Twins 9, Royals 0: Complimentary Baseball Wins Twins the Series

Sandy Leon has quietly been a tremendous pick-up. He's not prolific at the plate, but he's not a walkover either. His bunting ability is actually a skill the Twins have lacked with other players but been able to use with him in key spots. He's also had more success throwing out runners.

Anyway, good job Sonny. It's fine if he wants to pitch deeper, but I don't know how many more times we need to see guys get kicked around by the opposing team on their third trip through the order to realize that there's a good reason they don't usually go much deeper than that.

The bullpen feels so much stronger now, especially with Thielbar on fire. After he started the year pitching batting practice, I figured he was washed. But he's been unbelievable since, especially with inherited runners. I'd like to see the Twins call up Evan Sisk as a lefty specialist so that Thielbar can be deployed in more match-up independent roles.

24 minutes ago, Karbo said:

I'm glad Gray showed his desire to go deeper in games. I'm a little concerned the the rep is getting around about the Twins not letting starters try to go deeper into games. If we ever want FA starters to think about signing here, there should be a little more flexibility when it comes to the 3rd time through etc.

I'd say any "rep" is overblown, considering the twins aren't very different in handling starting pitchers than most other clubs in MLB. fewer and fewer starters are getting shots at the 3rd time through the order, and the ones who do are ones who have stats to back it up that they can handle it. The idea of FA being scared away from coming here because of the way the twins manage a pitching staff feels like a construct based on fan dislike of the process, rather than based on any evidence.

Gray pitched great last night and bullied a poor team. As he should. But if he wants more cracks to pitch into the 6th & 7th innings then he can't give up back-to-back hits to start that last inning, especially when it's still only a 3-run lead. he might have gotten a chance to pitch around it if it had already been 6-0, but the offense didn't start pushing runs across until late. 

Great job by Thielbar cleaning it up, and nice to see Sands getting a good inning out there and miss some bats. Sands has talent, but he's got to keep missing bats. His K-rate makes me think it's possible.

Jose Miranda continues to impress. He should get some ROY consideration. What he's done since the start of June is really terrific, and he looks like a hitter to fear. We'd be in big trouble without his offense. Please stay healthy, jose!

Great to see Gray get a shot at the 7th inning. Having said that, he can't go out an give up two solid hits to start the 7th and expect that to engender confidence with the manager. It's like when Bundy went 5 strong against the Padres (?) and promptly gave up back to back hits to start the 6th.  Gotta back up the ask. Gray should get more cahnces in the 7th but he has to perform. 

This should have been a Pagan game. If you have him on the roster, these are the games you play him in. He is there to soak up an innings or two when it doesn't matter and the Twins just need to finish the game. 

The risk of him making his next appearance when a game is close just got higher. 

10 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Fulmer was warming in the bottom of the seventh. As long as he was “hot” he was used despite the large lead. 
 

Fulmer most likely could still be used tomorrow, but Megill, Jax, Duran and Lopez should be rested and ready with an off day on Thursday. Pagán is also available. 

This makes no sense.  Sure he was warmed up; he could just as easily have been sat back down.  I didn't see the game, but did Fulmer continue to warm while the Twins scored each of their runs?  He assuredly threw more pitches from the mound in between half innings.  All of that is unnecessary strain on his arm.

I think management needs to take note that game strategy of hitting "moon shot" don't work. This era of a deader ball, teams need to play small ball. Last nite shows the effeciency of doing so, not taking away from Celestino HR. 

13 hours ago, 3balls2strikes said:

Why did Baldelli use Fulmer in 8th when Twins had a 6-0 lead? He could have used Pagan in 8th or let Sands easily handle two innings.

Our supposedly 3rd best relief pitcher should be saved to hold a close lead in the 7th tomorrow, not waste his arm in a blowout today. Baldelli's managerial decisions continue to baffle. 

He threw 7 pitches…….Pagan may have given up 3 runs! ……..do we think anyone in F.O. read the article in The Athletic by Gleeman a few days ago with fact after fact outlining why Pagan is worst reliever in baseball? DFA - need Moran or Smeltzer immediately.

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

Although I agree that most teams are limiting most of their starters, the contenders have at least 1 or 2 "frontline" starters that pitch deeper into games. Look at Gray and Ryan, they started as our 1 & 2 starters. Rare to see either one of them in the 6th inning. IMHO the FA starters worth going after are going to want to go deeper than that. All I'm getting at is will that cause them to think twice about coming to a team that stresses the odds vs ability? Just a question, not a fact.

If the contract is right, they will come. the bigger issue the Twins will have on signing frontline pitchers is their disinclination to give long deals to pitchers. How frequently they let a guy face 25-28 hitters and go 6-7 innings just isn't likely to play into it. And for every guy who might be all "screw it, they pull their guys early, Imma go somewhere else" there's going to be at least as many going "hey, these guys might actually keep me healthy and looking good for the next contract too".

I'm sorry, this is a non-issue.