bighat

Speaking about that, did anyone see the interview with the TB manager Kevin Cash re: pitching Romo 2 days in a row, etc? The guy might be a bit crazy, but he sounded excited about trying new things. Clearly has a nose for the game and is not afraid to really shake things up. Molitor is just about as old-school as they get, and not in a good way. There are old school guys like Buck Showalter who have some fire, but Molitor is just a robot.

Maybe the Twins use that as motivation offensively. One can hope. Morrison needs to blast one out of the park in his next AB and stomp on home plate!

I was starting to write the same thing before our rally there. Even when Buxton does make contact, it's very weak - he had a full swing there on his last out. His "fly balls to left" are really pop-outs to short. His double he hit a few games ago was just a bloop shot between the outfielders. It's like when an NL pitcher is batting and makes what appears to be good contact, but there's just no pop. Buxton's exit velocity is not good. That said, before his injury he was hitting the ball on the nose and lining out. But right now you are right, even when he makes contact it's extremely weak. You don't see those kind of outs from other center fielders in the league very often.

Are you kidding? Brutal review there.

I think he's out. Nice rally though!

Kep doing his thing. A shame he's been robbed of these HRs lately! We'll take it!

Not much in the patience from Adrianza and Buxton there.

Attaboy Grossie (with a nod to Ron Gardenhire).

OK. I know 2-0 seems insurmountable with this offense right now, but if the Twins can just have some patience at the plate this can be overcome.

LeBlanc, Suter, and now Hardy? No-name soft-tossing lefties giving the Twins tons of trouble recently.

Buxton gets in the hole 0-2 and strikes out. Seen this movie too many times.

Agreed. Not sure where or when this "Lomo is fine now" mantra started being pounded out on keyboards in Twins-land. He's not playing well at all, he's maybe playing slightly below average and all of a sudden we're supposed to be happy about it. Heckuva start for Cave. Bad offense. Interesting that Cave replaces Buxton and in his first MLB game he hits the ball. Maybe Buxton needs this "oh crap" moment to spurn some productivity. At this point Escobar and Rosario have to continue to do the heavy lifting or the Twins will lose. Simple as that, really. Life goes on. Still, life is better starting mornings with Twins chatter after a victory.

It didn't happen last night, but yeah - that's a bad sign. Against the LAA the Twins PH for Buxton in the 8th inning of a close game, meaning his defense wasn't in there in the 9th to protect a small lead. People talk about how many runs Buxton saves on defense. But at this point, if he doesn't make a run-saving catch on defense then the Twins essentially are giving that run back because he'll go 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts with men on base like he did last night. And if he's getting pinch-hit for, then his defense isn't worth much. It's amazing how all the other guys with the "#1 prospect" label come right up and hit. Ronald Acuna of the Braves is 4 years younger than Buxton, he just got to The Show and he's already a threat in the batter's box. The Red Sox' Andrew Benintendi and the White Sox Yoan Moncada were last year's #1 and #2 prospects. They are hitting. Buxton's been up for 3 years now and still can't hit a curveball and when he's bad he's among the worst hitters in baseball. I am sure Bux will turn it around at some point. Yes, I'm a huge Buxton fan and I wish only good things for him. But man this "have patience" mantra is wearing me down.

Buxton is awful right now. Everyone in that stadium knew he was going to strike out. He's got further to fall before he hits rock bottom, but it's getting close. Could mean another demotion to AAA in a week or two.

2nd and 3rd, nobody out, and they're not gonna score. Buxton back to being a headcase in the box, and almost an automatic K in pressure situations. Unfortunate.

I think the same thing. And it's not just Yanks and Red Sox. Young players (rookies, even!) all over the league come up and can hit right away. And hit well. Here's a list of players that are Buxton's age: Mookie Betts Carlos Correia Francisco Lindor Trea Turner Alex Bregman Cody Bellinger Corey Seager The list goes on and I could go further. But you get the point. We all love Buxton's defense, but having him sitting down in the #9 hole all year, striking out half the time and being removed for PH's after the 7th inning...that's not what we signed up for. The time for patience is long gone. Buxton had a great stretch last year - that is who the Twins need him to be, full time. No more "give him a coupla weeks". The Twins don't have a coupla weeks, because the Indians sure as heck won't be waiting. Buxton has shown flashes of brilliance, but at this point his career has been marred by injuries and excuses. I for one am done giving the guy a pass.

I'd much rather have Phil Hughes starting than Lance Lynn right now. And that's not necessarily a compliment for Phil Hughes. I think this has to be the beginning of the end for the Lynn experiment. The Twins aren't a rebuilding team that can throw out a Mike Pelfrey every 5th day. The division is sitting there on a platter. Heck, Detroit might even take it if nobody else wants it. The Twins have Slegers, Gonsalves, Mejia all available to pitch and all are better than Lynn. Why not have give one of them an extended audition until Santana comes back? There's nothing to lose at this point because Lynn is a proven train wreck. Big Erv's injury really had a terrible domino effect on this team.

Not trying to jinx anything, but Fernando Rodney has quietly gone about his job since that early hiccup. The guy looks like a legit closer and I for one no longer get the shivers when his name is called. The bats weren't exactly on fire, but maybe the offensive spark from an unlikely source will get things going. Bobby Wilson of all people, wow. Escobar continuing to carry this team on his back with the game-tying hit in the later innings. Berrios, yeah that's what we needed! Break out the brooms this afternoon!

He's pitching in the American League, against teams that can hit and have mashers hitting the DH position. The Twins have a bad history of taking in guys with NL success (Ricky Nolasco and Vance Worley come to mind). They then proceed to get battered in the AL, because AL teams can rake.

The Twins didn't sign Morrison play like a minor leaguer for a month (April) and be a borderline average singles hitter for the next 2 weeks (May).

The Twins have scored 3 runs over the past 27 innings. Hard to win when you don't hit. Escobar and now Rosario have gone a bit cold and nobody else seems to be able to hit a baseball. The news on Sano is depressing. We're going to have Wilson and Adrianza's bats playing in a lot of games over the next month or two. On a positive note, I LOL'ed at today's headline...too funny.

Yeah, it's rough to see Buxton striking out twice (again) tonight, then getting pinch-hit for...in this case, it meant losing Buxton for the 9th inning on defense in a 1-run game. Poor offense sometimes does outweigh good defense. The good news is we've seen Buxton get hot before, and when he's in the zone he's terrific at the plate. And he was just starting to come around too before he got hurt. I'm guessing the Twins will have to wait another few weeks for his bat to adjust. Rosario and Escobar have flat out pulled this team out of the ditch. Hey, Rodney with another save, that ERA looking almost reasonable! And how about this catcher, Wilson? The Twins are very hot with Castro out of the lineup, I'm feeling uneasy about his return. What a great way to wake up! Let's get one more today boys!

I don't think a rehab stint would help Buxton much - he'd spend a week in Rochester and then come up and swing and miss for 3 more weeks against MLB pitching anyway. A rehab stint would be a week wasted, because Buxton needs to face MLB pitching. He's proven he can crush it in the minors, but that's never truly translated against MLB caliber pitching. He needs at bats against major leaguers because that's who the Twins need him to be able to hit against.

After 3 weeks away from baseball, I think we were going to see "Bad Byron" in the batter's box against MLB pitching regardless of the rehab assignment. I think the Twins know this, so they are going to get those first 2-3 weeks out of the way now by playing him. We should see Good Byron again by mid-June. Kind of a shame, as it may be another lost season offensively for Bux. It's become almost a given that he'll be out for a significant portion of the season at this point.

A 6-0 win and a 7-1 win @ STL? No nitpicking from me, I'll take it. Now on to LAA for a big 4-game series, where a split gives the Twins a winning road trip. Remember the Twins real turnaround last year started away from Target Field? They played much better on the road for a long stretch there.