Twins 6, Guardians 0: Twins Take Game 2 Behind Steady Offense, Excellent Winder

[Jamie Cameron]

The Twins rebounded to take game two of their doubleheader and increase their divisional lead to three games. A strong start from Josh Winder was backed up by home runs from Jorge Polanco, Jose Miranda, and Byron Buxton.

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Josh Winder 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO (81 pitches, 59 strikes)
Homeruns: Jorge Polanco (8), Jose Miranda (5), Byron Buxton (20)
Top 3 WPA: Josh Winder .251, Jorge Polanco .222, Luis Arraez .146
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

On Tuesday evening, after a frustrating afternoon loss, the Twins concluded their double header against the Guardians. Here’s how they lined up for game two.

Early in the game, shadows were creeping across the mount, making for tricky sight lines for hitters on both sides. Josh Winder, acting as the Twins 27th player for the double-header, struggled a little in the early going. In the first inning, Winder worked around a walk and a single. In the second, a leadoff double. In each case, Winder really clamped down after allowing baserunners, gaining increasing command of his fastball and slider.

The Twins offense, meanwhile, began to assert control in the third inning against Konnor Pilkington. Luis Arraez tripled home Carlos Correa, who comically waited to be helped up from his slide at home plate after a long run. Jorge Polanco followed this with a 409-foot home run to left field, increasing the Twins lead to 3-0 after three innings.

After the second inning, Winder began to impress. In the next four innings, the only base runners he allowed were two doubles and a hit batter. He worked through six scoreless innings, and despite only striking out one, had Cleveland’s hitters off balance. Winder, when healthy, continues to look like a legitimately high ceiling starting pitcher, with a mid-90s fastball, an excellent slider, and a BB% of just 7.4% entering today’s start.

In the top of the fourth inning, back to back base running blunders cost the Twins the opportunity to increase their lead. Ryan Jeffers smoked a fly ball to right field, but was slow out of the box and was thrown out at second base on a perfect relay from the Guardians defense. Jose Miranda followed this up by being caught off third base on an attempted squeeze play, keeping the score 3-0.

The Twins added a run in the fifth on a Jorge Polanco groundout that was ruled a double play on the field. The Twins successfully challenged and increased the lead to 4-0. In the top of the sixth, Miranda made up for his base running blunder by crushing a long home run to left field, increasing the lead to 5-0.

The Twins turned it over to their bullpen in the seventh inning, which was in good shape after back-to-back strong starts from Twins starting pitchers. Tyler Duffey pitched a scoreless seventh inning, giving up a single and striking out a batter. Jovani Moran worked the eighth inning, taking care of the Guardians second, third, and fourth hitters in order.

In the top of the ninth, the Twins added on. Byron Buxton crushed a 427 foot home run to straight away center field, his 20th of the season, a career high, on June 28th. 

Moran returned in the ninth inning, again retiring the side in order. The Twins moved to 5-4 in their season series against the Guardians, and restored their three game lead in the AL Central heading into game four of the series on Wednesday night. 

Bullpen Usage Chart

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Duffey	28	0	15	0	12	55
Cotton	0	25	0	24	0	49
Pagan	0	0	22	0	22	44
Thornburg	7	35	0	0	0	42
Moran	0	0	0	0	34	34
Jax	0	12	0	0	21	33
Theilbar	0	0	19	0	10	29
Duran	0	0	18	0	0	18

Next Up
On Wednesday, the Twins will continue their series against Cleveland. Dylan Bundy goes for the Twins, against Cal Quantrill for the Guardians. First pitch is at 6:10 CT.

Postgame Interviews

 

 

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[blindeke]

Just can't help thinking about the one that got away...

[wsnydes]

Nice bounce back game after blowing the early game.  Great outing by Winder coming back up and I hope to see more of him.  Bats did a pretty good job of adding on to the lead despite some more baserunning blunders.  

No ground lost or gained today.  Not a bad thing.  

Congrats to Buxton for a new career high in HRs.  Lots of time to keep adding to that mark!

I'm looking for Bundy to keep piling on tomorrow.  

[Vanimal46]

We’ve had enough games against Cleveland to know that the Twins are likely the better all around team. Just makes it annoying that Pagan alone narrows the gap. 

Winder was excellent today. Bundy should be sweating over keeping his role in the rotation, because Winder is ready to take it from him. 

Welcome back Jorge Polanco! And hey, who would have guessed Arraez can also hit left handed pitchers? 

[BH67]

12 minutes ago, blindeke said:

Just can't help thinking about the one that got away...

Indeed.  Those things happen occasionally.  I'll focus on the Twins being 3-3 so far against a hotly pursuing contender and that they have given up only 8 runs over their last 7 games.  The starting pitching is outstanding and beyond my highest hopes for the season.  Heckuva decisive rebound tonight.

[ashbury]

18 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Winder was excellent today. Bundy should be sweating over keeping his role in the rotation, because Winder is ready to take it from him.

If Bundy can continue the good results of his last two starts, it will be someone else who steps aside for Winder.

Who?  Dunno.  Maybe a 6-man rotation for a while until something intervenes.

[Dman]

Kind of thought the Twins might lose as I thought Winder might not have his mojo back.  Glad to be wrong as he looked good out there and went 6 innings which was nice.  Also nice to see Jovani Moran take two innings. He likes to go 3 and 2 a lot but seems to get the job done.  Nice bounce back but Cleveland has Beiber for the last game so hopefully the Twins can find a way to win tomorrow.

[wsnydes]

12 minutes ago, ashbury said:

If Bundy can continue the good results of his last two starts, it will be someone else who steps aside for Winder.

Who?  Dunno.  Maybe a 6-man rotation for a while until something intervenes.

Yes, it's hard to see Bundy losing his spot if he continues to pitch as well as he has the last few outings.  Same with Archer.  

That question will likely work itself out somehow, it just remains to be seen.

[2wins87]

14 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

We’ve had enough games against Cleveland to know that the Twins are likely the better all around team. Just makes it annoying that Pagan alone narrows the gap. 

Winder was excellent today. Bundy should be sweating over keeping his role in the rotation, because Winder is ready to take it from him. 

Welcome back Jorge Polanco! And hey, who would have guessed Arraez can also hit left handed pitchers? 

I think Bundy starts sweating just walking to the mound.

To be fair to Pagan a few other relievers have done their part to narrow the gap as well.

The Twins now hold a narrow 5-4 lead in the season series, but with a +19 run differential.  They haven't lost a game by more than one run to Cleveland. With a competent bullpen they would be dominating them.

On the plus side, with Polanco back, the lineup is pretty stacked. Kirilloff looks good, Miranda has been producing like his 2021 season suggests he should for over a month now, Jeffers seems to have gotten back on track, and even Gordon is producing well for a utility guy.

They are also back to the point where they have 6 competent looking starters. (Yeah, I'm not so sure about Bundy but he has had a couple starts in a row looking back to his early season form).

They have enough to keep winning through the trade deadline by which time they should have traded for a bullpen upgrade and will possibly have some more clarity on who else they can trust beyond Jax.  Will they be a world series caliber team at that point? Doubtful, but they could be strong enough to at least start snapping some of their playoff losing streaks.

[mikelink45]

5 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

I think Bundy starts sweating just walking to the mound.

To be fair to Pagan a few other relievers have done their part to narrow the gap as well.

The Twins now hold a narrow 5-4 lead in the season series, but with a +19 run differential.  They haven't lost a game by more than one run to Cleveland. With a competent bullpen they would be dominating them.

On the plus side, with Polanco back, the lineup is pretty stacked. Kirilloff looks good, Miranda has been producing like his 2021 season suggests he should for over a month now, Jeffers seems to have gotten back on track, and even Gordon is producing well for a utility guy.

They are also back to the point where they have 6 competent looking starters. (Yeah, I'm not so sure about Bundy but he has had a couple starts in a row looking back to his early season form).

They have enough to keep winning through the trade deadline by which time they should have traded for a bullpen upgrade and will possibly have some more clarity on who else they can trust beyond Jax.  Will they be a world series caliber team at that point? Doubtful, but they could be strong enough to at least start snapping some of their playoff losing streaks.

 

[darwin22]

Kept tabs on the game throughout but needed a "mental break" after the 'Pagan Sacrifice' spoiled my afternoon.

Excellent work by Winder tonight!  Great to see him healthy.  

I'm guessing its a foregone conclusion that he'll return to SP as mgmt will want to see him start? 

One could make the argument that Winder could/should stay up with Thornburg being demoted, but that is likely not the case.

Good to see Moran close game out with 2 shutout IP.  It's absolutely TIME for Moran to take the next step as another quality LH arm is needed in this bullpen.

Finally, what is the latest on Ober's return from the IL?  Is he close? If so, is he looking at a couple of rehab starts before being activated.  Should that happen------is Rocco/ Falvey planning on returning to a 6-man rotation?  If so, is a 7 man bullpen enough?

[Vanimal46]

33 minutes ago, ashbury said:

If Bundy can continue the good results of his last two starts, it will be someone else who steps aside for Winder.

Who?  Dunno.  Maybe a 6-man rotation for a while until something intervenes.

I’ll still beat the drum to move Archer to a bullpen role. I get why they haven’t done so, with most of his incentives tied to getting 9+ outs in appearances. 

[mikelink45]

Another terrific game. It's really a shame that Smeltzer had to lose his victory today but I really can't blame Rocco on that one. He's only got so many relief pictures to use. Which means of course at the front office is really guilty ones well that set up games like the first one today. What I really like is seeing Winder take charge the way he did today. He has to be part of the regular rotation he's earned it. I don't know who moves out and I don't know if they move anyone out, but more important they have to keep him going. And Smeltzer has to keep his spot too. 

[DocBauer]

Sooo many thoughts. But will have to bullet point them.

1] Every inning matters, as does every mistake or lost opportunity or grandeous moment. Game 1 was not lost by a lost fly ball in the sun. Crap happens for the other team as well as our team. And I absolutely don't mean to pile on, but let's face it, Pagan didn't perform yet again.  Seriously, he's got a live arm. Does he have an options left? I doubt it. But if he does, he needs some kind of re-set because a live arm who can't perform is someone who can't perform. I'd rather give his innings to ANYONE ELSE in the system who also has a "live arm" who might perform and grow given a chance.

2] Smeltzer again performed. Do we finally dismiss SSS and just recognize that he's a solid #4-5 SP at this point? 

3] Winder was OK the first couple innings and then outstanding. Rocco stated late April, early May that Winder was one of their best arms and was going to stick around. And he did. And he performed. Then he got hurt. And, IMO, there was a bunch of BS about service time as he was sent down to St Paul after his IL stint. I don't understand all the parameters of service time and promotions, but I think it was clear they wanted him 100% healthy and stretched out for today and going forward. I believe he's 100% in the Twins plans going forward, even if he has to be temporarily sent back to St Paul. 

4] I'm just not going to post numbers or get in to some extended debate about adding a SP at this point. But a healthy Gray is a stud. So is a healthy Ryan. Ober is out, unfortunately, but he was throwing as well or better than 2021 before his groin injury. Archer keeps improving. Bundy was great, stunk pre and post covid, and has suddenly turned in his best couple of games recently. Then you have Smeltzer just "performing" beyond most expectations. And then Winder comes back with a super impressive outing today. Is the rotation an issue? I say no.

5] I appreciate Winder being pulled after 6 IP today. Don't push him if you don't have to his first game back. And I MIGHT argue letting Duffey pitch an extra inning on only 12 pitches. If there is ANY CHANCE that he's figured something out, with a big lead, I would have given him a shot at an extra inning.

6] Moran looked good. Why is it, not great but good, he's looked better with the Twins than the Saints? After a couple IP today, does he get sent down again? I sure hope not. Maybe he's just ready? 

7] 5-4 against the Gaurdians. Should be 8-1. Should have won the Yankees series 2-1. The absolute mitigating factor is not the rotation or the offense, who will always have bad days. Its the pen. There ARE  a couple good arms you can work with. But duct tape and bailing wire and not spending SOMETHING on the pen only gets you so far. This team is just a couple dependable BP arms from having another 4-8÷ wins to secure the ALC and be ready for the playoffs. I don't want to wipe out our milb talent, but we have enough depth to make a move ot two, hopefully soon.

[ToddlerHarmon]

It would be huge if this is the start of something big for Moran.

The suddenly crowded rotation has to have someone who can perform in the bullpen, right? Archer, in a regular piggyback role (every three or four days, and whoever the starter is gets a short day?) Winder or Bundy or Ober, if the innings start to pile up?

[KirbyDome89]

2 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

I’ll still beat the drum to move Archer to a bullpen role. I get why they haven’t done so, with most of his incentives tied to getting 9+ outs in appearances. 

This. For a multitude of reasons. 

[Cap'n Piranha]

Falvine seems to enjoy signing veteran reclamation projects as rotation depth.  As such, they have a vested interest in maintaining the ability to promise starter’s innings every offseason to whichever pitcher they want to sign to a year plus option contract.  I would therefore be very surprised to see either Archer or Bundy ditched from the rotation unless they go full Happ/Shoemaker.

[jimbo92107]

Winder was a stud horse today. Looked like his future, which is an excellent MLB starter for years to come. Stood tall, good poise, Bert's "downward plane" mixed with high heat, excellent mix of pitches, stayed away from the middle, used a slow curve, a couple change ups, Also, he did a great job of executing from the wind-up and the stretch equally well. A lot of young pitchers look good from one, but not the other. Winder executed well while checking baserunners. 

On offense, well... wow. This lineup is capable of exploding for ten or more runs on just about anybody. So odd that they've been shut out completely a few times, but great pitching does happen sometimes, too. I know it's unrealistic, but six runs seems like a minimum for this offense.

[Tiantwindup]

7 hours ago, darwin22 said:

Kept tabs on the game throughout but needed a "mental break" after the 'Pagan Sacrifice' spoiled my afternoon.

Excellent work by Winder tonight!  Great to see him healthy.  

I'm guessing its a foregone conclusion that he'll return to SP as mgmt will want to see him start? 

One could make the argument that Winder could/should stay up with Thornburg being demoted, but that is likely not the case.

Good to see Moran close game out with 2 shutout IP.  It's absolutely TIME for Moran to take the next step as another quality LH arm is needed in this bullpen.

Finally, what is the latest on Ober's return from the IL?  Is he close? If so, is he looking at a couple of rehab starts before being activated.  Should that happen------is Rocco/ Falvey planning on returning to a 6-man rotation?  If so, is a 7 man bullpen enough?

There are two pitching issues to be concerned about over the course of the season. 
The first is that many of the starting pitchers are on innings counts and if we plan on being in the playoffs what happens to those that exceed their limit come playoff time?  A 6-(or even 7-)man rotation can help manage that limit but obviously at the expense of an undermanned bullpen. However, a 7-man rotation with 1 or 2 pitchers rotated through the 10-day IL with minor ailments (assuming there is no need for longer ‘legitimate’ IL stints) can help with starter workload without reducing bullpen size. 
The second pitching issue is of course the bullpen. If we add one decent arm to the pen at the trade deadline the playoff bullpen is also supplemented by, for example, Smeltzer, Archer, and Ober (pick your own 3 starters to ‘demote’ to the ‘pen)  and could conceivably include Maeda and Alcala as well.  That’s a pretty good bullpen  Granted, that assumes all are healthy  but the point is that our excess starters can give the ‘pen a significant boost come playoff time when we move to a 4-man rotation  

 

[Nashvilletwin]

So much to like in this game. There are lots of ups and downs in a season, but right now our starting staff is very solid. Also, just for the psyche, it was a superb bounce back win,

Now to nitpicking. We still need to clean up our mental errors. Jeffers showboating out of the box instead of running hard led to him getting thrown out at second. Then on the next pitch, Miranda  gets picked off third on a failed Celestino safety squeeze. Instead of 2nd and 3rd with no outs, we had nobody on and two outs. Luckily, these mental lapses didn’t come back to haunt us as similar ones have in the past.

If we truly want to contend, we will need to be mentally tougher.

Great win though after a disappointing morning. 

[Linus]

More sloppy baseball. The Twins have to clean it up if they are going to beat good teams when it counts. 

[Whitey333]

Great rebound win in game 2 after another heartbreaking blown game by Pagan in game 1.  It will be interesting to see what if any moves the FO makes as the trade deadline gets closer.  The team has holes that need filling but how far will/ should FO go this year?  At this point the Twins are doing well to be in first place.  We've blown many games this year and I look at blown opportunities.  Twins should be another 3 games ahead.  Plus the division is very weak again.  So it's hard knowing how good this team could be.  Last year the White Sox walked away with the division beating up on bad teams including our Twins.  This year the Twins seem to be taking advantage of some bad teams in the division.  Good for the Twins.  If we make the playoffs it's likely we won't stack up well against other playoff teams.  I hope we finish strong but I'm thinking 2023 could be a super year with a legit super team.  Go Twins!!

[chpettit19]

10 hours ago, ashbury said:

If Bundy can continue the good results of his last two starts, it will be someone else who steps aside for Winder.

Who?  Dunno.  Maybe a 6-man rotation for a while until something intervenes.

Rocco said they weren't interested in going back to a 6-man rotation when Winder first came off the IL recently. Makes me wonder where they go from here. In my opinion he's ready. And the staff as a whole clearly has holes and needs all the legit arms they can get. Too many starters, not enough relievers is something I'd hope they can fix by moving some of those starters to the pen. Dodgers used to do it with Maeda, maybe Twins decide to follow that blueprint eventually this year.

[Squirrel]

7 hours ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Falvine seems to enjoy signing veteran reclamation projects as rotation depth.  As such, they have a vested interest in maintaining the ability to promise starter’s innings every offseason to whichever pitcher they want to sign to a year plus option contract.  I would therefore be very surprised to see either Archer or Bundy ditched from the rotation unless they go full Happ/Shoemaker.

I agree. But if they aren’t going full Happ/Shoemaker, wouldn’t that mean we are getting production in the 4-5 position? If Bundy and Archer can continue on their good paths, I guess I’m not moving them. 

[DJL44]

I guarantee they will need more than the 5 starters currently in the rotation to finish the season

[chpettit19]

2 hours ago, Tiantwindup said:

There are two pitching issues to be concerned about over the course of the season. 
The first is that many of the starting pitchers are on innings counts and if we plan on being in the playoffs what happens to those that exceed their limit come playoff time?  A 6-(or even 7-)man rotation can help manage that limit but obviously at the expense of an undermanned bullpen. However, a 7-man rotation with 1 or 2 pitchers rotated through the 10-day IL with minor ailments (assuming there is no need for longer ‘legitimate’ IL stints) can help with starter workload without reducing bullpen size. 
The second pitching issue is of course the bullpen. If we add one decent arm to the pen at the trade deadline the playoff bullpen is also supplemented by, for example, Smeltzer, Archer, and Ober (pick your own 3 starters to ‘demote’ to the ‘pen)  and could conceivably include Maeda and Alcala as well.  That’s a pretty good bullpen  Granted, that assumes all are healthy  but the point is that our excess starters can give the ‘pen a significant boost come playoff time when we move to a 4-man rotation  

 

FYI, pitcher IL stints are 15 days now. Same with being sent down, they have to stay down for 15 days.

[Squirrel]

14 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Rocco said they weren't interested in going back to a 6-man rotation when Winder first came off the IL recently. Makes me wonder where they go from here. In my opinion he's ready. And the staff as a whole clearly has holes and needs all the legit arms they can get. Too many starters, not enough relievers is something I'd hope they can fix by moving some of those starters to the pen. Dodgers used to do it with Maeda, maybe Twins decide to follow that blueprint eventually this year.

I wonder if maybe they stack Archer and who? Winder was the initial plan for that, but maybe Smeltzer moves to that long relief role?

[roger]

Great outing by Winder, so very happy for this young man who is part of this team's plans...now and future.

Also happy seeing a very solid outing from Moran.  Believe he can and should be part of this pen for the remainder of the season.  Will he have some hick ups, certainly, but the good will outweigh the bad.

Will second the above comment about the mistakes by Jeffers and Miranda that cost us an important run(s) early in the game.  Miranda's was a mental error that he should learn from and get beyond with experience.  Jeffers was just flat out disappointing as I watched him walking out of the box watching his long ball...then getting thrown out at second.  Don't know the correct adjective, but this kid needs to get his butt in gear and play hard as his performance isn't guaranteeing him anything for the future.

[chpettit19]

15 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

I wonder if maybe they stack Archer and who? Winder was the initial plan for that, but maybe Smeltzer moves to that long relief role?

It sure doesn't feel like they're going to be stacking anyone, but I'd pair up Bundy and Archer. Bundy still scares me so I'd like to give him shorter outings and Archer hasn't built up enough stamina yet. I'd see if I could get 9 innings out of the 2 of them every time through the rotation and give my pen an extra day off. But my guess is they just send Winder back and wait for another injury to bring him back. Ober coming back creates an even bigger imbalance between the rotation and pen so I hope they have a plan to move some guys around eventually. But we all know injuries, or poor performance, will likely solve the rotation overcrowding and the pen will still need outside reinforcements.

[jorgenswest]

Winder will be needed. Keep him ready in AAA.