Twins 7, Orioles 2: Twins stay hot behind Ryan, Bats

[Jamie Cameron]

The Twins are on fire. They beat the Orioles 7-2 on Tuesday to win their eleventh game in their last twelve attempts, moving to 15-9 on the season.

 

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Ryan 4.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
Homeruns: Jeffers (3)
Top 3 WPA: Jeffers .330, Thielbar .133, Polanco .091
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Here’s how the Twins lined up in the second game of their four-game series against the Orioles.

In the Twins lineup for the second consecutive day, the news that Jose Miranda made the big league club was making the rounds.

The expectations for Joe Ryan have become absurdly high. While he wasn’t as dominant as he was in his last start against Detroit, he continued to impress, working quickly and effectively. His first inning was prolonged by a throwing error from Gio Urshela, allowing Trey Mancini to reach base. Ryan plunked Santander before wriggling out of the inning, despite throwing 25 pitches.

The Twins meanwhile, continued their offensive trend from Monday’s game, struggling to put together effective at-bats against Orioles' standout Bruce Zimmerman. The game remained scoreless through three innings, due to some excellent defensive work from Carlos Correa.

The Twins finally broke through in the fourth, with Miranda drilling a double into the right-center field gap, to collect his first hit and first RBI as Urshela scored from first base.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Twins fell upon some incredibly bad luck. Austin Hays led off the inning with an infield single after drilling a ball into home plate at 77 mph. Rougned Odor followed up with a 42.8 mph double off the end of the bat, that just beat the shift. Tyler Nevin then reached on an error from Correa as the Orioles tied the game at 1-1. Just when it looked like the Orioles were in for a big inning, Anthony Bemboom flew into a double play, with Buxton doubling off Tyler Nevin at second base. Incredibly, Ryan managed to escape with just one run surrendered, taking the game to the fifth inning tied

The Twins and Orioles traded one-run fifth innings. The Twins scored in the top of the inning with a Polanco single up the middle, after the Twins had two men on, and none out. The Orioles immediately replied in the bottom of the inning when a Mancini single scored Cedric Mullins, who had doubled to start the inning. Santander grounded into a force-out, blasting a ball at Ryan, who fielded, and threw to second to get Mancini, benefiting from a beautiful stretch and pick by Correa.

In the sixth inning, the Twins finally opened up a meaningful lead. Gary Sanchez doubled and Trevor Larnach (who entered the game for Max Kepler) walked, to put runners on first and second with one out. Ryan Jeffers then deposited a three-run home run to left-center field. Jeffers, while not the same caliber of slugger as Mitch Garver, has played extremely well this season. Through the first month, he has put up a 107 wRC+, with excellent defense and framing numbers to boot.

Caleb Thielbar worked through five outs of scoreless relief, striking out two. He was followed by Tyler Duffey, who managed five additional outs of scoreless relief. Thielbar and Duffey starting to get back on track will be of great relief to Twins fans, given their early-season struggles.

Back-to-back doubles from Gilberto Celestino and Byron Buxton increased the lead to four in the ninth inning. Carlos Correa added another double, moving Buxton to third base with no outs. A Jorge Polanco sacrifice fly scored Buxton, increasing the lead to 7-2 entering the bottom of the ninth inning.

Cody Stashak pitched a scoreless ninth to give the Twins the win. Minnesota is 4-1 on their current road trip, has won 11 of their last 12, and has moved to 15-9 on the young season. Winning is fun, and the Twins don't look to be slowing down anytime soon.

Bullpen Usage Chart

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Jax	46	0	0	0	15	0	61
Duffey	8	0	0	17	0	18	43
Stashak	18	0	14	0	0	11	43
Coulombe	0	35	0	0	0	0	35
Thielbar	0	0	15	0	0	18	33
Duran	0	0	20	0	10	0	30
Pagán	0	0	0	0	27	0	27
Smith	0	0	9	0	2	0	11
Moran	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

Next Up

On Wednesday, the Twins will continue their series in Baltimore against the Orioles. Dylan Bundy will look to rebound from a poor outing in Tampa. Kyle Bradish goes for Baltimore. The first pitch is at 6:05 CT

Postgame Interviews

 

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[LastOnePicked]

Twins baseball is fun again. Like, so much fun. I feel like I did as a kid in 1991 listening to these games. Let's keep it going.

[tony&rodney]

Ryan was impressive as he pitched through some weak contact that found holes. The Twins continue to be really good on defense. Urshela's error was an one where he could have held the ball but tried to make a spectacular play; no harm on the play as the batter was going to gain first anyway and was stranded. Correa made a phenomenal catch running into the outfield. His error was on a ball he tried to field too quickly because he wanted the runner at the plate running in from third base and that play wasn't going to be made anyway. 

Good slashing double from Miranda and Celestino continues to look good. Oh, and Jeffers was impressive blocking the ball and crushing his HR. Buxton and Correa are clearly leading this team and the steady Polanco is right behind that pair to keep everyone calm.

For those who were troubled by either Thielbar or Stashak, they both looked really good. The Twins are playing good baseball right now. Baltimore battled in almost every inning but the Twins fought hard too.

[Monticore]

Thielbar and Duffy were aces. Jeffers is living up to genuine expectations.

[Melissa]

Good game once the offense opened up the scoring!  Bullpen in shutdown mode.

Any news about why Kepler was removed?

[Jamie Cameron]

21 minutes ago, Melissa said:

Good game once the offense opened up the scoring!  Bullpen in shutdown mode.

Any news about why Kepler was removed?

Kepler was removed as he was under the weather, tested negative for COVID, nothing serious, thankfully.

[MadHits]

Congrats to Jose! He's got a great approach at the plate and being solid at first and 3rd is huge.  Sano obv has been frustrating but I've always been huge fan of his. It's weird to think that he may have a hard time getting back in the lineup if Miranda settles in. I'm really loving the Larnach, Jeffers tandem at the bottom of the line-up. Jeffers seems to be benefiting from being in the line-up everyday and has been integral to the winning streaks.  Great to see Joe Ryan handle the adversity and give us another legendary reaction after that comebacker.  Winning is fun! 

[darwin22]

Also interested/concerned to hear of the reason why Kepler exited tonight?  

Due to a variety of reasons, tonight was Ryan's first start that I was able to view.  Although his command was a tad off earlier starts, I thought he battled well after a 25 pitch 1st inning.  I'm very impressed with his composure.  He carries himself with a demeanor of confidence, which I haven't seen from such a young SP since the days of Brad Radke.

Although the Twins have rebounded from a dismal 4-8 start with their 11-1 streak, albeit winning 2 games courtesy of little league errors (thanks Sox and Tigers), I would argue that IF....IF......this team can continue to play tight defense, get effective starts from their rotation and get quality production from their bullpen, they just might be in the mix to being playing very meaningful games late into the season. Yes, I do realize the recipe described above is very simplistic as its true for all teams that play winning baseball.  I'm just hopeful (a dangerous thing) that this group stays humble and continues to play for each other.  Keeping Buxton and Correa healthy would also help.

[MadHits]

7 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

Also interested/concerned to hear of the reason why Kepler exited tonight?  

 

I believe he was feeling under the weather, non covid related at the time.

[terrydactyls]

That catch by Correa of the pop up was spectacular.  He is worth the $30M for his defense alone.  And now he is contributing on offense?  Yikes.

[USAFChief]

Pretty ******* fun right now.

 

Tonight's shout out goes to the bullpen, which I complained about all winter, but which has been pretty solid overall. 

 

[Squirrel]

3 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Pretty ******* fun right now.

 

Tonight's shout out goes to the bullpen, which I complained about all winter, but which has been pretty solid overall. 

 

I hope the bp makes us all look bad for complaining  

[TwinsDr2021]

It was a great win, the bullpen came though as well as the offense, Buxton's double was just fun to watch.  But can we stop with the "he continued to impress",

He didn't even pitch 5 innings any starting pitcher not on a low pitch count or planned to pitch less than 5 innings should be IMO considered a failed start if they don't pitch at least 5 innings. Joe Ryan is way too good of a pitcher and been pitching way too well this year to be taken out because he is in a bit of trouble with two outs and 81 pitches in the 5th inning.

 

[wabene]

24 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

It was a great win, the bullpen came though as well as the offense, Buxton's double was just fun to watch.  But can we stop with the "he continued to impress",

He didn't even pitch 5 innings any starting pitcher not on a low pitch count or planned to pitch less than 5 innings should be IMO considered a failed start if they don't pitch at least 5 innings. Joe Ryan is way too good of a pitcher and been pitching way too well this year to be taken out because he is in a bit of trouble with two outs and 81 pitches in the 5th inning.

 

Tough guy, eh?. I'm ok with the way they are handling him. He had a short spring training, never pitched more than 123 innings in a year and that was 3 years ago and last year he had a low innings count because he was at the minors with TB, then the Olympics, then the Twins, total 92 innings. Last night I wouldn't say his command was off, but the ump was off and Joe didn't get a couple of calls he should have. To top it off he gets stung with broken bats and squibs. No reason imo to send him back out for possibly 100 pitches when he isn't streched for that yet and you are grinding on a guy with high confidence just to get one more inning today. Short sighted and pointless to prove what?

[TwinsDr2021]

20 minutes ago, wabene said:

Tough guy, eh?. I'm ok with the way they are handling him. He had a short spring training, never pitched more than 123 innings in a year and that was 3 years ago and last year he had a low innings count because he was at the minors with TB, then the Olympics, then the Twins, total 92 innings. Last night I wouldn't say his command was off, but the ump was off and Joe didn't get a couple of calls he should have. To top it off he gets stung with broken bats and squibs. No reason imo to send him back out for possibly 100 pitches when he isn't streched for that yet and you are grinding on a guy with high confidence just to get one more inning today. Short sighted and pointless to prove what?

Did you see the game? He wasn't be asked to go back out, he was standing on the mound in the 5th with two outs and two on and he got taken out. And somehow this relates to innings pitched and being stretched out? I was talking about how the writer wrote "he continued to impress" and IMO 4 2/3 innings isn't impressive at all, I mean the Baltimore pitcher pitched 5 innings.

[Whitey333]

Great came.  Great stretch to vault them into first!  

[wabene]

10 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Did you see the game? He wasn't be asked to go back out, he was standing on the mound in the 5th with two outs and two on and he got taken out. And somehow this relates to innings pitched and being stretched out? I was talking about how the writer wrote "he continued to impress" and IMO 4 2/3 innings isn't impressive at all, I mean the Baltimore pitcher pitched 5 innings.

Oh yeah I forgot about that part, my bad. I would've been ok with him finishing that inning and wasn't sure why they took him out. I just don't understand the fascination with how many innings a starter throws, and to add something else to my point, the fascination with saves. Neither matters to me at all. I want wins, to maximize the use of my relievers and healthy pitchers when the playoffs start. 5 innings gets the starter the win stat? I don't care it is the W for the team that is all that matters.

[Trov]

My main comment is the writer talking about how Jeffers has less power than Garver.  Outside of his 31 HR season, when everyone was hitting a ton of HR, Garver has been limited in his power. Jeffers hit 14 HR in 293 PA last year, Garver had 13 in 243.  In 2018, Garver had 7 in 335 PA.  I know people love to talk about the 31 HR season like that was Garver regular self, and not that it was a loaded baseball season.  

If you go by pure HR to PA ratio Jeffers is basically on par with Garver over his career.  Even better if you take out the crazy 2019 year.  Many people wanted Jeffers traded and Garver kept, which I thought was crazy as Jeffers was better defender and on par offense overall.  Yes, if Garver was always putting up 2019 numbers then Garver had great value, but a single outlier season does not make a career.  Jeffers is years younger, and putting up better numbers than Garver. 

[milkytoast]

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

It was a great win, the bullpen came though as well as the offense, Buxton's double was just fun to watch.  But can we stop with the "he continued to impress",

He didn't even pitch 5 innings any starting pitcher not on a low pitch count or planned to pitch less than 5 innings should be IMO considered a failed start if they don't pitch at least 5 innings. Joe Ryan is way too good of a pitcher and been pitching way too well this year to be taken out because he is in a bit of trouble with two outs and 81 pitches in the 5th inning.

 

Dude, he is a rookie who showed a ton of composure despite having some bad luck against him throughout the game with a bunch of soft-hit balls dropping. Also, this was  one of his worst outings of the year he still pitched to a sub-4 ERA. It's pretty impressive.  

[wabene]

"Oh yeah I forgot about that part, my bad. I would've been ok with him finishing that inning and wasn't sure why they took him out. "

As the haze of my memory of last night's game clears didn't they bring in Thielbar to face a lefty who he promptly retired? Just a pitch or two? Seems to have worked out.

[Dman]

Can anyone clarify how the double play ball from center didn't get overturned?  He looked safe on the small clip I saw. Was wondering if his hand came off the bag during the tag as that is the only way I could see that not being a safe call as the tag looked late to me.

[TwinsDr2021]

 

51 minutes ago, wabene said:

Oh yeah I forgot about that part, my bad. I would've been ok with him finishing that inning and wasn't sure why they took him out. I just don't understand the fascination with how many innings a starter throws, and to add something else to my point, the fascination with saves. Neither matters to me at all. I want wins, to maximize the use of my relievers and healthy pitchers when the playoffs start. 5 innings gets the starter the win stat? I don't care it is the W for the team that is all that matters.

I understood why they took him out and it worked, doesn't chance my opinion that his start wasn't impressive, that is my point. Until they change the rule on how starting pitchers get wins, anything less than qualifying for a win IMO (unless like I stated above it was predetermined the starter wasn't going to go 5 innings) isn't impressive.

[TwinsDr2021]

24 minutes ago, milkytoast said:

Dude, he is a rookie who showed a ton of composure despite having some bad luck against him throughout the game with a bunch of soft-hit balls dropping. Also, this was  one of his worst outings of the year he still pitched to a sub-4 ERA. It's pretty impressive.  

With the way Ryan has pitched in his short career so far I expect him to be able to finish at least 5 innings, so anything less is not impressive to me. You think a starter going 4 2/3 inning and getting pulled because two guys are on in the 5th is impressive, great, I mean I guess he did pitch more than half the game so there is that.

[terrydactyls]

6 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

With the way Ryan has pitched in his short career so far I expect him to be able to finish at least 5 innings, so anything less is not impressive to me. You think a starter going 4 2/3 inning and getting pulled because two guys are on in the 5th is impressive, great, I mean I guess he did pitch more than half the game so there is that.

So let me see if I understand your position.  You are saying that being taken out with two on and two outs in the fifth inning does not deserve to be referred to as "impressive"?  Correct so far?  But if Ryan had been left in the game, thrown one more pitch and gotten the hitter out, and completed five innings, then you would entertain the opinion that the performance was "impressive"?  So one additional pitch determines if a pitching performance meets your standard?  Have I got this correct?  Interesting.

[TwinsDr2021]

17 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

So let me see if I understand your position.  You are saying that being taken out with two on and two outs in the fifth inning does not deserve to be referred to as "impressive"?  Correct so far?  But if Ryan had been left in the game, thrown one more pitch and gotten the hitter out, and completed five innings, then you would entertain the opinion that the performance was "impressive"?  So one additional pitch determines if a pitching performance meets your standard?  Have I got this correct?  Interesting.

Yes (the manager thought he was so impressive that he didn't think he could get a left handed hitter out), yes.

I would have entertained the option, I wouldn't go so far to as to call a 5 inning game against the worst teams in baseball impressive.

So to answer your last question, NO the 1 pitch in your hypothetical doesn't up Ryan's start to impressive, it makes it better than a not so good of start to a decent start with a chance to get a win, but in your scenario he now sits at 82 pitches, so if he comes out with zeros in the 6th in a decent amount of pitches, now that is an impressive start, he went 6, worked though a jam or two, set himself and the team up for a win, all while not having his best stuff. That is impressive.

But if you and others think that 4 2/3 innings against Baltimore is impressive, great, I just don't.

[roger]

Granted, Ryan wasn't as sharp as his last few games.  But there were so many weird plays that led to his jams.  Expect it will be a minor bump in what will be a very impressive rookie season.  And yet, the Twins still won the game.

After watching Cleveland roll out young starting pitcher after starting pitcher for as long as I can remember, isn't it great watching the Twins three young guns?

[USNMCPO]

This is off the wall so bare with me please. I know Gardy  wasn't the greatest of managers, but compared to Rocco, his pre and post game pressers were a lot more fun. Rocco always reminds me of Donald Sutherlands character in Kelly's Heroes. 

[LA VIkes Fan]

Wow, A Kelly's Heroes reference? Impressive and kind of spot on. If I remember the character well, they kind of look alike, and Sutherlands character turned out to be a lot smarter and more savvy than you thought when you first saw or listened to him. Well done.  

[jmlease1]

30 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Yes (the manager thought he was so impressive that he didn't think he could get a left handed hitter out), yes.

I would have entertained the option, I wouldn't go so far to as to call a 5 inning game against the worst teams in baseball impressive.

So to answer your last question, NO the 1 pitch in your hypothetical doesn't up Ryan's start to impressive, it makes it better than a not so good of start to a decent start with a chance to get a win, but in your scenario he now sits at 82 pitches, so if he comes out with zeros in the 6th in a decent amount of pitches, now that is an impressive start, he went 6, worked though a jam or two, set himself and the team up for a win, all while not having his best stuff. That is impressive.

But if you and others think that 4 2/3 innings against Baltimore is impressive, great, I just don't.

We've only got the extended bullpen for a few more weeks, so I'm guessing the thought process is: if you have them, use them. While it might not be as aesthetically pleasing baseball to not get your starter through 5 (first time that's happened to Ryan since opening day, btw), I don't mind Rocco deploying his bullpen to save his rookie starter (yes, he's still a rookie) in order to try and hold the line with runners on base when his pitcher is fighting his command a little bit and the umpire a lot.

BTW, WTF was with Alan Porter last night? Walking out to the mound to lecture Joe Ryan because he lost control of a slider that the hitter was all too happy to let bounce off him? (Nevin didn't even try to get out of the way, he was a freakin' statue in the box) I was happy to hear Morneau rake the ump on that one. Everyone knew Ryan wasn't throwing at anyone, just a ridiculous play by a grandstanding ump. Note the multiple times said home plate ump waited that extra second on the called third strike to give the big punchout signal. Don't think either team was happy with his zone (rightfully), or his BS. 

[Squirrel]

1 minute ago, jmlease1 said:

We've only got the extended bullpen for a few more weeks, so I'm guessing the thought process is: if you have them, use them. While it might not be as aesthetically pleasing baseball to not get your starter through 5 (first time that's happened to Ryan since opening day, btw), I don't mind Rocco deploying his bullpen to save his rookie starter (yes, he's still a rookie) in order to try and hold the line with runners on base when his pitcher is fighting his command a little bit and the umpire a lot.

Also, the season is young and Ryan is still a rookie. With the bp there, as you have stated, why risk it. The kid has been doing an impressive job, even through last night. While maybe not quite as sharp, this early in the season, there is no need to push it. Now, if this were August, I might think differently.