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The Twins fell to the Brewers 6-2 on Sunday missing out on a sweep of their border battle foe. Miguel Sano was cleared for take off again while the rest of the offense went down swinging and Griffin Jax missed his spots. That and more in today's game recap! Box Score Griffin Jax: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 5 K, 3 BB, 65.0% strikes Homeruns: Sano (23) Bottom 3 WPA: Win Probability Chart (via Fangraphs) Griffin Jax Struggles with Control If you’ve followed me long enough, you know how much emphasis I put on pitchers being efficient. Well, unfortunately for Jax he was almost too efficient today throwing 65-percent strikes and 76-percent first pitch strikes, but leaving too many pitches over the middle of the plate. Those six extra-base hits could have easily been up to nine extra-base hits but each of the three starting outfielders made nice running catches to limit the Brewers' damage against Jax, including the ball off the bat of Jackie Bradley Jr which Byron Buxton snagged with ease. If you were listening to the Bally Sports North broadcast, you heard former Twins All-Star reliever Glen Perkins mention Ryan Jeffers glove “drifting” from where he set up due to Jax missing his spots, which is why he got tagged all day. With a wide-open rotation for 2022, Jax will continue to get an opportunity to prove he can stick, but this is now back-to-back starts for Jax where he got absolutely shelled after a string of five solid starts. In today’s game particularly, his pitch movement was on par with where he’s been all season so it’s just a matter of bearing down and hitting the mitt where the catcher sets up. This leaves me a little optimistic that he can rebound the next time he’s on the bump. Sano Moons One while Rest of Offense is Grounded It was a solid day from left-hander Aaron Ashby, but his one mistake was hanging a curveball to Miguel Sano who hit his fourth blast in the last eight games. This was Sano’s 23rd of the season and “only” traveled 420 feet. The rest of the offense was pretty quiet with each of Jorge Polanco, Josh Donaldson, Rob Refsnyder, and Willians Astudillo being the only other players to reach base. In the last twelve plate appearances of the game, the Twins struck out nine times including 1-2-3 in the eighth inning and three straight to end the game. In short, there wasn't ever much from the Twins throughout the entirety of the game. Bullpen Usage Ian Gibaut made his season debut, providing the Twins with three scoreless innings despite not having a clean inning and getting hit hard. Ralph Garza Jr came on in the 9th inning with two strikeouts on 11 pitches and not allowing anyone to reach base. WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Albers 0 0 88 0 0 88 Garza Jr. 24 4 0 0 11 39 Coulombe 19 0 20 0 0 39 Thielbar 22 0 0 23 0 45 Duffey 9 0 6 0 0 15 Colomé 20 0 13 13 0 46 Minaya 0 0 0 17 0 17 Gibaut 0 0 0 0 33 33 Alcalá 0 0 12 0 0 12 View full article

There has been a flurry of roster decisions made by all 30 MLB teams in the days since the end of the World Series. Today, the Twins announced that they have claimed right-handed pitcher Ian Gibaut from the Rangers and left-hander Brandon Waddell from the Pirates. Since the completion of the World Series, the Twins' roster has already seen change. On Wednesday morning, their impending free agents became free agents. That includes Nelson Cruz, Alex Avila, Ehire Adrianza, Jake Odorizzi, Rich Hill, Tyler Clippard, Trevor May. On Wednesday, the Twins bought out the final season of Sergio Romo's 2021 contract, making him a free agent as well. On Friday, the Twins claimed two recently DFAd players, RHP Ian Gibaut and LHP Brandon Waddell. That puts the current Twins 40-man roster at 34 players. IAN GIBAUT The right-hander was the Rays 11th round pick in 2015 out of Tulane University. He made his MLB debut with one game for Tampa in 2019. Before the July trade deadline, he was sent to the Rangers. He pitched in nine more games out of the Texas bullpen. This season with the Rangers, he pitched in 14 games, though just 12 1/3 innings. In his 24 MLB games, he is 1-2 with a 5.84 ERA. In 24 2/3 innings, he has walked 17 but struck out 28 batters. Gibaut is a big kid, standing 6-3 and weighing in at 250 pounds. He throws a fastball that has averaged 95.3 mph. He also throws a slider in the mid-to-upper 80s, and a mid-80s changeup. Here is a 6 1/2 minute review of ONE of Gibaut's pitches in the big leagues. BRANDON WADDELL The southpaw was the fifth round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2015 from the University of Virginia. He split both 2018 and 2019 between AA Altoona and AAA Indianapolis. He made his MLB debut in 2020 with just two games and 3 1/3 innings pitched. He gave up just one run on two hits and a walk, and he struck out two batters. While there isn't much big-league sample, his fastball clocked in at 93 mph. He throws a lot of sliders (41%) at 86 mph, and also throws a changeup. Here is some video of Waddell's MLB debut: Both pitchers are 26-years-old. Clearly the Twins scouts and research and development group like something they see. Now they will get the opportunity to work with Wes Johnson and his coaching staff to see if they could be the 2021 Matt Wisler. View full article