Rangers 7, Twins 0: Another Flat Sunday for The Twins' Offense

[Thiéres Rabelo]

The Twins’ offense couldn’t get anything going against Rangers starter Kohei Arihara, their bullpen got ambushed for five runs, and a solid start by Joe Ryan went to waste.

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan, 6 1/3 IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 6K (88 pitches, 56 strikes, 63.3%)
Home Runs: none
Bottom 3 WPA: Trevor Megill (-.174), Nick Gordon (-.111), Carlos Correa (-.065)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Gladden and Tovar are inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame
Before first pitch, Twins legends Dan Gladden and César Tovar were honored by the organization with their induction into the club’s Hall of Fame. You can watch Gladden’s emotional speech by clicking here, courtesy of Bally Sports North. The late Tovar, who past away in 1994, was represented by his son César Tovar Jr. during the ceremony. What are your favorite memories of Gladden and Tovar in a Twins uniform?

Starters overpower opposing offenses
Both starting pitchers dominated their opposing lineups with somewhat ease. Joe Ryan no-hit the Rangers through three on only 29 pitches, with a fantastic 75.9% of strikes and five strikeouts in his first time through the order. During that same span, Rangers starter Kohei Arihara was almost just as brilliant, as he kept the Twins scoreless despite giving up a couple of singles.

Ryan’s first mistake came in the fourth inning. He fell behind 3-1 on the count trying to get leadoff man Marcus Semien to chase down and away. On the next pitch, he went up and in, and Semien made him pay: a 418-feet bomb to left put the Rangers on the scoreboard first. Ryan didn’t let that affect him, as he retired the next three batters on nine pitches, including a punchout.

Unfortunately for the Twins, their bats were a no-show for most of the game. After the Max Kepler leadoff single in the second, Minnesota’s lineup went 0-for-14 against Arihara, with the only runner produced by the Twins coming off a hit-by-pitch on Jorge Polanco. Fortunately, what was lacking on offense was compensated on defense, as a couple of nice defensive moves by Polanco and Kepler helped get Ryan out of a two-men on and no outs jam in the top of the sixth.

Ryan himself made a fine catch on a comebacker to end the sixth inning, and he was allowed to get to the seventh. Then, for a fourth consecutive inning, he allowed the leadoff man to reach with an Adolis García single – only his second hit allowed on the day. He retired the next batter, and Rocco Baldelli decided to remove him from the game.

Texas breaks the game open with good baserunning, home run
After the single to lead off the seventh against Ryan, García stole second and was suddenly on third after a groundout. When Trevor Megill took over, he hit Leody Taveras, who also stole second. Megill managed to strike out Kole Calhoun for the inning’s second out, but he couldn’t finish things off. He gave up three consecutive singles, and Texas scored three more runs to make it 4-0. It would’ve been four if the Twins hadn’t challenged and overturned a tag play at home to end the inning.

In the same inning, the Twins nearly put together a rally for themselves. Arihara came back with a healthy 65 pitch count, but he lost the first two batters of the seventh in Polanco and José Miranda, who hit back-to-back singles. This prompted manager Chris Woodward to pull him from the game. With Tim Beckham pinch-hitting for Nick Gordon, a fifth pitch of the at-bat was initially called a ball that was going to load the bases with one out. Instead, first base umpire Malachi Moore said he went around for a swinging strike. Beckham ended up striking out, and Gio Urshela flied out, ending the Twins' threat.

With Emilio Pagán pitching in the eighth, Nathaniel Lowe obliterated a splitter deep into the right field for a 424-feet solo shot, making it 5-0 Rangers. This was basically the final nail in the coffin for the Twins in the afternoon, but the Rangers didn’t stop there. By opening the ninth inning with three consecutive singles, Texas pushed another run across on a Brad Miller RBI. With men on the corners, Semien flied out to right, deep enough to score Bubba Thompson from third.

With the postponement of Sunday's Guardians game against the White Sox, the Twins (62-57) are still just a game and a half behind Cleveland (64-56) and one game ahead of Chicago (62-59).

Postgame interviews

What’s Next?
The series continues on Monday, with both teams squaring off at Target Field starting at 6:10 pm CDT. The Twins will get Sonny Gray (3.11 ERA) to the mound for this final game, while Texas will turn to Cole Ragans (5.02 ERA) for the start. After wrapping up the Rangers series, Minnesota heads to Texas for a three-game set against the Houston Astros starting on Tuesday before coming back to the Twin Cities for a six-game homestand.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	WED	THUR	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Pagán	35	0	0	0	39	74
Megill	13	0	24	0	15	52
López	0	0	20	9	0	29
Duran	18	0	10	0	0	28
Thielbar	0	0	17	11	0	28
Fulmer	23	0	0	0	0	23
Jax	12	0	0	11	0	23
Sands	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

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[Aggies7]

Again, I never call for another man’s job (bad karma) but I’d have to believe we’ll have a revamped coaching staff next year. Rocco is almost certainly safe for another year although I have zero confidence in his ability to win anything more than the worst division in baseball. 

[Rosterman]

You can only manufacture runs if there are guys on base.

Pitchers do give up home runs.

The Twins bullpenm still has numerous weaknesses.

[Cap'n Piranha]

Perhaps Rocco made Pagan finish the game today as a message to Falvine?  That message being, “please DFA this guy, and give me anyone else”

[bighat]

It's not Rocco's fault that Buxton, Correa, Kepler and Polanco can't hit. 

Losing a series at home against a poor Texas team in late August with the division on the line? It's over folks. And it has been for a while. 

The coffin is ready and the nails are in hand. When the Twins head to NYY for a 4-game set to start September, and something tells me the Yankees will be bringing the hammer. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

13 minutes ago, bighat said:

It's not Rocco's fault that Buxton, Correa, Kepler and Polanco can't hit. 

Losing a series at home against a poor Texas team in late August with the division on the line? It's over folks. And it has been for a while. 

The coffin is ready and the nails are in hand. When the Twins head to NYY for a 4-game set to start September, and something tells me the Yankees will be bringing the hammer. 

Twins and Rangers play again tomorrow. Twins can still split the series.

this one was discouraging. Pagan…

[LastOnePicked]

13 minutes ago, bighat said:

It's not Rocco's fault that Buxton, Correa, Kepler and Polanco can't hit. 

When you have very talented players and they persistently underperform, it may actually be the fault of coaching. We've been making this tired excuse for Rocco for too long. 

[LastOnePicked]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

I have zero confidence in his ability to win anything more than the worst division in baseball

I don't even have that confidence. I've never seen a season with a division so ripe for the taking, and this team still seemingly can't rise to this low challenge in 2022.

Look, a lot of bad things have happened to this team this year, but the good-to-great teams rise and overcome and the average-to-bad teams make excuses and sink.

[RJA]

This was a painful game to watch.  This team either scores 8-10 runs or 0-3 runs.  They can't seem to get all aspects of the game going at the same time. When they hit, they don't pitch, when they pitch, they don't hit, or make fielding mistakes.  The series with the Astros, Red Sox, Giants and Yankees will make or break this team.  I know they have a lot of games with Cleveland and Chicago, but if they get too far behind after the coming run of games, it is going to be very difficult to come out ahead.  Two additional thoughts. First, please release Pagan.  Second, I am a big Correa fan but I thought he would "be the straw that stirred the drink" on offense, especially in big situations, but that certainly has not been the case this year.

[cHawk]

Someone ask Rocco why this team can’t hit the ball when they have Byron Buxton & Carlos Correa hitting in their lineup. I thought this would be one of the best duos in baseball. Clearly that hasn’t been the case as of late. Neither have been able to hit the damn ball.

Edgar Varela needs to get the boot next year. This offense has been the biggest disappointment ever since he took over. Bring back James Rowson any way you can.

[D.C Twins]

I don't know how good or bad Sisk would be in the MLB but he really cannot be worse than Pagan at this point and we would get valuable information for next year.

The only purpose Pagan staying on the team right now is to protect the ego of the front office that traded for him and an injured arm.

... And to be clear, the injured arm has a higher WAR than Pagan at '0.'   ?

[BH67]

Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot is an existentialist tale of two indolent characters waiting for days for a certain Godot to show up and talking about meaningless drivel as they wait.. Godot never shows up, but even if it happened they're not sure why they want to meet Godot or what they'd talk about.

Normally you'd buy a ticket to see this at the Guthrie.  But it's now playing nightly at Target Field.

[dogsday]

36 minutes ago, BH67 said:

Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot is an existentialist tale of two indolent characters waiting for days for a certain Godot to show up and talking about meaningless drivel as they wait.. Godot never shows up, but even if it happened they're not sure why they want to meet Godot or what they'd talk about.

Normally you'd buy a ticket to see this at the Guthrie.  But it's now playing nightly at Target Field.

Ouch. But can Didi or Gogo hit? And is either on the 40 man?

[Blyleven2011]

I'm not totally sure about this but it appears that the players may not like the style of baseball that Rocco plays and their enthusiasm is waning ( no spark in line up sucks , how many times have we been shutout ) ...

I know I would not like playing for Rocco  ...

[howeda7]

Using Megill in a one run game when Fulmer hasn't pitched since Wednesday and both Jax and Duran were also available defies logic. 

And if Pagan is still on the team tomorrow, Falvey should resign in shame. I don't know what can be done about the offense, but call up someone other than Cave/Cellistino for the OF. Please. 

[Whitey333]

What a horrific but not surprising performance from these twins.  Now they have to win Monday just to get a split with the lowly rangers.  Twins scored 5 runs in 3 games.  Pathetic.  The most discouraging part is there is no life in this team.  They play listless uninspiring baseball for a supposedly contending team.  The veterans on this team have failed.  The young players are carrying this team.  Btw batting practice pagan should be DFA immediately

[Little Piranhas]

6 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I'm not totally sure about this but it appears that the players may not like the style of baseball that Rocco plays and their enthusiasm is waning ( no spark in line up sucks , how many times have we been shutout ) ...

I know I would not like playing for Rocco  ...

Depends. 

Do you like being treated with kid gloves with plenty of off days?  If you are a starting pitcher are you concerned with throwing more than 60 pitches?  If your answer is "yes" to those questions Rocco is your guy.  

Do you have an incentive laden contract?  Do you believe it's a testament to character to play banged up and gut out a win?  If your answer is "yes" to those questions Rocco is not your guy.

[TwinsDr2021]

I would like to point out Joe Ryan did the impossible. He walked the first two guys in the 6th inning (YES THE 6 inning) and got out of the inning without giving up a run. Based on what people have been writing on here, I didn't think it was possible that a starting pitcher could get out of a jam after the 5th innings.

[Blyleven2011]

WHERE'S THE BENCH ???

Did anyone notice we had 3 pinch hitters and all 3 struck out  ,,, pathetic that 1 pinch hitter couldn't put the ball in play  ....

[VivaBomboRivera!]

"Is the modern-day athlete a pale imitation of the great old warriors? Only Arraez and Miranda stand out this year, begging the question: What are these boys thinking about? Because it sure ain’t baseball.”

 

[Florida Flash]

Just now, VivaBomboRivera! said:

"Is the modern-day athlete a pale imitation of the great old warriors? Only Arraez and Miranda stand out this year, begging the question: What are these boys thinking about? Because it sure ain’t baseball.”

 

Agree. It's Arraez and Miranda mostly. But I think Urshela has been decent offensively and defensively. It seems that Rocco doesnt agree with that. As I have posted before, too much swinging for the fence. Kepler refuses to learn to slap the ball to left or bunt left to stop the overshift that he consistently hits into going for the homerun. But home runs gets the big money contracts, soooo.<

[Karbo]

If the Twins lose this division (as it looks like they will) IMO a coaching shake-up is needed. I agree that they don't seem to have any sign of a spark right now. This staff just doesn't seem to be able to motivate them. I said when they traded Cruz that now Rocco would need to take a big step forward. He hasn't yet. Though I can't pin all the blame on him, you can fire a manager and coaches, but you can't fire the whole team. I think they need a coaching staff with a little more flexibility. They certainly need a manager that can do more than Rocco has to date. I hope they surprise and get hot, but to lose the lead they had is certainly a troubling sign for the whole management staff, from the FO on down!

[VivaBomboRivera!]

59 minutes ago, Florida Flash said:

But I think Urshela has been decent offensively and defensively.

Urshela over Donaldson, no question.

[teachercoach]

A win tonight is a 5-2 homestand.

Any team would take that at any time.

Looking for a positive

[Minny505]

Is Sands hurt? He hasn't pitched in a week and this seemed like a great spot to get him an inning or two.

[Cap'n Piranha]

21 hours ago, cHawk said:

Someone ask Rocco why this team can’t hit the ball when they have Byron Buxton & Carlos Correa hitting in their lineup. I thought this would be one of the best duos in baseball. Clearly that hasn’t been the case as of late. Neither have been able to hit the damn ball.

Edgar Varela needs to get the boot next year. This offense has been the biggest disappointment ever since he took over. Bring back James Rowson any way you can.

Edgar Varela was reassigned to be an MiLB instructor this year; I find it unlikely he is the reason for the MLB club's struggles.  Rowson has for the past 3 years been with a Miami organization that finished with a wRC+ of 94 (19th) in 2020, 83 (28th) in 2021, and 89 (25th) so far in 2022.  While that is an improvement for Miami (79 and 29th in 2019), it's not so massive that Rowson returning fixes everything.

[Cap'n Piranha]

1 hour ago, Minny505 said:

Is Sands hurt? He hasn't pitched in a week and this seemed like a great spot to get him an inning or two.

Minor point, to be sure, but Sands last pitched on Tuesday the 16th, so 4 days, not a week.

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, Cap&#x27;n Piranha said:

Minor point, to be sure, but Sands last pitched on Tuesday the 16th, so 4 days, not a week.

I'm assuming he'll get the start Tuesday in Houston.