Game Recap: Twins 4, Tigers 2

[Thiéres Rabelo]

Kenta Maeda and Tigers’ starter Matt Manning both pitched five innings of shutout baseball before Minnesota’s offense ambushed the Detroit rookie for four runs in the sixth inning. The Twins have a chance to win the series on Saturday afternoon.

Box Score
Maeda: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K (61.9% strikes)
Home Runs: none
Top 3 WPA: Maeda .288, Kepler .170, Robles .119

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Both starters began this game in a real pitchers’ duel. Making his fifth big league start, Manning no-hit the Twins lineup through three innings, on 34 pitches. Maeda had to work a bit harder, struggling to retire leadoff batters and surpassing 50 pitches in that same span. He did manage to fan six through three scoreless frames, but he also relied on some good defense to bale him out. Like when Ben Rortvedt caught former Twins prospect Akil Baddoo trying to steal second base during the first inning to complete a double play. Speaking of Rortvedt, here’s a fun stat brought by MLB.com beat writer Do-Hyoung Park:

After three innings of work, both offenses managed to produce only three runners combined. Maeda continued to have a hard time with leadoff hitters, as four out of five reached. But he also missed a ton of bats, producing 17 swings and misses in this game, his third-highest total in a game this season. Strangely, Rocco Baldelli pulled him after five innings, with his pitch count at 84. He concluded his shutout with seven punch outs, all of them on swinging strikes, which makes it 31 consecutive swinging strikeouts for him.

Manning took his no-hit bid into the fifth inning, still under 60 pitches, retiring nine consecutive Minnesota batters at one point. Then the Twins threatened for the first time in the game, with Jorge Polanco drawing a walk and being sent to third by a Max Kepler opposite field single. However, he took care of the next two batters and kept the game scoreless through five.

The offense comes through big in the sixth

Jorge Alcala pitched a quick, scoreless sixth inning. Then, the Twins offense finally managed to break Manning’s dominance. Luis Arraez jumped on the first pitch he saw for a leadoff single. Josh Donaldson drew a walk immediately afterward which forced A.J. Hinch to pull his rookie. Reliever Ian Krol took over, but he couldn’t take care of the inherited runners. He balked, advancing both of them, before giving up an RBI-single to Trevor Larnach.

Nelson Cruz hit a sac-fly to push Donaldson across and double the Twins' lead. But they weren’t done. Alex Kirilloff drew a walk after falling behind 0-2 in the count and kept the threat going. Kepler, who’s having a scorching-hot month of July, cleared the bases with a two-out triple, scoring Larnach and Kirilloff, making it 4-0 Minnesota. Oh, and it wasn’t without the help of some vintage Robbie Grossman defense out in left field.

The bullpen kept things interesting. Caleb Thielbar took over for Alcala in the seventh and managed to close out the inning, in spite of giving up a single. However, after allowing a leadoff single to Baddoo in the eighth, he saw Grossman hit a two-run bomb to left, cutting the Twins’ lead in half.

Baldelli had enough and brought Hansel Robles into the game at once. Not only did he end the threat in the eight, but he also closed out the game with a scoreless ninth, earning his ninth save of the season. Robles has now had back-to-back scoreless outings, after giving runs in four consecutive games.

The Twins record is now 37-50 and they have the chance to win the series this Saturday. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:10 pm CT, with Bailey Ober on the mound for Minnesota.

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	TOT
Thielbar	29	0	20	0	20	69
Law	0	0	50	0	0	50
Rogers	31	0	0	6	0	37
Robles	12	0	0	0	24	36
Duffey	17	0	0	15	0	32
Alcala	0	0	0	0	23	23
Colomé	0	14	0	0	0	14
Coulombe	0	12	0	0	0	12

 

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[Mike Sixel]

It is good when they win....

[MplsFan]

Yeah this season has been a dud, but I took my wife and five year old tonight. Great weather and we got fired up during the offense’s outburst.  Kepler’s triple was awesome.  Fun to enjoy some outdoor, winning baseball on a beautiful evening.  Wish we could have more of this.

[darwin22]

True....but considering this team hasn't been at the .500 mark since April 13th and is on pace for 69 wins (93 losses), still a colossal failure.  Saying that.......nice to see bullpen (minus Thielbar) perform well.  Also nice to see that Robbie Grossman is still using the same "waffle iron" of a glove he displayed for years in a Twins uniform. 

[Monticore]

Nice win. Maeda should have gone one more. Encouraged by Kepler.

[bean5302]

Love the defense and it's hard to tell how much of Rortvedt's struggles at the plate are related to luck as his BABIP is crazy low. He's still fairly young and his MiLB track record suggests he's got the upside of an average-ish MLB hitter if he can work a couple things out. Even as an average hitter at the MLB level, Rortvedt would still be a valuable catcher in the big show.

 

[bean5302]

8 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

True....but considering this team hasn't been at the .500 mark since April 13th and is on pace for 69 wins (93 losses), still a colossal failure.  Saying that.......nice to see bullpen (minus Thielbar) perform well.  Also nice to see that Robbie Grossman is still using the same "waffle iron" of a glove he displayed for years in a Twins uniform. 

Grossman took so much flak for his defense here, yet UZR/150 shows Grossman is and has been an above average left fielder for Minnesota, Oakland and Detroit for the last several years. Kepler's triple had an expected batting average of .910. If it was a hit, it was going to score a run and put runners at the corners in the bottom of the 6th when they're already down 2-0 with no outs. Grossman came within 1 foot of making a great catch which could have saved the game for Detroit. If you're going to sell out, that's where you sell out.

[Mike Sixel]

12 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Grossman took so much flak for his defense here, yet UZR/150 shows Grossman is and has been an above average left fielder for Minnesota, Oakland and Detroit for the last several years. Kepler's triple had an expected batting average of .910. If it was a hit, it was going to score a run and put runners at the corners in the bottom of the 6th when they're already down 2-0 with no outs. Grossman came within 1 foot of making a great catch which could have saved the game for Detroit. If you're going to sell out, that's where you sell out.

Concur. 

[mikelink45]

Still can't let the starter go the extra inning.  Good game - but we are playing the Tigers and we were supposed to be a better team.  My enthusiasm is low. 

[Platoon]

"Strangely, Rocco Baldelli pulled him after five innings, with his pitch count at 84. He concluded his shutout with seven"

In this context, wouldn’t the words  "strangely" and Rocco Baldelli" be considered redundant?

[bighat]

A sweep would be nice, but at this point you just pray for 1 more win before the break.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Platoon said:

"Strangely, Rocco Baldelli pulled him after five innings, with his pitch count at 84. He concluded his shutout with seven"

In this context, wouldn’t the words  "strangely" and Rocco Baldelli" be considered redundant?

I thought Maeda was laboring in his last two innings despite putting zeroes on the board. More specifically, I wonder if he’s 100% recovered. He looked a bit gimpy to me. 

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Quote

... [Maeda] also relied on some good defense to bale him out...

Because the Tigers were making hay?

[theBOMisthebomb]

16 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Grossman took so much flak for his defense here, yet UZR/150 shows Grossman is and has been an above average left fielder for Minnesota, Oakland and Detroit for the last several years. Kepler's triple had an expected batting average of .910. If it was a hit, it was going to score a run and put runners at the corners in the bottom of the 6th when they're already down 2-0 with no outs. Grossman came within 1 foot of making a great catch which could have saved the game for Detroit. If you're going to sell out, that's where you sell out.

Robert Edward Grossman was a Gold Glove finalist in 2019. Apparently, his metrics were glowing that season. 

[mikelink45]

Am I the only one who does not see great promise in Ober?  I hope he proves me wrong, but I am not seeing the upside so many do.