that point, why? I literally believe you could pay, say, 80% of his deal, and get nothing in return for him.

For sure, that's what I meant when I said the Twins aren't going to DFA him and eat that contract while he plays elsewhere. As bad as he's been, teams would line up for the chance to see if he regains his old form.

If the Twins are desperate to move on then you try to trade him and even if it's only a 20% return, or a prospect or two, that's better than nothing. 

I'd rather keep Sano than eat $24M and get a bucket of balls in return. My point was simply that it makes zero sense to cut him right now. 

[KirbyDome89]

4 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

 They will play him hoping he rebounds enough to give them options.

They should. He isn't taking ABs away from anybody who needs them. Kirilloff can take over as the everyday 1B if Sano can't find some semblance of his former self, and the Twins aren't any worse off. 

[Major League Ready]

3 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

That's my theory.....especially if Cruz is dealt (if he's not, the FO failed).

If Cruz is not dealt they failed?  Not rendering an opinion here just wanted to clarify.

[LA VIkes Fan]

I think we're stuck watching Sano create a breeze at least for the rest of this year and next. No one will take him because of his contract and I don't think any team will give us anything of substance for him even if we eat the contract. He is like the overpaid NFL player on the team up against the salary cap. Everyone knows your only choices are to keep him and play him or cut him and pay his salary with all the other teams able to pick him up for basically nothing. I think there may be a team or two (Miami with Rowson?) that would be willing to take a shot at unlocking his potential but not if they have to give up a prospect or pay any money to do it. Why not? Because they can just sit back and wait to see if we cut him, and they can have a basically free shot at unlocking that potential. The Twins aren't going to cut him and eat his contract, especially since it's possible he would go somewhere else and actually perform in the manner his talent dictates he should perform, thus making the team look really bad. We're stuck with Sano unless there's a team out there really salivating over the prospect of turning him around and even then we probably have to take back a similarly bad contract/player in a trade. All of the options with Sano are equally hideous. He is likely to be around for the foreseeable future.

 

[jimbo92107]

13 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I don't think anyone takes him for free right now. You'd 100% have to eat almost all of the deal to get someone to take him, and at that point, why? I literally believe you could pay, say, 80% of his deal, and get nothing in return for him.

Oh, I dunno... I suppose the Red Sox might take a flier on Sano.

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

If Cruz is not dealt they failed?  Not rendering an opinion here just wanted to clarify.

Yes.....if they can't find a taker for him, they failed that part of their job. I get it takes two to dance, but come on....also, Pineda (if he's healthy). 

[Major League Ready]

10 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Yes.....if they can't find a taker for him, they failed that part of their job. I get it takes two to dance, but come on....also, Pineda (if he's healthy). 

No doubt.  There will be teams that want Cruz for a playoff run and I would think Pineda will be an even hotter commodity if healthy.  Interested in what people think these guys will bring back.

[Aggies7]

Keeping sano on the roster because he’s owed a lot of money is like not selling a lemon of a car you still have payments on, but doesn’t get you to work half the time. Maybe you can save yourself a few bucks and give someone else the headache.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

 

Let the reloading begin.

[terrydactyls]

Can we finally talk about selling assets???

[nmcowboy]

I give up.  Can't watch any more Twins games.  I need to see some quality baseball.

 

[RpR]

27 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

Can we finally talk about selling assets???

Why?

Change a team that loses for bad pitching to one that loses with even worse hitting?

Four of the gents that helped the 2019 team to the record it had are gone and doing pretty well else where, so lets get rid of the rest?

[lukeduke1980]

Its not sticky anymore?  

[USAFChief]

If I counted correctly, the Twins staff managed seven 1-2-3 innings in the three game Chicago series.

 

Yeesh. 

 

[Game7-91]

2 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

 

Let the reloading begin.

Can she pitch?