Twins

Minor Silences Twins Bats in 8-1 Win to Open Series

Mandatory Credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Few nights have exemplified what the Minnesota Twins offense can look like when it’s running cold more than Friday night did, as the Texas Rangers came in and took the first game of the series by an 8-1 margin at Target Field.

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The Twins just weren’t able to get anything going against Mike Minor and a pair of Rangers relievers, and even in the scant chances they did cobble together ran themselves out of big(ger) innings. Minor wasn’t overpowering, but he did his part to take down Fernando Romero and the Twins on a night where the Rangers spread it out, with only two Texas players — Joey Gallo and Delino DeShields — being held hitless.

Both still managed to contribute, however, as DeShields scored a run and Gallo threw out Brian Dozier trying to stretch a single into a double early in the game.

Here’s what we saw from our vantage point

Win probability chart


Source: FanGraphs

Romero was neither really bad nor really good

It was pretty telling of the direction his night would take when Romero needed 18 pitches — nine apiece — to fan Shin-Soo Choo and walk Elvis Andrus to open the game. Then again, the damage was mostly concentrated to two innings — the fourth and the fifth — while Romero set the Rangers down in order in the second, third and sixth innings.

“Romero was OK,” manager Paul Molitor said. “The first couple runs were a swinging bunt, one off the end of the bat and Beltre kind of got jammed and got one up the middle.”

The game was scoreless in the fourth when Andrus reached on an infield single to third baseman Taylor Motter. Nomar Mazar followed with a single, and Adrian Beltre did the same to drive home Andrus. Rougned Odor followed with a grounder back to Romero, who took the out at second while Mazara came home to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. Romero might have had a play at the plate under normal circumstances, but he had to come off the mound at an angle that would have made for a really difficult play at the plate.

Nonetheless, he rebounded to get Gallo to fly to left and Robinson Chirinos to ground to short — on an incredible diving stop by Ehire Adrianza and a brilliant scoop at first by Joe Mauer — to end the threat.

Romero walked Ronald Guzman to open the fifth, and Delino DeShields Jr. bunted him to second before Choo unloaded for a home run into the right-field seats. That’s all the damage Romero suffered on the evening, but it was enough as the Twins offense showed little firepower on the evening.

“Choo saw one too many fastballs there, I think,” Molitor lamented after the game.

Romero was mostly fastball-slider on the evening, as he threw just seven changeups but 61 fastballs and 30 sliders. He had 10 swinging strikes, with six coming on the two-seam fastball (15.4 percent whiff rate), two on the four-seamer (9.1 percent), one on the change (14.3 percent) and one on the slider (3.3 percent).

His velocity was good as well, as he peaked at 98.5 mph with the two-seamer and 97.3 with the four. Romero said he felt his command improved as the night went on. “I think my command was better than my other starts,” he said. “That’s all we’re trying to do, get better each outing or every day.”

Here’s Romero on his performance:

Minor wasn’t dominant, but just got the job done

It just seemed like the Twins struggled to make strong contact against Minor, while the contrary was not as true for the Rangers against Romero. Then again, nine of the top 16 exit velocities came off the bats of Rangers — so, just over half — but those were four hits for the Rangers (two singles, a double and a homer) against just a single for Dozier and Max Kepler’s double.   

It would be foolish to say Minor wasn’t overpowering — he got as high as 96.2 mph with his fastball and sat 93-94 — but most of his results came on the slider, where four of his six swinging strikes came from. Combine his good, but not great line — three strikeouts, two walks in six innings — with his season ERA (5.06) and it’s hard not to come away feeling like the slumping Twins offense played a big part in this one, too.

Other than doubles from Kepler and Mauer, the Twins offense was silent

Maybe it’s sort of fitting, but on a night where Eduardo Escobar was held out of the lineup after being hit by a pitch the day before, two of the Twins’ three hits were doubles, and the other was a single that was trying to be turned into a double.

Jun 22, 2018; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Twins right fielder Max Kepler (26) reacts after scoring during the sixth inning against the Texas Rangers at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

On the plus side, Escobar got into the game to pinch-hit late — perhaps boding well for his chances of starting on Saturday — but on the negative side, only five Twins reached base all night.

Two gambles hurt the Twins in a big way

After Mauer grounded to short and Eddie Rosario tapped back to Minor, Dozier hooked a ball into the left-field corner and attempted to take second base on Gallo. It didn’t work, as Gallo — who has a powerful arm, and has played third base in addition to the outfield — threw a strike to Andrus covering the bag, nailing Dozier by a healthy amount to end the first inning.

Jun 22, 2018; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor (12) tags out Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier (2) at second base during the first inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Dozier didn’t back down from the idea of what he did, however.

“Two outs, you’ve got to try to get to second,” he said. “I forgot to turn my invisible powers on hoping he wouldn’t see me, but he did. Oh well.

“We’ve got two outs. You’ve got to try to get to second and he made a nice throw. I’ll do it every single time.”

Molitor didn’t necessarily disagree, though he did say it was perhaps a little over aggressive.

“You could say it was probably a hair aggressive due to the fact that he got thrown out by a good margin there,” Molitor said. “But you hook one toward the corner and you’re thinking two out of the box. He got committed and was not able to retreat so he just went ahead and was hoping for an errant throw but the guy threw it on the bag.”

Jun 22, 2018; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Twins center fielder Ryan LaMarre (24) is called out after stepping out of the baseline during the sixth inning against the Texas Rangers at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The other situation came in the sixth. Kepler opened with a double that split Gallo and DeShields in left-center, and Ryan LaMarre followed with a nine-pitch walk to get things rolling with nobody out. It wasn’t entirely unlike in the Boston series when Motter ground out a 10-pitch walk against Chris Sale, which led to the Twins getting his pitch count up and eventually taking the lead after he’d diced them all evening long.

With runners on first and second, No. 9 hitter Bobby Wilson came to the plate. Wilson went up 3-0, but not before a wild pitch earlier in the at-bat kicked away from Chirinos. Kepler immediately sprung for third, but LaMarre hesitated just briefly and when he saw Kepler streaking for third, decided to make a break for second.

It didn’t work, and LaMarre was out in a rundown after running out of the baseline. That was especially damaging as Wilson followed with an eight-pitch walk of his own before Mauer doubled home Kepler.

Mauer’s double was nearly an issue on the bases as well, as Wilson hesitated around second and only took third easily after Gallo had trouble corralling the ball in left. Rosario followed by popping out to Odor and Dozier lifted a foul fly to Guzman to end the thread, and the Twins did not threaten the rest of the way.

In fact, after Mauer’s double, the final 11 Twins were set down in order.

Here’s Dozier after the game:

It doesn’t feel like Matt Belisle is long for Minneapolis

It just hasn’t been pretty to this point in limited action. His season ERA stands at 7.98, and that’s in large part due to the fact that he allowed four earned runs on five hits in just one inning in this one.

Belisle entered with the Twins down 4-1 in the ninth, and things went sour from there. Chirinos — who was 0-for-13 before breaking through in this one — doubled to left. Guzman followed with a single. DeShields grounded back to Belisle, who got Chirinos into a rundown with the contact play on.

Choo followed with a single to right, scoring Guzman while he took second on the throw home from Motter in right field. After Andrus struck out swinging, Mazara singled up the middle and Beltre followed with a booming double to left-center to chase home Mazara for the team’s final run of the night. 

Between Beltre and Belisle, the two are a combined 77 years old.

Anyway, after three scoreless outings to begin his (second) Twins tenure, Belisle has allowed seven earned runs in the last two innings on nine hits. His season ERA, which was down to 4.26 just two days ago, has nearly doubled. Maybe Alan Busenitz won’t be waiting in the clubhouse when reporters show up on Saturday, but it’s really hard to feel like the team can find a role for Belisle with how he’s pitched the last two days. 

In Byron Buxton news….

Speaking of roster spots, there have been some good things going on with Buxton down at Rochester.

First, he showed tremendous speed on this single:

Then, he ripped an absolute bomb on Friday night:

It’s hard to know how soon the Twins will look to get him back, but if his foot feels good and his swing looks ready, they won’t waste much time. They need him in the lineup.

Notes

  • Mauer is four doubles behind Kirby Puckett for first on the team’s all-time list.
  • The Twins are 19-19 at Target Field and 9-12 in games started by opposing left-handers.
  • Kepler’s double was his 18th; he’s third on the team in doubles according to the game notes (Escobar, 32 and Rosario, 20).
  • Choo extended his on-base streak to 35 games.

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