Game Thread: Twins @ Seattle 9:10 PM CDT 6/15/2021

[stringer bell]

The Twins visit Seattle in the second game of their series with the Mariners. They lost last night 4-3 as the bullpen yielded three runs in four innings. The Twins continue to hit and allow home runs. They are (were) second in MLB in homers and third in allowing home runs. If you want to see home runs, go to a Twins game. 

JA Happ takes the hill versus a pretty weak Seattle lineup. Happ has struggled, as almost all of the Twins pitchers have, with allowing homers. The Twins bullpen leads MLB in losses, not a stat to lead the majors. 

Luis Arraez returns to the Twins starting lineup, hitting leadoff and playing second base. Nick Gordon gets another start in center field and apparently Byron Buxton is not yet ready to go.

OK, diehard fans, enjoy another late night watching two below .500 teams square off.

Pitchers:

PLAYER	W-L	ERA	WHIP	IP	H	K	BB	HR
J.A. Happ	3-2	5.75	1.37	56.1	60	39	17	10
C. Flexen	5-3	4.68	1.39	59.2	71	36	12	7

 

Lineups--Twins

HITTERS	H-AB	RBI	HR	SB	AVG
L. Arraez2B	39-142	14	1	0	.275
J. Donaldson3B	45-186	26	10	0	.242
T. LarnachLF	27-99	9	3	0	.273
N. CruzDH	58-195	31	13	1	.297
J. PolancoSS	56-224	30	9	3	.250
A. KirilloffRF	31-122	19	5	0	.254
M. Sano1B	32-177	32	13	0	.181
N. GordonCF	11-32	2	1	5	.344
B. RortvedtC	6-40	4	1	0	.150

 

Mariners

HITTERS	H-AB	RBI	HR	SB	AVG
J.P. CrawfordSS	64-234	23	3	2	.274
J. FraleyCF	14-51	15	4	4	.275
T. France1B	52-210	22	3	0	.248
K. Seager3B	55-255	40	13	2	.216
D. Moore2B	24-132	22	6	9	.182
T. MurphyC	23-127	14	6	0	.181
J. BauersRF	24-119	9	3	0	.202
L. TorrensDH	16-90	6	2	0	.178
S. Long Jr.LF	3-20	0	0	0	.150

[Danchat]

Just a random thought, but after going over some past Twins' history, Nick Gordon reminds me of Danny Santana. Lower tier prospect who came up to play SS, but then ended up in CF due to need. Hit way better than expected Year 1, but then fell off a cliff in years 2 and 3. 

 

[mrtwinsfan]

Thank You for being consistent with the whole website, Dont post alot but enjoy the Excellent sarcastic Journalism here from the other posters, well gotta say it anyway ,  Go Twins !!!

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

3 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Just a random thought, but after going over some past Twins' history, Nick Gordon reminds me of Danny Santana. Lower tier prospect who came up to play SS, but then ended up in CF due to need. Hit way better than expected Year 1, but then fell off a cliff in years 2 and 3. 

 

I’m afraid if his arm isn’t strong enough for short, it’s not strong enough for center. But I have no problem with him out there tonight and maybe as a bunch guy going forward like DanSan was.

[LVTwinsfan]

The Twins are second in the AL in home runs. WTF? If they were first would they be a good team?  Here’s my take. The FO knows  they need quality pitching (defense would help too) in  order to compete. But they are not willing to spend the money to get good pitching. All the while Bremer continues to blame their losses on the inability of their offense to score late. Yet the bullpen has blown more games than any team in the majors. They say home runs put fans in the seats. That’s all the FO really cares about. It’s the epitomy of what is wrong with the game. Baseball is not just about hitting home runs. Obviously by themself they are kind of useless. The Twins could actually end up being the worst team in baseball while hitting the most home runs. Man what a joke.

[RickOShea]

It Happ-ens every time.

[ashbury]

One pitch from Happ. Good night, folks.

[RickOShea]

The dude in St Paul catches that flyball.

[Vanimal46]

It could be just my sample size, but more often than not, I’m watching games with Dick and Roy. I’m not sure that’s an upgrade over Dick n Bert. 

[LVTwinsfan]

Bremer sounds amazed that Cruz is a better hitter than Sano

[stringer bell]

16 minutes ago, LVTwinsfan said:

The Twins are second in the AL in home runs. WTF? If they were first would they be a good team?  Here’s my take. The FO knows  they need quality pitching (defense would help too) in  order to compete. But they are not willing to spend the money to get good pitching. All the while Bremer continues to blame their losses on the inability of their offense to score late. Yet the bullpen has blown more games than any team in the majors. They say home runs put fans in the seats. That’s all the FO really cares about. It’s the epitomy of what is wrong with the game. Baseball is not just about hitting home runs. Obviously by themself they are kind of useless. The Twins could actually end up being the worst team in baseball while hitting the most home runs. Man what a joke.

We can all vent. The team has been terrible and every they have lacked in every component of the game. Bremer has chosen to blame lack of offense late, I would blame inability to hit with runners in scoring position, the starting rotation is in shambles and there is one reliable bullpen arm. The defense has been a disappointment, particularly at key times. Should I go on? Way down the list of causes for this failure is injuries. That's my take.

[LVTwinsfan]

2 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

It could be just my sample size, but more often than not, I’m watching games with Dick and Roy. I’m not sure that’s an upgrade over Dick n Bert. 

Joe Morgan and Jon Miller were pretty good on Sunday Night Baseball, Bremer   will never be anywhere but Minnesota, which I’m sure he’s fine with that. I can’t think of anyone who could do games with Bremer, they’ve tried just about everyone. I remember Puckett did a few games back in the day, that was a disaster.

[SanoMustGo]

Jay Happ last 29 innings  46 hits 31 runs  9 walks 9HR

[LVTwinsfan]

4 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

We can all vent. The team has been terrible and every they have lacked in every component of the game. Bremer has chosen to blame lack of offense late, I would blame inability to hit with runners in scoring position, the starting rotation is in shambles and there is one reliable bullpen arm. The defense has been a disappointment, particularly at key times. Should I go on? Way down the list of causes for this failure is injuries. That's my take.

It’s all pitching if you ask me. Hard for an offense to get motivated if the pitchers are gonna just cough up every lead we get

[SanoMustGo]

2 minutes ago, LVTwinsfan said:

It’s all pitching if you ask me. Hard for an offense to get motivated if the pitchers are gonna just cough up every lead we get

Happ, Colome, Shoemaker, Dobnak   Those 4 could ruin any pitching staff.  No wonder this team is terrible.

[LVTwinsfan]

Great defense

[Aggies7]

Happ is pitching SO WELL that he doesn’t even need to cover first. Maybe PFPs are optional under the Rocko regime 

[stringer bell]

1 minute ago, LVTwinsfan said:

It’s all pitching if you ask me. Hard for an offense to get motivated if the pitchers are gonna just cough up every lead we get

My point is that you can pull 20 different threads of what is wrong with this team. They haven't produced runs in line with their OPS, they have been pitiful in close and late situations and equally bad in situational hitting. The starters in early April looked relatively solid, but the bullpen betrayed them and then the starts seemed to get worse. 

[SanoMustGo]

Can't wait to update Happ's stats after this inning

[Aggies7]

Happ and shumaker have to go. Dobnak can drive them to the airport and take the same flight 

[SanoMustGo]

Just now, Aggies7 said:

Happ and shumaker have to go. Dobnak can drive them to the airport and take the same flight 

And Colome can pack their lunches

[Aggies7]

Man, this is a bad Mariners lineup and they’re teeing off. Sad.

[twins_89]

1 minute ago, Aggies7 said:

Happ and shumaker have to go. Dobnak can drive them to the airport and take the same flight 

Dobnak doesn't need to take the same flight, he just needs to drive back to St. Paul and stay there.

[Vanimal46]

There should be a documentary about the collapse of the pitching staff. 

[RickOShea]

You just can't write scripts about this.

[wavedog]

Seattle was the worst hitting team in the league at least until this series.  

[Aggies7]

2/3 of the Mariners lineup is hitting .215 or less. 4 guys under .200

 

its 5-0

[RickOShea]

1 minute ago, RickOShea said:

You just can't write scripts about this.

Hey Happ, think maybe covering first base is a big deal?

[Danchat]

Yikes, Happ, now you're just serving up breaking balls right down the middle because your fastball isn't enough. $8M right down the drain! I can hardly believe he almost had a no-hitter this year. He's got zero trade value, even at his finest, the Yankees had him ride the bench last year in the playoffs, so who would trade anything for a bad starter?

[USAFChief]

This inning: walk the .181 hitting catcher who hasn't been on base in weeks, fail to cover first on a bleeder to the right side, give up a 2 strike single and then a bases clearing triple to hitters the Seattle fans hate, cause they can't hit. Let the last run in because your catcher can't catch. 

 

Well done, all the way around. 

 

Side note: coming into this game, the Twins starting staff's June ERA was just over 7.5.

 

This isn't big league baseball.