royce lewis Twins 7, Rangers 6: The Twins Walk Away With a Series Win in 13 Innings

[Steven Trefz]

The game started innocently enough, but then two grand slams and 13 innings later the contest was no longer for the weak at heart. The Twins finally brought home the victory on a walk-off Michael A. Taylor walk, and redeemed what could have been a disasterous loss as they look ahead to a key Guardians series. Here's how it all went down.

Image courtesy of Jeffrey Becker, USA Today

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober - 4 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K ( 73 Pitches, 52 Strikes, 71% Strikes)
Piggy-Backer: Dallas Keuchel - 5 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K ( 76 Pitches, 45 Strikes, 59% Strikes)
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (7)
Top WPA: Donovan Solano (.732), Michael A. Taylor (.612), Royce Lewis (.184)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Twins went from seeking a four-game sweep of the Rangers to hoping to salvage a series win after a disasterous ninth inning Saturday night. Sunday's matchup involved Bailey Ober looking to maximize his pitch count on a short leash, versus Jordan Montgomery and his amazing left-handedness. 

Ober Allows a Magical Moment...for the Rangers
The Rangers started the offensive action in the top of the second inning, when J.P. Martinez crushed a 2-2 fastball deep onto the right field concourse for his first career home run. Ober completed three innings with only that run tacked against him, but the Twins offense failed to garner a single hit against Montgomery. So the middle innings would transpire with the Rangers leading 1-0.

Ober Allows a Deflating Moment...for the Twins
In the top of the fourth inning, the Rangers started to string together some baserunners. A double, single, and walk loaded up the bases for the aforementioned Martinez. After witnessing the orbit of the last pitch he had thrown to Martinez, Ober was able to alter the plan and the outcome, striking Martinez out with a changeup.

It turns out that he should have put that changeup in his pocket and never threw it again, because the next pitch was the same exact pitch, and Jonah Heim was more than ready for it.

Let Me Piggy-Back on That Last Comment
Not only did that grand slam ruin the afternoon for Ober, it also made the impending "piggy-back" usage of Ober and Dallas Keuchel less interesting. Keuchel started warming up during the implosion during the fourth, but as the announcers continuously pointed out: "He's a starter, so he isn't stretched out in a way that let's him come right into the game. He needs 20 minutes."

This information made it clear that the fourth inning was Ober's mess to clean up, and luckily he regained his footing and held the Rangers to their 5-0 lead.

Keuchel came in to pitch the fifth, and thanks to a double-play he was able to escape facing the minimum three batters. The sixth inning also went silently for the Rangers offense, as Keuchel continued to scatter weak contact and flumox the hitters.

Twins Can't Hit Lefties Again
Montgomery stymied the Twins offense for five innings. The third time through the lineup, the Twins scraped a single, single, and walk to load the bases with one out. Montgomery gave way to the Rangers bullpen, scattering four hits and staying clean in the run column. Fellow trade buddy Chris Stratton came into the game looking to clean up the mess. Unfortuneately for Stratton, he's a right-handed pitcher. And Royce Lewis is awesome.

Now That We Have a Ballgame, Back to That Piggy-Back Thing...
All of a sudden, Keuchel found himself rolling along in a 5-4 ballgame, and his ability to succeed in this new role gained a new level of pressure and importance. The seventh and eighth innings brought some minimal drama, but at the end of the day Keuchel had pitched four scoreless innings, and kept the Twins in the game.

The Rangers relied on a more typical bullpen approach, mixing in relievers for an inning at a time. The bottom of the seventh saw Michael A. Taylor and Jorge Polanco flirt with the fence, but ultimately flying out. The bottom of the eighth saw Max Kepler come through with a pinch-hit lead-off rocket single to right against Jose Leclerc. Carlos Correa followed with a walk on a full count, and Lewis found himself up to the plate again with runners on the pond, and a hero's moment waiting to be seized.

Lewis took a hack at the first pitch, and popped up softly to the second baseman. That brought Ryan Jeffers up for his crack at the defining moment of the game. With two strikes, Jeffers crushed a ball to left field limestone just left of the left-field foul pole. My heart rate did not go down, and yet the pitch clock waits for no one and Declerc kept dealing to strike out Jeffers. 

Two on, two out, and Rocco Baldelli brought in Edouard Julien to be the hero as a pinch hitter for Kyle Farmer. Bruce Bochy responded in kind by bringing in the left-handed and generally lights-out reliever Will Smith. Smith gave up the Jeffers blast on Thursday, and he would try to get the final out against not Julien, but Christian Vazquez in the third move of the at-bat. Vazquez struck out swinging, and the game of manager roulette ended "advantage Rangers."

Last Hope?
Keuchel surprisingly came out in the top of the ninth for his fifth inning of work, and while the inning started easily enough, it ended stressfully. Most importantly, the inning ended without any more Rangers runs, and the Twins just needed one to tie in the bottom of the ninth against Rangers closer Aroldis Chapman. 

Matt Wallner led off the inning with what he thought was a walk, but a close call kept him at home plate for an eventual strike out. Taylor followed with an actual walk, and then Chapman started throwing the ball around in ways that helped the Twins greatly. First, he lost track of his "engagements" to first, and Taylor was awarded second base. This set the stage for Donovan Solano to keep on raking in August, as he laced a single to center to tie the game!

A wild pitch put Solano at second base with one out. Polanco struck out, Kepler walked, and Correa came up in yet another potential hero's moment. A swinging strikeout later, and it was time for the hero to emerge in extra innings.

Who Will Prevail?
Keuchel's ability to last through five innings set the Twins up with a mostly clean bullpen to utilize in extra innings, whereas the Rangers had used up their biggest weapons. Jhoan Duran came in to take the 10th inning, and Correa immediately booted a ground ball that would have either caught the ghost runner Lowe napping at second or the batter Mitch Garver at first. Neither event occurred, and suddently Duran was in trouble. A harmless fly ball and a 5-4-3 double play later, and the trouble tables had turned.

Josh Sborz got the call for the Rangers, and the first man he faced was Lewis with Correa occupying second base as the winning run. Royce got fans exited with a flare to right, but it was caught easily enough. Jeffers and Vazquez (remember that Julien substitution?) both went down quietly to send everyone to another inning of free baseball.

Caleb Thielbar redeemed himself nicely from his recent homer happy relieving, and set down the Rangers quietly in the 11th. Sborz again trotted out to the mound to pitch. He induced a pop fly from Wallner, which should have been harmless enough. Unfortunately and shockingly for Twins fans, we got to witness what happens when pinch runner Joey Gallo bluffs a tag to third and then falls down. I kid you not. Suddenly the bases were empty with two out, and Taylor's fly out to center field sent the defense back onto the field.

Emilio Pagan got three straight outs in the top of the 12th, but unfortunately the first two were deep fly balls, and Leody Taveras didn't fall down at any point during his tagging up en route to scoring the go-ahead run. In order for the Twins to avoid hanging the loss on a guy who only recorded outs, they needed to bring in Taylor from second base after not having even advanced a ghost runner so far this game.

Solano battled lefty Brock Burke into a walk on a full count. Polanco stepped up looking to tie the game, and Burke sent a bouncing pitch through the legs of both catcher and umpire, moving Solano and Polanco both into scoring position with nobody out. Polanco battled off pitch after pitch, until he won the battle and tied the game with a ground ball that scored Taylor but caught Solano in no-man's land and unexplicably out at third in the second baserunning gaffe in as many innings. This error on the paths stung immediately, as Kepler laced a "should-have-been-game-winning" single to center. Instead of enjoying a team gatorade bath, the Twins were left hoping that Correa would come up big. He didn't. He hit into his 26th double-play of the season, and to the 13th we headed.

Dylan Floro was forced to come out of the pen. Odds are that many, many, many people lost prop bets on whether or not the Rangers would score against Floro, because he struck out two and left the ghost runner right where he belonged to give the offense yet another golden opportunity to salvage this game. With Correa on second, Lewis came up empty, striking out swinging at ball four a foot out of the zone from new Ranger Jonathan Hernandez. The announcers claimed the shadows were to blame...but its not a new facet of the Twins offense to strike out repeatedly.

Gallo redeemed himself a bit by avoiding swinging altogether to take the walk that Lewis and Jeffers should have taken, bringing up Wallner yet again with the chance to send Twins fans home happy. He didn't get out, as he worked another walk to load the bases with two outs. Hernandez was throwing airbenders, the shadows were hiding the pitches, and yet the Twins just needed one more thing to go their way. Turns out that one more thing was Michael A. Taylor standing at home plate with the bat on his shoulder. And every single fan in Twins Territory will be enjoying that walk-off walk for the next 24 hours!

Twins win! Twins win! The Minnesota Twins...win!

Post-Game Interview:

 

What’s Next?
The Twins square off against the Guardians in an attempt to wipe any lingering threat away from their division lead. RHP Kenta Maeda (3-7, 4.22 ERA) will face Cleveland RHP Xzavion Curry (3-2, 3.51 ERA) in the first of six games in ten days versus the Guardians. Bullpen usage might necessitate a roster move, or another piggy-backer? First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm CDT.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Jax	14	15	0	28	0	57
Durán	33	0	0	12	9	54
Winder	0	46	0	0	0	46
Pagán	21	0	0	14	11	46
Thielbar	22	0	0	10	11	43
Sands	0	0	32	0	0	32
Floro	0	0	0	12	19	31
Balazovic	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

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[2wins87]

Really glad they pulled it out particularly looking at that bullpen usage chart.

I guess Pagan could be available since he's supposed to have a rubber arm. But it seems like they could be relying on Balazovic, Winder, and Sands for some important innings tomorrow

[Dman]

I had the Twins being lucky to win one game against Texas.  Winning the series was not on my radar.  This late in the season that was a huge series win.  Still 9 tough games to go but this was a great start to a difficult two week schedule.

Lewis was clutch that Grand Slam got the Twins back in the game and they were dialed in when they needed runs they managed to get them.  I will take a win over a loss any day.  They are going to face some tough pitching in Cleveland coming to town.  I hope the bats are ready and the arms can hold up.

 

[Patzky]

"The seventh and eighth innings brought some minimal drama, but at the end of the day Keuchel had pitched four scoreless innings, and kept the Twins in the game."

 

There were more heroes than goats today, just enough to get the W. Rocco's pinch hitting shell game with Vazquez was embarrassing to witness but he handled the bullpen flawlessly.  Keuchel, Kepler, Taylor.. a different hero every day..

[ashbury]

13 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

But it seems like they could be relying on Balazovic, Winder, and Sands for some important innings tomorrow

Balazovic got sent down to St Paul yesterday, didn't he?

[BH67]

Box. Of. Chocolates. QED, I enjoyed the salted caramel this weekend, undoubtedly.

The next three days vs Cleveland will be either Chocolate Truffle or Crunchy Frog -- nothing in between.

[SD happy]

The win probability chart had a lot of ups and downs. Exactly the way I felt most of the game!

[Nine of twelve]

Splitting the series would have been considered good. Taking 3 of 4 is an excellent outcome. Similarly, taking 2 of the upcoming 6 games against Cleveland would be OK. 3 of 6 would be good. 4 or more would be excellent. 

[strumdatjag]

Fortunately, many “fans” were able to beat the traffic before that true WALK-off win.    Didn’t see that much traffic on the way home anyways.  I’m back there tomorrow and again on Wednesday.  Twins on overkill for me this week!!! 

[Heiny]

Taylor:  We're playing good baseball????  Huh!

Rocco:  So impressed with our group????  Huh!

[SwainZag]

I still don't know why we aren't bunting in the bottom of extra innings with the game tied.  Leadoff men went 0-3 in that situation, not advancing the runner once. 

 

On a separate note, outside of the ugly 1/3 of an inning from Jax yesterday, the bullpen put up a line of: 

 

18.2 IP. 9H. 3R. 1ER. 7BB. 17K.

Good for an ERA of 0.48.  Who saw that coming?

[DJL44]

Listening to extra innings was like listening to two Lutherans argue about who should eat the last brownie in the pan.

"Are you sure you don't want it?"

"No, I'm not really hungry"

"I need to run the dishwasher. Should I wrap it up for you?"

"I don't want you to waste the Reynolds Wrap. Maybe you should have it."

"No, I'm trying to cut back. The doctor says I could lose a little weight."

About 30 minutes later somebody finally eats the brownie and goes home.

[ashbury]

[SD happy]

30 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Balazovic got sent down to St Paul yesterday, didn't he?

Yes, when they activated Ryan.

[GCTF]

28 minutes ago, BH67 said:

The next three days vs Cleveland will be either Chocolate Truffle or Crunchy Frog -- nothing in between.

What if they only use the finest baby frogs flown in from Iraq?

[D.C Twins]

Great win. Lewis a star in the making. Dallas a veteran presence.  BUT.....

For the love of all baseball, Luplow should NEVER be the 3-hitter anywhere except maybe a beer league. 

There is no amount of gaslighting 'sabermetrics' that can justify that decision. 

Psst Rocco, repeat after me... 'I will never write Luplow's name anywhere above 6th in the order for the rest of the season and will ignore any nonsensical output on my spreadsheets that suggests I should place him higher if it ever happens again... "

Good chat... 

 

[GNess]

Strong series win for the Twins. Others have suggested, and I agree that Martin should be considered for the MLB roster. He provides a RH bat and strong positional flexibility. Luplow had a few nice games, but seems that Martin is a better option. Buxton's return complcates the timing, but Martin seems ready to help.

[Beast]

There were some boneheaded mistakes in this one, and the Rangers are awful right now, but still a good series win to keep the division lead at 6.

[Patzky]

53 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Balazovic got sent down to St Paul yesterday, didn't he?

Wonder if we'll see Louie Varland up?

[Jocko87]

38 minutes ago, Heiny said:

Taylor:  We're playing good baseball????  Huh!

Rocco:  So impressed with our group????  Huh!

I am impressed with this group, they don't quit and figure out a way to play up to the competition.  However, that was not good baseball.  There were several individual good performances but they were not from guys named Rocco or Bailey or Joey.

That said, there is a vision.  They are close to playing good baseball and when they do, they can be really good. 

[Nine of twelve]

46 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Listening to extra innings was like listening to two Lutherans argue about who should eat the last brownie in the pan.

"Are you sure you don't want it?"

"No, I'm not really hungry"

"I need to run the dishwasher. Should I wrap it up for you?"

"I don't want you to waste the Reynolds Wrap. Maybe you should have it."

"No, I'm trying to cut back. The doctor says I could use a little weight."

About 30 minutes later somebody finally eats the brownie and goes home.

Reminds me of the story about the stoic Lutheran man who loved his wife so much that one time he almost told her. 

[Brandon]

33 minutes ago, Patzky said:

Wonder if we'll see Louie Varland up?

We kept Keuchel instead.  He is in the pen now as a piggybacker for Ober.

[IaBeanCounter]

I'm wondering if they won't option Ober to bring up a fresh arm.

[Brandon]

13 minutes ago, IaBeanCounter said:

I'm wondering if they won't option Ober to bring up a fresh arm.

Or maybe a 10 day phantom DL stint for dead arm.

[Schmoeman5]

I agree that they don't quit. But there has been a lot said recently about this team lacking heart or guts. Yet in saying that they don't quit, one must also add that there's still a lot of things to clean-up. Today it was baserunning. Yesterday it was the pen giving away a game similar to the one they won today. And I see a lot of trying to win it with 1 swing vs advancing baserunners.  Cleveland is coming to town. I hope they can get past this 6 games over .500 hurdle once and for all. 

[jkcarew]

31 games remaining, 9 of which will be against teams over 500.

The Twins can’t lose the division this coming week. But they could win it, for all intents and purposes.

[FlyingFinn]

Again, the biggest hits are from our young guys - Lewis this time. Our baserunning blunders are from the veterans - Solano and Gallo. Go figure.

[Jocko87]

I hate the extra inning strategy but then there's this.  I guess.

 

[akmanak]

It was a nerve racking game to watch but given that the Twins have won a series or two against good ball clubs I have hope they will finally break the curse. 

 

Previous years going into the playoffs I never really believed they could go deep but I think this team actually would have a chance to do just that. 

 

[Blyleven2011]

It's not whether you win or lose , it's how you play the game ...

Texas handed this win to us just like we handed Texas the Saturday night win , I thought Chapman was going to implode  and give us the win in the ninth  , he's still good but not lights out like he used to be ... 

The extra innings were nice but not  to entertaining  , base running  blunders cost us a run that possibly could have won the game  earlier than the 13th inning  ... 

I was not impressed with the team in extra innings  but we managed a win and won the series  , when are we ever going to bunt in extra innings  ???

Keuchel  earned  his wings and the game ball should go to Keuchel  for keeping us in the game to tie it up in the bottom of the ninth  ...