Article: Royals 8, Twins 1: Another Fielding Blunder Leads to Another Ugly Inning

[Tom Froemming]

Grounders back to the pitcher are supposed to be easy outs. That’s not how things have worked out for the Twins the past two games. Ervin Santana threw a potential double play ball into centerfield and Kansas City capitalized with a five-run inning. The suddenly unstoppable Jason Vargas gave the Twins no chance to mount a comeback as the Royals picked up a big win heading into Saturday’s doubleheader.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs)

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The Twins entered the bottom of the fourth inning up 1-0 thanks to a Miguel Sano RBI single. In the bottom of the inning, Santana gave up a leadoff single before committing the error on the potential double play. Next pitch: home run. Eric Hosmer put KC up 3-1 and Ervin gave up four more hits in the inning.

 

Maybe the biggest reason why the Twins have been playing as well as they have so far in 2017 has been due to a huge defensive turnaround. The gloves have slumped of late, as the team has given up nine unearned runs over the past four games.

 

There was some controversy over both Hosmer’s homer and a foul call on a ball Brian Dozier thought stayed fair. Both plays were reviewed, but the Twins were apparently still not satisfied with either call.

Here’s the top-down view of Hosmer’s homer via Baseball Savant:

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In what basically equated to garbage time late in the game, Jorge Polanco made a beautiful play ranging deep in the hole and rifling the ball over to first to record the out.

Alan Busenitz was another bright spot, as he threw the final 2.2 innings, shutting out the Royals in the process. With the double dip tomorrow, that was huge. What did he get for it? A demotion. Life as a middle reliever can be tough. Having thrown 35 pitches, it wasn’t likely Busenitz would be available anytime soon, so a fresh arm in Ryan Pressly was called up.

 

Postgame With Molitor

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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*Busenitz was optioned. Ryan Pressly, who threw 19 pitches Monday and 21 Thursday was called up.

 

Saturday

Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.98 ERA) at Royals (Luke Farrell), 1:15 pm CT

Twins (Felix Jorge) at Royals (Jason Hammel, 4.75 ERA), 7:35 pm CT

 

There will be two Major League debuts tomorrow: Luke Farrell for the Royals in Game 1 and Felix Jorge for the Twins in Game 2. Farrell, a right-hander, had a 3.83 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 8.4 K/9 in Triple A. Jorge, 23, has been developing a feel for getting the third strike of late. Through his first nine starts he averaged 5.2 K/9 for Chattanooga, but over his last five starts that’s kicked up to 8.2 K/9. He’s also induced 20 swinging strikes in two of his past four starts.

 

Jose Berrios’ ERA on the road is nearly a run higher than at Target Field (2.51 vs. 3.41). Jason Hammel has been on a roll, registering a 2.51 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over his past five starts.

 

AL Central Standings

Cleveland 42-36

Twins 40-38 (-2)

Kansas City 39-39 (-3)

Detroit 35-43 (-7)

Chicago 34-44 (-8)

 

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[yarnivek1972]

I think using Jorge as the 26th man tomorrow is poor roster management. He's only going to pitch in one of the games. It should have been Dillon Gee. Jorge could have been called up to replace someone else after game 1. Vargas perhaps. Then send him down after game two and bring up Granite or Garver for a week.

 

It's unfortunate that Busenitz was sent down, but realistically unavoidable.

[mikelink45]

I am excited to have Jorge pitch tomorrow rather than a cast off like Gee or one of the other revolving doors we have used.  I really hope he turns some heads with a big performance.  I also suspect that Busenitz will be back up quickly based on his success so far. I do agree that we could have used two different 26th man choices - one for each game since I believe the rules allow for different players to be designated for each game and right now Jorge contributes nothing to game one.

[Old Twins Cap]

Twins playing the worst baseball of the season right now.

 

For a team made up of young players who need to grow and get better, that is discouraging.

 

Not hitting, not pitching, and now not playing good defense.

[terrydactyls]

Twins playing the worst baseball of the season right now.

 

For a team made up of young players who need to grow and get better, that is discouraging.

 

Not hitting, not pitching, and now not playing good defense.

 

This is how a young team grows - playing through the tough times. Every team goes through periods of underperforming and how well it overcomes them is a mark of a good team.

[drjim]

 

Twins playing the worst baseball of the season right now.

 

For a team made up of young players who need to grow and get better, that is discouraging.

 

Not hitting, not pitching, and now not playing good defense.

 

They also just finished off a 3 game road sweep of Cleveland less than a week ago. There are occasional short term blips, especially when playing on the road against the best team in baseball in Boston and a team that is surging.

[Mike Sixel]

I think using Jorge as the 26th man tomorrow is poor roster management. He's only going to pitch in one of the games. It should have been Dillon Gee. Jorge could have been called up to replace someone else after game 1. Vargas perhaps. Then send him down after game two and bring up Granite or Garver for a week.

It's unfortunate that Busenitz was sent down, but realistically unavoidable.

Gotta keep Breslow and Belisle on this roster somehow

[stringer bell]

Thanks for the summary. IMHO earned/unearned isn't the best way to judge defense, but it is wise to reveal and review a defensive misplay as a key play in a game.

[yarnivek1972]

I am excited to have Jorge pitch tomorrow rather than a cast off like Gee or one of the other revolving doors we have used. I really hope he turns some heads with a big performance. I also suspect that Busenitz will be back up quickly based on his success so far. I do agree that we could have used two different 26th man choices - one for each game since I believe the rules allow for different players to be designated for each game and right now Jorge contributes nothing to game one.

The 26th man is one player eligible for both games. Teams cannot change the 26th man between games. Of course, nothing prevents other roster transactions between games. But in having Gee be the 26th man, he could pitch in either game. It's highly unlikely he (or anyone) would pitch in both. But Jorge is definitely only going to pitch in the one game.