Game Recap: Reds 10, Twins 7

Good to see some late inning moxie. Too bad we have the pitching we do. But the other thing I noticed was that the Reds batters, particularly in the 8th against Colome, were defensive hitters, and guarded the plate. Naquin, Farmer, and Barnhart all got dink hits by putting the ball in play and relied on the Twins horrible fielding to score the three runs. All of them got hits (or Sano error) by hitting balls low and out of the zone. In the mean time, Arraez was begging for a walk, instead of taking care the plate to end the eighth, even after he was gifted a ball on a second pitch strike. He takes pitch six for another called third strike and Ks to end the rallly.

Well the BP is consistent.  It blew games in the past and now that we are past the 60 games of last season they are starting over to blow games again.  Is there any hope for Colome?  I know a lot of  people like Robles, personally I hope he is traded and we start over in the Pen.  The bats are looking great and these young hitters are here to stay.  Maybe Celestino will see his bat wake up, his fielding is picking up and he is our Buxton replacement, not Gordon.  Gordon is good as a utility man and back up.

Am I the only one confused by Rocco's pinch hitting today?  Sending Donaldson in with 2 outs and a runner on first in the 7th?  I feel he would have been better served being kept available for a juicier opportunity in the 8th or 9th.

Even more baffling is letting Simmons hit in the 8th, but then pinch hitting the very next at bat for Gordon.  I think I would rather have Arraez and Gordon bat, and not Simmons and Arraez.

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

Arraez is in the 99th percentile for K rate and he's the one you want to call out? Talk about small sample size bias.

It's perfectly valid to call out Arraez in this situation.  It's not that he's never allowed to strikeout--it's that he failed to protect the plate on a two strike count, and so let the umpire take the bat out of his hands.  In that situation, if you aren't 100% sure a pitch will be a ball, you need to foul it off.

Arraez' PA came across as a guy hoping not to make an out, rather than a guy hoping to get a hit.  Championship players live for that opportunity, and the past few games, Arraez has been coming through in those situations.  Because of that, I'm not calling Arraez unclutch or anything, but I am fairly surprised he was totally comfortable allowing the ump to decide his fate.

Also noticed this in the excellent Minors weekly update.... It looks like Duran is not going to be in the near future plans now, either..... 

" on Sunday he was placed on the Injured List with a right elbow strain. That is the same injury that both Blayne Enlow and Matt Canterino were IL’d with last month."

Enlow has already had TJ surgery on June 9.

Bummer to see our winning streak come to an end, but with this pitching staff (see below) it was inevitable. A few other observations:

1.  Nice to see the continued development of Kirilloff and Larnach.  Hopefully, they'll both remain healthy for remainder of season.  2 huge building blocks for the future.  Got to believe the defensive future for Kirilloff will be at 1B next season.

2.  Nelson Cruz:  Nice to see the resurgence of Cruz this month (.400 avg) going 24-60 with 6 jacks and 1`3 RBI after after an abysmal performance in May (.221 avg/ 3 HR/ 6 RBI).  Hopefully Falvey can get something of value in a trade as he deserves a shot with team contending to make playoffs.

3.  Ryan Jeffers:  Also continues to improve with his bat and is FAR superior defensively to Garver.  Hope Garver can recover to platoon with Jeffers.  As much as I like Rortvedt---his production at the plate is beyond poor (6-47/.128 avg).

4.  Gilbert Celestino:  Honestly, I like this kid and strongly believe DOWN THE ROAD (2023) he could be a viable MLB starter for Twins somewhere in the OF.  Saying that-----he's NOT ready to be playing CF at this level as evidenced by continued lack of production.  Now hitting .118 (4-34)--which is bad enough, but it forces Baldelli to pinch hit for him early in the game in any situation with runners on base.  Celestino's bat needs development in the minors.  He was barely hitting .250 at AA Wichita before his brief call up to Saint Paul.  Kid has some excellent defensive tools---not taking into account his bonehead play in KC a couple of weeks ago---but he needs to develop confidence refining his batting skills in AAA or AA.

....and finally............our woebegone pitching staff.  Sure would've like to see Ober's command allow him to finish stronger than he did.  I think he can be part of the puzzle in our future rotation with Winder, Balazovic, Duran, Sands, Canterino and a few others. 

Until those young SPs can develop---whatever "plan" Falvey/Levine-Pohlad has for the offseason MUST focus 90% on pitching.  Not sure what the ERA is now for our staff/bullpen, but I did discover that in 19 of our now 42 losses (45.2%) our pitching staff has been bludgeoned for 7+ runs.  In 10 of those 19 losses (52.6%) our offense has actually scored 4+ runs.

For those "keeping score"-------today was the 7th time our pitchers have given up 10 or more runs.  

Whatever plan was used to put this staff together in the offseason----can be described as nothing better than TOTAL FAILURE.

Bullpen blew our great comeback.  Colome was awful for several reasons. Bad enough he couldn't keep the score close...but he was slow as a tortoise  on the hill...that puts everyone in a bad spot. It was commented on during the telecast and rightly so. Pitchers who work too slow don't do anyone any favors.

Robles today was terrible. I guess it happens. but after a 5 run comeback, his outing was pretty discouraging.

13 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Am I the only one confused by Rocco's pinch hitting today?  Sending Donaldson in with 2 outs and a runner on first in the 7th?  I feel he would have been better served being kept available for a juicier opportunity in the 8th or 9th.

Even more baffling is letting Simmons hit in the 8th, but then pinch hitting the very next at bat for Gordon.  I think I would rather have Arraez and Gordon bat, and not Simmons and Arraez.

Very good observation as I wondered the same thing.  Right now-----and for a large chunk of the season------Simmons ABs have been painful to watch.  Far too many unproductive outs with some of the absolute WORST I'VE EVER SEEN swings by a MLB player.  His .242 avg and .314 OBP will not be missed next season......or hopefully in August or September as some team desperate for defense will make a decent offer of a prospect or two.

48 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

It's just another example of why I strongly disagree with those who downplay RBI these days. 

31 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

As for RBIs being downplayed (and I'm someone who downplays them)

OK, so we are now onto the great RBI vs RBI's debate, and fella's, there is only one right answer here?:  R'sBI.

Runs is plural, always has been, always will be. We are not talking intestinal distress here, but moving multiple runners across home plate over time. 

An argument may be made to move the possessive to the end, after In, but, for consistency, I prefer it remain where it rightfully belongs, proximate to the noun it so modifies, hence, R's it is. I have dutifully notified MLB of the same and expect full compliance forthrightly, in about the same time frame as the sticky stuff disappears from pitching gloves.

And after winning four straight, some of us may have been thinking maybe there is a way for them to dig their way back into this race.  Then Buxton gets taken out and we have another shot of their bullpen today....and reality sets in!

1 hour ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

I'm not calling Arraez unclutch or anything

Good, because he's been totally clutch of late. Fair to say it was not his best AB.

55 minutes ago, Game7-91 said:

 

OK, so we are now onto the great RBI vs RBI's debate, and fella's, there is only one right answer here?:  R'sBI.

Runs is plural, always has been, always will be. We are not talking intestinal distress here, but moving multiple runners across home plate over time. 

An argument may be made to move the possessive to the end, after In, but, for consistency, I prefer it remain where it rightfully belongs, proximate to the noun it so modifies, hence, R's it is. I have dutifully notified MLB of the same and expect full compliance forthrightly, in about the same time frame as the sticky stuff disappears from pitching gloves.

RBI is Runs Batted In. Already Plural. Redundant and unnecessary to add any s anywhere. (Funny that one of the oldest baseball stat abbreviations is one that is used technically wrong - RBIs - so often). Good luck on your mission. 

It is so often used wrong, but I know what they mean when they use it with an s. Like ath-a-lete and real-a-tor, as long as the communication is there, it works for me. I know you didn't axe me, but I chimed in just the same. 

13 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Well the BP is consistent.  It blew games in the past and now that we are past the 60 games of last season they are starting over to blow games again.  Is there any hope for Colome?  I know a lot of  people like Robles, personally I hope he is traded and we start over in the Pen. 

Robles stinks, has stunk all year. He was carrying a sub 3.00 ERA going into the game yesterday which shocked me. Alas, after his implosion it's at 3.50 and his 19 walks in 30 innings are enough to scare teams away. I think the Twins will be lucky to get anything for him. Colome is pretty much worthless, you might be able to get someone to take on his salary but I can't imagine another team who would want him. If you're a Boston fan, a Rays fan, a Houston fan, do you want Colome in your bullpen? Rhetorical question, of course.

All new pitching signees this year were older vets who were coming off either bad or subpar years.  They let their best arm (May) walk. Super lazy and cheap effort by the FO and they burned down the whole building.

I think the Twins try to compete next year with Bux and Berrios entering their final seasons on the team. Throw in an aging Donaldson on a big contract, they pretty much have to throw the kitchen sink at 2022.

1 hour ago, Dodecahedron said:

There are positives to take from this game.  The offense is better, the defense is improving, and the position players are no longer rolling over for the rest of the game when the opponent scores.  The Twins have finally stopped playing as if they were in the playoffs.

Whether or not this burst of energy is short-lived or not depends on them.

As for RBIs, I think what the poster is trying to get at is this is the old Attorneys General debate, where the s for plural does not go at the end of the phrase.  Things change when something becomes an acronym, though, unless you are one of those people whose mind reads out the whole phrase when one sees an acronym.  Yes, there are people who do that, thus the debate.  If you don't do that, the word "RBI" is singular, grammatically speaking, and yes the way to pluralize that is to put an s at the end.  This is true even if the full phrase, not the acronym, puts the s somewhere else.

The entire RBI or RBIs or RsBI debate is R BS I. Who is pedantic enough to care? 

hola.

i think robles became too concerned with the runner on second after that double in the 9th. he could not take his eyes off the runner and was pissed off - he was dissed and he didn't like it. it got into his head and he couldn't deliver the pitches after that and gave up the home run. his head was a mess.

Watching Colome and Robles is torture. They are sooooooooo slooooooooooow. Throw the ball!