Yankees 6, Twins 1: German Hands Twins Loss in Suspicious Fashion

[ashbury]

17 minutes ago, Dman said:

Maybe German cheated maybe he didn't it is hard to say.  I do tend to agree with Rocco though.  The ump felt there was some stickiness that shouldn't be there and it remained.  I think it was fair for Rocco to question the process.  One good thing that should come out of this is MLB and the umpires will be looking very closely at Yankee pitchers from here on out.  They won't get away with something like this again.

Any bets it won't be a Twins pitcher they suddenly take an interest in holding the hard line on? 

BTW I would love to know what Rocco said that finally got him thrown out.  I'm thinking, "look, you have to throw me out, I can't go back to the dugout after this, just throw me out, please don't make me say a magic word or anything, just throw me out, I don't want to have to involve profanity or crude metaphors or anything, just throw me out, I will if I have to, but just throw me out, I ask this man to man but, just, please, throw me out."

[9moons27]

7 hours ago, GKuehl said:

Infuriating game all the way around. How German was allowed to remain in the game is just baffling (except for the fact that he plays for the Yankees so of course he was given a free pass). If a player on any other team is caught pitching with a foreign substance that is suspicious enough to merit a 5 minute discussion, they’d be tossed and MLB would investigate further. 

Not the best day at the yard for Twins pitchers — none of the 3 (Mahle, Morán, and Alcalá) looked sharp. Hopefully we can win the series tomorrow! 

P.S. Kepler feels like a bench player if everyone is healthy. I can’t see him starting over Larnach, Gallo, or Kirilloff in the corners on an everyday basis. 

Kepler is not a good baseball player. But Gallo struck out 4 times today...in a AAA game.

[Dman]

36 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Any bets it won't be a Twins pitcher they suddenly take an interest in holding the hard line on? 

BTW I would love to know what Rocco said that finally got him thrown out.  I'm thinking, "look, you have to throw me out, I can't go back to the dugout after this, just throw me out, please don't make me say a magic word or anything, just throw me out, I don't want to have to involve profanity or crude metaphors or anything, just throw me out, I will if I have to, but just throw me out, I ask this man to man but, just, please, throw me out."

I guess if you think our pitchers are doing the same thing maybe they would but I haven’t seen any umpire take this much interest in a pitcher coming off the mound so far. Also if Twins pitchers are doing the same thing why complain? I don’t think they have  to  much to fear but who knows.

[Paul Henkels]

3 hours ago, Eris said:

Curious as to whether or not the Twins could have played the game under protest. It was no longer a judgment call as to if he had sticky stuff on his gloves. It was noticed by the umps who presumably deemed this incidental (this part is a judgment call) and asked him to remove it. He did not comply (perhaps this non-compliance is also considered an umpire judgment call). 
 

I wonder why, when German said he had a rosin bag in the dugout where he sat, that the Umpire did not check out that rosin bag.

[jmlease1]

The change in spin rates certainly is suspicious. Can't say I'm surprised to see pitchers still trying to push the limits and bend the rules. Rocco handled this pretty well, putting a spotlight on likely cheating by the Yankees but without crossing any lines on integrity. By couching his ejection based on a violation of procedure (from his perspective) he's standing up for his side without questioning the ump's ethics.

Offense didn't get it done, Mahle struggled and it wasn't a great game for the Twins. But a win today washes it all away. And going in to the series I'm pretty sure most of us would have been perfectly ok with a split.

[ashbury]

13 hours ago, Dman said:

I guess if you think our pitchers are doing the same thing maybe they would but I haven’t seen any umpire take this much interest in a pitcher coming off the mound so far. Also if Twins pitchers are doing the same thing why complain? I don’t think they have  to  much to fear but who knows.

I wasn't thinking about rosin specifically so much as rules in general.  Maybe we see a couple of ticky tack balks called, for instance.  Pablo gets squeezed on a few borderline strikes.  "Rocco wants to play by the letter of the rules, huh?"  Umpires don't like to be shown up.

[JD-TWINS]

16 hours ago, RpR said:

His one K verses 4 for Buxton, so Buxton joins him on the bench?

Bigger than one AB - he’s hitting .105 with an OBP of .150……..those numbers are around 1/2 of Joey Gallo’s career numbers……not MLB worthy for. ore than another 3 weeks at this pace.

[cheeseheadgophfan]

I thought when Rocco said "He was especially sharp in the first 3 innings...." it was a subtle jab.

And Rocco did make a point of saying he wasn't pleased with having a "bunch of Yankees surrounding" the umps during the issue.  I think he made his point.  Pretty eloquently.

Why does German have a rosin bag in the dugout that he's using between innings???  Isn't the rosin bag supposed to be on the back of the mound for use while he's pitching?  Ump has a problem with the stickiness....check the rosin bag.