Twins

9/5: Dozier Pops Three Home Runs, Twins Fall 11-5 on Labor Day

It was the Brian Dozier show, as his three home runs were the sole positive on an otherwise dreary day for the Twins. (Photo credit: Brian Curski)

Brian Dozier again did what seemed impossible, as he socked three home runs — with each escalating one level further into the upper deck — but it all ultimately went for naught, as the Twins dropped another ugly game, this time 11-5 to the Kansas City Royals at Target Field on Labor Day.

Dozier upped his season total to 38 home runs with the gargantuan effort, with 40 seemingly now guaranteed and a real chance at 45 perhaps just around the corner, but ultimately for the team it boils down to the fact that they’ve lost 16 of their last 18 games — Dozier hot streak or not.

That’s not meant to diminish the streak — it’s hard to imagine any Twins hitter has ever been this hot — but to put it into perspective. Ultimately though, Dozier didn’t allow 16 hits or 11 runs, or walk five batters as Twins pitchers did on the day. But ultimately, it’s a team effort, and it was a bit of an ugly one on Monday afternoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPEI7n9ES7g

Here’s what we saw from our seats:

Dozier, Dozier, DOZIER

Dozier homered on the first pitch he saw for the day, and at that point maybe we should have known it was going to be one of those days. In fact, Dozier’s plate coverage could be described as nothing less than ridiculous.

Here’s a look his three plate appearances which resulted in home runs, with the blue ball representing the one hit out in each plate appearance (all photos via screenshots of MLB.com):

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Maybe the most remarkable part was that each home run went basically to the same part of the field — he’s a dead-pull hitter, after all — but it basically showed that Dozier can hit the ball up or down, and if you’re going to throw him a cookie in the middle of the plate, sure he’ll eat that too.

It was a little of a strange game for Dozier overall though, as he had three home runs — and two strikeouts. Nobody’s complaining, as he saw 20 pitches and his season line is now at an astonishing .279/.350/.576. You know who came into Monday slugging .576? Mike Trout, that’s who.

Berrios wasn’t (quite) as bad as the stat line looked

He got through five innings, threw 95 pitches and got 56 strikes (58.9 percent). Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but the big issue was that he fell behind 1-0 to far too many hitters. This time, he got a first-pitch strike to just 10-of-23 hitters faced, but still didn’t really pay for it until late.

Berrios started the fifth inning up 4-2, and allowed a Whit Merrifield single to open the inning. Merrifield was forced at second, but that left speedy center fielder Jarrod Dyson to contend with at first. Berrios was able to divert his focus from Dyson on first long enough to strike out Paulo Orlando, but ultimately the speedster stole second, and then took third as Juan Centeno’s throw went into center. Berrios delivered a first-pitch strike to Eric Hosmer after that, but then four wide ones gave him a free pass, and brought up Kendrys Morales. Berrios fell behind 2-0 on Morales, and threw a pretty good pitch to try get back on the right side of things.

However, Morales made him pay:

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The result was a three-run homer, and with that, Berrios’ lead vanished, and the Twins didn’t score again until Dozier homered in the eighth. By that time, the damage was done as the Twins trailed 11-4.

But again, overall Berrios showed some positive signs. His four-seamer sat in the 94 mph range and touched 96, and he leaned heavily on it. The two-seamer had the same range of speeds, and overall he got 11 swinging strikes total — none on his two-seamer — for a respectable 11.6 percent whiff rate. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but this was a building-block kind of start.  

The bullpen was very leaky — again

For the most part, it was likely because manager Paul Molitor had to be a bit hamstrung on who is available out there. Since Michael Tonkin has been battling a shoulder issue, and Molitor has run Ryan Pressly through the wringer all season, Alex Wimmers — a big-league vet of all of a few days — was the first out of the gate with a 5-4 lead in the sixth. Wimmers did fine, but the cast behind him didn’t, as Taylor Rogers, Pat Light and Pat Dean combined to each allow a pair of earned runs while only combining to throw a pair of innings.

Dean got rocked on a home run by Hosmer, and given his struggles with righties, it’s probably not a great sign that a lefty got to him. His ERA is now 7.03. Yeesh. J.T. Chargois worked a clean ninth — with a strikeout but also a walk — but overall the staff gave up 16 hits and 11 runs. There’s not much of a silver lining there.

Eddie Rosario had a nice offensive day

He snapped an 0-for-12 with a double in the fourth inning, and finished 3-for-5 for the day to join Dozier in the three-hit club. He’s still probably brutally miscast as a No. 5 hitter, but he’s hitting a very Rosario-like .267/.294/.412 this season after scuffling badly — so much so, he was sent out — to start the season. He’s still got a ways to go to match his .459 slugging percentage from last year, but the first two numbers of this year’s slash line are at least equal to, if not better than last year (.267/.289/.459). Without plate discipline, he might end up being a fourth outfielder in the long-term, however.

It was a quieter day for Mr. Buxton

There were no highlight-reel catches and he had just one hit — an infield single in his first plate appearance — but quiet days don’t necessarily mean bad days for a guy who appears to be slowing the game down. Buxton also coaxed a walk, and in doing so reached twice while seeing a total of 16 pitches in four plate appearances. Slow and steady wins the race, even if you’re fast like Buck. He’s up to .222/.272/.389 for the season. With his speed and defense, he’ll get there.

The top of the Royals order terrorized the Twins

Dyson, Orlando and Hosmer combined to go 6-for-12 with six runs scored, five RBIs and a walk. Basically the only positive to come out of that stretch for the Twins was that Berrios got Hosmer to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the first inning. It was all downhill from there, however.

…..they couldn’t really get the bottom of the order out, either

Every Royals starter up and down the lineup had at least one hit, with No. 5 hitter Salvador Perez, No. 6 hitter Alex Gordon and No. 8 hitter Alcides Escobar each carrying the water on the bottom half with two-hit games. Here’s quite a crazy fact: four Royals batters saw at least 20 pitches, and just one (Morales) hit in the upper-half of the order.

The Twins announced the rest of the September call-ups

Kennys Vargas, Tyler Duffey and James Beresford are making the trek from Rochester, and will join the team on Tuesday. Vargas didn’t do a ton down in Rochester after being sent back in late August — .222/.407/.356 heading into Monday’s finale — but he’ll return to a .955 OPS with the Twins and a lot of walks. He may get some serious run at DH down the stretch. Duffey will start later in the homestand, but his last start at Rochester didn’t go so great: eight innings, five earned runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts, two walks and four (!) home runs allowed. He returns to a 6.24 ERA with the Twins.

Beresford gets a bit of a “good soldier” call-up, not necessarily unlike Doug Bernier in previous seasons, but it’s unfair to sell the guy short. Since signing with the Twins more than a decade ago, he’s refined a pretty solid approach that’s allowed him to hit .283/.338/.330 across four levels. In four years at Rochester, he’s combined to hit .286/.334/.342 in nearly 2,000 plate appearances while playing first, second and third bases with a very, very little bit of shortstop mixed in. He’ll get the thrill of spending a month in the big leagues, and then be quickly washed off the roster at season’s end. It’s not really a big deal — well, to him it surely is — but it’s just the Twins’ way of trying to do right by a lifer. Ultimately, if it upsets some people — that’s their problem, really.  

The three players aren’t the only ones coming up, however:

That’s good to see, as Allen has drawn raves for his work with the Red Wings, particularly with Buxton.

Eduardo Escobar threw an incredible party atop the Budweiser Roof Deck

Officially it was called “Eduardo Escobar and Friends’ Labor Day Celebration” and it was benefiting the “I Love Venezuela Foundation.” Tickets were available for $30 and $50, with $12 from each ticket benefiting the foundation from Escobar’s native country. The ticket package promised fans a rarely-seen opportunity to sit on the Budweiser Roof Deck, a baseball autographed by Escobar himself to each ticket bearer, special food available for purchase, and a postgame meet and greet with Eduardo and “other” players who weren’t listed once the promotion was made official.

(Players/personnel who appeared, in order of picture: Mauer, Grossman, Santiago, Dozier, Escobar, Buxton, Gibson, Suzuki, Perez, Plouffe, O’Rourke, (Alcides) Escobar, Davis)

Ultimately, the players who showed up were a who’s who of Twins, and a few Royals showed up as well. The idea was borne from the notion that the Twins weren’t looking likely to sell out the roof deck on Labor Day due to the usual suspects — corporations or parties — not being apt to book it on a holiday, so Escobar and team Community Relations Director Bryan Donaldson drummed up the idea, and it was a rousing success.

At the Escobar party, Hector Santiago spoke candidly with me about the trade from the Angels

Santiago was on the deck and I caught him for just a second to chit chat. He said he likes Minnesota so far, and was stunned to be traded from the Angels. Santiago said he was given assurances multiple times that he wouldn’t be moved, and was in fact out on the water when the deal happened. With the Angels scheduled for an off-day on Aug. 1, Santiago said he was 80 feet underwater when the trade happened, and when he resurfaced, he had a bunch of messages to catch up on.

The trade was nothing like the one that sent him from the White Sox to the Angels, he said, because that deal took place in the offseason (Dec. 10, 2013), and so he had plenty of time to get his affairs in order.

Santiago also showed me his thumb — to be frank, it looks kinda gross — but said that he’s managed to throw through it just fine, and feels he’s been better of late. He also said that the Twins tried to tweak his mechanics when he arrived — ostensibly to help calm down his control — but the results were that he was getting absolutely rocked. Santiago has made six starts with the Twins to the tune of a 7.47 ERA, but it breaks down like this:

  • First four starts: 10.89 ERA, 1.140 OPS against and 12-3 K/BB ratio in 19 innings
  • Last two starts: 2.19 ERA, .629 OPS against and 8-7 K/BB ratio in 12.1 innings

Ultimately, Santiago said he told the Twins he was just going to go back to what worked for him in the past, and he said he felt like it’s worked pretty well. Considering he carried a 3.58 ERA between 2012 and 2015 working mostly as a starter, it seems he’s probably right.    

Notes

  • The Twins dropped to 2-12 on the season against the Royals, and have lost six straight games in the season series.
  • There aren’t enough superlatives for Dozier, but here are a few selected ones. He now has 75 extra-base hits — a new Twins record. He also leads the AL in slugging percentage, extra-base hits, home runs and runs since the All Star break. He also now had 55 home runs, passing Trevor Plouffe for the most at Target Field.
  • Duffey will start Friday, with Santiago slated to go on Saturday.
  • The corresponding move to the Twins purchasing Beresford’s contract was to put 1B/DH Byungho Park on the 60-day disabled list. That’s merely a formality, as he’ll miss the rest of the season after hand surgery.

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It was the Brian Dozier show, as his three home runs were the sole positive on an otherwise dreary day for the Twins. (Photo credit: Brian Curski)

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