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  • PHI 2, MIN 1: Kepler Stays Hot, Hoskins Pops Deciding Homer

    Tom Froemming

    By Tom Froemming

    Sometimes you lose a game, sometimes you win a game and sometimes you just get beat. The Twins managed to check all three of those boxes in this series at Philadelphia.

    The Twins couldn’t muster any more scoring outside of a leadoff home run while the Phillies hit a two-out, two-run homer and made an excellent play to nail a Twins runner at the plate.

    Image courtesy of © Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

    Twins Video

    Box Score

    Berrios: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 65.3% strikes (64 of 98)

    Home Runs: Kepler (3)

    Multi-Hit Games: Kepler (2-for-4, HR), Gonzalez (2-for-4)

    WPA of +0.1: Kepler .130

    WPA of -0.1: Schoop -.120, Cron -.126

    Win47.png

    (chart via FanGraphs)

    This game got off to a tremendous start for the Twins, as Kepler homered for the third straight game. This was Kepler’s eighth game of 2019, it took him 10 games last season to reach three homers, 32 games in 2017 and 33 in ‘16. So trending in the right direction.

    https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1114938832565067777

    It was also apparent early that Jose Berrios had his good stuff working once again. Berrios carried a shutout into the sixth inning, but it’s going to be tough for anybody to keep this Phillies lineup down for long.

    Berrios walked Andrew McCutchen to lead off the sixth inning, managed to retire both Jean Segura and Bryce Harper, but gave up a two-run home run to Rhys Hoskins to give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead. It was a good pitch, a curveball down and away on the corner, and Hoskins didn’t even appear to put all that great of a swing on it, but that’s a strong dude.

    https://twitter.com/DevanFink/status/1114972115520905217

    Berrios leaned a bit more on his offspeed pitches in his first two starts of the year and really went curveball crazy this afternoon. He deployed that pitch 51 times today among the 98 pitches he threw. That’s pretty bonkers, considering Jose threw that curveball 30.4 percent of the time last season. It’ll be interesting to follow his use of that pitch going forward.

    https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1114957050776309761

    The Twins only had one other really strong scoring chance. Marwin Gonzalez hit a leadoff single in the fourth inning, advanced to second on a ground out and tried to score from there on an Ehire Adrianza single. McCutchen made a beautiful play, throwing a strike to home plate, and Gonzalez was tagged out by inches.

    It’s too bad the Twins couldn’t muster any offense after the Kepler leadoff homer, but all in all I’d have to say this was an encouraging series for the Twins. Friday night was ugly, but they were able to hang tough against a formidable Phillies team otherwise. That bodes well for a team that gets to face the AL Central in nearly half of their games.

    Postgame With Baldelli

    https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1114987731686309888

    Bullpen Usage

    Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

    Bullpen47.png

    Next Three Games

    Tue at NYM, 6:10 pm CT (Gibson-deGrom)

    Wed at NYM, 6:10 pm CT (Odorizzi-Syndergaard)

    Fri vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT (TBD)

    Last Game

    MIN 6, PHI 2: Twins Find Power Stroke, Slug 3 Homers in Victory

    More From Twins Daily

    Twins Minor League Report (4/6): And on the Third Day, There Was Baseball

    The 12 Stages of Willians Astudillo Fandom

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    Follow Tom Froemming on Twitter: TFTwins

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    Featured Comments

    yarnivek1972

    yarnivek1972 6,290

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    I'd say pretty similar both ways. Some obvious balls called strikes both ways, but they're in the same areas, so I guess at least the missed calls were for the most part consistent.

     

    I look at that and interpret it very differently. There were 5 pitches on or in the box called balls for the Twins compared with 2 for the Phillies. In two instances the Twins did NOT get a call at the bottom of the zone that the Phillies’ pitcher got TWICE.

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    Mike Sixel

    Mike Sixel 41,021

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

    I look at that and interpret it very differently. There were 5 pitches on or in the box called balls for the Twins compared with 2 for the Phillies. In two instances the Twins did NOT get a call at the bottom of the zone that the Phillies’ pitcher got TWICE.

     

    The Twins had A LOT more pitches on the line.....so the fact that more were missed is not a surprise to me.

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    yarnivek1972

    yarnivek1972 6,290

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    The Twins had A LOT more pitches on the line.....so the fact that more were missed is not a surprise to me.

    The problem, of course, is that is where successful pitchers live. Frankly, at this point in his career, Berrios has earned borderline calls. He was an all star last year. Of course, not all of those calls were necesarily for/against Berrios. That’s a graph for all Twins’ pitchers if I interpret correctly.

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    Nine of twelve

    Nine of twelve 7,163

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    The problem, of course, is that is where successful pitchers live. Frankly, at this point in his career, Berrios has earned borderline calls. He was an all star last year. Of course, not all of those calls were necesarily for/against Berrios. That’s a graph for all Twins’ pitchers if I interpret correctly.

    Nobody should have to earn a correct call. Automated pitch calling is currently at or above the level of humans and will improve. It's time to take action to install that.

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    Otto von Ballpark

    Otto von Ballpark 20,320

  • Community Leader

    • Posted

     

    Nobody should have to earn a correct call. Automated pitch calling is currently at or above the level of humans and will improve. It's time to take action to install that.

    Personally, I don't mind the imperfections of human umpires, but I'm starting to endorse robo-umps, in the hopes that it would reduce the "we wuz robbed!" fan commentary.

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    Tom Froemming

    Tom Froemming 9,895

  • Twins Daily Staff

    • Posted

     

    I don't know, it kind of looks like he stole two maybe three strikes and had five maybe four strikes called balls.

    One thing that's worth keeping in mind, and is probably the reason we don't have an electronic strike zone right now, is that not every batter has the exact same zone. There's a six-inch height difference between Rhys Hoskins and Jean Segura, for example. So, while I enjoy looking at this stuff and try to pass along the data whenever balls and strikes are brought up, it's not the gospel. 

     

    As long as there aren't an alarming number of pitches in the zone called balls, as we saw in some of Mitch Garver's games last season (but not so far this year), I think it's pretty difficult to get worked up either way. But, you're never ever going to get every call on the black, I think you're generally lucky to go 50/50 on those pitches, from what I have observed.

     

    When I look at the Twins chart, I see four balls that were called strikes against only one strike that was called a ball.

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    wallyrichards

    wallyrichards 51

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

    They may want to check Hoskins bat for cork. The game winning home run looked llike it was playable when it left his bat but it kept going and going and going. These guys have to give Barrious a little more support when he goes out and pitches a good game like that. We need a little more than one run. 

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    Riverbrian

    Riverbrian 32,096

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

    They may want to check Hoskins bat for cork. The game winning home run looked llike it was playable when it left his bat but it kept going and going and going. These guys have to give Barrious a little more support when he goes out and pitches a good game like that. We need a little more than one run. 

     

    That home run was scary. If the can park it on that pitch... he can park it on any pitch. 

     

    Forget Harper... Hoskins is the guy to watch in Philly. 

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    Nine of twelve

    Nine of twelve 7,163

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    Personally, I don't mind the imperfections of human umpires, but I'm starting to endorse robo-umps, in the hopes that it would reduce the "we wuz robbed!" fan commentary.

    It would reduce the "we wuz robbed!" fan commentary because it would reduce robbery.

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