Twins 7, Guardians 6: Twins Lose (Players), but Win in Walk-off Fashion

[Twodogs]

5 hours ago, David HK said:

Bux has looked so completely lost at the plate lately, so at least he made contact... ta dum, tss!

But seriously folks, Twins are near the top of the majors in getting hit this year, and one of our stars got drilled in the ribs, maybe putting him out for a while.  I have no idea why Arias leading off the next inning wasn't wearing the very first pitch in his a**.  Come on, pitchers, stick up for your boys! 😠

I don't think there was any intent from the Cleveland pitcher last night.  Had there been intent with that pitch to Buxton then I would like to think the Twins pitchers would have defended Buxton, but I really think that one was just an accident.

[John Belinski]

Wow the Twins were lucky to win this game. If our 2 overpaid stars (double play Correa and strikeout Buxton) had not left the game the Twins would have lost this game. Just do not understand why Rocco keeps batting Correa is the 3 spot, he  is the worst 3 spot hitter in baseball. If Rocco doesn't change then he needs to be replaced. No other team in baseball has a .200 hitter in 3 spot.  I keep wondering how good the Twins would be with an experienced manager, but we will have him for many years to come due to front office.

 

[MABB1959]

Probably mentioned but I am not too anxious for Correa, Buxton or Kepler in the line-up.  I liked the last game against Houston and they seemed to come alive after the above 3 left the game.  

[Rod Carews Birthday]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

That's impressive. He took Jim Fowler down with such ease and has now eaten him. I will notify Jim's family but WOW... This is an impressive specimen.    

That last paragraph would certainly make the game exciting to watch!

[wavedog]

A couple of observations:

Can't say this with certainty but I believe if  Royce Lewis had not been called up and playing this week we would be 1-3 instead of 3-1 and not feeling quite as good.    Love the spark, attitude and talent he brings to the team!    Glad he did not get hurt trying to catch that pop-up - held my breath a minute.   

We can all point to various player stats as to player value but I am glad Castro was batting with the bases loaded in the 9th and not Gallo.

Shout out to Pagan and Jax for shutting down the Guardians - especially Pagan who I have been a harsh critic of.   Maybe best to stick pitching him in games we are trailing and not leading.   Jax also looked very good.

Can't believe Buxton can find a way to get hurt DHing only - not his fault tough to get a pitch in the ribs.   Maybe we try a few more games resting Correa, Buxton and Kepler and get Wallner up here while he is hot.    

[stringer bell]

3 minutes ago, wavedog said:

A couple of observations:

Can't say this with certainty but I believe if  Royce Lewis had not been called up and playing this week we would be 1-3 instead of 3-1 and not feeling quite as good.    Love the spark, attitude and talent he brings to the team!    Glad he did not get hurt trying to catch that pop-up - held my breath a minute.   

We can all point to various player stats as to player value but I am glad Castro was batting with the bases loaded in the 9th and not Gallo.

Shout out to Pagan and Jax for shutting down the Guardians - especially Pagan who I have been a harsh critic of.   Maybe best to stick pitching him in games we are trailing and not leading.   Jax also looked very good.

Can't believe Buxton can find a way to get hurt DHing only - not his fault tough to get a pitch in the ribs.   Maybe we try a few more games resting Correa, Buxton and Kepler and get Wallner up here while he is hot.    

Unless someone goes on the IL, Wallner would have to wait another week. Of the three players that went out, I think an IL stint is most likely for Correa. Two days rest didn't work, so I would guess they'll put him on IL and be more aggressive in his treatment. The depth and versatility the Twins have make it possible to add Wallner in place of a shortstop (I think). 

It would be interesting to see if Lewis goes to short in the event CC is out for ten days or more. 

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

Somehow the little guys got it done.

The piranhas are back!

[Fire Dan Gladden]

Starting to get some Shannon Stewart vibes from Royce Lewis.  Let's hope he can be that same catalyst and keep this offense moving in the right direction.

[bighat]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Marlin Perkins doing Color:

This is the American third baseman in it's natural habitat. Third basemen are fiercely territorial as they tend to hunt and defend small tracts of land that they claim for themselves.  This guy here with the number 23 clearly visible on his back, is powerful, fast and capable of amazing feats of athleticism as he waits for his prey to come flying through at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.

Let's watch what he does here. 

That's impressive. He took Jim Fowler down with such ease and has now eaten him. I will notify Jim's family but WOW... This is an impressive specimen.    

"Brought to you by Mutual of Omaha".

[wabene]

1 hour ago, John Belinski said:

Wow the Twins were lucky to win this game. If our 2 overpaid stars (double play Correa and strikeout Buxton) had not left the game the Twins would have lost this game. Just do not understand why Rocco keeps batting Correa is the 3 spot, he  is the worst 3 spot hitter in baseball. If Rocco doesn't change then he needs to be replaced. No other team in baseball has a .200 hitter in 3 spot.  I keep wondering how good the Twins would be with an experienced manager, but we will have him for many years to come due to front office.

 

Doesn't seem like your finding much to appreciate about your local nine. 

[Beast]

Lewis is incredible.  He just exudes leadership and success.  You hear the Jeter comparison all the time, and I never saw until this last week.

I agree with everyone saying Wallner needs to be up here.  Absolutely gross roster mismanagement there.  I don’t want to hear the excuses.  Play your damn best players.  He’s the hottest hitter in the organization right now and has the kind of power that can carry a team….as we’re playing our division rival.  It’s moves like this that make me want this FO gone.  Same thing with Ober earlier in the year.  They need to learn when to cut the rope on dead weight.

We got fleeced on Lopez.  I was huge fan of the trade and still am of the attempt.  But it’s looking bad at the moment.

Lastly, the ads on this site make it borderline unusable on mobile.

[WITwinsFan]

I would say  following this stretch where we have seen some of the younger contributors to the team doing well when called upon (Wallner, Lewis, AK), I am not as worried about periods of less production out of the players we'd expect more from, especially Buck and Correa. I think that the times where things are not going right and we very well should be losing games because of it, but are winning them, give us a bit of a foundation to build on throughout the season. If the younger guys can get their feet wet, fell comfortable in the positions to play a meaningful role in the club, and aforementioned players get going, we will be in a good position both on the field, and have handled the adversity of mediocre baseball in the early to mid season. I am not worried day to day struggles with any one particular guy at the plate. They only thing that's difficult is that it isn't an entirely unique situation to any one player. I am not familiar with the all of the things that are contributing to a less than stellar Guardians team thus far, but it seems they are always competitive and will find their groove. I hope we distance ourselves before that happens.

I like our young and emerging core a lot.

 

[wabene]

22 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Starting to get some Shannon Stewart vibes from Royce Lewis.  Let's hope he can be that same catalyst and keep this offense moving in the right direction.

True, but Kirilloff has somewhat quietly been taking the most consistently productive at bats. A nice pair to add mid-season no doubt. Kirilloff doesn't maybe have the charisma, but man he looks steely and confident at the plate. The opponents don't seem to know how to pitch to him. 

[wabene]

3 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Marlin Perkins doing Color:

This is the American third baseman in it's natural habitat. Third basemen are fiercely territorial as they tend to hunt and defend small tracts of land that they claim for themselves.  This guy here with the number 23 clearly visible on his back, is powerful, fast and capable of amazing feats of athleticism as he waits for his prey to come flying through at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.

Let's watch what he does here. 

That's impressive. He took Jim Fowler down with such ease and has now eaten him. I will notify Jim's family but WOW... This is an impressive specimen.    

[chpettit19]

13 minutes ago, WITwinsFan said:

I would say  following this stretch where we have seen some of the younger contributors to the team doing well when called upon (Wallner, Lewis, AK), I am not as worried about periods of less production out of the players we'd expect more from, especially Buck and Correa. I think that the times where things are not going right and we very well should be losing games because of it, but are winning them, give us a bit of a foundation to build on throughout the season. If the younger guys can get their feet wet, fell comfortable in the positions to play a meaningful role in the club, and aforementioned players get going, we will be in a good position both on the field, and have handled the adversity of mediocre baseball in the early to mid season. I am not worried day to day struggles with any one particular guy at the plate. They only thing that's difficult is that it isn't an entirely unique situation to any one player. I am not familiar with the all of the things that are contributing to a less than stellar Guardians team thus far, but it seems they are always competitive and will find their groove. I hope we distance ourselves before that happens.

I like our young and emerging core a lot.

 

Welcome to Twins Daily! Great first post. The Guardians are definitely a team we shouldn't count out as they always seem to find a hot stretch eventually. The young guys are starting to lay claim to this being their team. Fun to see. The next generation is emerging!

[stringer bell]

4 minutes ago, wabene said:

True, but Kirilloff has somewhat quietly been taking the most consistently productive at bats. A nice pair to add mid-season no doubt. Kirilloff doesn't maybe have the charisma, but man he looks steely and confident at the plate. The opponents don't seem to know how to pitch to him. 

Concur. Two totally different vibes from the two young first round draft choices. Fire and ice? Apparently, Lewis wants to claim ice water in his veins, but AK is a different kind of cool. 

[wabene]

17 minutes ago, Beast said:

Lastly, the ads on this site make it borderline unusable on mobile.

Yep, on my android phone it is horrible. On my android tablet, not too bad. It's it true ponying up for a gold caretaker eliminates this? Silver? 

[mnfireman]

22 minutes ago, Beast said:

Lastly, the ads on this site make it borderline unusable on mobile.

I use Duck, Duck, Go on my phone and Brave on my laptop, no ads.

[shabbos1]

4 hours ago, bighat said:

Relax everyone, the Twins have just won 2 games in a row. 

They have won 3 of 4, which is something. 

Discouraging to see Bux get hit like that. His season has to be considered a major disappointment thusfar. Can you imagine the 1984 St. Louis DH'ing Ozzie Smith (you know what I mean) or the Cleveland Guardians of the '90s DH'ing Omar Vizquel? The Twins won't let the best defensive player on the team - by far - play defense! I could see maybe DH'ing him in April, but it's June and the guy hasn't played CF yet.

Buxton is a streaky hitter who can win games with his glove when his bat is cold. He's also admitted that playing well in the field helps his mental approach at the plate. The decision to turn Byron into a full time DH may just be the most puzzling decision in what's turned out to be a head-scratching career. 

If he can't run the bases at full speed without nearly landing on the IL, there's no chance he sees any action in CF anytime soon.  That ship has sailed unfortunately ...

[Schmoeman5]

3 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Good job by the offense in getting us back in the game and then winning it late. Royce Lewis sure does seem to have that igniter in his skill set (he also made some very nice plays at 3B and looks pretty solid there)

Tough night for the home plate umpire last night, but fortunately it didn't impact the outcome. But it's increasingly frustrating to see umpires not have a consistent (and correct) strike zone. Correa got rung up on a pitch that sure looked outside, and then the ump loses track of the count against Lewis when he struck him out on a ball that definitely looked low. Considering the Twins were in a position to push some more runs across the plate when the ump took the bat out of our players hand again the "I'm bad enough at my job that I can't keep track of the count" was a little maddening.

P.Lopez was rolling along pretty well before imploding in the 6th. A little disappointing, because it sure looked like he was going to cruise through 6 or 7 innings, but the bullpen did a nice job picking him up. It's still hard to trust Pagan, but he did a very nice job holding Cleveland down for a couple of innings and then Jax finished it off. Feels good to only use 3 pitchers last night in a game that ended 7-6 while getting deeper into Cleveland's pen.

The only questionable strike last night was the called 3rd strike to Lewis.  The rest were money. And the umpires aren't costing the Twins hitters. The Twins hitters are doing that on their own. There are missed calls all the time. Houston had a coach ejected over balls and strikes. So it goes both ways.

[stringer bell]

10 minutes ago, Schmoeman5 said:

The only questionable strike last night was the called 3rd strike to Lewis.  The rest were money. And the umpires aren't costing the Twins hitters. The Twins hitters are doing that on their own. There are missed calls all the time. Houston had a coach ejected over balls and strikes. So it goes both ways.

I'll agree to a point. "The box" is two-dimensional. Many pitches might be over the front of the plate, but move out of the zone before they reach the catcher. Also, most views from center field have an angle so that the pitcher doesn't block the view. Umps do clearly miss pitches, but no one is saying they favor one team or another. 

[mnfireman]

14 minutes ago, Schmoeman5 said:

The only questionable strike last night was the called 3rd strike to Lewis.  The rest were money. And the umpires aren't costing the Twins hitters. The Twins hitters are doing that on their own. There are missed calls all the time. Houston had a coach ejected over balls and strikes. So it goes both ways.

He wasn't as good as you think, but not as bad as some may believe.

 

[mnfireman]

2 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

 Many pitches might be over the front of the plate, but move out of the zone before they reach the catcher. 

That is the definition of a strike.

[stringer bell]

4 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

That is the definition of a strike.

Agreed, but they may appear to be out of the box.

[jmlease1]

37 minutes ago, Schmoeman5 said:

The only questionable strike last night was the called 3rd strike to Lewis.  The rest were money. And the umpires aren't costing the Twins hitters. The Twins hitters are doing that on their own. There are missed calls all the time. Houston had a coach ejected over balls and strikes. So it goes both ways.

I think you're wrong, but even if you're right and the vast majority of the blame should all land on the twins hitters...there's no excuse for the home plate umpire not knowing how many strikes he'd already called in an AB. This wasn't a case where something weird had happened to interrupt play for a substantial amount of time or anything; dude just lost the plot, and undermined his own credibility.

[jkcarew]

I’m starting to question who the best players are on this team.

Or at least, who the leaders are.

When the changing of the guard happens, it’s not necessarily a ‘good’ thing (in terms of winning)…but it always feels fresh/new/hopeful/exciting. Rarely do you get to see it happen in the middle of a season while competing for the post season.

Thanks, ALC.

[Schmoeman5]

10 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

I think you're wrong, but even if you're right and the vast majority of the blame should all land on the twins hitters...there's no excuse for the home plate umpire not knowing how many strikes he'd already called in an AB. This wasn't a case where something weird had happened to interrupt play for a substantial amount of time or anything; dude just lost the plot, and undermined his own 

In the original post that I responded to. It was implied that umpires were costing the Twins to lose games.  When the thread specifically says " fortunately it didn't cost us this time" it's pretty clear that it's saying that umpires calls on balls and strikes have cost them games before. This is not true. Their bad calls aren't 100% against the Twins. Even though sometimes it may seem that way.

[SockNet]

Did Pagan slay the demon? Either that or he's off the Gaurdians payroll

[DJL44]

7 hours ago, wabene said:

If it's not going to be Glen, I would prefer Marlon Perkins on the booth. Imagine the color provided. 

Maybe they could move the booth to Perkins. I could go for a short stack with strawberries.

[Nine of twelve]

10 hours ago, wabene said:

If it's not going to be Glen, I would prefer Marlon Perkins on the booth. Imagine the color provided. 

As long as it's not Anthony Perkins. Red is not the color I'd want to see.