Article: MIN 12, DET 1: Once Again, The Twins Bounce Back

[Tom Froemming]

That’s more like it! After a demoralizing sweep, the Twins opened up a stretch in which they’ll face the Tigers in seven of their final 10 games by delivering a strong message. I'm sure Detroit would love to play the role of spoilers, but it appears the Twins aren’t gonna have any of that.Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs)

Download attachment: Snapshot921.png

This team takes care of business. There have been about a dozen times where it seemed appropriate to count this club out over the course of the season, and while they’ve had their struggles against some of the top teams in the league, they’ve done an excellent job at avoiding extended skids. The longest losing streak the Twins have endured this season is just four games.

 

For every devastating blowout, a bounce back has followed. For every sweep, a hot streak.

 

The series at home against Houston when they were swept and outscored 40-16; getting swept in a four-game series at home against Cleveland; going 5-12 heading into the trade deadline and watching their closer get dealt away … none of those things killed these Twins.

 

It looks like their sweep at the hands of the Yankees isn’t going to finish them off, either. Every time these guys get their teeth kicked in, they just say “screw it, we like applesauce anyway, let’s eat.”

 

The Tigers are in shambles, finishing the season in a complete tailspin, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that the Twins cleaned up against them Thursday night in Detroit. This was a big opportunity for the team to deliver a message that there will be no spoiling this season.

 

Joe Mauer had yet another big night, going 3-for-4 with a double, a walk, a pair of RBI and two runs. There’ve been a lot of great moments this year, but seeing Joe fill up the stat sheet again of late has been particularly satisfying. He entered tonight’s contest with a .333/.413/.447 line since the All-Star break.

 

Jorge Polaco also continued his second-half breakout, tallying three more hits and drawing a walk. Eduardo Escobar had a pair of hits, a walk and scored three times. Max Kepler had two well-struck hits and drove in a pair of runs. Byron Buxton had a big two-run single and had his 22nd-straight successful stolen base attempt. That tied a team record. The offensive outburst was impressive enough to garner the Starship treatment ...

Adalberto Mejia didn’t last very long, but the results were encouraging while he was out there. In just his second start since returning from the DL, Mejia held Detroit to one run on four hits and a walk over 4.2 innings. He had five strikeouts.

 

Dillon Gee finished off the fifth and pitched a scoreless sixth. He was followed by Ryan Pressly, who was dominant. Over two perfect innings Pressly struck out three batters and threw 19 of his 24 pitches for strikes. Matt Belisle, who hadn’t pitched since Sept. 14, finished things out with a scoreless ninth, thanks to some help from Zack Granite.

Good teams beat bad teams. Check. Good teams win on the road. Check. Good teams take care of business. Period. Maybe the Twins aren’t among the American League’s elite, but this is a good baseball team.

 

AL Wild Card Standings

WC1: Yankees 85-67

WC2: Twins 79-74

Angels 76-76 (-2.5)

Rangers 76-76 (-2.5)

 

Bullpen Usage

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

Download attachment: Bullpen921.png

Looking Ahead

Fri: Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Tigers (Daniel Norris), 6:10 pm ET

Sat: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Tigers (Matthew Boyd), 5:10 pm CT

Sun: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Tigers (Buck Farmer), 11:10 am CT

 

Looking Back

NYY 11, MIN 3: Twins Crumble At Yankee Stadium (Again)

NYY 5, MIN 2: Tough Night For Berrios, Twins

NYY 2, MIN 1: Garcia, Yankees Bullpen Dominate Twins

 

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[Dantes929]

The longest losing streak the Twins have endured this season is just four games.  Probably the stat of the year.   Contrast that with last year where in order we had losing streaks of 9 (to start the year), 4, 8, 5, 5, 4, 11, and 7.

[Riverbrian]

Tom,

 

I didn't have time to read this tonight but I already know it's good so I gave you a "Like". 

 

Keep up the good work. 

[Danchat]

You gotta give credit to the Twins, they always bounce back after hard losses. But there's an ocean of difference between the Yankees and Tigers...

[IndianaTwin]

Great job, as always. 

 

Recently on TD there have been threads debating whether to offer extensions to guys like Gibson and Mauer.

 

I have another contract issue. From his profile, it appears that Tom Froemming is finishing up his second season on TD.

 

Have the owners/moderators considered giving him a long-term contract to buy out his arbitration years and perhaps the first couple years of free agency? The last thing we would want is to have him bolt for YankeesDaily and force us to go back to reading the crappy stuff from MLB.com.

[Dantes929]

 

Great job, as always. 

 

Recently on TD there have been threads debating whether to offer extensions to guys like Gibson and Mauer.

 

I have another contract issue. From his profile, it appears that Tom Froemming is finishing up his second season on TD.

 

Have the owners/moderators considered giving him a long-term contract to buy out his arbitration years and perhaps the first couple years of free agency? The last thing we would want is to have him bolt for YankeesDaily and force us to go back to reading the crappy stuff from MLB.com.

Yeah but what happens when he becomes the Brendan Harris of game recappers?

[Connor Gould]

That 2.5 game lead is a lot more comfortable. Obviously there's still a lot of time left, but it's a nice cushion.

[Dantes929]

 

The longest losing streak the Twins have endured this season is just four games.  Probably the stat of the year.   Contrast that with last year where in order we had losing streaks of 9 (to start the year), 4, 8, 5, 5, 4, 11, and 7.

Just realized that if you don't count the losing streaks above last year we had a winning team.   How's that for putting lipstick on a pig?

[scottz]

Just realized that if you don't count the losing streaks above last year we had a winning team. How's that for putting lipstick on a pig?

Sure, but if you just limit them to only 4 game losing streaks, they still would have been at 75 wins.

[h2oface]

Impressive game for the boys. I am really impressed by winning close games more, but a win is a win is a win. And especially now. I hope they have saved some runs for the rest of the series.

[Circus Boy]

Nice win. And in anticipation of tonight, here's a sentence I'm sure no one's said in a while: I'm really glad the Gibby's on the bump.

[ThejacKmp]

 

Impressive game for the boys. I am really impressed by winning close games more, but a win is a win is a win. And especially now. I hope they have saved some runs for the rest of the series.

 

No way. More impressed by a game like this where they don't take their foot of the Tiggers throat. The dominated them through and through.

[Blake]

 

Sure, but if you just limit them to only 4 game losing streaks, they still would have been at 75 wins.

He's alive!

[gunnarthor]

That was a fun game. Offense seemed a little uptight the first few innings but then it all came together. The Angels are in a nice little tail spin and the Rangers have actually caught them. 

 

I liked what we saw of Mejia tonight. He's not a perfect pitcher and health is a big issue for him but he's done enough so far this year that it looks like (IF healthy) he can be a real big league pitcher. Certainly not a front of the rotation pitcher but a big step up from some of what we've had to do over the last few years.

[Tom Froemming]

 

Great job, as always. 

 

Recently on TD there have been threads debating whether to offer extensions to guys like Gibson and Mauer.

 

I have another contract issue. From his profile, it appears that Tom Froemming is finishing up his second season on TD.

 

Have the owners/moderators considered giving him a long-term contract to buy out his arbitration years and perhaps the first couple years of free agency? The last thing we would want is to have him bolt for YankeesDaily and force us to go back to reading the crappy stuff from MLB.com.

Ha! I've basically been given free rein of the best Twins site on the Internet. I should probably be paying them, not the other way around

[Jerr]

I have been diagnosed with a slight case of pennant fever, and have been told if the Twins keep this up, it could turn into an FULL BLOWN pennant fever    Great recap as always!!!!

[Craig Arko]

 

I have been diagnosed with a slight case of pennant fever, and have been told if the Twins keep this up, it could turn into an FULL BLOWN pennant fever    Great recap as always!!!!

Almost like this...

 

[spinowner]

 

You gotta give credit to the Twins, they always bounce back after hard losses. But there's an ocean of difference between the Yankees and Tigers...

Especially in their respective bullpens.

[puckstopper1]

Seeing Granite's diving catch and gritty defense reminded me of another fan favorite who used to wear #8 for the Twins.

 

 

 

[Jerr]

 

Almost like this...

 

Substitution pennant for boogie, yeah I got that       

Edited September 22, 2017 by Jerr

[Darius]

I'm still worried about the Rangers.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Matt Belisle, who hadn’t pitched since Sept. 14, finished things out with a scoreless ninth, thanks to some help from Zack Granite.

Re: Granite's catch in the 9th -- I guess he's not a starter, but is that a smart risk in the 9th inning of a 12-1 game?  If he gets hurt, we're going to need Grossman, Adrianza, etc. in the outfield in more meaningful situations...

[gunnarthor]

 

Re: Granite's catch in the 9th -- I guess he's not a starter, but is that a smart risk in the 9th inning of a 12-1 game?  If he gets hurt, we're going to need Grossman, Adrianza, etc. in the outfield in more meaningful situations...

I don't think many players get hurt on plays like that. Crashing into walls or each other, sure. But not a sliding catch on the grass.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I don't think many players get hurt on plays like that. Crashing into walls or each other, sure. But not a sliding catch on the grass.

Sure, but it wasn't a butt slide either.  His knees, hands, and wrists were making impact with the ground, and he was tumbling over after the catch.

 

Players should almost never risk crashing into each other at any time, and not often crashing into a wall either.  But the standards are changed in a blowout -- heck, Granite himself was in the game as defensive replacement to reduce injury risk to a regular. But he's important enough (4th viable outfielder) that I think I'd still want him to exercise a bit more caution in that situation too.

[gheggs42]

 

I'm still worried about the Rangers.

I am too but Oakland has been sneaky good lately. 11-3 in their last 14

[bighat]

Angels play 4 games against the White Sox beginning next week, at the same time the Twins will have 3 against Cleveland. That's a dangerous stretch.

 

Liked how Molly freaked at signs of disaster yesterday with Mejia and pulled 'em. This is essentially playoff baseball at this point, wins are more important that building character right now. Don't take the Tigers lightly, they lead our season series 7-6 right now and can beat the Twins on a given day.

 

Just win. Looks like the Twins are going to have to hit their way into the playoffs, scoring 12 last night was a good start.

[Doomtints]

Molitor is weird... Pulling the starting pitcher after 4 2/3 innings so he can't get the win when the tying run is not at the plate. He has done this more than once to young pitchers, pulling them when they have just 1 out to go to get the win.

 

I really hope he's gone. I'm tired of the embarrassing way he manages pitching during games.

[USAFChief]

Molitor is weird... Pulling the starting pitcher after 4 2/3 innings so he can't get the win when the tying run is not at the plate. He has done this more than once to young pitchers, pulling them when they have just 1 out to go to get the win.

 

I really hope he's gone. I'm tired of the embarrassing way he manages pitching during games.

I wish just the opposite...who cares if the starter gets a W? It's the team W that goes on the record.

 

I want Molitor gone, but not because he's too quick to pull starters. In fact it's just the opposite...far too often he waits until a fading starter has damaged the game before pulling him.

 

Hopefully last night was a sign of progress for Molitor, and he is more likely to pull a starter a hitter or 2 too early, than a hitter or 2 too late.

 

He did exactly the right thing last night. I hope it wasn't just pitch count driven. I hope he looked at the next couple hitters and said, "if we get beat, it won't be these two hitters off my LH starter."

[Doomtints]

 

I want Molitor gone, but not because he's too quick to pull starters. In fact it's just the opposite...far too often he waits until a fading starter has damaged the game before pulling him.

 

We are making the same point. He has no frigging idea what he is doing. He pulls people too early, he pulls people too late. He has no game awareness and no idea how to evaluate performance. He makes his decisions in a bubble.

[Danchat]

 

Molitor is weird... Pulling the starting pitcher after 4 2/3 innings so he can't get the win when the tying run is not at the plate. He has done this more than once to young pitchers, pulling them when they have just 1 out to go to get the win.

 

I really hope he's gone. I'm tired of the embarrassing way he manages pitching during games.

They stated before the game Mejia was on a 70-80 pitch limit. They pulled him at 79 pitches. Can't blame him for that.