Angels 4, Twins 2: Road Trip Ends in Bitter Disappointment Against Anaheim

[Theo Tollefson]

After an awful walk off loss on Saturday night, the Twins went into their series finale against the Angels on a mission to regroup and prove to themselves they are still a playoff contending team. That mission failed as the Twins dropped their second series of a five-game road trip returning home with only one win. 

Box Score:
SP: Chris Archer 4 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (65 pitches, 45 strikes (65.8 strike %))
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (28)
Top 3 or Bottom 3 WPA: Chris Archer -.168, Jose Miranda .-126, Jorge Polanco -.110

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The first two innings for the Twins were all Byron Buxton and Chris Archer. Buxton put the Twins up 2-0 in the first with his 28th homer of the season, Correa being the other run scoring and reaching on a walk in the previous at bat. 

Archer continued from the progress of control he had shown in his previous start against the Blue Jays. For his first two innings, 21 of 29 Archer’s pitches were in the strike zone and he struck out half of the batters he faced to get outs as well. 

Command of the strike zone began to slip for Archer in the third. Archer threw 22 pitches to that point, but only 11 landed in the strike zone as he issued his first walk of the game against Shohei Ohtani which put Archer in a jam with two on and two out facing Luis Rengifo. 

Rengifo tied the game up 2-2 with a bases-clearing double making contact on a slider high in the strike zone and away. Archer averted further damage striking out Tyler Ward in the next at-bat with only three strikes. Still, the Twins found themselves tied once more and needed to mount the offense for another comeback for the second day in a row. 

The Twins failed to break the tie in the top of the fourth. This gave the Angels an opportunity to do so. And they did. Jo Adell led off the bottom half of the inning with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly from former Twin Kurt Suzuki that put the Angels up 3-2. 

The Twins did get their first base runner since Buxton’s homer in the fifth with a two-out Sandy Leon double. Luis Arraez followed up next but failed to drive him home.

Archer’s afternoon would be done after four innings and mark his second straight start of allowing one or fewer walks. Archer last accomplished this feat in June during his June 19 start against the Diamondbacks with no walks, and his June 25 start against the Rockies with one walk. Trevor Megill would come into the game in place of Archer. 

Carlos Correa ended the 5th after Ohtani walked. Ohtani attempted to steal a base off Megill but Leon made a perfect throw right to Correa, who didn’t even turn his head to tag Ohtani out and keep the game at 3-2, Angels. 

The game would remain uneventful for the Twins hitters over the next two innings. Buxton provided the only excitement in the top of the sixth with a single and his fifth stolen base of the season. 

Pitching-wise, things got as ugly as usual. Megill continued to work the sixth, found himself in a jam of two on and two out but averted any damage. Michael Fulmer, who pitched the seventh, found himself in the same jam with one out and gave up an RBI single to Ohtani to make it a 4-2 Angels lead. 

The Angels came close to scoring another run in the next at-bat but Jorge Polanco threw out the runner advancing home to keep the score at 4-2. 

The Twins could not follow up Polanco’s smart defensive play with any offense for the rest of the game. Correa managed the only hit for the Twins in the game's final two innings while the Angels took home a win and series victory to finish out the Twins five game road trip

What’s Next? 
The Twins return home Monday for a seven-game homestand. The first series is against the Royals beginning Monday night at 6:40 p.m. Joe Ryan is scheduled to make the start for the Twins against the Royals Kris Bubic. 

Postgame Interview (Bally Sports Tweets)
Coming soon.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

View full article

[BH67]

Tipping point reached.  The grit is evident, but not the skill.

[SanoMustGo]

15 minutes ago, BH67 said:

Tipping point reached.  The grit is evident, but not the skill.

yep toast, probably 75 wins

[Rosterman]

We talk about how bad the pitching has been since Wes left the team for a return to collegiate coaching.

But the hitting. What gives? 

Again, can't we get a pitcher past five innings?!?

[USAFChief]

Turns out Friday morning wasn't the low point after all. 

 

https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/58278-the-2022-twins-are-at-a-low-point/#comment-1178118

[mikelink45]

I am not ready to say the team is done, but I need something to hold on to.  Can we have a comeback win?  Can Rocco let a pitcher that is hot pitch an extra inning?  Will we ever get a hit with a runner in scoring position?  Can we get a laugher where Emilio Pagan can pitch without pressure?  Does Cole Sands pitch again?  Do we have to see Kepler at bat again?  I am not asking a lot, just a couple of these options to help me out.  I just came back from 10 days in Canada along the great lakes and now will take 10 days going down the Ohio River - can I come back from one of these trips and find the world of TD in glee over the wonderful winning streak?????

[Game7-91]

Archer looks a lot like a nice BP piece.

Tucker Davidson's line coming into today' game:

  

[SanoMustGo]

18 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I am not ready to say the team is done, but I need something to hold on to.  Can we have a comeback win?  Can Rocco let a pitcher that is hot pitch an extra inning?  Will we ever get a hit with a runner in scoring position?  Can we get a laugher where Emilio Pagan can pitch without pressure?  Does Cole Sands pitch again?  Do we have to see Kepler at bat again?  I am not asking a lot, just a couple of these options to help me out.  I just came back from 10 days in Canada along the great lakes and now will take 10 days going down the Ohio River - can I come back from one of these trips and find the world of TD in glee over the wonderful winning streak?????

just hoping there isn't a total collapse, but that's where this is headed, considering everything.  Time for some college football.

[jimbo92107]

Chris Archer's numbers cry out for a shift to the bullpen. Used for 2 or 3 innings, he may be an excellent reliever. More than that, he gives up too many runs to keep the team in the game. Like other relievers, he will be unshackled from the limitations of pacing himself, so he can cut loose with his best heaters and sliders, for 1 or 2 innings. 

Promote Josh Winder to Archer's spot, DFA Emilio Pagan, and move Archer to the pen. Solves two big problems. Winder has the stuff and the endurance to go 5 or more innings, and Archer should be able to snuff out most lineups for an inning or two. 

[Aggies7]

37th time the twins have scored 2 or fewer runs. Incomprehensible.

[D.C Twins]

Kepler is 0-27 since returning from the IL. 

Whether injury (most likely due to his toe) or ineptitude, he needs to sit for a bit.

This alone is nowhere near the extent of our problems (Baldi... not that you care, but your overall use of the pitching staff hurts my soul), but certainly a worthy place to start 

[Otto von Ballpark]

18 minutes ago, jimbo92107 said:

Promote Josh Winder to Archer's spot, 

Winder is still on the AAA injured list — hasn’t pitched anywhere in over a month now.

[bean5302]

19 minutes ago, jimbo92107 said:

Chris Archer's numbers cry out for a shift to the bullpen. Used for 2 or 3 innings, he may be an excellent reliever. More than that, he gives up too many runs to keep the team in the game. Like other relievers, he will be unshackled from the limitations of pacing himself, so he can cut loose with his best heaters and sliders, for 1 or 2 innings. 

Promote Josh Winder to Archer's spot, DFA Emilio Pagan, and move Archer to the pen. Solves two big problems. Winder has the stuff and the endurance to go 5 or more innings, and Archer should be able to snuff out most lineups for an inning or two. 

Since Winder can't seemingly throw more than about 30-40 innings before his shoulder starts locking up, I don't see that as a likely solution.

[bean5302]

This road trip hurt. Cleveland beat Toronto and the White Sox beat Detroit today.

The Twins are now tied with Chicago and 2.5 games back from the Guardians.

[Vanimal46]

Watched part of the Vikings preseason game and went grocery shopping instead of watching the Twins. Sweet corn in Minnesota right now is top notch ?

If Kepler is still trying to play through a broken toe, he is not doing anyone any favors by doing so. If he’s healthy, we’ve got much bigger issues. 

I was thinking before it’d be fun to attend another game at TF during this unprecedented home stretch of games. Now, it doesn’t seem to be worth the trouble. 

[tony&rodney]

The players seem really down and not very focused.

[dberthia]

[roger]

The Angels aren’t a very good team.  But they are better than the current version of the Twins.  What an ugly trip West.

[jkcarew]

Still think the roster was deep headed into the season.

But you’ve had underachieving/hurt Kepler, no Sano, no Kirilloff, no Lewis, basically no Larnach, missing Garlick, zero from Jeffers, 3/4 of Buxton, and a slightly underachieving Correa.

Meanwhile, the pitching staff is not constructed to carry the club.

They simply are not a very good team as is…and it’s been this way for a while now.

[Aggies7]

At least the playoff loss streak won’t grow this year, probably. So, silver lining

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

13 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

The players seem really down and not very focused.

Gladden said something to that effect this afternoon. 

[Aggies7]

15 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

The players seem really down and not very focused.

They should try being fans of the twins

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Imagine Baltimore sneaks into the last wild card and the Twins miss out on the postseason and a chance to play them. 

[Aggies7]

1 minute ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Imagine Baltimore sneaks into the last wild card and the Twins miss out on the postseason and a chance to play them. 

The orioles would be favored, in my mind. Played the twins tough all year. Toughest division in baseball. 

[GNess]

Tough road trip. This home stand with 7 vs KC and Texas may provide an opportunity to regroup. But if not now - when?

[Battle ur tail off]

Yuck. Offense was bad all weekend. Manager just keeps doing his thing messing with pitchers and losing us close games. 
Id say they have to sweep KC or it’s going to be over. Cleveland is hot right now, maybe on fire. 
I honestly don’t know if it can happen anymore. I had lots of faith even before this series but it has now become even more obvious that this pitching staff just is really really bad and the offense is just missing too many guys. Even the new arms we got haven’t been saviors. They’ve been ok but they aren’t saviors. 
Couple that with a guy that insists using 4-6 pitcher every night and even if we stay close there is no way we can win a close race with him doing that

[RpR]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

37th time the twins have scored 2 or fewer runs. Incomprehensible.

THAT is the Twins problem, not the pitching, we could have the best two starting and relief pitchers in the league and would be no better unless they threw a shut-out every game, although the grade school baseball defense, especially today, is an embarassment.

[Aggies7]

11 minutes ago, RpR said:

THAT is the Twins problem, not the pitching, we could have the best two starting and relief pitchers in the league and would be no better unless they threw a shut-out every game, although the grade school baseball defense, especially today, is an embarassment.

Well the pitching is a big part of it too. Inability for starters to go deep into games. Bad bullpen blowing leads. It’s a combination of our leads always being small and our bad bullpen being asked to get 4-5 innings a game 

[darwin22]

After this uninspired and lackluster road trip this team deserved boarding the "old propeller airplane" used in the movie "Major League"---back to Minneapolis.   

Unless a not to be expected strong homestand follows---at minimum 5-2 against KC and TX-------these players should be packing to board a couple of 1980 version Grayhound busses for their trip to Houston,-

[Mark G]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

37th time the twins have scored 2 or fewer runs. Incomprehensible.

They have scored 3 or less in 47% of their games so far this year.