Game Score: Twins 8, Red Sox 4

Fenway Park scored a few runs today, too, for both teams!

Nice inning by Pagan to finish off Ryan's superb outing.

Did Duran give up the runs, or was it our shaky defense?  Take out Buxton and Urshela and that defense is just not going to get it done.  Garlick is not a good fielder, Arraez could leave his glove in his locker.  So glad that we won and our Bipolar fandom was treated to Sano's HR, but missing Buxton in the field is much more serious than missing his bat. 

Here's what I saw in the 8th inning. Arraez ole'd another ball at 3rd that was very playable. Kyle Garlick looked like a slow pitch softball right fielder on Devers 312 foot pop fly. Should have been out of the inning.

I don't know what the heck Garlick was doing on that HR to right. Unless the wind blew it back somehow, which I doubt. He had a good chance to catch it, but he over ran it by a big margin. It ended up a good 6 ft behind him. It looked like it barely made it over the fence. Definitely looked catchable to me.  

Hopefully Garlick won't spend much time in the field or the lineup, he is not good out there. The harder call is Arraez. We need his bat now even more than before with Buxton out but he is an adventure at 3rd. Bad inning against the Dodgers and ole'd another ball he should have played.   

Solution? Hmmm, where to play a hitter who isn't good with the glove..... what's open... Wait, isn't left field open? PLAY ARRAEZ IN LF! Play Urshela every day at 3B, DFA Garlick or option Celestino or Larnach and bring up Miranda to play some at 3B and some at 2B. Improves the batting order and gets Arraez away from 3B. Sano is better there than he is. Wait, Arraez to 1B and Sano to 3B?  Hmmmmm.....

23 minutes ago, CRF said:

I don't know what the heck Garlick was doing on that HR to right. Unless the wind blew it back somehow, which I doubt. He had a good chance to catch it, but he over ran it by a big margin. It ended up a good 6 ft behind him. It looked like it barely made it over the fence. Definitely looked catchable to me.  

Fenway has a very weird angle in right field. There are balls that would be foul in any other park that can end up as home runs there.

Garlick ended up running into the wall too shallow and the ball ended up over his head and into the seats behind him.  He didn't make a very good play on it and had no chance to adjust due to the wall, but it's a tough park for guys that aren't used to it.

Got to see my second Twins win in person at Fenway. It was a pretty perfect day for baseball. Joe Ryan kept the Sox fans pretty subdued most of the game. They got into it in the 8th but the Twins' little counter rally helped to quash that.

Mostly the fans were more animated cheering for shirtless drunk guys in the bleachers, booing the one fan that for some reason decided to show up in full Yankees gear to a Twins-Sox game, or just generally chanting "Yankees suck!"

Ryan and Duran....scary good potential Twins fans!!! 

Ryan looked solid. He is locked in to what he is doing.

Wish I could have watched the game, but alas, work.

Great way for Sano to break out of his early slump. (Hopefully?) He's in great shape and seemed to have a good ST, is the problem bad weather and he can't get loose and comfortable?

Seems that Ryan was DEALING.

Not going to bang on Duran's bad 8th inning, especially if I'm reading correctly the defense did him no favors. But regardless, bad IP happen to everyone, much less a rookie breaking in.

So far, SSS, Sanchez hasn't looked bad behind the plate. Certainly better than what I expected. A healthy roster, I still don't like him in the lineup daily. But after today, he's hitting .227, and that's an improvement over last year. If he can maintain that...heaven forbid he improve and look like the Sanchez of 3yrs ago...with his power and career OB of .300+, I'm OK with him. But without additional improvement, I still like him as a DH occasionally, and not daily. That should be Arraez's spot when not in the field. 

I just don't know Pagan well. He had a couple solid first years, and then a great year for Tampa in 2019. His 2020 ERA for the Padres was mediocre, but the rest of his numbers were actually good. While there has been some debate here on TD, my understanding is that his 2021 was actually really good before a late season "collapse" of about 10 IP that hiked his final numbers. He's looked good thus far as a Twin, SSS. Did we maybe get a pretty decent BP arm out of the Rogers deal?

Lastly, and most importantly, I hope Buck is OK. He was in pain, to be sure, but I think his "ground pound" might have been more frustration than anything. (Hope that's true). The fact that he seemed to walk off without a limp or anything obvious gives me optimism. 

NOTE: While I don't feel Garlick is any kind of answer, up for a few days, I wouldn't be too down on him just yet. He was OK in his brief 2021 with the Twins before he got hurt. Still, I just have to believe the FO has the smarts to make a trade of a non top 20+ prospect to acquire a RH OF from someone either flush, or looking to shed payroll, or not expecting to contend and willing to get something back on an expiring deal.

19 whiffs for Joe Ryan today is a BIG number.  I think it shows the stuff is legit.  Plenty of video out on him now...today's start shows he's here to stay.

Ryan looked great. Sano ran into one. Sanchez and Kirilloff squeezed hits through the infield, and the relief pitchers were fine.

Arraez needs to make the play to him at third and Garlick needs to catch that fly ball, although as someone pointed out on another thread Devers does a good job of hitting a nasty pitch. Duran was good again, but looking at the box score he takes a dive statistically. They don't charge empty net goals against a goalie, but a no touch misplay rarely is charged as an error in baseball despite the wording of errors as normal effort.

I really like watching Joe Ryan and Jhoan Duran pitch.

Pagan might sneak up on some American Leaguer's.

4 minutes ago, wabene said:

Pagan might sneak up on some American Leaguer's.

HIs stuff looked great.....goofy delivery....rising fastball (96) and a nasty slider.  Hope that's the real Pagan

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

Ryan looked great. Sano ran into one. Sanchez and Kirilloff squeezed hits through the infield, and the relief pitchers were fine.

Arraez needs to make the play to him at third and Garlick needs to catch that fly ball, although as someone pointed out on another thread Devers does a good job of hitting a nasty pitch. Duran was good again, but looking at the box score he takes a dive statistically. They don't charge empty net goals against a goalie, but a no touch misplay rarely is charged as an error in baseball despite the wording of errors as normal effort.

I know Jr Babe Ruth players that wouldn't butcher two plays like Araez and Garlick (just DFA him already) did.  Trashed what would have been a solid inning for Duran, whose stuff is just FILTHY in every inning, and is worth a ticket just to watch.

Why does Rocco feel the need to get two innings out of Duran? He's not our long relief, not our mop-up guy. He should be getting groomed for late inning, high-leverage outings. Soon as closer.  As with Rodriguez the game before, he will not let a reliever end on a high note. Once Rodriguez went once around the lineup, he should have been pulled. Did great. Instead, burned, game got out of hand (once again), and deflated another relievers ego. Today, Duran had a great inning. Boom. Sit him. Next up. Pitch Duran again tomorrow or next day. Now he's down a little on himself and has too many pitches on his arm to be useful for a couple days. Comes down to poor bullpen mgmt.

If God were scoring, Duran would not be charged for any of the runs.  Arraez bailed on a hard hit ground ball and Garlic managed to turn a normal fly into a home run.  I would swear that the foul pole is only 250 feet from home plate and not the advertised 312.  However, for a brighter note, because I live in Maine, I watched the game on NESN with the Boston announcers.  They were falling all over themselves trying to find the right words to say that would convey how much they were impressed by Ryan and Duran.  The downside, however, was that the term "splinker" was never used.  So I still don't know what it looks like.

Joe Ryan is even better than I thought. He was toying with Red Sox hitters, getting them to swing at pitches outside the zone, Then, a guy came up that looked like he was ready to be patient. Ryan drilled a strike, right down the middle. This kid can put his fastball anywhere he wants, and his slider is getting there. If his change gets more consistent, that could become another out pitch, too. If he can avoid that notorious middle-in zone on power hitters, he'll have a very small ERA.

Hey, now I'm wondering if Emilio Pagan was the best part of the Taylor Rogers trade! Looks like a pretty good closer to me!

I don't know if I said it previously, but if I didn't I will. I like the Ryan Express, so much. I saw him pitch here in Japan, and he really looked poised and very confident.

11 hours ago, 2wins87 said:

Fenway has a very weird angle in right field. There are balls that would be foul in any other park that can end up as home runs there.

Garlick ended up running into the wall too shallow and the ball ended up over his head and into the seats behind him.  He didn't make a very good play on it and had no chance to adjust due to the wall, but it's a tough park for guys that aren't used to it.

Tough even for guys who are used to it. Kike Hernandez misplayed that Larnach fly ball out in center field where that little corner juts out. Not an easy place to play outfield.

Baldelli completely mis manges his bullpen.  If the analytic computer is doing that for him then they shou both be gone lol.  Ryan looked great.  I was surprised Baldelli didn't take him out after 4 innings.  Nice victory.  Aareaz is terrible at third and has shown that for quite sometime.  The great Garlick?  Yes Fenway is a tough park to play in but come on this is major league baseball.  No excuse for butchering a play like that.  Hope Buxton isn't out too long.  

1 hour ago, Sconnie said:

I believe it to be 2 reasons.

1) he could start again, if he’s already stretched out to 2, he could stretch out faster to 3/4/5 again pretty quickly

2) workload management for the rotation.   It’s also why there’s a 6 man rotation. They do not have the horses for a full season.

I'd rather he be available multiple times for one series, able to work high-leverage situations in games, versus some of the other arms in the pen. He can't be stretched to a starter at this point in the season. We have 6 starters in the dugout, plus Winder. Maximize your staff, your situations.