Rays 6, Twins 0 Twins Come Up Short Failing to Get First Sweep of Rays in Target Field History

That was a stinker all the way around.  I could have been worse, but Duffey and Thornburg saves the rest of the pen.

I love the way that you try to give Duffey an at a boy - he starts out giving up a HR.  It was not a good outing.  Oh well, we won two.  

A hit, a walk and a homerun. Thank goodness the homer was a solo. Duffey...well, at least he didn't make the game close.

101 pitches for Sands, Stretching him out. He needs to now work in St. Paul consistently before his next callup.

Pretty sure it was being shutout that lost this one. 

Enough of Cole Sands - might be time for his agent to start looking at sending him out to join our old buddy Charlie Barnes in Japan. Guys like Sands and Barnes are just organizational fodder that end up in the meat grinder once in a while due to injuries. FWIW I think Barnes was far and away more successful than Sands in his brief stint.

Although a rough day (and our 8th time being shutout this season), I expected it with Sands pitching.

Changing my negative tune...at least for today....I will instead focus on the POSITIVE (not my style):

#1  With all the warts and continued issues with this team--------lets not forget their in 1st place with a 3-game lead over CLE with a 35-27 record.

Last year, through 62 games---------10 games worse:   25-37

#2  Although an offensive stinker today, lets not ignore the fact that this offense scored 54 runs/ 6 per game over their last 9 against the BEST teams in the AL East.

#3   This team actually had a WINNING record against the 'Beasts of the East' with a 5-4 record.  

How many of us actually predicted "that" after losing 4 of 5 in DET?

#4   Correa's bat is looking its getting hot.  AVG up to .303---------2-3 today.

#5   Ryan and Gray are set to return to the rotation this week!  Hopefully, they won't be on a strict pitch count.

With the emergence of Smeltzer as a viable SP combined with the recent improvement of Archer----this at least for now gives our rotation a semblance of stability and quality.   I got to think if Ober can get healthy soon, the days of seeing Dylan Bundy starting are becoming fewer and fewer.  That is not a bad thing.

#6  Tyler Thornburg----yes in mop up duty, actually impressed me throwing 2.33 shutout innings.  

#7   Duffey:  Throwing him a bone here.......he got the last 5 outs without giving up a run.  

Not sure what others think, but I'd be satisfied with a 3-3 split on the road this week at SEA and AZ.

101 pitches for Sands does that officially mean the Twins are done with him?

"This was his best start ... I thought he threw the ball really well." Rocco,

He gave up 5 runs in 4 2/3 and that is his best start, not a good sign, I have enough of the Sands experiment, time to see if another team thinks this 25 year old pitcher is worth anything (he will be 25 in a month)

I will add sitting Buxton and Correa at home on a Saturday was unacceptable (it worked Saturday), Me and my son were planning on going but we waited to get tickets until the lineup was announced and then decided not to, Had no plans on going today since Sands was pitching and that was going to be a loss no matter how well Buxton and Correa played, sure I get they were facing a lefty today and Saturday was a day after a night game, blah, blah, blah, but am not paying full price to see that lineup.

Unfortunately the way the Twins players get hurt we probably have not seen the last of Sands. It would be nice to see Ryan, Gray, Archer, Smeltzer and Ober make every start the rest of the season but we all know that won't happen. Arizona and Seattle both have losing records. Twins couldn't capitalize against the Royals and Tigers so it'll be interesting to see how they play out west. Seems they play "up to" or "down to" their competition. 

Finally, a loss that wasn't a brutal giveaway!

As for Sands, I think he may be better off switching to being a reliever. I know that's always a first reaction to seeing a starting pitcher struggling when first coming up, but I don't think his stuff looks good enough to hang in the majors. Reminds me of when Zach Littell first came up - he looked way better once he moved to the pen and gained a few ticks on his fastball.

Minor adjustment, but this was Sands second start at home this week.

I hope he continues in the right direction as a starter. He really doesn't like relief pitching...

After his first 14 starts Berrios had an ERA over 8. Sands is not ready but  I sure would not DFA him based on a few months of bouncing back and forth this season.

Listening on radio, I heard Dan Gladden repeat what I said a few days ago, that Duffey's curveball has lost its bite. Since spinning the ball has been his bread and butter his whole career, losing the spin is a very bad sign for Duffey. Possible that he's hiding some muscle or tendon pain, but without his curve, Duffey's other stuff is delicious cookies for hitters. 

At this point, if he needs to seriously reinvent himself (again), I think it's time Duffey did that somewhere it won't hurt the team. Twins desperately need to pursue a couple of veteran relief pitchers, so they can DFA Duffey. Not saying he can't come back, but his tricks aren't working anymore. 

7 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

After his first 14 starts Berrios had an ERA over 8. Sands is not ready but  I sure would not DFA him based on a few months of bouncing back and forth this season.

You left out the minor detail that Berrios was 22 and Sands will turn 25 next month.  You don't have to DFA him, but could use him as part of a deal to get a relief pitcher.

Duffey certainly has pitched himself out of any high leverage situations. It's too bad. I'm not sure we have enough quality options right now that dropping him from the roster does anything; might as well see if he can work out of it in low leverage roles while other guys get healthy.

Sands still needs work, but I wouldn't give up on him after his first stint in MLB. He's certainly got more upside than Charlie Barnes ever did. As guys get healthy in the rotation, I expect he goes back to AAA, where hopefully he applies lessons learned up here and improves. He's got some pitches that can play in MLB, but he's going to need to command them better to have success and he's not there yet.

defense was a bit rough, would like to see that cleaned up. But it's also evidence that Miranda is still learning 1B.

A bit disappointing to see the team so flat against the Rays; a sweep would have been great. But any time you win a series, I'm not really going to complain. Now we go on the road, and see if we can win series against a beatable Seattle team and an equally beatable Arizona squad.

Twins need to burn those "Twinkies" baby blues. The Twins never do well with them.

7 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

You left out the minor detail that Berrios was 22 and Sands will turn 25 next month.  You don't have to DFA him, but could use him as part of a deal to get a relief pitcher.

I think Cole Sands has a good chance to be a solid mlb pitcher. We have all seen his good innings, where his heat rides low and his curves bend right near the edge, also low. That stuff will definitely get a lot of guys out. Regardless of age, it takes a year or two of experience for a rookie to figure out how to plug the holes in his game. Sands may not be quite ready to dominate, but what he needs to learn will not come at the AAA level. Twins should consider moving him to the bullpen, maybe replacing one of several weak links there. Let Sands cut loose with a hotter heater and fewer pitches for the remainder of the season. Then build him up physically and mentally to get back into the starting rotation. 

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

Those are putrid.

The Yankee's pinstripes evoke respect.

To commerate the anniversary of the Twins World Series victories and try to regain the winning feeling, the Twins FO brought back the baby blues. The FO didn't researched what they were doing because  the baby blues represents the era that the Twins were so bad and when they were most ridiculed. The very year they terminated that uniform was the year they won the WS.

Twin's baby blues evoke lack of respect.