Twins 5, A's 4: Joey Gallo Plays Hero in Sloppy Twins Victory

[Matt Braun]

Yes, it is possible for a win to feel gross. 

Image courtesy of © Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Kenta Maeda: 3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 6 K
Home Runs: Joey Gallo (16)
Top 3 WPA: Donovan Solano (.362), Joey Gallo (.331), Jovani Moran (.142)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

 

Fresh out of the All-Star break, the Twins were handed a gift from the baseball gods: the Oakland A’s. Despite over 90 games already played, Minnesota had yet to establish a consistent, positive offense identity; the team recently leaned on the all-important semi-religious “players-only meeting,” to save their season, but the results hadn’t improved—outside a date with the lowly Royals. Would an entangle with the worst team the west coast could scrap up prove similar?

Twins bats exploded with a mighty crash. Ken Waldichuk thought he had more time, more opportunities to toss his weaker stuff. Still, Minnesota offered no quarter, attacking quickly with a double from Carlos Correa and a single from Donovan Solano. Byron Buxton flew out deep enough to plate Correa. With a critical potential run on second base, Kyle Farmer crushed a changeup nearly as far as a batter can hit a ball without earning a free jog around the bases; instead, he earned a triple for his efforts. The game was underway.

Unfortunately, Kenta Maeda was not sharp. He fired off a ton of pitches—entirely too many of them—to fend off Oakland in the 1st, and his frame proved prophetic: he would not last beyond three innings. He labored again in the 2nd, handing back a portion of the lead his offense earned. With another rally in the 3rd, Minnesota’s advantage was now a deficit—and Maeda’s day was over.

These are the A’s we’re talking about—intentionally bad; served as a self-evident excuse to bolt cities—so the game was far from decided. A few walks inspired Rocco Baldelli to pinch-hit early, sending the rookie Edouard Julien to the plate with a pair of runners on the bases. He delivered. Julien smashed a double to left field, tying the game at three as the teams settled into their equal struggle for victory.

And so the game entered its bullpen stage. This was not a smooth affair; batters often reached base, threatening to change the balance of power only to remain stagnant, forced to watch their teammates come up short. Twice the Twins loaded the bases. Both times they failed to net that critical damage-inducing knock. 

Twins hitting coach David Popkins was tossed in the 7th—the strike zone was nebulous all day—following a called third strike to Joey Gallo. Ironically, the call in question was correct; it was one of Nic Lentz’s best calls all night. 

So was the lone spark between the 4th and 9th. Both teams displayed a hideous understanding of hitting, working poor at-bats in crucial situations, leading to a slow and muddy affair—one dragging on far beyond any reasonable person’s tolerance for mediocre baseball.

Until the sudden jolt. Gallo stepped up against Shintaro Fujinami, with Solano standing on 2nd. He received a fastball—Fujinami’s special—and turned it around with vigor, smoking a two-run shot into Oakland’s right field seats to give Minnesota the lead. 

The game was not done being mischievously annoying, though, as Jhoan Duran wobbled in the 9th, enough to sow real doubt regarding the potential win. He allowed a double and a single, bringing Brent Rooker to the plate as the go-ahead run. Duran plunked him with a curveball. Seth Brown now stood in the batter’s box, but he could not muster any magic, and his groundout to Julien mercifully ended a brutal 5-4 win for the Twins. 

Notes:

Joey Gallo is now three homers away from tying his total from 2022; he has 234 plate appearances this year and earned 410 last year.

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

Donovan Solano has reached base at least three times in three of his last six games. 

Post-Game Interview:

 

 

What’s Next?

The Twins and A’s play the second game of their weekend series on Saturday. Pablo López returns from his first All-Star game to pitch against Hobie Harris; first pitch is at 6:07 PM.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

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[ashbury]

I've been down on Gallo for his low OPS when tied or behind, so he gets props from me for the game winner.

Lotta missed opportunities by the rest of the team.

[QuinnSwanny]

An ugly win is a win. However, this certainly doesn’t feel like a true win considering our offense continues to look lost in big spots and just in general. Especially considering the twins seemed to have a tough time putting the worst team in baseball away makes me worried for when we face true competition. I know that they may pick it up soon and get going. But if this is how our team plays non competitive teams. I say we need to sell at the deadline. In no way shape or form should this game have been this close.

[IndyTwinsFan]

17 minutes ago, ashbury said:

I've been down on Gallo for his low OPS when tied or behind, so he gets props from me for the game winner.

Lotta missed opportunities by the rest of the team.

Due in large part to a ton of poor quality at-bats and a general lack of clutch hitting. 

When have we seen and heard that before, especially this season?  

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Quote

Until the sudden jolt. Gallo stepped up against Shintaro Fujinami, with Solano standing on 2nd. He received a fastball—Fujinami’s special—and turned it around with vigor, smoking a two-run shot into Oakland’s right field seats to give Minnesota the lead.

Proving that if it's middle-middle, even a 100mph fastball is a cookie. That pitch had a flashing green light on it.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

6W - 4L since the big players-only pow-wow. Ugly win, but bank it.

[TWTwinsFan]

get Buxton out of the lineup,please

he is overmatched,why is he still batting 3rd?

a mental health IL would be a good timing

[Parfigliano]

Another game that conclusively  shows Julien should get ABs and Buxton should not.

The FO suits have paid Mad Men money to build a marketing campaign around Buxton.

Game on.

[big dog]

Buxton takes a fastball for a called strike three, then swings at a ball that was high and outside for strike three on the next AB. He looks completely lost.

[mikelink45]

How we love the low rung fruit - the A's and the Royals.  Our record against them is 10 - 1.  Luckily we get more As and Royals in this three week stretch.  That should propel us over 500 and maybe with a lead in the division, but if this loss felt ugly and the writer captured that - then winning this division could feel really ugly too.

[Brian Kingfield]

A historic win in that it may be the only time we can say that Popkins saved the day (simply for getting tossed so Gallo wouldn’t).

[Blyleven2011]

Good start to the game than nothing  until 8th inning homerun by Gallo  , twice the opportunity was there through the middle innings , 10 hits but not at the right time , 14 strikeouts  not at the right time either ....

[terrydactyls]

6 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

6W - 4L since the big players-only pow-wow. Ugly win, but bank it.

Three of the wins were against Kansas City.

[NotAboutWinning]

That was a painful win to watch. But, it did reveal a few things... Buxton limpy visibly walking back to the dugout. The Twins can put together a passable offense when their best hitters are in the lineup at the same time! Poppins best value to the team is as designated ejectee!

[IndianaTwin]

Call it an ugly win, but it was pretty beautiful that Pagan, Balazovic, Moran and Jax combined for five shutout innings when it was vastly needed, There was nary a threat on a hit and two walks against four strikeouts. 

[terrydactyls]

34 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

How we love the low rung fruit - the A's and the Royals.  Our record against them is 10 - 1.  Luckily we get more As and Royals in this three week stretch.  That should propel us over 500 and maybe with a lead in the division, but if this loss felt ugly and the writer captured that - then winning this division could feel really ugly too.

Between now and September 30th, the Twins have 3 games against both Kansas City and Oakland.  Nine games over .500 against those two teams and nine games under against major league teams.  That's not much to pin your hopes on.

[FlyingFinn]

7 hours ago, ashbury said:

I've been down on Gallo for his low OPS when tied or behind, so he gets props from me for the game winner.

Yea, and it feels like Gallo's homers win games and aren't in garbage time (I didn't actually check it out).

[Mike Sixel]

Shows what I know. Wallner up? Maybe he'll DH? 

[USAFChief]

"Yes, it is possible for a win to feel gross." 

 

Hahaha...precisely. 

 

[Jeff D.]

A win is a win, but this is one very ugly hitting team. Seriously the entire approach from a coaching and hitting standpoint sucks. I will admit that the pitching coach has perhaps earned the only reprieve of the group and I would chuckle with each mound visit all of last year by the guy. But, he seems to have managed a fairly good staff this season. 

It is simply sad to see BB in the lineup walking up to the plate and my mind screams "He will strikeout!" Then, he does and I get all self-righteous. Wow he can't hit. Gallo and Kepler and Castro and the IL list runner up Miranda all need to find a place on the dugout bench and stay there or a trip to St. Paul. Minneapolis/St. Paul, we have a problem!

Now that we are a .500 team, we can relax for a bit.

By the way, after the 2nd walk in the game, it was pretty easy to see Maeda was not right, and I'm a fan of his. Not sure why our fearless leader didn't and if he did he was very content to watch his Annalytics app to do much.

Go Twins! Twins Geezer ......out!

[Swing Batter-Batter]

14 strikeouts........that is over 50%......and against Oakland on top of it. Speaking of strikeouts, has anyone ever seen another batter look as bad at the plate, as Buxton right now? The called 3rd strike was pathetic.

[Linus]

This summary accurately captures this game. Had to turn it off after the 6 th. How many called third strikes did we take again?  I guess the organizational hitting philosophy is to go up there and guess. 
I love Buck but he should go on the IL and Julien can be the every day DH. I hate Juliens glove but he is about the only guy that gives you hope in the batters box. 

[Peter]

Is win is a win even if it’s ugly. Don’t care!!! We are back to .500 and most importantly first place!!! 

[TNtwins85]

An ugly win for sure but a win. Buxton does look lost. I believe what someone else here said. DL him and let Julien hit. He’s the hot hand of late. Better at bats of late it seemed like. Are we in agreement that Correa has come around? He’s getting hits. He’s not red hot but he doesn’t look lost like a lot of others. Only problem is he’s batting lead off and no one else is hitting. We’re going to get to a point here where we need 2 more guys to hit behind him. Kiriloff is cold and not barreling it up. The Oakland pitcher was terrible and we missed opportunities once again. This lineup cannot rely on Castro anymore. He was hot but has gone cold it seems lately.  Gallo delivered tonight but he’s due to go 0-15 with 12 K’s until the next one. Maeda struggled but the bullpen picked him up. Are we gonna wait 2 weeks to go get another professional hitter? Probably gonna be a up and down 2 weeks. First game back. Looked a bit better but we NEED one more guy. When the FO realizes this it may be too late. 

[Nine of twelve]

8 hours ago, Matt Braun said:

the strike zone was nebulous all day

 

This is being kind. The strike three call on a pitch that was four inches low put Correa and Baldelli at the precipice of ejection and cost the Twins at least one run. Then the following half inning the Twins pitcher had two pitches in the same area but inside the TV box that were called balls.

This prompted a discussion in the booth about instituting the challenge system next season. To me the challenge system is just plain stupid and should never even be considered for use. In the instance of a challenge the electronic pitch call overrides the umpire's pitch call. So to avoid unnecessary delays and ejections and improve accuracy just use the electronic call for every pitch in the first place. And implement it for the 2024 season.

[jmlease1]

I was unaware that wins against KC and Oakland count for less than other wins in the standings. Interesting. 🤣

Maeda's velocity and movement were fine last night, but he just couldn't locate consistently and finish off hitters. Maybe he's one of those guys who gets rusty when they get extra time off?

Nice work by the bullpen...with the exception of Duran, which has usually gone the other way. I'm not worried about him per se, but it would be nice to get a good stretch of clean innings again.

I'm exhausted with the inconsistent strike zone this year, it just seems to be a constant refrain where you get these games where it sticks out like a sore thumb. Everyone had something to complain about last night so I guess it was "fair", but this is another game where it is objectively reasonable to talking about the strike zone and I'd much rather not be talking about the umpires at all.

[Doctor Gast]

8 hours ago, ashbury said:

I've been down on Gallo for his low OPS when tied or behind, so he gets props from me for the game winner.

Lotta missed opportunities by the rest of the team.

A blind squirrel finds an acorn once & in awhile.

[wabene]

Bout freaking time on Wallner. He has been in St Paul for about a month and a half. Just as he starts to cool down a little, they give him the long overdue call. It would be ideal if he just took a job in the bigs and ran with it. I thought he was in the process of that 1.5 months ago, but what do I know? 

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Yea, and it feels like Gallo's homers win games and aren't in garbage time (I didn't actually check it out).

Do check it out. But check out the entire body of work.  A home run occasionally wins a ballgame like last night.  But it's a long season.  Any given strikeout doesn't lose a ballgame on the spot except with two outs in the ninth.  With Gallo the strikeouts with men on are more like death by a thousand cuts.  IOW the number of small negative cases outweigh the few positive ones for him.

Saying this doesn't mean there aren't other culprits to scrutinize as well.

[Nine of twelve]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Shows what I know. Wallner up? Maybe he'll DH? 

 

11 minutes ago, wabene said:

Bout freaking time on Wallner. He has been in St Paul for about a month and a half. Just as he starts to cool down a little, they give him the long overdue call. It would be ideal if he just took a job in the bigs and ran with it. I thought he was in the process of that 1.5 months ago, but what do I know? 

What is the source on this? No such transaction has posted on the Twins' web site.