Twins

9/6: May and Milone Throw a Sim Game, Santana Looks to Snap Skid and Beresford Arrives

Santana looks to pitch the Twins to a win in the series opener against the Diamondbacks.

It’s in the upper 70s and muggy as all get out (73 percent humidity) as the Minnesota Twins prepare for game two of the three-game series against the Kansas City Royals. The Twins are hitting on the field today, though there were some questions about if that’d happen due to the overcast sky perhaps threatening rain.

Weather.com says there’s less than a 15 percent chance of rain throughout the game, though showers are much more likely for early tomorrow afternoon, for what it’s worth.

The Twins are turning to Ervin Santana (3.54 ERA, 3.78 FIP, 7.0 K/9) to be the stopper of an extended streak of ugly baseball (2-16 in their last 18), and he’ll face off against veteran righty Dillon Gee (4.33 ERA, 4.89 FIP, 1.44 WHIP, 7.1 K/9). More on that in a bit.

Injury Updates

Trevor May (back) and Tommy Milone (biceps) both threw 30-pitch, two-inning simulated games at Target Field facing the likes of guys like Miguel Sano, Kennys Vargas and Logan Schafer, and both came away feeling no ill effects. The simulated games took the place of rehab stints, since all the Twins’ minor league affiliates are done for the season, leaving no place for the pitchers to go get some work in as they look to return from their injuries.

Manager Paul Molitor said that barring any setbacks, the Twins will activate both pitchers and add them to an already bustling bullpen Friday, following the off-day on Thursday.

“I felt better within my mechanics and in locating (pitches) today than at any other point in my rehab, which is good,” May said. He added that his recovery might have been a little bit faster than previously anticipated, as perhaps some doubt had crept into his mind whether he’d be able to make it back at all this season. That was very, very important to him, he said, to get back on the mound and put in some in-game work this month before shutting down for the winter.

May also said he’s been seeing a Pilates expert from Inspire Health pilates Atlanta and is planning to work that in five days per week in the offseason in addition to his yoga routine. “(The expert) analyzed the fact that I don’t fire certain groups of muscles that I used to, and that would explain why parts of my body hurts in the core. So we were just undoing about a year of how my body was working (improperly), which takes a lot of time. We’re getting to the point where I feel good throwing off the mound. Do I feel like I did when I was starting? No. But that’s something that probably won’t come until spring, and I know that. But if I’m able to locate my pitches and throw everything well and feel good, and then the next day recover well enough to throw again, then that’s what I need to do.”

The expert also analyzed May’s form doing Pilates, which he said is the biggest part. “I didn’t have a personalized synopsis of what I was doing wrong with the form, which is the biggest thing,” May said. “You’ve got to have someone watching you doing it. So I’m going to link up with a teacher and try do Pilates and yoga five times a week, and that’ll be the bulk of my workout program, because I need to build core strength in the front and back. Right now, I’m using all back for everything. It’s really hard to fix those problems and still throw, because you do what’s most comfortable or what’s going to allow you to be successful on the mound. That’s more important than anything when you’re out there. Then you start to care about your body after you get off the field — which is the majority of the time. I’m moving in the direction that I’m trying to go, and the last month has really opened my eyes to a lot of stuff. I feel better every day.”

Milone was a little more pessimistic about how his session went. “The pitching portion of it was I wasn’t as comfortable with,” Milone said. “Obviously that takes time, and the more I get out there the better it’ll be. My arm felt good enough to get out there and throw; now it’s just about command. I don’t just go out there just because I feel good; I go out there to compete and get outs also. We’ll see. I haven’t gone out there in a month and faced hitters.”

Relative to his expectations, as far as execution of pitches Milone had hoped he’d be further along, but was realistic with the situation. “Execution definitely not,” Milone said about if he was where he’d hoped to be. “Expectations for myself are to execute every pitch. That’s just the way I am, whether I take a month off or a couple days. But realistically after not throwing to hitters for a month, I think it’s realistic to say that I’m not going to be my best the first time out there. I think this is the a step in the right direction. This late in the season it’s tougher just because there’s nowhere else to go, so you just get out there and keep facing hitters.”

Virtually everyone in the Twins clubhouse is thrilled for minor league lifer James Beresford to get a shot in the big leagues. From a bouquet of balloons waiting for him at his locker, to Red Wings teammate Logan Schafer donning the shirt that commemorated Beresford’s 1,000th game in the Twins’ minor league system (believed to be a record), it was quite a festive atmosphere.

https://twitter.com/Brandon_Warne/status/773262892338642944

There are a number of elaborate gags represented on the t-shirt. The four starts signify each of his minor league home runs. The kangaroo/Aussie angle pretty much explains itself, while the rolled up wet newspaper is a jab at what Beresford, a career .283/.338/.330 hitter in 1,070 minor league games, uses to hit.  

Here, Red Wings manager Mike Quade tells the story of how he broke the news to Beresford, who didn’t play the final two games of the season with Rochester.

Beresford told reporters he briefly thought about what it might be like to play for another team following not getting called up last year — after he hit .307/.341/.359 in 129 games with the Wings — but ultimately reverted to the fact that the Twins are the only team he’s ever known, and he badly wanted one more chance to get to the big leagues with them. “I’d gladly spend another 10 years in the minors for something like this,” he said.

For those who keep up with these kinds of things, Beresford will wear No. 30.

Rotation moving forward

Andrew Albers was listed among the relievers on the lineup card Tuesday, and that’s where he’ll slot once he’s fully recovered from throwing pitches in a start on Sunday against the White Sox. So moving forward, the rotation will look like this:

  • Santana – Tuesday
  • Kyle Gibson – Wednesday
  • Off Day – Thursday
  • Tyler Duffey – Friday
  • Hector Santiago – Saturday
  • Jose Berrios – Sunday  

Here’s how the Twins line up today:

https://twitter.com/Brandon_Warne/status/773251847108825089

Santana gets the ball for the Twins, and is coming off a bit of a strange start to get September underway. After allowing six earned runs to the Blue Jays, Santana gutted through five innings in an 8-5 win over the White Sox on Sept. 1, but allowed 11 hits with a pair of walks in the process. For whatever reason, Santana went sinker-slider heavy against the White Sox, and he’d gone even more sinker-heavy in his previous start against the Blue Jays. One reasoning that might make sense is that he went to the sinkers with runners on to try get perhaps a double play grounder, but there’s also feel to consider with each start. Sometimes pitches just feel better than others. But after barely throwing his sinker to start the year, he’s really, really picked it up in the last 10 starts or so.  

That’s not too far from where Santana really started to turn things on. In his last 13 starts, Santana has a 2.38 ERA, .589 OPS against and 70-20 K/BB ratio.

Opposing Santana is Gee, whom the Twins saw just under a month ago at Target Field, and then in his next start at Kauffman Stadium. The Twins got to him in Minneapolis for five earned runs in 5.1 innings on 11 hits, but then he stymied them back at his place for just one earned run in seven strong innings.

Gee is not at all overpowering, as he’ll come at batters with a high-80s fastball (mostly two-seamers) to go with a cutter, a knucklecurve and a changeup. He was more of a groundball guy in the past but not as much this year, and he’s found a few more strikeouts on the way. This has been one of his better strikeout seasons (7.1 K/9), with the changeup as his best swing-and-miss pitch (17.8 percent). The changeup (11.5 percent) isn’t bad, either.

Notes & Quotes

  • The Twins are 2-8 in their last 10 games, 2-13 in their last 15 and 4-16 over their last 20.
  • The Twins are just 17-41 against AL Central foes this year.  That’s a 47-115 pace if it were played out over a full season.
  • On the current five-game homestand, the offense has averaged 7.8 runs per game and hit 14 home runs, but the pitching staff has a collective ERA of 7.13. That splits out to a 6.15 rotation ERA (18 earned runs in 26.1 innings), while the bullpen has a ghastly 8.31 ERA (21.2 innings. 20 earned runs).
  • Brian Dozier needs eight more runs to have his third straight year of scoring 100, which would allow him to join Chuck Knoblauch as the only two Twins to ever do that.
  • Joe Mauer was announced as the club’s candidate for the Roberto Clemente Award, which is the annual recognition of a player from each team who represents their team through “extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.” Torii Hunter was last year’s nominee. Wednesday will be the 15th annual Roberto Clemente Day, and the award will be presented. Kirby Puckett (1996) is the Twins’ most recent honoree.
  • Molitor on Beresford: “I would have liked to have been in that clubhouse yesterday when Quade revealed the news. It’s one of the stories where, in the midst of the things we’re trying to endure here and figure out, we get a chance to celebrate a guy who’s been a loyal soldier for our organization for a decade. I’ve known Jimmy throughout his minor league career. He’s been in spring training the last few years. He knows how to play the game, and he’s given everything to the Twins. It’s not that we’re just calling him up here because of that — it’s a nice part of the story — but he’s a good player. I’m hoping to find a way to get him into some of these games so he can experience playing the game at the major league level.
  • Molitor on Byron Buxton’s continued growth: “There’s a lot of ways that Byron’s skillset can contribute to us having a good day. I think he understands that more. I think there has been some pressure that he’s put on himself when he wasn’t getting hits very frequently. For the most part he’s separated his defense from his offense. Yesterday, with the infield single, that’s kind of what you get when things are going good and you put the ball in play. I think it was a four-pitch walk, but you still take those because speed is a dangerous weapon when you get on base. Those are the kinds of things you look for to improve in consistency. Seeing pitches — not that we’d take away his aggressiveness — but knowing how to work count and trying to find ways to get on base.”

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