Twins 2, White Sox 1: Twins Catch Break, Win Thriller

Can we send a jucy lucy to Abreu for bailing us out last night?

4 hours ago, Melissa said:

Yep, all over baseball. Observers like Gleeman here and at the Athletic speculate about reasons: dead ball? Humidor now used at every park? Weather? Shortened spring training? Fans of most teams are feeling the same pain.

It sounds like humidors will effect offense in both ways depending on the local weather, but they are likely exacerbating how much the cool early weather is suppressing offense. This might be a desirable effect in the playoffs where close game tension is a plus, but right now it seems to be contributing to a general lack of excitement on offense.

I think there are of course other continuing trends too. Pitching is inarguably better than it's ever been. Old-timers will bristle at this, but I'd also argue that defense is better than it's ever been too. The approach of hitters certainly has some role, though I think this gets over-emphasized when pitching has just gotten so good.

I never thought homers were the problem.

Bring back the juice!

That was the most egregious theft of victory against the Dirty Sox in the history of baseball. This is the kind of thing that can swing fortunes.

Defense is better, and batting averages are suppressed, by the shift.  It will be very interesting to see what happens next year when the shift is banned.  Kepler might pick up 20-30 points in batting average.  Another reason not to trade him now when his value is low.

Anybody else screaming at the TV when Rocco brought in Jax in a 1-0 game?  Anybody yelling (louder) at the TV when Rocco brought in Duffey in a 1-0 game which the Twins needed to win?  Baseball........funny game.

34 minutes ago, wabene said:

That was the most egregious theft of victory against the Dirty Sox in the history of baseball. This is the kind of thing that can swing fortunes.

IMHO We didn't steal anything - This has more to do with inept play on the sox part and lazy play giving the game away.  Neither team executed well in the late innings, and the Sox (more specifically Abreu) made two blunders on one play to give the game away (which we in turn tried our hardest to give right back the next inning).  Had Abreu played the ball and not go for any heroics there is a good chance its a tie game going into the 9th.  Even if he made the same initial play, if he had simply run the ball back in instead of making a throw that wasn't necessary (something EVERY infielder is supposed to learn in little league) the inning continues tied at 1.

2 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Yep, I think the ump made the right call on that pitch, but maybe the right call was putting Jeffers into the lineup at the start, instead of Sanchez. Not sure the reason, but Sanchez has been catching Ober, so we saw Jeffers instead. Not only did Jeffers get a timely hit, and scored the tying run, he made a good block in the 9th, and his set up and framing allowed the ump to actually see the ball to make the correct call. Kudos to Rocco for putting Jeffers in for the game.

Just offering a different perspective. Maybe Baldelli gets some credit here instead of the Twins winning in spite of him.

 

I think Sanchez has been catching Ober in part because of how he works up in the zone, making it easier for Sanchez? Sanchez's problem has been blocking pitches low and low and away and he's probably going to work better with a pitcher who likes to work up in the zone. Just a guess, but Sanchez has looked better defensively with the Twins than advertised to be sure. Some of it may be in how they've deployed him and who with?

Jeffers made some really nice defensive plays last night and was working hard to try and frame some pitches up. Worked to our advantage.

Does anyone know what's up with Coulombe? He hasn't pitched in a while. If they aren't going to use him, why are they keeping him?

13 minutes ago, USNMCPO said:

Does anyone know what's up with Coulombe? He hasn't pitched in a while. If they aren't going to use him, why are they keeping him?

The Royals and White Sox have few left handed bats.

I don’t know much about how WPA is determined. Surprised that Pagan had the second highest WPA last night. I would have given him a negative WPA for the nail biter he created by issuing 2 BB and for the 2 or 3 balls in the dirt with the bases loaded. Had he pitched a clean 9th, would his WPA have been the same. 

7 minutes ago, Eris said:

I don’t know much about how WPA is determined. Surprised that Pagan had the second highest WPA last night. I would have given him a negative WPA for the nail biter he created by issuing 2 BB and for the 2 or 3 balls in the dirt with the bases loaded. Had he pitched a clean 9th, would his WPA have been the same. 

For his total WPA, it only matters where his outing started and where it ended. The path he took to get there doesn't matter.

In the end he gave up zero runs in the 9th inning so that was a positive for their chances of winning the game (up to 100% from something like 80% to 90% at the start of the inning).

When he loaded the bases with 1 out the Sox were pretty likely to score so his WPA would have been negative at that point. Since he stayed in the game to clean up his own mess he still gets all the credit for the scoreless inning.