Mariners 8, Twins 7: Ryan Struggles, Bats Rally, but It’s Not Enough

[weitz41]

Just keep scoring runs, the pitching should even back out.

The Mariniers do have a very good pitching staff (8th best) The offense performed well against them. Disappointing series loss that could have easily been a series win.

KC next followed by St Louis.

[TL]

11 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Actually, add Lee and Jeffers and that means six of our eight position players are legitimate major leaguers comprising our new young “cornerstones” - all making essentially league minimum and controllable for years.  Of course, Correa is the seventh position player and Buxton, although we’d hope he’d be our CF, is the DH (for better or worse).  We could use a FA RH CFer before Rodriguez appears in ‘25 and Jenkins hopefully in ‘26 or ‘27.

With Vasquez, Farmer, and two of Polanco, Larnach, Castro and Gordon, I’d take those 13 position players right now in ‘24. 

I hope Lewis wants to be that RH CFer. Solves the conundrum of how to fit him, Lee and Julien into two positions. 

[Doctor Wu]

15 hours ago, purplesoldier4u said:

The Twins could not afford to throw these past two games away, but, as usual, they did. Is anybody else concerned that Ryan is so inconsistent?

Well, yeah, I am a bit concerned about Ryan lately. Seems like he hasn't been the same since that complete game he pitched about a month ago. Some have suggested that he skips a turn in the rotation or needs more rest, and honestly I don't know what the answer is at this point. But he's not looking like a pitcher we can count on if we make the playoffs. 

[Karbo]

10 hours ago, glunn said:

Maybe he needs to skip a start or two? Put him on the 10-day IL and let Varland come up?

I'd call up Keuchel to see if his great start in St, Paul can carry over to the Twins

[insagt1]

I would sub in 'frustrating' for 'exciting' to describe yesterdays very disappointing loss, following another disappointing loss. Rocco talked about yesterday as though everything was sunshine and roses. I don't like 'leaders' who try and nice away losses. Yeah, I know why he does it, but I don't like it. Fans don't feel good when their team loses games they should be winning and no amount of 'spin' is going to change that.  And yeah, you aren't going to win 162 games either, but these kumbaya post game interviews just don't work.

Gallo--when you have a lineup of k-men to begin with, you just can't afford to play a guy everyday who can't make contact just because he is 'good' defensively. Can you? Is that enough to compensate for someone who just flails away every AB when there has to be guys who can give you decent 'd' AND who don't give away so many outs? He is a gamer, he tries, but .170 with k's about every 2 AB's isn't going to make you a division champ.

[Eephus]

Right now Wallner's offensive floor seems like it would be comfortably higher than what can be realistically expected from Gallo. There is no reason to think Gallo is better than what he has shown so far this season. This is who he is.

[tony&rodney]

The pitching carried the Twins through the All Star break. The bats have shown life lately. If the Twins are going to be in the AL Central chase (not such a high bar to clear), they will need all of the offense that they can assemble in their lineup. 

I appreciate those who have fears of Julien and Wallner in the field and would not suggest that either is at the level the Twins would prefer. They are both inexperienced and a little awkward, but we have also seen that they are making the vast majority of plays and actually not hurting the team with their gloves at all. We may fear every ball hit in their direction but the outs have been recorded despite the angst.

The decisions are forthcoming and we (fans) have no say in the matter. Until Julien and Wallner fail, it seems that wins might be hard to come by without them in the lineup on a regular basis. This is even more true if the pitching is not able to repeat their performances from the first half of the year. I'm curious what Falvey will see as a solution. 

[mikelink45]

14 hours ago, RpR said:

Gallo can play a lot of positions well; Wallner can field at a lessor level and that is all.

Gallo has lost speed and his fielding is no longer the asset we bragged about.  Drop him.

[JD-TWINS]

17 hours ago, purplesoldier4u said:

The Twins could not afford to throw these past two games away, but, as usual, they did. Is anybody else concerned that Ryan is so inconsistent?

YES - concerned!

IMO, if Kuechel goes out again and pitches well in St. Paul, take advantage of Ryan & Ober having options to AAA, bring Kuechel in for August - September. He can give Ryan 2 missed starts and 13-14 days off, maybe more if timed correctly. Same approach with Ober. You can bring one guy back on Gray’s starting day and have him skip one turn and duplicate process with Lopez…….with roster expansion Sept 1 he can stick around through the month and provide more rest.

Kuechel could be a real luxury over the last 2 months - fingers crossed!