Twins Video
J.A. Happ: 7.0 IP, 11 H, 7 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (65% strikes)
Homeruns: none
Bottom 3 WPA: Happ (-.195), Cruz (-.134), Larnach (-.111)
Win Probability Chart (via Fangraphs)
.png.03a6dc8e90a351c9f5914cf5cabac0dc.png)
Happ Eats Innings...And That’s About It.
I don’t mean to sound ungrateful about Happ giving the Twins seven innings in a single game surrounded by double headers, but it’s hard to be appreciative when his heat map looked like this through five innings.
The red zone in the middle only got bigger throughout his last two innings, which is how you end up with 1 walk and 65% strikes (good) but allowing 11 hits and seven earned runs (baaad). He was efficient to a fault on Sunday and even generated a 15.4-percent swinging strike rate, but ultimately threw too many hittable pitches as the Tigers had an xBA of .299 against Happ.
On the year, Happ’s ERA now sits at 6.15 and, using FanGraphs Game Score metric, has pitched as many below average games as above average. Furthermore, his “above average” games are barely that, whereas a few of his below average games have been really, really bad. At this point, it’s hard to see Happ having any value to anyone and it will be interesting to see how long he’s on the roster, if he makes it to the trade deadline.
Offense Lifeless Against Detroit..Again
The Twins were only able to muster up six hits against the Tigers, and three of those hits were quickly erased with double plays from Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, and Trevor Larnach. It's worth noting that the Twins may have had a bit of bad luck today as they're xBA was .308 and their actual team batting average was a measly .206. As if scoring zero runs wasn't enough to show the lack of highlights for the day, I usually like to embed tweets from the Twins or Bally's Sports North for replays but even they didn't have anything to tweet during the game. Ouch.
It was encouraging to see Larnach get two hits today as he was in a considerable slump in the week leading up to the All-Star break and had gone a combined 0-for-6 during the Saturday doubleheader. The other lone bright spot on the day was Luis Arraez who had a couple great at-bats and ended the day with two hits of his own, including the Twins only extra-base hit of the day.
Getting shutout by a team that is eight games below .500 isn't good and the Twins did it twice in two days. Along with the offense, the only thing that is going to make this team enjoyable to watch is the emergence of the young talent over the next couple months. We may not have a lot of highlights but hopefully we'll have a lot of hopeful signs for 2022 and beyond.
Bullpen Usage
Juan Minaya, who was just recalled from St. Paul, came on to pitch the eighth inning where he faced the minimum and struck out a batter. He's only thrown 7.1 innings in 2021 but with the state of the Twins season and bullpen, I'd hope to see him stick with the club and improve on his 3.68 ERA.
| WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN | TOT | |
| Burrows | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 0 | 32 |
| Rogers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 21 |
| Robles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 18 |
| Minaya | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 13 |
| Thielbar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Duffey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Colomé | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alcala | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The Twins travel to Chicago for another double header against the White Sox on Monday followed by night caps on Tuesday and Wednesday before coming back home on Thursday.
MORE FROM TWINS DAILY
— Latest Twins coverage from our writers
— Recent Twins discussion in our forums
— Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email
— Become a Twins Daily Caretaker
Recommended Comments
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.