Twins 5, Dodgers 1: Kyle Farmer Vanquishes Dodger Stadium Curse

[aberamsey]

1 hour ago, umterp23 said:

Farmer a really good story for the Twins this year.  I know people are clamoring for Lewis to take 3rd in June, but if Farmer keeps playing the way he is, why bump him off the bag?  Castro under the radar type of contributor and Solano has his moments.  Do we try and trade Gordon for minor league prospect if we bring Lewis up?  Tough decision and but nice to have to make one vs a necessity move because guys aren't worthy.

I get your point but also think back to the energy that Lewis brought the team last year in his short stint prior to injury. He gives them an element of speed that they are lacking right now, along with his solid bat. You continue to give Farmer at bats in the utility role that he does well, third, SS, second, etc, while injecting the youth, defense and speed of Lewis into the lineup. 

[arby58]

29 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Some stats to highlight--.231 team BA ranks 25th in MLB. 15 SB rank next to last, however team OPS is 15th and in runs per game the Twins rank 10th. They are going to win a lot of games if they score 5 runs or more, as they have in the last four games. 

They rank 6th in home runs - like it or not, this isn't a team that is going to regularly string together three hits to score a run. Joey Gallo has 21 his on the season, and an incredible 15 of them are extra base hits. The good news is just a week ago, the Twins were last in batting average, so they're moving up - as is Gallo, whose batting average is now 'up' to .214.

[UK Twin]

3 minutes ago, Jkeady12 said:

Just a great performance all around, quite a few heroes. However literally the most exciting thing of the game was seeing Buxton run. When Byron is allowed to be a difference maker on the bases it is an entirely different team. Just imagine if/when he gets the green light to play center!!

It's great fun watching Buck play in CF but I really don't see the need right now. I'd rather he increase his aggression on the bases first. We've got the luxury of Taylor in CF so I want to see Buck regularly stealing bases before he gets back in CF. 

[jmlease1]

21 minutes ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I really like Correa's skip throw to 1B for an out. Trevor Plouffe said that an infielder does not lose any time using a skip throw to 1B. Trevor said he practiced it and timed it. It makes sense, because a skip throw is low, allowing the first baseman to stretch to the max to receive the throw low. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and in order for the first baseman to stretch to the max, the throw must be low.

That was an absolutely elite play. Correa first had to go a ways to get it, had to react to farmer not being able to make a play on it in front of him, and then make a really long throw with velocity and accuracy. he placed the skip perfectly so the ball came off the grass cleanly and turned it into almost an easy play for Kirilloff. Loved that. Correa may be scrabbling and inconsistent at the plate right now, but it's not impacting his defense.

Funny how Solano and Castro (who have been the most frequent "get rid of them!" targets around here, including by me) stepped up tonight. But it was good to get as many RH bats in the lineup tonight against Kershaw, who is still a monster, and the 2 LH bats were Kirilloff and Gallo who have relative neutral splits.

I'm a big fan of Moran, even if his control can be maddening. I just love that change-up, and he got the job done last night with the bullpen a bit overtaxed from the long game the night before.

[John Belinski]

2 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Loved that squeeze bunt by Jeffers to score Buxton. Just shows that there are all sorts of creative ways to score runs when you need to. 

I was shocked when Rocco called that play.  I have always assumed that Rocco did not know what a bunt was so was really surprised when he called that play. I guess Rocco saw how many times the Twins had runners on third and did not score so decided to try the bunt. Maybe we will see more bunts to move runners over.

What a game! The second surprise was when Jax came in and did not allow a run. One of the best games of the year for the Twins.

[terrydactyls]

This has nothing to do with last night's game.  But because there are so many comments about the game, I want to ask a question.  What does the entry in the comment section of some articles that says "Comments are deleted for future articles" mean?

[mikelink45]

After reading the comments I thought about this - where would we be if we had not signed Correa and Farmer was our SS?  

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, umterp23 said:

Farmer a really good story for the Twins this year.  I know people are clamoring for Lewis to take 3rd in June, but if Farmer keeps playing the way he is, why bump him off the bag?  Castro under the radar type of contributor and Solano has his moments.  Do we try and trade Gordon for minor league prospect if we bring Lewis up?  Tough decision and but nice to have to make one vs a necessity move because guys aren't worthy.

 

Royce Lewis is playing like he deserves a position somewhere. No rust at all with a .455/.539/.818 slash line (plus 3 stolen bases) so far. Farmer is hitting WELL above his established past performance.

[JD-TWINS]

8 hours ago, UK Twin said:

Bailey Ober - you just outdueled Clayton Kershaw in LA. Take. A. Bow. What a response to a really tough loss. I was honestly expecting LA to sweep this series so the fact we've won one and could easily have won the other game is really encouraging. 

Good to see Moran step up when we really needed him to. Still needs to work on his control, but he got 4 outs at the end of the day.

The FO deserve quite a lot of credit for acquiring Farmer and Taylor. They have really exceeded my expectations. And Farmer has had to recover from taking a fastball to the face! I've got huge respect for him for carrying on as if nothing happened.

Farmer has been under appreciated with his positional flexibility and clutch offensive performances from the start of the season. Since he’s taken Miranda’s spot, we’re 5-2 and he’s hitting around .400 with 2 homers. Agreed - FO brought in some guys that are essentially all contributing - Vazquez had 5 hits & a walk in his last 2 starts - Solano, like a lot of guys, is up & down but gives us a chance with experience in his role. Taylor has been steady & done everything we could expect!

[stringer bell]

Nick Gordon has played more center field lately. He made a couple of outstanding catches, but I still believe he’s a step below Taylor in CF. The thought that occurred to me was whether Nick would have caught the short fly that Taylor caught on the run in the eighth inning. Maybe, maybe not. That was a ball that many if not most center fielders catch and in this case it might have been the difference in the game. 
 

I wouldn’t be surprised if Gordon is the starting center fielder in today’s matinee. It seems it is his way to playing time with the roster as constructed. 

[Fire Dan Gladden]

8 hours ago, Rik19753 said:

The offseason additions, which seemed uninspiring before the season, has really carried the team. Besides the two that you mentioned, I can pretty much find a positive for every player they added.

Joey Gallo: His tremendous power, and solid on-base skills have been crucial given the early season offensive struggles. He provides good defense as well.

Christian Vazquez: Offense hasn't been great, but the I think we can attribute at least a part of the resurgent pitching performance to his game calling behind the plate.

Willi Castro: Wasn't impressed by him at the beginning of the season, but he seems to do a lot of things well that don't show up on the stat sheet. He's played every position besides 1st and C and has 3 DRS (defensive runs saved) according to Fangraphs. He seems to run the bases well (4 steals) and hits the ball decently hard. His defensive flexibility has definitely allowed Rocco to be more aggressive with in-game substitutions.

Pablo Lopez: Hasn't been great recently, but the upside is clearly there and he is at worst a decent No.2.

Brock Stewart: He looks a lot like Pagan from last year, but without the HRs. As long as he keeps the ball in the ballpark I think he's can be at least a mid-level reliever, which we sorely need with Alcala struggling and Thielbar injured.

 

Kudos to the FO for seeing the value in these players. They were exactly the types of additions we needed to shore up our depth.

What?  Positive comments about the FO?  What planet am I on?

[Nivaboy]

1 hour ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I really like Correa's skip throw to 1B for an out. Trevor Plouffe said that an infielder does not lose any time using a skip throw to 1B. Trevor said he practiced it and timed it. It makes sense, because a skip throw is low, allowing the first baseman to stretch to the max to receive the throw low. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and in order for the first baseman to stretch to the max, the throw must be low.

I feel like this doesn't get talked about enough. I've seen him use the skip throw a lot when trying to make a tough/close play. Agree with everything you said, I think it also allows him to give a little extra "mustard" on the throw while staying relatively controlled when he has to throw off-balance. It's really fun to watch and I don't see it being used that often from other shortstops around the league (don't watch a lot of baseball outside of the Twins so maybe others do use it). 

[GNess]

Great bounce back win. Marker of a quality team.

There are some decisions to be made in the near-medium term:

1. Where will Lewis play? 3b (Then where does Farmer play?)

2. When will Buxton be in CF? How often? (This will allow much greater line up flexibility.)

3. If the BP needs an arm or two added via a trade(s) who is expendable and still has some trade value?

[stringer bell]

Farmer will regress to the mean about as certainly as Correa. He’s a starter for a second division club and a valuable bench piece for a contender. Having him available to start against lefties and fill in at three positions is really valuable. If Lewis is healthy (sure appears to be!), he’s the third baseman. 
 

I will believe Buxton in center field when I see it. We’re past “mid May” and AFAIK he’s not even started to prep to play in the field. An injury to Taylor might get that particular ball rolling, but it might not happen this season. 
 

I doubt the Twins trade major league talent to acquire bullpen help. If they get a guy or two, I would expect they part with prospects, probably from A ball or below at the deadline. 
 

 

[Beast]

Huge bounce back win after one of the most epic and blatant ump screw jobs in MLB history..  That’s not easy to do - ask the Minnesota Wild.  Should be up 2-0, already locking up the series win. But what can you do?

Ober continues to expose the absolutely awful decision to send him to AAA so they could continue to run zombie Kenta Maeda out there.  Who knows how many games that cost us.  If their hand wasn’t forced, we’d probably still be burning these superb outings in AAA while the back end of our rotation loses games.  That’s concerning to me.  The FO deserves a ton of credit in some aspects, they also deserve to be roasted in others.

Overall, pretty happy with how things are going right now.

[South Dakota Tom]

It’s going to be a Gray May Day in LA today.  Hoping for a series win!

[Kummel]

Love how these guys came back after the first game in the series -- it was tremendous as a fan to see the Twins at Dodger stadium putting together a well played game against Kershaw with small ball.   And it's great to see a number of Twins players rising to the occasion  -- Ober, Farmer, Taylor.   The supporting cast this year is really helping around the edges, key for a top team.  The "reluctant lead off hitter" looks like he's off to a good year.  Lots of pieces coming together - different ways to win...

[Nick Nelson]

Really nice work on this recap Matt! Very well written.

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, Beast said:

Huge bounce back win after one of the most epic and blatant ump screw jobs in MLB history..  That’s not easy to do - ask the Minnesota Wild.  Should be up 2-0, already locking up the series win. But what can you do?

Ober continues to expose the absolutely awful decision to send him to AAA so they could continue to run zombie Kenta Maeda out there.  Who knows how many games that cost us.  If their hand wasn’t forced, we’d probably still be burning these superb outings in AAA while the back end of our rotation loses games.  That’s concerning to me.  The FO deserves a ton of credit in some aspects, they also deserve to be roasted in others.

Overall, pretty happy with how things are going right now.

Maeda was the AL Cy Young runner up in 2020 and gutted through 21 starts (including a very nice July) as his elbow was unraveling. he was also excellent in his first start of the season and looking healthy in spring training. Slamming this decision is just 20/20 hindsight. (and Mahle was doing just fine for the Twins before his elbow exploded this year too)

Ober did a great job last night and is absolutely a quality MLB starter. But he had an option and this kept him stretched out and ready. twins starting pitching has been fantastic this season, the decision has worked out fine.

[GeorgiaBaller]

I just want to say BRAVO, ROCCO!  The last several games have been lots of fun to watch, win or lose.  Not sitting on our hands and waiting for HR's---being aggressive, rattling pitchers with aggressive baserunning, Sac Flies and Sac Bunts to get early extra runs on the board.  This is the baseball I want to see.

And, I will admit I WAS WRONG about pitcher development and am man enough to say it.  The young guys starting and coming from the pen are doing some great things--- good coaching and development is showing.  

I mind a lot less even losing close games when the Mgr is trusting his guys to use their talents and force the issue, taking some initiative and trying not to leave "ducks on the pond" multiple innings.

Thanks, Rocco and Twins, Staff for making TC Baseball fun and entertaining again!