Athletics 5, Twins 2: Royce Rolls, but Winder Wilts as Athletics Tame Twins

[Jamie Cameron]

The Twins lost to the Athletics, 5-2 on Tuesday night. Royce Lewis delivered another incredible performance, while Oakland knocked around Josh Winder to drop the Twins to 21-16 on the season.

Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Dylan Bundy 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO
Homeruns: Royce Lewis (2), Gary Sánchez (4)
Bottom 3 WPA: Josh Winder -.489, Jorge Polanco -.143, Jose Miranda -.131
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

On Tuesday night, the Twins were out to secure another series win in Oakland. The game marked the return of Dylan Bundy from the COVID IL. Bundy had struggled prior to being on the IL. The storyline heading into the game was if he could give the Twins an opportunity to win? Here’s how Minnesota lined up.

The Twins came into the game having won the previous four encounters against Oakland despite scoring just 10 runs. Perhaps Oakland was the team to get Bundy back on track? Bundy looked relatively comfortable in the first inning, retiring Oakland on 19 pitches, surrendering only a bloop single to left-field that Nick Gordon couldn’t quite track down.

James Kaprielian cruised through his first two innings of work for Oakland. He served Twins hitters a steady diet of mid-90s fastballs up in the zone, and breaking pitches down. Bundy worked around a leadoff walk in the second inning, keeping the game scoreless through two innings. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Coliseum, it was going down.

Royce Lewis led off the top of the third inning with a scorching, 111.7 mph double to the left-center-field gap. The Twins failed to capitalize however, as Jose Miranda and Jorge Polanco struck out to extricate Kaprielian from trouble. 

Tony Kemp singled in the bottom of the third with Josh Winder already warming up. A short start was always likely for Bundy, returning from COVID. Jed Lowrie walked to put runners on first and second base with one out. Jose Miranda bobbled a relatively straightforward grounder to third that should have been an inning-ending double play. He managed to rescue the force at second, putting runners at the corners with two out. Bundy escaped, striking out Seth Brown to throw three scoreless, and encouraging innings in his return from the IL.

The Twins continued to struggle to cash in runners in the fourth inning. Gary Sánchez missed home runs on two sliders he crushed down the left-field line by mere feet. Max Kepler singled to left field with one out, but the Twins couldn’t bring him home, despite a hard hit lineout from Nick Gordon to right field. Josh Winder relieved Bundy in he bottom of the fourth inning. With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Kevin Smith crushed a belt-high fastball into the left-field seats to give Oakland a 2-0 lead. The pitch wasn’t a bad one from Winder, it was above the strike zone, Smith just hit it out.

The Twins got half of the lead back in the top of the fifth, when Royce Lewis blasted his second home run into the left-field seats, cutting the deficit to one. Lewis has made the Twins forthcoming roster challenge difficult, with Bailey Ober, Carlos Correa, and Trevor Larnach all due back from the IL in short order. One thing is clear, he can’t be sent down right now, he’s on fire.

Winder struggled with his command in the fifth inning, with Oakland’s contact continuing to find holes. He loaded the bases with two outs, before escaping the bases loaded jam, to preserve the one-run deficit.

Gary Sánchez knocked Kaprielian from the game, launching a game-tying, solo home run to left field after Elvis Andrus took a base hit away from Jorge Polanco in the previous at bat. Max Kepler added a one-out single. Rocco Baldelli pinch hit Kyle Garlick for Nick Gordon. Garlick promptly struck out, before Gilberto Celestino reached on an infield hit to put runners at first and third base with two outs and Royce Lewis due up. Lewis grounded out to second base to end the inning with the game tied at two.

Aside from a walk for Luis Arraez, the top of the seventh inning was uneventful for the Twins. In the bottom of the innings, the Athletics broke the game open. Winder walked Lowrie and hit Laureano. There is an argument that Winder should have been pulled, having surrendered five hits and two walks to that point. He stayed in the game. Seth Brown crushed a double and Sean Murphy blooped a single and the Athletics took a 5-2 lead. Winder surrendered two more hits before finally being pulled by Baldelli. He allowed five runs on nine hits with two walks in 3.2 innings of work. It's clear that the Twins had planned on the combination of Bundy and Winder eating the majority of the innings on Tuesday night. Ultimately, Winder's command issues made that plan challenging to execute.

The Twins threatened in the top of the eight, managing two base runners, but failed to eat into the lead. The Athletics closed out the game in the ninth to even the series at one game each. In spite of this, the Twins have won the season series, and will look to win the current series on Wednesday. The Twins fell to 21-16 on the season.

Bullpen Usage Chart

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Winder	0	0	0	0	78	78
Jax	50	0	0	25	0	75
Pagán	22	9	10	0	0	41
Thielbar	0	15	2	0	16	33
Smith	4	15	9	0	0	28
Cano	0	0	0	25	0	25
Duffey	0	5	0	20	0	25
Duran	10	12	0	0	0	22
Stashak	0	0	13	0	0	13

Next Up
On Wednesday, the Twins will conclude their series against Oakland. Sonny Gray gets the start for Minnesota, against Daulton Jefferies of the Athletics. First pitch is 2:37 CT

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Alex Wilde]

“Didn’t execute when we needed, but we had a plan and we stuck to it”

Roco is brilliant 

[h2oface]

Manager of the Year.

[Monticore]

Winder should've been pulled after the leadoff walk. Paeans to Baldelli's brilliance are besides the point. 

[bighat]

What's happened to Josh Winder? He's been getting bashed around the past two appearances. Looks bad.

At some point this team is going to start hitting. Once again, against the horrific A's - this time in a hitter's park - the Twins are scoring 2-3 runs per game. Aside from a few glitches in the Matrix, this squad hasn't shown any ability to score runs.

We keep hearing the same excuses: "The (insert other guy's name here) pitched great", and "offense is down all over the league". As for the first excuse, it's pretty suspicious that guys with lifetime 4.50 and 5.36 ERAs just happen to be pitching the games of their lives against the Twins 4 nights a week. And as for the second excuse, bah humbug.

Frankly I'd be thrilled to see the Twins lose 12-9 one of these days. Bats needed to wake up 2 weeks ago, and it's pretty clear that arms like Bundy, Winder, and Archer won't be carrying this team much longer.

[darwin22]

What's happened to Josh Winder?

Pretty simple answer.  He got hung out to dry by his manager last night. 

The same guy that was christened on this site only 1 day ago as quietly "becoming the best bullpen manager in baseball."

For anyone who watched the game last night it was very evident that Winder's command/stuff was off.  Faced 6 batters in the 4th giving up a 2-run HR.  Faced another 6, I think in the 5th before escaping a bases loaded jam.  Had a solid 6th inning, albeit on several hard hit balls.  So, going to bottom of 7th in a TIE game with Winder's pitch count approaching 60 (over 3 IP), Baldelli leaves him in with ZERO ACTIVITY in bullpen.  

It was clearly evident after walking Lowrie and hitting Laureano to start the inning that Winder was gassed and needed to come out.  Well, obviously not evident to the "best bullpen manager in baseball," as he let Winder twist in the wind by refusing to get a RP warmed up.  By this time, Winder's pitch count was at 62--------the same number that Archer was at Monday night--after 4 IP--when he got pulled.  So, no shock what happened after that as Winder (running on fumes) allowed a solid RBI double to out OAK up 3-2.  What was shocking to me---------was that now with runners on 2nd and 3rd---Rocco was still sitting on his laptop as evidenced by the fact that there was STILL NO ACTIVITY in the bullpen.

Murphy followed with a doinked 2-run single to push the deficit to 5-2.  Then and only then did Rocco find the time to make a call to get Thielbar warming up.  After a DP followed by two more singles did Rocco FINALLY take Winder out---after 78 pitches.

Winder has got to pitch better.  I get that.

Baldelli's performance managing a promising pitcher last night was inexcusable.

[Eris]

It is a great title. Good job at such a late hour of the day. 

[mikelink45]

So we keep Garlick instead of Lewis, we play Gordon at LF instead of Lewis, we keep Miranda instead of Lewis.  Not only pitching decisions, but roster construction is starting to raise questions.  Only one game against the worst team in BB, but it is a time that makes fans nervous. 

[Whitey333]

Baldelli has done this so often this year.  The game was winnable last night yet Baldelli, like normal, mishandled his pitching.  Winder wasn't even pitching well going into the 7th.  Walks the first guy hits the second guy and no one even warming up.  No one was warming up until they had already fallen behind 5-2.  Baldelli is a joke.  He and the front office obviously don't care about winning and it shows.  It's sad they do this then tell the few fans they have that they don't know baseball.  It's amazing they are still in first place.  But division is a joke.  This season apparently about " the plan ".  Winning is a far afterthought.

[Alex Schieferdecker]

Winder should be starting outright, he's clearly more comfortable in that role than as a piggyback starter.

[Whitey333]

Byron Buxton?  Who's Byron Buxton?  Has there been a Byron Buxton sighting?  Really?  

[MplsFan]

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

Baldelli has done this so often this year.  The game was winnable last night yet Baldelli, like normal, mishandled his pitching.  Winder wasn't even pitching well going into the 7th.  Walks the first guy hits the second guy and no one even warming up.  No one was warming up until they had already fallen behind 5-2.  Baldelli is a joke.  

But but but there was just an article on TwinsDaily talking about how Baldelli’s back and managing the bullpen so well!

[Muppet]

I won't ever blame the pitchers for losing the game when the offense only scores 2 runs. Don't care if it is 3-2 or 13-2. 

[PDX Twin]

Quote

With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Kevin Smith crushed a belt-high fastball into the left-field seats to give Oakland a 2-0 lead. The pitch wasn’t a bad one from Winder, it was above the strike zone, Smith just hit it out.

Is "belt-high" really above the strike zone now?

[Trov]

For the commenters that are attacking Roco on the decision to roll with Winder as their plan was to do so.  Managing a 162 game season will have games where you send a guy out to save the rest of the pen.  Winder has the ability to throw the pitches he did, it was not like he is exclusively pen guy that was getting stretched out.  I am not saying it was the right move or the wrong move.  The point is each move in a 162 game season impacts future games.  You cannot play each game like it is a game 7.  

Now, if this was a playoff game and the comment was we had a plan and stuck with it, that is a terrible comment in must win games, you adjust to the game and do what you can to win that game.  However, this was not a must win game.  We will have many more wins and losses before the season ends.  

I do not understand the single game micro decision making people harp on.  This is one of 162 and we have no clue if making a change to bring in someone else earlier would have changed the outcome of last nights game, but it would have affected who would be able to pitch todays game. 

[Doctor Gast]

Winder is a good young pitcher. He's a SP who has done well in long relief. All SPs in the HOU series were put through the wringer and were totally drained. Winder had the most difficulty bouncing back but he'll bounce back, there's no doubt. Winder was out of gass very quickly and Baldelli should have pulled him right away instead of trying to save his short relief but he has put himself in this situation by depending so much on them.

[Epravens]

1 hour ago, Trov said:

For the commenters that are attacking Roco on the decision to roll with Winder as their plan was to do so.  Managing a 162 game season will have games where you send a guy out to save the rest of the pen.  Winder has the ability to throw the pitches he did, it was not like he is exclusively pen guy that was getting stretched out.  I am not saying it was the right move or the wrong move.  The point is each move in a 162 game season impacts future games.  You cannot play each game like it is a game 7.  

Now, if this was a playoff game and the comment was we had a plan and stuck with it, that is a terrible comment in must win games, you adjust to the game and do what you can to win that game.  However, this was not a must win game.  We will have many more wins and losses before the season ends.  

I do not understand the single game micro decision making people harp on.  This is one of 162 and we have no clue if making a change to bring in someone else earlier would have changed the outcome of last nights game, but it would have affected who would be able to pitch todays game. 

No one is suggesting you play them all like Game 7. I'm only asking for a small level of competence. However, at the end of September when you're on the outside looking in (Hello Toronto, Seattle 2021) please don't suggest that these games don't matter. They do!

[Mike Sixel]

"Baldelli pulls his pitchers too soon." "How will the young guys ever get good at getting through difficult innings if Baldelli keeps pulling them out?" "Winder is better than Bundy and Archer and should pitch more than them."

These are the things many here have said over the last few years.......as a reminder. 

[2wins87]

Winder was out there to save the bullpen last night.  They knew Bundy was going to have a short start as he needs to build back up a bit.  Ober will also probably have a bit of a short start when he comes back Friday or Saturday. 

Then the question is whether they want to go back to a 6-man rotation with Winder in Paddack's place going forward or keep him in the long relief role.  He has seemed to be better in a starting role, though it's hard to say how much of that is random with only a few appearances in each role.  I still lean towards giving him more opportunities to start right now.

I understand the Lewis move, but he's been too good for him not to be back up sometime soon.  He could be an important part of a playoff run.  I would hope we see him getting some time at other positions in St Paul to get the experience to be a more flexible replacement for the next injury or come back in more of a utility role.  I don't think he should be temporarily playing at first.  He's too athletic and there's no chance it's a future position for him.  Third base second base and outfield would all be reasonable positions for him to gain experience at though.

It's very evident that the frustration is building for Miranda.  He started out fine with a bit of bad luck and some contact that was just a bit off, but it seems that he's started pressing more the more he struggles.  He may need to head back down to AAA to find his approach and swing again.  They weirdly don't have many options at 1B now, but that shouldn't really be keeping him or Kirilloff on the roster if they need to figure things out in AAA.  If they want to sit Arraez then Larnach could at least be a tall target, Garlick has a bit of minor league experience, Kepler has a couple of major league innings.  They can always find someone to play 1B.

[Whitey333]

2 hours ago, Trov said:

For the commenters that are attacking Roco on the decision to roll with Winder as their plan was to do so.  Managing a 162 game season will have games where you send a guy out to save the rest of the pen.  Winder has the ability to throw the pitches he did, it was not like he is exclusively pen guy that was getting stretched out.  I am not saying it was the right move or the wrong move.  The point is each move in a 162 game season impacts future games.  You cannot play each game like it is a game 7.  

Now, if this was a playoff game and the comment was we had a plan and stuck with it, that is a terrible comment in must win games, you adjust to the game and do what you can to win that game.  However, this was not a must win game.  We will have many more wins and losses before the season ends.  

I do not understand the single game micro decision making people harp on.  This is one of 162 and we have no clue if making a change to bring in someone else earlier would have changed the outcome of last nights game, but it would have affected who would be able to pitch todays game. 

And for those of you who always defend Wacko, I mean Rocco, these games do count in the standings.  Rocco has too many throw away games where he doesn't care at all if they win or lose.  And it shows.  As for saving his pen, he is the one who put them in that spot.  Twins have the second highest amount of bullpen use.  And it shows too. No this isn't game 7.  But you owe it to the fans and the rest of the players in the field to try.  At least make it look like you care.  These games count as well.  The next several games are against winnable teams.  You can't afford to give these games away when we will obviously struggle against a much tougher schedule in June.  Fans must be showing their displeasure.  They rank 24 out of 30 teams in home attendance.  And it shows.

[Jamie Cameron]

4 hours ago, PDX Twin said:

Is "belt-high" really above the strike zone now?

It was real late. Give a recap writer a break! ?

[PDX Twin]

1 hour ago, Jamie Cameron said:

It was real late. Give a recap writer a break! ?

It was a semi-serious question. It seems like the strike zone has been migrating downward for decades.