The Minnesota Twins dropped their 92nd game of the season on the inevitable death march to 100 losses by a 9-6 margin to the Tigers at Comerica Park on Wednesday night. Neither starting pitcher recorded outs in the fifth inning — though not for lack of effort — and neither factored in the decision as the bullpens decided this one.
Both starters gave up six earned runs, with Duffey ducking out in the fourth and Sanchez after facing two batters in the fifth. The difference is, Duffey was backed up by 4.1 innings of relief by four pitchers who combined to give up three runs. Sanchez’ cohorts kept the Twins off the scoreboard with five clean innings, allowing just one baserunner with three strikeouts.
Here’s what we saw from our vantage point:
The Tigers bullpen really buckled down
Brian Dozier chased home Byron Buxton with a double in the fifth inning, and also chased Sanchez from the game with the Twins leading 6-5. As one might deduce from the final score, that put a cap on the scoring for the night for the Twins. Alex Wilson came on to strand Dozier at third with three straight outs, and from that point on the only Twins player to reach base was Max Kepler on a single to center with one out in the eighth. He was stranded at first.
Ultimately, Tigers relievers Wilson, Shane Greene, Bruce Rondon and Francisco Rodriguez combined to retire 15 of the 16 batters they faced.
Detroit Free Press Tigers reporter Anthony Fenech sums it up pretty well:
For what it’s worth, the Twins bullpen wasn’t too bad, either
Just one of the three runs allowed by the bunch was earned — charged to Ryan Pressly, who took the loss — as the two runs allowed by Michael Tonkin in the ninth were unearned thanks to a passed ball and a wild pitch. It’d be a stretch to say Tonkin pitched very well, but it’s really hard to get a read on an inning when the first batter strikes out, but reaches first and ultimately scores after a passed ball. Tonkin gave up a couple hits and recorded three strikeouts as he was forced to get four outs total. Tonkin’s wild pitch came at a tough time as well, as John Ryan Murphy had just entered the game in a bit of a pinch. More on that later.
On the plus side, J.T. Chargois threw 1.1 innings of scoreless relief, and found some swing-and-miss stuff with five whiffs in 22 pitches. That’s as many swinging strikes as Duffey got in nearly four times as many pitches, and is also a contrast to how things started for Chargois out of the gate. Nobody would say things are perfect for Chargois, but since his disastrous MLB debut, he’s got a 3.24 ERA in 16.2 innings with a .716 OPS against. The real issue? He’s got just a 12-9 K/BB ratio. That, however, has been a lot better in September: 3.86 ERA, .422 OPS against and 8-2 K/BB ratio in seven innings.
Pat Light also threw a perfect inning — a rare sight for him so far. Pressly was so-so, as he gave up a home run to Miguel Cabrera followed by a long single to Victor Martinez. It just came at the wrong time, with the game tied 6-6 and the Twins offense stuck in neutral.
After a fast start by Sanchez, the Twins absolutely bombed him the second time around
The Twins not only ended the game struggling to put together offense, but also started it as well, as they went nine-up, nine-down against Sanchez for the first three innings. The second time around wasn’t as good, as the first five Twins in the order reached to start the fourth — home run, single, walk, single, home run — with the last hit being a Kurt Suzuki home run to give them a 5-2 lead. Sanchez buckled down to get the last three outs in a row in the fourth, but didn’t record another out the rest of the way. Ultimately, six of the nine batters Sanchez faced in his second trip through the Twins order reached, with Dozier’s double marking the only batter he faced three times.
The Twins lineup was top heavy — again
That’s relatively speaking, as the offense combined for just six hits total. But all six came from batters 1-5, as they combined to go 6-of-19 with six RBIs and five runs scored, while the bottom four combined to go 0-for-14. Basically, not all that different from Tuesday night’s escapades.
That slow bottom half also included a relatively quiet night from Byron Buxton, who didn’t get a hit, but did walk and score on Dozier’s double that chased Sanchez in the fifth.
Ultimately, Dozier was the only Twin with multiple hits on a night where the team hit just .182/.229/.394 as a team.
Speaking of opening up old wounds — sheesh, Kurt Suzuki
Suzuki took a foul ball off the chin at Fenway Park in late July and required stitches to close the wound as fellow Axe Bat wielder Dustin Pedroia was the aggressor. That wound was ever so slightly reopened on the last homestand, but completely torn up again this time around as a wicked foul smash off the bat of Cameron Maybin caught him in the mask.
Say what you will about Suzuki defensively, but he’s tough as nails behind the dish.
Dozier homered again — ever heard of him?
That marked 41 on the season, which would have drawn him into a tie with Orioles slugger Mark Trumbo — if Trumbo hadn’t done the same. As it stands now, the leaderboard is Trumbo with 42, Dozier with 41, Edwin Encarnacion with 39 and a trio of others — including both C/Khris Davis’ — at 37.
With the home run and double, Dozier’s now up to 81 extra-base hits — just three shy of the club record (84, by Tony Oliva in 1964). Dozier’s home run came on the first pitch of the fourth inning, on a curveball that he told reporters he was sitting on. Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press quoted Dozier as saying that the second baseman watches what the pitcher did to him last time as part of his routine, and that Sanchez fell into it again by throwing him a lot of fastballs in the first plate appearance.
MLB.com says three of the six pitches Dozier saw in his first plate appearance — a swinging strikeout — were either sinkers or fastballs.
Mauer remains out
He was available to hit, per Berardino, but that opportunity didn’t come up. Had the game stayed closer than three runs, one might suspect he’d have hit as Eduardo Escobar, Robbie Grossman and Logan Schafer instead went down 1-2-3 to end the game.
Mauer hasn’t started or even appeared in a game — though he is in Thursday’s lineup — since playing 12 innings against the Indians back on Monday. He’s battling a bit of a quad injury, and has hit just .167/.265/.333 in 34 September plate appearances. That has dropped his OPS 11 points, from .780 to start the month to .769 — where it stands now.
—
Up Next – LHP Hector Santiago (4.75 ERA/5.32 FIP in 159 IP, 1.38 WHIP, 7.3 K/9) vs. RHP Mike Pelfrey (4.76 ERA/5.17 FIP in 115.1 IP, 1.72 WHIP, 1.1 K/BB) – Thursday, 12:10 p.m.
—
Notes
- The loss assured the Twins would finish in last place for the fourth time in the last six years.
- The Twins have played just one month over .500 all season (July, 15-11). However, last year’s 83-win team played just two such months (May and September).
- The Twins are 20-26 against teams under .500 this year, and just 34-66 against teams above .500. Those are 70- and 55-win paces for a full season, for what it’s worth.
- Minnesota is 3-7 in its last 10 games, 5-15 over its last 20 and just 8-22 over the past 30.
- The Twins are 8.5 games worse than Tampa Bay (62-83), which is the second-worst team by winning percentage in the AL.
- The Twins not only have the worst road record in the AL at 25-46, but also the worst mark at home (29-46).
