Yankees 10, Twins 7: You're Never Gonna Guess What Happened

[Dman]

To be honest this is how I thought Wednesday's game would play out but the pen managed to hold that one together.  Still this is the typical formula the baseball gods like to use in a Twins Yankee's series.  Give the little guys hope and then crush them.  You would think the baseball gods could mix it up a bit more as these all too predictable games get well too predictable. 

[jun]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

The best assessment I can make is that the Yankees never quit.  No matter the score, no matter the inning.  They keep going.  We started out great, but the last three innings are where the Yanks shine.  And our BP???????????????? Come back Ryan, glad you got a warm up start, but get back to the Twins.  Then who.  I suspect he will replace Sands, but we need someone to move Bundy out of the rotation.

Winder could easily move Bundy out of the rotation. I want Bundy out of the roster though. Duffey needs to be let go as well.

[2wins87]

1 hour ago, bighat said:

Saw this on Twitter:

 

Well there is Alcala, but I don't think we should hope that he'll make that big of a difference.

Can't base too much off one game. Duran is still really good. The bullpen as a whole is...ok. they shut down the Yankees Wednesday and imploded yesterday, so they are somewhere in between.  Definitely an area that they should try to improve before the trade deadline.

The pitching staff as a whole is still at least another year away from actually being good. The first month where the humidor probably suppressed offense a ton gave a bit of a false impression.  When healthy, this pitching staff might be marginally better than what we thought of it coming into the season, but it's going to be frustrating at times.

[tony&rodney]

The Twins are making progress. Baseball can be quite difficult and the grind will almost always sift out those who cannot accept failure and mistakes. Yes, Polanco made several horrible errors and Urshela just assumed Judge would never run down that deep drive to left center field and the relievers grooved a half dozen pitches, but each of these guys can turn the page and move forward. It was one in the loss column and the real battle in baseball is mental. The players have a game against an excellent Tampa Bay Rays team tonight and then two more, fly away to Seattle for a series, and so on. It's a long season and while it takes talent the ability to focus on an at bat and the current game is the story of baseball. The Twins are pretty decent and can be better. I lost five trees in the last storm but I'm not selling or burning down the house.

[rv78]

When you play good teams your weaknesses show. Bundy, Sands, and most of the bullpen look pretty weak. Cortes and Cole looked weak too but I'd guess they won't pitch like that in a rematch and the Twins pitchers will, only because overall we know who is good and who isn't. Evidently Rocco doesn't require guys to call for infield popups but just assume the other guy is going to catch it. In todays game of shifts to the extreme, players need to be hollering "I got it" when there are 2 guys playing the same position on the field. A game that should have been won, loss by mistakes and poor play. Looked like they got tight as the game went on and every mistake cost them. You know what they say, you can't give good teams extra outs. 

[jmlease1]

This loss wasn't great. Bullpen didn't have it. Bundy was bad (unsurprisingly, but until they get guys healthy again, cutting him doesn't make much sense: we'd be rolling a lot of dice to try and fling someone else from the minors up right now). Even Joe Smith couldn't get it done, and he'd been very reliable. For those that like to crap on Rocco at every opportunity: he went to his most consistent guy in Joe Smith in the 6th and his most dominant guy in Duran in the 7th to try and stop the bleeding and hold the lead and neither guy got it done.

If they get Alcala back, that will definitely help the bullpen, and if Maeda returns, maybe he's in the bullpen to end the season rather than try and stretch him back out as a starter, so it's not like things are totally dry. But a midseason/deadline acquisition doesn't seem out of the question, and it's not the the team doesn't have assets.

It's hard to blame the offense when they hang 7 on one of the best pitchers in MLB, but one baserunner in the last 5 innings sucked. When your enemy is drowning, don't throw them a rope, throw them an anvil.

It's one game, but it would have been good for the psychology of the fanbase to win the series against the Damned Yankees. (I don't think the players are impacted much if at all)

[Trov]

I quit watching once the infield just let a pop up drop without a single player trying to catch it.  I knew how it was going to go from that point. 

[Aggies7]

One of the things that’s always killed us against NY is that their batters do.not.chase pitches out of the zone. My god are they coached incredibly well in that regard. Every single at bat at any point in any game, they still make the pitcher work for it. I think more than anything else, that’s why they’re always competitive and why they always beat us. Our pitchers simply aren’t good enough when the batters don’t chase, and we don’t have enough guys with swing and miss stuff

[USAFChief]

17 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

One of the things that’s always killed us against NY is that their batters do.not.chase pitches out of the zone. My god are they coached incredibly well in that regard. Every single at bat at any point in any game, they still make the pitcher work for it. I think more than anything else, that’s why they’re always competitive and why they always beat us. Our pitchers simply aren’t good enough when the batters don’t chase, and we don’t have enough guys with swing and miss stuff

I dont think they coach it as much as seek out (and pay for) guys who have the ability to do that.

It's tough to teach that skill. Luis Arraez just has the ability to recognize, and fortitude to lay off, a lot of pitches out of the zone. I don't think that's something somebody actively taught him how to do.

Even a guy like Gallo. Tons of swing and miss, but...at pitches that are in the zone, for the most part. Where, once in awhile, he'll hurt you. And he'll draw his walks if you don't throw strikes. 

[Unwinder]

I was expecting this series to be tough, and had very low expectations for the Bundy/Cole matchup, so it's pretty easy for me to focus on the silver lining here. I think it's a very good sign for the Twins' future that the offense was able to dismantle Cole, Cortes, and Taillon. With a couple of better bullpen pieces and some of our better starters healthy, these games were all winnable.

[Mike Sixel]

It's obviously disappointing to lose a game where your offense is that good. But I think this week shows the twins can play with these teams. They are still on pace to win 90 plus games. With the return of some better pitchers, I think fans can feel good about the future. It's clear they need bullpen help, though. 

[KFEY93]

11 hours ago, USAFChief said:

I felt like the Urshela baserunning blunder was the point at which the Twins remembered who they were playing.

That and the Polanco ignored dropped infield fly. Every player on the field looked deflated after that, and you can see Rocco saying " You gotta be ****ing kidding me". Like....you cant make up how these team finds ways to lose winnable games. 

[Schmoeman5]

11 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

What did they do that makes you disagree? The defense collapsed which directly led to at least two runs. One baserunner. Worked no counts. Zero effective relief.
 

I would HOPE that we won’t still be starting people like bundy and sands by then, which will greatly help. But will still probably have a weak bullpen

To suggest the Twins quit is crazy talk. The Yankees bullpen did a real good job. I didn't see any panic Twins hitters faces. Their bullpen was better. True, there were several defensive lapses and to all the Urchela lovers. Someone needs to tell him he's not Usain Bolt. He's not even Austidillo. He runs like he's pulling a boat anchor. Those mistakes were the difference as well as hanging a couple pitches to a guy hitting a buck fifty. I didn't see anyone cowering in fear. The 22-19 run diffential for the series suggests that. Clean up a few things and they're good. FANS might be afraid but the players, I doubt it

[Puckett34]

Ok. So that didn't end the way it should. However, lets focus on some positives here.  Outside of some very glaring issues pitching(wise) in the bullpen especially, the Twins lineup did prove at least to me that they are able to be competitive with some very good to elite pitching.

The lineup in the past week was able to make Gausman, Tallion (to an extent),Cortez, and Cole look absolutely mediocre at best to absolutely dreadful.

I hate putting on rose colored glasses, but if some things go the other way in both Yankee losses, Twins are looking at a sweep.

Having said that, I wish there was a little more killer instinct in the Twins.

Hopefully the Yankee series will show the front office that there are some issues in the pitching department and they can add some pieces to be competitive come September/October.

Go Twins

[jimbo92107]

Bundy is today what he's going to be for the rest of the season - a 50/50 chance of pitching well or poorly. He'll wind up with an ERA of over 6, yet now and then he'll shut down some team. Would Canterino or Balazovic do worse? We'll be wondering that until it happens. 

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

It's one game, but it would have been good for the psychology of the fanbase to win the series against the Damned Yankees. (I don't think the players are impacted much if at all)

This is really the truth. The players have to move on but some fans get totally depressed by these type of losses and it is magnified so much more when it is the Yankees.

[joefish]

13 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

Full on fetal position after the gallo homer to start the 5th against bundy and the subsequent missed strike 3/homer allowed by cotton. One single baserunner after that

Did you mean "fecal" position?

 

[Danchat]

29 minutes ago, jimbo92107 said:

Bundy is today what he's going to be for the rest of the season - a 50/50 chance of pitching well or poorly. He'll wind up with an ERA of over 6, yet now and then he'll shut down some team. Would Canterino or Balazovic do worse? We'll be wondering that until it happens. 

Balazovic has an ERA of 8.82 in AAA, with a 15 hits/9 and 6.6 walks/9. Yeah, he'd probably be even worse.

[Mortimerkenny21]

Can you take me hiiiigghhhh enough!!!

[Ex-Iowegian]

? Miles and miles and miles of heart.....?

[dex8425]

6 hours ago, bighat said:

Saw this on Twitter:

 

What about Alcala?!

[ashbury]

55 minutes ago, dex8425 said:

What about Alcala?!

Besides Alcala, Coulombe is on IL too; the FO seems to like him enough to have him on the major league squad when available.  Stashak is done for the season and he was their choice for a roster spot during April.  There's other guys on the respective injured lists (Dobnak, Romero) who the Twins might otherwise be deploying in the bullpen if available.  As for the assertion that no one's on the way, that may be easier to agree with, especially if you demand that the arms be drafted by the team and be part of the vaunted Pitching Pipeline (tm), but a couple of young(ish) arms at St Paul look like maybe could contribute if given more than an inning for the big club (Pinto and Hamilton), and a couple of retreads they signed likewise are doing OK at AAA and might be able to step in (Petricka and Sanchez).  (None of the four guys at St Paul are a "hill" I would die on, of course.)  At AA, Evan Sisk (obtained when we traded Happ last year) is age 25 and putting up quite good numbers, and might be worth jumping to the Show.

I don't quite know what Cody's point was.

[jmlease1]

we do have to keep reminding ourselves that the Twins currently have 9 pitchers on the IL (not including Kenta Maeda). For comparison, the Yankees have 3, none of them starters. The injury bug has hit us hard right now; just as our lineup is getting healthy (only 3 position players on the IL, and only 1 of them on the opening day roster) our pitching is pretty depleted.

 

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, dex8425 said:

What about Alcala?!

Rehab halted, hasn't pitched since 1 inning over a week ago. Elbow issues

Who knows, but doesn't sound good. At best, it'll be a while.

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/06/cody-stashak-to-undergo-season-ending-shoulder-surgery.html

[RpR]

Same old, same old; too often the twins have taken a lead, often large and then played ball like a group of third string rookies.