bighat

Twins have got to stop DH'ing these swing-and-miss catchers with their .180 averages. I understand you have to play one of 'em, but the fact that they are putting both Jeffers and Sanchez in the game on purpose is ridiculous.

We've seen this movie before: Twins don't hit, lose ballgame. Bieber just another great pitcher who this team can't touch I guess. Wonder what they're going to do in the playoffs against good teams' 1-2-3 starters in the first round? So Buxton sits 3x a week now even if he's healthy? Nice to see Smeltzer step up.

Yeah, I see a worse version of Fernando Rodney when he was in a Twins uniform. Getting into all kinds of trouble every time, escaping just enough to keep his roster spot. Maybe someone on the Twins staff can fix this guy, but if nothing changes I can't see him lasting the season on this team. At this point it looks like the Rogers trade will be judged based on how Paddack does in 2024.

Yeah, Twins are thinking: "we're gonna lose anyway so we might as well burn an AAA arm"

I think it's complete smoke-and-mirrors to be honest. He's had a few good outings but I don't think the guy can be trusted, I'm more inclined to believe he'll regress and be a guy who's ERA hovers around 5+ or so. Hope I'm wrong, just never had a great feeling about him and I think calling him a "stud" is a perfect example of blind homerism.

Yeah, I saw that poll. I voted to keep him up!

One could almost feel that grand slam coming with everything leading up to the Lewis at bat. Was that the first legendary moment in a storybook career? Like many of you I have no idea what the Twins are going to do with Lewis when Correa comes back....if a correct guess would win you $100 bucks, what would you say? Down to St Paul? I really think the kid needs to play 6 games per week at this point.... Correa had that big PR moment a couple weeks ago where he said he was open to staying with the Twins long-term. Wonder what he's thinking now? Troublesome to see the Twins go up 11-2 and then give up 6 unanswered runs. Jax seems to have improved a bit, but I think it's too early to feel confident about his abilities. And that goes for many members of this bullpen. Lost in the box score were homers from both Buxton and Polanco. Twins are a decent team when those two guys are "on".

Buxton played 2/3 of the series and our best pitcher also took the hill against the 'Stros. Twins weren't even close to being competitive in any of the games.

Out managed. Out played. Outclassed. Watching the Astros stuff the Twins into a locker like they did this week was rough. Not only did the Twins just roll over, they weren't even competitive. It just showed me how far behind the Twins are in terms of talent. Before this series I was looking forward to a playoff run, but honestly after this drubbing I don't even want to see it. I'd prefer Twins go 100% with the youth movement this year and focus on developing Miranda, Lewis, Ober, Ryan, and Winder. Jettison some guys at the break for some lottery tickets. I've certainly come back to reality, this might be a 75 win team and we could be in for at least one long, depressing losing streak in the very near future.

I didn't say Donaldson was a horrible player. But I do think he's running out of gas. The Twins paid for a guy who was going to average 36 HRs and 100 RBI over the course of four years. Alas, Covid hit at the worst possible time and all of those plans went awry. He might not be done as a major leaguer, but I think jettisoning themselves of Donaldson was a good move. I think losing IKF in the deal hurt this team the most, frankly.

Exactly. The real measuring stick for this trade is Donaldson and frankly he looks done - maybe he'll hit 23 HRs and bat .240 this year. Certainly wasn't worth half of what he was being paid. Sanchez is a backup catcher at this point in his career and ideally the Twins roll him out there once or twice a week. As others have said he shouldn't be DH'ing and hopefully the Twins will end that experiment pronto once they get some bats back. As for Urshela, I think the guy should be considered the 26th man on this team and his bat should only see the light of day once a week at most. He's been a huge disappointment. Whether they perform or not though, the trade seems to be worth it. The Twins escaped from that albatross of a contract they gave Donaldson and that should be applauded.

Woof. I don't know about you all, but my feelings about this team have really changed after this series. I'm not sure they're even a .500 team let alone a playoff team. Twins were just flogged and dispatched with ease by a good - not great - Astros team. Twins looked very overmatched and almost from the get-go had zero chance to stay in a ballgame. Even if the Astros are hot and the Twins are dealing with injuries, this is still an MLB ballgame and we should expect it to look like one. Instead the Twins looked like an AAA or AA squad trying to keep up in a Spring Training exhibition match. Buxton played 2/3 of the series, we had Joe Ryan and Josh Winder on the mound for 2/3 of the series. There are no excuses, the Twins just rolled into this series expecting to lose to a better team and that's exactly what happened. Out of the entire 27 innings the Twins were in the game for like 1 of them. Worst looking baseball of the season and it went on for 3 games in a row, at home. The offense is still unable to score more than 3-4 runs a game against a struggling or below-average pitcher, and when they are facing anything resembling quality pitching it's shock if they don't get shut out. You gotta score more runs, boys. They need like 3-4 more guys to start hitting, that's a tall order.

Good to see Stashak was prepared and ready to pitch today. Good grief when he's bad he is awful.

You know the way Twins fans feel when we are watching the Twins play the Royals, Orioles, and A's? That's how Astros fans feel when they're playing the Twins. A far inferior team with no confidence against better competition, low-hanging fruit, just easy wins for the picking. Your team gets up early and you can relax because the only question is whether you'll win by double-digits.

If I have to watch that guy ground out on a two-hopper to 2nd base one more time, I swear. He's an automatic out right now. He's not getting robbed, he's not hitting lasers that are being caught, he's rolling over and chopping the ball to the infield. I turn the channel when he's up just so I don't have to watch anymore. He's gotta go to St. Paul, should have been there after the A's series.

Alex Kirilloff grounding out to 2nd base every AB is starting to wear on me. Now Jeffers goes down on 3 pitches. Pretty awful effort from this Twins team.

Yeah it feels like one of those nights where by the 6th inning we're going to start wondering if the Twins are gonna get no-hit. So many light-hitting bats in this starting nine, and down early with Ryan scuffling, 5-0 loss looking more and more likely.

Ryan really getting squeezed here, meanwhile Verlander was getting strike calls a foot outside. C'mon, Blue.

Astros are letting Ryan beat himself here. Kid's all over the place and looks afraid to throw strikes. That's not his game.

I knew when I saw the replay of him legging out that play that he'd hurt himself. There was no reason for it, but Buxton was literally smoking down the line, firing all cylinders on a passed ball strikeout on the first play of the game. Overextended his hip when he hit the bag.... Remember when Green Bay fans used to cheer Brett Favre when he threw the ball away? Favre had such a gun that he always tried to thread the needle and it ended up killing the Packers all too often. Anyway, maybe Twins fans need to stand up and cheer for Buxton when he lollygags down to first on a two hopper to 3rd base. Applaud him for living to fight another day.

Great intro. Twins lineup is definitely looking very B-Squad here, not sure how they're planning on winning any games in this series unless they can get Buxton off the bench. Pick to click tonight is Polanco, he's hot and he's homered off Verlander before. Watch out for Niko Goodrum, who's the only Astro to have faced Joe Ryan but is 2-for-2 with 2 homers off him.

Same for Maeda.

Yep. Definitely good to have guys like that around. Keep in mind that those guys sometimes do break out. Both Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianza were seen as utility infield guys by the Twins. Injuries opened up every day spots and both of those guys responded very, very well to every day playing time. Became extremely valuable pieces, not just "depth".

Yeah I think that could be very true. Alas the same could be said for Sanchez and Urshela it appears. Will Gary's grand slam on the 3rd day of the season be his only big moment as a Twin this year? Been a month since he's gone yard.

His 48 career starts in left field beg to differ.