Article: KC 4, MIN 1: Odorizzi, Offense Come Up Short

[Kirby O'Connor]

Jake Odorizzi was chased after four, Jorge Polanco’s home run was the only run scored by the Twins, and the defense had three errors. The pitching may have been enough to win, but the offense and defensive performance certainly weren’t up to snuff. Overall, tonight was a bad game, but the Twins have three more to bounce back with in Kansas City.Box Score

Odorizzi: 4 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 66% strikes (X of X pitches)

Bullpen: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Home Runs: Jorge Polanco (11)

Multi-Hit Games: Cron (2-3)

 

WPA of +0.1: None

WPA of -0.1: Schoop -.111, Odorizzi -.223

Download attachment: Win620.png

(chart via FanGraphs)

 

Active First Inning

The Twins opened tonight’s scoring with a Jorge Polanco solo home run to right field in the second at-bat of the game. The Royals would answer in their half of the first with three runs off of singles by Whit Merrifield and Nicky Lopez, a double by Alex Gordon, and a single by Lucas Duda, following a very interesting fielder’s choice to put Cheslor Cuthbert on third base.

 

Odorizzi Chased After Four

Jake Odorizzi had an uncharacteristically bad start tonight, giving up four runs in four innings. Outside of the first, the Royals scored one more on a single, sac bunt, and double in the fourth. Odorizzi has been the Twins best starter this season and been in talks for the AL Cy Young Award. In his last seven starts before tonight, he had an ERA of 1.77, 47 strikeouts, and has won six without a loss.

 

Tonight may have been a product of the fact that this is the second start in a row that Odorizzi had against the Kansas City Royals. He faced them on Saturday and gave up four over six innings.

 

Defense Has Another Bad Day

The Minnesota Twins defense had another bad night with three errors in the field, One throw into the head of Alex Gordon, one ball booted by Willians Astudillo at third, and another grounder missed by Jonathan Schoop at second. This means the Twins have now committed 14 errors in their last 10 games.

 

One bright spot for this defense is the number of double plays turned. They turned four behind Twins pitchers tonight. Also, their errors only resulted in one run as both Astudillo and Schoop’s missed grounders were stranded.

 

Kohl Stewart Pitches Well Out of the Bullpen

After the Twins’ marathon 17 inning game on Tuesday, a short start from Jake Odorizzi was the last thing Rocco Baldelli and the Twins wanted, but Kohl Stewart saved the rest of the bullpen by pitching the game after Odorizzi was pulled. Stewart went four innings, surrendered just two hits, and allowed no runs.

 

Offense Only Manages One Run

It’s been a year where the Twins have been able to overcome some poor pitching performances, but this is the second time in four days that the offense has squandered a pretty decent pitching performance. On Monday, they were unable to manage even one run against the Red Sox and tonight was not much better.

 

Following Polanco’s home run in the first, the Twins could not manage any extra- base hits and had only one at-bat with runners in scoring position. Their hits were all spread over the innings and when they hit the ball well, they seemed to go right at Kansas City fielders.

 

Of course credit has to go to the Royals pitching, but the Twins offense just didn’t show up for the first game of this road trip. Hopefully they figure it out before tomorrow.

 

Postgame With Baldelli

 

Bullpen Usage

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

Download attachment: Pen620.png

 

Click here to view the article

[Monticore]

Fielding drill needed. My cat could hit better than Cave, there must be someone they can replace him with. Stewart did a nice job.

[MNT1996]

If our worse slump of the season is this (losing 4 out the last 5) that would be pretty impressive. Let's turn it around tomorrow and take the last 3 of the series. I'm predicting Sano is gonna have a great game and Perez will give us 7 shutout innings tomorrow.

[Rosterman]

Man, the Twins looked out of it. They tried, too hard, but looked exhausted. Maybe they should come in early and frolic in the fountains before batting practice. A good nite of rest and then come back and have fun playing the game (and watching the video and reading the charts of these guys you played last week).

 

The running game can be exciting. What would it take to get the Twins to steal some bases! Okay, NOT hit home runs!

 

[DocBauer]

Only got to see a little of the game, but very surprised, pleasantly so, by Stewart out of the pen.

 

I am NOT bashing this team in the midst of a tremendous season. But I feel they be a bit overconfident lately. Errors will be made. Hitters and pitchers will all have some rough patches here and there. It's baseball. Unfortunately, there has been a bit of a slump the last week, overall. Nothing to be concerned about. And I love the confidence of this club. But I would like to see them, collectively, take a look in the mirror and get a little angry at some blown opportunities and take it out on the Royals the next few games.

 

BTW, if you haven't checked it out yet, there is a really nice article in the Blogosphere by Adam Kruger entitled THE NECESSARY STRUGGLE that is a very good read.

 

Go Twins!

[Tom Froemming]

Had some thoughts to share. Here's just under five minutes of big-picture Twins talk if you're interested. There are a couple things I'm starting to become concerned about.

[h2oface]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this team play .500 ball from here on out. That should still win the Central. But they need to beat teams that only win 1 out of 2 games from the rest of the league.

[rdehring]

Back to back ugly starts.  Guess a rough patch was due to happen at some point.  Key will be getting their swagger back.  Beating up KC in two of the three remaining would be a good start.

 

Had been of the opinion that Stewart slipped following the progress he made last September.  Encouraged by what I saw last night.

[mikelink45]

In our championship years we had pride in our defense, this year's defense is surprisingly poor.  With our outfield and Garver improved behind the plate - that leaves the infield (I hope the others hold up) and the players we have might not be exciting in the field, but they should be competent.  What is the cause?  

 

Finally, the question I have - is Cave pressing?  He looked so much better last year and in the  minors.

[adorduan]

 

In our championship years we had pride in our defense, this year's defense is surprisingly poor.  With our outfield and Garver improved behind the plate - that leaves the infield (I hope the others hold up) and the players we have might not be exciting in the field, but they should be competent.  What is the cause?  

 

Finally, the question I have - is Cave pressing?  He looked so much better last year and in the  minors.

Probably.  He knows he only has a couple of games to somehow try to make a case to stay up.

[adorduan]

Maybe this team is reverting to what it really is.  Average at best pitching and a boom or bust offense.  The defense really has to better than it has been the last 2 weeks.

[terrydactyls]

Yesterday was Thursday, June 20 and it was the 74th game of the year.  The Twins are now 46%  of the way through the season.  Out of 59 years, the current team ranks 25th on the all-time list of Twins' home runs in one season and are on a pace to hit 309 home runs this season.

[KFEY93]

 

If our worse slump of the season is this (losing 4 out the last 5) that would be pretty impressive. Let's turn it around tomorrow and take the last 3 of the series. I'm predicting Sano is gonna have a great game and Perez will give us 7 shutout innings tomorrow.

I want what ever you are taking. I dont think either of those things are going to happen. I feeling Twins lose 8 to 3. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Probably.  He knows he only has a couple of games to somehow try to make a case to stay up.

I don't know about blaming it on pressing. Occam's Razor says Cave is fully capable of hitting like this without any external excuse. (That's not to pick on Cave too much -- we also know he's capable of hitting better too. Every player has streaks, and it's possible Cave just looks a little streakier because of his baseline K%?)

 

Also, I wouldn't be so sure that Cave should feel any particular pressure about his chances of getting sent down again soon. Buxton's wrist is no sure thing to be 100% in a couple days (during last night's radio broadcast, they said he swung the bat Wednesday and didn't feel good, and was going to try again Friday). And our "4th outfielder" Gonzalez, as well as our other utility guy Adrianza, are out too and not even traveling with the team right now.

 

And even if Cave does get sent out soon, his spot on the OF depth chart still looks pretty safe so he still has a reasonable expectation of returning soon.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Finally, the question I have - is Cave pressing?  He looked so much better last year and in the  minors.

Worth remembering Cave had a .363 BABIP in the majors last year, and a .396 BABIP in AAA this year. (And a .414 BABIP in his best minor league performance, 2017 at AAA.) I don't expect him to stay hitless forever, of course, but his profile seems prone to streakiness.

[Dakota15]

I'd like to see Stewart transitioned to the bullpen when he gets optioned back to AAA, to see what might be there and possibly help the big league club 

[IAMNFan]

Every baseball team will have stretches like this.  That being said, this team appears to have checked out mentally.  There is absolutely no excuse for these errors.  Hitting is hard, but it also seems like there may be a lack of concentration going on here also or maybe they are just trying to hit home runs and not execute a plan.

We knew pitching would regress, but the defense and offensive plan need to improve.

Berrios & Pineda seem to me to be reliable starters, lets go make a deal with Toronto for Stroman & Giles and hope that gets attitudes corrected!

[dex8425]

 

I'd like to see Stewart transitioned to the bullpen when he gets optioned back to AAA, to see what might be there and possibly help the big league club 

 

 

Perez has had four bad starts in a row now, and two of those four were really, really bad.  I say keep Poppen and Stewart lengthened out at AAA, although I really like the idea of Poppen's stuff out of the pen. We have had no starter injury problems thus far but if anyone goes down the depth at AAA will keep us from overpaying to get a starter via trade. 

[Dantes929]

I've thought for a while now that Stewart would be a decent piece to the bullpen if only to eat up innings games like the one where we had a 10-1 lead or for an occasional spot start.     Maybe an Anthony Swarzak role for the future..... Thing about streaky hitters is that they tend to streak.    Cave was a great hitter the last month in the minors but if he was that guy all the time he would be Mike Trout.    Its unfortunate his hot streak was there instead of here and now.   I think thats all it is.   He was on a hot streak and now on a cold streak.   Hopefully short lived.....Most good teams don't  win 5.5 out of every 10 games.    They play at or near .500 ball most of the time and have some decent hot streaks to overcome a couple cold streaks to end up averaging 5.5 wins every 10 games.    Current Twins have won about 15 of 21 series with a few ties and haven't been swept once.   That is ridiculously good and cannot be sustained.    .500 ball with one modest win streak from this point would be ok with me.     87 team was swept 7 times.   The mlb season is definitely more of a marathon than a sprint

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Cave is a classic young hitter with some talent. He’s very streaky and needs to get consistent playing time like he did last year to be effective.

Did you write the same about Danny Santana in 2015?

 

I expect Cave can improve his 2019 numbers simply by regressing to the mean, but if you're expecting him to get back to his 2018 numbers, more playing time will not help a batter maintain a high BABIP. If anything, it's the reverse, and we're seeing some of the effects of that now.

[Dman]

Pitching hasn't been as good and the whole lineup is pretty much slumping.  If Cleveland wasn't playing so well I wouldn't care but would hate to this team reeled in by the All Star break.   

 

That being said I believe Houston has lost 4 in a row.  The Yankee's have had tough stretches this year.  Every team, even good teams go through these.  Just hoping we can pull out of it sooner rather than later.

 

The Royals always seem to give us problems.  Here's hoping we can break out.

[Number3]

When a team scores a total of 9 runs in 4 games it makes any mistakes by pitching and defense more glaring. If the bats don't get back on track it really makes no difference. 5 runs is the bench mark and Twins haven't scored more than 4 in the past 4 games. This is a 4 game series and just a split is ok so lets just do it starting with tonight.

[RatherBeGolfing]

First real adversity this team has faced this year. Let's see how they respond

[TerwilligerBuntsOne]

The Twins were bound to cool off at some point.  Minor injuries continue to pile up.  The bats cooled off. The arms cooled off. The gloves turned to stone. All at the same time. It happens.

 

To me, the big issue is the number of injuries.  I don't think that it is a coincidence that the roughest stretch (so far) in the season comes when Buxton and Gonzalez (and even Adrianza?!?!) are on the shelf.  Suddenly, Rocco The Mad Genius has less flexibility when making out his lineup card. There have been very few games in which the actual A-lineup has been healthy.  Meanwhile, Cave and The Turtle are almost forced to play every day at this point -- when neither should be an every day player for a playoff team.

 

The Twins will get through this stretch of games just fine.  Get everyone healthy. Be patient. Add a couple of arms. The glass is still more than half full. 

 

[adjacent]

Actually, what worries me the most of last night game is Garver. He has been excellent. I hoe is nothing, but those things in the heel or the foot are pesky.

[MNT1996]

 

I want what ever you are taking. I dont think either of those things are going to happen. I feeling Twins lose 8 to 3. 

 

Ok? Just because I wanted to make a prediction about a couple of players having good games you think I'm taking something. Next time just don't even reply to me. 

[james2334]

Byron Buxton is the most important everyday player on the team. There I said it. He is the best defensive player, the best base runner, and one of the few guys that can manufacture a run when the offense is struggling. The drop off from Buxton to Cave is huge, on both offense and defense, a bigger drop off than any other position. Add to that the fact that when he makes a great catch or turns a single into a double it seems to fire up the whole team. He's the one player we can't afford to lose for significant time. 

[Riverbrian]

 

Byron Buxton is the most important everyday player on the team. There I said it. He is the best defensive player, the best base runner, and one of the few guys that can manufacture a run when the offense is struggling. The drop off from Buxton to Cave is huge, on both offense and defense, a bigger drop off than any other position. Add to that the fact that when he makes a great catch or turns a single into a double it seems to fire up the whole team. He's the one player we can't afford to lose for significant time. 

 

I agree with you on the importance of Buxton. However, I disagree that 1 player can take this team down. (You may not have said that exactly). 

 

I think the offense in general was beyond incredible for awhile and simply bound to stabilize. I think it can heat up again and cool off again but all in all... it's going to be a good year offensively with or without Buxton. 

 

Besides... Buxton... I fear we will have to get use to losing him from time to time based on past history... or even current history and that's OK. 

 

 

[james2334]

 

I agree with you on the importance of Buxton. However, I disagree that 1 player can take this team down. (You may not have said that exactly). 

 

I think the offense in general was beyond incredible for awhile and simply bound to stabilize. I think it can heat up again and cool off again but all in all... it's going to be a good year offensively with or without Buxton. 

 

Besides... Buxton... I fear we will have to get use to losing him from time to time based on past history... or even current history and that's OK. 

I would agree that the offense can score plenty of runs without Buxton and at this point they could probably go the rest of the season without him and still win a weak Central Division. However, if they get to the playoffs and Jake Cave is in Center field I would expect it to be a short playoff run. I think this team with Buxton can play with anyone (assuming of course that they upgrade the bullpen at the trade deadline), I think if he's out it's a different story.

Edited June 22, 2019 by james2334