Marlins 1, Twins 0: Twins Have No Answer for Alcantara

[Steven Trefz]

The Twins rode a four game winning streak into the middle game of this series, but the winning ways came to the end thanks to the Cy Young winning Sanday Alcantrara. Kenta Maeda pitched very well after almost a two year absence, but he left with the trainer.

Image courtesy of Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

Miami - Seeking to reach 5-0 for the first time since the 1960's, the Minnesota Twins sent Kenta Maeda to the mound in his first regular season start since 2021. The Marlins sought to regain some hope for their 2023 season by starting 2022 NL Cy Young award winner Sandy Alcantara. With the roof open, and a few thousand of the Twins' and Marlins' family and friends in attendance, the battle began.

Box Score
SP: Kenta Maeda: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K (79 pitches, 54 strikes (68%)
Home Runs: None 
Top 3 WPA: Emilio Pagan (0.114), Kenta Maeda (0.146), Jovani Moran (0.028)
Bottom 3 WPA: Nick Gordon (-0.166), Donovan Solano (-.096), Willi Castro (-.093)

Win Probability Chart

Pre-Game Celebration
Before the first pitch, the Marlins honored Twins' beloved Luis Arraez with his 2022 Silver Slugger and AL Batting Championship awards. Fans could pose with the awards on the concourse during the game, and since 70% of the crowd was dressed in Twins gear, most made the pilgrimage to remember what was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing 2022 campaign.

Now Leading Off, for your Minnesota Twins...
With Max Kepler suffering a knee injury Monday night, the question of "Who will lead-off?" traveled around the fan base. Nick Gordon got the call from Rocco Baldelli. Byron Buxton started the night on the bench. Donovan Solano made his first start at DH, and Willi Castro got the nod in left field, with Trevor Larnach sliding over to right field.

Gordon came up hacking, and grounded out on the first pitch.

The Return of Maeda

Twins fans have been waiting for Maeda's return, and his first inning back did not disappoint. In fact, both teams remained hitless until the bottom of the 2nd, when Avisail Garcia connected on a bomb.

Dueling Pitchers
After that home run, Alcantara and Maeda continued to mow down opposing batters through the first four innings. Jean Segura notched a single and stole second base for the first stolen base for or against the Twins this season. Trevor Larnach notched the first Twins hit with some hustle on a grounder to third. Maeda won the re-match with Garcia in the bottom of the fourth, Maeda struck out the side in the bottom of the fifth with some pent-up emotion coming out after the final out.

First Stolen Base Attempts for the Twins!
Don't get too excited. Michael Taylor attempted to gain second base with Gordon up on 2-0 count with one out. Gordon fouled it off, on what looked like a straight steal attempt. Taylor tried again with Carlos Correa up on a 0-1 count and would have stolen the base easily, but Correa fouled that pitch off as well. It was exciting to see the effort, and frustrating to watch the missed opportunity in such a tight game. And, ultimately, the team still doesn't officially have a stolen base attempt. 

Oh No...Kenta...!!!
Another Marlins game, another key cog on the Twins squad has to leave early due to injury. Maeda was visibly in some discomfort after giving up a single to Jon Berti. He was shaking his right arm as he watched the ball into the outfield. The team surrounded him on the mound, and he was immediately taken out of the game. It didn't seem too bad, as he remained in the dugout after coming out. He was replaced by Emilio Pagan. Pagan walked Arraez, and then escaped the damage with inducing a double-play grounder from Garrett Cooper.

Last Chances
The Twins got a runner on second in the 7th inning, but Larnach, who walked, was left there after a Joey Gallo strikeout and a Donovan Solano fly out. Alcantara pitched into the 9th, and induced the game-ending double play from Larnach after a Carlos Correa single. Game over. Complete game, 2-hit shutout for Alcantara. In 1 hour and 57 minutes! 

Final Thoughts
Obviously, Twins fans will be waiting for word on Maeda's right arm and will be hoping for not only his quick return to the mound, but also for short memories as they take the field again against another tough hurler. This game had no excitement, and no crowd. Sad to see such great talent going unappreciated here in Miami.

What’s Next? 
The Twins will send to the mound former Marlin Pablo Lopez in Game 3 of the series (1-0, 0.00 ERA) on Wednesday afternoon. The team will face their first left-handed starter, Jesus Luzardo (1-0, 0.00 ERA). The game is scheduled for 12:10 pm CDT.  

Postgame Interviews

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Pagan	0	0	16	0	26	42
Alcala	0	12	0	25	0	37
Moran	0	0	20	0	15	35
Sands	0	0	0	28	0	28
López	0	8	11	0	0	19
Thielbar	0	18	0	0	0	18
Jax	0	11	0	0	0	11
Duran	0	0	0	0	0	0

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[VivaBomboRivera!]

Maeda pitched very well. Alcantra pitched even better. See ya again tomorrow for the rubber game.

 

We should be watching each of Maeda's appearances as if it might be his last, and feel grateful for each fine outing he gives us.

[Unwinder]

I want Kenta to be OK, but it sure does feel good to have Ober as the first line of depth.

[wsnydes]

Nice and surprising outing by Maeda.  Bars ran into a buzzsaw in Alcantara.

Rubber match tomorrow!

[rv78]

First real true test for the lineup against a quality top-notch pitcher. They failed. Thumbs up to a great outing by Maeda. Pablo verses his old team tomorrow, We'll see if he can return the favor. 

[Dman]

I thought for sure Pagan was going to give up runs and I couldn't and didn't watch him pitch.  Box score says he did alright.  Will have to go back and see how he looked.  Happy to see him off to a decent start.  If the starters stay healthy and this bullpen keeps performing well this team should win a lot of games.  Maeda with the best K rate among the starters so far.  Hope his arm is OK.

[PDX Twin]

10 minutes ago, rv78 said:

First real true test for the lineup against a quality top-notch pitcher. They failed. Thumbs up to a great outing by Maeda. Pablo verses his old team tomorrow, We'll see if he can return the favor. 

They looked pretty lame in the first two KC games as well. It's early, but so far it's been feast or famine for the offense and, of course, since we have no piranhas to create runs, nothing happens when the sluggers are quiet.

[Linus]

Didn’t like the loss but loved watching Alcantra pitch. He just attacks. No big strikeout numbers because he is retiring guys on three pitches. This is how you go deep in games. 

[Seth Stohs]

Kenta Maeda is good... He had all the time he needed to recover without rushing. The thing is, assuming he stays healthy, he's just going to get stronger. I'm the biggest back of Bailey Ober, but Kenta deserves the chance to take his job back since it was injury that took it. 

 

[h2oface]

One swing. One swing beats us. One swing away from winning or tying the game. I love seeing a pitcher throw a complete game. That was awesome. 100 pitches and his arm didn't fall off. I love it.

[Rosterman]

A complete game in first start of season? What's going on there!?!

Lopez returns to Miami. Will be an interesting watch.

Trusting Pagan in a one-run game.

Hope Duran is okay. Give him another appearance before returning to cold Minnesota, Rocco.

Any news on Kepler? Wallner wants to play!

[FlyingFinn]

3 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

A complete game in first start of season?

Minor correction, it's his 2nd start.

4 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

Any news on Kepler?

Kepler will be fine according to radio announcers after the game. He hit in the cage today. Probably won't play because it's a LH starter on Wednesday according to Rocco before the game.

[Seth Stohs]

22 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

A complete game in first start of season? What's going on there!?!

Lopez returns to Miami. Will be an interesting watch.

Trusting Pagan in a one-run game.

Hope Duran is okay. Give him another appearance before returning to cold Minnesota, Rocco.

Any news on Kepler? Wallner wants to play!

Is it written somewhere in the article that this was Alcantara's first start of the season? It was his second. If it's in the article, please point out where so I can see it. 

Notice that when they are behind it's Pagan and Moran. When they are ahead, it's Lopez, Thielbar and Jax. 

Duran'll be fine if it's truly just the kink in his neck. 

They are going to re-evaluate Kepler tomorrow morning to see if he'll play. That said, it's a 1:00 game there, and they're facing a lefty. Give him a second day off and have him fully ready on Friday. 

[jimbo92107]

First five games were all good news for the starting rotation. Looks like there isn't a serious weakness among them, now including Kenta Maeda. What a wonderful problem to have, a staff so good that Bailey Ober, who gave up zero runs in spring, is stuck across the river, honing his pitches. 

I can't even seriously complain about the Twins getting shut out. Cy Young winners are pretty good at that. Let's hope their next starter isn't another candidate for top pitcher. In fact, I think they traded that guy to the Twins. 

Skol, Lopez!

[Lasorda_This_Out]

Hope the Twins lose 59 more games during the Season...☺️

[Aerodeliria]

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

One swing. One swing beats us. One swing away from winning or tying the game. I love seeing a pitcher throw a complete game. That was awesome. 100 pitches and his arm didn't fall off. I love it.

I was watching the Chunichi Dragons vs. the Yomiuri Giants in the opening game here on TV. Ogasawara threw 145 pitches and was disappointed to see the manager strolling to the mound in the 8th inning.

One strange thing about televised games here in Japan is that the game has a scheduled time-slot (except for the playoffs and apparently the WBC), so the Dragons put the tying run on in the 9th with nobody out and we suddenly switched to the regularly scheduled drama. That's just the way it is here in Japan!

[Dave Borton]

10,000 fans.

I lived in South Florida. It is baseball country. Huge Latin following yet this franchise can't figure out how to draw.

What a way to mess up a viable market.

[darwin22]

Game script was fairly easy to predict especially with Buxton & Kepler out of the lineup.  Alcantara is an absolute stud, who proved it tonight.  Just thankful we don't have to face him again this season.  Not the Cardinals have struggled over the past few seasons, but looking back on it now I bet they wished they had held onto him----as well as Zac Gallen--- when they traded for Marcel Ozuna in December 2017.

Very encouraged by Maeda's start tonight and hopeful his arm issue is nothing serious.  I know Ober is waiting in the wings at SP, but his first start wasn't too successful.

With all our main BP arms rested with an off day TH, I would think Rocco will be aggressive in pulling Lopez at the first hint of trouble.  Saying that, I expect Lopez to be ready to roll giving us a strong 5-6 IP.

The key is getting Luzardo's pitch count up early to get into Marlins bullpen.  I'm assuming Rocco will rest Kepler, which will likely keep Gordon in the lineup in LF.  I would fully expect Donovan Solano to start at 2B as he's 4-7 (.571 avg) against Luzardo.  Buxton will be back tomorrow.  Would be great to see the bats heat up early allowing Lopez to take control.  

 

[h2oface]

1 hour ago, jimbo92107 said:

First five games were all good news for the starting rotation. Looks like there isn't a serious weakness among them, now including Kenta Maeda. What a wonderful problem to have, a staff so good that Bailey Ober, who gave up zero runs in spring, is stuck across the river, honing his pitches. 

I can't even seriously complain about the Twins getting shut out. Cy Young winners are pretty good at that. Let's hope their next starter isn't another candidate for top pitcher. In fact, I think they traded that guy to the Twins. 

Skol, Lopez!

It is nice to be high on Ober, but you are not considering he got lit up a bit on 3 earned in 4 innings - 4 hits, a hit batter, and a walk, 69 pitches and only 39 strikes in his final ST tune-up. In his first (and next) honing start in St Paul he lasted only 3 innings and gave up 3 runs, 2 earned on 5 hits and a walk with 70 pitches. Glad that didn't happen for the Twins in games that counted.

Not saying he won't be ready, but he might be in just the right place for now.

[h2oface]

1 hour ago, Seth Stohs said:

Is it written somewhere in the article that this was Alcantara's first start of the season? It was his second. If it's in the article, please point out where so I can see it. 

Notice that when they are behind it's Pagan and Moran. When they are ahead, it's Lopez, Thielbar and Jax. 

Duran'll be fine if it's truly just the kink in his neck. 

They are going to re-evaluate Kepler tomorrow morning to see if he'll play. That said, it's a 1:00 game there, and they're facing a lefty. Give him a second day off and have him fully ready on Friday. 

Probably most of the time. Maybe. Not on Sunday (Moran, Lopez, and Pagan), but it was a pretty comfortable lead. I hope that it isn't always the strategy when only behind by 1 in the late innings. Some of those games are ones you will want to give it your best shot if it is that close.

[Doctor Gast]

As everyone knew, Alcantra was going to be tough. Even though the loss, I was very encouraged by Maeda's performance. 9 SO, 0 BB & only 3 hits. Unfortunately, one of those hits was a big one.

My observation about Pagan is that he has a lively arm. In low leverage situations he's effective; but in high leverage, he's too pumped and he can't control his stuff. Keep him in low leverage, extend him to 2 or even 3 innings if the condition calls for it.

[big dog]

It was really fun to watch both of them pitch. Here's hoping Kenta can keep it going, that was great to see.

And Rocco took Pagan out of the game while I still had three fingernails left, so that was good too.

[Melissa]

8 hours ago, davidborton said:

10,000 fans.

I lived in South Florida. It is baseball country. Huge Latin following yet this franchise can't figure out how to draw.

What a way to mess up a viable market.

From what the BSN TV announcers said, lots of those in attendance were Twins fans.

[jmlease1]

FYI, the article lists under "Box Score" that there were no HRs in the game. Sadly, this was not the case! The link goes to the Royals game as well.

Alcantara is a pretty great pitcher. Twins battled, but couldn't get anything really hard hit against the reigning Cy Young winner. They did manage to get balls into the OF against a guy who usually gives up weak ground balls, but didn't get anything to really carry. 

Maeda looked good, so let's hope this was a just a tweak from going max effort for the first time for real. 9 K's in 5 innings? I was impressed.

I did think when Pagan came in that the rout was on, but he survived. I'm still not sold at all on him, but if they're not going to use him there's no point to having him on the roster (which would have been my preference...).

Time to get the rubber game and win the series! Looking forward to Lopez pitching again.

 

[miracleb]

Kenta Maeda is good... He had all the time he needed to recover without rushing. The thing is, assuming he stays healthy, he's just going to get stronger. I'm the biggest back of Bailey Ober, but Kenta deserves the chance to take his job back since it was injury that took it. 

*********************************

Getting a job back because of injury is an NFL wive's tale.  Maeda was awesome yesterday but that is the best he has been.  Due to age......he isn't going to get "stronger."  If you are making decisions based on what you "deserve".....You don't manage long in this league!

[wabene]

28 minutes ago, miracleb said:

Kenta Maeda is good... He had all the time he needed to recover without rushing. The thing is, assuming he stays healthy, he's just going to get stronger. I'm the biggest back of Bailey Ober, but Kenta deserves the chance to take his job back since it was injury that took it. 

*********************************

Getting a job back because of injury is an NFL wive's tale.  Maeda was awesome yesterday but that is the best he has been.  Due to age......he isn't going to get "stronger."  If you are making decisions based on what you "deserve".....You don't manage long in this league!

Maeda very well could get stronger this season. There have been questions about that ligament since before he singed with the MLB in the first place. It finally gave way, but now that it is fixed it very likely could extend his career some. He is exactly the type of pitcher who ages well. 

[miracleb]

Depending on what happened to his arm yesterday....he could be done for the year(?)  Hopefully he only misses a few starts.....

[Steven Trefz]

53 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

FYI, the article lists under "Box Score" that there were no HRs in the game. Sadly, this was not the case! The link goes to the Royals game as well.

Alcantara is a pretty great pitcher. Twins battled, but couldn't get anything really hard hit against the reigning Cy Young winner. They did manage to get balls into the OF against a guy who usually gives up weak ground balls, but didn't get anything to really carry. 

Maeda looked good, so let's hope this was a just a tweak from going max effort for the first time for real. 9 K's in 5 innings? I was impressed.

I did think when Pagan came in that the rout was on, but he survived. I'm still not sold at all on him, but if they're not going to use him there's no point to having him on the roster (which would have been my preference...).

Time to get the rubber game and win the series! Looking forward to Lopez pitching again.

 

I was only putting Twins stats in that section…plus I was too sad still to put down Garcia for that HR!

[Steven Trefz]

55 minutes ago, Melissa said:

From what the BSN TV announcers said, lots of those in attendance were Twins fans.

There is no way there was 10,000 fans there last night.  It was half the crowd of Monday, and definitely still over 50% Twins fans.  Tickets behind dugout for 15 bucks resale.  We sat by Twins bullpen for 3. Felt like the days of sitting above the baggy in right 😀

[rv78]

Can anyone explain the reason for NOT playing Buxton. Is DH that demanding that playing in 3 games straight warrants rest already? Rocco needs a kick in the head. You play your best players against the other teams best pitcher or else it looks like you are throwing the game away. Which may have been exactly what he did. At the DH spot you get what?.... 20 minutes of actual game time? How can anyone need rest after 3 days in which you did your job for a total of 1 hour? Quit babying him and play the man.