Game Score: Twins 5, Tigers 2

[Andrew Thares]

Jorge Polanco gave the Minnesota Twins all the offense they would need with a home run in the first inning, as the pitching staff continued its excellence over the last month of the season, leading the Twins to the 5-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Pineda 5.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
Homeruns: Polanco (32)
Top 3 WPA: Pineda (0.181), Polanco (0.163), Duffey (0.121)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Jorge Polanco Give Twins Early Lead
The Twins bats got off to a quick start in this ballgame providing some instant offensive support for Michael Pineda. Luis Arraez got things started with a single and advanced to second on a weakly-hit infield single from Byron Buxton. This set the table for Jorge Polanco, who promptly drove the very next pitch out of the ballpark, giving the Twins a 3-0 lead.

Michael Pineda Has Strong Final Start of the Season
With the Twins season coming to an end on Sunday, this was almost assuredly the final start of Michael Pineda’s season, and potentially his final start in a Twins uniform, as he will be a free agent at season’s end.

Pineda held the Tigers offense scoreless on three singles through the first three innings of the ballgame, before surrendering his lone run of the game in the fourth. Robbie Grossman got the Tigers fourth started with a single, before Pineda struck Miguel Cabrera with a pitch. Grossman advanced to third on a Jeimer Candelario fly out, and then scored on this comebacker that struck Pineda.

Twins Add Insurance Runs in the 8th
Protecting small leads in the 9th have plagued the Twins all season, so the offense adding two insurance runs in the 8th inning to double their lead felt bigger than they usually would. After making a great catch to end the top of the inning, Byron Buxton led off the bottom of the inning and was hit by the first pitch he saw. Buxton then stole second, and advanced to third on a throwing error by Tigers catcher Eric Haase. Buxton would later come in to score on an RBI base-hit from Max Kepler.

Miguel Sano followed the Kepler hit with a one-out walk to load the bases for Nick Gordon who hit a shallow fly ball to center that did not appear deep enough to score Josh Donaldson from third, but he tagged up anyway and scored the Twins fifth run of the game thanks to an off target throw home.

Bullpen Usage Chart

	FRI	SAT	SUN	TUE	WED	TOT
Garza Jr.	0	0	18	19	0	37
Vincent	0	0	33	0	0	33
Thielbar	0	0	17	13	0	30
Coulombe	0	37	0	0	0	37
Farrell	0	18	0	0	0	18
Duffey	17	0	0	18	21	56
Barraclough	0	33	0	0	0	33
Colomé	5	0	0	26	18	49
Minaya	19	0	0	0	22	41
Moran	0	19	0	0	0	19
Alcalá	6	0	0	10	0	16

 

What's Next?

The Twins have their final home game of the 2021 season on Thursday night, as they look to complete the three-game sweep of the Tigers. Joe Ryan is scheduled to pitch for the Twins opposite Tarik Skubal. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm CDT.

Post Game Interviews

 

 

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[big dog]

"as the pitching staff continues its excellence"

hack, cough, {Colome}

but mostly true. They are on a heck of a roll.

[DocBauer]

Unless they spend $6-8M on someone they like better, Pineda will be back as a veteran #3-4 part of the rotation. He's not special. But when on the mound, he's been good to very good for 3yrs now. 

PLEASE find a way to agree on an extension for Buxton. At some point you have to gamble a bit in hope of winning. The kid just dominates and makes a difference in so many ways when he's in the lineup. Again, it's a bit of a gamble. But you just have to find a way to make it work.

Polanco is a STUD! PERIOD! 

Amazing how this team has played .500 ball and beaten or held serve against top teams since trading away our top hitter and pitcher. This confirms what I've felt for some time now.

1] Real money spent on ONE GUY, probably Stoman,  to head your rotation.

2] Trade or splurge on a 1yr deal for a #2, but keep the roster in place.

3] With apologies to our current coaches, but bring in someone who can communicate a different approach other than bombas. Homers are awesome! But we can't just live by ONE big inning. The talent on hand, including a healthy Kirilloff as well as Larnach and Miranda coming up, is fine. And K's are just part of today's game. But there just HAS to be a way to take the talent on hand and provide more efficiency.

4] I have issues with some things Rocco has done. Never more than this season. I think he's still growing in to his position. But PLEASE, give him a bench coach with experience who can get in his ear and advise him on a few things he might not be seeing clearly. I think Shelton did that. I think Bell might have been that guy. And I don't know who THE GUY might be, but Rocco needs a smart,  maybe veteran guy, who he can respect to hold the reigns a bit.

[LA VIkes Fan]

Extremely well said, sir. Especially the part about giving Rocco an experienced bench coach. Well, all of it well said.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Quote

We're trying to finish strong.

Well, if we win our last four games, we could tie Detroit and Kansas City for last place in the American League Central Division.  How about that? ?

They are finishing better.  Just hurts to think where they might be if they hadn't made a beeline for the Earth's core in the first half of the season.

[MMMordabito]

7 hours ago, DocBauer said:

but Rocco needs a smart,  maybe veteran guy, who he can respect to hold the reigns a bit.

Or, they could just get rid of Rocco and hire that guy to be the manager

[HrbieFan]

Bring back Big Mike on another 2 year deal and spend the coin on Buxton.  

[AceWrigley]

Not bringing back Colomé would be addition by subtraction.

[mikelink45]

If Pineda is gone and Colome is coming back I am one disappointed fan.  Come on Rocco - we have seen enough of Colome.

I assume that it was a sympathy move to allow Detroit to score one more run before the end of the game. 

[VivaBomboRivera!]

13 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

If Pineda is gone and Colome is coming back I am one disappointed fan.  Come on Rocco - we have seen enough of Colome.

I assume that it was a sympathy move to allow Detroit to score one more run before the end of the game. 

Not Rocco's call, is it?

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Man , what am I going to do for the next 5 months until spring training? Maybe write a novel. I sure hope I can go to spring training this year. I have missed the last 2 due to this darn pandemic. 

[dex8425]

I could go either way on Pineda for next year. Still hurt by the whole PED suspension thing and missing the playoff run and playoffs when the team needed him. He has been highly effective when on the field though, even though his stuff is not nearly as good as it used to be. 

[dex8425]

3 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

Man , what am I going to do for the next 5 months until spring training? Maybe write a novel. I sure hope I can go to spring training this year. I have missed the last 2 due to this darn pandemic. 

I went to 2020 spring training. Came back first week of March just before everything blew up. I was so blissfully expecting an awesome Twins season. 

[LastOnePicked]

13 hours ago, DocBauer said:

PLEASE find a way to agree on an extension for Buxton. At some point you have to gamble a bit in hope of winning. The kid just dominates and makes a difference in so many ways when he's in the lineup. Again, it's a bit of a gamble. But you just have to find a way to make it work.

Agreed. Yes, Buxton has been and will likely be injury-prone. This is also the only reason they can even possibly afford an extension. If this FO can't get this done over the offseason, I hope this will be the last straw for the fanbase.

[prouster]

43 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

Agreed. Yes, Buxton has been and will likely be injury-prone. This is also the only reason they can even possibly afford an extension. If this FO can't get this done over the offseason, I hope this will be the last straw for the fanbase.

Then what? Storm Target Field?

[mikelink45]

5 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

Not Rocco's call, is it?

probably not, but I like collective inputs.  

[bighat]

1 hour ago, dex8425 said:

I went to 2020 spring training. Came back first week of March just before everything blew up. I was so blissfully expecting an awesome Twins season. 

Me too. I actually went to the first spring exhibition game between the Gophers & Twins, left Ft. Myers just before the whole thing got shut down.

[MABB1959]

2 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Agreed. Yes, Buxton has been and will likely be injury-prone. This is also the only reason they can even possibly afford an extension. If this FO can't get this done over the offseason, I hope this will be the last straw for the fanbase.

He is the only one left to watch.  I do like Sano and Polanco but the team is "eh" without Buxton.  Seeing Berrios play in the biggest game of his life and what they did to Buxton delaying his free agency by a year was a huge mistake and pretty sure he won't let the door kick him in the a$$.

[ashbury]

3 hours ago, MABB1959 said:

He is the only one left to watch.  I do like Sano and Polanco but the team is "eh" without Buxton.  Seeing Berrios play in the biggest game of his life and what they did to Buxton delaying his free agency by a year was a huge mistake and pretty sure he won't let the door kick him in the a$$.

It's OK to say ass at this site, you just can't say **** or **** or especially ************.

[LastOnePicked]

7 hours ago, prouster said:

Storm Target Field?

Just the opposite. Avoid it - and every Twins revenue stream - like the plague.

[ashbury]

30 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

Just the opposite. Avoid it - and every Twins revenue stream - like the plague.

That's the idea.   Starve the team of resources.