Twins 2, Rangers 6: Twins Bullpen Implodes in the 9th Inning and the Rangers "Walk" Away with the Win

[Sherry Cerny]

The Twins have taken two games thus far in the series, and while one doesn’t want to say easily, the Rangers slump certainly plays into the favor of the Twins, but on Saturday, Joe Ryan returned from the IL and Max Scherzer pitched for the Rangers. A battle of the pitchers ensued. 

Image courtesy of Jeffrey Becker 2023 USA Today

Box Score
SP: Joe Ryan 5 IP, 5 H,  1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K (80 pitches, 51 strikes (63%)
Home Runs:   Jorge Polanco (9)
Top 3 WPA: Jorge Polanco (.155), Joe Ryan (.153), Jhoan Duran (.103)
Bottom 3 WPA: Griffin Jax (-.457), Caleb Thielbar (-.115), Matt Wallner (-.085) 

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Joe Ryan returned to the mound tonight from the IL (groin) and got out his first two hitters on strikeouts. He allowed a single before striking out the last pitcher to end the inning. A solid start coming off injury. His velocity was a little lower than we saw in the beginning of the season, sitting between 91 mph and 94 mph, which could be an issue later. However, maybe it was his change of pace for music for his walk up. 

Max Scherzer, who came to the Rangers in a trade deadline move, was backed up with Mitch Garver who has caught all his games since the trade. Scherzer looked good in the bottom of the first getting two outs before Max Kepler shot a single into the centerfield gap for a single and then walked Carlos Correa. Scherzer’s walks have been up this season, and in a slump-breaking situation, walks will haunt. 

Ryan worked up his pitch count in the second inning, struggled a bit with the velocity still, and allowed low hanging fruit to create opportunities for the Rangers. The first was a home run by Mitch Garver to put the Rangers on the board first. Frustratingly, Garver got the Rangers on the board first with a home run on Friday night too. The Twins defense kept things tight as Robbie Grossman hit a line drive double to Kepler, and as Ezequiel Duran rounded the bases and dug for home, a relay from Max Kepler to Correa before a cannon to home to get Duran out. 

Edouard Julien hadn't seen Scherzer before this game and struck out looking in his first at-bat, but fought back in the third and got a double to start out the inning followed by a solid hit to center field gap from Kepler, scoring Julien to tie up the game. 

The Twins and Rangers stayed tied through. Both pitchers and defenses stayed tight, Ryan continued to stay in command of the strike zone as he settled in. 

Caleb Thielbar came out in the sixth inning to give Ryan a break. Undoubtedly manager Rocco Baldelli is working Ryan back to more pitches. Thielbar gave up a home run to Adolis Garcia , giving the Rangers the lead, but nothing else, closing out the inning with minimal damage and a chance to come back, and come back they did with a solo home run from Jorge Polanco in the bottom of the sixth to tie-up the game again. 

Emilio Pagan replaced Thielbar in the top of the seventh inning and as he has done so many times the past three months in these set-up positions, got out of the inning with no damage. Both threw 10 pitches in their appearances, and for Thielbar, eight of those were strikes. The Minnesota Twins bullpen has been getting stronger, better and hopefully ready for a postseason push. 

The game remained tied and the Twins brought out Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning, which led this writer to believe that he would subsequently be back out for the ninth, but instead the Twins brought out Griffin Jax. The Twins flame-thrower Duran has struggled when in situations when he has to relieve in two innings. Jax has had a funny season. Lots of up and down, high highs and low lows, but as evidenced by his relief appearance on Thursday, he still has "it". Jax has been worked a lot this week, the most of the relievers (three relief appearances and 57 pitches) and his momentum quickly faded. 

The ninth inning was messy. Jax had two runners on base with no outs when Pete Maki made a visit to the mound, to relax his reliever. Jax initially focused in and then threw a pitch that got Duran on the soft part of the elbow to load the bases. Tie game, one out, bases loaded and Robbie Grossman up to bat, the infield came to the mound to discuss how to get shut down Grossman and out of the inning with no damage, maybe hit into a double play and move to the tenth inning. The meeting didn't work and Grossman was walked to put the Rangers up 3-2,  but the damage was far from over.

Jax walked another player with the bases loaded giving the Rangers another run for a two run lead. Dylan Floro came in to replace Jax, who left the mound with his head hanging. Floro came into the inning with the bases loaded, but in a repeat performance, Floro hit Marcus Semien in the elbow and reloaded the bases and bringing in another walk for a 5-2 lead. The bleeding finally stopped with a 6-2 lead for the Rangers. 

The pitching wasn't the only thing to blame in this demise, the Twins bats were quiet and offense didn't show up outside of a double and solo home run, giving the pitchers no cushion to allow for runs. With the amount of usage the bullpen got this week, the bats needed to show up just as much. 

The Rangers sent out Aroldis Chapman to face the four five six batters and the Twins made some adjustments with Jordan Luplow in the number five spot. Luplow walked and it looked like Donovan Solano squared up enough to send the ball out for a homerun, but he got just under it and it fell into the glove of Garcia in right field to end the game and the pain. 

What’s Next? 
The Twins continue their homestand with one more game from Texas in this series before coming head to head with Cleveland.
Sunday 12:35 pm CDT: RHP Bailey Ober (6-6, 3.41 ERA) vs. LHP Jordan Montgomery (8-10, 3.12 ERA)
Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

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[Danchat]

[ashbury]

You may have Griffin Jax in your bullpen and not even know it.

[BH67]

Gallo and Floro should not play another game for the Twins. Thielbar and/or Pagan should have thrown a second inning. And I'd be making seven figures if the Twins cared what I think.

Can we clone Tom Kelly?

[DJL44]

What a boring way to lose an entertaining game up until that point.

[TWTwinsFan]

looks the target of 23 season is to win ONE playoff game, the rest doen't matter

[strumdatjag]

The top bullpen guys still have to be Duran and Jax.   One of the starters will bolster the pen in the playoffs.   Don’t get too worked up yet. 

[USAFChief]

The Twins somehow manage to go from tied 2-2, runners on 1st and 2nd, one out, 0-2 count on the batter, to down 5-2 WITHOUT TEXAS PUTTING A BALL IN PLAY.

Holy cow that's some godawful baseball.

[Jocko87]

3 minutes ago, strumdatjag said:

The top bullpen guys still have to be Duran and Jax.   One of the starters will bolster the pen in the playoffs.   Don’t get too worked up yet. 

Thank you.

For added perspective losing a game Scherzer starts isn't the worst thing that ever happened. If a reliever has a horrible inning this is what happens.

While I've always been on the side of Jax having something else going on no matter when the secondary stats say, he is a mainstay in the pen. They have to figure it out. The postseason pen looks very different from what we see today.

Meanwhile, they had a very good game save one pitcher against a stud pitcher and playoff team. The Rangers were not going to lose forever. Still a chance to get 3 of 4. I'm not even mad at a split.

[Boswell]

19 minutes ago, TWTwinsFan said:

looks the target of 23 season is to win ONE playoff game, the rest doen't matter

Yes, I will be satisfied with a new beginning.   So it goes.  

[Boswell]

5 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

The Twins somehow manage to go from tied 2-2, runners on 1st and 2nd, one out, 0-2 count on the batter, to down 5-2 WITHOUT TEXAS PUTTING A BALL IN PLAY.

Holy cow that's some godawful baseball.

We needed to be Minnesota Nice.  The Rangers are going through a tough time right now.  They really need a couple wins right now!

[Aggies7]

I would like to know our record when the starter gets pulled after the 5th. Not picking on the decision tonight but we have so many bad arms, chances are one or two are going to have a bad night when you’ve got to fill 12 outs 

[twins_89]

Since his 4-4 game, Gallo has gone 1-17 with 12 SO. How much failure will it take for the Twins to finally move on.

[Mike Sixel]

No idea why luplow is playing and not Martin no idea.

[Mike Sixel]

1 minute ago, twins_89 said:

Since his 4-4 game, Gallo has gone 1-17 with 12 SO. How much failure will it take for the Twins to finally move on.

Infinity more

[dxpavelka]

New school says bring in your best reliever in the 8th.  Old school says you're screwed for having done so.  Got ya.

 

[Blyleven2011]

WOW , THAT WAS THE LOUDEST BACK FIRE I'VE EVER HEARD , and I live 50 miles west of target field ...

I do understand bringing Duran in the eighth to face the top of the lineup but it backfired for Rocco  and Jax  ...

I'll reiterate what I said a week ago , if Jax can't get out of the inning with 15 or less  pitches he doesnt have his stuff going for him that night , when will Rocco learn ...

Scherzer was fun to watch , a serious bulldog pitcher ( don't mess with me look )   ...

Ryan pitched well enough too and it was a good game  , not entertaining but good ...

[William K Johnson]

How did Correa get in position to make the cutoff throw to home plate?   And what a throw it was.  I rip him all the time for his hitting, but he is absolutely incredible in the field.

[Doctor Wu]

The only positive takeaway I see from this game is that Joe Ryan came back from his IL stint and gave us a reasonably good start, keeping us in the game at that point.  But oh, that bullpen ... 

[nclahammer]

Tough/ugly game to watch at the end.  Reminded me of what Billy Beane said in Moneyball, "You rather get a bullet to the head or five to the chest and bleed to death?"  With Saturday's game, it was the latter.

[CRF]

Wasted a very good Ryan start. He looked like himself again. It's nice to have him back. With Scherzer pitching, I was reasonably sure we'd lose this one, but the way we lost was disgusting. Nah...we didn't need any bullpen help at the deadline...let's just roll with what we've got. NOT! Jax was brutal again, even though he'd been better lately. Just throw a damn strike! Floro is terrible! I know the analytics, but I don't agree with them. I'm too old to embrace all of it. I don't like Duran in the 8th to face the top of their order. He hasn't been that great either. Sure, we probably lose anyway somehow, but I would've used Jax first, then Duran. Another game today, so let this one go. We'll win this division by default, but this pen will kill us in a playoff game/series. 

[DJL44]

8 hours ago, twins_89 said:

Since his 4-4 game, Gallo has gone 1-17 with 12 SO. How much failure will it take for the Twins to finally move on.

About 30 more games.

[mikelink45]

Gallo - 

023	29	MIN	AL	103	318	271	37	48	9	1	20	38	0	0	45	138	.177	.299	.439	.738	99	119	3	2	0	0	1	73H89/D

Luplow

023	29	TOT	AL	21	54	46	4	10	2	0	1	3	2	0	7	18	.217	.333	.326	.659	83	15	1	1	0	0	1	/7H9D381
2023	29	TOR	AL	7	17	14	1	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	8	.214	.353	.214	.567	64	3	0	0	0	0	1	/9HD
2023	29	MIN	AL	14	37	32	3	7	2	0	1	2	2	0	4	10	.219	.324	.375	.699	92	12	1	1	0	0	0	/7HD3819

 

Taylor

2023	32	MIN	AL	114	337	312	41	71	13	0	19	43	12	1	19	114	.228	.278	.452	.730	95	141	7	3	2	1	0	*8H

 

Taylor the superior fielder has 1.7 War, Joey Gallow has 0.3 WAR, Luplow has 0.0 WAR (for the season).  Why are Luplow on the team and why not Taylor.  I know we want Joey's HR threat - he has one more than Taylor.  Or we want the K record and once again he was perfect - 3 ABs - 3 Ks.

[DJL44]

45 minutes ago, CRF said:

Nah...we didn't need any bullpen help at the deadline...let's just roll with what we've got.

The most frustrating part was Falvey acknowledging that they actually could use some help in the bullpen, then not following through and acquiring any.

The only consolation with Floro is Lopez has been horrible for the Marlins. The Twins won that trade.

[DJL44]

9 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

No idea why luplow is playing and not Martin no idea.

I think ultimately Luplow is keeping a spot warm for Buxton.

[DJL44]

And the magic number goes down one! Thanks, Cleveland!

[DJL44]

Vazquez gets criticized for his bat but his glove was terrific yesterday, as noted by AJ Pierzynski. He does a good job working with the starting pitchers and he erased a few baserunners too.

[DJL44]

6 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I do understand bringing Duran in the eighth to face the top of the lineup but it backfired for Rocco  and Jax  ...

You didn't get to see the alternate reality where Jax blew up in the 8th inning instead and Rocco never gets to use Duran in a close game.

[terrydactyls]

55 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Gallo - 

023	29	MIN	AL	103	318	271	37	48	9	1	20	38	0	0	45	138	.177	.299	.439	.738	99	119	3	2	0	0	1	73H89/D

Luplow

023	29	TOT	AL	21	54	46	4	10	2	0	1	3	2	0	7	18	.217	.333	.326	.659	83	15	1	1	0	0	1	/7H9D381
2023	29	TOR	AL	7	17	14	1	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	8	.214	.353	.214	.567	64	3	0	0	0	0	1	/9HD
2023	29	MIN	AL	14	37	32	3	7	2	0	1	2	2	0	4	10	.219	.324	.375	.699	92	12	1	1	0	0	0	/7HD3819

 

Taylor

2023	32	MIN	AL	114	337	312	41	71	13	0	19	43	12	1	19	114	.228	.278	.452	.730	95	141	7	3	2	1	0	*8H

 

Taylor the superior fielder has 1.7 War, Joey Gallow has 0.3 WAR, Luplow has 0.0 WAR (for the season).  Why are Luplow on the team and why not Taylor.  I know we want Joey's HR threat - he has one more than Taylor.  Or we want the K record and once again he was perfect - 3 ABs - 3Ks.

Taylor is on the team.

[Scott51104]

Watched most of the game on FOX (did not see the bottom of the 9th), and heard AJ say that the bullpen is a strength for the Twins.