Week in Review: Holding Ground

[Nick Nelson]

The Twins battled through attrition, came up big in key spots, and made some assertive statements in a winning week against two of their top rivals that featured plenty of drama.

The offense remains a work in progress but this pitching staff is pristine. 

Image courtesy of Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 4/10 through Sun, 4/16
***
Record Last Week: 4-3 (Overall: 10-6)
Run Differential Last Week: +5 (Overall: +18)
Standing: 1st Place in AL Central (1.0 GA)

Last Week's Game Results:

Game 10 | CWS 4, MIN 3: Sloppy Sox Squeak by Behind Cease
Game 11 | MIN 4, CWS 3: Bunt and Error Lead to 10th-Inning Walk-Off
Game 12 | MIN 3, CWS 1: Pitching Paves Way in Painful Series Clincher
Game 13 | MIN 11, NYY 2: Nine-Run First Sparks Blowout Bronx Victory
Game 14 | MIN 4, NYY 3: Clutch Correa Fuels Late Comeback Win
Game 15 | NYY 6, MIN 1: Germán, Yankees Stick It to Twins
Game 16 | NYY 2, MIN 0: Cole Dominates in Two-Hit Shutout

NEWS & NOTES

We're barely halfway through April and the injury-related developments are mounting for the Twins. Not all news was negative on the health front last week, and we'll get to the positives shortly, but already this team is going through it from a physical standpoint. 

The most harrowing moment of the week came in Wednesday afternoon's win over the White Sox, when shortstop Kyle Farmer was hit directly in the face by a 92 MPH fastball from Lucas Giolito. Farmer was on the ground for a while before walking off on his own power, face bloodied and buried in a towel. He underwent emergency surgery to repair his teeth and a jaw laceration, but thankfully avoided any fracture. Replaced on the roster by Kyle Garlick, Farmer is out indefinitely. 

Later in the same game, Byron Buxton had a scary collision on the basepaths that caused him to flip over and land on his head. He avoided serious injury and was back in the lineup on Thursday. He seems to be fine although his performance since casts a bit of doubt on that.

Joey Gallo, like Max Kepler before him, was unable to avoid the injured list, but his intercostal issue seems fairly minor as Gallo was already appearing in rehab games for St. Paul by the weekend. The Kepler and Gallo IL moves opened the door for top prospects Matt Wallner and Edouard Julien to join the big-league roster, with Julien debuting last Wednesday at Target Field. He wasted no time showcasing his potent bat, homering in his second game while drawing three starts in the leadoff spot. 

Kepler was activated from the IL on Saturday, sending Wallner back to Triple-A after he went 0-for-8 in his short stint with the Twins. He'll surely be back soon enough. 

Meanwhile, Jorge Polanco was joined on his rehab stint at Class-A Fort Myers by Alex Kirilloff, who made his first official 2023 game appearance for the Mighty Mussels on Tuesday, playing first and batting third. The two are now solidly on the path back to MLB action, and both took a big step on Sunday by starting a day game following a night game. 

Kirilloff is still a little farther off, but Polanco's return feels near. He'll likely move up to Triple-A in the days ahead, and it wouldn't be a huge shock if he was back in the majors by this time next week.

HIGHLIGHTS

Carlos Correa was off to another slow start, with a .492 OPS and two RBIs through his first eight games of the season, before back spasms sidelined him for the entire White Sox series last week. C4 came back with a bang for the Yankees series, where his bat awakened and made a huge impact in the series split. 

The shortstop homered as part of Minnesota's nine-run outburst in the first on Thursday at Yankee Stadium, contributing to an 11-2 shellacking, but he was far more pivotal in Friday's comeback win. Correa's solo homer off Nestor Cortes in the sixth cut New York's lead down to one, and two innings later he delivered a clutch two-run double against star closer Clay Holmes to put the Twins in front.

Huge hits in huge moments against top competition: exactly what the Twins need from Correa if they are to stay on this course and fulfill their potential. 

The move to re-sign Correa paid off big last week, as did a few of the front office's lower-key pickups from late in the offseason. That includes Donovan Solano, whose addition in early spring training now looks like a brilliant move – he's been leaned on heavily amidst early injuries, helping make up for the absence of Luis Arraez by batting .340 in a 1B/DH role, including 10-for-27 last week while starting every game.

A more surprising factor in the offense was Michael A. Taylor, who entered the week with a .194/.219/.258 slash line before breaking out for three homers, including two in Thursday's series-opening win against the Yankees. We discussed Taylor here last week as a weak link in the offense – a "designated fielder" necessitated by Buxton's entrenchment at DH – but against Chicago and New York, he flashed some ability with the bat.

Taylor is never going to be a true asset offensively, and his brutal 21-to-0 K/BB ratio should keep optimism surrounding this hot streak in check. However, he has shown in the past he can hit for a bit of power. If Taylor can knock one out of the park here and there, it'll make Buxton's strict DH usage much easier to abide.

While some of the hitters started to click, the Twins pitching staff continued to excel. Pablo López had perhaps his most impressive performance yet, rebounding from a rough opening against the White Sox on Tuesday to retire 23 straight hitters en route to this final line: 7.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K. He then added six innings of two-run ball against the Yankees on Sunday, although he was outdueled by a lights-out Gerrit Cole.

While the offense stole the show in Thursday's 11-2 beatdown, Joe Ryan's performance was equally impressive. Staked with a huge early lead, Ryan fired strikes and cruised through seven innings of one-run ball, striking out 10 with no walks and three hits allowed. 

A very notable aspect of Ryan's strong rookie season was how starkly divided his results were based on quality of opponent: he consistently obliterated weak lineups like the Royals and Tigers, but tended to struggle against power-laden units packing dangerous bats. As such, Ryan's past two outings against the Astros and Yankees have served as big statements, signaling that he's ready to turn the corner to true frontline starter.

Add in Sonny Gray's five shutout frames on Wednesday, when he pitched through illness to lower his ERA to 0.53, and it's been an extremely encouraging start to the season for the top of Minnesota's rotation. Twins fans came into this year wondering if there was an ace or even a clear-cut No. 1 within this bunch of quality starters, and here in April we've got three different guys pitching to that standard.

We also saw Minnesota's back-end starting pitching depth come into play when Louie Varland was called up Friday for a spot start, delivering a solid effort with three runs allowed in six innings. Giving fatigued Kenta Maeda a break, Varland struck out eight and walked one, looking every bit like the MLB-caliber starter we know him to be. And he was only the choice because Bailey Ober was unavailable after throwing six shutout innings at Triple-A the day before. 

The Twins are in ridiculously good shape on the starting pitching front. (Knock on wood, etc.) We shouldn't let that overshadow what's going on in the bullpen, though.

In a week where Jhoan Durán had a couple of rare hiccups, surrendering two home runs and blowing a lead against Chicago, his co-closer counterpart Jorge López showed the same form that made him an elite reliever and All-Star in the first-half of 2022. López pitched twice in close games, firing shutout innings against the White Sox on Wednesday and the Yankees on Friday to protect slim leads in eventual victories. 

Last year after the trade, López's pitches were all over the place, exhibiting an obvious lack of command and confidence. This year he's got both back in spades, and it's resulting in near-perfection on the mound. In 6 ⅔ scoreless innings, the righty has allowed two singles, a double, and – crucially – no walks. 

This bullpen is cooking with López locked in alongside Durán and Griffin Jax, who also delivered in a couple of huge high-leverage spots last week, and ranks second among MLB relievers in Win Probability Added.

LOWLIGHTS

At his best, Buxton is a game-changing offensive force that you love to have at the heart of your lineup, even as designated hitter. We saw that during the first six weeks last year, when he slashed .259/.330/.706 through May 15th to generate early MVP buzz. We saw it at the start of this season, when he went 6-for-13 in the Royals series while spraying balls all over the field and making big plays with his legs.

But after May 15th last year, Buxton slashed just .212/.299/.467 with a 31% K-rate, becoming more of an all-or-nothing slugger than dynamic offensive force. And since that season-opening KC series this year, he's slashed .166/.239/.310 with a 46% K-rate. His slump snowballed to a crescendo over the weekend when he struck out in all seven plate appearances on Saturday and Sunday while the offense failed to find life. 

It's possible Buxton is still feeling the effects of his collision at second base on Wednesday; he's gone 0-for-12 with 10 strikeouts since. But there are no evident signs of anything amiss physically – his approach is frankly a mess.

Buxton doesn't strike me as as guy who takes failure too well. It's gotta be tough on him mentally to keep whiffing and then stewing in the dugout about it for several innings. You wonder if the Twins will consider giving him some time in center as a way to help get him right at the plate.

Elsewhere, the return of Kepler did nothing to bolster the Twins' run-scoring prowess. He'd been heating up slightly before he got hurt, but Kepler fell right back into his old habits, compiling ineffective at-bats on the way to an 0-for-6 showing in two games, which included a rally-killing 4-6-3 GIDP. Kepler is now slashing .091/.130/.227 on the season.

Minnesota's offense shows the potential to be top-tier, especially if they can get Polanco and Kirilloff back at something resembling full strength in the near future. But it's going to be tough to find consistency when their DH and right fielder aren't giving them much of anything.

TRENDING STORYLINE

Gallo's placement on IL last Tuesday was retroactive to April 8th, meaning he's already eligible to return this coming Tuesday, when the Twins open their next series at Fenway against the Red Sox. Given that the veteran appears fully healthy, they probably won't wait to make a move. The question is: who comes off the roster to make room for Gallo?

Garlick would be a straightforward answer, given that his niche usage makes him a fairly extraneous piece on the bench. He does have concrete value though, and showed it on Friday when he started against the left-hander Cortes and homered off him. 

Julien is probably the most likely to go. As a lefty corner bat, he's more redundant with Gallo (and Kepler, and Larnach, and Gordon), and he's hardly been dominating during his initial MLB stint despite some nice flashes. Like Wallner's, the demotion would not be permanent. 

Beyond the roster shuffle, Gallo's impact on the day-to-day lineups will be interesting. Solano's been hitting too well to justify benching regularly, even against right-handers. Trevor Larnach isn't going to sit. So long as Buxton remains the everyday DH, that doesn't leave a lot of room for Gallo ... unless Kepler is out of the lineup. I expect we'll start seeing that happen with increasing frequency, and it could be the first step toward parting ways with the long-time right field stalwart midway through the season.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Twins get a bit of a respite from their April gauntlet, facing two big-market teams that won World Series as recently 2018 and 2019 but are both in varying states of rebuild. Theoretically Minnesota should be favored in all of these games. It's the kind of opportunity you want to take advantage of, especially coming off a pair of flat performances to close out the New York series. 

TUESDAY, 4/18: TWINS @ RED SOX – RHP Sonny Gray v. LHP Chris Sale
WEDNESDAY, 4/19: TWINS @ RED SOX – RHP Joe Ryan v. RHP Corey Kluber
THURSDAY, 4/20: TWINS @ RED SOX – RHP Tyler Mahle v. RHP Tanner Houck
FRIDAY, 4/21 NATIONALS @ TWINS – RHP Trevor Williams v. RHP Kenta Maeda
SATURDAY, 4/22: NATIONALS @ TWINS – RHP Chad Kuhl v. RHP Pablo Lopez
SUNDAY, 4/23: NATIONALS @ TWINS – LHP Patrick Corbin v. RHP Sonny Gray

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[stringer bell]

If Julien does in fact return to the minors for Gallo, the easy move would be to have Solano play second base. Gordon is hitting .100 and Kepler is hitting .091, based on this year both should be sitting and Solano should be playing. 

[by jiminy]

The flip side of the injury issues is that there is reason for optimism that help is on the way for their only weakness right now, the offense.  Adding a healthy Polanco and Kiriloff could give the lineup just the spark it needs. And if Kepler continues to falter, Gallo is a very nice backup option too.

[Jocko87]

I'll take 4 out of 7 against the Astros and Yankees all day.  Especially in New York.  If they keep pitching the lineup will come around.  There are too many talented hitters with more on the way.

I have to think we have to be getting close to Buxton in CF.  I know he has stated he doesn't like DHing, specifically that if he wasn't hitting he could always contribute with the glove.  It could very well be messing with his mind.

To me, when Polonco and Kiriloff come back the lineups get really weird with Taylor instead of one of those two.  Polanco at least, feels like he would be on a similar plan when he comes back as Buxton was to start the season.  I could even see him DH full time for a few weeks.

Also Kiriloff has been in the outfield more than I expected in rehab.  Like that he is still flexible to play anywhere although I'm not sure I would have Gallo at first with Kiriloff in the outfield. 

Good news everywhere, even where there are issues the depth is coming through. 

[minman1982]

A week ago, I would have been happy with a win against the Astros and a win in New York (2-5). The fact that the Twins took the series from the Astros and split the series with New York makes me overjoyed. Sure, a series win in New York would have been nice but I am pretty happy with what I am seeing. 

The pitching has been outstanding. Even on Saturday and Sunday, the starters kept the Twins in the game. If the offense had been able to do something, maybe they win won of those two. Joe Ryan was great in the game on Thursday. We would all be talking about his performance if the Twins hadn't spotted him to a 9-0 lead. I thought Pablo Lopez was outstanding this afternoon. It is a shame that he got no support from the offense. Sonny Gray has continued to look good. Even Varland looked decent. I think it is hard to say who the "ace" is right now because they have three guys in Ryan, Gray, and Lopez who all could fit that mold. 

The offense needs some help. The Twins are averaging 3.9 runs/game and if you take out the two blowout wins (11-1 in Miami and 11-2 in New York), they are averaging 2.9 runs/game. That is not good enough. Maybe they let Buxton play the field a couple of games and see if that helps him at the plate. Maybe Polanco and eventually Kiriloff coming back will get things started. Maybe C4 is turning it around. Something needs to change.

[stringer bell]

Kirilloff has played a game in left field and a game in right field for the Mighty Mussels. It absolutely makes sense to keep his hand in for the outfield as long as a guy like Solano is contributing at first base. I have been hopeful that AK could establish himself as a middle-of-the-order hitter and everyday first baseman and continue to think that is a possibility, but settling for something less would be OK in light of the struggles of some of the hitters and the success of Solano.

[RpR]

Twins need Gallo's bat badly, he will not be sitting on the bench; same for Taylor and Solano.

Baldelli pretty much , if you are here, you will play, to some  degree, but with the cold bats right now,  one will earn or lose being on the field.

There is no reason to play Kirilloff unless some one has a long slump.

Polanco???

[Brandon]

Pagan has been lights out so far this year.  

[Vanimal46]

On last week’s review, I said this week was a big barometer test for the team. They passed the test thanks to excellent pitching, the White Sox’ shockingly bad fielding, and just enough hitting most games. 

What we’re seeing right now reminds me of May 2022. A month also anchored by excellent pitching and just enough hitting most games. We’ve got the arms this year for that to not fall apart. I’m still paranoid if we can hit more consistently. It would really ease my concerns to see a week of 7+ run games from the Twins. 

[Blyleven2011]

Huge hits in Huge moments are what we need by everyone ( situational hitting  ) its not that difficult to learn  ...

But it's grip it and rip it  and usually ends in a strikeout , twins lead in strikeouts , offense has scored 63 runs for the season  and the pitching has been winning the games , not the offense , except for a 11 to 2 romp over the Yankees  ...

[William K Johnson]

Having Larnach and Kepler in the lineup at the same time guarantees the opposing pitcher at least six strikeouts in the game.    Buxton is totally lost.    Julien needs more seasoning, Wallner is still a major league question mark.   However, the pitching, both starters and pen have been incredible, Taylor and Solano have been surprisingly good, and our catching is solid.    Agree that getting Polanco and Kiriloff back may jump start what has been up to this point, a hit and miss offense.  Starting to have some concerns with Nick Gordon, although he puts the ball in play on nearly every at bat.   Getting road trips to Yankee Stadium and Fenway out of the way early should help later on and getting Houston before they get rolling did not hurt either.   White Sox miss Abreu, Cleveland's early schedule has benefitted them, and Detroit and Kansas City are still not there.   This division is ours for the taking.

[mikelink45]

I really enjoy these summaries - game by game in baseball is fun to analyze but it is true that baseball needs to be evaluated in larger chunks since a team that loses 4 of 10 games all year is in the playoffs!

I saw Gallo's 7 Ks in the minors and I am not of the opinion that he is our offensive solution. But Kepler is not either.  I do hope AK comes back and can show us what all his potential is.  I also hope Julien gets a few more games to settle in. 

Buxton is our enigma - he is either a superstar of a bum - and he is both so often it is really hard to see him such a key piece in the lineup.  I wish we could not only see him play over 100 games, but play them well.

[hitterscount]

Splitting the NYY series was somewhat disappointing after taken the first two games... until you reflect on the fact that we have lost like 40 straight games too them, or something like that, and you realize that it was a really good weekend. 

IMO the weak link is Keppler. He has been non-productive for over three years, no way can this offense succeed with a line-up that includes him and Gallo. The start of the season validates that we can contend for more than a Central division title... either Keppler or Gallo need to go once Polanco and/or Kirloff come back. With Gallo's ability to play multiple positions I don't see the value in holding onto Keppler. 

 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Good start, but it’s still so, so early.

Pablo Lopez actually got off to a much better start last season, than he has this season. Let’s hope he holds up all year. They should have given Maeda at least one appearance at the end of last season in September after he was fully cleared to go, and not come into camp with that weight of not having pitched for a year and a half. He might not make it to the end of the year in the rotation. Sonny Gray is I assume still calling his own pitches and for him that appears to make a real difference. Ryan is off to a nice start. Another positive, the front office is allowing Rocco to let starters start that next inning, 7 instead of 6 or 6 instead of 5, something some of us have been saying for a while. Granted, pulling a starter is still more of an art than a science. Vazquez appears to be a difference maker. Varland will be up again before long and hopefully Ober gets back on track. So far so good. 

[Jocko87]

And now a Pablo extension, what a week! 😁

[Whitey333]

Nice week for Twins except for the offense.  The Twins lead the league in striking out at over 10 times per game.  After that great 9 run first inning against the Yankees on Friday the offense only scored 7 runs over the last 35 innings.  They are still in hiding.  The great Byron Buxton has struck out the last 9 or 10 times straight.  Yet he apparently is off limits when it comes time to criticism.  Now the collision he had at second base is being used as an excuse for his poor performance.  Gallo?  Pretty much what expected.  Hits a couple of homers then strikes out and has poor contact most of the time.  It was rather convenient that he was unable to play in New York.  Those fans would have chewed him up.  So you pay a guy $11 million for one year to perhaps relegate him to a platoon situation?  Seems like a very poor use of salary.  But if course paying a career .199 hitter that much seems wasteful.  Thank goodness our pitching has been outstanding.  Starters have been awesome and the bullpen is decent.  Even my favorite whipping boy Pagan is pitching well.  Considering all the injuries and the very anemic offense, 10-6 and currently in first place is pretty amazing!  Go Twins!

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Good start, but it’s still so, so early.

Pablo Lopez actually got off to a much better start last season, than he has this season. Let’s hope he holds up all year. They should have given Maeda at least one appearance at the end of last season in September after he was fully cleared to go, and not come into camp with that weight of not having pitched for a year and a half. He might not make it to the end of the year in the rotation. Sonny Gray is I assume still calling his own pitches and for him that appears to make a real difference. Ryan is off to a nice start. Another positive, the front office is allowing Rocco to let starters start that next inning, 7 instead of 6 or 6 instead of 5, something some of us have been saying for a while. Granted, pulling a starter is still more of an art than a science. Vazquez appears to be a difference maker. Varland will be up again before long and hopefully Ober gets back on track. So far so good. 

Super early - correct! Pretty sure the starters not giving up runs is the reason they are pitching into the 6th & 7th innings - not some green light by the front office. Love Vázquez as well!

[Woof Bronzer]

48 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Super early - correct! Pretty sure the starters not giving up runs is the reason they are pitching into the 6th & 7th innings - not some green light by the front office. Love Vázquez as well!

Probably both.  Twins had 6 or 7 games last year where the starter got pulled after giving up 0 or 1 runs in the 5th or less with managable pitch counts (sorry, I don't have the exact numbers in front of me).  So it's pretty  clear the FO and manager have adjusted their approach.  

[chpettit19]

4 hours ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Probably both.  Twins had 6 or 7 games last year where the starter got pulled after giving up 0 or 1 runs in the 5th or less with managable pitch counts (sorry, I don't have the exact numbers in front of me).  So it's pretty  clear the FO and manager have adjusted their approach.  

They also had Gray, Ryan, and Paddack going 6 and 7 innings last April. So maybe they haven't adjusted approach, but just have better pitchers.

[wabene]

3 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

They also had Gray, Ryan, and Paddack going 6 and 7 innings last April. So maybe they haven't adjusted approach, but just have better pitchers.

You could skip the maybe part 

[DocBauer]

Honestly, the biggest issue for 2023 was always the offense. 

1] Even with a couple of middling starts the rotation has been excellent.  How many teams could pull up their #6 SP for a game at Yankee stadium and get a great start? This rotation and it's depth is for real.

2] Except for a couple innings and a couple HR...which happen...the bullpen has been as good as hoped for. Even Sands, the current 8th man and sacrificial arm didn't really perform all that badly, here and there. Please don't make me say this, but so far, Pagan has looked good in his limited IP. 

Despite a great start to this season, the offense remains the question mark.

Correa looks like he's starting to heat up. The defense has been outstanding. 

I think, other than a couple of bobbles, Miranda has been fine at 3B. When does the bat heat up?

Gordon was OK with the bat 1st half of 2022, excellent the 2nd half. Does he heat up soon? He's always been a bit of a slow starter.

Gallo was starting to look like a difference maker in the lower half of the lineup before his muscle injury. IDC about his performance at AAA. What he's doing is just getting AB and tracking pitches. We need his bat and threat back soon.

Buxton needs to get "untracked" or "right". A few bad games doesn't diminish who he is as a hitter.

This team really misses a healthy Polanco. Hopefully he's ready soon. But until then, I'd ride Julien as long as I can. I think if he just continues to play daily we are going to see the results.

I'm sadly sorry to say I just don't expect anything from Kepler these days. I am super hopefull that we will see a healthy AK by June taking over 1B and letting Gallo play out this year in the OF.

At some point, mid year, we might see someone like Lewis provide a spark.

The problem is, we can't just wait. 

There will always be slow starts and slumps. It happens. But even without Polanco and the potential of AK at this point, there's enough offensive potential with what's on hand to go earn some runs. Forget the contributions from Farmer and Salono thus far, Gallo, Correa, Larnach, Buxton, Miranda, Gordon, and even Vazquez and Jeffers need to step forward. Even missing some talent on the ML roster right now, there's enough to produce 5 runs per game to support the staff if they just start to click. 

If the offense starts to click, the Twins are a very, very good team. 

[Woof Bronzer]

21 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

They also had Gray, Ryan, and Paddack going 6 and 7 innings last April. So maybe they haven't adjusted approach, but just have better pitchers.

Help me understand how pulling a pitcher after 5 shutout innings and 75 pitches is the pitcher's fault because he's not good enough???  Again, the Twins did this a half dozen times last year.  I'd argue that a pre set strategy is the ONLY thing that makes sense here.  If you are arguing otherwise I'd say Rocco needs to be removed from his job immediately, because removing starting pitchers who are throwing really good games for no reason is insane.  

[chpettit19]

14 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Help me understand how pulling a pitcher after 5 shutout innings and 75 pitches is the pitcher's fault because he's not good enough???  Again, the Twins did this a half dozen times last year.  I'd argue that a pre set strategy is the ONLY thing that makes sense here.  If you are arguing otherwise I'd say Rocco needs to be removed from his job immediately, because removing starting pitchers who are throwing really good games for no reason is insane.  

Who was the pitcher? How were their velo and spin rate numbers? What kind of contact were they giving up? What is their history of going further into a game? What was the game situation? Basically, what was a reasonable prediction for what their performance would've been moving forward, and how would it impact the team's ability to win the game?

They pulled Sonny Gray after 5 shutout on June 15th. It was his first start back after his 2nd IL stint in less than 2 months. Did you factor that into things? The other time they pulled Sonny after 5 shutout he was at 96 pitches. So they didn't do what you're complaining about with that good pitcher.

Best argument for it with Ryan was July 13 or 23 when they pulled him in the middle of the 6th at 78 and 86 pitches. He'd given up 1 run in both those games. In the game on the 13th he was pulled for a lefty lefty matchup (Thielbar vs Telez) in a 1-1 tie (Twins won the game 4-1 on a 3 run walkoff by Miranda). In the game on the 23rd he was pulled after giving up a triple, a single, and deep flyball in a game the Twins were leading 2-0 when the inning started, and 2-1 when he left (Twins won this one, too. Stupid Rocco). So they weren't pulling that good pitcher in crazy situations.

They didn't have any other good starters. Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer weren't good enough to be trusted to go longer than 5 innings in close games. The rest of their starters (outside Ober who only made a handful of starts) shouldn't have even been in the majors.

Not to mention 6 (or around the half dozen you claim) out of 162 games is not a great data set to be calling something a strategy. My point is that if you're going to blanket something as a team strategy you better have more than 3.7% of the games as your sample size, and if you're going to claim it wasn't about the talent of the pitcher they better have been doing it with their good pitchers, which they weren't. Thus my statement of it being about the talent of this starting staff, and not some organizational approach change.