Twins 6, Yankees 2: Start Spreadin' the News! The Twins Win!

[stringer bell]

I figured a couple of regulars would be out for the day game after a night game. Buxton and Taylor out, with Miranda at DH. Castro at third base, Gordon in center field. 

[chinmusic]

11 hours ago, jkcarew said:

In the 21 seasons (2002-2022) during this streak, the Twins finished with a better record than the Yankees exactly one time. 2020, the strike-shortened season, when…you guessed it…the Twins and Yankees didn’t play during the regular season.

Wow! Quite a remarkable and telling stat.

[Monkeypaws]

Kind of surprised (and happy) to find out that the Twins have 4 more years of control on Joe Ryan after this season.

His career line so far reads like a season of a Cy Young contender:

20-9

3.50 ERA

205.2 IP

153 hits allowed

217 K

56 BB

etc.

[Battle ur tail off]

13 hours ago, stringer bell said:

The pitching has been outstanding so far this year and I think there's reason to believe it will be really good all year. What it means is they can make a bad play and still survive and also they don't always need four runs. 

Here is the thing. So far against good teams, they have won series. Last year they seemed overmatched against these teams. And the pitching has surely been the difference this year.

Beating Houston in a series and taking the season series from the Yankees is a good start to the year.

[Battle ur tail off]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I figured the Twins were going to have to get lucky and have some of the young guys step up to drag this offense out of the mud, but if they can get 2019 or 2021 Polanco back, that would be the biggest boost they could ask for.

He is the twins best overall hitter IMO. Takes great at bats, can hit from both sides, has enough power, doesn't strike out much and walks a fair amount as well. A season like 2021 from him and healthy and we will go far. Even something in between what he was last year and 2021 and he will be a huge asset to the lineup.

[h2oface]

3 hours ago, Don't Feed the Greed Guy said:

Koosman was traded from the Mets to the Twins for Jesse Orosco! Orosco would go on to pitch in the big leagues for 24 years before retiring in 2003 at age 46, after appearing in eight games for the Minnesota Twins. 

Still with me? Koosman won 20 games for the Twins in 1979. How many wins will Joe Ryan collect in 2023? 

Note: No one has won 20 games since Cole and Verlander did it in 2019.

Don't tell Kyle Wright that.

https://www.mlb.com/news/kyle-wright-wins-20th-game-of-2022#:~:text=Kyle Wright wins 20th game of 2022

Or Julio Urias.

https://www.mlb.com/news/julio-urias-20th-win-2021

[rick kayser]

The Yankees, in my memory there is a vault that I rarely open. I grew as a Twins fan in the late 60s, a period where the Twins were ascendent  and the Yankees decades long rule was in shambles, think 1965. Then came free-agency, Clark Griffith vs.Joe Steinbrenner, we didn't spend and Joe did! We were descending into a 4A franchise. I will skip the late 70s and 80s, too painful. In the following decade we won 2 World Series, riding the backs of home grown talent and astute player additions. More recently, even with good teams the Yankees dominated, more like the play "Damn Yankees" than real life.

Now, a single early season series brings back my Yankee memories, both good and bad, an aging Mantle, a young Pucket, Carew with Billy Martin in 1969, Butch Weinagar and Knoblock to the Yankees, (but not Hrbek).

Bob Allison and Caesar Tovar, Bill White and seemingly a few hundred next Mantles flow through my memories, all triggered by a single win.

 

[jkcarew]

1 hour ago, chinmusic said:

Wow! Quite a remarkable and telling stat.

Yeah. Not that the Twins were horrific over that stretch...they were slightly over 500 2002-2022.

But the Yankees were being the Yankees. The Yankees won 267 more games than the Twins over that span...an average of over 12 games better each year. And to make it tougher on the Twins, when the Yankees had bad years (i.e., barely over 500)...those years lined up with the Twins truly horrific seasons of the 20-teens.

[chinmusic]

18 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

And to make it tougher on the Twins, when the Yankees had bad years (i.e., barely over 500)...those years lined up with the Twins truly horrific seasons of the 20-teens.

After my post, I thought, wait a minute, the Bomba Squad won 101. Sure enough, the Yanks clocked in at 103 in 2019! And none of this even takes the Twins abysmal post season numbers against New York into account.

I have a feeling the Twins will win this aft, to put an (!) on the season series, AND a little German payback.

Hope I'm right...

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

Don't tell Kyle Wright that.

https://www.mlb.com/news/kyle-wright-wins-20th-game-of-2022#:~:text=Kyle Wright wins 20th game of 2022

Or Julio Urias.

https://www.mlb.com/news/julio-urias-20th-win-2021

Oops, I was looking at an AL list. Thanks for being a good editor. 

[ashbury]

5 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

and I do wish the scorers would use their discretion to give wins to the most deserving.

Just to be clear, what you wish is for the rule book to give the scorer that discretion in more games.  Currently the only time the scorer has discretion is when the starting pitcher goes less than 5 but leaves with a lead that is never relinquished - so the only "pitcher of record" when the lead is taken for good is that starter, but he's ineligible.

[JD-TWINS]

16 hours ago, Althebum82 said:

Impressive win against Jim Kaat's favorite rhyming Nestor!

Looking forward to Maeda's best effort so far this year so maybe the Twins can add "series sweep" on top of season win honors against this opponent in 2023.

Commenting in middle of Wednesday contest. Picked it up in middle of 4th - Kenta appears to have gotten rocked with 5 ER in two different innings.

Time for a change - when you have depth, there’s no reason to experiment and give extra chances hoping for better outcomes. Give St. Paul a call & move Bailey Ober into the 5th slot.

Headrick seems to be doing OK today (1 run through 3 1/3) so he seems to be a competent long guy for the near-term. Maeda needs to join him in the Pen for the month of May…….then re-evaluate.

Those 2, along with the López - Jax - Duran - Thielbar - Alcala - Morán - & a new guy for Pagán would be a nice relief corp - maybe not perfect but pretty nice!!

 

……………………..

Whoever said we shouldn’t have signed Joey Gallo needs to write a formal apology as I am here……….Sorry Joe! …….,Sorry FO! 7th dinger on the 26th of April……..he was out 10 days on IL as well!!

Wow, when right, he’s a monster. Gold Glove outfielder that has played a flawless 1B every time he’s on the field!

………………………

Today’s game seems to be a proving ground for Headrick - a break-out day for Miranda….2 HR - and even Nick Gordon just tripled in the gap.

[JD-TWINS]

3 hours ago, Battle ur tail off said:

Here is the thing. So far against good teams, they have won series. Last year they seemed overmatched against these teams. And the pitching has surely been the difference this year.

Beating Houston in a series and taking the season series from the Yankees is a good start to the year.

Until Kenta blew up today with 10 runs in less than 4 innings, our starters were leading the Majors in ERA at 2.62 runs per 9 innings. Fantastic!! Bailey Ober gave up 1 run in 6 innings……….time to make him a regular in the rotation.

[mikelink45]

4 hours ago, ashbury said:

Just to be clear, what you wish is for the rule book to give the scorer that discretion in more games.  Currently the only time the scorer has discretion is when the starting pitcher goes less than 5 but leaves with a lead that is never relinquished - so the only "pitcher of record" when the lead is taken for good is that starter, but he's ineligible.

from MLB.com - 

Definition

A pitcher receives a win when he is the pitcher of record when his team takes the lead for good -- with a couple rare exceptions. First, a starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings (in a traditional game of nine innings or longer) to qualify for the win. If he does not, the official scorer awards the win to the most effective relief pitcher.

There is also a rarely used clause where an official scorer can deem a relief pitcher's appearance "brief and ineffective." (For example, if a reliever relinquished a one-run lead by allowing three runs, but was still in line for a win after his team scored four runs in the following inning -- that may qualify.) If that's the case, the scorer can award the win to a pitcher who followed that "brief and ineffective" pitcher. Which relief pitcher earns the win specifically is also up to the judgment of the official scorer.

[ashbury]

12 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

from MLB.com - 

Definition

A pitcher receives a win when he is the pitcher of record when his team takes the lead for good -- with a couple rare exceptions. First, a starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings (in a traditional game of nine innings or longer) to qualify for the win. If he does not, the official scorer awards the win to the most effective relief pitcher.

There is also a rarely used clause where an official scorer can deem a relief pitcher's appearance "brief and ineffective." (For example, if a reliever relinquished a one-run lead by allowing three runs, but was still in line for a win after his team scored four runs in the following inning -- that may qualify.) If that's the case, the scorer can award the win to a pitcher who followed that "brief and ineffective" pitcher. Which relief pitcher earns the win specifically is also up to the judgment of the official scorer.

Okay, so that's two.  "Rarely used" and I forgot about the second, so thank you.  Still doesn't mean the scorer can willy nilly award the W to the pitcher of his choice, most of the time.  If an official scorer tries to do that even once, they'll stand to be fired.

When the starter goes a strong 6 or 7, the bullpen coughs up the lead, but the team comes back to win, the starter still gets bupkis, even though we'd all prefer to award him the Win.  A pitcher who is among the league leaders in Wins can hardly be a "bad" pitcher but I still prefer ERA or other measures to assess who is really good.