Twins 1, Orioles 3 (10 Innings): Baltimore Bests Minnesota in Extras

[Matt Braun]

At least that's the last of needing to ask around for an Apple TV login. 

Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

 

Box Score
Bailey Ober: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Home Runs: None
Bottom 3 WPA: Jhoan Duran (-.287), Max Kepler (-.150), Carlos Correa (-.149)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

It was Bailey Ober’s third time on Apple TV this year; he knew what he had to do. Facing Cole Irvin and an Orioles team fresh off bopping the Yankees, Ober needed to be sharp, accurate. This young Baltimore lineup is capable of crushing anyone—and their seemingly endless supply of talented bats, constantly refreshing and bolstering the position player pool makes them a tough beat. How did it go?

Early? Slow. Michael A. Taylor started the game with a diving catch before Ober and Christian Vázquez combined for a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to end the frame. The game was in swing.

And it seemed that the Twins would have the upper-hand. Irvin’s pitching line from his previous rendezvous with Minnesota appears clean, but the batted ball data reveals a shellacking unseen and unfounded; the Twins creamed nine hard-hit balls off the lefty with just one run scored. 

But it was a fresh day, and Irvin found what he didn’t have on Sunday. He was excellent. Minnesota’s batters guessed wrong all night. Three hits—one cheesy; the other a little less so; one a solidly struck double—served as the lone damage Irvin felt, as he struck out four batters over 6 ⅓  innings with no runs scored while he stood on the mound.

He wasn’t alone in his effort, though, as Cedric Mullins stole a three-run homer from Byron Buxton that surely would have changed the game’s complexion—and the shade of purple this prose would be written with. 

It proved a turning point. Anthony Santander smoked a double beyond Donovan Solano, leading Ryan O’Hearn to shoot a single to left, placing runners on the corners with no one out. Mullins—of course—flew a ball deep enough out to right field to score the first run of the game. Ober was a little off his game, walking more than you would expect; perhaps striking out a few less, but the single run was more than Irvin allowed, so Ober could do nothing but watch and hope alongside the fans.

Things turned almost immediately; the Twins tied the game four pitches after Irvin left as the Mahtomedi native, Mike Baumann, served up a single to Willi Castro, allowing Kyle Farmer to score with some wise baserunning. 

So began the late-game, bullpen-ing and lineup shuffling present in a close game like this. Relievers entered, acquiring as many outs as they could, battling starters and pinch-hitters alike in a race to score first before the last out of the ninth. Baltimore nearly had their rally, but a double play lineout picking off a greedy Gunnar Henderson ended that dream before it could start.

The game stayed in its Cold War state until extra-innings, when a stretched-out Jhoan Duran finally cracked. His ninth was dominant—a pair of strikeouts; a controversial running lane violation—but his 10th was weak, leading to two runs to score off him as the Twins were now suddenly playing from behind again. Félix Bautista experienced no such issues, and he blew away Minnesota to end the game. 

Notes:

The Twins earned two Statcast "Barrels" on Friday; one from Buxton on his robbed homer, and another from Farmer on his opposite-field double off Irvin.

The outing was Ober's ninth quality start of the season.

Willi Castro's 19th stolen base moved him into a tie at 7th place amongst AL base stealers, one away from the top five and 24 (!!!) away from the leader, Esteury Ruiz.

Griffin Jax has not allowed an earned run since May 19th. 

Post-Game Interview:

What’s Next?

The Twins and Orioles will play the second game of the series on Saturday with first pitch coming at 1:10 PM; Sonny Gray will pitch opposite of former Twins farmhand, Tyler Wells. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

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[mrtwinsfan]

Awful game,  this Team is the same team --------Terrible at Hitting when needed, way these starters have pitched so far we should be way ahead,  not a good sign,  cya Tomm,

[D.C Twins]

Toto.... we aren't (playing) (aga)in(st) Kansas (City) anymore! 

[Mike Sixel]

How anyone can defend leaving this offense as is is beyond me at this point.

[TwinkieFan4life]

I am still of the belief that we either need to take massive swings to go for it (Premium bat that can play 1st or corner infield and a bullpen arm), or you need to sell.  The status quo would be a massive missed opportunity. 

If Polanco returns healthy from August on, this lineup could look pretty different with one big addition.  Goldschmidt at 1st could push Kirillof to left.  This combined with the return of Polanco and Royce has me interested come postseason.

Without big additions, this team needs to consider selling, particularly (only) if they get an enticing offer.

[Mark G]

Duran has been looking pretty human lately, and it is making me nervous.  He has had a couple of extremely good defensive plays behind him to limit damage in the recent past, and has still given up a few his last few times out.  Maybe he is not the 2 inning closer we want to think he is??  Maybe the pitch count for a guy like him gets a little high??  And when we do use him extra, he is very likely unavailable the next day.  Is the risk/reward coming out ahead overall??  Just wondering.........

[pierre75275]

This games looks a whole lot different if Buxton isn't robbed of a 3 run HR again. By Mullins again.

This game was won by the O's defense more than the lack of the Twins offense 🤷

Always tomorrow.

[Peter]

We won this game-lucky catch by Mullins. Had no business doing that. With sunny and Ryan pitching today and tomorrow definitely must must must win!!!

[umterp23]

At what point did Rocco really think Duran could go two innings again vs the O's? Didn't work out for the good guys in Baltimore last weekend and yet Statistical or Maniacal Rocco sent him back out there again.  Vazquez calling for curveball after curveball back to back innings and O's weren't looking heater.  Poor execution all around. 

Correa looking to be hero when very easily could have be a leader and bunted runner to 2nd in the 8th.  Man on 2nd with one out but $33MM double play batter Correa proves otherwise.

Bullpen usage for 3 days including off day of 21 pitches going into last night. I don't care if Duran is "stretched out" to be ready, you burned him for Saturday.

Offense was offensive again, but at least they only struck out 8x's this go around.

Julien almost the hero on broken bat high foul ball, but not to be

[mikelink45]

What a lineup - I know that they got us our one run, but Farmer and Castro batting 3 and 4 - how does that compare to Killebrew and Allison/Hrbek and Puckett/Mauer and Morneau?  No wonder we cannot get runs.

Sorry, but Buxton getting his HR taken by a good defense is not an unusual play this year.  There have been a of "robbed" HRs.  that is how it is in a game of swinging for the fences.  

More importantly when we were in the bottom of the last inning Vasquez and Kepler ended it with Ks.

Nice game by Ober but Ryan and Lopez showed what our starters must do to win - 9 innings, no runs.  Easy task!

Someone already said it - we want the Royals.

[CRF]

Looks like the same old story...great pitching, and zero hitting. That lineup definitely left a lot to be desired. Not exactly a murderer's row, by any means. Wasted a great start by Ober...again. Somehow, they have to figure out how to score more than 1 or 2 runs consistantly,..and do it against teams other than KC. Duran is also a concern lately...he's struggling a bit. 

[2wins87]

4 hours ago, pierre75275 said:

This games looks a whole lot different if Buxton isn't robbed of a 3 run HR again. By Mullins again.

This game was won by the O's defense more than the lack of the Twins offense 🤷

Always tomorrow.

No, it's a pretty bad offensive night when that was only one of two scoring chances in the entire game. Buxton hit it well there but there but I'm not even sure it was over the fence, and there wasn't much hard contact otherwise. A good offensive team will make several more chances, even if they are robbed once or twice.

There's really no excuse for this team to get carved up by a lefty with a 6 ERA that they just saw last week. I'm not here being negative after every game, but that one really was one of the most pitiful offensive performances of the year in my mind.

[218263]

6 hours ago, Mark G said:

Duran has been looking pretty human lately, and it is making me nervous.  He has had a couple of extremely good defensive plays behind him to limit damage in the recent past, and has still given up a few his last few times out.  Maybe he is not the 2 inning closer we want to think he is??  Maybe the pitch count for a guy like him gets a little high??  And when we do use him extra, he is very likely unavailable the next day.  Is the risk/reward coming out ahead overall??  Just wondering.........

I agree with your comments about Duran. He is relying so much on the curveball and the splinker. When he throws the fastball he doesn’t get many swings and misses. They foul those off, and then he comes back eventually with a breaking pitch, and they seem to be nailing those. He gets into unfavorable counts because he can’t throw strikes at times. Not a good practice when they’re wanting him to go 2 innings. 

[Whitey333]

Playing the "if" game is silly.  What "if" Buxtons hit would have been a three run Homer?  Come on.  It wasn't a honor.  It was hit well but it gets recorder as an out.  What if?  It didn't happen.  What "if" the rest of the offense actually did something.  I believe the Twins have scored 3 runs in their last 33 innings against Baltimore.  Anyway go Twins.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, umterp23 said:

Correa looking to be hero when very easily could have be a leader and bunted runner to 2nd in the 8th.  Man on 2nd with one out but $33MM double play batter Correa proves otherwise.

I don't want Correa bunting in that situation. He hit into the double play but I thought people here would be giddy that he didn't strike out.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

More importantly when we were in the bottom of the last inning Vasquez and Kepler ended it with Ks.

Against an All-Star throwing 100 MPH gas with nasty breaking stuff.

[DJL44]

35 minutes ago, 218263 said:

I agree with your comments about Duran. He is relying so much on the curveball and the splinker. When he throws the fastball he doesn’t get many swings and misses. They foul those off, and then he comes back eventually with a breaking pitch, and they seem to be nailing those. He gets into unfavorable counts because he can’t throw strikes at times. Not a good practice when they’re wanting him to go 2 innings. 

Duran has trouble locating his pitches. He's more of a "thrower" than a "pitcher" and gets by because his stuff is just nasty. If he was able to locate his pitches better he'd be much better. He'd be like Bautista of the Orioles.

[DJL44]

Jose Miranda continues to be 0 for his callup. Losing Royce Lewis has been a huge setback for the Twins.

I wonder if Jeffers at C last night instead of Vazquez would have been a better move to get a little more offense in the lineup.

Willi Castro cannot be their "RH bat" solution in the outfield. He has the same 697 OPS from each side of the plate. There are lots of outfielders who can do better than that. He's a defense-first player, not the #5 hitter.

[DJL44]

9 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

How anyone can defend leaving this offense as is is beyond me at this point.

They can't give away offense at LF, CF, RF and 3B and have an effective lineup.

[Linus]

The analytics genius that has Duran throwing his curve and split more than his fastball needs to go. Did we notice how Bautista did it?  Pure gas to set up the breaking ball. 

[mikelink45]

47 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Against an All-Star throwing 100 MPH gas with nasty breaking stuff.

Kiriloff at least put a ball in play - these are the major leagues - players throw 100.  

[MMMordabito]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

What a lineup - I know that they got us our one run, but Farmer and Castro batting 3 and 4 - how does that compare to Killebrew and Allison/Hrbek and Puckett/Mauer and Morneau?  No wonder we cannot get runs.

Sorry, but Buxton getting his HR taken by a good defense is not an unusual play this year.  There have been a of "robbed" HRs.  that is how it is in a game of swinging for the fences.  

More importantly when we were in the bottom of the last inning Vasquez and Kepler ended it with Ks.

Nice game by Ober but Ryan and Lopez showed what our starters must do to win - 9 innings, no runs.  Easy task!

Someone already said it - we want the Royals.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Easily the worst game since the "season began." Fortunately, the K rate was relatively low in spite of the weak hitting.

Gotta feel for Buck. The man is due in a big way.  

[JD-TWINS]

8 hours ago, Mark G said:

Duran has been looking pretty human lately, and it is making me nervous.  He has had a couple of extremely good defensive plays behind him to limit damage in the recent past, and has still given up a few his last few times out.  Maybe he is not the 2 inning closer we want to think he is??  Maybe the pitch count for a guy like him gets a little high??  And when we do use him extra, he is very likely unavailable the next day.  Is the risk/reward coming out ahead overall??  Just wondering.........

No more 2nd innings - appears he’s not able to do it mentally.

WHERE WAS HIS FASTBALL? I’m not sure if he threw one over the entire 21 pitches. That’s concerning!!

Not sure where to find this stat but I seriously don’t recall a fastball thrown.

[JD-TWINS]

Bailey Ober could be the most underrated pitcher in the game today. Seriously. His key stats are top 3 & top 5 in the game per the Apple broadcast team.

With Maeda looking the way he has over past 3 starts, we have maybe the best 1 to 5 guys in the game. Gotta BUY!

Get ONE bat in next 3 weeks - Lewis - Polanco healthy & our offense should produce down the stretch.

Need a relief pitcher to add some depth……Moran & Pagan/Lopez should be #7 & #8 and we need Thielbar in our top 6 guys. Stewart coming back strong is pretty questionable for the near-term (this season). Gotta trade for one effective depth piece. Duran will be OK if he stays healthy. Jax is lights out!

[Mike Sixel]

27 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Bailey Ober could be the most underrated pitcher in the game today. Seriously. His key stats are top 3 & top 5 in the game per the Apple broadcast team.

With Maeda looking the way he has over past 3 starts, we have maybe the best 1 to 5 guys in the game. Gotta BUY!

Get ONE bat in next 3 weeks - Lewis - Polanco healthy & our offense should produce down the stretch.

Need a relief pitcher to add some depth……Moran & Pagan/Lopez should be #7 & #8 and we need Thielbar in our top 6 guys. Stewart coming back strong is pretty questionable for the near-term (this season). Gotta trade for one effective depth piece. Duran will be OK if he stays healthy. Jax is lights out!

Polanco replaces the second best or best hitter in the current lineup..... So I'm not convinced he's key. Lewis is a massive loss. He can't return fast enough

[JD-TWINS]

3 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Polanco replaces the second best or best hitter in the current lineup..... So I'm not convinced he's key. Lewis is a massive loss. He can't return fast enough

I realize people love Julien because he’s the shiny new guy. In August/September I’ll take a veteran (if healthy) that’s been clutch many times before. His defensive value is real as well……..writers here state Julien is fine and if not at 2B, at 3B or 1B, it doesn’t work that way. They don’t play on paper. Other writers don’t think he can field at all. I don’t look up stats on defense but I do watch almost all innings played - he’s mechanical, a little slow, but adequate with a good bat. Certainly is adequate if Polanco can’t play.

Over the short-term, recent 3-4 weeks, CC -  Lewis - Kirilloff - Solano seem to be our guys getting hits…….Julien has contributed…….he’s not a star.

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, JD-TWINS said:

I realize people love Julien because he’s the shiny new guy. In August/September I’ll take a veteran (if healthy) that’s been clutch many times before. His defensive value is real as well……..writers here state Julien is fine and if not at 2B, at 3B or 1B, it doesn’t work that way. They don’t play on paper. Other writers don’t think he can field at all. I don’t look up stats on defense but I do watch almost all innings played - he’s mechanical, a little slow, but adequate with a good bat. Certainly is adequate if Polanco can’t play.

Over the short-term, recent 3-4 weeks, CC -  Lewis - Kirilloff - Solano seem to be our guys getting hits…….Julien has contributed…….he’s not a star.

I could have sworn we were talking about offense. It's pretty clear that when I said he's replacing him, that I consider him a second baseman only on this team. 

Also, can we stop insulting people with phrases like shiny new toy, implying we are stupid? Sigh.

[JD-TWINS]

If Lee is what is expected next year by mid-season, I don’t see a spot on the field for Julien. Have been saying this same thing since late April. Not a hater by any means but trying to be realistic……..Miranda - Julien - Winder - Varland/Maeda - Larnachvare all reasonable trade pieces to fill our holes.

[Danchat]

7 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

I realize people love Julien because he’s the shiny new guy. In August/September I’ll take a veteran (if healthy) that’s been clutch many times before. His defensive value is real as well……..writers here state Julien is fine and if not at 2B, at 3B or 1B, it doesn’t work that way. They don’t play on paper. Other writers don’t think he can field at all. I don’t look up stats on defense but I do watch almost all innings played - he’s mechanical, a little slow, but adequate with a good bat. Certainly is adequate if Polanco can’t play.

Over the short-term, recent 3-4 weeks, CC -  Lewis - Kirilloff - Solano seem to be our guys getting hits…….Julien has contributed…….he’s not a star.

Julien is already one of the best hitters on this team in his first 150 PAs in his career, and this team is already clogged with a bunch of veteran players who can't hit. Yes he's bad defensively at 2B, but this is giving me flashbacks of people arguing how about we should have kept Schoop at 2B in 2019 over the up and coming Arraez who was doing far better at the plate.