Yankees 5, Twins 2: Judge Homer Beats Twins

One loss down; three to go.

Slight title change: from "Judge Homer Beats Twins" to "Bringing in Megill to Face Judge Beats Twins."  There, fixed.

Magill threw a meatball to Judge . . . why give him anything to hit, especially in a tie ball game?

5 of the 9 Twins starting lineup today consisted of players not expected to start too many games for the Twins this year. Makes it tough to win, especially against the Evil Empire.

I sure question the way closers are used these days.  Lopez, who is supposed to be our best reliever (I guess) has the least amount of pitches thrown in the last 5 days, except Davis the new guy. Is this maximizing your best players?

Makes no sense to not intentionally walk Judge every time this series. Give him the Bonds treatment and let someone else beat them.

What Grant is missing in his misguided response to Alex, is the Yankees followed up with two very good relievers. 

Sure, they have one bad reliever on roster as filler.  3/4 of the Twins bullpen stinks.  

Awful take.  The Yankees wouldn’t be caught dead with three relievers of that caliber in their ‘pen.  Let alone use them back-to-back-back in a game within reach.

They basically just waived the white flag and threw a game down by two runs in September while tied for the division lead (with the other team in first likely to win against the Royals).  If you’re OK with forfeiting a game in the division race, you just don’t care.  Which is fine, but pretending every other contender would do the same is laughable.  I mean, one of the pitchers we used literally just got axed off the roster of a non-contender.

Well that was fun.  Did anyone think Judge would not get a HR in this series?  We use Megill and Pagan and want to hold back the Yankees???  At least Pagan did not let Judge hit a HR, oh wait, he did let Kiner-Falefa, it will add to his fond memories of being a 24 hour Twin.

Did I read the Weissert stats correctly?  And we could not take him out?  

Well there is always tomorrow.  

One more time I will post how rotten Megill has been. He gives up runs nearly every time  he takes the mound. Why he flies under the radar is beyond me. He needs to be gone. 

Am I the only person who did not know we had an afternoon game today?

NYY had to travel to, at least they came home, but what kind of scheduling says lets have an afternoon game following a night game with travel? Very odd.

Not that it would make any difference in the outcome the game. Stunned Twins got a couple of runs. NYY pitcher must have had one too many beers between innings prior to tossing that HR ball.

Oh well, as the old saying goes, "it aint over till they beat us tomorrow."

49 minutes ago, AceWrigley said:

Magill threw a meatball to Judge . . . why give him anything to hit, especially in a tie ball game?

41 minutes ago, Beast said:

I mean, one of the pitchers we used literally just got axed off the roster of a non-contender.

Davis did strikeout the only 2 batters he faced.

The Twins, White Sox and Guardians are running a different kind of 3 legged race, but still just as awkward looking as the normal kind. Except, sometimes, fans just want to put the burlap sack over their heads haha.

At least it feels like the rest of the central is intent on keeping the the division wide open so fans can just enjoy the excitement of the potential for the playoffs

Now lost 3 of the last 4.

It's right in front of us.

Is there anyone who can explain why pitchers are throwing the ball down the middle to Aaron Judge in that lineup? He only has about 80 walks. He had four at bats with 12 strikes thrown to him (using the MLB box), of which 4-5 were in the whooping zone with the HR exactly on a tee. Judge must be beloved across the game to see that many strikes in one game. If he is universally the guy who a team (the pitcher) cannot let beat you, this cannot happen. I'm willing to bet that Barry Bonds never saw that many strikes in a game the last 10 years of his career. I admire how disciplined Aaron Judge is with swinging through the location of pitches, but it is inexplicable to me why the Twins or any other team feels the need to assist Judge in his race towards the records that will easily fall if he continues to get so many batting practice opportunities in games. The only acceptable plate appearance (from my viewpoint) was in his first at bat. All three pitches were strikes (according to the box) with two on the edge and the one slammed for a double wholly within the box. At least each of these were down and away, which would be acceptable. The remainder of the at bats were lessons in how not to pitch, including the walk and the strikeout.

On a different note, the Yankees look as weak as I can remember their teams. Of their positions players only Judge and the defensive replacement Florian looked good.

13 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Yesterday was Sunday. Both teams had a day game.

A good and fair point?

39 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Is there anyone who can explain why pitchers are throwing the ball down the middle to Aaron Judge in that lineup? He only has about 80 walks. He had four at bats with 12 strikes thrown to him (using the MLB box), of which 4-5 were in the whooping zone with the HR exactly on a tee. Judge must be beloved across the game to see that many strikes in one game. If he is universally the guy who a team (the pitcher) cannot let beat you, this cannot happen. I'm willing to bet that Barry Bonds never saw that many strikes in a game the last 10 years of his career. I admire how disciplined Aaron Judge is with swinging through the location of pitches, but it is inexplicable to me why the Twins or any other team feels the need to assist Judge in his race towards the records that will easily fall if he continues to get so many batting practice opportunities in games. The only acceptable plate appearance (from my viewpoint) was in his first at bat. All three pitches were strikes (according to the box) with two on the edge and the one slammed for a double wholly within the box. At least each of these were down and away, which would be acceptable. The remainder of the at bats were lessons in how not to pitch, including the walk and the strikeout.

On a different note, the Yankees look as weak as I can remember their teams. Of their positions players only Judge and the defensive replacement Florian looked good.

The Yankees may look weak, but the entire eastern division is better than the central division, in most ways...because they have to play each other more.

The B-squad out of the pen. Finally gald to see Davis. The Twins will have ahrd decisions if they decide to bring back WInder, Ober or Dobnak. All involved making 40-man decisions when they come off their rehabs, too. Not that the Twins don't have choices. But they would also have to make 40-man decisions for Larnach and Jeffers, too.

3 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

Pagan reminds me of Homer Simpson working at the Springfield power plant. Doesn’t matter how many times he messes up, still can’t get canned 

But he's able to eat up innings, and when he inevitably starts to put the game out of reach the decision not to use better arms becomes an easy one. #Value

Vintage Twins-Yanks. Twins always find ways to lose and look bad doing it.  Yanks only had to play just good enough to win the game. Even when tied, Twins had no shot at all. The Yanks are in their heads and it doesn't matter who fills out the unis..its always the same. When the games mean something, Twins just run and hide.

If they truly wanted to win, they don't pitch to Judge. Its strategy, not ego. Judge can beat you with one swing, and today was Exhibit A of how thats done. Pagan and Megill have become the dud duo of the AL. Both are disasters....with 'good stuff' that gets hit all over the inhabited earth.

Also lost in all of this--is Arraez quietly bowing out of the AL batting race, after leading it most the season. It wouldn't surprise anyone if he ended the year under .300. Don't know why but his AB's have become weak. Lazy fly ball outs and routine grounders. He just isn't the same player he was for the first several months. Awful time to lose his bat.

I'm all for seeing Louie Varland fill Mahle's spot. Why not give the kid a cuppa? MiLB Twins pitcher of the year last year, probably will be this year, too. Reward the young man!

Yaaaaawn.... nothing surprising or noteworthy here