Twins 3, White Sox 1: Gray, Bullpen Finish off the White Sox for a Series Win

[Jocko87]

This would explain the early exit seems to me.  Sheesh.

 

[Shaitan]

45 minutes ago, davidborton said:

Twins hired Paparesta Oct 27, giving his predecessor his walking papers. Seems like sufficient time to get each player a training plan for over-wintering and coming in to ST in shape.

Doesn't seem to have been very effective. Do these guys work out over winter? Are Twins/other MLB clubs just being cautious with their investment?

I don't ever recall such a vast amount of injuries in all my years of watching MLB.

Good point. If Farmer had just trained harder, that ball would have bounced off his face for a double.

[Dave Borton]

20 minutes ago, Shaitan said:

Good point. If Farmer had just trained harder, that ball would have bounced off his face for a double.

In week 2 of '23 schedule:
Correa
Gallo
Kepler
Polanco
Winder
Buxton (seemingly confined to DH role)

[jkcarew]

The legitimate (and now obvious) reasons for pulling Gray aside...it's amazing how when the relief pitcher gets batters out, we (and I include myself here) don't seem that bothered. In a hypothetical situation...let's call it 2022...where a healthy Gray was pulled in that situation, the reliever immediately coughs up the lead, and we have TD fodder...over and over.

[Mike Sixel]

Hard to believe they won given this thread. 

[Nine of twelve]

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

 

(Mod please delete.)

[Mike Sixel]

Also, unreal at least one person made a joke about Farmer in the game thread. Utterly tasteless. 

[h2oface]

3 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

I don't know if I'd call this a nitpick because it's a pretty big distinction. The Yankees play in the Bronx. It's the Mets who play in Queens.

Brain fart. Thanks, I will fix it. I always found it interesting that it isn't the Manhattan, or the Queens, or the Long Island, or the Staten Island, or the Brooklyn, but it is the Bronx, with "The" in caps, according to some, but not others.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/bronx-residents-feeling-capital-article-1.1799794

[h2oface]

I can't believe Garlick is once more on the way. He has been hitting well in St Paul, but went 0-6 on Tuesday. The smell of garlic(k) has always been hard to get rid of.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/04/twins-likely-to-select-kyle-garlick.html

[jkcarew]

5 hours ago, cheeseheadgophfan said:

If you watched the game, the ball hit him flush in the face (that sickening sound).  I'm amazed it didn't break his jaw.  Speedy recovery to Kyle!!!!

I'm glad it got him where it got him (not GLAD, but 'glad'). Don't want the brain/skull/temple, and don't want the eye socket. Nothing would have been much better...but glad to hear the current prognosis.

[Dman]

5 minutes ago, h2oface said:

I can't believe Garlick is once more on the way. He has been hitting well in St Paul, but went 0-6 on Tuesday. The smell of garlic(k) has always been hard to get rid of.

Yeah he went from the best bat on the team to going 0 for 10 I believe.  Hoping he gets his groove back.  He has been there done that before against lefties so there's a decent chance he gets out of his current funk.  I just can't believe we are already to the break glass in case of emergency players.

[jkcarew]

27 minutes ago, h2oface said:

Brain fart. Thanks, I will fix it. I always found it interesting that it isn't the Manhattan, or the Queens, or the Long Island, or the Staten Island, or the Brooklyn, but it is the Bronx, with "The" in caps, according to some, but not others.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/bronx-residents-feeling-capital-article-1.1799794

And shouldn't it be "The The Bronx Zoo"?

[Aerodeliria]

1 hour ago, Danchat said:

Teams should be bunting at least once per inning against the White Sox, they're so terrible at fielding that they'll screw up about half of them. It's pretty crazy how consistently bad they've been on defense the past couple years.

Agreed. Teams that play bad defense tend to lose tight games. The Twins have been pretty good so far on D overall. I think this is often overlooked as a factor for wins. Miranda has been serviceable at 3rd and we've been fine at SS. Second was a little shakey with Julien, but it could be jitters. All other positions have been fine or even great. To my knowledge, they haven't thrown any games away as of yet.

[Aerodeliria]

It's great to get 2 of 3 from the Chisox with very little clutch hitting and a ton of Ks (38 in 3 games!!). The pitching and fielding have been amazing. We're gonna have to hit better against the Death Star. Are we getting anyone back on the field for the series?

(Highlight: Julien gets walk number one in MLB career.)

[stringer bell]

Best wishes to Kyle Farmer. If he can come back in ten days to two weeks, it would be nearly miraculous. Position players 7-16 need to buck up and show they belong in the majors. I don't know if Correa will be ready tomorrow, same with Buxton. If both are unavailable, we have Miranda, Vazquez, Taylor, Gordon and Larnach from the original starters and two of them may have been displaced if Polanco and Kirilloff were ready to open the season. 

Those of us hoping to see Polanco and Kirilloff soon may be disappointed. Neither played for Fort Myers tonight, indicating they both will be playing every other day for a while. To expect anything better than the last week of April is asking a great deal.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Damn, this article photo highlights just how good the new home whites are.

[Squirrel]

11 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Best wishes to Kyle Farmer. If he can come back in ten days to two weeks, it would be nearly miraculous. Position players 7-16 need to buck up and show they belong in the majors. I don't know if Correa will be ready tomorrow, same with Buxton. If both are unavailable, we have Miranda, Vazquez, Taylor, Gordon and Larnach from the original starters and two of them may have been displaced if Polanco and Kirilloff were ready to open the season. 

Those of us hoping to see Polanco and Kirilloff soon may be disappointed. Neither played for Fort Myers tonight, indicating they both will be playing every other day for a while. To expect anything better than the last week of April is asking a great deal.

I though Kirilloff was rehabbing with Cedar Rapids?

[stringer bell]

4 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

I though Kirilloff was rehabbing with Cedar Rapids?

Yesterday, both were playing for the Mighty Mussels.

[mnfireman]

1 hour ago, davidborton said:

Twins hired Paparesta Oct 27, giving his predecessor his walking papers. Seems like sufficient time to get each player a training plan for over-wintering and coming in to ST in shape.

Doesn't seem to have been very effective. Do these guys work out over winter? Are Twins/other MLB clubs just being cautious with their investment?

I don't ever recall such a vast amount of injuries in all my years of watching MLB.

So a guy gets hit in the face, another has a freak accident on the base paths (don't know if he's missing any time), another has what appears to be a side injury (from an unnatural motion (swinging a bat)), and another has back tightness/spasms (can happen to anybody, anytime and at any age) and the team is out of shape? These are not the same soft tissue issues from improper/insuffecient training programs or mis-diagnosis of "minor" injuries that later led to long IL stints of the past couple of years.

[jkcarew]

52 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

So a guy gets hit in the face, another has a freak accident on the base paths (don't know if he's missing any time), another has what appears to be a side injury (from an unnatural motion (swinging a bat)), and another has back tightness/spasms (can happen to anybody, anytime and at any age) and the team is out of shape? These are not the same soft tissue issues from improper/insuffecient training programs or mis-diagnosis of "minor" injuries that later led to long IL stints of the past couple of years.

I’m with you except for the Buxton base running thing. No accident…it was Buxton being Buxton. Still, not in control of the new training staff.

[Karbo]

The pen looks to be a bit bare Thurs. 3 pitched on consecutive days so probably not available.

[Major League Ready]

12 hours ago, bighat said:

Glad they got the win. Happy the Twins are pitching well. 

At this point they've got to be the most boring team in baseball to watch, and with this offense they aren't going anywhere. Just wait until they go into New York against Cole, I'm guessing it's even money on whether or not they'll get no-hit. This lineup wasn't hitting WITH its big names, and now the big names are already hurt one week into the season (which I must say is very on-brand, the Buxton collision today was just chef's kiss straight-out-of-central-casting). 

Is there any hope for an offensive spark? Are we waiting for Royce Lewis to come and save this team? Polanco? Kepler? Gallo? 'Cause that's all we got last time I checked. Honestly I'd rather watch the Twins score 6 runs per game and go 60-102 as opposed to watch whatever this is and see them go 70-92. 

I know as fans we're supposed to be hopeful and cheerful....but sometimes I feel like I'm not watching the same games as some of you. Is nobody else seeing how limp this offense looks, regardless of who's in the lineup? Is the 8-4 record enough to keep everyone else from being dreadfully concerned? 

Because I am pretty sure we're watching what might be the worst offense in baseball when the season's all said and done. 

Correa, and Miranda have sub 50 wRC+ and Gordon's wRC+is actually negative.  Do you really think that will continue?  Polanco and Gallo should be back in a week.  There is a decent chance KIrilloff and Lewis will contribute by the half-way point too.  Julien could enter into the equation as well.  Let's not panic!   Instead of forecasting 70 wins for a team that is off to a 8-4 start, let's also consider the possibilities with Correa, Miranda, and Polanco performing as expected.

[jmlease1]

11 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Hard to believe they won given this thread. 

Seriously. You'd think the Twins were 4-8, not 8-4. Every game thread there's people jumping in after a WIN declaring that the other shoe is about to drop and they can't possibly win the next series.

Sweep KC on the road? "Who cares, it's KC, doesn't count." Win a series against Houston? "They weren't healthy, doesn't count." Win the series against division rival ChiSox? "It's unsustainable, we're going to get destroyed in NY." 

This team is probably going to play more close games with lower scoring this season: the pitching is (much) better, but the offense isn't there (yet). 

Gray did a solid job on a day where he was sick and fighting it. Still gutted his way through 5 and got it done. We're 12 games in and the starters have gone 5+ in every single game. When was the last time that happened? And for all the complaints about injuries...no injuries to date on the pitching staff. Still the exact same 13 guys, and they're all healthy. 

[jmlease1]

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

This seems to be the nature of the dreaded injury bug. The position players are getting hurt, while the pitching staff is intact. 
 

A return to health and some players hitting their stride could help a bunch. 

But last season we'd already lost Gray after his second start and Alcala after his second appearance. (and Archer was Archer) The good health of the pitchers to date is a real boon.

[Peter]

Seeing farmer get hit in face was 😲😬hope he recovers 100%. Great series win!!! Ups lead to 1.5 games over Cleveland. Huge road trip to Yankees/Red Sox! I’ll take 4-3 against both teams. Go twins!

[Pat]

It’s hard to believe that a major league team could be as bad on defense as the White Sox are. There are high school teams that play better than that.

[Dan O.]

Does any else think it suspicious that earlier in the series Tim Anderson got injured in a play where Wallner slid into him and then a few days later Giolito hits our SS with a pitch.  By his reaction Giolito didn’t seem to intend to hit him in the head, but was he throwing at Farmer and the pitch was more elevated or more inside than intended?  Did the Twins think there was intent and that is why Lopez brushed back their SS Andrus later in the game?  Or is this all mere coincidence?  I’ll be interested if this continues when the teams meet again.

[Heiny]

Looking at our projected linup to begin the season, it is very disturbing.  Kirilloff, Polanco, Kepler, Gallo, Corrrea, and now Farmer and Buxton possibly out after 12 games?  Talk about bad luck with the injury bug!  At this rate we will have a minor league team on the field by June 1st.  Makes the front office look pretty good for signing all the depth pieces in the off season.  Let's hope that all of these players recover quickly and start hitting.  We may have a problem with the 40 man soon if this keeps up just a little.  If someone needs to be added,  they may have to waive someone when players come back.  I thought they would maybe add Bechtold or Elliot Soto for this reason.  Also, I agree with the poster about Gordons spot in the lineup.  He needs to be in the 7 or 8 spot probably behind whoever is catching.  I wasn't a big fan of Taylor, but he also has been a pretty good add and has had a few good at bats in key situations.  Hoping to get healthy soon.  See you at the ballpark.

[Platoon]

So far this season I have saw Buxton slide awkwardly on his back twice, once into second, once into third. Once again into second slamming his face into the ground. Now he runs into the second baseman on a ground ball. But I have never saw anyone do it that far in front of the bag. What the hell was he doing running in that spot? He woulda missed second by 6’. 

[Larry Janisewski]

20 hours ago, Beast said:

They keep finding ways to win games.  Gotta give them that.

But, for the love of Pete, get Nick Gordon out of the cleanup spot.  He had 6 guys on base in 3 of his 4 ABs.  He averaged 2.33 pitches in those ABs, 7 pitches total.  He took 1 ball.  3 swinging strikes, 1 looking.  Put two balls into play meekly.  Stranded all 6.  His other AB was 4 pitched, swung at all of them.  All ABs were with 2 outs.  He ended 4 different innings.

That’s just absolutely terrible and unacceptable.  Get a professional hitter behind Buxton.  There are guys on this roster that can take a higher quality at bat even with all the injuries.

But, that’s my only gripe.  The pitching is unreal right now.

100% agree!!!! Gordon barely batting over .100 in the 4th spot and the best hitter so far this year, Larnach, batting 6th (after leading off the day before??????