Article: KC 5, MIN 4: What Even Is A Swing, Anyway?

[Tom Froemming]

The Twins ended up on the short end of a back-and-forth affair Sunday at Target Field, losing the game 5-4 and their series against the Royals two games to one. A controversial check swing call on Lorenzo Cain resulted in Paul Molitor getting ejected and allowed Cain to deliver the go-ahead hit later in the at- bat.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs)

Download attachment: Snapshot93.png

I took a quick look through the MLB official rule book, and guess what? There doesn’t appear to be an actual definition of a swing or check swing in there. How crazy is that? It’s basically all up to the individual umpires to determine what is an attempt to strike the ball.

 

Does that simply mean their bat passes the front of the plate? Is it when the barrel of the bat carries past the body of the batter? All depends on who you ask, I guess. Here’s a great screenshot Ted Schwerzler shared, you be the judge.

Molitor certainly thought that was a swing attempt. He took issue with the call and was asked to hit the showers early, or whatever managers do after the game.

 

That was a massive call, as instead of being strike three it gave Cain new life. He crushed a go-ahead two-run triple, and was actually thrown out at home trying to get an inside-the-parker. That was in the top of the seventh inning, so the Twins had opportunities to make up for that call but fell short.

 

After a game on Saturday in which the scoring more closely resembled a football game (the Twins won 17-0), this one was more like a ping-pong match. The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, but the Twins got two in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead. The Royals responded with two runs of their own in the top of the sixth, but the Twins charged right back with a pair of runs of their own to make it 4-3 heading into that decisive top of the seventh in which Kansas City took hold of the lead for good.

 

Ervin Santana went 6.2 innings and had four earned runs. Alan Busenitz gave up that huge triple, he gave up an earned run over 0.1 innings. He had gone nine-straight appearances without giving up a run.

 

Eduardo Escobar, who hit two homers on Saturday, blasted his 15th of the season, a two-run shot. Byron Buxton was 2-for-2 with his fifth triple of the year and a walk.

 

Standings

The Yankees will be playing the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball (imagine that), so the Twins are currently 1.5 games back of New York for the top wild card. The Angels lost and Baltimore won Sunday, so those two clubs both trail the Twins by 1.5 games for the second wild card.

 

Postgame With Molitor

Bullpen Usage

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

Download attachment: Bullpen93.png

Looking Ahead

Mon: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Rays (Alex Cobb), 6:10 pm CT

Tue: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Rays (Jake Odorizzi), 6:10 pm CT

Wed: Twins (Aaron Slegers) at Rays (Blake Snell), 12:10 pm CT

 

Looking Back

MIN 17, KC 0: What Negative Run Differential?

KC 7, MIN 6: Oh, So Close

MIN 5, CHW 4: Twins Win on Walk-Off HBP

 

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[Darius]

They've given away too many games like this. It will cost them.

 

When are they going to get human error of this and actually let the best players win? I've seen the Twins get jobbed on so many calls this year. Clearly a swing, and a bad call decided the game. Just let a damn computer make all the calls. There is bob"game integrity" in the terrible biases games that these umps call.

[Winston Smith]

Nothing in the rule book about the bat crossing the front of the plate. Problem is a lot of people think there is. Correct, it is up to the umpire to decide if he "swung" or not.

 

It's like a lot of calls in sports the judgement of the official. Offensive holding, pass interference, most BB fouls, most hockey penalties, judgement calls.

[Rhino and Compass]

Right or wrong, complaining about umps/referees/officials is the most boring conversation in sports. Glad there is a game to move on to tomorrow

[Rosterman]

Three things:

 

Line-up construction.

 

Trust your bullpen. Santana was at 96 pitches before the 7th. Did he have to come out and pitch the 7th?

 

What the Twins need is a bench. Someone to pinch-hit for Garver with 1st and 3rd and two-outs. Good experience for Garver, but what wouldn't give for a Thome or Baylor or even a Phil Nevin at times.

[mikelink45]

What a fun and frustrating game.  I have faith that this team can rise above the controversy.

[yarnivek1972]

Three things:

 

Line-up construction.

 

Trust your bullpen. Santana was at 96 pitches before the 7th. Did he have to come out and pitch the 7th?

 

What the Twins need is a bench. Someone to pinch-hit for Garver with 1st and 3rd and two-outs. Good experience for Garver, but what wouldn't give for a Thome or Baylor or even a Phil Nevin at times.

Garver was the guy selected to be the pinch hitter, 1st and 3rd two outs. Not sure I would have taken Kepler out, but Garver was probably the best chance for a hit there. Therein lies the issue of a poor bench.

 

I was surprised Erv started the 7th as well. I expected match up relievers the rest of the way. Ervin is "your guy" but he also just coughed up a lead the previous inning. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

[drjim]

Three things:

 

Line-up construction.

 

Trust your bullpen. Santana was at 96 pitches before the 7th. Did he have to come out and pitch the 7th?

 

What the Twins need is a bench. Someone to pinch-hit for Garver with 1st and 3rd and two-outs. Good experience for Garver, but what wouldn't give for a Thome or Baylor or even a Phil Nevin at times.

What's wrong with the lineup construction?

[h2oface]

Only 5 hits today. Couple that with 3 errors given to us, and 3 BB, and there you go. Hey..... we had a 15 run differential for the series. Sure wish that had made for more than on victory. Who wants the Wild Card. Big games coming up! Yankees crushing the Red Sox. Time to come of age!

[sftwinsfan]

Kind of sad to me that your AAA utility player is your starting DH in an important game in September and your idea of a pinch hitter is throwing out Adrianza.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Vargas.  

[OldTimeTwinkie]

Lineup construction? Your designated hitter is batting 9th and just got called up from the minors batting .260. Are we serious about trying to get in the playoffs or what.

[howeda7]

Terrible call. That aside, how do you allow Giminez to bat in the 9th (or the 7th for that matter)? You could easily have put Garver at catcher after the 7th since you inserted Granite anyway. Or you could have simply used Castro in the 10th if needed. Inexcusable. That's aside from the fact that you went with 8-9 hitters who had basically no prayer all day. 

Edited September 4, 2017 by howeda7

[Old Twins Cap]

Who was pulling the strings after Molitor's ejection?

 

If they wanted to bunt Esco to third, they should bat Adrianza for Gimenez and do that. 

 

Then hit Garver for Goodrum with a runner on third.

 

Gotta get that guy in from second with no one out in the ninth.

[bighat]

 

Three things:

 

Line-up construction.

 

Trust your bullpen. Santana was at 96 pitches before the 7th. Did he have to come out and pitch the 7th?

 

What the Twins need is a bench. Someone to pinch-hit for Garver with 1st and 3rd and two-outs. Good experience for Garver, but what wouldn't give for a Thome or Baylor or even a Phil Nevin at times.

 

Sano needs to get back ASAP.  He'd help that situation in a heartbeat, allowing a guy like Vargas or Escobar or whomever to be available to PH. Alas, Sano  won't be back for at least another week. BIG SERIES in Tampa and another BIG SERIES in KC. Gonna be a make-or-break week. 

[drjim]

Who was pulling the strings after Molitor's ejection?

 

If they wanted to bunt Esco to third, they should bat Adrianza for Gimenez and do that.

 

Then hit Garver for Goodrum with a runner on third.

 

Gotta get that guy in from second with no one out in the ninth.

Garver was already used.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Lots of good observations here. Although it didn't have an impact on the outcome, but what got lost in yesterday's game is Rosario's steal of third on his own, in the 8th inning. That was about as high-leverage a situation to do that as possible; in other words, very risky. I blogged about Rosario stealing third on his own last year when he was in that terrible slump. By the way, Rosario trotted into third base yesterday without a throw, but Garver lined out to center to end the inning.

[drjim]

Lineup construction? Your designated hitter is batting 9th and just got called up from the minors batting .260. Are we serious about trying to get in the playoffs or what.

Giving a guy just called up one start seems a reasonable thing to do.

[drjim]

Kind of sad to me that your AAA utility player is your starting DH in an important game in September and your idea of a pinch hitter is throwing out Adrianza. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Vargas.

I was surpsied that Vargas wasn't used therrle, I wonder if it had something to do with Vargas and velocity.

 

The one other quibble I had, was after Garver pinch hit, they should have kept him in to catch and had Granite replace Gimenez.

[stringer bell]

The swing-no swing controversy is interesting. Foster let the first base ump make that call and I think he should have. The home plate ump is behind the hitter and doesn't have a good view of how much the hitter commits to a swing (disagree with LaTroy on this). For what it's worth, I think the first base ump missed it. Cain "swung" and got away with it. Molitor couldn't challenge the first base ump directly so he yelled at Foster and got booted.

 

I was surprised Goodrum got the start at DH. Not to alibi for the Twins, but they expect both Grossman and Castro back within the week. With no real call-up options to be a "bat off the bench" and only a short-term void they tried to roll the dice with a limited bench for the Royals series. It hurt them yesterday.

[stringer bell]

 

 

Lots of good observations here. Although it didn't have an impact on the outcome, but what got lost in yesterday's game is Rosario's steal of third on his own, in the 8th inning. That was about as high-leverage a situation to do that as possible; in other words, very risky. I blogged about Rosario stealing third on his own last year when he was in that terrible slump. By the way, Rosario trotted into third base yesterday without a throw, but Garver lined out to center to end the inning.

It's a good play if he is 100% sure he can make and he was. It would force the Royals to hold Buxton at first and give Garver a bigger right field hole and he has already shot a few balls that way. Also, of course, a wild pitch or infield single scores the tying run. Finally, it wasn't the ninth inning so that changes the calculations a bit.

[Riverbrian]

 

Who was pulling the strings after Molitor's ejection?

 

If they wanted to bunt Esco to third, they should bat Adrianza for Gimenez and do that. 

 

Then hit Garver for Goodrum with a runner on third.

 

Gotta get that guy in from second with no one out in the ninth.

 

I agree

 

I'd like to know what Vavra was thinking in the 9th. I'm not going to claim that Vavra or whoever was wrong... but I'd like to know the thought process because I'm having a hard time with benefit of the doubt. 

 

Disclaimer: I don't believe that I spend a ton of time criticizing the manager for in-game decisions. I usually can live with whatever batting order or however the bullpen is used because I'm ok with a Manager thinking for themselves and not for me. I think I expressed criticism or deep confusion back in late May when Rucinski and Wheeler were called up before a series with the Astros because the bullpen was really really really spent and Molitor did not throw either of them with an 8-2 lead and the really really really spent bullpen coughed up like 30 runs in 8th and became extra really really really spent in the process of losing game one of the series which then forced Molitor to debut Wheeler the next day in a much closer situation. I only mention that game for the context that I don't criticize the manager often. 

 

WIth that said... What was going on with Gimenez in the 9th? It says in the Trib "I did it on my own" quoting Gimenez when asked about the bunt attempt. He popped it up and got away with it but then Vavra is quoted as saying "we decided it wasn’t the right play".

 

1. Why isn't Vavra managing the game with both hands on the wheel in the 9th inning and a one run deficit, nobody out and a runner on 2nd? Gimenez saying "I did it on my own" in a clear bunting situation makes it sound like Vavra expected Gimenez to hit away. 

 

2. Why did Vavra decide "it wasn't the right play". Gimenez is hitting .198, he strikes out 27.6% of the time. He is a veteran career back up catcher with a .214 career batting average. I have to assume that he has been asked to bunt before. 

 

3. If it wasn't the right play because of Gimenez's bunting ability. Castro was available to catch with Garver all used up and Adrianaza was available to pinch hit or pinch bunt. Adrianaza at least has been one of our best contact hitters with a 13.1 K%.

 

No idea what the thought process was... runner on 2nd... 9th inning... down by 1 run. The manager's job was to get that tying run to third and that was a big uncomfortable ugly looking fail.

 

If the strategy was to let the guy hitting .198 swing away... I question that strategy. 

 

If the Vet catcher hitting .198 can't move the runner to third in that situation with a playoff spot on the line in September. I question his value. 

 

I hate over reacting to one at-bat but... the game died right there. Either Gimenez or Vavra or both screwed up.