Twins 8, Dodgers 9 (12 Innings): Back and Forth Battle Ultimately Ends with a Loss

[Nate Palmer]

The Twins and Dodgers went back and forth into the early hours of the morning. Eventually the Dodgers lineup, fueled by Max Muncy's thunder, was too much for the Twins as they lose in 12 innings. 

Image courtesy of Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Pablo Lopez: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 4 K (92 pitches, 68 strikes (73.9%)
Home Runs: Jorge Polanco (4), Trevor Larnach (5)
Bottom 3 WPA: Pablo Lopez (-0.293), Alex Kirilloff (-0.264) Griffin Jax (-0.241)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Minnesota Twins roll into Los Angeles looking to answer the test of a West coast road trip. While the Dodgers may not be the Dodgers of the past several seasons, their roster still will provide a tall task for the Twins. 

The Twins thought they found the answer to the test in a bases-loaded walk by Christian Vazquez to put the Twins up 8-7. That wasn’t the answer. Instead, it was the Dodgers who aced the test with their own bases-loaded walk with Trayce Thompson at the plate. It was a wild ride of a game even in a loss, so let’s take a closer look at it.  

Dodgers bats get going early
The first inning was not good for the Twins as the Dodgers bats got off to a hot start against Pablo Lopez. Veteran Freddie Freeman started the hitting with a single through the right side of the infield, setting up Will Smith. Smith took a Lopez four-seamer and put it in the seats for a two-run homerun—his seventh of the season. 

In the next at-bat, Max Muncy did the exact same thing. He took a Lopez four-seam fastball and turned it into a home run to put the Dodgers up 3-0. The three-run first continues a trend from Lopez of giving up runs in the first inning. Lopez has given up runs in the first inning of each start since his clean opening day outing. 

If the first inning wasn’t enough of a nightmare. Just as the Twins thought they had ended the inning on a ground out of Jason Heyward. The Dodgers challenged the play, and the officials ruled catcher's interference on Christian Vazquez. Thankfully, it didn’t lead to any more runs, and Lopez was able to retire Miguel Vargas for the third out. 

Hustle and Power
With one out in the second inning, Jorge Polanco hit a grounder to Dodgers first baseman Freeman which he fielded in foul territory. In a foot race with the starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard, Polanco was just able to beat him to the bag with a feet-first slide. 

With Kyle Farmer at the plate, Polanco successfully stole his first base of the season. Now in scoring position for Farmer, the Twins third baseman hit a single up the middle giving Polanco ample time to score the Twins first run of the game, making it 3-1. 

Polanco didn’t only show off with his hustle. He flashed his power too. In the fourth inning, Polanco took Syndergaard deep to right field for his fourth home run of 2023. He hit another ball hard in the eighth which had a chance to be a home run but ended up as a double. Polanco finished the night 3-for-4, with two runs scored. 

Rough Outing for Lopez
Lopez has largely been reliably consistent for the Twins this season. Monday night, the Dodgers chased the right-hander after 4 2/3 innings—his second-shortest start of the season.

 As was mentioned on the television broadcast several times, the difference between a solid start and the one we saw was likely one bad changeup to Muncy, who took Lopez deep for his second home run of the night and his 14th of the season. 

Mixed Bullpen Results
Former Dodger Brock Stewart came in for the Twins in relief of Lopez. Like he has shown an ability to do early in his time with the Twins, Stewart held the Dodgers scoring at bay. In 1 1/3 innings, Stewart only gave up two hits while striking out one. 

Emilio Pagan was the next arm up, and while he has found his groove comparatively to last season. He couldn’t hold off Freeman, who got to him for a hard shot off the outfield wall—allowing Mookie Betts to score. 

Griffin Jax also struggled as he gave up some hard and loud outs until they weren’t outs any longer. David Peralta doubled in a run on a questionable fair or foul call down the first base line. Maybe Jax is truly the most unlucky pitcher.  

As the arms were used up, both Jhoan Duran and Jorge Lopez were asked to stretch into a second inning of work. In the end, both wound up giving up runs after getting through their first inning of work. It will be interesting how game one’s bullpen usage impacts the rest of the series.

Larnach Trusts the Process 
It has been well documented that Trevor Larnach has not had a good time at the plate lately. That carried well into Monday evening as he started the game 0-for-2. What must have been frustrating for Larnach was he was making excellent contact on the ball with exit velocities of 107 and 108 mph on line outs to right field and left field. 

That all turned around in the 8th inning. With two runners on, Larnach got a fastball from Yency Almonte and took it deep to right-center field to tie the game 6-6. The result was better, and so was the exit velocity as the ball got up to 112 mph.

The At-Bat that Altered the Game
Now rarely does it seem write to blame the umpires or officials for the outcome of a game. In such a close back and forth contest, Phil Cuzzi certainly put himself in that place. While Alex Kirilloff was up to bat in the 10th innings, Cuzzi called two pitches on either side of the plate as strikes that were well off the plate. Two pitches that Kirilloff took expecting to get a ball and instead got two strikes and a strikeout. 

It was so bad even the Dodgers announcers recognized what was going on.

What’s Next? 
Tuesday night, veteran ace Clayton Kershaw will take the mound for the Dodgers even after losing his grandmother over the weekend. When the Twins saw Kershaw at the beginning of last season, he tossed seven no-hit innings. Something the Twins will hope not to see repeated as they send Bailey Ober to the mound. Ober will look to continue his strong performance since stepping into the rotation. 

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Sands	0	0	54	0	0	54
Pagán	12	0	0	23	18	53
Stewart	25	0	0	0	28	53
Lopez	15	0	0	9	26	50
Alcala	0	33	0	13	0	46
Jax	0	26	0	0	13	39
Morán	0	9	24	0	0	33
Durán	0	0	0	0	18	18

 

UPDATE: Added the Phil Cuzzi Ump Scorecard for fun...

 

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[h2oface]

There was some great baseball tonight. A real heart breaker. 11 straight losses to the Dodgers. This one, on a walk off walk to a .125 hitter with a 3-2 count with the bases loaded on 2 IBBs and a free runner in the 12th. And Trace Thompson hasn't got a hit since April 17!

[LiamC]

I checked in on mlb.com expecting the game to have already ended and saw the Kirilloff at-bat there. Yikes.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

There was a lot to like in spite of the loss:

• The Twins never lay down
• All starters but Gallo reached base at least once; multiple hits for Buck, Polanco and Vasquez
• Better BA (.265 v .244), OBP (.357 v .306) and RISP (4/17 v 2/12) than the Blu Boyz
• Twins hitters rogered the Dodger bullpen
• One steal and two successful pickoffs for the Good Guyz

Take away Muncy's dongs and the Twins win.

Edited May 16, 2023 by VivaBomboRivera!
missing decimal point

[bighat]

Great write-up, a shame it looks like I missed a good ballgame here on the East Coast. 

11 straight losses to LAD, including a heartbreaker where they used up the bullpen in the opener on the road? It would be hard to not think the Twins get swept here. These aren't the Cubs. 

Great to see the offense continuing to put up runs, that's 3 games in a row. Larnach heating up and making hard contact. Would be nice to see Buxton start to heat up again, he's a difference maker when he's hot. 

Giffin Jax in May: 

5.2 IP, 9 hits, 5 BB, and a 6.35 ERA. It might be time to start considering putting him on the St. Paul shuttle. 

 

[Vanimal46]

Phil Cuzzi has to be better than that. When both broadcast teams agree that Kirilloff had no chance you know it’s bad. 

[mikelink45]

Thank you for putting up the announcers for both teams - that really put Cuzzi in perspective.  Do umpires get rated?  I have seen past games where he has been questionable too.  Is this the rookie treatment?  If so that has to go.  Kiriloff has learned the strikezone and deserves to be rewarded for that. 

This is the best argument for Robot umps.  

[UK Twin]

Hi,

I've browsed this site for a couple of years now and finally created an account. Given this game started at 3.10am UK time I was able to catch extra innings when I woke up. Encouraging that the Twins fought back from 5 runs behind and should have won, if not for some awful umpiring. Obviously we don't know what Kirilloff would have done had those "strikes" been called balls but he would have had a hitters count, Bickford couldn't throw a strike, AK has been really good at the plate so I would have backed him to at least get the runner in from third. I still cannot believe Bickford got those two strikes. When a pitcher is that wild, normally the umpire wouldn't give you any leeway at all. It must have taken AK all of his self control not to get thrown out (well done him as Rocco had pretty much emptied his bench by that stage). It's hard enough to beat the Dodgers without stuff like this. I can't say I'm very confident about the next game either - the last time we faced Kershaw he was throwing a no hitter (possibly a perfect game) before he was pulled. Oh and please stop hanging those breaking balls Duran! That was a bit of a sickener on an 0-2 count. 

[Major League Ready]

The arm side run on the 1st pitch to Kirilloff has to be really tough for an umpire to determine if the pitch clips the front of the strike zone.  The call on the inside pitch was simply horrible.   Instances like the Kirilloff's AB are why we will have an electronic strike zone in the next couple of years.  I just can't understand how anyone would prefer human error be allowed to impact a close ballgame like this one when it can be eliminated.  Kirilloff took a good approach and the umpire took that AB away from Kirilloff and the Twins in a crucial spot.

[William K Johnson]

Cuzzi is terrible.   Will never forget his foul ball on Mauer against the Yankees in a critical playoff game.   Ball was three feet fair, and he was the left-field umpire and was only a couple of feet away from where it hit.  Yet calls it foul.

[jmlease1]

wow. when the other announcing team is that explicit in how badly Kirilloff got screwed...that's something. I am indeed ready for the electronic strike zone. It seems like it's every game now that there's a howler.

[Nivaboy]

12 minutes ago, UK Twin said:

Hi,

I've browsed this site for a couple of years now and finally created an account. Given this game started at 3.10am UK time I was able to catch extra innings when I woke up. Encouraging that the Twins fought back from 5 runs behind and should have won, if not for some awful umpiring. Obviously we don't know what Kirilloff would have done had those "strikes" been called balls but he would have had a hitters count, Bickford couldn't throw a strike, AK has been really good at the plate so I would have backed him to at least get the runner in from third. I still cannot believe Bickford got those two strikes. When a pitcher is that wild, normally the umpire wouldn't give you any leeway at all. It must have taken AK all of his self control not to get thrown out (well done him as Rocco had pretty much emptied his bench by that stage). It's hard enough to beat the Dodgers without stuff like this. I can't say I'm very confident about the next game either - the last time we faced Kershaw he was throwing a no hitter (possibly a perfect game) before he was pulled. Oh and please stop hanging those breaking balls Duran! That was a bit of a sickener on an 0-2 count. 

Welcome! 

[Nine of twelve]

I didn't see any of this game. When I checked on the outcome this morning I was disappointed in the Twins for scoring only once in the 10th inning after having the bases loaded with no outs. And then I saw the Kirilloff strikeout. Now instead I'm disappointed in Phil Cuzzi. I believe that Cuzzi truly thought those pitches were strikes, which shows two things. One, some umpires are better than others (and Cuzzi is not one of the better ones). Two, the outcome of this game was almost certainly changed by these incorrect calls, and this would not have happened with electronic pitch calling. While Cuzzi is largely to blame for the Kirilloff strikeout, MLB is also culpable for not implementing electronic pitch calling. Everyone who has studied this matter knows that the electronic system is more accurate than the best human umpires. While there are reasons to prefer human pitch calling over electronic pitch calling in the Major Leagues there are no good reasons--absolutely none--to do so. I am disgusted.

[Nine of twelve]

27 minutes ago, William K Johnson said:

Cuzzi is terrible.   Will never forget his foul ball on Mauer against the Yankees in a critical playoff game.   Ball was three feet fair, and he was the left-field umpire and was only a couple of feet away from where it hit.  Yet calls it foul.

And this is the 14th season since that happened in which he has continued to umpire. It's unconscionable that MLB has not relieved him of duty.

[Peter]

And you wonder why abuse towards officials/umpires happen? This is why. Total crap that twins lost as umpires won game for dodgers-robot umpires/officials need to happen in all sports. 

[UK Twin]

If MLB aren't going to implement electronic strike zones then the very least they need to do is to introduce the ability to challenge ball and strike calling. It would take 10 seconds to check whether a pitch was a ball or a strike. 

[Nine of twelve]

10 minutes ago, UK Twin said:

If MLB aren't going to implement electronic strike zones then the very least they need to do is to introduce the ability to challenge ball and strike calling. It would take 10 seconds to check whether a pitch was a ball or a strike. 

Why have challenges? In a challenge the electronic call supersedes the human call. So just use the electronic call in the first place.

[UK Twin]

7 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

Why have challenges? In a challenge the electronic call supersedes the human call. So just use the electronic call in the first place.

I agree but this is Manfred we're talking about. And I suspect the Umpire's Association will strongly oppose to an electronic strike zone. The ability to challenge calls could be the compromise.

[Nine of twelve]

Just now, UK Twin said:

I agree but this is Manfred we're talking about. And I suspect the Umpire's Association will strongly oppose to an electronic strike zone. The ability to challenge calls could be the compromise.

My patience regarding this issue has evaporated. At this point I say **** both Manfred and the union. Just get the right thing done.

[TroyVang]

At the very least, Jax needs to be moved down the bullpen pecking order. I don't have the answer who moves up, but it has been rough watching Jax in high-leverage situations over the last few weeks.

[umterp23]

My understanding of the challenge is that the electronic call can overturn a bad human umpire call, thus the challenge capability exists in the minor leagues at select levels and games to work out the kinks.

While yes umpires had their moments last night of being awful, let's not forget that we were 4-17 with RISP.  If we could have come up clutch prior to the extra inning opportunities we wouldn't have to worry about umps getting in the way.

Tough road ahead, character of the team will be on display tonight

[ChermesZ]

Umpires cannot hide from data.  Time for them to adjust.

 

Umpscorecards.com

[John Belinski]

It is really disappointing to lose a game like this when Twins have bases loaded and no outs, but do not score a run. Then Rocco makes another great statement when he said J Lopez pitched a good game, but any pitcher that walks in the winning run did not pitch good.  There is just NO excuse for walking in the winning run plus the batter hasn't had a hit for 2 or 3 weeks. Just throw a fastball down the middle.  Who calls the pitches? 

[hybridbear]

Wow! Cuzzi needs to be suspended by MLB for that. Time for the robot strike zone. That is ridiculous!

[mikelink45]

I had to dive a little deeper into the umpires.  Here is process for grading umpires..  The report on ESPN said, "These numbers do not square with the metrics provided by independent evaluators. UmpScores said the best home-plate umpire in baseball last year, Tripp Gibson, graded out around 93.6% accurate. Four umpires last season, according to UmpScores, missed on more than 10% of pitches they called for balls and strikes." 

His accuracy is 26% below expected.  How can that be accepted?

[tarheeltwinsfan]

6 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

 

Take away Muncy's dongs and the Twins win.

And if a mouse had wings, he could fly.

[DJL44]

If you need a challenge system it would be for a human umpire to overturn the electronic system, not the other way around. For instance, an electronic strike zone set at the front of the plate does not know if the pitch bounced before it crosses the plate.

[Old Twins Cap]

If Cuzzi were consistent, Thompson gets called out and they play on.

That's the beef here, Cuzzi fundamentally decided the outcome of the game.

Maybe over the course of the season, that evens out.  In reality, the level of the miss here is so egregious that it will never even out.

The Twins never got evened out on Cuzzi's call in New York in the playoffs in '04.  In my mind, I still see the cameras zooming in on the exact spot where the ball landed:  you could see the imprint on the fair side of the dirt portion of the line -- Mauer's double becoming simply another foul ball;  Gardy in the dugout oblivious to the awfulness of the call.

[CoastiePilot08]

No one has mentioned the phantom double that should have been foul. 
 

The AK “strike” was in the same location as ball 4 on the walk-off. 
 

this kind of BS makes MLB a turn off for casual fans. Fix the BS. 

[Whitey333]

I agree with all the negativity directed at the umpires.  Cuzzi is, and always has been one of the worst umpires in MLB.  That being said, all you hear Baldelli talking about is how the umpiring cost them the game. That is the Twins refrain.  If you lose a close game blame it on the umpires.  What about leaving 15 runners on base?  What about a woefil 4-17 with runners in scoring position?  What about bases loaded and no outs in the 10th and only scoring one run? And that was on a walk.  What about the winning run scoring on a bases loaded walk?  He was in an 0-30 slump.  How can you not throw strikes to him?  How about a lineup that features Gallo at leadoff.  Leadoff mind you is not where a lifetime. 199 hitter should be in the batting order.  Go