Guardians 4, Twins 2: Cleveland Bullpen Baffles Twins Lineup, Evens Series

[Steven Trefz]

The Twins had the Guardians on the ropes heading into Tuesday night's ballgame, but it was Cleveland who came out swinging and connecting, en route to a series tying victory. Here's how it all went down.

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, USA Today

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Pablo Lopez - 6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K (97 Pitches, 62 Strikes, 64% Strikes)
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (9)
Bottom WPA: Carlos Correa (-.221), Christian Vazquez (-.128), Royce Lewis (-.082)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Twins entered Tuesday night having staked claim to a seven game lead over the Guardians and looking for more. After preparing to face rookie starter Gavin Williams, the Twins found themselves instead facing the Guardians bullpen starting in the second inning with Williams needing to leave due to injury. Pablo Lopez hoped to show the playoff-ready dominance that the Twins traded for. What transpired was a low key baseball game, filled with some odd situational action, small ball, long ball, and a lot of missed opportunities against a variety of Guardian pitchers.

Guardians Get to Lopez Early and Often
Cleveland knew after last night's game that their offense was going to need to keep generating runs in any way possible. The first way possible ended up being Bo Naylor taking a pitch at his eyes and depositing it into the concourse in right for a 1-0 Guardians lead in the top of the second inning. The top of the third inning saw Lopez giving up two more hits and a wild pitch that brought in the second Guardian run. The top of the fourth saw the second place Cleveland squad load the bases with nobody out. After getting Jose Ramirez to force out the lead runner at home, Cole Calhoun chopped a ground ball to first baseman Joey Gallo that scratched across the third Cleveland run.

Royce Lewis is Human, and Not Human, and Human Again
In the bottom of the first inning, Lewis found himself in territory very few have ever played in. He strode to the plate with the bases loaded, having just hit grand slams in back-to-back games. The crowd and the entire fanbase readied themselves to erupt... but Lewis popped up to deep second base, and the threat went unredeemed.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, with the Twins down 3-0, Lewis came up with nobody on base. This time he didn't miss to pull the hometown nine one run closer at 3-1.

Lewis got another opportunity in the bottom of the fifth inning. After a leadoff single off of lefty Sam Hentges by Max Kepler, Matt Wallner struck a single into right to advance Kepler to third. With one out, Lewis popped up to shallow right, failing to plate Kepler and leaving the Twins a Christian Vazquez strikeout away from another a prime scoring chance.

Lopez Settles Down, Twins Bats Go Silently
Lopez found his groove in the fourth inning and managed to complete six without letting any more Guardian runs cross the plate. Unfortunately, the Twins bats failed to mount any more threats against Hentges either. Emilio Pagan came in for the top of the seventh inning, and allowed a one out single to Ramon Laureano off of his glove. Then Carlos Correa oddly chose to let an Andres Gimenez infield fly fall at his feet, before turning and tossing the ball to second for the out. I say oddly, because this allowed a more successful base stealer to occupy first. 

Sure enough, after two disengagements, Gimenez stole second easily, which set up Will Brennan for an RBI on a single up the middle. The score now showed 4-1 Guardians, and the Twins began running out of room to respond. Jorge Polanco led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk, and Kepler drove the ball to the wall in left, but Steven Kwan leaped and robbed Kepler and the Twins of hope. Correa did the rest, grounding weakly into his 27th double play of the year.

Cole Sands and Other Stuff at the End of the Game
The final two innings of the night belonged to Sands, in an effort to keep the bullpen fresh for the series finale. Sands did well enough, no more damage there. The Twins bats couldn't figure out the Cleveland relief, however, and the game ended without much fanfare. Matt Wallner facing his former high school teammate Nick Sandlin was interesting, but the weak contact that Sandlin induced wasn't fun to see from a Twins fan perspective. Vazquez in particular had an extremely tough night at the plate, but Lewis also left plenty on the table. Even a Michael A. Taylor solo home run in the bottom of the ninth seemed anti-climactic.

It was clear that the Twins prepared for Williams, and ended up getting something else entirely. The home run or bust offense busted on solo shots, and the division lead crept back down to six.

Post-Game Interview

What’s Next?
The Twins look to take the series back on Wednesday afternoon, and send RHP Sonny Gray (7-6, 3.06 ERA) out to face the Cleveland ace rookie RHP Tanner Bibee (10-3, 3.01 ERA). On paper, the Guardians look ready and able to steal the series before next week's clash in Cleveland. Will the Twins offense boom or bust after scoring 10 runs Monday, and going 0-9 with runners in scoring position Tuesday? First pitch is scheduled for 12:10pm CDT.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Sands	32	0	0	0	24	56
Pagán	0	14	11	0	14	39
Floro	0	12	19	0	0	31
Jax	0	28	0	0	0	28
Funderburk	0	0	0	28	0	28
Winder	0	0	0	24	0	24
Durán	0	12	9	0	0	21
Thielbar	0	10	11	0	0	21

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[BH67]

Cheers to Pablo Lopez for overcoming a slow start and getting through six innings.

Cheers to Michael A Taylor for again showing a hot bat in clutch late-game situations.

Cheers to the Twins' evident resilience despite falling behind early.

Not discouraged, or even disappointed. Go get 'em tomorrow.

[Bill Lumbergh]

How many box scores do I have to see with Gallo 0 for whatever and Correa with a GIPD?  

[Blyleven2011]

Lewis ...

The opportunity presented it's self in the first inning For his third consecutive grand slam in 3 games , wasn't meant to be  ...

Kepler ...

Can you believe  what a turn around Kepler is having at the plate , his average keeps on climbing  , he. Got 2 hits again tonight in the loss ,  almost 3 years of an almost sure out and now someone that seems like he is having fun once again playing baseball  ....

Correa ....

27 grounding into double   plays , i don't think he even has that many doubles as in hits ...

Dfa please   ...

K-king  ( yes we know how much the  FO and Rocco love the guy , come on  ) 

[9moons27]

If the Twins put Correa on waivers, would another team claim him?

[mrtwinsfan]

Pick to  Quit  player,  Correa

8 minutes ago, 9moons27 said:

If the Twins put Correa on waivers, would another team claim him?

No Sir,   he would clear waivers , Any team makes a Claim and they also get to Pay him in Full, 5+ more Years, Were stuck, Gotta hope he figures it out,  His best years he batted 5-6-7 for Houston,  Never been a big time threat , Streaky at best

[Fat Calvin]

1 hour ago, 9moons27 said:

If the Twins put Correa on waivers, would another team claim him?

That's a good question.  At that price?  Probably not.

[PipeGuardian]

I get it that Carlos is in a slump, but that does not account for him not running out a groundball at first. He is lazy. A little hustle and he could have made the play on that double play by Cleveland a bit closer. I think he's terrible.  Still, you've got to run out a slow ground ball. He's not injured. 

[wsnydes]

6 minutes ago, PipeGuardian said:

I get it that Carlos is in a slump, but that does not account for him not running out a groundball at first. He is lazy. A little hustle and he could have made the play on that double play by Cleveland a bit closer. I think he's terrible.  Still, you've got to run out a slow ground ball. He's not injured. 

Reports are that his foot is still bothering him, so he is injured.

Is that why he didn't run out the gound ball?  I don't know, but he's dealt with plantar fasciitis since May.

[Doctor Wu]

A disappointing loss, but at least Royce Lewis is still in a groove, and how about Michael Taylor for a career high 20th home run? Never saw that coming when we got him. 

 

[William K Johnson]

Some thoughts after tonight's game -

- Someone please tell me that Vazquez's contract is only for two years

- Gallo still on the roster tells us that the front office is willing to sacrifice games to save face

- Correa needs to bat lower in the order

- Royce Lewis is a baseball player

- I take back every bad thought I have ever had about Max Kepler

[Peter]

Bad loss last night😡🤮👎🤬 get a win and take series today!!!

[jmlease1]

The worst position on the Twins is to be the highest paid player. Better never have a bad day, because fans will turn on you here so fast it'll make your head swim. (BTW, none of the star SS signed last season are having very good years at the plate; Correa is struggling the most, which is probably related to his plantar fasciitis, but Bogaerts, Swanson, and Turner are all only league average hitters this year. None are playing like stars) If you're hurt, better make sure that it's something obvious and ugly (and from a play on the field) and that you keep looking injured too. Not that it's going to happen in a billion zillion years, but if the Twins cut Correa, someone would definitely take him, especially since the contract the Twins have protect against him being bad long term. 

Almost no one had a particularly good game last night (Lopez battled, but gave up 8 hits and 3 walks in his 6 innings. We were lucky he only yielded 3 runs). Vazquez was pretty brutal at the plate. Gallo looked desperate for a walk, Polanco was swinging through everything, Team was 0 for 9 with RISP. Just a frustrating game.

Sometimes bullpen games go that way, the matchups just don't land well and no one gets in a rhythm. 

Go out and win the series today and put last night's game behind you.

 

[wabene]

3 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

the contract the Twins have protect against him being bad long term. 

Thanks for once again being the voice of reason!

How does Correa's contract offer protection from poor performance? I think the salary does go down over time. Is it more than that? 

[jmlease1]

4 minutes ago, wabene said:

Thanks for once again being the voice of reason!

How does Correa's contract offer protection from poor performance? I think the salary does go down over time. Is it more than that? 

it's only guaranteed for 5 more seasons, instead of 9+ (last 4 years are team options, with guarantees only for full season performances) Plus the salary does start decrease after 2025 (Correa's age-30 season) and the last 4 option years have sharply decreasing salaries. Yes, it's not going to be good if this is Correa is for the next 5 years...but it's also not a franchise-ruining contract. Plantar Fasciitis sucks, but people recover from it. But it's a challenging injury in that it mostly takes time and flare ups can happen even when you have a few good weeks. 

[USAFChief]

Here are the details of Correa's contract:

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/minnesota-twins/carlos-correa-14168/

 

2023: $33,333,333

2024: $33,333,333

2025: $37,333,333

2026: $32,833,333

2027: $31,833,333

2028: $31,333,333

2029: vesting option $25m

2030: vesting option $20

2031: vesting option $15

2032: vesting option $10

The vesting options have multiple ways to become guaranteed, with the most likely being PAs the season prior, starting at 575 in 2028 for 2029 and gradually dropping to 502 in 2031 for 2032. The others are mostly awards (silver slugger, MVPs etc).

 

[wabene]

A whole lot of razors edge riding in the game thread last night. It takes a certain toughness and courage to undertake that for 162 games, Lol.

In his 9 years as a big leaguer, Carlos had 2 years with a low 90's OPS+ (and one of them, this year, isn't over yet), 1 year at essentially league average at 99 OPS+ (which is above average for a SS), and 6 years averaging 136.5 OPS+ (137 last year). That is all-star level for any player and league stalwart for a GG SS. I'm not worried about Carlos going forward. Playing on an injured foot he is playing a ton of games, is absolutely stellar in the field and still maintains his leadership role in spite of the struggles. I'd bet he finishes strong as well. 

[wsnydes]

4 minutes ago, wabene said:

A whole lot of razors edge riding in the game thread last night. It takes a certain brand of insanity to undertake that for 162 games, Lol.

FTFY

[MABB1959]

Geez you just don't know what your are getting night after night!  Monday looked like an easy we got this series. Next day not really bad.  Wonder what the results would be if they moved up Lewis and moved down Correa and for goodness sakes STOP play Gallo!   With such a close game those could be difference makers.  Jeffers seems to be a much better hitter, but who calls the better game?  Glad Kepler is heating up and hope it carries on.  I have a good feeling about Buxton returning to play CF and playing close to what we need

[Dman]

from what I saw that was a pitching clinic by Cleveland's pitchers.  Everything was on the edges up, down, inside outside with a few down the middle for first pitch strikes.  Cleveland's system must do a really good job of helping their pitchers develop that pin point control of the edges. 

Based on MLB gameday even though a fair number of Cleveland's pitchers pitches seemed just outside the box it looked like the zone was expanded all around the edges last night but kudo's to the Cleveland pitchers who kept things close enough and made it really hard on our hitters last night.

Still the Twins had some chances to rally at least early and it just didn't happen.  Was hoping Correa would K instead of hit into yet another double play helping the pitcher out once again.  Cleveland was the better team last night and it showed.  We need to get the win this afternoon and then try to keep Texas on their heels.

[saviking]

8 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Lewis ...

The opportunity presented it's self in the first inning For his third consecutive grand slam in 3 games , wasn't meant to be  ...

Kepler ...

Can you believe  what a turn around Kepler is having at the plate , his average keeps on climbing  , he. Got 2 hits again tonight in the loss ,  almost 3 years of an almost sure out and now someone that seems like he is having fun once again playing baseball  ....

Correa ....

27 grounding into double   plays , i don't think he even has that many doubles as in hits ...

Dfa please   ...

K-king  ( yes we know how much the  FO and Rocco love the guy , come on  ) 

Basically the game boiled down to when Lewis hit his home run. We lose if it's a solo shot and we win if it was when we had bases loaded or when we had two men on. Not complaining, just saying. 

[wabene]

Per Dan Hayes answering a commenter in the comments of his game recap at The Athletic that was suggesting Correa be cut loose, "He came into today’s game having reached base in 19 games in a row with an .868 OPS, four homers and 12 RBIs."

He does only have 2 hits and 4 walks in his last 5 games, so this late season resurgence has cooled of late. Hopefully we can wrap this thing up in time for Carlos to put his feet up for a week. The documented clutch playoff performer would come in handy. 

 

[chinmusic]

2 hours ago, PipeGuardian said:

He's not injured. 

How would you know?

[terrydactyls]

3 hours ago, PipeGuardian said:

I get it that Carlos is in a slump, but that does not account for him not running out a groundball at first. He is lazy. A little hustle and he could have made the play on that double play by Cleveland a bit closer. I think he's terrible.  Still, you've got to run out a slow ground ball. He's not injured. 

I've had plantar fasciitis and it is painful.  I don't know how Correa continues to play every day.  Kudos to him.  

Kudos is an odd word.  It sounds like an about-to-be extinct bird from New Zealand.

[Woof Bronzer]

32 minutes ago, chinmusic said:

How would you know?

Because he's playing, and not on the IL?  If he's too hurt to play, he shouldn't.  If he's in the lineup, he needs to be perform.  No need to hand him an excuse.  

[Fatbat]

9 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Lewis ...

The opportunity presented it's self in the first inning For his third consecutive grand slam in 3 games , wasn't meant to be  ...

Kepler ...

Can you believe  what a turn around Kepler is having at the plate , his average keeps on climbing  , he. Got 2 hits again tonight in the loss ,  almost 3 years of an almost sure out and now someone that seems like he is having fun once again playing baseball  ....

Correa ....

27 grounding into double   plays , i don't think he even has that many doubles as in hits ...

Dfa please   ...

K-king  ( yes we know how much the  FO and Rocco love the guy , come on  ) 

Baseball minds the world over would’ve exploded if Royce hit that first inning grand slam. 

[jmlease1]

7 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Because he's playing, and not on the IL?  If he's too hurt to play, he shouldn't.  If he's in the lineup, he needs to be perform.  No need to hand him an excuse.  

This isn't a binary equation. You can have an injury but still be capable of playing (Correa has made several great plays with his arm defensively in the last few games that no one else on this team could make) but it will hamper your performance. You can be injured seriously enough that you can't be effective in the game or play at all. You can be totally healthy. And at this point in the season it's pretty common to have a few nicks and dings that you can play through but ideally would have a chance to rest and recover from.

While Farmer is a capable backup and Lewis could slide in at SS, neither are as good as Correa defensively (and Farmer isn't any better offensively and gets exposed the more he plays). I'm sure the goal is to try to get through this crucial week of the season with the lead staying at 6 or more over Cleveland and to try and find some days off for Correa down the stretch to clear some of those dings off the board and improve his overall health.

It's not about excuses, it's about reality.

more importantly, if the Twins win today, they take the series and increase the lead to 7.

[David Maro]

The worst thing that happened was Lewis coming up in the first with bases loaded. The expectation was to much for him. I said Correa should of sat until Friday and it showed. Two strike outs and a GIDP was not good. Joey Strike Out should only be a late inning replacement. He is a automatic out,so should only get 1 at bat. Hopefully Gray saw Lopez's problem and will not make the same mistake. Cleveland doesn't chase pitches out of the zone. Make them swing the bat by throwing strikes. And again sit Correa today,so he will be able to play in Texas.

[Cris E]

28 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Because he's playing, and not on the IL?  If he's too hurt to play, he shouldn't.  If he's in the lineup, he needs to be perform.  No need to hand him an excuse.  

The world is not black and white, however much it would simplify posting on the internet.  These guys are all very competitive and want to play, to contribute in big games, to be The Man in The Moment.  He's not making excuses, he's taking the field and giving what he has. If the team thought they'd be better with him off the field he'd be next to Buxton on the couch with an ice pack. Right now they have a decent division lead and are starting to rotate guys through the IL to get them rested before October and I fully expect Correa to get a turn just like Buxton and Ober and Ryan and Castro. 

[insagt1]

If Twins can win today they tie the season series and put Cleveland in a huge hole. While this game isn't critical...it is very important to win. Its a home game and its against a team that tormented them last year late. Time to reverse that.

the bats were silent yesterday. Correa still hits into annoying DP's. This has not been a stellar year for him, but hopefully the best is yet to come.

Jeffers has really cooled off after a real hot streak. Gallo is hopeless. Has there ever been a more unimpressive 20 HR hitter?

OTOH, Taylor has 20 dingers. Is Buxton really going to be a huge improvement over that offensively if he takes over in CF? Sure Buck is a platinum defensive outfielder (when he is healthy) but this should be interesting to see what Rocco does next.

Somehow through it all Twins have a 6 game lead. Its in their hands this week, if they want it bad enough.