Article: TB 2, MIN 1: Too Little, Too Late

[Tom Froemming]

Bartolo Colon turned in another strong effort and Robbie Grossman returned to provide a leadoff homer in the ninth, but the Twins fell just short of completing a comeback Tuesday night, leaving the game-tying run at third base. This was the third game out of their last four the Twins have lost.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs)

Download attachment: SnapShot95.png

The Twins sure ran into Jake Odorizzi at the wrong time. Over his previous three starts, the right-hander gave up 13 runs over 12.1 innings, but the streaky starter found his groove Tuesday night. Odorizzi held the Twins hitless into the seventh inning, and finished his night having given up just the one hit (a Joe Mauer single) over 6.2 innings to go with six strikeouts.

 

Colon turned in a quality start of his own, surrendering two runs over 6.2 innings, but lost the duel. One hitter in particular got the best of him. Lucas Duda drove in both of those runs off Bartolo, hitting a solo homer and an RBI double.

 

The Twins only offense came in the top of the ninth, as the returning Grossman hit a leadoff homer.

It was fitting Robbie provided the pop, as the significant news tonight all revolved around players returning. Along with Grossman being activated from the DL, Jason Castro caught for the first time since Aug. 23. Also, Michael Tonkin returned to the big club, though he did not pitch tonight.

 

The Twins nearly completed the comeback in the ninth inning. Joe Mauer drew a walk and Jorge Polanco hit a single, putting runners on the corners with one out. Unfortunately, Eddie Rosario (swinging on the first pitch) grounded into a game-ending double play. He hit it hard, but Tampa Bay had him played perfectly.

Standings

The Yankees game started in a delay and the Angels had just gotten underway at the conclusion of this game. With a win, the Angels would take possession of the second wild card spot. They are playing Oakland.

 

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: Bullpen95.png

Looking Ahead

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

Thu: Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Kansas City (Sam Gaviglio), 7:15 pm CT

Fri: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Kansas City (Ian Kennedy), 7:15 pm CT

 

Looking Back

Mon: TB 11, MIN 4: Bullpen Lets Game Get Out Of Hand

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

Sat: MIN 17, KC 0: What Negative Run Differential?

 

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[Darius]

It's ridiculous how often this team leaves runners on third with less then two outs. It's uncanny.

 

The Angels are taking care of business again. Wonder what that's like.

[PDX Twin]

Somehow, I feel like this team is more comfortable challenging from the outside. Let the Angels get ahead and maybe they will react and get back to winning ways.

[Old Twins Cap]

Being given chances late, and not coming through.

 

That adds up to coming up short on a season.

 

Tough, but, that's how you learn at baseball.

[howeda7]

Disappointing. It's hard not to feel a bit snake bit. That's 3 times in the last 10 days now that we've come up a few inches short of a 9th inning come back. Meanwhile the Angels are doing it nightly. 

[yarnivek1972]

Probably should put Gee back on the bullpen usage chart.

[Seth Stohs]

 

It's ridiculous how often this team leaves runners on third with less then two outs. It's uncanny.

The Angels are taking care of business again. Wonder what that's like.

 

Probably a lot like what the Twins did in August, and what they'll do when they put together another run of quality play here in September. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Being given chances late, and not coming through.

 

That adds up to coming up short on a season.

 

Tough, but, that's how you learn at baseball.

 

That's how you lose a game... All teams have a bunch of games in a season in which that happens. 

 

I don't know what's going to happen the final 25 games or so, but one game will not make or break the season... whether they win the Wild Card by a game or lose the wild card by a game or more. 

[bighat]

Wasn't watching but had gamecast on in the background while I was booking some flights online. Saw the Twins putting runners on base after the HR in the 9th and was feeling very cheery - happy about my trip up to MSP this weekend and happy about the Twins making a comeback!   

 

Then I see it's game over and we blew it. Got mad. Realized I'll be traveling almost all day Sunday and missing all the NFL action. Everything looks bleak, life sucks, etc. 

 

Darn Twins. 

 

Bartolo with another gem, though. Dude's gonna give the Twins a chance to win every time, it seems. Too bad about the 'pen. Twins need Sano back in there. 

[Tom Froemming]

 

Probably should put Gee back on the bullpen usage chart.

Will do, good call. That thing's getting pretty crowded now.

[ashbury]

It's ridiculous how often this team leaves runners on third with less then two outs. It's uncanny.

They keep track of things like this. The Twins' situational stats this year are in line with the rest of the league.

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/split.cgi?t=b&lg=AL&year=2017#all_bases

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=MIN&year=2017#all_bases

 

It says there that, for the season, the Twins are hitting .317 with one out and men on first and third, the situation in question here. It's small sample size territory, but it doesn't stand out as a problem.

[ThejacKmp]

 

Then I see it's game over and we blew it.

 

 

I'm with Seth that people are being a bit dramatic. They didn't blow it. Blowing it is when you cough up a lead. Blowing it would be bases loaded no one out and not getting the tying run in.

 

They had guys on the corners and Rosario hit a ball relatively hard that just happened to be right at a guy. Things happen, they didn't blow it.

[Vanimal46]

The title of this thread reminded me how much I love JoJo.... 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-jgiwvWLzg

[mikelink45]

We need someone to step up and light a fire like Buxton did recently.  We have had Rosario and Escobar give the team a needed jolt this season.  Kepler or Mauer need to take their turn and carry the team for a while.  Sano would be perfect, but since he cannot play we need someone else to get that surge.  

[USAFChief]

Upton for the Angels:  1.029 OPS.  

 

Small sample size, I know, but that might have come in handy the past week.

[ThejacKmp]

 

We need someone to step up and light a fire like Buxton did recently.  We have had Rosario and Escobar give the team a needed jolt this season.  Kepler or Mauer need to take their turn and carry the team for a while.  Sano would be perfect, but since he cannot play we need someone else to get that surge.  

 

Joe Mauer in his last 25 games: .420/.458/.570/1.028. 12 extra base hits. He's on a 14 game hitting streak with 5 multiple hit games. During that streak he's hitting .418/.458/.600/1.058 with nine XBH.

 

He's already carried this team. Perhaps it speaks more to our concept of Joe that his achievements in the past month are not lauded as much as Buxton/Polanco or even Escobar.

 

To wit: Escobar's last 20 games give a .244/.282/.513/.795. Those are relatively nice but they're Mauer's numbers for the year. We get more excited about Escobar being normal Mauer than Mauer being insanely good.

[ThejacKmp]

 

Perhaps it speaks more to our concept of Joe that his achievements in the past month are not lauded as much as Buxton/Polanco or even Escobar.

 

To wit: Escobar's last 20 games give a .244/.282/.513/.795. Those are relatively nice but they're Mauer's numbers for the year. We get more excited about Escobar being normal Mauer than Mauer being insanely good.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Upton for the Angels:  1.029 OPS.  

 

Small sample size, I know, but that might have come in handy the past week.

 

Verlander had a pretty good start last night, but Gee / Slegers are just fine....

[Mike Sixel]

 

To wit: Escobar's last 20 games give a .244/.282/.513/.795. Those are relatively nice but they're Mauer's numbers for the year. We get more excited about Escobar being normal Mauer than Mauer being insanely good.

 

Who's lauding and getting excited about Escobar?

[ThejacKmp]

 

Who's lauding and getting excited about Escobar?

 

The post I responded to said, "We have had Rosario and Escobar give the team a needed jolt this season. Kepler or Mauer need to take their turn and carry the team for a while."

 

That's who.

 

 

[Mike Sixel]

 

The post I responded to said, "We have had Rosario and Escobar give the team a needed jolt this season. Kepler or Mauer need to take their turn and carry the team for a while."

 

That's who.

 

Pretty sure that post was talking about hot streaks, not the whole year, but I could be reading it wrong.

[ThejacKmp]

 

Pretty sure that post was talking about hot streaks, not the whole year, but I could be reading it wrong.

 

That post was talking about hot streaks, about carrying the team. The author indicated that Escobar and Rosario had carried the team by going streaking so now it was time for Mauer or Kepler. That's why I spoke of the recent stretch by Mauer and compared it to the recent stretch of Escobar.

[Mike Sixel]

 

That post was talking about hot streaks, about carrying the team. The author indicated that Escobar and Rosario had carried the team by going streaking so now it was time for Mauer or Kepler. That's why I spoke of the recent stretch by Mauer and compared it to the recent stretch of Escobar.

 

see, now I get it. I'm slow apparently. 

[ashbury]

see, now I get it. I'm slow apparently. 

Mike, just to pile on, your Messenger inbox appears to be full. You might want to clear out some space.