Brewers 7, Twins 3: Middle Relief Falls Short, Julien Plays First

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Twins traveled to Wisconsin for a quick two-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers. Matching production early, the Twins found themselves with a slight advantage halfway through Tuesday night's game. A bullpen blowup led to a highlight that saw Edouard Julien play first base.

Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Bailey Ober 5.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Home Runs: Christian Vazquez (4)
Top 3 WPA:  Christian Vazquez .126, Kyle Farmer .116, Bailey Ober .095
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

You see something new every day during a baseball game, and Jeff Nelson showed us something different in the first inning of Tuesday's Brewers and Twins matchup. After Jorge Polanco foul tipped a third strike into the glove of William Contreras, the Brewers backstop dropped the ball, but it was deemed to have happened on the transfer. That's not a play you ever see, but Rocco Baldelli got an explanation and moved on with the action.

Bailey Ober has fallen off since the All-Star Break, and he continued a run of seven straight starts allowing a homer. In the first inning, Willy Adames stepped in and took Ober out to left center. After giving up just eight home runs in 82 2/3 innings before the break, he's allowed nine in 32 innings since.

Christian Vazquez turned 33 on Monday, and while there were no fireworks on the Twins off day, he provided some with a blast scoring Kyle Farmer on a homer to left field. Immediately answering for Minnesota against Wade Miley, it was a new ballgame early.

Ober largely nibbled in the third inning and struggled to put William Contreras away before nearly walking Carlos Santana. Instead, Jorge Polanco started a double play that Carlos Correa's howitzer attached to his right shoulder finished. Adames had a hit taken away by Kyle Famer, and the Twins could escape a daunting jam.

The two previous games between Minnesota and Milwaukee this season were decided by two runs apiece, with the Twins walking off the first one. Entering the fourth inning with both teams having a pair of runs on a pair of hits only highlights how close both clubs are.

Jordan Luplow, in against the lefty starter, kicked off the fourth inning with a double just down the line. After Correa worked a walk, Farmer grabbed his second hit of the game. Lofting a single to left fielder Christian Yelich, Luplow was fine testing the weak arm and came across the plate giving Minnesota their first lead. Despite a tough couple of innings to open up the game, Ober found a new gear and dominated, retiring eight straight Milwaukee hitters. While the Twins didn't crush Miley, they did force Milwaukee to the bullpen after five innings.

Baldelli answered with Dylan Floro taking over for Ober in the sixth inning. At just 78 pitches, Ober had bounced back from a rough start to the outing. Having retired eight in a row, he rebounded well. Baldelli indicated that limiting innings for him down the stretch will be a thing, and tonight this was the spot. Milwaukee opened the frame with back-to-back singles before Floro got a strikeout. Mark Canha singled to right field, scoring Contreras, and the game was tied. Tyrone Taylor popped a jam-shot single to right, scoring Santana, and Milwaukee had their second lead. A Brice Turang single brought Canha home before Brian Anderson plated Taylor and Turang.

Floro's sixth inning had entirely gone off the rails. Despite giving up weak contact, he surrendered six singles to Brewers batters. Trailing 7-3, Minnesota needed to find a late-inning comeback. Oliver Ortega took over in the seventh inning and brought the game to a crawl with an inability to find the strike zone. Following his 25th pitch, Ortega winced and was lifted due to injury. Cole Sands inherited a 3-0 count, issuing a walk, but got out of the inning on the next at-bat.

Edouard Julien pinch hit for Donovan Solano in the top of the eighth inning, and Baldelli kept him in at first base to start the bottom half. With 420 defensive innings at the Major League level, this was the first time one came at first base. The last time Julien was used at first base was back in 2021 at Single-A Fort Myers. Interestingly, the Twins never previously got Julien innings at first base, but this certainly signifies they're open to that idea. Being an option there with Alex Kirilloff in the future opens more positions on the infield for Minnesota's youth.

Royce Lewis singled to start the ninth inning, but an aggressive turn got him thrown out, retreating after attempting to stretch for a double. Max Kepler then watched a 101-mph fastball from former Twins reliever Trevor Megill for strike three. Vazquez popped out to end it and the end of this one felt like a whimper.

Take a look at the game through a Brewers lens with a recap from Brewer Fanatic.

Notes
With the Brewers starting a lefty in Wade Miley, Matt Wallner was the lone lefty to start for Minnesota on Tuesday. Edouard Julien and Max Kepler found themselves on the bench for game one of the short series.

Glen Perkins, who was on the broadcast tonight for Minnesota, talked of his struggles against Brewers' Carlos Santana. All of their matchups came when Santana was with the Guardians. Santana owned Perkins to the tune of four homers and a pair of doubles.

Rocco Baldelli has said Joe Ryan's next start will come with Minnesota, not in a rehab outing for the Saints. The groin is healthy, and it remains to be seen how his effectiveness and ability to keep the ball in the yard respond.

Perkins noted his first at-bat came against the Brewers. He faced Jeff Suppan and swung once, fouling the ball off. It was his lone swing in a major league game. Later in 2008, he faced Greg Maddux with the Padres.

What's Next? 
It's a quick two-game series for the Twins and Brewers. Minnesota will face Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes Wednesday afternoon before returning home to welcome the Texas Rangers. The following two weeks represent Minnesota's last gauntlet of the season, and how they handle, it will likely determine their 2023 fate.

Wednesday 8/22 Kenta Maeda vs Corbin Burnes 1:10pm

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[Aggies7]

I assume that ober was getting 5 inning regardless tonight? The way it all unfolded, I had terrible flashbacks to last season, needing 12 outs from our bullpen. Giving away far too many winnable games lately.

[Baumer67]

Why would you leave Floro on to give up 6 hits and 5 runs, Baldelli gave the game away. You could see it going bad pull him already.

[Kummel]

It was painful to watch Floro stay in there.  Agree with others, when a pitcher doesn't have it, why let him continue to get pounded?  That was giving up on the game early.

[Fezig]

6 hours ago, hitterscount said:

It was clear that Ober wasn’t at his best… after mowing down 8 straight? Give me a break… I have said it repeatedly, Rocco is clueless in his pitching staff management. Pulling a pitcher who is under 80 pitches that hasn’t given up a run in four innings is just another example of just how terrible he is with in game decisions and substitutions. I said last week he has cost this team 12-15 wins, make it 13-16. Another solid outing by a starter wasted. What a horrible decision to extend this clown.

Everything you said is God's honest truth. Might I add on the offensive side a philosophy of putting the ball in play and not swinging for the fences on every count has worked for over 100 years.

[Doctor Wu]

Nibbled to death by ducks. Sigh. Just one of those days/nights at the ballpark. Let's hope bats ignite tomorrow!

[yeahyabetcha]

I can’t decide which was worse.  Floro’s performance or Rocco’s decision to use him clinging to a one run lead in the sixth inning when of the rest of the bullpen was “fresh”.  What is he,  The 5th best bullpen option at best?

[mikelink45]

Quote

"The pitch count doesn't really matter to me that much. ... Our bullpen is pretty fresh and ready to go." Rocco reacts to the loss in Milwaukee and Ober's start. #MNTwins

Obviously Floro's pitch count didn't matter either.  Come on Rocco.  Ober had at least one more inning to go with his pitch count and Floro with his 5+ era is not our middle inning answer - nor is Ortega.  Maybe it is time to see if Sands can fill the role he was supposed to have.  These random RP additions are not worth putting them in key situations. 

Quote

Despite this early slip-up, Twins starter Bailey Ober kept Milwaukee scoreless through the remainder of his start, giving up just two hits and three walks in total. At a relatively low pitch count of 78, fans were surprised when the decision was made to go to the Minnesota bullpen. Unfortunately for Rocco Baldelli, this would be the wrong decision.

The Brewers went on a hitting onslaught, tagging Dylan Floro for six hits and a stolen base. In what seemed like a revolving door at the plate, Milwaukee simply couldn’t stop putting balls in play. By the time the dust cleared, Floro had given up five earned runs and the score was now 7-3 in favor of the Brewers.

This from the Brewer Fanatic captures the moment. 

[Peter]

Ober should’ve pitched in 6th inning. Only 78 pitches that was bad mistake by Rocco taking him out. Floro was horrible and this can’t continue or keep happening. This is tough stretch of games and we need to win these. 

[AlwaysinModeration]

If Correa catches that soft liner with the runner going, that’s a double play and they are out of the inning down 4-3.  That  hurt.

[Whitey333]

Rocco is perhaps the biggest reason the Twins cannot be taken seriously.  The decision to pull Ober after only 5 innings and 78 pitches to "save his arm" is typical Baldelli nonsense.  Leaving Floro in so long to get beat up and give another game away is inexcusable.  I believe it is at least 12 games Rocco has thrown away in game by all of a sudden deciding to not be competitive.  It slaps in the face of fans and the players not to at least give the appearance that you are trying to win games.  This is one of the biggest reasons it is so hard to get behind this team.

[MABB1959]

6 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Rocco is perhaps the biggest reason the Twins cannot be taken seriously.  The decision to pull Ober after only 5 innings and 78 pitches to "save his arm" is typical Baldelli nonsense.  Leaving Floro in so long to get beat up and give another game away is inexcusable.  I believe it is at least 12 games Rocco has thrown away in game by all of a sudden deciding to not be competitive.  It slaps in the face of fans and the players not to at least give the appearance that you are trying to win games.  This is one of the biggest reasons it is so hard to get behind this team.

What good does it do to do this.  They won't have a down the stretch with moves like this "Ober had bounced back from a rough start to the outing. Having retired eight in a row, he rebounded well. Baldelli indicated that limiting innings for him down the stretch will be a thing, and tonight this was the spot."

[MABB1959]

What good does it do to do this.  They won't have a down the stretch with moves like this "Ober had bounced back from a rough start to the outing. Having retired eight in a row, he rebounded well. Baldelli indicated that limiting innings for him down the stretch will be a thing, and tonight this was the spot."

[CRF]

Another perfect example of Baldelli mismanaging the bullpen. 

[bighat]

Baldelli managing Ober like the Twins have already won the division and just giving games away as if the division's already clinched. 

This is typical of Rocco - he gives up on games and always plays with tomorrow in mind rather than going for wins TODAY. Gives up wayyyy too easy. The whole team does, in fact. 

[HrbieFan]

52 minutes ago, AlwaysinModeration said:

If Correa catches that soft liner with the runner going, that’s a double play and they are out of the inning down 4-3.  That  hurt.

Anyone know if there are stats that warrant bringing the IF in? Seems that the majority of the time, bringing the IF in doesnt pay off and you give up easy bloopers. The Turang blooper would have been an out if we were playing at normal depth, the hit over Correa would have been an out and then the trickle up the middle would have been an out too. 

[chpettit19]

I get that watching Ober get pulled from that game with 78 pitches is frustrating, but, legitimate question, is there an inning limit total that people around here would put on Ober? For reference, the most innings he'd ever thrown in 1 season before this year was 108.1 in 2021. He threw 106.2 in college in 2014 when he was 18. He's never thrown more than 100 innings in a season in his life outside of those 2 instances. He's at 136.1 so far this year.

So I'm legitimately curious if there's any limit fans around here would put on him, or would you all just let him throw an unlimited amount of innings?

[chpettit19]

13 minutes ago, HrbieFan said:

Anyone know if there are stats that warrant bringing the IF in? Seems that the majority of the time, bringing the IF in doesnt pay off and you give up easy bloopers. The Turang blooper would have been an out if we were playing at normal depth, the hit over Correa would have been an out and then the trickle up the middle would have been an out too. 

That's a good question. I think it's pretty self-evident that bringing the IF in is the best way to cut the run off at the plate, but it would be interesting to see how often you get out of that inning without allowing the run after you bring the IF in. But, to be fair, that Turang "blooper" should have been a double play even with the infield in. That ball hit Correa right in the glove. You and I could've caught that ball.

[terrydactyls]

9 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I get that watching Ober get pulled from that game with 78 pitches is frustrating, but, legitimate question, is there an inning limit total that people around here would put on Ober? For reference, the most innings he'd ever thrown in 1 season before this year was 108.1 in 2021. He threw 106.2 in college in 2014 when he was 18. He's never thrown more than 100 innings in a season in his life outside of those 2 instances. He's at 136.1 so far this year.

So I'm legitimately curious if there's any limit fans around here would put on him, or would you all just let him throw an unlimited amount of innings?

To me, the answer seems obvious.  Most TD people want pitchers kept in the game until they give up enough runs so they can criticize Baldelli for leaving them in too long.

[saviking]

8 hours ago, Baumer67 said:

Why would you leave Floro on to give up 6 hits and 5 runs, Baldelli gave the game away. You could see it going bad pull him already.

It's one thing to let a starter work through it because it's disastrous to the bullpen when a starter gets pulled in the first inning but relievers in a tight game should be given a three-player leash. It's not like the bullpen wasn't rested after what was it, 3 off days in like 8 days?

[chpettit19]

6 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

To me, the answer seems obvious.  Most TD people want pitchers kept in the game until they give up enough runs so they can criticize Baldelli for leaving them in too long.

I think that's a pretty accurate description for a number of people. It's fascinating to watch the dynamics of fans who have the luxury of being emotional about/breaking down 1 game, 1 AB, 1 pitch sample sizes vs the team making decisions based off 162 games + postseason.

Now I'm no Rocco lover. I'm not a hater either. I'm just neutral on him and the FO (I'd fire them all, but am not going to rant and rave about it yet). But I'm really interested in hearing the thoughts of the masses when it comes to Ober and what they'd do with a guy who threw 72.2 innings all of last year and has nearly doubled that already with 6 or 7 starts to go. He's already blown past where I thought they'd let him get to so I'm already intrigued by how they'll handle things. I most definitely am not advocating they shut him down like the Nats did with Strasburg back in the day, but he's in uncharted territory. Despite what many believe, the human body does breakdown when you throw too many baseballs in a set amount of time, and performance will suffer (yes, I know Nolan Ryan did crazy things, save me that speech, please). Just an interesting view into the minds of fans.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

I thought I had read somewhere that the Twins SP are in the top 2 or 3 in IP this year.

Also, this year Ober has also blown past the most innings he has thrown in any professional season.

Maybe a little insight into the decisions being made last night...   

[jorgenswest]

Floro gave up six singles. He wasn’t walking batters. He didn’t give up home runs. Two of the singles had an XBA in the 100s. Correa should have been given an error on the missed double play. There was another throw from Wallner offline that put runners in scoring position. Farmer could have come off the bag there also. 

As for Baldelli he sees Floro strike out batter three and the next two batters hit balls for singles with exit velocities in the 60s. Batter number six hits a double play soft liner to Correa that he gets every time except yesterday. I don’t see indicators in batters three through six that Floro was not effective. I will argue that Baldelli should not have had the infield in as early as he did that inning.

The sixth inning was a team effort and the biggest burden of letting the game get away should be on Correa’s shoulders with an assist from Baldelli playing the infield in at that point.

 

[Vanimal46]

39 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I get that watching Ober get pulled from that game with 78 pitches is frustrating, but, legitimate question, is there an inning limit total that people around here would put on Ober? For reference, the most innings he'd ever thrown in 1 season before this year was 108.1 in 2021. He threw 106.2 in college in 2014 when he was 18. He's never thrown more than 100 innings in a season in his life outside of those 2 instances. He's at 136.1 so far this year.

So I'm legitimately curious if there's any limit fans around here would put on him, or would you all just let him throw an unlimited amount of innings?

Each pitcher has about 6 starts left for the regular season. I’d probably skip him in the rotation at least once in September to save him for a playoff start. Realistically if he’s around 160-170 innings that will be fantastic. If we go on a miracle WS run, then he can push it to the absolute limit of 180-185 innings. 

[DJL44]

45 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

So I'm legitimately curious if there's any limit fans around here would put on him, or would you all just let him throw an unlimited amount of innings?

The season ends in October. I'd let him rest then. That should be about 8 more starts.

That's a snarky response but I think way too much emphasis is placed on "innings" and not enough on current physical condition. If he's pitching through fatigue and soreness then he needs rest. If he's feeling good then he should pitch.

[jorgenswest]

I am not a believer that an extra day off for a starter makes a significant difference long term. They just had three days off in 11. I wrote heading into it that they had an opportunity to run a 4 man rotation for about two weeks through the 24th. My interest was dropping Keuchel but it could have been used for Ober.

Instead of giving Ober an extra day off twice why not give him real rest that might make a difference the rest of the season? That is probably not a field staff decision but one that comes from the front office who would have needed to option Ober or IL him to get that rest.

[madtowntwin]

Watched the game on TV here in Wisconsin....FWIW - The In-Game announcers voiced surprise and relief when Ober did not come out for the 6th. It was also one of the first mentions by the Brewer's post-game show. The game time temperature last evening was a comfortable 78 degrees. Today's game will be nearly 20 degrees warmer with an equal bump in humidity. Would that not play into your managerial strategy with said "Fresh Bullpen"??!! Ober appeared to have 1 - 3 more outs in him. Why not have arms up in the bullpen with watchful eye. Facing Burnes today the pressure is on Maeda. Conditions such as these can wilt a bullpen quickly. The effects of a short start could have large repercussions.  Remember the series at Wrigley a few years ago??? Whew!! Did our manager and shortstop wilt a bit last evening??

[Craig Arko]

51 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I get that watching Ober get pulled from that game with 78 pitches is frustrating, but, legitimate question, is there an inning limit total that people around here would put on Ober? For reference, the most innings he'd ever thrown in 1 season before this year was 108.1 in 2021. He threw 106.2 in college in 2014 when he was 18. He's never thrown more than 100 innings in a season in his life outside of those 2 instances. He's at 136.1 so far this year.

So I'm legitimately curious if there's any limit fans around here would put on him, or would you all just let him throw an unlimited amount of innings?

I’d put him on the 15 day with arm fatigue and let him refresh for the final push mid-September. Ryan will be back and Varland has been looking good recently.

[Woof Bronzer]

38 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

So I'm legitimately curious if there's any limit fans around here would put on him, or would you all just let him throw an unlimited amount of innings?

It's not like fans are clamoring for him to have pitched another 12 innings yesterday.  I'm positive his arm wouldn't have fallen off with ONE more inning yesterday.  I don't understand the argument that 5 innings last night falls within the realm of safe, responsible workload but 6 would have crossed the line.  Why not yank him after 4?  After 3?  Wouldn't that be more responsible?  For god's sake, he only pitched 70 innings last year!

This is going to be a thing in the playoffs, folks.  Due to the terrible Central the Twins are going to have a long time to script out the playoffs.  Get prepared for 5 inning starts out of Gray and Lopez.  After all, the bullpen's gonna be fresh just like it was last night, right?  Listen to Rocco:  the decision to yank Ober had nothing to do with pitch count/innings limits.  It was because Rocco thought turning it over to Dylan Floro gave the team the best chance to win.  That should be the A topic today, not innings limits.

[Little Piranhas]

I was stunned when Ober was pulled.  He had settled down and was in a groove with a relatively low pitch count.  It is worth noting that Ober didn't appear happy with the decision either.

There is no way the infield should be in with runners on first and third with one out.  At some point outs become more important than runs to stem the hemorrhaging. 

Credit should also go to the Brewers who know that when the infield is in the important thing to do is make contact and good things will happen.  It would be great if Rocco would see stuff like this happen and encourage situational hitting in our dugout as well.  Is this too much to ask?