48 replies to this topic

[Tom Froemming]

Jorge Polanco stole a base, hit a home run from the left side, hit a home run from the right side and made a web gem in the field. Nice little Tuesday at the ballpark for the young man. Also, Ervin Santana delivered a quality start and Matt Belisle picked up the save.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs)
Download attachment: Sanp829.png
What a terror Jorge has been against Chicago. Seven of Polanco’s nine home runs this season have come against the White Sox. He made another special memory against them tonight, as it was the first multi-homer game of Polanco’s career -- hitting one from each side.

Every hitter in the lineup reached base safely at least once for the Twins. Ervin Santana put together a quality start, limiting the White Sox to three runs over 6.2 innings. He hasn’t given up four or more runs in seven-straight starts.

Trevor Hildenberger was the first man out of the bullpen, which was a bit surprising considering the fact that Hildy had pitched in five of the team’s last six games. And since his debut on June 23, only 15 relievers have logged more innings than Hildenberger’s 28.1 heading into tonight. He allowed a runner he inherited from Ervin to score, but ended up recording four outs, all on strikeouts.

Matt Belisle gave up a run in the ninth, but secured his fifth save of the season. That matches his career total entering this year.

Standings
The Twins still trail Cleveland by 6.5 games in the division. At the conclusion of their game, the Twins were just 2.5 games back of the Yankees for the top Wild Card spot and 1.5 games up on both Baltimore and the Angels, though Anaheim’s game was in progress.

Postgame With Polanco

Bullpen Usage
Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:
Download attachment: Bullpen829.png
Looking Ahead
Wed: Twins (Jose Berrios) vs. White Sox (Derek Holland), 7:10 pm CT
Thu: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. White Sox (Miguel Gonzalez), 12:10 pm CT
Fri: Twins (TBD) vs. Royals (TBD), 7:10 pm CT

Looking Back
MIN 7, TOR 2: Buxton Hits 3 Homers, Twins Win Series at Toronto
TOR 10, MIN 9: Sloppy 8th Inning Costs Twins in Comeback Effort
MIN 6, TOR 1: Buxton, Bartolo Get Twins Back to Winning Ways

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[jimbo92107]

What a delightfully confounding team is this 2017 Twins. Before our very eyes they appear to be blossoming into a club that can play with anybody. A new young core is maturing while veterans are showing the kids how to act like professionals. However this season ends, it hints at a bright future for the Minnesota Twins. 

[Lee-The-Twins-Fan]

Wow – Did anyone expect the Twins to still be in the hunt on Aug. 29? It looks like this team has woken up – with new heroes every night. It's fun to watch them.

 

Let's hope they can continue to win, and overtake Cleveland to win the AL Central!

[yarnivek1972]

Apparently, Polanco is the tertiary adjunct of unimatrix 01 in the White Sox side.

[USAFChief]

Still a couple days left in August to supplement, Falvine...

[ThejacKmp]

 

Still a couple days left in August to supplement, Falvine...

 

I still have hopes they'll bring in R.A. Dickey. He's on a reasonable deal for next year and I love me some R.A. Dickey. He's not amazing but they don't need amazing - they just need a guy who keeps you in games at the back of the rotation.

 

Maybe none of their catchers can handle a knuckleballer though . . . 

[ThejacKmp]

 

Let's hope they can continue to win, and overtake Cleveland to win the AL Central!

 

Maybe this makes me a bad person but I've just about entirely given up on them winning the AL Central and am pretty solely focused on the AL Wild Card. Let's overtake the stupid Yankees!

[mikelink45]

I like what I have seen, but I am still confounded by the FO not bringing up Gonsalves.  If he is our best minor league starter put him in.  He could fail, but everyone else has too so lets try.  Two years ago we whiffed on the WC because we would not bring up young pitching. Lets not do that again. 

[Doubles]

Polanco also made a very heads-up play by keeping the tag on whichever White Sox player hit the double & over-slid the bag. Good stuff.

[Halsey Hall]

The way we are playing now I think we can beat anyone in a wild card game.

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[drjim]

Hildenberger has been much better than I anticipated. Really nice revelation down the stretch (but maybe not 5 out of 6 games).

 

They could really use one more RH reliever, but don't think they are getting through waivers at this point.

[JaleelWhite FanClub]

It's great watching Polanco's surge. I know most of the spotlight has been taken away as Buxton's turnaround has happened at the same time.

 

He can add so much potential for this team as a switch-hitter with speed and a decent glove at 3 infield positions.

 

You had to know all the talk around Polanco's downfall early this summer was way too premature. I have to imagine the loss in his family he suffered took a toll.

 

It seems that if any young player not named Buxton has a slump, to most fans, their careers are over (i.e. Rosario, Polanco, Berrios, etc.).

 

Here's to hoping that Jorge fits in alongside Byron as a member of the Twins core for the years ahead.

[drjim]

 

I like what I have seen, but I am still confounded by the FO not bringing up Gonsalves.  If he is our best minor league starter put him in.  He could fail, but everyone else has too so lets try.  Two years ago we whiffed on the WC because we would not bring up young pitching. Lets not do that again. 

 

Pay attention to the Rochester starters this week, good chance either Gonsalves or possibly Slegers gets the start on Friday.

[Jacks02]

Fun team to watch, they are really clicking. Of course it helps when you are playing teams below .500.

 

Still though, impressive run they are on, especially when considering their All-star 3B and starting catcher are both on the DL.

[Dantes929]

 

I still have hopes they'll bring in R.A. Dickey. He's on a reasonable deal for next year and I love me some R.A. Dickey. He's not amazing but they don't need amazing - they just need a guy who keeps you in games at the back of the rotation.

 

Maybe none of their catchers can handle a knuckleballer though . . . 

I always like having a knuckle baller on the team. Seems to mess up other team's timing for the next guy in the rotation. I see he is playing for the Braves which made me think in a couple deals we could give up a low prospect for him and flip him for a couple higher ranked prospects which led me to check on Garcia for the Yankees. 0-1 with a 5.95 ERA. That led me to look at Aaron Hicks stats and I see he is batting .167 in the 2nd half which makes me think again that he would have made a good platoon guy for us with his right handed bat and our left handed heavy outfield.

[Vanimal46]

 

Hildenberger has been much better than I anticipated. Really nice revelation down the stretch (but maybe not 5 out of 6 games).

 

They could really use one more RH reliever, but don't think they are getting through waivers at this point.

 

Jake Reed is sporting a nice 1.98 ERA in 27 AAA innings.... But, like we've talked about before, for some reason they've been letting him pitch once every 3 or so days all season. 

[JaleelWhite FanClub]

 

The way we are playing now I think we can beat anyone in a wild card game.

 

 

I agree. The one caveat would be that the Twins would need to clinch a spot with a couple of games left. That way they could set up the rotation to have Santana start the WC game. I don't know if I'd trust anyone else in that spot.

 

Also, the big fear would be to face a good lefty starter in the WC game (or even a WC #2 play-in game). Kepler and Castro would then become a non-factors while Rosario and Mauer would be neutralized. Polanco and/or Escobar would have to hit from their weaker right sides. A lot would fall on Sano, Buxton, and Dozier.

[ThejacKmp]

This is kind of random but the White Sox Anderson slid into second and then went off the bag early in the game. He was only given a single. I don't understand that - to me, it's the same principle as if a guy was thrown out at 3B - he gets a double because he reached second safely. You could argue its because he was thrown out at 2B but it would still be a double if he rounded towards third, stopped halfway and got in a pickle and then came back to 2B where he was tagged out.

Scoring rarely makes sense.

[LA VIkes Fan]

 

Pay attention to the Rochester starters this week, good chance either Gonsalves or possibly Slegers gets the start on Friday.

According the the Red Wing website it's Mejia tonight, Hurlbut tomorrow, followed by TBD on Friday and Saturday. Santiago started Tuesday and went 2.2, Jorge started Monday and Slegers started Sunday and went 8 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 10 SOs. Slegers would be in regular rest Friday.  I personally would prefer to see Slegers since he's already shown a start with good results. I would like to see Slegers Friday with Gee back in the BP where he belongs and can help. 

[howieramone2]

 

I like what I have seen, but I am still confounded by the FO not bringing up Gonsalves.  If he is our best minor league starter put him in.  He could fail, but everyone else has too so lets try.  Two years ago we whiffed on the WC because we would not bring up young pitching. Lets not do that again. 

No we didn't. We brought up Duffey in August. Did you really want to see Berrios crap the bed?