Twins 3, Guardians 4: Klutzy in Cleveland

[Hans Birkeland]

Despite some late home runs that made it interesting and even briefly tied the game, the Twins fell to the Guardians due to a brutal stretch of infield defense and failing to build anything against rookie starter Logan Allen despite traffic on the base paths.

Image courtesy of © David Richard / USA Today

Box Score: Sonny Gray: 5 IP 4 H 3 ER 3 BB 6 SO (90 Pitches, 55 Strikes, 61%)
Home Runs: Kepler (5), Correa (5)
Bottom 3 WPA: Jorge Alcalá (-0.121), Byron Buxton (-0.121), Sonny Gray (-0.115)

Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

Sonny Gray struggles with control but holds it together despite his defense.
Coming off one of the finest months of his career, Gray was in command at the start, spotting his curveball, fastball, and two-seamer where he wanted and generally staying ahead of hitters. However, he completely lost control in the fourth inning, walking the unwalkable (and worst number two hitter in baseball) Amed Rosario and falling behind Jose Ramirez 3-0. Gray got Ramirez to hit a grounder, but Donovan Solano booted it, allowing Rosario to reach third. Josh Naylor then grounded to Miranda, who booted his third ball of the game, fell over, and allowed Ramirez to move up to third. Fighting his mechanics, Gray then allowed an RBI single to Josh Bell and walked Gabriel Arias and Myles Straw to force in another. How he retained his composure to finish the inning and pitch a scoreless fifth is a minor miracle.

Logan T. Allen keeps Twins off balance, minimizes damage
Gray’s counterpart consistently worked at a blistering pace with his fastball on the outside corner, getting a lot of weak contact early in counts. He allowed some traffic on the basepaths but made good pitches when he had to, throwing his fastball, cutter/sweeper, and change-up for strikes. If not for one Max Kepler, he likely would have worked six scoreless innings and left with a three-run lead.

More Kepler Magic
With the Twins lineup in a deep lull against Allen, Max Kepler followed an excuse-me single by Miranda by launching yet another home run, making the score 3-2 and justifying being in the lineup against a lefty.

Baldelli tossed, Bremer takes his side
Baldelli disputed the play, believing Ramirez was outside the base path as he averted Miranda’s tag.
 

Announcer Dick Bremer voiced his support of Baldelli, despite it not being a reviewable call. Umpires usually don’t make that call for more egregious baserunning ventures. In this writer’s opinion, the argument was a hollow excuse for the fourth fielding mistake in two innings for the increasingly error-prone Miranda and Solano. If this trend continues, Willi Castro has to feel more secure in his status on the active roster, even as Kyle Farmer and Royce Lewis get closer to returning to the team.

Alcalá returns and looks back to form...mostly
Jorge Alcalá returned from his brief banishment to Triple-A, pitching a scoreless sixth inning with two strikeouts. He showed improved command, throwing strikes with his slider and change-up. He got the first two outs of the seventh with little issue but tried to sneak a get-me-over slider by the homerless Steven Kwan, who deposited the pitch 402 feet to give Cleveland back the lead.

 

What’s Next: Joe Ryan (5-0, 2.37 ERA) goes up against Cal Quantrill (1-2, 4.73 ERA) as the Twins go for a series win in Cleveland. 

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
López	0	15	0	16	10	0	41
Stewart	0	24	0	16	0	0	40
Pagán	0	0	18	20	0	0	38
Morán	0	0	9	15	0	12	36
Durán	0	0	0	16	18	0	34
Alcala	0	0	0	0	0	29	29
Jax	0	9	15	0	0	0	24
Rodriguez	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

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[ashbury]

Bah.

Losses will happen.  I don't like for them to look bad doing it.

[Aerodeliria]

34 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Bah.

Losses will happen.  I don't like for them to look bad doing it.

My sentiments exactly...especially lack of focus on the defensive side.

[Jocko87]

Correct call on the Ramirez play.

[stringer bell]

Bad defense and uncharacteristic lack of command by Gray. A bad pitch to Kwan by Alcalá. The club needs to score more ways than hitting homers. Hopefully Kirilloff and Farmer will help in that regard. 
 

Going into thee game the Twins had three more hits than their opponents through the year, but had outscored them by 29 runs. Some of that is home run disparity (+17) and walk disparity (+16). 

[wabene]

The defense was brutal. That was not coaching, that was piss poor execution. 

[stringer bell]

The finale will now be a big game for both teams. Playing .500 on the road against the two teams projected to be in the race for the Central would be satisfactory. Continuing Cleveland's streak of losing series would also be good for the Twins. 

There are lots of guys who are struggling--Vazquez, Gallo, Correa, Miranda, and Solano to name a few. There's enough talent to be a better than a middle-of-the-road offense. They can't rely so much on the home run ball and they need to put better fielders in the game.

[h2oface]

Just because a player will or has or can play multiple infield positions, doesn't mean they should when they are really poor fielders. No mattter where you play Solano, he is a tremendous liability. His bat is not that beneficial, especially considering that he can cost games in the field.

I really don't like begging for the "out of the baseline" call, but it does seem that the Twins get that called against them too much when they do it just a little bit. It is a stupid rule, i think. There should be like 10 feet or so you can juke about. Runners are constantly out of the base line around third especially, but all the time running out doubles and triples and even on the homer trots. One shouldn't be allowed to be crazy and run in circles and outfield, etc, but they certainly should be able to move around within 10 feet each side of a straight line to avoid a tag. I mean really, you are supposed to try not to get tagged out. Miranda sure looked funny. It made me laugh.

[h2oface]

1 hour ago, wabene said:

The defense was brutal. That was not coaching, that was piss poor execution. 

One of Carlin's 7 words. Twins Daily getting racey. 😇 It's not 1978 anymore.

"In 1978, the Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision, ruled that the FCC's declaratory ruling did not violate either the First or Fifth Amendments, but it limited the scope of its decision to the specific broadcast that caused the declaratory ruling and declined to consider whether the FCC's definition of indecency would survive a First Amendment challenge if applied to the broadcast of other material containing the same or similar words which had been cited in Pacifica's brief (e.g., works of Shakespeare – "pissing conduits", "bawdy hand of the dial on the prick of noon"; the Bible – "he who pisseth against the wall"; the Watergate Tapes). It noted that while the declaratory ruling pertained to the meaning of the term "indecency" as used in a criminal statute (18 USC 1464), since the FCC had not imposed any penalty on Pacifica, the Court did not need to reach the question as to whether the definition was too vague to satisfy the due process requirements of the Fifth Amendment."

[USAFChief]

2 hours ago, ashbury said:

Bah.

Losses will happen.  I don't like for them to look bad doing it.

I don't like for them to give games away. Cleveland's entire 3 run inning featured one legit base hit. One.

 

 

[FlyingFinn]

2 hours ago, Jocko87 said:

Correct call on the Ramirez play.

Agreed. the legal baseline is not a line between 2nd and 3rd base. It is a line from where you are at when Miranda catches the ball from Correa. And you can still go three feet to the left or right of this line. Ramirez didn't go 3 feet to the right of that line. Rocco you have this one wrong.

[Nashvilletwin]

2 hours ago, h2oface said:

No mattter where you play Solano, he is a tremendous liability.

Couldn’t agree more.  Why is he getting precious AB’s vs. others who need them (other than being right handed)?  Lewis can’t get here fast enough. 

[mikelink45]

Solano has a -0.2 WAR and that has to be from his defense.  There are enough players to cover 1B that we do not need him out there.  His bat is not that valuable.  If we want someone with limited defense and good offense - Julien is waiting for the call.  But Solano has more errors than are recorded and just is not worth a place on the 26.

[rv78]

The trends continue, they score by the HR and don't score in any other way. 0 fer 7 with runners in scoring position and 16 LOB. Rocco won't manufacture a run. Thinks he has to play everyone even if they aren't his main players which means he is NOT putting his best team on the field every night costing the team wins. Gallo has found his norm and is now hitting .191. C4, the $33M dollar man is not far behind hitting a paltry .200. Glad they broke open the bank for the cheater. Two of the worst signings in Twins history. One would think you could get more for $44.5 Million.

[jmlease1]

15 minutes ago, rv78 said:

The trends continue, they score by the HR and don't score in any other way. 0 fer 7 with runners in scoring position and 16 LOB. Rocco won't manufacture a run. Thinks he has to play everyone even if they aren't his main players which means he is NOT putting his best team on the field every night costing the team wins. Gallo has found his norm and is now hitting .191. C4, the $33M dollar man is not far behind hitting a paltry .200. Glad they broke open the bank for the cheater. Two of the worst signings in Twins history. One would think you could get more for $44.5 Million.

From this comment you would think the Twins are in last place in the division rather than first!

Scoring runs by HR is a great way to put a lot of runs up on the board. Worked for Earl Weaver, he's only in the hall of fame.

It's a long season. Twins (and this is an organizational decision, not just Rocco, it's everyone, including the players) are trying to keep everyone healthy and fresh for the full season, and one of the ways you do that is using your entire roster. Burn everyone up by the end of May and the team will collapse in September.

Gallo has an OPS+ of 143. He's played excellent defense at multiple positions. Calling this one of the worst signings in Twins history is absurd. Batting average is not the only stat that matters. Correa has started out slow at the plate (his defense has been quality, though) but evaluating his signing and contract based on 30 games is kinda crazy.

[CoastiePilot08]

The Solano experiment needs to end 

[Linus]

Agree with the comments on Solano. Unfortunately Miranda is worse in the field. He will be a dh soon so he better start hitting.  

[stringer bell]

4 minutes ago, Linus said:

Agree with the comments on Solano. Unfortunately Miranda is worse in the field. He will be a dh soon so he better start hitting.  

Maybe platoon first baseman? Keep him in the lineup often, but not regularly at third and have him at first against left handers. Also, he could fill in if Buxton takes a day off. 

[Blyleven2011]

Though I Didn't have the opportunity to watch the game but heard on the radio a few innings  , I did catch the the bad defense  inning on the radio  ...

I ditto  everything that has been posted , it was a sloppy game defensively   , pitching was okay and kept us in the game  ,  the biggest culprit is the hitting  , would love to see some singles and doubles to manufacture runs than just relying on the homeruns , more patience at the plate with discipline to draw walks or hit it where they ain't   ....

 the lineup hasn't been all that great to watch and where's the spark ...

Sure miss major leaguer  ( arraez  ) , he's hitting  , hitting and keeps on hitting  , batting around 420 , the spark has left us ...

[Linus]

4 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Maybe platoon first baseman? Keep him in the lineup often, but not regularly at third and have him at first against left handers. Also, he could fill in if Buxton takes a day off. 

Yea he’s pretty bad at first too. He really lacks instincts in the field and isn’t quick. I do think he will be a good hitter so maybe dh and backup at first and third. Right now I would put Farmer at third and send Miranda down for a bit. 

[Daniel Anderson]

I still hold out hope for Miranda becoming a solid defender at third. On one hand he seems to struggle with routine plays to his left, but then he makes what appear to be tougher plays coming in on the ball. I think the baseline play should have been irrelevant as Gray should have been quicker to cover third.

Painful to watch Kwan's homer on a grooved slider after Hawkins pointed out that he couldn't catch up with Alcala's fastball.

[Linus]

Anybody else notice Sonny Gray evading the pitch clock?  He would turn around so Jeffers couldn’t get him the ball and start the timer. Ironically it was when he was slowing down and getting the violations that his control left him. The league is going to have to close up some loopholes. 

[tony&rodney]

Most predicted the Twins for 80-90 wins. They are on track. Mistakes happen. 

I am in favor of Julien still as the DH and leadoff batter, but that doesn't work with Byron entrenched as our DH. Gallo is doing what was predicted mol and playing decent defense. Miranda looks nervous. Solano is doing his best, but we see why the Giants, who loved him, had to let him go. Correa is in a slump but still really solid at shortstop. An aside, the comments from anyone/anywhere singling out Correa as a cheater are dated and out of context, making those holding their venom sound bitter, silly, and out of tune. Remember that the Yankees, Red Sox, and as many as ten other teams were actively involved in using electronics to "cheat" and that the Twins quickly embraced Marwin Gonzalez, the player on those Astros teams who benefitted much more than any other player. 

The pitching has carried the offense thus far this season and we can expect some of the bats to rebound as the schedule moves along. The Twins are doing pretty good, which was the expectation all along.

[Johnny Ringo]

To focus on Solana is misplaced. He was always intended to be a bit role player and likely only on the roster for a year, max.  Lewis is a younger, better, cheaper righty option. Rocco is waiting at the train station for him to arrive.

But what is abundantly clear and far more important are the problems with Miranda. He was thought to be a cornerstone piece for the franchise. But he isn't hitting and he can't field.

The FO flung players around this off-season like confetti. But I said then and I say now, giving Urshela away for nothing (our 4th best WAR player in 2022) makes no sense ever, even if you thought you had a sure-fire alternative.  I have never hear Miranda described thusly by anyone.  

Where does the FO make their money? Who cares if the A's fire their people and hire a banana to replace them? They win 40 rather than  42 games. So what? But for a team like the Twins a few wins represents the difference between the playoffs and another cold October.

Urshela wins that game last night. WAR!!!!!!!! What is it good for? Absolutely everything. 

  

 

[MABB1959]

I agree that they are in a good spot for the AL central and you can’t win every game and mistakes happen.  But it is not early anymore.  I think negativity comes because it seems like more often than not in late September the team always find themselves in the “need to win ## games to make the playoffs.  The 1 game playoff never goes their way.  That is what is frustrating about the giveaway games where they don’t play their best players.  Glad to see Buxton not getting rest days mostly because he is DH and that shouldn’t require rest days.   If I could have a wish, it would be to have a regular stable lineup.  

[jmlease1]

12 minutes ago, Johnny Ringo said:

To focus on Solana is misplaced. He was always intended to be a bit role player and likely only on the roster for a year, max.  Lewis is a younger, better, cheaper righty option. Rocco is waiting at the train station for him to arrive.

But what is abundantly clear and far more important are the problems with Miranda. He was thought to be a cornerstone piece for the franchise. But he isn't hitting and he can't field.

The FO flung players around this off-season like confetti. But I said then and I say now, giving Urshela away for nothing (our 4th best WAR player in 2022) makes no sense ever, even if you thought you had a sure-fire alternative.  I have never hear Miranda described thusly by anyone.  

Where does the FO make their money? Who cares if the A's fire their people and hire a banana to replace them? They win 40 rather than  42 games. So what? But for a team like the Twins a few wins represents the difference between the playoffs and another cold October.

Urshela wins that game last night. WAR!!!!!!!! What is it good for? Absolutely everything. 

  

 

Urshela has been pretty bad this season. Also, we didn't give him away for nothing: you might notice the Twins Daily story on the player we acquired for him is doing pretty well in the minors. Miranda hit roughly as well as Urshela last season and there really wasn't room for both on the roster. Miranda is younger and cheaper with more upside. Urshela can't play SS or 2B any longer (and considering how much he's been playing 1B for the Angels, maybe there's questions about how much he can do at 3B going forward) and we needed to add a guy who could backup SS...which we got in Farmer.

If Farmer doesn't get beaned by Giolito, I think we probably see him playing some 3B and giving Miranda a break to hopefully find his swing again. But a freak accident that has ended player's careers took him out of the team for a while . Thankfully, he's rehabbing well and looks close to rejoining the team, which seem miraculous.

But let's not let the Myth of Urshela make us crazy. I liked him last season and he played well for us. But with Correa back there really wasn't a fit for him and he wasn't worth the arbitration number to fill the Donovan Solano role. Considering how he's hit this season, seems like the right decision.

[Whitey333]

Love the Twins and follow them daily.  But I can't let my loyalty overshadow what I see on the field.  I like home runs but relying on them to play winning baseball seems a little counter productive.  We have very little clutch hitting , sloppy defense too often, no base stealing to speak of.  Station to station baseball is boring.   Yes they are in first place in a very boring central division.  That doesn't make them a first place caliber team. Correa is proving he is way overrated and overpaid.  The only time he hit well last year was when the Twins were well out of the race and he was facing a lot of sub major league pitchers trying to prove themselves.  It just bogles the mind how many Correa fans there are here.  No wonder he likes it here.  There's very little pressure to perform.  You don't get much for 33 million a year anymore.  It's time for the star players to start putting up the offense on a regular basis.  Since they started the season at 4-0 with 3 of those coming against a very poor Royals team, the Twins are 15-15.  Probably all that we can expect from this bunch.

[chinmusic]

1 hour ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Sure miss major leaguer  ( arraez  ) , he's hitting 

Yeah, but not known for his fielding. He ain't no Brooks Robinson.

The ongoing evolution of the Twins this year, both offensively and pitching wise, is fun to watch. 

But defense really is a huge issue.

 

 

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, Johnny Ringo said:

I said then and I say now, giving Urshela away for nothing (our 4th best WAR player in 2022) makes no sense ever,

Except that the Twins did get Farmer, a far superior defender than Urshela. Injuries are impossible to predict, especially a HBP. The Twins will be fine.

[MMMordabito]

WPA doesn't work in Miranda's case. He easily led the team in win-probability-fumbled-and-destroyed yesterday evening.