Red Sox 10, Twins 4: The Story Remains the Same, and the Twins Lose Again

[Steven Trefz]

The Twins needed a win against the red-hot Red Sox tonight to get back to the .500 mark and stay in first place. What they got instead were plenty of reminders as to how they got below the .500 mark again in the first place. Here are the main storylines from tonight's game.

Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Bailey Ober: 6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K ( 95 pitches, 63 strikes (66%)
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (11), Royce Lewis (4), Max Kepler (8)
Bottom 3 WPA: Edouard Julien (-0.130), Max Kepler (-0.113), Brent Headrick (-0.092)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Twins began the night with a losing record again, still nursing a two-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central. The last time this happened, the Twins were able to win four of their next five against Toronto and Milwaukee to create some separation, only to come crashing back to earth against the Tigers and Red Sox. Many storylines surrounded the game tonight, and most of them contained some element of desperation and exasperation. 

Storyline #1 - Twins Starting Pitching Had a Rough Week
After carrying the team for the bulk of the season, the Twins starting staff had taken their lumps this past week, with only Bailey Ober and the bullpen game bringing home victories. As the Twins sent down Louie Varland in anticipation of Kenta Maeda's return this week, stalwarts Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, and Pablo Lopez all got rocked and caused the bullpen to overexert themselves last week.

Luckily, Ober was the man on the mound tonight, and he started the game on cruise control blanking the Red Sox through the first three innings with four strike outs. Then Adam Duvall happened in the top of the fourth, and he crushed a home run to dead center to put the Red Sox ahead 1-0. Then one out later, Christian Arroyo homered to left to make the score 2-0. 

After a redemptive fifth inning, Ober came back out for the sixth. The Red Sox did more of what the Red Sox have done lately, they hit the ball all over the place with two outs. Three singles equals one more run, and it was now 3-0. Ober's night ended, and when your teammates can't score a run to save their lives, giving up three runs usually is going to end in a loss. 

Storyline #2 - Byron Buxton Riding an 0-for-24 Streak
Skipper Rocco Baldelli grows more and more impatient with the question, but its going to keep getting asked. When will Buxton be roaming the outfield again? The life of a DH that can't hit the ball isn't a sustainable one, especially for someone tabbed as the superstar of the organization. Buxton clearly is struggling in the role, and the pressure from all sides continues to build.

In his first plate appearance of the evening, some of that pressure got released...albeit for a single. But the smile on Buxton's face said it all. It felt like a step towards something not quite so miserable.

Buxton popped up to start the fourth inning. He walked in the sixth, and didn't try to steal yet again, eventually being stranded at first base while watching Joey Gallo strike out again. Still, Buxton on base is better than Buxton non-on-base.

More on Buxton later...

Storyline #3 - The Rest of the Twins Offense Feels Like They are Riding an 0-for-2023
The Twins found a way to string together a couple of singles in the second and in the third off of Kutter Crawford. Max Kepler took care of the first threat with a five foot dribbler towards the pitcher that the Red Sox turned into a slick double play. Alex Kirilloff, sitting in the third spot in the lineup between Carlos Correa and Buxton, grounded out weakly to the shortstop to end the threat in the third.

With the Twins sonly down 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Ryan Jeffers led off with a double. Willi Castro advanced him to third on a groundout, and here was a moment for the Twins to deliver a run to close the gap and to stay in the game. Edouard Julien struck out. Correa struck out. Sigh. Crawford thanked the Twins for helping his stat line immensely, and left the game as the eventual winner after five scoreless innings.

I would like to add some more information from the sixth and seventh innings but nothing of consequence happened for the Twins besides weak contact and more strike outs.

Storyline #4 - The Twins Bullpen Has Started a Bad Habit of Turning a Close Game Into a Laugher
If you watched Monday nights game, tonight's seventh inning didn't surprise you. Brent Headrick came in to keep the game close, and instead he helped Boston become so confident in their winning probability that they put in Corey Kluber to finish the game. Five hits, one walk, and five runs later the Twins were down 8-0, and Twins Daily co-writers were sending me condolence texts.

Oliver Ortega made his Twins debut in the eighth inning, and Masataka Yoshida hit a 447 foot homerun to the upper deck in left center, 108.8 mph, launch angle 24 degrees, to make Boston's win probability 100 percent in the eighth. The Twins still had two full innings of at bats left in the game, and mlb.com was already calling it! Good grief! Target Field tried to boo, but they just didn't care anymore really, and it didn't last as long as the wave in the sixth. (Truth in journalism act - I was sitting in my basement, but just assume the Red Sox fans were able to get a wave going in the sixth, because they can do anything they want to us right now.)

Storyline #5 - Unwatchable Baseball and No Repercussions
Twins fans know that a plan is in place, the same lineup will get trotted out tomorrow, and baseball is a long season with many ups and downs. At least that's the narrative that keeps on coming through the airwaves and interviews. Tonight was the first night that I remember Dick Bremer and Justin Morneau not even buying the narrative during the broadcast. They are tired of filling time like the booth had to do in the early 2010's, and so are those who are being asked to pay for tickets.

Which game will be the game that stops the narrative, and changes the tide? Will that game be in 2023? Most of us will keep watching this series either way, because we love the Minnesota Twins and we love baseball. This brand of baseball is becoming almost impossible to follow.

Storyline #6 - Neverending Hope and Why We Keep Watching
I know it was Kluber pitching in a mercy rule type of role, but Buxton hit a home run to the upper deck in the eighth inning and it was awesome. The scoreboard showed 10-2, but watching Buxton trot around the bases felt like the correct end to a vibe that had grown throughout the game for him. In the bottom of the ninth, with mlb.com sticking strongly to its 100 percent winning probability prediction, Royce Lewis and Kepler started off the inning with back-to-back jacks. The score was 10-4, and those Red Sox runs in the seventh and Baldelli's decision to ride it out with Headrick for the entire inning began to sting again.

Is the offense waking up? Or was that a mirage in the midst of the desert called "Twins baseball in June?" Baldelli promised in his post-game interview that "hope isn't a good plan in professional sports," but "it's going to get better" for the Twins. Here's to hoping that he's right.

What’s Next? 
The first place Minnesota Twins will try to claw their way back towards .500 by sending RHP Sonny Gray (4-1, 2.37 ERA) back out on the mound in his first start post-Baldelli meltdown. The Red Sox counter with RHP Garrett Whitlock (4-2, 4.38 ERA) and his 1.23 WHIP in seven appearances. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet
(I refuse to do the work of adding Willi Castro to the chart, but he allowed zero runs on nine pitches.)

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	MON	TOT
Headrick	0	35	0	0	41	76
De León	0	24	0	25	0	49
Balazovic	0	0	40	0	0	40
Pagán	0	21	0	17	0	38
Morán	0	0	11	13	0	24
Jax	0	8	0	10	0	18
Ortega	0	0	0	0	16	16
Durán	0	15	0	0	0	15
Stewart	0	5	0	0	0	5

 

Steve Trefz, I write about the Twins because I love the Twins...even this year.

Follow Steve Trefz on Twitter: @TwinsTrefz

 

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[Peter]

Seriously is this team on the take as well tanking games? 

[Aerodeliria]

Is the offense waking up? Or was that a mirage in the midst of the desert called "Twins baseball in June?" 

 

It is hard for me to say that those garbage time home runs have much meaning in the overall scheme of things. I'm sure Kluber was told, "Just get us nine outs."

[LastOnePicked]

I submit Rocco's postgame comments as the final and crystal-clear evidence of his inability to manage a major-league ballclub. My goodness, what an incredible load of absolute nothing and word-mush. Can you imagine being motivated, led, corrected or inspired by anything he's saying or doing?

And "nothing is actionable" is what he lands on. "You've got to forget it." 

You know what else we can forget? A division title. A playoff push. Building a winner in this window of contention. I know for a fact that I'll forget to buy Twins tickets for a long time to come, too.

I would have fired him after the lifeless 2020 postseason loss to the Astros, and he's done nothing to prove me wrong since then. Yes, we have a major FO problem as well (these issues are related), but he's absolutely the worst possible coach I can imagine for this club. A decent man, but absolutely and unequivocally unfit for service.

[jkcarew]

26-34 since April 14

30-37 against the league (ex Royals)

Pitching is regressing, and hitting is what it’s been all year. Really no sign that the ship is going to turn around.

Time to try something different, no?

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Gettin' dark early at mid-summer. Bummer.

[USAFChief]

Hope isn't a plan, but nothing is actionable. 

 

Heh.

[FlyingFinn]

I'm thinking Headrick is headed back down to St. Paul after this performance. Is it for Maeda or do we need another pitcher for a couple days as our starters appear to be stressed out knowing they can't allow a run or they are losing.

[BsuNemo]

The most unwatchable twins team since the 90s. Baseball and the twins are a staple of my summer. Haven't watched a game since the end of May and definitely won't until changes are made. No longer planning to take my kid to a game on July. We'll go fishing and camping instead. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

7 minutes ago, BsuNemo said:

The most unwatchable twins team since the 90s. Baseball and the twins are a staple of my summer. Haven't watched a game since the end of May and definitely won't until changes are made. No longer planning to take my kid to a game on July. We'll go fishing and camping instead. 

Good plan. Do actual things with people who matter to you. The Twins will still have games on the schedule through September, if you wanted to circle back at some point. 

[TwinkieFan4life]

"It's not the baseball we're accustomed to from our team"

What the heck is Rocko talking about? Since June of last year, this is exactly the baseball I have become accustomed to seeing from this team. 

I hope we keep stacking losses so that we sell at the deadline, or at least prevent the FO from burning more assets on this steaming turd of a baseball team.  Keep those assets and at least leave me with hope that things will be better in years to come.

 

[Aggies7]

How far back will we be at the all star break? 17 games to go. Over/under 3.5 back

[TwinkieFan4life]

"We don't do a lot based on one particular day".  

We are nearly through half a season and are on pace to set the record for strikeouts!!  Our team has been insanely poor ALL YEAR with the bases loaded!  Did Rocco just notice today that our at bats are consistently not great 😂?  How many games of mind numbingly poor offense are required before we would consider doing "a lot"?

[srjr19]

Since Kepler homered tonight does the DFA clock reset?

[AceWrigley]

And to think that it's not even summer yet.

[Danchat]

1 hour ago, BsuNemo said:

The most unwatchable twins team since the 90s.

Eh, did you watch any baseball from 2011 to 2016? The 2011-14 teams were garbage while the 2016 Total System Failure was an abomination on the eyes. The pitching we have is way, way better than what those teams had.

Then again, we are potentially facing a third straight losing season, getting close to matching the 4 straight losing seasons from 2011-14... 

49 minutes ago, srjr19 said:

Since Kepler homered tonight does the DFA clock reset?

Bold of you to assume there even is a DFA clock on him!

[rwilfong86]

Cleveland is sitting one game back now and playing the A's 😩

[Mark G]

6 hours ago, TwinkieFan4life said:

"We don't do a lot based on one particular day".  

We are nearly through half a season and are on pace to set the record for strikeouts!!  Our team has been insanely poor ALL YEAR with the bases loaded!  Did Rocco just notice today that our at bats are consistently not great 😂?  How many games of mind numbingly poor offense are required before we would consider doing "a lot"?

Agreed!

And I get roasted every time I ask this question, but I will ask again:  who exactly is "we", Rocco?  Are you the manager, or not?  If not, when can "we" expect one?  Because the FO can't manage from the penthouse, and you don't seem able to manage without their permission.  

A manager I used to work for once said "we need a plan; we have got to have a plan.  I don't even care if it's a GOOD plan!  Just give me a plan!"  Does this team really have a plan?  If what we are seeing day in and day out is a plan, give me a new one.  I don't even care if it's a good one.  I can't be any worse.  🤕

[rwilfong86]

6 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

How far back will we be at the all star break? 17 games to go. Over/under 3.5 back

I am taking the Over. The schedule between now and then has Detroit who just won 3/4, Atlanta who is good, Baltimore who is good, and KC (only 'on paper' winnable series). 

[Karbo]

This team is full of hitters trying to hit a 5 tun homer every at bat. Can someone teach them what a 2 strike approach is? And I wish they could hand out fines when someone strikes out with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. This team has become almost un-watchable! This coaching staff needs to go!

[howeda7]

7 hours ago, BsuNemo said:

The most unwatchable twins team since the 90s. Baseball and the twins are a staple of my summer. Haven't watched a game since the end of May and definitely won't until changes are made. No longer planning to take my kid to a game on July. We'll go fishing and camping instead. 

Same. Not wasting time or $$ on this garbage team right now.  At this point, the only positive that can come out of the season is tanking bad enough that Joe Pohlad and company actually take action on this incompetent regime. 

[CRF]

It's time for ownership to have some cajones, and make some changes. Whatever it is, that we actually we have here...isn't even close to working.  

[LewFordLives]

Lots of talk about Baldelli and I generally agree with all of it, but I put more blame on Falvey. He assembled this trainwreck. If this organization was able to develop pitching they wouldn't be forced into making trades. The Correa signing was ill advised. Many of us fans said so at the time and it's looking worse. Maybe he can still turn it around. 

[TwinsDr2021]

Well the good thing is Rocco said before the game that Buxton is no closer to playing in the field then he was at the beginning of spring training. 22K attendance the last two nights, wondering if that will continue?

[rwilfong86]

I just saw the box score and it looks like Willi Castro was the teams most effective reliever last night.

[insagt1]

Amazing that despite all the injuries, the guys who are playing seem to be having their worst career year, or close to it. Memory is a bit fuzzy, but I seem to remember that way back in the day Earl Weaver used to issue fines for stuff like not getting a runner in from 3rd with less than 2 outs. (and Earl subscribed to the 3-run HR offense)

Storm clouds started forming when Twins unloaded the AL batting champ for a 'hopeful' starting rotation 'ace'. Then they cast k-king Sano adrift and added his clone Gallo to replace his k's.  They 'won' the Carlos Correa sweepstakes from Mets and Giants and so far all they 'won' was a 3 month struggle and a BA barely over .200. Wow.

The strikeouts with runners on, for me, is the most aggravating part of this season. And it isn't close to improving. I would be ready to tell these guys to lay one down with a runner on 3rd. What can it hurt except perhaps a bunch of egos?

 

[Doctor Wu]

2 hours ago, rwilfong86 said:

Cleveland is sitting one game back now and playing the A's 😩

Yeah, that's good for Cleveland, but then again Tampa Bay had problems beating the A's last week, so who knows?

[Doctor Wu]

43 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Well the good thing is Rocco said before the game that Buxton is no closer to playing in the field then he was at the beginning of spring training. 22K attendance the last two nights, wondering if that will continue?

From what Rocco said, it sounds like we are likely NOT going to see Buxton play in the outfield this year. But if he's in that bad of shape, why would you even want him running the bases? Oh yeah, I forgot: he's either striking out or hitting home runs, so running the bases isn't a factor. Okay, he DID have the single today, but still, if he's that fragile just put him on the IL and get him healthy again. 

[Doctor Wu]

If we need some extra bats, maybe we can talk Trevor Plouffe out of retirement. Hell, I'd even welcome back an overweight Miguel Sano at this point. 

[rv78]

Unfortunately this team is exactly what I thought and said it would be at the beginning of the season... CRAP. Signing Gallo and Correa were huge mistakes and this organization gets to pay for 6 years for some of that crap. The one player they went out and got that I am disappointed in is Vazquez. It seems he has regressed to become just like the other worthless veterans on the team. Maybe father-time has caught up with him but regardless Jeffers needs to play more. All of the youngsters need to play more. As for Rocco, he's never had a smart reply for any tough question ever asked. I'll never forget the time he was asked about Buxton and Correa having scheduled rest days happen to fall on the same day. He couldn't figure out how to solve that problem. Hey. if he isn't smart enough to do that, he isn't going to solve anything. As for "A Plan", they have a plan, you are seeing it. Go out and get guys that hit HR or strikeout. Swing for the fences and if you miss, oh well, They don't want a single when a guy is on 3rd, or 2nd, they want a HR, and they usually end up with a K. That's the Plan. It is more than ironic that they let Sano walk instead of exercising his $10.5M option for 2023 yet they went and spent $11M for Gallo who is just as bad or worse than Sano. Brilliant!