Game Score: Twins 8, Red Sox 4

[Thiéres Rabelo]

Minnesota bounced back nicely after getting swept by the Dodgers at home earlier this week. Despite losing Byron Buxton to an injury in the very first inning, the Twins went on to beat the Red Sox at Fenway Park, behind a magnificent start by rookie Joe Ryan.

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan, 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (82 pitches, 60 strikes, 73.1%)
Home Runs: Miguel Sanó (1)
Top 3 WPA: Joe Ryan (.189), Miguel Sanó (.170), Luis Arráez (.109)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Twins lose Buxton early but score four runs on five hits
It was an eventful start to the game for Minnesota. Eight pitches into the first inning, Byron Buxton left the game with an apparent leg injury. He popped up to shallow left, and when Boston’s defense couldn’t make the play because of the sun, he sprinted and slid into second when the injury occurred. He immediately headed to the dugout and was replaced by Nick Gordon.

On the brighter side of the inning, Luis Arráez snapped an 0-for-7 funk with a liner to center, and yet again, the Red Sox defense couldn’t take care of it, allowing Gordon to score the game’s first run easily. Even though Jorge Polanco drew a walk, helping to drive Nick Pivetta’s pitch count to 26, Minnesota had to settle for the one run in the first. But that wouldn’t last long.

After Joe Ryan cruised through the bottom first on only eight pitches, striking out two and throwing strikes on every pitch, the offense ambushed Pivetta, scoring three runs on three hits. After Trevor Larnach drew a one-out walk, Miguel Sanó followed with a moon shot that went over the ‘green monster’ to make it 3-0 Twins. That was his first base hit of the season. Could his biggest early-season problem be the cold weather?

Later on, Gordon singled to center with two outs, only to be brought home in the following at-bat by an Arráez double, making it 4-0 Minnesota. That’s the second multi-hit game for Luis this season. Closing out the inning with 54 pitches, Pivetta was done after two. Alex Verdugo got Boston a run back in the bottom of the second with a solo homer to center.

Ryan looks excellent through six; the offense adds on
After a somewhat shaky opening day start, Ryan looked superb today at Fenway. Boston hitters simply couldn’t figure him out, especially his slider, which produced whiffs 47% of the time in the first five innings. He also managed to get out of jams during the fourth and fifth innings when Boston had two runners on in each of them.

In the meantime, he got even more run support from the bats. Carlos Correa and Polanco reached on a walk and a single to open the fifth inning, and both of them scored on a Gary Sánchez ground ball, making it 6-1 Minnesota. With those two runs batted in, Sánchez now has more RBI against Boston than any other team in the majors.

Ryan continued his fantastic outing with a 1-2-3 sixth, shredding through Red Sox hitting with his off-speed offerings. By the end of the inning, he had produced an astonishing 19 swinging strikes, a career-high for him. Overall, 40% of his pitches were either called strikes or swinging strikes.

Duran breaks Twitter, Boston’s rally comes up short
Jhoan Duran took over once Ryan departed, and he baffled local fans and media with an incredible seventh inning. He retired the side on eight pitches which averaged 98.2 MPH and touched 102 MPH. His performance drew the attention of several national media accounts on Twitter.

Boston got to him during the eighth, scoring three runs. Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a leadoff double and was pushed across a couple of at-bats later by a Kike Hernandez double. Then, Rafael Devers followed that with a two-run home run to the corner right, cutting the Twins lead in half. Duran cooled down and struck out the final two batters to end the inning.

With the Red Sox getting dangerously close, Minnesota needed some insurance runs. Reliever Matt Barnes retired Arráez to open the top of the ninth, but he gave up a couple of walks against the following two batters. The Twins cashed in on both of those walks, first with a Max Kepler single and then with a slow groundout from Larnach with the bases loaded, bringing the lead back to four. Emilio Pagán came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth, and he threw a clean 1-2-3 inning to secure the win.

What’s Next?
For game two on Saturday, the Twins turn to Sonny Gray, who is set to face Boston’s Tanner Houck. The first pitch is scheduled for 3:10 pm CDT.

Postgame Interview

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	TOT
Duran	11	0	0	0	34	45
Thielbar	19	18	0	0	0	37
Romero	0	34	0	0	0	34
Pagán	0	20	0	0	11	31
Winder	0	28	0	0	0	28
Jax	0	0	22	0	0	22
Smith	19	3	0	0	0	22
Coulombe	0	14	0	0	0	14
Duffey	14	0	0	0	0	14

 

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[Melissa]

Fenway Park scored a few runs today, too, for both teams!

[Monticore]

Nice inning by Pagan to finish off Ryan's superb outing.

[USAFChief]

Ryan looked really good today, I thought. 

[mikelink45]

Did Duran give up the runs, or was it our shaky defense?  Take out Buxton and Urshela and that defense is just not going to get it done.  Garlick is not a good fielder, Arraez could leave his glove in his locker.  So glad that we won and our Bipolar fandom was treated to Sano's HR, but missing Buxton in the field is much more serious than missing his bat. 

[HokieRif]

[wsnydes]

That Duran splinker made me giggle like a 12 year old girl.  Even if he hangs that pitch, you ain't hitting it!

[SoDakTwinsFan4]

Here's what I saw in the 8th inning. Arraez ole'd another ball at 3rd that was very playable. Kyle Garlick looked like a slow pitch softball right fielder on Devers 312 foot pop fly. Should have been out of the inning.

[CRF]

I don't know what the heck Garlick was doing on that HR to right. Unless the wind blew it back somehow, which I doubt. He had a good chance to catch it, but he over ran it by a big margin. It ended up a good 6 ft behind him. It looked like it barely made it over the fence. Definitely looked catchable to me.  

[LA VIkes Fan]

Hopefully Garlick won't spend much time in the field or the lineup, he is not good out there. The harder call is Arraez. We need his bat now even more than before with Buxton out but he is an adventure at 3rd. Bad inning against the Dodgers and ole'd another ball he should have played.   

Solution? Hmmm, where to play a hitter who isn't good with the glove..... what's open... Wait, isn't left field open? PLAY ARRAEZ IN LF! Play Urshela every day at 3B, DFA Garlick or option Celestino or Larnach and bring up Miranda to play some at 3B and some at 2B. Improves the batting order and gets Arraez away from 3B. Sano is better there than he is. Wait, Arraez to 1B and Sano to 3B?  Hmmmmm.....

[2wins87]

23 minutes ago, CRF said:

I don't know what the heck Garlick was doing on that HR to right. Unless the wind blew it back somehow, which I doubt. He had a good chance to catch it, but he over ran it by a big margin. It ended up a good 6 ft behind him. It looked like it barely made it over the fence. Definitely looked catchable to me.  

Fenway has a very weird angle in right field. There are balls that would be foul in any other park that can end up as home runs there.

Garlick ended up running into the wall too shallow and the ball ended up over his head and into the seats behind him.  He didn't make a very good play on it and had no chance to adjust due to the wall, but it's a tough park for guys that aren't used to it.

[2wins87]

Got to see my second Twins win in person at Fenway. It was a pretty perfect day for baseball. Joe Ryan kept the Sox fans pretty subdued most of the game. They got into it in the 8th but the Twins' little counter rally helped to quash that.

Mostly the fans were more animated cheering for shirtless drunk guys in the bleachers, booing the one fan that for some reason decided to show up in full Yankees gear to a Twins-Sox game, or just generally chanting "Yankees suck!"

[twinssporto]

Ryan and Duran....scary good potential Twins fans!!! 

[GNess]

Ryan looked solid. He is locked in to what he is doing.

[DocBauer]

Wish I could have watched the game, but alas, work.

Great way for Sano to break out of his early slump. (Hopefully?) He's in great shape and seemed to have a good ST, is the problem bad weather and he can't get loose and comfortable?

Seems that Ryan was DEALING.

Not going to bang on Duran's bad 8th inning, especially if I'm reading correctly the defense did him no favors. But regardless, bad IP happen to everyone, much less a rookie breaking in.

So far, SSS, Sanchez hasn't looked bad behind the plate. Certainly better than what I expected. A healthy roster, I still don't like him in the lineup daily. But after today, he's hitting .227, and that's an improvement over last year. If he can maintain that...heaven forbid he improve and look like the Sanchez of 3yrs ago...with his power and career OB of .300+, I'm OK with him. But without additional improvement, I still like him as a DH occasionally, and not daily. That should be Arraez's spot when not in the field. 

I just don't know Pagan well. He had a couple solid first years, and then a great year for Tampa in 2019. His 2020 ERA for the Padres was mediocre, but the rest of his numbers were actually good. While there has been some debate here on TD, my understanding is that his 2021 was actually really good before a late season "collapse" of about 10 IP that hiked his final numbers. He's looked good thus far as a Twin, SSS. Did we maybe get a pretty decent BP arm out of the Rogers deal?

Lastly, and most importantly, I hope Buck is OK. He was in pain, to be sure, but I think his "ground pound" might have been more frustration than anything. (Hope that's true). The fact that he seemed to walk off without a limp or anything obvious gives me optimism. 

NOTE: While I don't feel Garlick is any kind of answer, up for a few days, I wouldn't be too down on him just yet. He was OK in his brief 2021 with the Twins before he got hurt. Still, I just have to believe the FO has the smarts to make a trade of a non top 20+ prospect to acquire a RH OF from someone either flush, or looking to shed payroll, or not expecting to contend and willing to get something back on an expiring deal.

[HerbieFan]

19 whiffs for Joe Ryan today is a BIG number.  I think it shows the stuff is legit.  Plenty of video out on him now...today's start shows he's here to stay.

[tony&rodney]

Ryan looked great. Sano ran into one. Sanchez and Kirilloff squeezed hits through the infield, and the relief pitchers were fine.

Arraez needs to make the play to him at third and Garlick needs to catch that fly ball, although as someone pointed out on another thread Devers does a good job of hitting a nasty pitch. Duran was good again, but looking at the box score he takes a dive statistically. They don't charge empty net goals against a goalie, but a no touch misplay rarely is charged as an error in baseball despite the wording of errors as normal effort.

[ashbury]

1 minute ago, tony&rodney said:

Ryan looked great. Sano ran into one. Sanchez and Kirilloff squeezed hits through the infield

[wabene]

I really like watching Joe Ryan and Jhoan Duran pitch.

[wabene]

Pagan might sneak up on some American Leaguer's.

[cheeseheadgophfan]

4 minutes ago, wabene said:

Pagan might sneak up on some American Leaguer's.

HIs stuff looked great.....goofy delivery....rising fastball (96) and a nasty slider.  Hope that's the real Pagan

[Crackedfungo]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

Ryan looked great. Sano ran into one. Sanchez and Kirilloff squeezed hits through the infield, and the relief pitchers were fine.

Arraez needs to make the play to him at third and Garlick needs to catch that fly ball, although as someone pointed out on another thread Devers does a good job of hitting a nasty pitch. Duran was good again, but looking at the box score he takes a dive statistically. They don't charge empty net goals against a goalie, but a no touch misplay rarely is charged as an error in baseball despite the wording of errors as normal effort.

I know Jr Babe Ruth players that wouldn't butcher two plays like Araez and Garlick (just DFA him already) did.  Trashed what would have been a solid inning for Duran, whose stuff is just FILTHY in every inning, and is worth a ticket just to watch.

[DJwessmix]

Why does Rocco feel the need to get two innings out of Duran? He's not our long relief, not our mop-up guy. He should be getting groomed for late inning, high-leverage outings. Soon as closer.  As with Rodriguez the game before, he will not let a reliever end on a high note. Once Rodriguez went once around the lineup, he should have been pulled. Did great. Instead, burned, game got out of hand (once again), and deflated another relievers ego. Today, Duran had a great inning. Boom. Sit him. Next up. Pitch Duran again tomorrow or next day. Now he's down a little on himself and has too many pitches on his arm to be useful for a couple days. Comes down to poor bullpen mgmt.

[terrydactyls]

If God were scoring, Duran would not be charged for any of the runs.  Arraez bailed on a hard hit ground ball and Garlic managed to turn a normal fly into a home run.  I would swear that the foul pole is only 250 feet from home plate and not the advertised 312.  However, for a brighter note, because I live in Maine, I watched the game on NESN with the Boston announcers.  They were falling all over themselves trying to find the right words to say that would convey how much they were impressed by Ryan and Duran.  The downside, however, was that the term "splinker" was never used.  So I still don't know what it looks like.

[jimbo92107]

Joe Ryan is even better than I thought. He was toying with Red Sox hitters, getting them to swing at pitches outside the zone, Then, a guy came up that looked like he was ready to be patient. Ryan drilled a strike, right down the middle. This kid can put his fastball anywhere he wants, and his slider is getting there. If his change gets more consistent, that could become another out pitch, too. If he can avoid that notorious middle-in zone on power hitters, he'll have a very small ERA.

Hey, now I'm wondering if Emilio Pagan was the best part of the Taylor Rogers trade! Looks like a pretty good closer to me!

[Aerodeliria]

I don't know if I said it previously, but if I didn't I will. I like the Ryan Express, so much. I saw him pitch here in Japan, and he really looked poised and very confident.

[bighat]

11 hours ago, 2wins87 said:

Fenway has a very weird angle in right field. There are balls that would be foul in any other park that can end up as home runs there.

Garlick ended up running into the wall too shallow and the ball ended up over his head and into the seats behind him.  He didn't make a very good play on it and had no chance to adjust due to the wall, but it's a tough park for guys that aren't used to it.

Tough even for guys who are used to it. Kike Hernandez misplayed that Larnach fly ball out in center field where that little corner juts out. Not an easy place to play outfield.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

8 hours ago, DJwessmix said:

Why does Rocco feel the need to get two innings out of Duran? He's not our long relief, not our mop-up guy. He should be getting groomed for late inning, high-leverage outings. Soon as closer.  As with Rodriguez the game before, he will not let a reliever end on a high note. Once Rodriguez went once around the lineup, he should have been pulled. Did great. Instead, burned, game got out of hand (once again), and deflated another relievers ego. Today, Duran had a great inning. Boom. Sit him. Next up. Pitch Duran again tomorrow or next day. Now he's down a little on himself and has too many pitches on his arm to be useful for a couple days. Comes down to poor bullpen mgmt.

I believe it to be 2 reasons.

1) he could start again, if he’s already stretched out to 2, he could stretch out faster to 3/4/5 again pretty quickly

2) workload management for the rotation.   It’s also why there’s a 6 man rotation. They do not have the horses for a full season.

[Whitey333]

Baldelli completely mis manges his bullpen.  If the analytic computer is doing that for him then they shou both be gone lol.  Ryan looked great.  I was surprised Baldelli didn't take him out after 4 innings.  Nice victory.  Aareaz is terrible at third and has shown that for quite sometime.  The great Garlick?  Yes Fenway is a tough park to play in but come on this is major league baseball.  No excuse for butchering a play like that.  Hope Buxton isn't out too long.  

[DJwessmix]

1 hour ago, Sconnie said:

I believe it to be 2 reasons.

1) he could start again, if he’s already stretched out to 2, he could stretch out faster to 3/4/5 again pretty quickly

2) workload management for the rotation.   It’s also why there’s a 6 man rotation. They do not have the horses for a full season.

I'd rather he be available multiple times for one series, able to work high-leverage situations in games, versus some of the other arms in the pen. He can't be stretched to a starter at this point in the season. We have 6 starters in the dugout, plus Winder. Maximize your staff, your situations.