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The offensive juices ran dry once again for the Twins, leading to a series split against the playoff-hopeful Blue Jays. Box Score: Griffin Jax: 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K (83 pitches, 61 strikes) Home Runs: Byron Buxton (16) Win Probability Chart: Top 3 WPA: Mitch Garver (.122) Byron Buxton (.096) Jake Cave (.091) Bottom 3 WPA: Nick Gordon (-.188); Josh Donaldson (-.188) Griffin Jax (-.169) Jax Maxes Out It’s been a tough rookie season for Griffin Jax. After being called up in early June, Jax became a full-time starter almost immediately. He’s shown glimmers of hope, but today was not one of those days. After today’s outing, his ERA rose slightly to 6.78 on the season. Nothing to write home about, per se, but a good outing against the Blue Jays at that. This leaves questions to be asked about his role for next season. Ted Schwerzler took a look at the future of this role (and many others) earlier this week. Lord Byron is Back! Even the mighty need some time to heat up after returning from the IL. Since returning from the IL on August 27th, Byron Buxton hasn’t quite lived up to the bar of his MVP-caliber run in the first half of the season. However, Buxton seems to be heating back up, just in time for the end of the season. Today, he hit his 6th home run of the month, putting him just one less than Jorge Polanco. Since coming back from the IL, the Twins have been 14-14 in games that Buxton plays in. Even though the games don’t matter on paper, Buxton gives hope to all Twins fans for next year on the horizon. In the meantime, enjoy Buxton’s bomb from today. GarvSauce: Good as Gravy Mitch Garver finds himself in a very similar but elongated boat as Byron Buxton. Long IL stint: check. Painful recovery post IL stint: check. The past year hasn’t been kind to Mitch. However, Garver continues to bounce back to his 2019 ways with another double today that almost left the ballpark. Since coming back from this latest stint, Garver has been a gravy train that can’t be stopped with back-to-back multi-hit games before today. If this continues, Garver will finish the season with a line slightly higher than his career numbers, showing that continued improvement is on the horizon. Around the Bases Max Kepler came back to the lineup with two singles under his belt, his first multi-hit game since his undisclosed (but non-COVID) illness. Jake Cave hushed his haters by driving in the first run of the game. Although Miguel Sano later struck out to leave two runners stranded, he produced a big double off of Alek Manoah. Nick Vincent balked. Bullpen Usage WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Vincent 0 13 0 0 33 46 Coulombe 0 0 0 37 0 37 Farrell 0 19 0 18 0 37 Garza Jr. 0 16 0 0 18 34 Barraclough 0 0 0 33 0 33 Minaya 13 0 19 0 0 32 Thielbar 0 14 0 0 17 31 Duffey 12 0 17 0 0 29 Colomé 24 0 5 0 0 29 Moran 0 0 0 19 0 19 Alcalá 10 0 6 0 0 16 Postgame Interviews View full article

Down by four runs early on, the Twins never gave up and managed to rally back to beat the Angels and even the series, one game a piece. Ryan Jeffers' clutch hit and Nick Gordon's aggressive baserunning sealed the deal late. Box Score Happ: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (62.5% strikes) Home Runs: none Top 3 WPA: Jeffers .512, Rogers .169, Polanco .104 Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) Happ struggles early but settles in nicely Eight pitches. Eight pitches were all it took for this game to have its first runs on the board. Happ was off to a horrendous start, which is not news. Coming into tonight’s game, 21.3% of all earned runs given up by the southpaw in the season happened during the first inning of games. That became a little worse when Phil Gosselin doubled and then scored on a Jose Iglesias’ single. Then it became a lot worse a few moments later when old friend Kurt Suzuki hit a two-out, two-run bomb to the left field corner, making it 3-0 Angels. Facing righty Alex Cobb, the offense loaded the bases during the bottom of the first inning but couldn’t capitalize. They went down in order in the second frame, but not before Happ had given up yet another home run in the top of the inning to Jack Mayfield, extending the Angels’ lead to four. With the four early runs allowed, the Twins’ starter took the lead of Robbie Ray for most earned runs allowed by any left-handed pitcher in the American League. Minnesota got one run back in the third inning with Jorge Polanco keeping his hot streak alive and well with a double, and being pushed across by a single from Trevor Larnach. Fortunately, that was also the inning when Happ had started to settle in. After the awful first two innings, he went on to pitch four scoreless frames. Before he departed, the Twins manufactured another run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Max Kepler hit a bullet to lead off the inning (110 MPH exit velocity), then Polanco singled to move him to third. With men on the corners, a fantastic defensive play from Mayfield at third prevented the Twins from maybe scoring a couple of runs. Instead, Josh Donaldson grounded into a double-play, but that was enough to score Kepler from third and cut Los Angeles’ lead to 4-2. Offense keeps pushing for a rally The Twins continued to peck their way into this game. Cobb came back to the mound for the bottom of the sixth, but he left the game with a blister before throwing a single pitch. With Steve Cishek pitching, Miguel Sanó led off the inning with a double, and Nick Gordon singled to right to bring the big man home, putting Minnesota within a run. Minnesota kept hitting the ball hard. After Alexander Colomé delivered a scoreless seventh inning, Donaldson hit a single in the bottom of the inning, the Twins’ 11th hit of the night. However, they couldn’t add on, thanks to Mayfield’s impressive defensive display at the hot corner. While the Twins were able to produce baserunners, most of them were stranded by the Angel defense. Juan Minaya worked out of a jam in the top of the eighth to keep this a one-run game. Then, with a series of great at-bats, the offense came through in the home half. Sanó worked an eight-pitch at-bat to draw a leadoff walk, prompting a pitching change. Joe Maddon brought in star closer Raisel Iglesias to try to keep the Angels ahead. After he got the first out of the inning, Gordon responded with a single, his second of the night. Then Ryan Jeffers came through with his most clutch hit yet! A single to left, just out of the reach of Mayfield, was enough to score Sanó from second. After an errant throw home, Suzuki tried to catch Gordon advancing to third base, but he was way off the mark, allowing the Twins’ rookie to score sliding and give the Twins their first lead of the night, 5-4. Taylor Rogers came in to pitch the ninth inning and, despite giving up a bloop single to David Fletcher, managed to retire the side and secure the Twins win. This was his ninth save of the season, the 50th in his career. He's now even closer to enter the top 10 in career saves in Senators/Twins franchise history, ranking 13th at the moment. Postgame Interviews Nick Gordon Ryan Jeffers Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet MON TUE WED THU FRI TOT Colomé 0 26 22 0 11 59 Duffey 16 0 38 0 0 54 Alcala 23 24 0 0 0 47 Coulombe 0 5 0 32 0 37 Rogers 19 0 0 0 18 37 Thielbar 0 17 16 0 0 33 Robles 19 7 0 0 0 26 Minaya 0 0 0 0 20 20 View full article

For a team that has spent most of the year treading water and trying to get back to the .500 mark after a terrible stretch at the end of April, the wheels have completely fallen off. The Twins have now lost four games in a row, and 9 of 11 overall. If the team wasn’t in sell mode before as they have fallen a full 10 games back of the Indians in the division standings, they should be now.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Kyle Gibson: 35 Game Score, 5 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 3 K, 2 BB, 62.8% strikes Bullpen: 4.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 5 K, 2 BB Lineup: 2-for-8 w/RISP, 5 LOB Bottom three per WPA: Zach Littell -.355, Fernando Rodney -.286, Bobby Wilson -.135 Download attachment: vs Brewers 7-2-2018.PNG We had a good run without having to deal with the Fernando Rodney Experience, but just as soon as it left, it was back again. Rodney has now blown back-to-back save chances, and in both instances, he had to work out of a jam just to get the game to extras. However, this time Rodney didn’t get bailed out as Zach Littell gave up the winning run in the bottom of the 10th on a four-pitch bases-loaded walk. It wasn’t the sharpest of outings for Kyle Gibson on the mound. The first inning got off to a shaky start, but he was able to get out of it with just one run allowed when Jesus Aguilar was thrown out at home by Eddie Rosario after Joe Mauer threw the ball into left-field and it was overrun by Eddie Rosario. Gibson gave up three more runs in the fifth (two earned), after allowing a leadoff home run and a slew of hits. He had a chance to get out of the inning with just two runs allowed, but Willians Astudillo booted a routine grounder at third that would have ended the inning. Gibson had a much better night at the plate, however, as he went 2-for-2, doubling his career hit total. The Twins were primed for a big inning in the third, when they had runners on the corners and nobody out. However, they settled for just one run even after Brian Dozier was given extra life after he appeared to have struck out. Robbie Grossman hit his first career grand slam in the fifth inning, coming with two outs in the inning. In the top of the seventh, Joe Mauer was robbed of a home run by Keon Broxton. This run turned out to be huge later in the game. Postgame With Molitor Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: 7-2-2018 vs Brewers.PNG AL Central Standings CLE 46-37 DET 38-48 (-9.5) MIN 35-46 (-10) CWS 29-55 (-17.5) KC 25-59 (-21.5) Next Three Games Tuesday @ MIL, 3:10 PM CST – RHP Jake Odorizzi vs RHP Junior Guerra Wednesday @ MIL, 3:10 PM CST – RHP Jose Berrios vs RHP Chase Anderson Thursday vs BAL, 7:10 PM CST – TBD vs TBD Last Three Games CHC 11, MIN 10: Epic Comeback Falls Short CHC 14, MIN 9: It’s Not the Heat, It’s … Actually, It Is the Heat This Time CHC 10, MIN 6: Hey, Remember Joe Mauer? More From Twins Daily The Time to Trade Kyle Gibson Is Now 2018 Twins Midseason Top Prospect List: 31-35 Twins Minor League Starting Pitcher Of The Month - June 2018 Click here to view the article

The Twins have played two of their best games of the season to open this series against the Boston Red Sox. Last night it was the Eduardo Escobar show, tonight the Twins were led by excellent performances by both Max Kepler and from the bullpen. The Twins have clinched the series win and will go for what could be their first sweep of a three or four game series all season Thursday afternoon.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Lance Lynn: 53 Game Score, 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 K, 5 BB, 51.5% strikes Bullpen: 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 K, 0 BB Lineup: 1-for-6 w/RISP, 5 LOB Top three per WPA: Lynn .186, Kepler .167, Hildenberger .080 Download attachment: vs Red Sox 6-20-2018.PNG Joe Mauer got the night off against a tough lefty in David Price, but Robbie Grossman stepped in nicely for him in the leadoff spot, belting a home run to get the Twins on the board after their first batter of the game. It was just Grossman’s third home run of the season and his first as a right-handed hitter. The Twins base running woes continued tonight as Eddie Rosario was picked off first base with one out in the first. In case you were wondering, here is a little update on how many times the Twins have made outs on the bases this year. After giving up a run in the second, the Twins regained the lead in the fourth when Max Kepler blasted a two-out, two-run home run of David Price. This continued Kepler’s improvement against left-handed pitchers this year as Kepler has now doubled his total of extra-base hits against them from a season ago, going from 6 to 12. Kepler then backed that up with a tremendous diving catch, on a fly ball with a 4 percent catch probability, to rob J.D. Martinez of a hit in the eighth inning. The catch was originally ruled a hit but was quickly overturned after going to instant replay. The Twins picked up an insurance run in the eighth when Brian Dozier lined a double off the left-field wall and Eddie Rosario scored from first with some excellent base running. Dozier finished the night going 2-for-4 with two doubles. Lance Lynn was the definition of effectively wild in his start tonight. Lynn needed to work around five more walks but wound up surrendering just one unearned run over five innings. In each of the five innings the Red Sox had a runner in scoring position, but in each instance, they failed to get a hit once someone got there. The only reason the Red Sox ended up scoring against Lynn was because of a botched exchange between Logan Morrison and Lynn after Morrison made a great diving play to nearly get the Twins out of the inning. While Lynn may have had to work to keep the Red Sox off the board, that wasn’t the same story for the Twins bullpen which allowed just one base runner over four innings of work. Taylor Rogers had perhaps his best outing of the season in the sixth, then Addison Reed came in for the seventh and had a get-back-on-track inning. Then it was more of the same from Trevor Hildenberger and Fernando Rodney who each worked a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth and ninth respectively. Postgame with Paul Molitor Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: 6-20-2018 vs Red Sox.PNG AL Central Standings CLE 40-33 DET 36-39 (5 GB) MIN 33-37 (5.5 GB) CHW 24-49 (15 GB) KC 22-52 (18.5 GB) Next Three Games Thu at BOS, 12:10 pm CT – Rick Porcello vs. Kyle Gibson Fri vs. TEX, 7:10 pm CT – Mike Minor vs. Fernando Romero Sat vs. TEX, 1:10 pm CT – Yovani Gallardo vs. Jake Odorizzi Last Three Games MIN 6, BOS 2: Bats Get to Boston Bullpen CLE 4, MIN 1: Lots of Traffic, Just One Run MIN 9, CLE 3: That’s Our Eddie Click here to view the article