MIL 6, MIN 5: Twins Blow 3-Run Lead in 9th Inning

The bullpen was fine outside of Colome. 

Sure. Giving up the winning run on three pitches, 2 of which get hit, is just another fine bullpen performance outside of Colome. Contact pitcher is just what you need with a runner on second and no outs to start the 10th. 3 pitches and game over. A fine performance.

Twins starters will need to get past the FIFTH inning (can’t believe the bar is that low) or this team will struggle immensely. The bullpen is not trash but it will be gassed completely if they have to get 12+ outs every night. People complaining about depth but very few teams have 4-5 studs coming out of the pen. Very similar stuff happened last year in the shortened season. This is a modern problem across all of baseball, starters not lasting long enough. I assume maeda, Pineda and berrios could be guys that routinely go longer than 5, but happ and shoemaker? Oh boy.

 

We did enough to win this game but not with the horrendous defense. I simply can’t fathom how a big league vet doesn’t know what base to throw to. Unreal.

I just looked around the MLB matchups today, and only a single pitcher got outs in the 7th inning today. The average starter went about 4.1-4.2 innings - it's early in the season and starters won't be given as large leashes, but this is just how things are for the majority of MLB teams now. This is why teams are carrying more relievers than they used to and are cycling through options at AAA. 

The worst part about today is that the game went 4 hours... even before the 10th inning started!

Wow does this game bring out the emotions.  One loss - 161 games to go, but it really did hurt. 

Sure. Giving up the winning run on three pitches, 2 of which get hit, is just another fine bullpen performance outside of Colome. Contact pitcher is just what you need with a runner on second and no outs to start the 10th. 3 pitches and game over. A fine performance.

That's a product of a stupid rule. Dobnak was not the problem. Strikeouts are needed in that situation. Mishandling of the bullpen. There's 161 games to go. If a game like this happened in game 54, no panicking would ensue.

Robles looked solid. Kepler had a great game. Buxton too. Maeda had 1 long inning, but other than that wasn't awful. Rogers was solid. Arraez was fine. Lots of positives to take away from the game.

The bullpen, which many of us have been harping on for months. blows a 3 run lead in the first game. Can’t make it up. That’s a wonderful tone setter.

That record breaking Donaldson signing is sure going well.

No grace period for the wonder boys in the front office seeing their errors on center stage. Game 1.

"The bullpen" didn't blow the lead. Colome did.

That's a product of a stupid rule. Dobnak was not the problem. Strikeouts are needed in that situation. Mishandling of the bullpen. There's 161 games to go. If a game like this happened in game 54, no panicking would ensue.

 

Robles looked solid. Kepler had a great game. Buxton too. Maeda had 1 long inning, but other than that wasn't awful. Rogers was solid. Arraez was fine. Lots of positives to take away from the game.

I'm in full agreement that this is only one game and that no individual loss is worth exerting any mental or emotional energy over.

I disagree that Baldelli mismanaged the pen. If Colome did his job, it would have been a pretty smooth win. Baldelli set his players up for success. They have to freaking execute.

Edit: I agree, the extra innings rule is garbage.

17 Strikeouts shows you have a pathetic offense 

They put 5 runs despite leaving 13 men on base. A timely hit in the 5th or 6th off of Peralta and the game is borderline out of reach entering the 9th. That's far from a pathetic offense.

Losing game 1 hurt because it's game one of fun and optimism and it seemed we had it in the bag. And there was a lot to like from Arraez and Kepler and Buxton and most of the pen.

Honestly, I'm PO'd with Colome. But he has been great for about 5yrs. So this was a horrible first appearance! But it's still 1 game, no matter how bad it was.

Not going to bang on a quality RP for ONE GAME. But it was disappointing. But one game is not enough to bring panic to 1 game.

Max Kepler you sandbagger you. Got us all freaked out in spring training then matches ST output in the 1st game. Now let's get back to catching the ball, shall we?

Buzz kill for sure, but "it's gonna be a long year"? Give me a break.

The bullpen, which many of us have been harping on for months. blows a 3 run lead in the first game. Can’t make it up. That’s a wonderful tone setter.

That record breaking Donaldson signing is sure going well.

No grace period for the wonder boys in the front office seeing their errors on center stage. Game 1.

It wasn't the whole bullpen. Stashak and Rogers were great and Robles was good after the first few pitches looked a bit rough. This is all on Colome and the defense.

Play ball.

White Sox fans had to be laughing watching their former guy blow it for us.

What a bust. Also, Maeda didn't pitch terribly, he'd have made it to 5 innings if Simmons didn't botch that double-play ball.

Simmons with a crucial error, Colome with one of the worst blown saves in the history of the organization - Twins need a win tomorrow or things are going to start feeling real negative....

I agree with whoever said on this thread that they should put runners on 2nd base starting in the 12th inning. I really liked that.

Buxton - career year coming down the pipeline? Two walks, SB, and a dinger? Me likee.

On the plus side, Cleveland and the Whities lost, and, for schadenfreude fans, Kyle Gibson lasted all of a third of an inning for Texas against the Royals, giving up 5 runs.

And, in a bit of symmetry, the Royals turned around and gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 1st.

Gotta love baseball!

Dobnak wasn't a problem of the construction of the 'pen rather awful management. Rocco had other options but he went with Dobnak. Why? IDK.

Because at that point the Twins were going to have to pitch minimum 2 innings to get the win. He drops Dobnak in there to pitch both the 10th and hopefully the 11th. since they knew it was 2 innings to win, he picked a guy he knew could go 2 innings easily.

Weird game in watching the D fail like that because two of the bigger eff ups were from guys who are superior defenders (Simmons & Kepler, even though Kepler's was ruled a "double", that's a play he should have made and Morneau said so at the time). Hate to see them kick away a win like that, but good to see the bats look solid against a very good pitcher.

Except for Garver. 

Never have a closer with a crooked hat. They didn't learn that lesson.

While watching this game yesterday, after Maeda was taken out in the 5th, my senile, old mind thought "How about bringing in Dobnak to pitch the next two or three innings and save the bullpen?". It would have been similar to starting a game and Dobnak has been pretty good all spring.

Oh well, 161-1 should get the Twins to post season.

I blame the catcher on the ball Colombe threw to second. It's the catcher's job to yell out "first base" on that type of play. Still, Colombe should have known better. If he takes the out, we win the game. But he didn't. And out 2 best contact hitters couldn't make contact against the best reliever in the game. Oh well, it's only 1 game.

That 9th inning was so ugly.  It shows how poor mental prep that leads to bad decision to throw to second.  I mean how long has Colombe played baseball?  Everyone should no to get the easy out.  Double play was not going to happen, so get the second out.  Then Kepler has tough catch bounce out of glove.  Two plays that should have been made and we win the game.  

I have been preaching how important defense is.  One error, one non-made play that is not an error, giving two extra outs.  No wonder they scored 3 runs.  I am most upset at the decision to throw to second, it should never had been attempted.  Everyone on the field should have been yelling at him to go to first.  

Justin summarized it correctly even if you get the out at second, the harder play, the runner on first will just get second through defensive indifference so you gain nothing.  I do not blame Rocco, but if that mistake is made again by any pitcher in that situation I would blame him for not teaching his guys properly. 

A few thoughts;

I get not bringing in Dobnak in the 5th, with a couple on (although with those two at first and second, a groundball pitcher who can hopefully get you a DP ball seems like a good idea).  What I don't get is not bringing him in to start the 6th and get you an inning or two.  If Rocco is going to use up his best options in the 5th and 6th of every game we're up by one or down by one, we're going to have a gassed bullpen by June.  At some point, your "lesser" options have to do more than eat innings in blowouts, and if the organization doesn't trust them to do that, they shouldn't be rostered.

I have to disagree with the whole "if the best pitchers do their job, you wouldn't need extras" argument.  Yesterday, the Twins bullpen before Colome gave up 0 runs in 3.2 IP.  If they give up one run in that stretch instead, and Buxton doesn't hit his homer, it still goes to extras, with the pen x Colome posting an ERA of 2.45 for the day, which would be the best bullpen ERA in the entire league for any of the past 5 years.

I have to disagree with the whole "if the best pitchers do their job, you wouldn't need extras" argument.  Yesterday, the Twins bullpen before Colome gave up 0 runs in 3.2 IP.  If they give up one run in that stretch instead, and Buxton doesn't hit his homer, it still goes to extras, with the pen x Colome posting an ERA of 2.45 for the day, which would be the best bullpen ERA in the entire league for any of the past 5 years.

This seems like overthinking. Colome entered with a three run cushion and gave up the lead. It's as simple as that, IMO.

For the record, I think Colome is a good pitcher and a good guy to sign. He just blew it yesterday.

I was a bit disappointed in Luis Arraez.

in the top of the 3rd inning, his 2nd AB. He hit a weak grounder to the 2nd basemen, who bobbled it, recovered and threw him out because he dogged it down to 1st base. Justin Morneau correctly pointed out that had he hustled out of the box, he likely would have been safe and it could have been a much bigger inning for us as he was the lead off hitter. I recognize that he is a very talented player, but I would not put up with garbage like that if I was the manager.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Avisail Garcia reached on an infield single that Arraez muffed. That was tough play, not an error, but much greater chance that Donaldson would have made that play as I've seen him do countless times. That extended the inning and the Brewers scored on the next AB.

They put 5 runs despite leaving 13 men on base. A timely hit in the 5th or 6th off of Peralta and the game is borderline out of reach entering the 9th. That's far from a pathetic offense.

AND........ since they DIDN'T get that timely hit, but STRUCKOUT instead is what ....?? ....  until they get the timely hit verses striking out it is...... Pathetic!

I was a bit disappointed in Luis Arraez.

 

in the top of the 3rd inning, his 2nd AB. He hit a weak grounder to the 2nd basemen, who bobbled it, recovered and threw him out because he dogged it down to 1st base. Justin Morneau correctly pointed out that had he hustled out of the box, he likely would have been safe and it could have been a much bigger inning for us as he was the lead off hitter. I recognize that he is a very talented player, but I would not put up with garbage like that if I was the manager.

 

In the bottom of the 3rd, Avisail Garcia reached on an infield single that Arraez muffed. That was tough play, not an error, but much greater chance that Donaldson would have made that play as I've seen him do countless times. That extended the inning and the Brewers scored on the next AB.

Arraez is a defensive liability. More so at 3B than at 2B. The other option is Astudillo who'd be even worse, or move Sano back to 3B which might be the better option however I don't know if he'd have made that play either.

I agree about the hustle running down to 1st base. Tom Kelly would have had a few choice words for him.