MIN 2, MIL 0: Take a Bow, José Berríos
Apr 03 2021 07:58 PM |
Lucas Seehafer PT
in Minnesota Twins
Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Box ScoreBerríos: 6.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 12 K
Home Runs: Buxton (2)
Top 3 WPA: Berríos .366, Buxton .168, Rogers .111
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):
Everyone has at least one sports moment that is imprinted in their memory.
For those who fancy themselves as fans of the Minnesota Twins, these moments usually come in the form of Games. Game 163. Game 6. Game 7.
Saturday night, we witnessed another one of those Games, however, this one won’t be remembered for its numerical value. This one will forever be remembered as The José Berríos Game.
Berríos was hot from the start, averaging 95.3 mph on his four-seam fastball through the first two innings and touching 96 mph on multiple occasions. For much of last season as well as the later half of the 2019 season, Berríos’ velocity would tend to dip beginning around the fourth inning. That was not an issue Saturday night, however, as his fastball sat 95 all night in addition to a sinker that averaged 94.7 mph, according to Baseball Savant.
Berríos combined his fastball velocity masterfully with a devastating curveball and occasional changeup to keep the Brewers’ hitters on their heels all night. He exited after 84 pitches and six innings of ace-level pitching, accumulating 12 strikeouts and zero walks, as well as a 50% overall Whiff% and 34.9 WPA, along the way.
Unfortunately for the Twins, Milwaukee Brewers’ starter Corbin Burnes also brought his A-game. Like his Minnesota counterpart, Burnes was nasty from the opening frame, touching 99 mph with his sinker and 98 with his cutter.
Burnes is atypical in the current age of MLB as he has a legitimate five-pitch arsenal, all five of which he can employ to strikeout opposing hitters. The Twins found this out the hard way, as they struck out 11 times and did not register a hit.
That is until Byron Buxton came to the plate in the top of the seventh inning.
Buxton’s second home run of the season broke up Burnes' no-hitter and ended his night. While not as visually impressive as his 456-foot bomb Thursday afternoon, Buxton’s home run to center field in the middle of a no-hitter was perhaps just as impressive.
The Brewers’ broke up the Twins’ no-hitter when Omar Narváez laced a single off Tyler Duffey in the eighth inning. (Taylor Rogers entered the game in place of Berríos in the seventh inning and struck out the side.) Minnesota added a second run in the eighth inning on a Luis Arráez single that brought in Andrelton Simmons.
In all, the Twins struck out 17 Milwaukee batters Saturday night - in recompense for the 17 strikeouts they suffered at the hands of the Brewers on opening night - and did not walk any in what was arguably one of the most dominant nights of pitching in franchise history.
The Twins and Brewers will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when Michael Pineda and Adrian Houser face off with the series on the line. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.
Postgame With Berríos
Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet
- Kato87, Huskertwin, VivaBomboRivera! and 1 other like this
82 Comments
Great effort by Berrios.
Overall though, this game was still pretty tough to watch. The Twins struck out 17 times on Friday, 13 times last night. The strikeout is the most common out for the Twins so far this year and it isn't even close. Combine that with Milwaukee's 17 strikeouts last night....frankly, reruns of the "Golden Girls" might be more exciting.
You can frame it as a "classic pitcher's duel" if you must, and sure we can get away with that summary today. But this type of strikeout-heavy performance has become all too common in today's MLB. If the Twins strike out 15-20 times again today, even if they win, it's frankly unwatchable baseball. As someone else mentioned, if you wonder why MLB is losing fans, the strikeouts are Exhibit A.
Striking out not only removes chances for hits, but it also eliminates those exciting and athletic defensive plays that we come to the ballpark to see. Not sure what MLB can do aside from moving the mound back. Might be time for that discussion.
Great job Berrios, wish he'd have gotten the 7th. Here's hoping Buxton stays healthy! Arraez looking great so far at 3B. Duffey looking pretty shaky.
I'll take 1-1, here's hoping the Twins win the series today!
I am totally on board with Baldelli's pitcher management last night. Keep in mind that a manager's job is to get his team to advance as far as possible over the course of the regular season (and the postseason, we hope). Regarding last night, most importantly, it was a 1-run game. The manager has to decide who is more likely to keep the other team down, a fresh set of bullpen arms or a starter who has thrown 84 pitches in his first start of the season. The manager also has to take into account what would be best for the pitcher and the team in the pitcher's future starts. The fact that the starter happened to be no-hitting the opponent was a factor, but it was low on the list of factors to consider.
That was cool.
*we don’t know for certain that the no hitter was at fault for his rapid decline but we don’t know it wasn’t, either
You can frame it as "frankly unwatchable" if you must but I will respectfully strongly disagree. Baseball is not just about action produced by batted balls. Seeing one pitcher at the top of his game is good stuff, and seeing two opposing pitchers both at the top of their games like last night is great stuff. I found it to be highly watchable. I'll admit that it does require actually paying attention to the game but I thought last night's game was much closer to how high level baseball should look than a 10-8 slugfest.
Well, it was 84 pitches, not 80 (and as noted elsewhere, it wasn't a perfect game since he drilled Wong), but I'm guessing that doesn't matter to you. What if he had been at 90? or 95? It's his first start of the year.
But the true silliness is the idea that this will have any impact on whether Berrios will sign an extension with the Twins or walk when he hits free agency. do you really think this is going to eat at him? "Those bastards, I could have had a no-hitter but they made a priority of my long term health and career!"
I think if it's May or later and he's got some starts under him he goes out for the 7th for sure. But they're not going to risk the season for one night in april, and that's fine. That's just the way baseball is played now, and I'm sorry if you're holding on so tight to a notion of "old school" baseball that it's ruining your enjoyment of the game, but the old ways aren't always best.
It's not 100% certain but IMHO it is at least 95% certain.
In fact, the old ways are rarely the best. That's why new ways supplant the old ways.
But baseball is a spectator sport and strict adherence to maximizing performance does not perfectly correlate with the best spectating experience.
While most of us can agree that bunting is stupid, bunting for hits is super fun to watch. As are stolen bases. As are legging out grounders, which is much harder to do against a shifted infield. In general, contact and motion is more interesting than strikeouts.
The modern game is far less dynamic than previous iterations of the game and it’s hard to say this version is superior from the viewpoint of a spectator.
Your point is well taken, but the object of playing major league baseball *is* maximizing performance. If spectating experience is the object then maybe we need the baseball equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters for those who do not enjoy watching maximized performance.
Can anyone honestly claim the game is worse because they lowered the mound and added the DH? The game needs to evolve to keep up with modern analytics, which have sucked a lot of the life out of the game. I appreciate analytics because it stomped out so many bad, entrenched ideas but that doesn’t mean I like everything it has done to the game. And it’s not that hard to just change some effing rules to counter some of its worst effects that continue to remove more and more action from baseball.
Lack of soul? Do you have access to information about the interactions between Baldelli, his staff and the players that isn't reported to the public? A lot of managing is unseen by fans and/or critics. If not this take on the manager is unfair and to turn a phrase rather soul-less.
Should some rules be changed? I am in favor of that, with the goal of changing the balance of factors in how the game is played. I think the game would be improved with fewer strikeouts, fewer bases on balls, and fewer home runs. To that end, specifically, I would advocate a lower mound, a larger strike zone, and, as has been done, changing the specifications of the ball to increase resistance to air flow.
But that is incidental to the point I was making that maximizing performance (under whatever rules happen to be in place) is the object of major league baseball. Too many people use the term "analytics" as a pejorative, but it's always been a part of the game. It has simply evolved to be more precise and more useful.
I wonder if this is the year that Byron Buxton realizes his vast potential.
That would be awesome. Here's hoping.
Well, based on the season so far, they're clearly a .500 team. Not good enough for the playoffs and not bad enough for a high draft pick. Bring on the Vikings.
At this point, the only real hurdle for him to overcome is staying on the field.
(Obviously, there’s room for him to grow beyond five wins but he’s already very good when he’s playing)
Corbin Burnes and Jose Berrios were outstanding and the pitch sequences combined with their ability to execute were splendid viewing. Period.
In early April there is zero chance at allowing a pitcher to throw over 100 pitches. It was obvious that both pitchers would be pulled, even if perfect, once those counts reached 80 by the end of the 6th inning. Both pitchers knew this walking into the dugouts after closing out the 6th inning.
Hitters look to be working hard to make contact, while still attacking the ball. This accounts for some deep counts. When facing cutters at 98 though it is tough. A key improvement in the last 10-20 years is the number of pitchers who effectively tunnel their pitchers. While this practice goes back forever, the number of pitchers who successfully manage to disguise their arsenals and the velocity has improved. This makes hitting tougher. Still, the strategies and matchups are fun to watch. It's baseball and the number of people who love the game persists. Advertising and the fan experience in the park bring in a fair amount of people and winning teams get the bandwagon effect. There are 160 games left and the first two games have already provided plenty of action and created thoughts for a host of fans. Happy Easter.
"Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic."
What made the performance really stand out was 12 Ks and _no_ walks.
I also have to disagree.
A baseball games that's under 3 hours if generally a better game to watch than the 4.5 hour opener. I've never heard anybody leaving the stadium after a shutout complain that they didn't see more wall catches or double plays.
Some people don't believe in medical science either.