MIN 4, DET 3: Austin Homers, Hildy Survives Save Chance
Aug 11 2018 07:44 PM |
Tom Froemming
in Minnesota Twins
Image courtesy of © Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)Kyle Gibson: 65 Game Score, 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 4 K, 2 BB, 67.6% strikes (75 of 111 pitches)
Home Runs: Tyler Austin (9)
Multi-Hit Games: Joe Mauer (2-for-4, BB), Logan Forsythe (2-for-5), Miguel Sano (2-for-4, BB)
WPA of 0.1 or higher: Gibson .302, Austin .179
WPA of -0.1 or lower: Polanco -.124
Austin’s homer was his ninth of the season in the majors, matching his season total in the minors. He now has 16 home runs in 86 MLB games. We also saw Austin’s contact issues on display, as he also struck out swinging twice, but the power is most definitely legit.
Kyle Gibson did a great job of staying aggressive tonight. He didn’t have his nastiest stuff going, but he threw a ton of strikes en route to holding Detroit to one run over seven innings pitched. Trevor May pitched a perfect eighth inning, but then things got a little too interesting.
The Twins led 4-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth, creating the first save opportunity of the new-look bullpen. Despite his recent struggles, Trevor Hildenberger got the call.
It was an experience.
The inning opened with an eight-pitch walk to Victor Martinez, then Niko Goodrum hit a two-run homer. Jim Adduci singled, prompting a mound visit. Hildenberger responded by striking out James McCann, getting Victor Reyes to fly out and then striking out JaCoby Jones to pick up his second career save.
Oh, and this happened:
Postgame With Austin
Update: In his postgame interview, Paul Molitor revealed that the move to add Kohl Stewart will not only be Logan Morrison headed to the DL, but LoMo will be having surgery on his hip and will miss the rest of the season.
Bullpen Usage
Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:
AL Central Standings
CLE 64-51
MIN 54-62 (-10.5)
DET 48-69 (-17)
CHW 42-73 (-22)
KC 35-80 (-29)
Next Three Game
Sun at DET, 12:10 pm CT: Kohl Stewart vs. Matt Boyd
Mon: Off
Tue vs. PIT, 7:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Jameson Taillon
Wed vs. PIT, 12:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Chris Archer
Last Three Games
DET 5, MIN 3: Is There Anything Left?
CLE 5, MIN 4: Walks and a Walk-Off
CLE 5, MIN 2: Cleveland Prevails on Lindor Walk-Off Homer
54 Comments
What are theodds that Lo For ends up with more hits than LoMo had for the Twins (59)? He continues to get a couple hits every game.
Magic Number Update:
Division: 58
Wild Card: 61
For reference: Boston has already eliminated Baltimore and KC
Tough end to a difficult season for Morrison.On the bright side hopefully this will allow the team to evaluate a younger player for the rest of the season.There really wasn't much point of playing an older pending free agent with no history with the team at this stage of the season.
The bullpen looks like it will continue to be a train-wreck for the foreseeable future.Almost everybody shows large stretches where they are just terrible.They need to get all the young guys up from the minors and see what they've got.
The THE. Was that an 80's band? Was Not Was was a band. Maybe it was an album title. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't a band, but maybe it should have been; after all, Pearl Jam used to be known as Mookie Blaylock.
Watch the Reyes video again, and tell me that Detroit fan wearing a blue derby isn't stoned. At any rate, Reyes didn't get much of an assist from any of the fans over there.
Lo Mo A No Go, No Woe Fo' Status Quo
Tyler's debut: He got one pitch to hit and boy did he hit it.
However... He got one pitch to hit and he swung at the other ones.
Dear Tyler,
Work on that.
LoMo to have hip surgery? Did he play all season with a bum hip? That might explain the lack of explosion from his bat. Hard to swing a stick with a sore hip.
Sano quietly has gone about his business and is helping this team.
OH yeah....
Is there anybody on the planet, except for maybe MoY, who isn't willing to give Trevor MAY a shot in the closer role? Maybe he just got the wrong Trevor in the wrong inning.
Or maybe it's just better to have a burned-up sidewinder who's put up a WHIP over 2.00, and ERA of 12+ lately?
Fer God's sake...
LoMo has actually seemed like a decent dude. Not sure if he has contributed to the clubhouse "issues" that now have been reported and collaborated by beat writers.
However....He has had the worst batting average for any twins player in our long history with over 300 at bats in a season. Landing on the DL is not only mercy for him, but for all of us.
Bizarre choice to close tonight, if Molitor really is going to go by committee.I suspect we better get used to this though, none of these guys have been in the role in the bigs before.
He actually acknowledged that in the post-game interview.
Forget making May into a starter, with his stuff he can be a top of the line reliever. Let him relieve on a regular basis this year next year try him as the closer.
Tyler Austin MLB Career Strikeout percentage is 39.6%
His Season Strikeout percentage is 40.1%
His strikeout percentage from last night's game was 40.0%
Instead of 2 out of 5... If he could make that 1 out of 4.
I hope you're happy, RiverJonahHill.
Somehwhere out there, Jack Goin is feeling schadenfreude right about now.
Logan going on the DL for some reason makes me think of the scene in Moneyball where Brad Pitt trades Carlos Pena to Detroit so Philip Seymour Hoffman wouldn't play him anymore.
I am happy, We got a guy who will produce more than what Logan Morrison produced for 6 million less and someone who has a chance of being on the 2019 roster.
Will Tyler Austin produce enough? I don't know but lets find out.
I was looking for Magill to pitch the 9th.He's only pitched once this week and looked good.I think we all (or most) agree Hildy needs to sit for a while and or be moved back to the 6-7 and move up Magill & May and others.Why is Molitor so resistant to change.As a MANAGER you should always be looking at or for changes that will benefit the Team. Seems to me he wants every game to be easy on him.Run out the same player and same line-up every game and use the Bull-Pen the same way every game.Seem Molitor does anything BUT MANAGE!I don't get it!
Considering the generally upbeat sound of the accordion, the lyrics to this song are a bit on the dark side. I wouldn't be surprised if the dude who stole that plane had this song playing.