Game Recap: Twins 6, Royals 5

[Tom Froemming]

Insurance runs have been tough to come by this season for the Twins but they tacked on a few this afternoon at Target Field. Boy, was it a good thing that they did. Read all about the game in today’s recap.

Box Score
Happ: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Home Runs: Larnach (3)
Top 3 WPA: Larnach .196, Garver .135, Cruz .108
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Twins jumped out to an early lead, scoring runs in the first and second innings, but that advantage was quickly erased by a Salvador Perez two-run homer in the third. J.A. Happ retired the last seven batters he faced after giving up that homer.

The bats took the lead back thanks in part to a Rob Refsnyder RBI bloop single and a run-scoring passed ball. They tacked on runs in the sixth and eighth innings to extend the lead to four runs. Every bit of that wiggle room was needed.

Jorge Alcala and Tyler Duffey each delivered a perfect inning before Hansel Robles gave up a run in the eighth. Taylor Rogers came on for the ninth inning to protect a three-run lead and got off to a concerning start.

After Kelvin Gutierrez doubled Adalberto Mondesi hit a two-run homer to reduce the lead to one run with no outs in the ninth. Rogers induced a groundout then struckout the final two batters he faced to secure his fourth save of the season.

Larnach’s Bomb

Larnach’s home run was another tape-measure shot. He went deep into the Delta Sky360 Suite earlier this week and nearly did it again today. This one was “only” hit 423 feet with a 109.5 mph exit velocity.

Postgame Interview

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Robles	13	20	0	0	21	54
Rogers	26	0	0	0	21	47
Duffey	0	15	0	0	13	28
Thielbar	2	16	0	0	0	18
Farrell	0	0	0	17	0	17
Minaya	0	0	15	0	0	15
Colomé	13	0	0	0	0	13
Alcala	0	0	0	0	10	10

 

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[AceWrigley]

Perhaps Happ is happy since his performance wasn't hapless. ?

[AceWrigley]

Nice to see Garver as one of the top 3 WPA guys instead of the "Man do I suck" list.

[AceWrigley]

Check out the Yankees lineup today. The 3 outfielders are batting 7-8-9. I don't think I've ever seen a Yankee lineup like that.

[DocBauer]

At the end of the day, I'm glad we won. That's the most important thing. And not all wins will be pretty. But all wins count the same. (Like it or not, the Royals have been TOUGH on the Twins for several years now).

Nice outings by Alcala and Duffey. Not so great by Robles but he's been looking pretty good and everyone allows z run here and there. Rogers was just...WOOF...before finishing it up. A double followed by a 2 run shot for Mondesi's first of the year with a 3 run lead? Not so good. And if I'm not mistaken, wasn't it on a 0-2 or 1-2 count?

I think Kirilloff and Larnach are here for good, barring a temporary demotion due to roster crunch or similar. They are just too good and both seem ready. 

I know it's still SSS, and I know regression to some sort of norm is coming,  but I'm starting to think/believe Refsnyder just might be the "RH version of Jake Cave" this team needs going forward, especially as LH dominant as the OF now stands.

[insagt1]

Rogers gave us a few moments, didn't he, but winning is always fun. And finally Twins are scoring runs the old fashioned way as well as by the bomb.

Is anyone even remotely concerned about Donaldson? Yeah he gets walks, but he has completely stopped hitting. His splits over the last 7, 15 and 30 games are brutal. His AB today in the 8th with sacks juiced was butt-ugly. If this is what the Twins wanted, they vastly overpaid for this guy. Hopefully soon, he will snap out of it like Garver, Polanco and Sano seemed to have done. But for now, he is an out machine, with the BA getting close to the Mendoza Line. Its a darned good thing he does get the occasional walks because thats the sum of his 'offense' this month.

[insagt1]

Just now, DocBauer said:

At the end of the day, I'm glad we won. That's the most important thing. And not all wins will be pretty. But all wins count the same. (Like it or not, the Royals have been TOUGH on the Twins for several years now).

Nice outings by Alcala and Duffey. Not so great by Robles but he's been looking pretty good and everyone allows z run here and there. Rogers was just...WOOF...before finishing it up. A double followed by a 2 run shot for Mondesi's first of the year with a 3 run lead? Not so good. And if I'm not mistaken, wasn't it on a 0-2 or 1-2 count?

I think Kirilloff and Larnach are here for good, barring a temporary demotion due to roster crunch or similar. They are just too good and both seem ready. 

I know it's still SSS, and I know regression to some sort of norm is coming,  but I'm starting to think/believe Refsnyder just might be the "RH version of Jake Cave" this team needs going forward, especially as LH dominant as the OF now stands.

Refsnyder keeps coming up with clutch hits for us. He may make it very hard for the Twins to send him down.. However since Buxton appears to be nowhere near coming back, that isn't an immediate problem and I would take Ref over Cave any day of the week.

[Monticore]

A win is a win. Buxton out hurts but at least the call-ups are performing.

[bighat]

Uff-da. Even the wins are ugly in this disappointing season.

I've never seen a team do so little damage with multiple runners on base & nobody-out scenarios. The Twins recent "surge" (if you wanna call it that) is mostly due to mistakes by the other team. Today, the Twins won this game thanks to a gift wild pitch - a run that crossed the plate despite the Twins' failures to take advantage of a very favorable offensive scenario (bases loaded, nobody out in the 4th). Garver also scored on an error by Santana, another gift run that turned out to be needed. Bottom line: the Twins need a ton of outside help to compete. They got it today.

Aside from a couple flashes, Kepler and Donaldson have been non-existent offensively for most of the year. I think I'm more disappointed in Donaldson but both have been head-shakingly bad.

But hey! Twins win. It's Saturday, Memorial Day weekend, and we can all relax and enjoy the evening. Have a great one, folks!

[Omaha Twins Fan]

The Larnach home run looks like it comes down at an angle as if it hit something, but not sure what it would be. Can anyone tell what happened there?

[USAFChief]

53 minutes ago, AceWrigley said:

Perhaps Happ is happy since his performance wasn't hapless. ?

Happily, as it Happens.

 

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

Happily, as it Happens.

Happelujah.

[Dman]

1 hour ago, insagt1 said:

Rogers gave us a few moments, didn't he, but winning is always fun. And finally Twins are scoring runs the old fashioned way as well as by the bomb.

Is anyone even remotely concerned about Donaldson? Yeah he gets walks, but he has completely stopped hitting. His splits over the last 7, 15 and 30 games are brutal. His AB today in the 8th with sacks juiced was butt-ugly. If this is what the Twins wanted, they vastly overpaid for this guy. Hopefully soon, he will snap out of it like Garver, Polanco and Sano seemed to have done. But for now, he is an out machine, with the BA getting close to the Mendoza Line. Its a darned good thing he does get the occasional walks because thats the sum of his 'offense' this month.

Count me in the disappointed Donaldson category.  It looks like we paid for his bad years.  Come on man have some pride and be clutch once in a while.  He looks horrible at the plate I would rather have Blankenhorn back and batting in his spot because he wouldn't be any worse and would have upside.  Maybe call up one of replacement players who at least seem to be doing something. Hard to believe a veteran bat can be so overmatched at the plate especially in run scoring opportunities.  Absolute waste of money.

[SoDakTwinsFan4]

1 hour ago, DocBauer said:

At the end of the day, I'm glad we won. That's the most important thing. And not all wins will be pretty. But all wins count the same. (Like it or not, the Royals have been TOUGH on the Twins for several years now).

Nice outings by Alcala and Duffey. Not so great by Robles but he's been looking pretty good and everyone allows z run here and there. Rogers was just...WOOF...before finishing it up. A double followed by a 2 run shot for Mondesi's first of the year with a 3 run lead? Not so good. And if I'm not mistaken, wasn't it on a 0-2 or 1-2 count?

I think Kirilloff and Larnach are here for good, barring a temporary demotion due to roster crunch or similar. They are just too good and both seem ready. 

I know it's still SSS, and I know regression to some sort of norm is coming,  but I'm starting to think/believe Refsnyder just might be the "RH version of Jake Cave" this team needs going forward, especially as LH dominant as the OF now stands.

Actually Roger's got squeezed on the 1-1 pitch the umpire missed it and instead of 1-2 it was 2-1. Completely changed what Roger's could do. Huge difference. Roger's is throwing well. Side note: Nelson Cruz is Completely Lost at the plate not seeing the ball well at all. Getting almost zero production from you DH and Multi Million dollar 3rd baseman isn't helping. 

[AceWrigley]

2 hours ago, Omaha Twins Fan said:

The Larnach home run looks like it comes down at an angle as if it hit something, but not sure what it would be. Can anyone tell what happened there?

Ball go up, ball come down.

[AceWrigley]

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Happily, as it Happens.

 

It could just be happenstance.

[strumdatjag]

I was not a fan of the Donaldson signing. However, I thought he would be better at this stage.  I was mostly worried about the last two years of his contract. 

[darwin22]

5 hours ago, Monticore said:

A win is a win. Buxton out hurts but at least the call-ups are performing.

Good point and I'd add that there's more help on the way--------especially at AA Wichita as Jose Miranda (SS/#19 rated prospect) continued his excellent season tonight connecting on a game-tying 2-run HR in the bottom of the 9th.  Miranda is hitting .311 for the year with 6 HRs and 24 RBI over Wichita's 23 games.  He also has a .934 OPS.  #8 rated prospect, Gilberto Celestino, who's had a rough start at AA (hitting only .241) delivered a walk off HR following Miranda's jack to give Wichita a dramatic 10-9 win.  On the pitching side, Josh Winder (#14 rated prospect) had his 5th straight strong start allowing only 2 hits, 1 BB and 2 ER over 5 IP to go along with 7 K's. Will be surprised if Winder pitches much longer in AA as a promotion to AAA/SP seems likely.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

2 hours ago, AceWrigley said:

It could just be happenstance.

CURTAIN!

[Omaha Twins Fan]

3 hours ago, AceWrigley said:

Ball go up, ball come down.

I take it you didn't watch closely the ball coming down in the video (see better quality video on mntwins.com). It goes almost straight down (in fact its trajectory is close to the angle of the right field stands) as if it hit a wire or something else. It is just interesting - I've never seen that before at Target Field.

[mikelink45]

The BP is so shaky that writers have to come up with excuses for Rogers and Robles because they are our top two guys.  This is KC, they are not that good and we are struggling to beat them.  Larnach is doing great, but Refsnyders bloop was fantastic - what was the exit velocity and launch angle for that hit?  Take some more bloops. 

[denarded]

Larnach and Kirillof not a lot of...energy when talking to media. Maybe it's good they save it for the field

[PDX Twin]

11 hours ago, AceWrigley said:

It could just be happenstance.

Perhapps.

[jmlease1]

the goal for the Twins right now is just to win series and get healthy and see where they're at come the All-Star break. Scrappy win like this is a necessity.

Larnach is off to a nice start; his track record in the minors always suggested he would be a plus offensive player and he's living up to it right now. It will be interesting to see how well he adjusts in response to changes from upcoming pitchers: now that teams are going to have some MLB tape on his, things could get a bit tougher for him. It's that readjustment that kinda shows what a guy will do. But this is why we took a pass on over-paying Rosario.

[Tom Froemming]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

The BP is so shaky that writers have to come up with excuses for Rogers and Robles because they are our top two guys.  This is KC, they are not that good and we are struggling to beat them.  Larnach is doing great, but Refsnyders bloop was fantastic - what was the exit velocity and launch angle for that hit?  Take some more bloops. 

What excuses?

[ashbury]

52 minutes ago, PDX Twin said:

Perhapps.

Haphazard tangents like this are a Happ hazard anytime he pitches.

[USAFChief]

46 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Haphazard tangents like this are a Happ hazard anytime he pitches.

You know what they say...**** Happens.

[AceWrigley]

1 hour ago, Tom Froemming said:

What excuses?

The sun was in my eyes.

[AceWrigley]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Haphazard tangents like this are a Happ hazard anytime he pitches.

I guess the next time he blows up we can just say, "What the Happ?"

[AceWrigley]

1 hour ago, Tom Froemming said:

What excuses?

I had a case of temporary bi-lateral leg weakness.