MIN 3, DET 2: Colomé Holds on for 6-Out Save
Apr 07 2021 01:58 PM |
Andrew Thares
in Minnesota Twins
Image courtesy of © Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Box ScoreMaeda: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Home Runs: None
Top 3 WPA: Colomé .374, Polanco .235, Robles .114
Bottom 3 WPA: Garver -.185, Sanó -.080, Cruz -.032
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):
Baddoo Stays Hot
Akil Baddoo continued to torture his former organization in today’s game. In the bottom of the second, Baddoo got the scoring started with an RBI triple. He followed that up in the next half inning, when he made a great play and throw to nail Andrelton Simmons, who was trying to turn a single into a double, to leadoff the inning.
Matthew Boyd Controls Twins Bats Early
The Twins stacked their lineup with right-handed hitters against the lefty Matthew Boyd, but they were unable to get anything going against him through the first four innings of the game, as they mustered just two singles, with five strikeouts. It wasn’t until Byron Buxton drilled a double off the right-field wall to leadoff the fifth that the Twins even had a runner in scoring position. The Twins were able to capitalize off Buxton’s leadoff double, as he advanced to third on a groundout from Miguel Sano, and then came in to score on a sac-fly off the bat of Willians Astudillo, evening the score at one a piece.
Wilson Ramos Home Run
The game didn’t stay tied for long, thanks to Wilson Ramos who drilled a one-out home run down the line in left. Off the bat, the ball didn’t appear to be hit high enough to get out, but the ball was hit hard enough that it stayed up just enough to clear the fence, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead.
Twins Have Big Sixth Inning
After the Tigers reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fifth, the Twins put together a strong sixth inning to give themselves the lead. In the top of the inning, the Twins bats put together a two out rally that started with a single from right-fielder Kyle Garlick. Nelson Cruz followed that up with an infield single, where he was initially rule out, but after a successful challenge from Rocco Baldelli the call was overturned. Jorge Polanco then came up huge, driving a double in the left-center field gap that was able to bring Cruz to score all the way from first, giving the Twins the 3-2 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, it was the defense that bailed out Kenta Maeda, who was struggling to get hitters out. First it was Andrelton Simmons, who completed a strong relay on a Miguel Cabrera double to throw out Willi Castro at home. After a Jeimer Candelario walk and a Nomar Mazara single, the bases were loaded with just one out, with Jonathan Schoop coming to the plate. Maeda was able to get Schoop to flyout to Kyle Garlick, who ended the inning with this great throw.
Kyle Garlick’s Big Start
With a lefty on the mound for the Tigers, it was not surprising that Kyle Garlick replaced Max Kepler in the lineup. However, it was surprising that he was he was hitting second in the order ahead of Nelson Cruz. Garlick proved that to be a great move, as he collected two singles to get on base in front of Cruz, which included the two-out single in the sixth that sparked the Twins rally to take the lead. Then he backed it up in the field with that throw to get Miguel Cabrera at home to preserve the Twins 3-2 lead.
Colome Secures Two Inning Save
With Taylor Rogers and Tyler Duffey having pitched yesterday, and Alex Colome coming off three days rest, Rocco Baldelli turned to Colome in the eighth inning to get six outs to end the game, and that is exactly what he did. Colome allowed a single in the eighth, but that was erased with an inning ending double play. He then got the middle of the Tigers order 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the game with Akil Baddoo standing in the on-deck circle.
Postgame with Maeda
Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet
41 Comments
Twins win!!
3 double plays, including a play at the plate.
Repeatedly seeing the third base coach windmilling doesn't get the pulse rate up any?
Dang Boyd is tough on our hitters.1st pitch strikes by the buckets and second swing hacks by the dozen put our guys in a tough spot.Thankfully Buxton finally had a long at bat that ended in a double and scored run or he might have made it all 9 innings.After Buxton trying to single handedly bring them back they scored two more in the 6th on a big Double from Polanco that scored Cruz al the way from first base.That was it for the bats.
Maeda pitched well but he gave up some hard contact as well. he only gave up two runs and his pitch count was low but he was far from dominant IMO. Robles came in and did a nice job.Colome got the job done but gave me major heartburn doing it.
Sano and Garver take the black hole bat awards today.Garver K'd three times and mainly let strikes go by and swung at stuff out of the zone.Absolute horrible eye at the plate today.Maybe swing at a few of the meatball first pitch strikes you were given almost every at bat.I can see Sano is trying and he did make some contact today so that is a start but but he has too many three pitch strike out at bats to be a MLB player.
The waiver claim Garlick was the only player with two hits today and looked like a huge improvement over Rooker at the plate.Simons was his pesky self and Astudillo did what Kepler couldn't do twice yesterday which was get a sac fly to bring Buxton home.Polanco has a lot of weak contact and then in the last two at bats powered the ball one for a double with the game winning runs.Hopefully those at bats get him rolling.
Have to say I was very impressed with Boyd today.He was aggressive and made the batter uncomfortable and kept them guessing mostly incorrectly for the first 4 innings. Buxton got to him in a hard fought battle and he had a bit of a tough luck 6th but to me he looked better than Maeda today.He had to face a tougher lineup and he made it 7 innings and had the Twins guessing early.He almost won the game for the Tigers but fell just short.
Happy the Twins won a close one on the road to a team that seems to give us trouble.Starting pitching has been incredible (Am I really typing that) and the Bullpen has been pretty good too although a couple of failures have cost us wins.
We are off to a good start just need to have a strong homestand to keep pace in the division.
Good game. Didn't make the plays yesterday and lost; made them today and won. Amazing how that works.
I have to admit that so far the play on the field has validated the FO's roster decisions and FA pickups in an admittedly very small sample size. Robles has been as good as he was for the Angels in 2019, and Colome looks solid after the first game. Garlick looks like he can play a bit and might be good platoon guy in LF/4th or 5th OF on the bench. Simmons has been everything we could ask for. Shoemaker was stout in his debut and Happ wasn't great but looks like he can hold down the 5th starter spot.
Big questions are whether Sano or Garver will hit. Just a slow start or signs of where they'll be this year? Both look like their 2020 versions, not the much better 2019 versions. Cave also looks like his 2020 self rather than the 2018 and 2019 version. I'm not optimistic about Cave; I think this is who he is with his BA going up to around .230. I'm cautiously hopeful but realistic about Garver since he's really only had the one good year, and cautiously optimistic about Sano although I'm now in the mind that .240/.350/.500 (.850) may be his ceiling and a .750-.800 OPS his norm. I see plenty of good opportunities for Jeffers, Kirilloff, Larnach and Rooker ahead and they will be coming this year.
Overall the Twins have looked pretty good. When you remember that 70 losses is a really good year you understand what a battle 162 games can be and the tactic of winning a series is always huge. Plenty of long at bats this series and players grinding through even when it results in outs. Polanco came up big. Nobody should worry about him if he can stay healthy.
Do the people who were crying for brining Garlik with from ST instead of Rooker feel stupid yet? Its a long season. Everyone who deservers it will get the chance to contribute at some point.
Colume didn't really even pitch that poorly on Opening Day.A bad decision along with a bad throw to 2nd and then a very catchable ball that Kepler dropped made what probably should have been a relatively stress free save into extra innings.I'm sure Detroit is kicking themselves a little today for getting thrown out at home with no outs but that was a really nice relay. The mistake was probably the way he approached 2nd base while Cave was diving.Jerking to a halt rather than timing it so he can accelerate or go back probably made the difference. Its what makes the game interesting. Good decisions can turn out badly and bad decisions can become golden and there is always a team on the other side doing the same thing.
Not a guy to panic.At all.But, MAN...how can a waiver claim like Garlick take professional at bats but Sano just seems to have no approach.
No one here is stupid. Please keep that in mind. Even if the loudly expressed opinions might have lost a lot of air today ... they still aren't stupid.
Which is really frustrating to watch every single season.
1st half 2019 Jorge would be pretty huge for the offense.
In Rooker's defense, he may have been playing with an oblique injury.
Very impressed by Simmons so far. Of course his defense is top tier, but also he's been an on base machine.
I know I sure do. After racking up 2 hits in his lone start this season I'm ready to pencil him in at the top of the lineup for the the foreseeable future.
I know this is a joke, but in all seriousness I hope to see garlick in the lineup the next 2 days against a lefty. He looked like he was locked in and hit two balls hard off of Boyd in a day where not many did. I’d much rather have him in the outfield against a lefty instead of Kepler or Cave.
Andrelton Simmons: Key play of the game. How many Twins shortstops in the last 20 years make that play? Not a one. Simmons is faster, stronger arm, and better baseball IQ than all of them. Plus he's a scrappy good hitter. Gold bars for his weight.
Maeda: He said it in the post game interview - he's been trying out stuff he'd been working on in spring training. I saw him try a few of his new-look curves. They didn't work, so he resorted back to last year's pitches. He looked irritated, like "what am I doing different?" I suspect he'll figure it out.
Boyd: I agree with Morneau on this one. Put in a L/R/L/R lineup against him. He'll be less comfortable.
Baddoo: Ghaaaaaa!
Baddoo is an interesting story.I wonder how he will be doing in 1 month? But so far, he has been awesome for the Kittens. We were thinking and posting that there was no place for him to play and so the Twins were correct to let him be selected...plus the Twins did not think he woud be selected. I sure wish he was still on the Twins. The Kittens lineup looks like it is full of former Twins.
Dominate the opener, then lose a game you should have won, then win a game you should have lost.
That’ll do.
Garlick will definitely be a Twins asset.Plus, Garlick is good for the clubhouse immune system.
He certainly was a pesto the TIgers.