Orioles 5, Twins 3: Five Solo Shots Shatter Twins

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5 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

There is something unjust about Correa getting injured twice. I only played high school baseball, but if my team-mate was hit, as the next batter after a home run, with one of the few fastballs thrown by a junk ball pitcher, and that same team-mate was hit again in his next at bat, and it was a team-mate who had been loudly booed by opposing teams' fans in every away game so far this year, my team-mates and I would want  to retaliate against the Orioles in some way. Correa getting injured in this manner is almost like some sort of Greek trajedy ...I call what happened to Correa, "Buxtonesque". 

It feels unjust, I agree. I also agree with bighat, and Correa had started swinging at a horrible pitch, and that was more of the cause of being hit the second time than the pitch being one that would have hit him if he wasn't swinging. I am not a fan of ever intentionally throwing at a player with a 90 plus mph 'weapon' - I think it is the most cowardly things a baseball player can do - and that is what it is, a weapon of assault, if you do it on purpose in the old 'have your back' traditions........ but Duran's first pitch was a 98 mph fastball that nailed Mullins, who was one of the solo blasts in the 4th, right on the upper arm...... looked pretty intentional and fitting of your request to me. I'm also pretty sure that Twins' fans would still be booing Correa every chance they had and reminding him of the trash can cheating if he wasn't now on the team .

[Aerodeliria]

12 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Baserunning may be a problem with this team: Watkins has made some poor decisions on sending runners, but we've also seen quite a few guys getting thrown out at 2B, and if not for some bad plays by the opposition we would have run ourselves into additional outs on the basepaths. When the ball isn't flying out of the yard, you really can't afford those. It's probably the area they're most wobbly this season?

It's a disappointing loss, because it was a winnable game, and when you add in the Correa injury it adds a sinking feeling to the whole enterprise. But it's baseball, and you can't overreact to one game or even one series. (you can't underreact either, of course, but staying even-keeled does seem to matter in a long season)

Urshela is really scuffling at the plate right now, but with Sano on the IL, Arraez out for COVID and us still carrying a limited bench on the position side, the options are limited. (and now we're losing Correa for some time? UGH) You'd like to see him get a couple of days off and maybe get a mental reset

Duran is going to have some of these kinds of struggles. He's a young pitcher, he's new to the bullpen, and it's going to take some time. But giving up HRs is the biggest danger for him. When you throw that hard, the ball can fly back out if/when guys square up on it, whether it's the fastball or the splinker.

I agree about the 3rd base coaching in particular. He seems to make the wrong choice almost every time. His holding of Larnach at 3rd against Detroit on the Sano hit was another head scratcher. He escaped criticism because the Twins won, but I blame Watkins for that mess too. It is true that Larnach had to go back to 2nd, but after the ball rolls to the fence, all three players have their backs to the infield (the outfielders and Schoop), so the odds of getting thrown out at the plate were really negligible. I think that's why Urshela and Sano both thought Larnach was heading to the plate. Despite their lack of awareness about Larnach, they were naturally watching the play unfold in front of them.

Maybe other teams also complain about 3rd base coaches as well. I'm not sure, but it seems that at the Twins Daily forum, we've been complaining about poor 3rd base coaching for the past 3-4 years...