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

[David HK]

Big props to Big Joe.  7 strong!  And there's my new favorite Twin, Sonny Gray, going over stuff in an intense conversation with Joe after he came out of the game.  Polanco again lifting the Twinks to another level with his play on both sides of the ball.  He came back at just the right time!

[David HK]

21 minutes ago, David HK said:

Big props to Big Joe.  7 strong!  And there's my new favorite Twin, Sonny Gray, going over stuff in an intense conversation with Joe after he came out of the game.  Polanco again lifting the Twinks to another level with his play on both sides of the ball.  He came back at just the right time!

Just thinkin' how nice a swap with the Rays it was for their 1/2 season Nelson Cruz rental. 

[h2oface]

2 hours ago, Boswell said:

I also refuse to recognize the Yankee “win” from last Saturday.  Domingo needed to be tossed, but the boys in blue were too timid to stand up to Boonie’s “Animals” (😂) and the fans in the Bronx Zoo. 
 

A turnabout on the pitcher’s “performance of a lifetime” would make a sweep even sweeter.  5-1 on the season series - the mega millionaire Cole beat us fair and square. 

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2023/04/24/david-cone-rosin-experiment-sunday-night-baseball-max-scherzer-suspension

Well, sometimes being the judge without all the physics or evidence can make one look silly. Looks like if rosin is legal, MLB needs to come up with an endorsed solvent to use instead of ejecting and suspending players for doing what the MLB officials/umpires told them to do.

 

[rwilfong86]

7 hours ago, GetToKnowEm said:

Thanks for the entertaining read! Great win all around  

Also of note is Jorge Lopez (the other Lopez or the other Jorge) extending his run-less streak and has a 0.28 WHIP for the young season. 

I predicted the bounce back season from Jorge hehe

[NotAboutWinning]

How so many negative comments can come out of one of truly most balanced and beautiful Twins wins is beyond me, I will choose to bask in it, and in a season series win over the Yankees. Whatever happens tomorrow or in October, this one was sweet!

[Doctor Gast]

A very fun game & fun article, thanks Steve. When Polanco is played not hurt he is great. Once settled in he hits clutch hit after clutch hit which has been rare lately. He did again last night with the 1st go ahead rbi. Along with his fantastic fielding. People like to look at the time when he's playing hurt & say that he's not good, that's not on him. Buxton finally joined Polanco's party.

Ryan was great, also leading the league in wins. Gray with ERA and Lopez is 4th in SO. Pretty awesome.

[Doctor Wu]

We are getting spoiled this week with our starters going 7 innings in back to back games and the Twins winning each time. Hopefully, this becomes the new norm!

[umterp23]

So much for the analytics saying our pitchers better not go through the lineup 3 times! Go Twins!

[wabene]

8 minutes ago, umterp23 said:

So much for the analytics saying our pitchers better not go through the lineup 3 times! Go Twins!

The analytics clearly state it depends on who your pitcher is. 

[wabene]

What happened to all the quick hook Baldelli comments? As stated ad nauseum last year, you gotta have the horses. Like was stated last year Baldelli rode Berrios harder than his next team. I appreciate the silence this year, but the crows in Twins land should be running scared. Man up and eat your crow, Chicken Littles, lol. 

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

A little something I posted on The Athletic:

How about Joe Ryan starting the season 5-0 in his first five starts? First time since 1979, Jerry Koosman.

Koosman was born in Appleton, MN. He graduated from high school in Morris, MN and went on to win two games in the World Series for the 1969 Amazing Mets.

Here's a great note from his Wikipedia page:

"Koosman was discovered by the son of a Shea Stadium usher, John Lucchese, who caught Koosman when he pitched in the United States Army at Fort Bliss, Texas. The Mets offered Koosman a contract after his discharge from the military. Koosman was about to be cut from the Mets in 1966, when Joe McDonald, the assistant farm director, requested Koosman be retained at least until his first payday, as he owed the Mets money they had wired him after his car broke down en route to spring training."

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.

[mikelink45]

Sometimes I think I should change my moniker to "Wins do Count" - starting pitchers accumulate wins by being in the game long enough to earn them.  RP wins mean nothing and I do wish the scorers would use their discretion to give wins to the most deserving.  But never-the-less, Joe Ryan is really showing something and it is a delight.  Not sure if it continues, but right now he and Gray are really giving us a great 1 - 2 (I know Lopez is good too).  

Now speaking of scorers - how does Solano not have two errors?  Brutal play at 1B.  And yes fielding at 1B does count too. 

Now if we could just learn to beat the bad teams. 

[Squirrel]

10 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

Living in Yankee country made the last 22 years much, much harder to take. 

I work with a couple of smug Yankee fans, What annoys me most when they try to say something to me about ‘owning’ the Twins, is how much one of them doesn’t know about the game or their own team. And he’s the worst of them.

[hitterscount]

Props to Rocco... using his two best relievers to close out a 4-run game and get the W. Thats great managing to get the W because there is no guarantee tomorrow.  

[Trov]

I wonder if people will stop saying Joe can only beat bad teams?  He has won 2 games against the Yankees, Boston, and Houston.  Botson and Houston were the games he gave the most runs, but they above league average in runs scored, and he still kept them under their average.  Really Houston he was great outside the one pitch for the grand slam. 

Sure looks like the offense was missing Polanco more than we knew.  I was always big on him, and he just seems to be that guy when healthy will lead the team. 

[John Belinski]

It looks like the Twins are finding the winning way to use pitchers. Have the starter pitch 7 innings and then bring in the Lopez and Duran to close the game. In the Twins long history they have had several very good closers and those teams were usually winners.  It appears they have 2 pitchers that could fill the closer role. Winning teams almost always have a good closer. The Yankees were good for many years because they had a great closer.

[Thebigalguy]

The boys of summer are having fun again. I just hope you didn't jinx Ryan with that 20 game winner flip off! He's worth celebrating, though, you're right about that, as is Polanco, who singlehandedly is bringing the bats back into play and waking up the other hitters. 

[nicksaviking]

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.

[Aggies7]

9 hours ago, jkcarew said:

I’m chuckling at all the posters that are ecstatic over the Yankees season series thing. I’m happy, don’t get me wrong. And, maybe it’s just because I’m old and can easily remember when the Twins were legitimately better than the Yankees…but here’s the thing…

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. (This, while the Yankees were competing in a superior, sometimes far superior, division as well.)

The Yankees were always the better team. And that’s what season series do. They mitigate extreme small-sample chance and separate the stronger team from the weaker team. (Or the very strong team from the strong one.) So, I honestly never felt ‘bad’ when we lost to the Yankees (just disappointed), nor did I ever feel that the Twins were unlucky, intimidated, or choking. I know it’s hard to accept across 21+ years, but sports can be cruel..especially when comparing your favorite team to the New York Yankees.

Anyway…that’s Step 1. Step 2: still be better than them in October.

The better team does not always win in baseball. You play a team 6-7 times a year and anything can happen. Pitching matchups/injuries may work in your favor or not. You may catch a team in a rut or on a run. Over the last ten years or so, the Yankees have been very beatable. That lineup tonight, yeesh. Not exactly Scott Brosious batting 9th. And no Mariano riveras coming out of the pen. This was long overdue.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Squirrel said:

I work with a couple of smug Yankee fans, What annoys me most when they try to say something to me about ‘owning’ the Twins, is how much one of them doesn’t know about the game or their own team. And he’s the worst of them.

Has anyone ever met a modest, humble Yankees fan?

[Aggies7]

1 hour ago, John Belinski said:

It looks like the Twins are finding the winning way to use pitchers. Have the starter pitch 7 innings and then bring in the Lopez and Duran to close the game. In the Twins long history they have had several very good closers and those teams were usually winners.  It appears they have 2 pitchers that could fill the closer role. Winning teams almost always have a good closer. The Yankees were good for many years because they had a great closer.

I remember last year all the arguments about how starters should not see the lineup a 3rd time yadda yadda yadda. Starters going 6-7 IP and turning it over to a set up guy(s) and the closer is usually a winning formula. The problem with last year was that the quick hook was predetermined. Yes, the starters are doing better this year, but that didn’t matter most times last season. You weren’t seeing that lineup a third time no matter how well you were doing. Let’s hope the days of 5 IP and jumbling together the finally 12 outs with a motley crew of relievers are long over 

[Longdistancetwins]

9 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Has anyone ever met a modest, humble Yankees fan?

There are plenty.  They are my friends here, and they worry a lot.

[Squirrel]

10 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Has anyone ever met a modest, humble Yankees fan?

I actually have. But the others ... no comment 😉

[Richie the Rally Goat]

11 hours ago, davidborton said:

79% strikes. I guess I did read that right. Good Grief!

That is POUNDING the ZONE!

[Longdistancetwins]

9 hours ago, jkcarew said:

I’m chuckling at all the posters that are ecstatic over the Yankees season series thing. I’m happy, don’t get me wrong. And, maybe it’s just because I’m old and can easily remember when the Twins were legitimately better than the Yankees…but here’s the thing…

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. (This, while the Yankees were competing in a superior, sometimes far superior, division as well.)

The Yankees were always the better team. And that’s what season series do. They mitigate extreme small-sample chance and separate the stronger team from the weaker team. (Or the very strong team from the strong one.) So, I honestly never felt ‘bad’ when we lost to the Yankees (just disappointed), nor did I ever feel that the Twins were unlucky, intimidated, or choking. I know it’s hard to accept across 21+ years, but sports can be cruel..especially when comparing your favorite team to the New York Yankees.

Anyway…that’s Step 1. Step 2: still be better than them in October.

I go back further than that, and I’ve felt this humiliation for a longer time here in the New York area.  Yes, the championship teams of 1987 and 1991 probably did well against the Yankees, but the mediocre Twins of the early 1970’s still lost A LOT to the mediocre Yankees of that time.

[terrydactyls]

I can put some of Solano's error on the attempted double play on the way today's players are taught to play 1st base.  When I was learning to play 1st base (and I know that was before Henry Ford rolled out his first car - almost), that throw would have hit me in the chest.  We were taught to have an initial stance with our left heel in contact with the outer edge of the left side of the x bag and the right foot similarly placed on the right side.  We then would shift our feet from one side of the base to the other dependent on where the throw was going.  In Solano's situation, I would have moved my left heel to the right side of 1st and stretched to the ball with my right leg keeping my body facing the throw.  If you watch the video, you can see that Solano stretches with his left leg prior to the throw and then stretching for the throw by crossing his left leg over his right leg causing him to almost have his back to the throw.  It's much easier to catch a ball if you're looking directly at it.  But, he should have caught that throw no matter how he played it (or didn't play it?).

[Blyleven2011]

Besides good pitching  , what was exciting  to watch was the twins hit a handful of doubles ...

The 2 run Homer's were nice too  ...

Also the great defensive play by Polanco was awesome  ...

I just might be on to something  when i say Polanco for MVP ...

[Steven Trefz]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Sometimes I think I should change my moniker to "Wins do Count" - starting pitchers accumulate wins by being in the game long enough to earn them.  RP wins mean nothing and I do wish the scorers would use their discretion to give wins to the most deserving.  But never-the-less, Joe Ryan is really showing something and it is a delight.  Not sure if it continues, but right now he and Gray are really giving us a great 1 - 2 (I know Lopez is good too).  

Now speaking of scorers - how does Solano not have two errors?  Brutal play at 1B.  And yes fielding at 1B does count too. 

Now if we could just learn to beat the bad teams. 

Agreed on 1B play, made evident by Gallo saving a throw late in the game once he entered...which could have been a momentum shift in the other direction.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

I remember last year all the arguments about how starters should not see the lineup a 3rd time yadda yadda yadda. Starters going 6-7 IP and turning it over to a set up guy(s) and the closer is usually a winning formula. The problem with last year was that the quick hook was predetermined. Yes, the starters are doing better this year, but that didn’t matter most times last season. You weren’t seeing that lineup a third time no matter how well you were doing. Let’s hope the days of 5 IP and jumbling together the finally 12 outs with a motley crew of relievers are long over 

The rotation last year just wasn’t good enough to get to the sixth and seventh inning with any regularity. They weren’t going to push Archer beyond 18-19 batters and there were reasons every time a guy was pulled “early”. It seemed someone in the rotation was coming off illness or injury and was ramping up for the entire season. This year, the rotation has been both effective and healthy. 

[Twins GFP]

Joe Ryan is looking more and more like the 2nd coming of Brad Radke.  Not an elite, but a 1-2 workhorse that gives the Twins a chance to win almost every night.  Really fun to watch him coming into his own.