Game Score: Twins 8, Red Sox 4

[Karbo]

10 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've been saying for 2 years Rocco's biggest flaw is that he can't seem to be able to manage his bullpen. I figured last year that cost us at least 5 games by the all star break. Think that would have made a difference?

[Karbo]

26 minutes ago, DJwessmix said:

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. 

They keep saying they want to manage his IP. You do that by going 1 IP at a time, not 2 or "stretching out" to start.

[terrydactyls]

2 hours 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.

And if he had pulled him after one inning, people would be complaining that Rocco should have left him in the game and that his damn computer told him to take Duran out.  Rocco isn't going to win at Twins Daily no matter what he does.

[MN_ExPat]

12 hours ago, Crackedfungo said:

I know Jr Babe Ruth players that wouldn't butcher two plays like Araez and Garlick (just DFA him already) did. 

I believe I understand your angst, but this statement rings of hyperbole.

[jmlease1]

59 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

And if he had pulled him after one inning, people would be complaining that Rocco should have left him in the game and that his damn computer told him to take Duran out.  Rocco isn't going to win at Twins Daily no matter what he does.

Seriously. This team could go on a 10 game winning streak and people would still find something to complain about with Rocco. Seems to be a segment of the fanbase that's decided that Rocco = Bad and I have to wonder if anything would change their minds.

Twins scored a nice win against Boston. Ryan pitched great. Really nice to see the team working a bundle of walks; that was the difference. Twins walked no one. Boston walked everyone.

[LA VIkes Fan]

i agree on the walks. It was good to see the Twins take much more high quality at bats. They are going to have to do that to be successful offensively. This team just doesn't have the talent in the lineup to mash opponents, and they now have even less with Buxton and Kirilloff out. They are going to have to work counts, get walks, and hit situationally to score runs. That hasn't been a trademark of this team the last few years. I hope they can do that. 

[h2oface]

Duran says thanks for the ERA to Arraez and Garlick. Both who commintted no errors.

RiiiiiiiiiiiGHT!

But both looked pretty foolish out there in the field. That right field wall at Fenway is only 5 feet tall over at the corner where it landed, uncaught but catchable, and dips down to even 3 feet just to the left of there. I don't understand going to Garlick for defense. Put the supposed defensive phenom Celestino in center and leave Kepler in right. Celestino doesn't even have to bat. Garlick already had struck out to end the inning with two on and a runner in scoring position and there was no reason for him to be in the game for defense and move Kepler and weaken right as well as center now with (no Buxton) to compliment the already weakened Larnach left field. And WTF, Garlick for Gordon? Unnecessary left/right call with a 5 run lead at the time. Was Baldelli just trying to get Garlick an at bat? Wanted a 6th insurance run? OK. But leaving him in the game with better defensive options?Arrgh. But still won, so all good, I guess. Tragedy averted. But still very questionable management calls.

No questions about any of the moves in the post game video edit with Baldelli above.......

[Otto von Ballpark]

2 hours ago, DJwessmix said:

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. 

It may be that they view one multi-inning outing as less risky for Duran’s health than multiple shorter outings.

Roles are fluid and the season is long, so he could still transition to a multi-inning piggyback starter role, setting up a full-fledged return to starting in 2023 even if he doesn’t get there in 2022.

[terrydactyls]

On 4/15/2022 at 11:47 PM, terrydactyls said:

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.

Well, to begin, I haven't quoted myself since I wrote my senior thesis at the U of M in 1969.  I needed a perfect statement to complete my paper so I created it, put it in quotation marks, and cited myself in the footnotes.  But I digress.  Once again I watched the Twins through the eyes of the Red Sox announcers.  When Sonny took the mound in the first inning, the two announcers immediately returned to the previous day's game and talked about Joe Ryan.  They were falling all over themselves praising how good he looked.  They went on to say that it sure looks like the Twins fleeced Tampa Bay getting Ryan and another "good pitcher" (Strotman) for the rental of Nelson Cruz for a couple months.