Twins Game Recap (7/16): Tough Luck Loss for the Twins

The early success of this team started with great hitting. They'd get ahead by two, three, five runs, then the pitchers would all get into attack mode, buzzing the zone with strikes. Fact is, that's always the right mode for a pitcher, but the hitting has kinda fizzled out lately. Part is just bad luck, like all those line drives hit right at people. 

If Twins hitters can continue to trust the process and just barrel up as many balls as possible, they can bash their way back into high gear. Don't regress into stupid pull hitters. Pound the ball wherever it's pitched. Be willing to take a walk. Be willing to take a called third strike. It's part of the process of getting your pitch.

Tough loss, it happens.  It just seems like these sort of losses are happening more and more frequently over the past month.  Was really hoping we'd sweep the lowly Mets to give us a bit of a cushion for the A's and Yankees series.

 

Stating the obvious, but the team really seems to have issues hitting with RISP (duh). Hope we can break the trend sooner rather than later.

 

Not really sure how to articulate it, but something happened to this team a month and a half ago (June 4th) when we went to Cleveland for that three game series and lost 2 of 3. I can't really put my finger on it, but it's like they lost their mojo. 

 

The team flat out just hasn't been the same since.  In the 35 games since the start of that series, the team has played .500 baseball (18-17).

 

We're going on over a month of this type of play now.  Random nights where the defense is just terrible. Baserunning blunders. Clutch hitting has been nearly non-existent, etc. Something is just off.

 

Injuries no doubt have played into this. But it seems like the swagger is missing. 

 

Is this what the team has settled into? It's great that we built such a huge cushion during the first two months of the season, but I think it's pretty clear that this team is 3rd in the pecking order of AL powers (behind the Yankees and Astros for sure).

 

Idk, maybe I'm just venting after a tough loss...

Agreed. Thanks for venting. Now I don't have to. I will say this - Garver should play 3 out of every 4 days - Arraez should play everyday and bat 1st - Sano should be more limited at 3B if there at all - and someone needs to catch fire at the plate quickly. Only 5 games up - next 10 days schedule favors the Tribe. It does flip in Aug and our schedule is a little easier than theirs - but I feel like we are in a funk of some sort as HawksNest suggests.

Why did Castro start over Garver last night? Castro can't hit lefties, and Garver mashes them.

Also - over this stretch of games, one can place a lot of blame on the offense/lineup. Just not producing as they were, and without the numbers in front of me, I don't even know if they are at league average over this last 30-35 game stretch.

Why did Castro start over Garver last night? Castro can't hit lefties, and Garver mashes them.

 

Also - over this stretch of games, one can place a lot of blame on the offense/lineup. Just not producing as they were, and without the numbers in front of me, I don't even know if they are at league average over this last 30-35 game stretch.

Catchers rarely catch day game after night game. The Twins face two lefties so Baldelli chose last night to start Castro. I would have made the same choice given it was a bullpen game for the Mets. It turned out Castro had one completed at bat against Matz though he was up a second time when they failed to execute a double steal. A move the Twins likely made because they lacked confidence in Castro.

Sano hit a Sac Fly in his 3rd game back on May 18.  None since.

 

According to baseball reference.com he is 2 for 10 in driving in a runner on 3rd with less than two outs.

 

He has also only had 2 "productive outs" in 22 at bats.

 

He is currently batting .211 with RISP, and only .125 with RISP and 2 outs.

 

Not exactly Mr. Clutch...

Sano frustrates me too, but only quoting his AVG with RISP is cherry picking. He also has a .340 OBP and .500 SLG with RISP. That's coming typically out of the 7th spot in the lineup which is insanity.

I'm more concerned about his home/away splits.

On the road his slash line is .269/.324/.699

At home? .182/.308/.348

Just when you thought the Indians were out of it, the Twins let them back in.

Bad Luck? They gave up the lead right away in the first by playing awful defense. Then, when handed the chance to take the lead back on a silver platter (via walks and HBP), They couldn’t get the ball out of the infield.

This team has been playing this way, and giving games away to bad teams, for a while now. It’s coming up in two months of nearly .500 baseball (since the beginning of June, I believe).

I have a really hard time buying this as a legitimate World Series contender at this point, especially if Buxton is out for an extended period of time. The respite from being concerned about giving away the division was nice for a few days, though.

The Indians have beaten the bad teams as of late.

The Twins have lost to the bad teams as of late.

I myself made a silly error with a RISP almost in scoring position yesterday.  The RISP in question was a Recliner In Sitting Position.  Before I could quite get it "home," I first had to take it through the arbor dealy at the end of the front sidewalk.  Conventional wisdom says you 'shift' the sucker on its side and shimmy it through safely, but being in a hurry, and not being overly fond of the shift, I decided to try the direct path.  I thought its WPA (width probably acceptable) was within the margin of error, but I was wrong--the recliner handle was just outside of the strike zone, as emphatically framed by the arbor.  No need to call New York on this one.

All's well that ends well, though, as I overcame the mistake and did indeed finally score a recliner in sitting position.  Having learned from my mistake, I wisely went with the shift to get it in the front door, and again into the next room.

If the Twins' are indeed below average with RISP, here's hoping that the regression to the mean occurs during  the playoffs.

Sano frustrates me too, but only quoting his AVG with RISP is cherry picking. He also has a .340 OBP and .500 SLG with RISP. That's coming typically out of the 7th spot in the lineup which is insanity.

 

I'm more concerned about his home/away splits.

 

On the road his slash line is .269/.324/.699

At home? .182/.308/.348

Lune:

Thanks for adding the additional info.     My intent was to provide Major with the answers he asked.  I also included more than average with RISP.  I included Sac Flys and Productive Outs stats.

The splits you provided are eye opening.     Thanks again for providing those.

This game was exact thing I was worried about.  Twins have had a few bad games they should have and easily could have won if they did not make so many mistakes.  Sure game may have played out different, but we gave them both runs in the first inning on bad defense.  The wild pitches and passed balls moved runners up, the bad throw from Kepler, a good throw may have got runner and no one scores, finally no play from Schoop.  Mets made good plays throughout the game and we lose by 1 with bases loaded.  These are tough games to watch when you are trying to make playoffs.