MILWAUKEE, Wis. — For four-and-a-half innings, Minnesota Twins starter Jake Odorizzi and Milwaukee Brewers counterpart Junior Guerra traded zeroes as both offenses looked punchless in the hot Wisconsin sun.
One swing from Eric Thames changed all that.
Thames hit a two-run home run off a cutter that Odorizzi didn’t get in far enough, and that was all Guerra and two of his finest comrades needed to salt away a 2-0 victory over the Twins on the eve of July 4.
Josh Hader gave the Twins the same fits he’s been giving hitters all season long, and Corey Knebel snuffed out the offense in the ninth by striking out the side.
The loss was the fifth in a row for the Twins, and sent them to a season-high 12 games under .500 with the trade deadline looming just four weeks away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppkj-X7DUEM
Here’s what we saw from our vantage point
Win probability table
Source: FanGraphs
Odorizzi was bitten by the third time through the order again
Odorizzi lasted just five innings, and while the only damage incurred was the two-run homer by Thames in the fifth, it wasn’t as though he was without danger at times in the outing.
Odorizzi was immediately in hot water in the first inning, as a pair of one-out walks gave the Brewers life to start the game. Odorizzi bore down, striking out Travis Shaw and Ryan Braun swinging on balls up and out of the zone to escape damage. Odorizzi worked around a walk in the second, but again the third inning was bumpy as well.
Brad Miller opened the frame with a double to right that Max Kepler appeared to have a little trouble with. Thames followed with a single to center, advancing Miller to third to give the Brewers another big scoring chance with no one out and the No. 3 hitter coming to the plate, Jesus Aguilar.
Odorizzi fanned Aguilar on four pitches — one of his nine strikeouts on the afternoon — but fell behind Shaw 3-0. Shaw got the green light, but popped a shallow fly to left on a center-cut Odorizzi heater that Rosario caught.
Braun then struck out swinging on three straight sliders to end the inning, and the threat.
The fourth was much cleaner for Odorizzi — as he faced the minimum — but the damage in the fifth came when he walked rookie Nate Orf, who was making his second MLB appearance, as the pinch hitter for Guerra. Orf stole second on a Miller strikeout, but came home when Thames connected for a laser shot that just cleared the fence and landed in the Aurora Health Care Bullpen seating area in right field.
“It was a cutter that didn’t get in far enough,” Odorizzi said of the pitch Thames homered on. ” (I) threw it to a few of their lefties, throwing it on their hands. Just didn’t execute it, plain and simple.
“Bobby (Wilson) and I kind of talked about the first pitch he fouled off down the left-field line, looked he was trying to go the other way with the fastball. It’s fastball in or something that keeps coming in on his hands. We opted for the second one. I just stayed behind it too much. Didn’t get enough break on it. Right pitch, just bad execution and turns out to be the deciding factor.”
Overall, Odorizzi had mixed reviews on his performance, which went five innings with just the two earned runs, four hits, nine strikeouts and four walks.
“I’d like to be better than five innings, but at the same time I think pitched around some guys on base,” he said. “First and third nobody on, any time you can get out of that you’re doing something that’s frustrating the other team. I just tried to keep them off-balance, change eye levels. It’s starting to come around. Starting to feel more like my usual self. Just wasn’t fine enough on one pitch today and it cost us.”
“Jake had to fight a little bit with first and third and nobody out,” Molitor said. “I think he tried to throw a little cutter to Thames there and it kind of stayed flat. Didn’t really get it where he wanted to get to, and that was the difference in the game.”
The Twins couldn’t get anything going against Guerra
Both of the Twins’ hits came against Guerra — a double by Jorge Polanco with one out in the first inning and an Eddie Rosario single to center in the fifth — as the veteran righty struck out eight batters with three walks.
This was the first time the Twins had been held to two or fewer hits since April 23, 2016 against the Washington Nationals.
The Twins’ best chance to score came right away in the first. Polanco’s double was followed by a walk to Rosario and Eduardo Escobar to load the bases. After eight of the last 10 pitches were out of the zone — really nine, since the strike to Escobar wasn’t really a good pitch, either — Kepler swung at the first pitch and popped it to short.
It looked like a center-cut fastball on replay, but Kepler just couldn’t do anything with it, and was down for the second out. Willians Astudillo — making his first MLB start at second base — followed by drilling a 1-2 fastball into the left-center gap, but Brewers center fielder Keon Broxton chased it down to neutralize the threat, and more or less the only real chance the Twins had to score all afternoon.
“He’s a good pitcher,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “He’s got good numbers. Nice combination, mostly the fastball-split. I think it was just a tough day offensively all around. No excuses, I think the shadows here are a little challenging as far as pitch recognition. But we had a chance right out of the chute there and couldn’t capitalize. A lot of times those come back to bite you.”
Joe Mauer did not record a putout or assist in the entire game
Part of it was because strikeouts were in ample supply; Twins pitchers fanned 16 Brewers batters on the day. According to Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time this has happened since Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion did it at Baltimore on Aug. 25, 2012. It was just the sixth time in the past 20 years, and first time ever for a Twins player.
A statistic briefly circulated on Twitter that it was the only the fourth time in MLB history it had happened and first since 1974, but that was later proven false when it was revealed that the story referenced hadn’t been updated since 1978.
The Twins had to tangle with Josh Hader experience
Really, the entire Brewers relief corps has given the Twins fits so far through two games. After Robbie Grossman’s grand slam against Brent Suter on Monday night, the Twins have been held scoreless for the last 14 innings — including nine straight scoreless frames from Brewers relievers.
But while it was some of the secondary players on Monday night — with the lone exception being Knebel closing out that win in the 10th inning — the headliners took the stage in this one.
Hader threw three shutout innings on Tuesday afternoon, allowing no hits and just one walk while striking out only two batters. We use ‘only’ in this context because the fireballing lefty came into the game striking out an obscene 52.9 percent of the batters he had faced this season.
“You can ask every team in the league. He’s dominating, primarily with one pitch,” Molitor said of Hader. “I think he’s just kind of a combination of being able to hide the ball and good carry on his fastball. Doesn’t seem to get many down in the zone, pretty much plays the top and you either miss it or you foul it or you pop it up. It’s just tough to square up.”
Knebel was absolutely dastardly, and it was no more evident than on the final pitch of the game, when he froze pinch-hitter Logan Morrison for strike three on an 81 mph knucklecurve just after hitting 96 on the gun with his fastball.
The Brewers are going places this year if they can keep their bullpen intact.
The Twins have employed the four-man outfield in each of the last two days
Early in both games of the series, the Twins employed the tactic against Thames. This time it was in the first inning, but both times, Astudillo went out to give the Twins an extra outfielder.
In Tuesday’s case, Astudillo was situated in the right-field corner.
This marks the second time the Twins have used the four-man outfield this season. They used it against Toronto’s Justin Smoak earlier in the season, too.
Ryan Pressly had a very strong sixth inning of work, and Gabriel Moya was good too
Pressly fanned all three batters he faced, throwing 10 of his 12 pitches for strikes as he had a good “get back on the bicycle” outing after some struggles of late. His last appearance in Chicago was also positive, and the righty has now allowed just one earned run over his last six appearances dating back to allowing three against the Boston Red Sox on June 21.
Moya came in and gave the Twins exactly what they were looking for, fanning four batters in his two innings of work. Before the game, there was talk of getting his slider working to counteract left-handed hitters, but it was the fastball and changeup that carried the water for Moya in this one.
Two of his strikeouts came on the fastball, with the other two coming on the changeup. If he can continue to get big outs late in games, he could be up in the big leagues to stay.
“Both [Pressly] and Moya did a nice job keeping it close,” Molitor said. Pressly had a real clean inning, which was good for him. And Moya, we knew he was throwing the ball well, and he made it look pretty easy getting the last six outs. We gave ourselves a chance, we just couldn’t get any baserunners in the second half of the game in particular.”
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Notes
- Twins catcher Bobby Wilson is mired in a 1-for-30 slump.
- This was the third shutout of the year for the Twins, and first since May 14 against Seattle.
- The Twins are just 2-10 in the last 12 games,
- Miller extended his hitting streak to eight games for Milwaukee.
- Knebel’s save was the 50th of his career.
- The Brewers will go for the sweep on Wednesday as righties Chase Anderson and Jose Berrios tangle. First pitch will be at 3:10 p.m.
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