Twins 8, Orioles 1: Players-Only Meeting Leads to Drumming in Baltimore

[Matt Braun]

Whatever they talked about it, it sure worked. 

Image courtesy of © Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

 

Box Score
Pablo López: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
Home Runs: Joey Gallo (14), Max Kepler (11), Byron Buxton (14)
Top 3 WPA: Pablo López (.144), Joey Gallo (.111), Royce Lewis (.096)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The infamous players' meeting—was all anyone could talk about. No one knows what precisely the hitters told each other beyond that Kyle Farmer offered incentives to his fellow batters and that—perhaps, hopefully—the bats would forget their previous struggles and embrace the endless future and its potential success. 

It seemed to work early. Carlos Correa smashed a single up the middle, and Alex Kirilloff lined a hit into right to brew early trouble for Baltimore starter Dean Kremer. It was too much. 

Joey Gallo adjusted, fouling off a tough cutter to find his bread and butter: a middle-middle fastball soon to be a souvenir for the Orioles faithful.

Kepler made his adjustment, pulverizing a cement mixer well enough into right field in his mind to drop the bat with some swagger out of the box.

And Byron Buxton adjusted, eschewing the puzzling left-handed troubles that have plagued the organization since Nelson Cruz became a Ray with a three-run homer that knocked the monkey entirely off Minnesota's back. 

Pablo López made his adjustment… in an atypical manner. Rather than dominate with an incredible strikeout-to-walk rate—and far too many runs—López walked three with just six strikeouts but only one earned run. He wobbled early, allowing baserunners when the game was fresh and still un-won, before settling in and cruising through Baltimore's lineup; a cheeky Adley Rutchsman solo shot was his lone error. His hat may have been thoroughly drenched in sweat, but his start was an easy success against a solid lineup.

 

Immediate offensive excitement gave way to typical, atrophying scoring; the Twins didn't score following the 4th inning as the team sat on their comfortable lead, waiting out Baltimore's outs until the team could claim victory.

And so they did. Jovani Moran, Emilio Pagán, and Jordan Balazovic continued the pitching effort, handing Minnesota a trio of scoreless frames to end the game decidedly in their favor. 

Notes:

Pablo López earned 14 swings-and-misses on Friday.

The Twins earned four Statcast "Barrels" on Friday—one from Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Joey Gallo, and Kyle Farmer.

Post-Game Interview:

What’s Next?

Minnesota and Baltimore will play the second game of the series on Saturday; Bailey Ober is set to face off against Kyle Bradish with first pitch at 12:05 PM.

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

I hope they have another players only meeting before tomorrow's game 

[Monkeypaws]

Rocco sounded pretty exasperated after the Braves series.

Like to see players take responsibility.

[srjr19]

The way I understand it, they cut Popkins out of the hitter's meeting.

[Squirrel]

8 minutes ago, srjr19 said:

The way I understand it, they cut Popkins out of the hitter's meeting.

Ooou, I’d like to read about that. Where did you see that?

[stringer bell]

Still too many strikeouts (11 in 43 PAs), but it seemed a couple guys tried to go oppo with two strikes and there was 2 strike hitting and hits with RISP. The guys who have been singled out for poor hitting (Gallo, Correa, Kepler and Buxton) all had good games. 
 

Carry it over for a week guys and build some good habits. 

[glunn]

I wonder what incentives Farmer offered at the players only meeting.

[SwainZag]

Compete Twins win.   6 post game comments.  It's almost poetic that masses can only find things to talk about when the team loses.  

Buck, Correa, Kep and Gallo combined 7/14, 2 BB, 7 runs scored, 6 RBI.  The team needs more games like this from their vets.  Build off the positives from tonight boys. 

[Brazilian Twins Fan]

Still too early to talk about turning the page.

Win another couple games and we can say something changed...

[Nine of twelve]

Coming out of ST I expected far more games like this than we have seen. As many have already said, if our hitters perform up to their abilities the division is ours, maybe in a runaway.

[USAFChief]

6 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Still too many strikeouts (11 in 43 PAs), but it seemed a couple guys tried to go oppo with two strikes and there was 2 strike hitting and hits with RISP. The guys who have been singled out for poor hitting (Gallo, Correa, Kepler and Buxton) all had good games. 
 

Carry it over for a week guys and build some good habits. 

Also nice to see Lopez have some success and get a W against a good offense.

 

[Craig Arko]

It’s one game. Make this last, gentlemen.

[bighat]

Nice to see a win like this. 

[Blyleven2011]

A good win for sure  ...

Give me a winning streak and I'll be convinced something has changed in their hitting approach , 6 runs scored via of the homerun is the norm , the 3 and 2 run Homer's were not , good to see clutch hitting and hitting the pitch where it's pitched to the opposite field will do wonders  ....

Keeping focused and adjustments is the key  ...

Get hungry and win twins ...

[Peter]

Huge much needed statement win!!! Finish strong before all star break-come out with a vengeance rest of season after the break!!!

[NotAboutWinning]

We just saw the potential of this team.... and it was fun!!! Next step is realize that potential on a consistent basis!

[pierre75275]

Glad they won, but it's only one win. If there are several more like this, then maybe the offense is fixed.

It's funny, early in the year, I always thought this team had the ability to get hot and run off 10-15 wins in a row, but after watching them the last month, I'm not so sure that's the case.

[UK Twin]

So it turns out the solution to our hitting problems was to simply move Correa to the lead off spot. Going 2-4 and scoring 2 runs is certainly good lead off numbers! Gallo's starting to hit HR's again - could be threatening a streak like he had at the start of the season. 

[Karbo]

2 strike approach much better. Taking shorter swings to make better contact, and some even discovered there is more than just the pull side. What a revelation! Now the test becomes can they carry it forward?

 

[mikelink45]

500 team is going to have good games and bad games. The difficulty for fans is deciding which games represent the real team. Games like this? Give us real hope for the second half of the season and our schedule is in our favor

[rv78]

Kremer for Baltimore is hardly a measuring stick for this offense. He was trending in the right direction but lapses occur and he had a game that isn't out of normal for him. 11 K's does not indicate to me anything different than what we haven't seen before. 3 HR's that lead to a win isn't anything that we haven't seen before. A 1 or 2 game offensive outburst isn't anything we haven't seen before. Let's see them sustain a productive offense for a month before we get all giddy.

[Squirrel]

46 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

500 team is going to have good games and bad games. The difficulty for fans is deciding which games represent the real team. Games like this? Give us real hope for the second half of the season and our schedule is in our favor

At the start of this season I felt this was a .500 or slightly better team with potential to be more if everything clicked and injuries were minimal. While our record isn’t under expectations, some of the losses in how we lost were. Some have been brutal, especially the offense. And conversely, some of the wins, like tonight, garnered hope that the potential I felt that was always there was showing itself. It’s such a long season but the roller coaster of highs and lows of this season so far are vertigo inducing! But here’s to hoping but keeping my expectations in check.

[Linus]

It appears that the players want to lead the hitting meetings. The optics on this aren’t good as Popkins just got sent to the corner. And it took the players to do something not the manager or front office?

[John Belinski]

A better pitched game by Lopez since he has not pitched well during the past month.

Will be watching to see what happens today since the Twins have history of having one big game and then the next game they have just a few hits. We can only hope the hitters keep hitting.

[wabene]

My shoelace got caught when I hopped off the bandwagon yesterday and I got dragged for a couple of blocks. A little scraped up but I clawed my way back on and no worse for wear. Go Twins! 

[terrydactyls]

Nice game by Lopez.  Great trade by the front office to get him.  Got rid of Arraez.  He's 2 for 12 in his last three games.  Go Bandwagon!!  😇

Edited July 1, 2023 by terrydactyls
I am being sarcastic. Let's not take this thread off track and make it another "I hate the front office because they traded Arraez".

[wabene]

4 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

Nice game by Lopez.  Great trade by the front office to get him.  Got rid of Arraez.  He's 2 for 12 in his last three games.  Go Bandwagon!!  😇

Louis' a bum. 

Edit: disclaimer, see above. 

[terrydactyls]

9 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Ooou, I’d like to read about that. Where did you see that?

Because the meeting was "players only", I would assume no coaches were allowed to sit in.

[hitterscount]

5 hours ago, SwainZag said:

Compete Twins win.   6 post game comments.  It's almost poetic that masses can only find things to talk about when the team loses.  

Buck, Correa, Kep and Gallo combined 7/14, 2 BB, 7 runs scored, 6 RBI.  The team needs more games like this from their vets.  Build off the positives from tonight boys. 

Lets calm down and see if the mighty Kepler and Gallo can sustain anything resembling a major league approach. It’s a start, but one game doesn’t really change how putrid this offense has been. 

[wabene]

2 minutes ago, hitterscount said:

Lets calm down and see if the mighty Kepler and Gallo can sustain anything resembling a major league approach. It’s a start, but one game doesn’t really change how putrid this offense has been. 

I think SZ's point was that it seems some only post when there is an opportunity to complain and fall silent during periods of rejoicing. This may be true. I don't want to put words into anyone's mouth, though.