Article: Mariners 6, Twins 4: Buxton’s Big Night

[Tom Froemming]

If I were to tell you Byron Buxton reached safely four times and the bullpen was solid in a game that Ervin Santana started, you’d probably guess that the Twins won. Well, that’s not how it worked out Wednesday night, as Santana got roughed up and the bats couldn’t quite complete a comeback attempt.Mariners 6, Twins 4

Box Score

 

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs)

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Santana continued to follow a bit of a disturbing trend, following up a spectacular start with a clunker. He gave up five runs on nine hits over five innings. What was maybe the weirdest thing was he got into an exchange with Mike Zunino after hitting him with a pitch that resulted in both benches being warned.

 

Here are Santana’s game scores by start since the beginning of May: 70, 39, 72, 44, 87, 65, 19, 83, 28 (which was Wednesday night). The takeaway? You may wanna consider buying tickets for Ervin’s next start.

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The Mariners jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the middle of the third, but Eduardo Escobar and Buxton gave the Twins new life by socking solo homers in the fifth. Miguel Sano slugged a two-run shot the next inning.

 

This was the first time in Buxton’s career he reached base safely four times. He hit a double, the home run, drew a walk and singled in the ninth inning to put two runners on with just one out. He also swiped a pair of bases. Afterward, he said “this one was for Nick Nelson.” OK, that’s not true, but Nick did write an Ode To Byron Buxton that you should read.

The pen was solid, as Buddy Boshers gave up an unearned run followed by a scoreless inning from Matt Belisle and a pair of clean innings from Taylor Rogers.

 

Seattle’s Ben Gamel, and his glorious hair, made a miraculous catch in which he violently crashed into the wall.

Postgame With Santana

 

Postgame With Molitor

 

Thursday

Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.84 ERA) vs. Seattle (Ariel Miranda, 3.67 ERA), 12:10 pm CT

 

Berrios has been an incredible stabilizing force for the Twins rotation since being called back up in mid-May. He’s gone at least five innings in all six of his starts, and he has yet to allow more than four runs in a start. The Twins are 5-1 in games he takes the hill. Miranda, a lefty, has been dynamite at home (2.14 ERA in six starts) but has struggled away from Safeco, posting a 5.68 ERA over seven starts.

 

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

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AL Central Standings

Twins 33-29

Cleveland 31-31 (-2)

Detroit 30-34 (-4)

Kansas City 30-34 (-4)

Chicago 28-35 (-5.5)

 

Be sure to check out all the action from down on the farm on Wednesday in the Minor League Report.

 

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[jsteve96]

I dont even care that we lost because the biggest thing for this franchise rn is to get Buxton up to his potential

[DocBauer]

Concur! How much better is this team, overall, if Buxton starts to figure it out offensively? (Could almost say the same thing about Rosario).

[jimbo92107]

Looks like Buxton is finally moving his hips better. I predict a major hot streak, starting two games ago with his previous home run. His swing now covers the outside part of the plate better, and his hip action is quick and compact. Boom.

[HitInAPinch]

 

Concur! How much better is this team, overall, if Buxton starts to figure it out offensively? (Could almost say the same thing about Rosario).

Curious:  Sano seems to hit a wall after playing several in a row.  After a little time off, he comes back really strong.  I wonder if we're seeing the same thing in Buxton.....

 

Concur on Rosario!

 

[ThejacKmp]

Love the bullpen use graph. Super useful.

[diehardtwinsfan]

Buxton got scared b/c I suggested he needed time in AAA... that's what it is

 

 

So.... send him down... Let's see if it keeps working.

[Taildragger8791]

The wheels haven't come off on Santana yet but they are certainly starting to wobble. In his last 8 starts, half are excellent and half are pretty bad (5+ runs). Any reason for the pattern? Anything common in the bad starts?

 

Hopefully he can even that out to something more consistently in the middle because it's gonna be hard to hold onto the division lead if he and Berrios aren't winning nearly every time out. We are good bets to cough up 7+ runs when anyone else starts.

[jorgenswest]

Over his last 8 starts, he has performed close to his projections coming into the season. He has thrown 54 innings with a ERA of 4.00. Those almost 7 innings a game at 4.00 are pretty useful to a team. I think it is reasonably close to what the Twins (or any team considering a trade) should expect for the remainder of the season.

[Loosey]

 

Looks like Buxton is finally moving his hips better. I predict a major hot streak, starting two games ago with his previous home run. His swing now covers the outside part of the plate better, and his hip action is quick and compact. Boom.

Parker posted some GIFS of his new swing.  Buxton has a naturally quick, strong swing, but his new approach with no leg kick, basically just a heel raise seems to stabilize him and allow him to cover more of the plate and keep him closed up longer instead of opening up so soon.  

 

https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/875184753133187072

 

[mikelink45]

I really enjoy these game summaries.  Thanks for doing these reports. 

[bluechipper]

The Twins are catching the Mariners at a bad time. Every mistake is being hit hard somewhere. I thought Santana looked pretty good. He just hung a few sliders, and he didn't get away with it.

[ashbury]

I saw only Buxton's double last night, but if the closed stance is giving him a better chance at outside pitches, he certainly isn't giving up anything on being able to turn on inside strikes. Nice!

[EddieMatthews]

 

Love the bullpen use graph. Super useful.

Yes, good graphic.

 

At first glance, I thought it was the bullpen in alphabetical order, and thought that was Molitor's strategy in choosing the next reliever with the closer always at the bottom.  Then I saw it was not quite alpha ordered.  Then I thought "maybe Molly doesn't spell well".  

 

I thought I was onto something related to the sometimes questionable relief pitching selection.  Hmmm.