Twins

9/7: Twins Overcome Miscues to Salvage Final Game of Royals Series with 6-5 Win

Where would Byron Buxton hit in an ideal Minnesota Twins lineup? (photo credit: Cumulus Media, Brian Curski)

It required some timely hitting, just enough good relief pitching and their closer wriggling out of a jam with the tying run on second, but the Minnesota Twins managed to stave off a sweep heading into a much-needed off day with a 6-5 win over the Royals on Wednesday.

After an off-day on Thursday, the Twins welcome Cleveland to Target Field for a series with the division-leading Indians.

Kyle Gibson got bit by the long ball a bit, and just missed a quality start by a run, but ultimately did enough with the six innings and 98 pitches he was given to put the Twins in place for a win. Alex Wimmers pitched a clean seventh for his first career win, with Taylor Rogers, Ryan Pressly and Brandon Kintzler closing it out, despite things getting a bit hairy in the ninth.

There were no Brian Dozier homers, but Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton got in on that action, with the latter’s being the eventual game-winning run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amvvEHAqMBc

Here’s what we saw from our seats:

Gibson was so-so, but had an unusual first inning

Gibson completed six innings, allowed four earned runs and had four strikeouts, two walks and allowed a couple of homers. He also induced just six swinging strikes on 98 pitches — by comparison, his mound counterpart Danny Duffy got 22 on two fewer offerings — but ultimately gutted it out through six to keep his team in it.

Gibson gave up eight hits, including back-to-back singles to start the game, but still faced just the minimum in the first. That’s because, simply put, he picked off Jarrod Dyson — though a replay review was needed — and then followed that up five pitches later by picking off Paulo Orlando.

The irony of it all? Manager Paul Molitor told reporters before the game to watch out for the pickoff move — of Duffy, however.

Also unusual for Gibson was that he didn’t allow a run in the first inning. For the year, he’s allowed 19 runs in first innings for a 7.71 ERA. His next worst innings? The fifth (7.32 ERA) and the sixth (9.49 ERA, but in fewer innings with 13 runs in 12.1 frames).

Dozier extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single in the pivotal seventh inning

Dozier singled through the middle on a 1-1 pitch, and after a failed sac bunt was popped up in foul territory to third by Jorge Polanco, he just took it upon himself to steal his way into scoring position against reliever Joakim Soria. Dozier told reporters after the game that he saw Soria was using a leg kick instead of a slide step, so he timed it and stole the base just ahead of catcher Drew Butera’s throw. Ostensibly, that means Dozier picked it up when Soria delivered to Polanco, since he stole on the first pitch delivered to the next batter, Miguel Sano.

Here’s the leg kick from Soria with the bases empty on the pitch Dozier hit back up the middle:

(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)
(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)

And here’s the leg kick Dozier must have picked up on Soria when he delivered to Polanco:

Capture2

Boom. There you have it. Brilliant bit of baserunning savvy from Dozier there.

Dozier also made an incredible play to double up Eric Hosmer to end the fifth inning. Since I can’t make GIFs, here’s a WCW-style still to give you an idea just how awesome the play was:

(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)
(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)

At this point, Dozier had made a diving stop to his right, and had flipped the ball with his glove to Polanco to start an inning-ending, 4-6-3 double play. Seriously, Brian. Can you leave some cool stuff for your teammates to do, too?

The decision to start Grossman and bat him fifth paid off brilliantly for Molitor

Grossman came into the game hitting a robust .343/.430/.556 against left-handed pitching, and did not disappoint in his return to the starting lineup after battling a bit of an oblique issue. Grossman singled home the Twins’ first run in the bottom of the first — more on that in a bit — doubled but was stranded on third in the fourth and followed that with a leadoff home run in the sixth to come up just a triple shy of the cycle. Not bad for a platoon outfielder, huh?

https://twitter.com/Brandon_Warne/status/773704902958874625

The first run for the Twins probably shouldn’t have scored

With Duffy on the mound, a runner on first and one out, Sano hit a comebacker. The left-hander took his time throwing to second, and the return throw wasn’t in time to beat a hustling Sano — at least not in the eyes of first base umpire Angel Hernandez. Royals manager Ned Yost opted not to challenge the ruling, and so instead of being the final out of the inning, Sano advanced to third on a Kennys Vargas single and then scored on Grossman’s hit.

There are two things at play here. First of all, it appeared Duffy thought he had more time on the initial play, and took his time delivering the ball to Escobar at second base. Secondly, and you can judge for yourself, it still looks like Sano is out:

(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)
(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)

It was just the first of six runs for the Twins on the night, but each run turned out to be pivotal in a one-run win. That’s part of the difficulty of being a manager in a pennant race where every win matters though, and also using/burning your challenge in the first inning of a game. It might be worth wondering too if it’s more difficult for a team on the road to get video reviewed in a timely fashion as opposed to at home.

Twins radio man Dan Gladden was fuming on the air about an error charged to Buxton

After Hosmer led off the fourth inning with a double down the left field line, Kendrys Morales — who absolutely killed the Twins in the series (6-for-12 with four home runs and 10 RBIs), by the way — wasted little time in hitting a booming single off the fence in right-center.

There was some gamesmanship at play here, as Twins right fielder Logan Schafer ever-so-briefly deked Hosmer into thinking he was going to catch the ball.

(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)
(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)

Instead, the ball hit maybe a quarter of the way up the wall. Schafer misplayed the carom — like most outfielders might if they hadn’t played at Target Field all year — as it appeared to hit the padded lower portion of the wall instead of the harder higher side. Buxton — backing up the play as a dutiful center fielder ought to — picked up the ball and fired it toward second base.

Now where things get hazy is on how the cutoffs should have been set up, since ostensibly one could argue the Twins could have cut for home, with Hosmer — who isn’t slow but is by no means a blazer either — possibly being out at the plate as the possible tying run. The other angle here is that the slow-footed Morales could have been nailed at second, which is pretty clearly Buxton’s thinking. If Buxton was thinking about a play at the plate at the beginning of the play, it probably wasn’t going to be on his throw, since he was only going to handle the ball in the event of a misplay.

So Buxton raced over, backed up the play like he was supposed to, and threw to second like he was supposed to. There was just one small problem — nobody was at the base.

(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)
(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)

Apologies for the blurry photo here, but it’s easy enough to still piece together. Dozier is set up for the cut to home, and you can see Morales trying to leg out the double. In fact, he’d have been absolutely nailed at the base if Polanco — who is basically in no-man’s land — was where he was supposed to be.

It’s entirely unclear why Polanco was where he was, though it’s possible his initial read, perhaps, was that Buxton’s throw was supposed to go to Dozier but was off line, but that still doesn’t really explain why he was on that side of the base. With a quicker runner on a ball hit to that side of the field, Polanco could be the cut to third base, but he’s still in the completely wrong spot of the field. Part of it could be having John Ryan Murphy directing traffic from the plate as well, since he’s been with the big league club just a very, very limited time this year. It’s hard to say.

Ultimately it didn’t come back to bite the Twins too hard in the end — though Morales did score on a play where Alcides Escobar did a bit of a deke of his own on Eduardo Escobar which ended the inning on the bases. But one can see why Gladden, not only a former outfielder but a veteran of nearly 3,000 innings in center himself, was upset why Buxton was charged with an error on that play. It was still clearly bugging him a half-inning later, and to be frank he was kind of browbeating official scorer Gregg Wong about it for some time after the fact.

Buxton “made up” for it with a home run late, and is still looking better since his recall

With the Twins up 5-4 in the eighth and tough righty Kelvin Herrera on the mound for the Royals, Buxton crushed an 0-2 hanging breaking ball into the seats for his fifth home run of the season. And with that home run, four of Buxton’s five home runs with the Twins this season have come on or after an 0-2 count.

Since his recall on Sept. 1, Buxton is hitting .462/.481/1.077 with 12 hits in 26 at-bats — including eight extra-base hits. His season line is still only a so-so .224/.273/.404, but it’s definitely something to work with based on his speed, defense and progression thus far as a hitter. Ron Gardenhire used to tell me young guys like this have to hit their way out of slumps — he frequently said this about Aaron Hicks when I’d mention the walks — and it appears Buxton is doing just that. Even more impressive is that he did it against Herrera, who has a 1.83 ERA and 11 K/9 this year. He has eaten up right-handed hitters to the tune of a .584 OPS against, and that was just the third 0-2 home run he’s allowed in his career.     

After going to Kintzler in the eighth on a regular basis in recent outings, Molitor changed it up

Kintzler had thrown a pitch in the eighth inning in five of his previous six appearances heading into Wednesday, and the situation appeared for Molitor to use his closer unconventionally again. After a one-out single off Rogers from Morales — keep in mind this is all before Buxton homered in the bottom half of the inning — the Royals pinch ran for him with perhaps the fastest runner in baseball, Terrance Gore. The Twins stuck with Rogers, who struck out Alex Gordon on three pitches for out No. 2, but Gore stole second on the second pitch. With the right-handed hitting Cheslor Cuthbert due up next, and Gore looming at second base, Molitor went to Pressly instead of Kintzler for the final out. It worked out, though Gore picked up third base as well on a 1-2 pitch from Pressly that Murphy got crossed up on.

Here’s a look at that pitch:

(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)
(Photo credit: MLB.com Gameday screenshot)

See where Murphy’s glove is in relation to the pitch? Murphy slides and turns the mitt to his right, and the pitch stays pretty much on a line. Fortunately, lightning-quick reflexes from Murphy kept that ball from squirting away altogether. With Gore’s speed, picking up two bases on a wild pitch is not out of the question, especially on a cross-up where the ball could end up just about anywhere.

With Gore on second base, Murphy and Pressly were going through a sequence for pitch calling. The pitch ended up being a partially blocked 95.1 mph fastball, according to MLB.com. Based on Murphy’s reaction, he was expecting to smother a breaking ball, perhaps a slider. An earlier slider in the plate appearance clocked in at 86.9 mph, and the curve that got Cuthbert on a fly to Max Kepler in right was 84.2 mph. So no matter what Murphy was looking for, it came in 8-10 mph faster than he anticipated — and with far less break.

….and here’s Murphy’s reaction after retrieving it:

Capture8

I’m the oldest of seven kids. I’ve seen that look before. Ultimately it worked out, as Pressly recovered to get Cuthbert two pitches later. My sense here is that Kintzler’s performance the night before (four earned runs in just 0.2 innings) might have played a bit into him not getting in there in this spot, but it also makes sense to go to the guy who is most likely to get you the strikeout in a big spot. Additionally, with Gore at second base, the Twins couldn’t really afford to go to Kintzler, who is almost guaranteed to get a grounder. If that bleeds through for any reason, it’s a tie ballgame.  

Up Next: RHP Tyler Duffey (8-10, 6.24) vs. RHP Danny Salazar (11-6, 3.78) – 7:10 p.m. Friday

Notes & Quotes

  • The Twins have homered in nine straight games, with a total of 22 over that span.
  • The Twins have an MLB-best 19 home runs in September.
  • The win on Wednesday snapped a three-game losing streak for the Twins, who are just 3-17 in their last 20 games, and 8-22 in their last 30.
  • At 52-88, the Twins are two games clear of the Atlanta Braves (54-86) for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft.
  • The expectation is that the Twins will activate Trevor May (back) and Tommy Milone (biceps) from the disabled list prior to Friday’s game in Cleveland, as noted by Molitor prior to Tuesday’s game.
  • With two pickoffs in the game on Wednesday, GIbson is up to four for the season — tied for the most in club history from a righty (Kyle Lohse, 2004 and 2005). The mark is the most by a Twins pitcher since Francisco Liriano had six in 2009.
  • Molitor on the Twins finally grabbing a win from the Royals: “I know it’s been a tough run, last year particularly at the end and then throughout this year. They’ve found ways to win games against us — some of them lopsided and some they’ve been able to find a way late. It had that kind of look to it today a little bit too. We were hanging in there, but we made a nice little comeback. Doz didn’t homer, but he created a run for us with a good at-bat. I don’t know when the last time he had a single was, but it paid off because he instinctively stole second base. We cashed it in with Sano’s hit. And then Escobar — he’s been battling but the hits haven’t been coming too frequently — did a nice job of getting that ball into left field to put us ahead, and then Buxton adding on that insurance run. As you can tell by the bottom of the ninth, there’s a big difference between protecting a two-run lead and a one-run lead.”  
  • Molitor on Gibson and friends and their pitching performance: “Gibby hung in there and gave us six — couple home runs. It was good to see Wimmers get his first major league win. He’s been up here not too long, but he’s shown some composure as well as doing a fairly good job putting up some zeroes for us, and we were able to finish it out with those last three guys.”
  • Molitor on Buxton scoring from second on a ball hit to short (E-6): “You know, it catches your eye because you don’t’ see it very often. We teach our guys — especially those who can run a little bit — to round third with two outs, especially in the infield on a ball on the left side. If there’s any kind of misplay, you’ve got a good chance to score if you don’t break stride. It was close, because (Alcides) Escobar narrowed the gap on the throw to first, but it pulled Hosmer off the base and his speed paid off for sure. But that’s something we try to teach, to be prepared if they make a mistake, you try to capitalize.”
  • Molitor on Buxton since the recall: “We’re seeing some good things. Tonight, he made an adjustment when he hit the double. Duffy had beaten him inside a little bit with the fastball early on and struck him out with offspeed. Then he was ready for that one he hit the double with. Off Herrera, it’s a tough at-bat for anybody and he got behind, but he got a mistake breaking ball. It’s one of those things where he got a little bit out front, but his hands were back and the pitch was in a spot where he could do some damage, and it gave us a cushion.”
  • Gibson on the Twins getting past the Royals finally: “Interviews after starts like this are a lot more fun when you win. We needed it; they’ve had our number all year. To battle back, and for the offense to overcome that deficit was pretty cool. I know it wasn’t a five or six-run deficit, but still with Duffy on the mound and that bullpen, that was a really good job.”

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Where would Byron Buxton hit in an ideal Minnesota Twins lineup? (photo credit: Cumulus Media, Brian Curski)

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