Royals 2, Twins 1: First Place Twins Swept by the Last Place Royals

[Steven Trefz]

The headline says it all. On a day that the Twins needed a win, they put up no fight. The Royals swept away the Twins' good vibes and left them with more questions than answers before the impending trade deadline.

Image courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff - USA Today

•  

  Box Score
  Kenta Maeda: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K  (94 pitches, 60 strikes, 64%)
  Home Runs: Matt Wallner (5)
  Bottom 3 WPA: Christian Vazquez (-0.148), Michael A. Taylor (-.115), Joey Gallo (-0.081)
  Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

  

  The Twins came into Sunday's game with the Royals on the heels of at four-game losing streak. After dominating the Royals all season, the Twins faced a sweep when they were favored to be the "sweepers." Kansas City started a left-handed pitcher, Ryan Yarbrough. All of the pieces were in place for an afternoon to forget for Twins fans. Those pieces unfortunately fell into place.

  Royals Strike First, Again
  The consistent theme of the weekend in Kansas City has been that the Royals score early and often against Twins pitching. After erupting for 18 runs in the first two games of the series, Kenta Maeda kept the Royals bats in check for the most part. But the Royals did strike first, and took an early 1-0 lead when Maeda surrendered yet another home run by a Twins starting pitcher, this time to Freddy Fermin in the second inning.

  Twins Strike Back, Again
  Another consistent theme this weekend has been a resilient Twins offense, chipping away at the Royal's leads again and again. Today it was Matt Wallner, and I don't think you can consider this game-tying homerun, his first against left-handed pitching this season, a chip shot.

  Royals Strike Back, Again
  The tie game was extremely short-lived, for in the bottom of the third inning the Royals took advantage of Willi Castro's route on a Maikel Garcia line drive to the wall in left field. The ball cleared Castro, and then cleared him again on the way back in, allowing Nicky Lopez to score all the way from first base to make the game 2-1.

  Maeda ended up leaving the game after five innings, having continued his strong work in July. Due to the inconsistency of the lineup in July, Maeda managed to only go 1-1 over five starts, despite posting a 2.78 ERA and 1.01 WHIP for the month. 

  Yarbrough, on the other hand, enjoyed pitching against the Twins. He threw seven innings, allowed just the one run, and delivered the first three-game winning streak of the season for the Royals.

  So Where Does This Leave the Twins?
  With Cleveland's win today, the Twins now hold just a half-game lead in the AL Central after losing five games in a row. The trade deadline looms between now and their next game on Tuesday. The Twins face a long look in the mirror, an honest look at the roster, and perhaps multiple changes between now and their matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals. 

  Twins RHP Pablo Lopez (5-6, 4.13 ERA) is scheduled to make the start on Tuesday, and he will be facing a Cardinals pitcher to be named later (basically whoever is left on the roster after the trade deadline). First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm CDT at Busch Stadium on August 1st.

  Stay tuned to Twins Daily for all of your last minute trade news and post-trade deadline roster discussion.
  
  Post-Game Interview:

  Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

  	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
  Winder	36	0	0	40	0	76
  Balazovic	32	0	0	33	0	65
  Jax	0	0	10	0	22	32
  Durán	0	0	25	0	0	25
  Pagán	0	0	18	0	6	24
  Morán	0	0	9	11	0	20
  Floro	0	0	9	0	11	20
  Thielbar	0	0	0	0	0	0

   

   

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[LastOnePicked]

[Peter]

Embarrassing and unacceptable!!!!!🤬😡🤬😡as far as I’m concerned gallo played his last game as a twin!!! We definitely need to shake things up at deadline-trade one if our outfielders for power hitter/trade sonny/one of pitchers in bullpen padres closer/starter. You can’t sell!!! Even though it sucks we got swept!!! You can’t. I’m beyond upset about losing but if twins don’t win division it’s wasted season. 

[gman]

Swept by KC. Pitching looked better today, but again in was KC. I agree sell tonight, tomorrow, & Tuesday. Try to get pieces that make this a better team next year. Maybe some of those will help this year.

[Hashim]

Pathetic team and effort. Terrible management. If we can’t hit lefties, why doesn’t the manager make the right adjustments. 

[Hashim]

2 minutes ago, Peter said:

Embarrassing and unacceptable!!!!!🤬😡🤬😡as far as I’m concerned gallo played his last game as a twin!!! We definitely need to shake things up at deadline-trade one if our outfielders for power hitter/trade sonny/one of pitchers in bullpen padres closer/starter. You can’t sell!!! Even though it sucks we got swept!!! You can’t. I’m beyond upset about losing but if twins don’t win division it’s wasted season. 

I know how you feel. What pathetic effort in a must win game. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Let's hope the Twins don't play Kansas City in the postseason

[Vanimal46]

Crucial time in the season, and the last impression before the deadline is a 5 game losing streak. Offense reverting back to its old ways, and the pitching crashing back to Earth. They’re practically begging Falvey to sell for the future tomorrow. 

[Aggies7]

I looked it up because I’m a loser and nothing better to do lol

Of teams that have lost 110+ games since 1935, not one has swept a series this late in the season. Until the royals did it this weekend.

This includes: 

1962 Mets (40-120)

2003 Tigers (43-119)

1935 Boston Braves (38-115)

1952 Pirates (42-112)

1939 Browns (43-111)

1941 Phillies (43-111)

the royals came into this series on pace for a record of 42-117

[gman]

2 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I looked it up because I’m a loser and nothing better to do lol

Of teams that have lost 110+ games since 1935, not one has swept a series this late in the season. Until the royals did it this weekend.

This includes: 

1962 Mets (40-120)

2003 Tigers (43-119)

1935 Boston Braves (38-115)

1952 Pirates (42-112)

1939 Browns (43-111)

1941 Phillies (43-111)

the royals came into this series on pace for a record of 42-117

I guess this does make the Twins part of the record books. Maybe no one will remember in 10 years.

[jkcarew]

Here’s the problem I have with the “hey we’re still in it”, “chip and a chair” crowd…

You’re rewarding mediocrity. You’re playing right into the hands of an ownership and FO that sell this as ‘success’…year after year. En mass, you provide no incentive for real change, real progress.

The club is still in the ALC race and could still very well win it. I hope they do, and I’ll be cheering them on. But it won’t necessarily mean I think it was a “good” season.

Taking advantage of a terrible division year after year to ‘compete’, and hoping that lightning strikes in the postseason is not a plan…it’s a shell game.

Honestly, I’m to the point where I wish the club was playing in a different division,…I’m guessing that might be the only thing that would light any kind of fire under this organization.

[darwin22]

Living here in the KC area for the last 20 years as a lifelong Twins fans, I'm often asked why I don't travel 20 minutes down I-70 to watch a game/series.

This weekend explains why.

Just a horrible performance from everyone involved.

 

 

[wabene]

Well at least the deadline is staring them in the face. We will see if Falvey or Levine or whoever it is can have that difficult conversation with a proud veteran. 

[CRF]

There need to be some changes made, but I don't think much is going to happen by Tues afternoon at 5pm. I think we'll pretty much stand pat. I think Gallo is still here, I doubt we'll add a righty bat, and we'll probably add a middling RP from somewhere. I just can't see this FO making many moves, even though they've done that in the past. I think this year is different. I sure hope I'm wrong. 

[LastOnePicked]

1 minute ago, jkcarew said:

Honestly, I’m to the point where I wish the club was playing in a different division

I'm well past that point. The idea that the Twins have been competitive in recent years is a total fiction - and its a fantasy that's kept us from a necessary rebuild and organizational restructuring.

[Patzky]

And the Twins revert to losing in their comfortable time honored fashion.. enough of that 11 to 8 bs. 

[MABB1959]

37 minutes ago, wabene said:

Well at least the deadline is staring them in the face. We will see if Falvey or Levine or whoever it is can have that difficult conversation with a proud veteran. 

There should have been 25-30 difficult conversations this season.  Maybe there were and we don’t know. Just remember the player only meeting and that lasted less than a week 

[MABB1959]

41 minutes ago, CRF said:

There needs to be some changes made, but I don't think much is going to happen by Tues afternoon at 5pm. I think we'll pretty much stand pat. I think Gallo is still here, I doubt we'll add a righty bat, and we'll probably add a middling RP from somewhere. I just can't see this FO making many moves, even though they've done that in the past. I think this year is different. I sure hope I'm wrong. 

I don’t trust their judgement one bit.  

[lukeduke1980]

1 hour ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Let's hope the Twins don't play Kansas City in the postseason

Truth

[Cap'n Piranha]

1 hour ago, LastOnePicked said:

I'm well past that point. The idea that the Twins have been competitive in recent years is a total fiction - and its a fantasy that's kept us from a necessary rebuild and organizational restructuring.

If by recent years, you mean since 2021, I agree.  The Twins were absolutely competitive in 2019, but due to injuries and bad luck, didn’t make any noise.  Hard to blame them for the bizarre season that was 2020.  2017/2018 don’t count against Falvine, since they were still trying to build up from the disaster that was 2016.

Dont get me wrong, I think significant changes need to be made at pretty much every level of the organization this off-season.  But to pretend the Falvine regime has been 7 years of famine is just not accurate.

[RpR]

1 hour ago, LastOnePicked said:

I'm well past that point. The idea that the Twins have been competitive in recent years is a total fiction - and its a fantasy that's kept us from a necessary rebuild and organizational restructuring.

What crystal ball says this so-called rebuild will not be just more the same , or worse?

[mikelink45]

2 hours ago, gman said:

I guess this does make the Twins part of the record books. Maybe no one will remember in 10 years.

That's because the big record is our strikeouts. Big pinch hit Gallo comes in to make sure that we get at least nine k's for the team total today. Thanks. 

[shabbos1]

The Twins went 8-2 in the first ten games post-All Star break and then lose 5 of the last 6 because of course they did.

Looking ahead at their schedule, there's a stretch of games at the end of August where they play Texas and Cleveland a total of 13 games.  That has potential to get real ugly, real fast for the hometown heroes' postseason aspirations.

[Jocko87]

1 hour ago, jkcarew said:

Here’s the problem I have with the “hey we’re still in it”, “chip and a chair” crowd…

You’re rewarding mediocrity. You’re playing right into the hands of an ownership and FO that sell this as ‘success’…year after year. En mass, you provide no incentive for real change, real progress.

The club is still in the ALC race and could still very well win it. I hope they do, and I’ll be cheering them on. But it won’t necessarily mean I think it was a “good” season.

Taking advantage of a terrible division year after year to ‘compete’, and hoping that lightning strikes in the postseason is not a plan…it’s a shell game.

Honestly, I’m to the point where I wish the club was playing in a different division,…I’m guessing that might be the only thing that would light any kind of fire under this organization.

But see, here's the problem with the fire everyone crowd.  I don't know that I've heard anyone call this a 'success'.  I haven't heard anyone say this is a 'good' season in any crowds I run with, including this board.  It's very easy to create a straw man to argue with and if you can actually point me to that person, I'll argue along side with you.

That person doesn't exist though.  Nobody is making these claims.

No real change or real progress.  My brother in Christ, please look back at the pitching rotation in 2020 and 2021.  Look at the rest of the roster in those years.  It made me gag just a bit when I did.  The monumental leaps this organization has made in the past five years dwarf any other 5 year period in the franchise history.  They still have work to do. I've been saying all year, this is the most talented 40 man roster most of us have seen in our fan lifetimes and I will continue to stand by that.  (yes, 1969 is before my time)

No, it isn't a success.  Yet.  No it hasn't been a good season. Yet.  There is a huge problem in the offensive coaching/strategy department that I'm actually pretty confident they will fix, although maybe not this year.

And I hate to break it to you, but making the postseason and hoping lightning strikes the right spot is literally the main objective of this entire dumb exercise.  If you want to call it a shell game, fine, but its literally everyone's plan. 

And playing in another division might actually be a good thing for this squad.  The same squad that seems to have a problem playing to the level of their opponents.  We might be surprised how well they would do. 

We should all probably do a little less reacting daily and hourly to a weekly and monthly sport.  That said, this has been a really ****** week.

[MABB1959]

34 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

If by recent years, you mean since 2021, I agree.  The Twins were absolutely competitive in 2019, but due to injuries and bad luck, didn’t make any noise.  Hard to blame them for the bizarre season that was 2020.  2017/2018 don’t count against Falvine, since they were still trying to build up from the disaster that was 2016.

Dont get me wrong, I think significant changes need to be made at pretty much every level of the organization this off-season.  But to pretend the Falvine regime has been 7 years of famine is just not accurate.

How many playoff games have they won since the FO got here?   Although some of the currents players were not picked by this FO the one thing they have missed the boat on big time is improving them or letting them go.  Also this is going on 20 or 33 years depending your version of success.  

[MABB1959]

3 minutes ago, shabbos1 said:

hometown heroes

Who are the hero’s?

[MABB1959]

Crickets from the owners on this disaster.  They are happy with the status quo

[LastOnePicked]

42 minutes ago, RpR said:

What crystal ball says this so-called rebuild will not be just more the same , or worse?

Orioles created a plan, followed through and now own the toughest division in baseball. Reds had multiple seasons of fire sales, only to play electric baseball in 2023. Before that, we saw the Astros and Rays move from nothing teams to powerhouses. You get a brilliant GM, a rock-solid development staff and you reap the reward from high draft picks and smart trades.

Yes, it means some basement-dwelling baseball for a decent chunk of years. Honestly, I'd much rather watch a group of young players gel than to watch the likes of Gray, Correa and Gallo underperform.

[LastOnePicked]

13 minutes ago, Jocko87 said:

making the postseason and hoping lightning strikes the right spot is literally the main objective of this entire dumb exercise

No, it isn't. Some teams know that their talent can't match that goal. Therefore, they conserve resources, avoid making bad trades and create a plan for success later on.

The worst thing to do in this game is to push in all your chips with a bad hand. You lose in the short term and the long term that way. That was 2022 in a nutshell for the Twins. That's shaping up to be 2023 as well.

Even if this team makes the playoffs by some continued Cleveland underperformance, all anyone would see is the playoff futility streak extended to 0-20. No crystal ball needed for that, I assure you.

[jkcarew]

17 minutes ago, Jocko87 said:

But see, here's the problem with the fire everyone crowd.  I don't know that I've heard anyone call this a 'success'.  I haven't heard anyone say this is a 'good' season in any crowds I run with, including this board.  It's very easy to create a straw man to argue with and if you can actually point me to that person, I'll argue along side with you.

That person doesn't exist though.  Nobody is making these claims.

No real change or real progress.  My brother in Christ, please look back at the pitching rotation in 2020 and 2021.  Look at the rest of the roster in those years.  It made me gag just a bit when I did.  The monumental leaps this organization has made in the past five years dwarf any other 5 year period in the franchise history.  They still have work to do. I've been saying all year, this is the most talented 40 man roster most of us have seen in our fan lifetimes and I will continue to stand by that.  (yes, 1969 is before my time)

No, it isn't a success.  Yet.  No it hasn't been a good season. Yet.  There is a huge problem in the offensive coaching/strategy department that I'm actually pretty confident they will fix, although maybe not this year.

And I hate to break it to you, but making the postseason and hoping lightning strikes the right spot is literally the main objective of this entire dumb exercise.  If you want to call it a shell game, fine, but its literally everyone's plan. 

And playing in another division might actually be a good thing for this squad.  The same squad that seems to have a problem playing to the level of their opponents.  We might be surprised how well they would do. 

We should all probably do a little less reacting daily and hourly to a weekly and monthly sport.  That said, this has been a really ****** week.

Completely miss the point. I’m not reacting to this week, or even this year. I’m reacting to the status quo. Years. And where did I say fire everybody? Where did I say fire ANYBODY. Straw man.

If you’re happy with ALC division titles, that’s your right…great.

I’m not.