Astros 5, Twins 0, Verlander Dominates Hapless Twins

Looks like the weather forecast is not ideal for tomorrow right around first pitch. I know Chicago got a game moved up earlier in the year for the same thing, but I doubt it happens here. Hopefully they can get it in, or they'll probably be playing two Thursday.

The school was in session - Verlander showed Ryan what a great pitcher does.  In fact, he showed the statheads what is important - it is not Ks - it is outs.  Great game. and the lineup waited for good pitches. They were patient and productive - like the Dodgers this is an important lesson.  For the managers - stolen bases and hit and run still works.

What a game - thanks Astros.  Like the Dodgers they taught the lesson of quality play. 

What's Buxton's hip injury status? Is he going on the IL like Correa? Larnach? Arreaz? 

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

The school was in session - Verlander showed Ryan what a great pitcher does.  In fact, he showed the statheads what is important - it is not Ks - it is outs.  Great game. and the lineup waited for good pitches. They were patient and productive - like the Dodgers this is an important lesson.  For the managers - stolen bases and hit and run still works.

What a game - thanks Astros.  Like the Dodgers they taught the lesson of quality play. 

I would add the Yankees here as well. One of the reasons we never beat the Yankees is that we inevitably walk a couple and then give up the big hit. 

Nine walks. It is a rare day in May if you plan on winning with nine walks.

Justin Verlander took advantage of his experience and the Twins inexperience tonight. Ryan had a rough time on the mound and when he doesn't have pinpoint control he is in trouble.

Tomorrow will be a good chance to see how the Twins react to adversity against a good team. Archer needs to get through five innings or more.

Told my son when I seen the Twins lineup, unless Verlander is terrible, I don't see the Twins scoring tonight, and there is a decent chance they don't even get a hit. Besides Polanco (who isn't having a good season yet) and maybe Kepler, just maybe the Twins lineup was essentially a minor league team and a couple of guys that are as of right now terrible. The two former Yanks OPS are .600 and .592.

The Twins hitters need to get healthy and in a hurry, because with the current lineup against good starting pitchers are going to carve them up.

With that being said this is just one game where a veteran pitcher showing young hitters this is a very hard game, and fairly veteran lineup showing a young pitcher if you can't throw strikes it is going to be a long night.

I agree Archer needs to be on the top of his game tonight because if not this series could get real ugly. Bring on the terrible teams again

I was confused by one thing tonight - a team that regularly pulls its SP early let a struggling Ryan in for one inning too long, like the Bundy decision last week I wonder what the reason is?

The home plate ump was so inconsistent, calls that were balls for Joe Ryan were strikes for Verlander. I will be so happy when they start using a digital strike zone.

Verlander was great!  Especially against a team with most of it's star players out.  Twins were only able to field a minor league due to all the injuries.  Not surprised.  He didn't need all of the help he got from the stuff behind home plate calling balls and strikes.  But even with a good umpire back there he would have still done well.  Byron Buxton?  He's missed 11 of the teams first 30 games.  Anyone see a pattern here lol?  It's been going on for 7 years.  The Twins need Byron to play and perform if the Twins are to be competitive.  Someone please find Buxton.  He's missing in action.  AGAIN.

1 hour ago, rwilfong86 said:

The home plate ump was so inconsistent, calls that were balls for Joe Ryan were strikes for Verlander. I will be so happy when they start using a digital strike zone.

I would agree that the ump gave Verlander some calls Ryan did not get.  However, Ryan was all over the place and Verlander was hitting his spots over and over.  It really shows how a robo ump would even those things out and not let human error guide the game.  A guy with a reputation of throwing strikes should not get benefit of close calls, where a guy known for being all over the place should not get squeezed.  A strike should be a strike no matter who throws the ball, or who is hitting.  

For years we would hear how a guy would be known for having good control so gets those extra few inches, or how hitters with "good" eyes at the plate would squeeze the zone a little.  I cannot wait until it is done and we have a robo ump.

That all being said, I do not feel the ump was the difference in the game but you never really know if Ryan gets a few more calls and Verlander a few less we never know how the game shakes out.

1 hour ago, Trov said:

I would agree that the ump gave Verlander some calls Ryan did not get.  However, Ryan was all over the place and Verlander was hitting his spots over and over.  It really shows how a robo ump would even those things out and not let human error guide the game.  A guy with a reputation of throwing strikes should not get benefit of close calls, where a guy known for being all over the place should not get squeezed.  A strike should be a strike no matter who throws the ball, or who is hitting.  

For years we would hear how a guy would be known for having good control so gets those extra few inches, or how hitters with "good" eyes at the plate would squeeze the zone a little.  I cannot wait until it is done and we have a robo ump.

That all being said, I do not feel the ump was the difference in the game but you never really know if Ryan gets a few more calls and Verlander a few less we never know how the game shakes out.

There were times when Ryan was visibly flustered by not getting a call, the difference in one pitch called differently, like in the first inning for example, could be the difference in a pitcher throwing 12 pitchers or 20+. But the Twins swinging so early in counts didn't help either, they need to learn to be more patient and work the count. But it's behind us and hopefully they'll get back on track tonight with a W. 

11 hours ago, Monticore said:

What's Buxton's hip injury status? Is he going on the IL like Correa? Larnach? Arreaz? 

I thought I heard Dick say that he would play today. But I'll actually be surprised if that is true and (if he plays) even more surprised if he is still healthy by next week.

2 hours ago, rwilfong86 said:

The home plate ump was so inconsistent, calls that were balls for Joe Ryan were strikes for Verlander. I will be so happy when they start using a digital strike zone.

Hard to tell how much was Welke just giving Verlander veteran calls and how much was Ryan not hitting his spots well enough to get the calls.  He did have a pretty bad miss on a strike for Verlander, I think I remember it and it was one where he missed his spot by quite a bit.

Either way, Verlander took advantage of Welke's generous outside edge, and a strike zone that big will typically lead to a pretty low score.

Verlander was obviously great, he showed how important good command can be.  I wouldn't say he dominated the Twins lineup though.  He struck out 5, and one of those was on a very bad called third strike to Celestino.  The Twins put 4 balls in play with an expected batting average over .500 against him and only one was a hit.  There were also two other well hit balls with xBAs of .350 and .450.

The Astros played a much cleaner game and were able to be patient against some lack of control from our pitchers, but the Twins' xBA at the end of the game was .239 and the Astros was .242.  So that's my silver lining from what looked like a pretty pitiful performance on the surface.

11 hours ago, ashbury said:

Who else is looking forward to that June 7-9 series hosting the Yanks?

I almost never watch against the Yankees or the Dodgers. Maybe I won't watch the Astros either after last night. I just don't like to watch the Twins lose.

3 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Told my son when I seen the Twins lineup, unless Verlander is terrible, I don't see the Twins scoring tonight, and there is a decent chance they don't even get a hit. Besides Polanco (who isn't having a good season yet) and maybe Kepler, just maybe the Twins lineup was essentially a minor league team and a couple of guys that are as of right now terrible. The two former Yanks OPS are .600 and .592.

The Twins hitters need to get healthy and in a hurry, because with the current lineup against good starting pitchers are going to carve them up.

With that being said this is just one game where a veteran pitcher showing young hitters this is a very hard game, and fairly veteran lineup showing a young pitcher if you can't throw strikes it is going to be a long night.

I agree Archer needs to be on the top of his game tonight because if not this series could get real ugly. Bring on the terrible teams again

 

You nailed it. Scoring enough to have a chance was going to be a tall task for a lineup that's shorted Buxton, Correa, Arraez. And with Sano and Kiriloff's bats and health going in the tank, they're already counting on young, unproven players to find a new stride in the bigs and that just isn't going to happen against Justin Verlander. 

It's going to be a tough series to scrape out a win. 

1 hour ago, 2wins87 said:

 

Hard to tell how much was Welke just giving Verlander veteran calls and how much was Ryan not hitting his spots well enough to get the calls.  He did have a pretty bad miss on a strike for Verlander, I think I remember it and it was one where he missed his spot by quite a bit.

Either way, Verlander took advantage of Welke's generous outside edge, and a strike zone that big will typically lead to a pretty low score.

Verlander was obviously great, he showed how important good command can be.  I wouldn't say he dominated the Twins lineup though.  He struck out 5, and one of those was on a very bad called third strike to Celestino.  The Twins put 4 balls in play with an expected batting average over .500 against him and only one was a hit.  There were also two other well hit balls with xBAs of .350 and .450.

The Astros played a much cleaner game and were able to be patient against some lack of control from our pitchers, but the Twins' xBA at the end of the game was .239 and the Astros was .242.  So that's my silver lining from what looked like a pretty pitiful performance on the surface.

I specifically remember 1 & 2, and how annoying both of those were at the moment when they were clear missed calls. 

We have a pretty good B squad but nevertheless it is our B squad and you can't win big games with your B squad. It's hard to win games w/o Buxton and Correa and w/ a RHP starting Arraez's bat is much missed. I felt sorry for Ryan trying to keep the ball away from this strong line up. 

Verlander pitched great yet got a lot of calls that went his way, I've advocated for a long time for robo umps because regular umps are usually bias towards big teams and big players. With Verlander pitching I'd like to see as many LH hitters in the line up as possible, why wasn't Gordon in the line up? It might not have change anything but you knows? He could have gotten a hit early that could've changed the tide. Kiriloff is noticibly struggling with wrist issue, the place to figure it out is AAA not the MLB.

Ryan wasn't hitting his spots and the Astros were patient enough at the plate. It was obvious to me (in attendance) the Astros had Ryan's number well enough. Verlander just seemed to know what the batter would struggle against all night.

In the end, the Twins lost by 5 runs and didn't put a single hit on the board until the 8th inning. A handful of ball/strikes calls had little or nothing to do with the Twins losing.

On May 3rd , Ryan wasn't as smooth in his start of just under 5 innings  ,

but on May 10th  he was way off the mark and got flustered more when a few calls weren't called strikes ..

Hopefully it is a lesson we'll learned , seems to me that he thinks he should win every game , 

I heard on the Pitcherlist podcast that the Twins barreled 13 balls against Verlander and didn't score a run. Baseball is weird sometimes. 

(Note: I think it was barrels. Might have been hits over 100 MPH. How would I look something like that up?)

9 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Is that not a trait to be desired in our players?

Yes it is and I like it , shouldn't have put it that way  ,,,, his composure got flustered last night with balls and strikes and you can't win many games that way ...