Twins 11, Yankees 2: Julien Leads Twins to 9-Run First; Twins, Ryan Cruise

[Riverbrian]

7 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Just good? Are you sure you were watching?

Yeah... You know... if you like that kind of thing. 😉

[bighat]

Most enjoyable game this season by a long shot.

Would like to see if Julien can stick around. Maybe the kid can learn to play outfield? He should at least get a couple weeks before Farmer gets back.

Great game for Ryan. Vazquez filled up the stat sheet. Miranda a couple much-needed hits. And Michael A. Taylor might need to be moved up in the order! 

Really nice to see the offense clicking early, 

[Doctor Gast]

I was expecting the Twins to play NYY tough but they went far beyond surpassing my expectations. Julien at lead off might of sparked something there. That & the pinstripes.

Seth you listed the top 3 WPA - Top 3 WPA: Jose Miranda (0.124), Byron Buxton (0.076), Carlos Correa (0.068).                                                                                                                 I'm surprised  that (CF) Taylor & (C) Vasquez didn't top that list.

I tip my hat to NYY for using 2 long RPs & IKF to limit the BP damage. 

[BsuNemo]

Best inning of twins bball I've ever watched and I've been watching since the 80s!!

Side note - called the Kepler IL, the Gallo IL and said Maeda would go too... Said we'd see a trend this year of Rocco saying everything was fine only to see guys go to the IL late. He'll continue to do this to try to "fix" the injury issue from last year... 

[Doctor Wu]

9 hours ago, ashbury said:

What a game!  A little something for everyone.

If Yankee fans prefer their home runs during garbage time, that is.

Except for poor Nick Gordon. Hope the hits start falling for him ASAP!

[bighat]

9 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

Except for poor Nick Gordon. Hope the hits start falling for him ASAP!

He hit a rocket off IKF in the 9th, was sad that didn't fall for him. 

0-for-5 for Nick. He came around last year, but it did take a while if I recall correctly. 

[chinmusic]

6 hours ago, USAFChief said:

You're gonna catch a lotta Flack over this one.

Ouch!  LOL

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

IKF to limit the BP damage.

This brings up an annoyance for me ... position players pitching. Yeah, it's kind of a novelty and sometimes we all get a kick out of it. BUT ... I think that is something that should be limited. If you've already given up that you are putting in a position player to pitch, just concede and let everyone go home early. Seriously. You want to save your BP for tomorrow? Good ... concede the game and go home. Unless a player is listed specifically as a two-way player (and there are rules to get that designation), put out a pitcher to pitch or concede.

[wabene]

I thought nothing was more fun than watching the Sox play defense. Wrong. Dropping 9 on the Yanks in the first was surreal. I want more please. 

[jmlease1]

3 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

This brings up an annoyance for me ... position players pitching. Yeah, it's kind of a novelty and sometimes we all get a kick out of it. BUT ... I think that is something that should be limited. If you've already given up that you are putting in a position player to pitch, just concede and let everyone go home early. Seriously. You want to save your BP for tomorrow? Good ... concede the game and go home. Unless a player is listed specifically as a two-way player (and there are rules to get that designation), put out a pitcher to pitch or concede.

They did make a rule change to try to put some guardrails on it, since it was happening so much more. YMMV on whether they should tighten it up more? (I don't think ending it completely is ever going to happen, and that's ok by me)

Joe Ryan had an excellent game last night. He was aggressive in attacking the zone and used that huge lead like a hold 'em player with a huge stack bullying the small stacks. The Rizzo HR was the only flaw and it was a good AB by a good hitter. I love what we're seeing from pretty much every aspect of Ryan's game right now. The WHIP is fantastic, the K/9 are up, the HR/9 is very manageable, and he's chewing up the innings.

Amazing job by the offense in jumping all over the rookie pitcher. Great work in grabbing that early lead and then going into overdrive to make the game feel out of reach in the first dang inning. Great start to the series, and really fun to watch.

[Trov]

Joe Ryan looked amazing against a tough line up.  He was pretty good last game too, against a good line up, outside his 1 inning where he gave up a grand slam.  This game he gave up the solo shot, after a good at bat by Rizzo, and the ball was actually not even a strike, but he missed his spot.  Last year the book on Ryan was he was good against bad teams, but this year he has pitched well against 2 good offenses.  I do not know if it is our pitching coach, or the fact that our whole team went to driveline to add pitches, but something sure is working early in they year for our starters and their new pitches.  The only worry is when teams start to scout and adjust to those new pitches how will it go. 

[LastOnePicked]

Solano and Taylor - two acquisitions that are just starting to seem so, so smart. After the recent spate of injuries and the terrible Farmer hbp, this absolute NYY drubbing signals some real fight and guts in this team. And I love it.

[wabene]

@jmlease1 said, "They did make a rule change to try to put some guardrails on it, since it was happening so much more. YMMV on whether they should tighten it up more? (I don't think ending it completely is ever going to happen, and that's ok by me)"

I would say anything that gives you consequences for your play is good for the game. If you are getting knocked around and burning up your staff, letting you use a position player allows you to artificially protect your staff for the next few games. You are gaining an advantage you didn't earn. 

[Doctor Gast]

38 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

This brings up an annoyance for me ... position players pitching. Yeah, it's kind of a novelty and sometimes we all get a kick out of it. BUT ... I think that is something that should be limited. If you've already given up that you are putting in a position player to pitch, just concede and let everyone go home early. Seriously. You want to save your BP for tomorrow? Good ... concede the game and go home. Unless a player is listed specifically as a two-way player (and there are rules to get that designation), put out a pitcher to pitch or concede.

Yeah, I don't like when a position player serves meatballs to hitters which artifically padds their stats either. And I'd like the option of a team to concede a game if they choose to, to help shorten a game. But since that's not an option, using a positional player to save the BP is an obvious smart move especially if a team has a poor BP to start with. With an important series, if MN was in the same boat & used 2 long RPs (pitching at least 3 innings) & a positional player to pitch, I'd applaud their ingenuity

[Unwinder]

Pinstripes are ours now. That's our thing. Yankees are no longer the pinstripe team.

[Whitey333]

Way to go Twins!!  Great win.  Way to go Julien and Ryan.  Let's keep it rolling.

[Unwinder]

1 hour ago, Squirrel said:

This brings up an annoyance for me ... position players pitching. Yeah, it's kind of a novelty and sometimes we all get a kick out of it. BUT ... I think that is something that should be limited. If you've already given up that you are putting in a position player to pitch, just concede and let everyone go home early. Seriously. You want to save your BP for tomorrow? Good ... concede the game and go home. Unless a player is listed specifically as a two-way player (and there are rules to get that designation), put out a pitcher to pitch or concede.

I like position players pitching, I realize it's not a competitive choice in the moment, and what you're seeing in position-player-pitching innings is not really relevant to the game, but it offers fans an interesting new narrative to follow in the final innings of a blowout when the question of who's going to win has already been settled. It's like, yes, we've already lost the game of baseball, but for those of you who want to stick around, how about a nice game of what-the-hell-is-going-to-happen-with-the-position-player-pitching?

[Unwinder]

1 hour ago, Trov said:

I do not know if it is our pitching coach, or the fact that our whole team went to driveline to add pitches, but something sure is working early in they year for our starters and their new pitches.

Sorry to triple-post here, but from everything I've heard, I suspect Vasquez deserves some credit. From what I've heard, he's really good at working with the pitchers, saw a story somewhere saying that he helped get Ryan back on track after that grand slam.

[TouchEmAllGuy]

One of those games where you just smile and enjoy that it happened! Let's get greedy and do it again tonight

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Will Leitch of MLB.COM writes that the Twins starting pitchers have been possibly the most impressive in the sport right now. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

26 minutes ago, Unwinder said:

Sorry to triple-post here, but from everything I've heard, I suspect Vasquez deserves some credit. From what I've heard, he's really good at working with the pitchers, saw a story somewhere saying that he helped get Ryan back on track after that grand slam.

Vasquez has been amazing. What a wonderful addition to the Twins. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

1 hour ago, LastOnePicked said:

Solano and Taylor - two acquisitions that are just starting to seem so, so smart. After the recent spate of injuries and the terrible Farmer hbp, this absolute NYY drubbing signals some real fight and guts in this team. And I love it.

Add Vasquez and Farmer to this list.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

1 hour ago, Trov said:

Joe Ryan looked amazing against a tough line up.  He was pretty good last game too, against a good line up, outside his 1 inning where he gave up a grand slam.  This game he gave up the solo shot, after a good at bat by Rizzo, and the ball was actually not even a strike, but he missed his spot.  Last year the book on Ryan was he was good against bad teams, but this year he has pitched well against 2 good offenses.  I do not know if it is our pitching coach, or the fact that our whole team went to driveline to add pitches, but something sure is working early in they year for our starters and their new pitches.  The only worry is when teams start to scout and adjust to those new pitches how will it go. 

I give Vasquez some credit for Ryan's success too. 

[Battle ur tail off]

Great game. That was 10 years of Yankee frustration coming out in that first inning. Their pitcher was leaving EVERYTHING up and over the middle it was batting practice, fun to see.

Ryan was great. The whole rotation has been excellent. Hope they can keep this up the whole year. Once these injuries heal up and we get some guys back, we could be dangerous.

[jimbo92107]

One other good thing: Besides the shining outcome, we got to see Eddie Julien execute a couple completely normal fielding plays at second base. Maybe he's not quite the stumbling, bumbling, clumsy clown with a big rubber glove that the prospect descriptions seemed to indicate. If he can play barely acceptable 2B, then he's my new Eddie.

[ashbury]

9 hours ago, USAFChief said:

You're gonna catch a lotta Flack over this one.

[ashbury]

In baseball-reference.com's list of top-10 performers for yesterday, four Twins achieved that ranking - #3 MAT, #5 Correa, #9 Vazquez, #10 Julien.  Interestingly, #1 was occupied by old friend Brent Rooker for his day with Oakland.  Annoyingly #2 was taken by Anthony Rizzo of the Yankees.  I don't know their algorithm for these rankings, but apparently "garbage time" is not a factor.   (Of course after one time through the batting order, the Twins' plate appearances also would qualify.)

#1 game score for pitchers was Joe Ryan.

[ashbury]

16 minutes ago, Battle ur tail off said:

Their pitcher was leaving EVERYTHING up and over the middle it was batting practice, fun to see.

I wondered at the time also whether he was tipping his pitches.  The Twins seemed ready to pounce on every offering.

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Squirrel said:

This brings up an annoyance for me ... position players pitching. Yeah, it's kind of a novelty and sometimes we all get a kick out of it. BUT ... I think that is something that should be limited. If you've already given up that you are putting in a position player to pitch, just concede and let everyone go home early. Seriously. You want to save your BP for tomorrow? Good ... concede the game and go home. Unless a player is listed specifically as a two-way player (and there are rules to get that designation), put out a pitcher to pitch or concede.

Maybe a visiting team would concede if allowed, I don't know. A home team should never concede. Even if 99% of the paying fans have departed, the ones who remain deserve a show.  Maybe a memorable sequence will occur in the bottom of the ninth, even in a losing effort.  The fans who want to concede, have left.

I'd feel different for low-cost or free contests.

[Trov]

Okay everyone lets not act like this is not just one game against the Yankees.  We had 1 huge inning, and a 2 run homer, other than that we did not do anything.  Of course you do not negate the 9 run first, as you may play things out different if we did not put up 9, but it is not like we were putting up runs each inning.  Hopefully, we can score more consistent tonight.