Twins 3, Phillies 0: Twins Silence the Phillies to Win the Series

[Steven Trefz]

Sonny Gray took the mound aiming to duplicate the dominant performance of Pablo Lopez the night before. Gray ended up delivering even more convincingly, and the Twins offense did just enough to sneak out a series win.

Image courtesy of Bill Streicher, USA Today

Box Score
Starting pitcher: Sonny Gray: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K ( 80 Pitches, 51 Strikes, 64%)
Home Runs: Jordan Luplow (1)
Top 3 WPA: Gray (.368), Caleb Thielbar (.310), Emilio Pagan (.047)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

Welcome to Minnesota Mr. Luplow!
The Twins got on the board right away against Phillies lefty Ranger Suarez, when newcomer Jordan Luplow teed off on a sinker that didn't sink to the right field bullpen. The pitch came in at 92.1 MPH, and left at 103.1 MPH to put the Twins up 1-0 in the top of the first.

Small Ball Strikes Again for Twins
Christian Vazquez laced a second inning Suarez pitch to left field that looked to be gone as well, but it was a foot too little in launch angle and Vazquez was tossed out at second base trying to advance the warning track single into a double. In the top of the third inning, the Twins didn't get greedy and rode three singles to another run. With one out, Edouard Julien, Donovan Solano, and Jorge Polanco hit back-to-back-to-back singles to extend the lead to 2-0.

Sonny Skies in Philly
Gray dominated the majority of his six innings of work. The Phillies managed to load the bases in the bottom of the second thanks to a lead-off walk and a hit batter, but Gray was able to strike out Kyle Schwarber to end the threat. Philadelphia's offense stayed silent throughout the next four innings with Gray turning things over the bullpen in the seventh.

Cloudy Skies for Jax
As tidy as Gray kept things through the first six innings, Griffin Jax was a hot mess in the seventh. Kyle Farmer faced a lot of shade before the came, with fans clammoring for any of the AAA talent to be in today's line-up instead of the veteran. Farmer responded by saving the seventh inning and perhaps the game itself, before he even knew it was at risk of being lost. Trea Turner bounced a weak grounder to the hole in short, and Farmer picked and fired to nab the speedy Turner at first. Two singles and a hit batter later, Jax was gone and Caleb Thielbar was thrown into the fire.

That's where this low-scoring game took on a new level of excitement, as we got to witness just how irate the Philly faithful can get. Theilbar got Schwarber to pop out to first base innocently enough, and then on a full count, Thielbar threw this beauty to Alec Bohm.

Bohm hit the showers early. The fans cheered and booed like their lives depended on it, and when Bryce Harper met a similar fate on a close pitch in the bottom of the eighth. Manager Rob Thompson decided he wanted to take the ninth inning off as well.

To the Ninth We Go!
Insurance is important, in any situation. When facing the red-hot Phillies at their home lair, with crazed fans charged up...insurance is everything. The Twins managed to tie together yet another Julien (walk), Solano (single), Polanco (single) string to take a 3-0 lead. This extra run loomed large, as Jhoan Duran allowed lead-off batter Turner to reach on a single to center in the bottom of the ninth. Jake Cave came up as the "non-tying" run now, and flied out deep to center. Garrett Stubbs came up as the "non-tying" run next, and after working the count, he lined out to Joey Gallo for a double play at first to end the game with little drama.

What’s Next: The Twins enjoy an off-day Monday, and travel home from this disappointing, but not horrible 3-4 road trip. Revenge is in order for Tuesday, with the Detroit Tigers coming to Target Field for a quick two-game set. The Twins send RHP Bailey Ober (6-6, 3.40 ERA) to the mound to take on Tigers RHP Alex Faedo (2-4, 5.80 ERA).

Postgame Interviews:

 

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Balazovic	39	0	0	18	0	57
Winder	0	0	43	0	0	43
Durán	0	18	0	0	13	31
Thielbar	0	0	0	15	14	29
Floro	0	28	0	0	0	28
Jax	0	0	0	15	12	27
Pagán	14	0	0	0	9	23
Sands	0	0	0	0	0	0

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[Alex Wilde]

How can you take Gray out after 80 pitches and that many swinging strikes? I understand his track record isn’t great this year a third time around, but geez give the man a chance in the 7th. The moment he lets a base runner on you can take him out. You just used your best four relievers to win a game in which your starter went 6 scoreless and could have easily gone another inning. The bullpen usage will continue to bogle my mind. On a side note, Jax is back to being unreliable and Duran is giving up way too many hits. Not a good recipe heading down the stretch with a thin bullpen as it is.

[jkcarew]

Today was 1000% an example of Rocco deciding BEFORE the game is played, what he wants to do with the bullpen.

But a win’s a win. Rocco’s move and the ensuing huge break in the Bohm at-bat notwithstanding, that was a wonderfully pitched game.

[jorgenswest]

Great series win against a very good team. Well done all around these last two games.

[USAFChief]

I'm a "better to remove a starter too early than too late" guy, but even I can't imagine why Gray didn't come out for the 7th.

8 pitches in the 6th. Hadn't had a stressful inning since the 2nd. 

That said, fantastic job Mr Gray, and well done Twins getting 2 of 3.

 

[BH67]

After this week, my only advice is the following, as spoken by Faber College ROTC student Kevin Bacon:

Remain calm. All is well.

[darwin22]

One short week ago after Twins improbably finished a sweep against the Snakes, I tempered my rising hope for this team hoping they'd come away with at least 3 wins o

n their road trip to DET & PHI.  After cruising to a comfortable W on Monday---the reality of this maddening consistently inconsistent team reared its head with three straight brutal losses.

Coming into to face a hot Phillies team with Keuchel pitching, I expected the worst and received it.

Thankfully---Pablo Lopez stepped up BIG time yesterday (quietly becoming staff ace) and Sonny Gray came through with a great performance.  

Never would've predicted even a 3-run output from our offense today when I saw Luplow hitting in the 3-hole.  Glad he proved me wrong with a 1st inning BOMB off Suarez.

Like others, I was a tad baffled by Gray exiting after only 80 pitches.  Although Thielbar saved our bacon with a whiff of Bohm (thanks hp ump!), I was beyond frustrated with Jax's inability to put hitters away after Farmer's excellent play for the first out.

1-2 pitch to Cave:  single to RF

0-2 pitch to Stubbs (Catcher) hitting .208------serves up another line drive single, which was followed by Jax plunking 9-hole hitter Rojas on ANOTHER 0-2 pitch.

Thankfully, Thielbar (and not Moran) was able to come in and extinguish the rally.  Absolutely need Thielbar to be a key part of pen over the last 42 games.  Not be forgotten, I will give props to Pagan for blowing away Castellanos and Stott for the last 2 outs in the 8th.

That brings us to Duran.  He got the SV, but for the 10 straight appearance he failed to pitch a clean inning.  Duran hasn't pitched a clean inning since July 15th.  Is that a reason for concern?  His WHIP has soared to 1.61 over his last 10 games.  I know we've been spoiled with him, but it does seem that he's throwing fewer and fewer fastballs over the last month?  His K's are still there---14---over those 9.33 IP

Looking forward this week-----2 HOME vs. DET and 3 more vs. PIT.  Is it too much to expect 4 wins in those 5 games?  Probably so as one thing this team continues to do is play down to their competition. 

Any word/report if Lewis has progressed to the point that he's activated this week?  

[Patzky]

I wasn't sure about the wisdom of Julien batting 9th, but the sequence of events from him to Solano and Polanco worked to our advantage twice today. Nice work guys (And Rocco)

[darwin22]

15 minutes ago, BH67 said:

After this week, my only advice is the following, as spoken by Faber College ROTC student Kevin Bacon:

Remain calm. All is well.

To further quote Chip Diller (Bacon) regarding the upcoming 5-game homestand.

"Thank you Sir, may I have another"-------4 would be great.  3 at least.

[Peter]

Not sonny Red not sonny black but sonny gray!!! He was magnificent!!! Especially in 2nd inning with bases loaded!!! 7th inning was 😬😬😬😬farmer made web gem with first out ;that was huge)then jax had problems until Thielbar came in and got huge strikeout to end inning-he’s cold blooded! This was huge series win!!! Let’s get payback against Detroit and go 2-1 3-0 against Pittsburgh. Nerves are fried-Great win!!!

[Matt Braun]

Coming back to win two against one of the hottest teams in baseball after getting sufficiently blasted in game one—that’s an impressive feat!

[SwainZag]

With the amount of times we have see Gray breeze thru and then implode in a later inning, combined with a fully rested back end of the pen, it's kinda hard to fault Rocco's reasoning in this one.

 

[LewFordLives]

Was listening to the game on MLB Radio with the Phillies broadcast team. The way they described it, you'd think that 3-2 pitch to Bohm was about a foot inside. I later saw the replay and laughed when I saw how close it was. Could it have justifiably been called a ball???…...sure. But it was close.

[stringer bell]

Yeah, I think Baldelli's decision to pull Gray was mildly defensible. The bullpen was well rested, with Thielbar and Jax available after pitching on Saturday and all the other higher leverage guys fully rested. Gray was very good, it was quite hot and Gray has had a few "out of the blue" innings late in his starts. The other factor, I think, is keeping the rotation guys as fresh as possible. 

[LastOnePicked]

1 hour ago, LewFordLives said:

Was listening to the game on MLB Radio with the Phillies broadcast team. The way they described it, you'd think that 3-2 pitch to Bohm was about a foot inside. I later saw the replay and laughed when I saw how close it was. Could it have justifiably been called a ball???…...sure. But it was close.

Yes, but in that situation of the ballgame. I can see why Philly fans got riled up. I know I would have if the situation was reversed.

That said, it was a fun moment. I enjoyed the Provus call as well.

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

Yeah, I think Baldelli's decision to pull Gray was mildly defensible. The bullpen was well rested, with Thielbar and Jax available after pitching on Saturday and all the other higher leverage guys fully rested. Gray was very good, it was quite hot and Gray has had a few "out of the blue" innings late in his starts. The other factor, I think, is keeping the rotation guys as fresh as possible. 

Gray has had some starts where the heat/humidity has gotten to him, so after 6 good innings and a lead I can see why they'd want to let him take a seat, and give the bullpen some work before the off day. It was a bit more wobbly with Jax than anyone would have liked, but they got through it.

Always good to win a series on the road. Hopefully the Twins can keep it rolling a bit and put some more distance between us and the Guardians.

Gray and Lopez are a very nice 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation. Been quite a while since we had that, and I still have a lot of faith in Ryan, Ober and Maeda. Starting pitching will carry this squad (which I don't see Keuchel being part of for long...)

[Alex Wilde]

3 hours ago, SwainZag said:

With the amount of times we have see Gray breeze thru and then implode in a later inning, combined with a fully rested back end of the pen, it's kinda hard to fault Rocco's reasoning in this one.

 

Jax’s WHIP in his last 7 games: 1.89

Duran’s WHIP in his last 7 games: 1.74 with 5 earned runs

Gray’s last inning was 8 pitches with 2 K’s against their 3,4, and 5 hitters.

He was at 80 pitches. At a minimum, just let him start the next inning and if you want you can take him out after a single base runner.

I guess you have Monday off but still, you had to use your best four relievers in a game in which you easily could have used two.

[tony&rodney]

4-3 on the road works. Now the Twins have 12 of the next 14 at Target Field with 8 games versus teams below .500. Is it too much to hope that the Twins can go at least 9-5 in the next two week? They could also bury the Clevelanders as well.

[gil4]

3 hours ago, LewFordLives said:

Was listening to the game on MLB Radio with the Phillies broadcast team. The way they described it, you'd think that 3-2 pitch to Bohm was about a foot inside. I later saw the replay and laughed when I saw how close it was. Could it have justifiably been called a ball???…...sure. But it was close.

Agree.  I'm looking forward to seeing the umpire scorecard to see if it was classified as a missed call or if it was within the margin of error.

[jkcarew]

3 hours ago, LewFordLives said:

Was listening to the game on MLB Radio with the Phillies broadcast team. The way they described it, you'd think that 3-2 pitch to Bohm was about a foot inside. I later saw the replay and laughed when I saw how close it was. Could it have justifiably been called a ball???…...sure. But it was close.

Have you seen the tracker? With a Twin at the plate, Twins fans would expect that to be called a ball 100% of the time.
 

It was a huge break. Breaks happen. Twins did plenty enough to deserve the win regardless.

[h2oface]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

4-3 on the road works. Now the Twins have 12 of the next 14 at Target Field with 8 games versus teams below .500. Is it too much to hope that the Twins can go at least 9-5 in the next two week? They could also bury the Clevelanders as well.

That would have been better than what it actually was, which was 3-4 with a 4 game losing streak and losing 3 in a row to lowly Detroit - 2 by being shutout!

[tony&rodney]

3 minutes ago, h2oface said:

That would have been better than what it actually was, which was 3-4 with a 4 game losing streak and losing 3 in a row to lowly Detroit - 2 by being shutout!

Oops.

Kind of a frustrating season and was trying to think positive - my mistake.

Good catch.

[Doctor Wu]

10 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Yes, but in that situation of the ballgame. I can see why Philly fans got riled up. I know I would have if the situation was reversed.

That said, it was a fun moment. I enjoyed the Provus call as well.

I was thinking the same thing. That was a very borderline call on that "strike," and if it had been made against us I'd be howling and hollering too! I think we dodged a bullet on that one.

[chinmusic]

10 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Gray and Lopez are a very nice 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation.

Particularly for the playoffs. With the luxury of a 4.5 game lead over the Guardians, I wouldn't be surprised to see those 2 with conservative pitch counts from here on in, provided that lead holds up.

[John Belinski]

I think the last 2 games show that the Twins could win a playoff series with good pitching. Those two games were the best 2 games of the season for the Twins since they were against a good team.  With Lewis and Alex coming back the Twins will be a better team. I am surprised that Rocco has not tried Julian at first base since we need his bat in the lineup and he has played some games there in the minors. It appears Lewis will come back soon so the only spot we have for Julian is at first base. That would give the Twins a good infield.  I think first base is the easiest infield spot to play and would be a good spot for Julian if Alex is not ready to play.

[chpettit19]

I'd have left Gray in for 1 more. I do think it makes sense to get the rotation a little extra rest here and there for the stretch run, but they also need to get the pen some rest. Jax and Duran have been awfully wobbly lately. I know they have a number of off days coming up, but those 2 look to be in need of a reset of some sort.

Come playoff time they're going to need them available to throw in basically every close game so they need them well rested then, but they also need to get them used to throwing up to 3 days in a row. It's a balancing act as it's also going to be vital to have the starters with as strong of arms as possible to get 6 or 7 innings out of them in every start. Will be interesting to see how they manage the pitching staff from here on out. I'm not going to freak out over 1 start where I'd have left Gray in an extra inning than they did as I can see a number of legitimate reasons to have done so.

[JD-TWINS]

On 8/13/2023 at 5:03 PM, Alex Wilde said:

How can you take Gray out after 80 pitches and that many swinging strikes? I understand his track record isn’t great this year a third time around, but geez give the man a chance in the 7th. The moment he lets a base runner on you can take him out. You just used your best four relievers to win a game in which your starter went 6 scoreless and could have easily gone another inning. The bullpen usage will continue to bogle my mind. On a side note, Jax is back to being unreliable and Duran is giving up way too many hits. Not a good recipe heading down the stretch with a thin bullpen as it is.

85F to 88F over 6 innings. on Sunday. Looked fatigued to me when Jeffers came out to talk just before end of 6.

Guys get paid to relieve.

Up against a premier offense that had won 41 of 61 games.

Used 4 guys because the first one didn’t do his job.

Relievers (most) are much more effective/comfortable with a clean inning to start and a chance to throw out of the wind-up.

If Jax has a clean inning - Thielbar clean - Duran clean ……..everyone is giddy about how sharp our Pen looked. Beat a team that was in World Series last year and held them to 1 run over 2 games in their own park.

No problem with the approach nor the outcome.

[Alex Wilde]

10 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

85F to 88F over 6 innings. on Sunday. Looked fatigued to me when Jeffers came out to talk just before end of 6.

Guys get paid to relieve.

Up against a premier offense that had won 41 of 61 games.

Used 4 guys because the first one didn’t do his job.

Relievers (most) are much more effective/comfortable with a clean inning to start and a chance to throw out of the wind-up.

If Jax has a clean inning - Thielbar clean - Duran clean ……..everyone is giddy about how sharp our Pen looked. Beat a team that was in World Series last year and held them to 1 run over 2 games in their own park.

No problem with the approach nor the outcome.

20 hours ago, Alex Wilde said:

Jax’s WHIP in his last 7 games: 1.89

Duran’s WHIP in his last 7 games: 1.74 with 5 earned runs

Gray’s last inning was 8 pitches with 2 K’s against their 3,4, and 5 hitters.

He was at 80 pitches. At a minimum, just let him start the next inning and if you want you can take him out after a single base runner.

I guess you have Monday off but still, you had to use your best four relievers in a game in which you easily could have used two.

 

 

[USAFChief]

2 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

85F to 88F over 6 innings. on Sunday. Looked fatigued to me when Jeffers came out to talk just before end of 6.

Maybe I missed it. At what point during Gray's 8 pitch, 1-2-3  6th inning did Jeffers come out to talk?