Twins 3, Rays 2: Twins Squeeze Past Rays with Julien and Castro's Power

[Steven Trefz]

On the day that the Twins began to sell playoff tickets, the Twins faced a playoff team on Tuesday night and proved that they belong. Here's how the clutch victory happened.

Image courtesy of Matt Blewett - USA Today

 

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan - 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K (102 Pitches, 71 Strikes, 69.6% Strikes)
Home Runs: Edouard Julien (12), Willi Castro (7)
Top WPA: Willi Castro (.401), Jhoan Duran (.158), Louie Varland (.152)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Old Faces in New Jerseys Part 1
The Twins faced a familiar foe on the mound Tuesday night in Zack Littell. Littell pitched three years for the Twins, with 2019 being his best run with 29 relief appearances, a 6-0 mark, and 1.16 WHIP during the Bomba Squad season. The other two seasons were far less successful, which is why Littell found his way to San Francisco, then Texas, then Boston, and now as a starter (of course he is) with a 1.12 WHIP on the playoff-bound Rays. 

Littell cruised through the lineup the first time through. When Edouard Julien came up again in the bottom of the third inning, he pumped the brakes on Littell and the ball deep into the Rays bullpen to put the Twins up 1-0.

Old Faces in New Jerseys Part 2
The Twins' pitcher on Tuesday night also looked familiar to the team he was facing. Joe Ryan was drafted in the seventh round in 2018 by Tampa Bay and came to Minnesota in the post-Bomba Nelson Cruz trade. Ryan had the Rays' number the first time through the lineup, holding them hitless. Once the lineup turned over, the offensive action started in earnest. Brandon Lowe laced a double on the first pitch of the fourth inning, and he might have stayed there if not for a "Carlos Correa wishes he had that one back" liner by Josh Lowe (no relation) that went from being an inning-ending double play into a run-scoring single in the blink of an eye.

Is This Really Zack Littell?
Julien might have created a bump in the road for Littell, but he was back on cruise control immediately. Through his first six innings of work, he had surrendered only two hits on 66 pitches at an 80 percent strike rate. The Twins looked rushed as they tried to conquer Littell early in the count. They failed to make quality contact and found themselves playing from behind after the Rays took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth on a Rene Pinto home run. Ryan pitched well but didn't escape the fifth inning after eclipsing the 100-pitch mark and cluttering the bases with two outs.

Is This Really Louie Varland?
The artist formerly known as the starter Varland entered the fifth inning to clean up Ryan's mess and clean up he did. Varland got J. Lowe to fly out to end that threat, struck out the side impressively in the sixth, and got another three outs in the seventh. Varland faced seven batters and got seven outs in his trial run for playoff playing time. 

Will the Twins Realize This is Zack Littell Before its Too Late?
In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the score still 2-1 Rays, Max Kepler blooped a single into right-center with one out. Littell looked like he was going to escape yet again after striking out Correa for the second out, but Willi Castro had other thoughts. Deep, powerful, and game-changing thoughts...

The Rays bullpen offered another chance for added insurance, with control issues leading to a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the eighth inning. A Correa pop fly ended the rally, and the game was handed to Jhoan Duran with a 3-2 lead in the ninth. Duran thought three up, three down was all the drama that Twins fans deserved tonight as he sent the Target Field faithful home happy with dreams of a single-digit magic number on their minds.

The Rays bullpen offered another chance for added insurance, with control issues leading to a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the eighth inning. A Correa pop fly ended the rally, and the game was handed to Jhoan Duran with a 3-2 lead in the ninth. 

Duran thought three up, three down was all the drama that Twins fans deserved tonight as he sent the Target Field faithful home happy with dreams of a single-digit magic number on their minds.

Next Up
The Twins look to take the series from Tampa Bay and will rely on crafty veteran LHP Dallas Keuchel (1-1, 4.78 ERA). The Rays will counter with rookie RHP Taj Bradley (5-7, 5.44 ERA), who is making his 18th career start. First pitch at Target Field is scheduled for 12:10pm CDT on what looks to be a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon. The Twins are 17-9 at home since the All-Star break in a trend that bodes well for the opening round of the playoffs.

 

Up-to-Date Standings

AL Central	W	L	Pct	GB
Minnesota	76	69	.524	0.0
Cleveland	68	77	.469	8.0

Post-Game Interviews

 

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Varland	0	20	0	0	31	51
Headrick	0	0	0	47	0	47
Winder	0	0	0	38	0	38
Thielbar	15	10	0	0	11	36
Floro	0	11	0	24	0	35
Jax	8	0	24	0	0	32
Durán	14	0	0	0	10	24
Funderburk	0	15	0	0	0	15
Pagán	11	0	0	0	0	11

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[jorgenswest]

Going for 4 series wins in a row! That is the kind of consistency needed in the playoffs.

[BH67]

Castro. Varland. Thielbar. Duran. It's a wonderful thing when the heroes change with every September win.

[Melissa]

Willi Castro!! He’s been such a force since his return from the injured list. Might be my team MVP.  Such a clutch player.

[Matt Braun]

To me, it's a sign of a good team when they can win while being lead by Willi Castro and Louie Varland

[tony&rodney]

This Twins team competes. They are moving away from the .500 mark and playing more consistent baseball. Joe Ryan was tough out on the mound and Varland, Thielbar, and Duran sure closed the game neatly. Littell looked very unpredictable and only was beat by Castro launching a down and away pitcher's pitch that followed a battle by Kepler to reach base. Maybe Julien saw the ball better tonight. It was sure nice to see him get a hit before he  added another walk. Even the struggling Wallner had some fun finally. He sure looked relieved to hit the ball and showed off some speed on the hustle double. Good game for the Twins against a very good Tampa Bay team.

[IaBeanCounter]

When to pull a starter?  TB thought Littell could get through 7, but ended losing the game.  Rocco has made similar decisions and ended losing games.    It's a no win situation.

[tony&rodney]

22 minutes ago, IaBeanCounter said:

When to pull a starter?  TB thought Littell could get through 7, but ended losing the game.  Rocco has made similar decisions and ended losing games.    It's a no win situation.

I agree totally. Sure there are times a pitcher is giving up line drive after line drive and the manager should get out of the dugout faster. Tonight was a good example of how a great pitch can get golfed for a go ahead two run home run. Littell made his pitch, but Castro hit it. The players know when to tip their caps and when they made a mistake. Julien and Pinto hits pitches that both Littell and Ryan would like back. Lowe looked pretty confident versus Ryan and Baldelli made the call for Varland. Today it worked, but managing is tricky. 

 

[GNess]

This team more and more is finding ways to stay in games and win many of them. Their collective confidence is growing. Self-belief is a powerful asset.

[Dave Borton]

1 hour ago, Melissa said:

Willi Castro!! He’s been such a force since his return from the injured list. Might be my team MVP.  Such a clutch player.

Is Willi Castro a $1.8MM bargain or is he a $1.8MM bargain?

[SotaSports in NM]

20 minutes ago, davidborton said:

Is Willi Castro a $1.8MM bargain or is he a $1.8MM bargain?

He absolutely is the latter 😄

[Aerodeliria]

That was a good win...perhaps the best of the season.

I am not sure how Castro got the barrel on that ankle-high pitch, but he certainly did.

[Nine of twelve]

1 hour ago, Aerodeliria said:

 

I am not sure how Castro got the barrel on that ankle-high pitch,

In his postgame interview he mentioned making adjustments. That’s how he did it. It would have been extremely difficult to hit that pitch as far as he did just by reacting to it. He anticipated how Littell would pitch him and was prepared to apply his skill as a major league hitter when he got the pitch he expected. 

[Peter]

Great comeback win!!! Castro with huge 2 out home run and Varland/Thielbar/Duran shutting down rays!!! Let’s get series win today!!!

[Blyleven2011]

Castro  ...

For someone who wasn't expected to make the opening day roster  , Castro has revitalized his career with the Twins ...

Nice win tonight  , thanks Willie  ...

[Riverbrian]

Every season, every team and every player has periods of ups and periods of downs. 

Good Times... Bad Times.... You know I've had my share. 

 

 

 

 

[CRF]

I know he'd prefer to start, but Varland is real good in this middle relief role. He should've been up much earlier for this exact reason. 

[insagt1]

absolutely huge win! The kind of win you expect in post season. And the pen getting it done, clean and efficient against a real good team. Castro's game winner was a 'Vlad Sr. Special'. Vlad was known to hit HR's on pitches in the dirt.

Its important to know Twins can beat the real good teams, if they want to also be a real good team. Another one this afternoon would be awesome.

As the games peel off the schedule: O's lost to St.Louis so with TB losing too, they keep their 3 game lead with the big showdown 1 game away. Guardians beat the Giants, so Twins lead remains 7.5 ....but more importantly another game off the calendar as the good guys get closer and closer to the Central title. Only 17 games remain. Would be difficult to blow that big of a lead with so few games left. (Twins lead by 8 in the loss column)

Of note too: It is mid September and still every team in the AL East is over .500. Quite unusual. On the 'crap-o-meter' KC has lost 101 so far; Oakland 99, and Rockies 92. Longshots to still lose 100 would be Chisox (89). To win 100--Atlanta for sure (95); O's maybe (91); TB maybe (89); Dodgers possibly (88)

[Nine of twelve]

41 minutes ago, CRF said:

I know he'd prefer to start, but Varland is real good in this middle relief role. He should've been up much earlier for this exact reason. 

A month ago we still needed to have him available to start in case the Keuchel experiment backfired. It was only after Keuchel was found to be performing acceptably that they had the option of converting him to relief for the remainder of the season. I expect the organization will want him to revert to starting next spring.

[wabene]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Every season, every team and every player has periods of ups and periods of downs. 

Good Times... Bad Times.... You know I've had my share. 

 

 

 

 

After that double Wallner erupted with relief like a Jimmy Page guitar solo. 

[Fatbat]

Word has it that Willi is a decent golfer 🤣. Fun game to watch in person but $18 beers😳. 

[David Maro]

Castro is the modern day Buxton. This is the way the team needed Buxton to play. Instead of trying to hit homeruns every at bat should of been getting on base any way possible. Could of started an inning with a bunt,a base hit. Then use his speed on the bases. Yes Castro hit the winner today,but his base running has won games as well. Team should be worried about Ryan not being able to get out of innings. His pitches are being fouled back by every hitter. Can't have your SP at 60+ pitches at 3 innings. Really nice to see Duran go after the Ray's hitters and put them away in 10 pitches.

[Riverbrian]

1 hour ago, wabene said:

After that double Wallner erupted with relief like a Jimmy Page guitar solo. 

It sounded more like John Bonham's Bass Drum! 

[USAFChief]

10 hours ago, davidborton said:

Is Willi Castro a $1.8MM bargain or is he a $1.8MM bargain?

Yes.

[IaBeanCounter]

"Carlos Correa wishes he had that one back" liner by Josh Lowe (no relation) that went from being an inning-ending double play into a run-scoring single in the blink of an eye.

How close was that to being an out.  On the Gameday video it looked like the ball was hit hard, but they didn't show any video of Correa's reaction to the ball.

 

[jmlease1]

Really nice win against a typically excellent and irritating to play TB squad. very impressed with how well Varland did in getting the team through the middle innings, and it was really great to see Duran showing good command and closing out the game. he didn't look stressed at all slinging it at 102! That's just amazing.

Happy for Julien and Wallner to get off the schnide. Really appreciate how Julien has still taken his walks throughout this little hitting slump: a lot of young player would have expanded the strike zone looking for something to hit, but he stayed disciplined, kept getting on base and hit some balls hard tonight. that's a really good sign.

Series win would be great!

 

[laloesch]

4 hours ago, CRF said:

I know he'd prefer to start, but Varland is real good in this middle relief role. He should've been up much earlier for this exact reason. 

yeah.  Varland has had big ups and down this season but he has the makings of a fine pitcher (be it starter or reliever), just needs a bit more time in the majors me thinks.

[flatlanddad]

How did Wallner get a double on that hit? I saw the play, but it was through MLBN's big inning, so it wasn't clear and I couldn't hear the play-by-play. That seemed like a single through the infield. Was he just running hard and caught the CFer offguard? I didn't realize that he had that kind of speed!

[wabene]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

Yes.

We saved that one for you

[wabene]

3 hours ago, Fatbat said:

Word has it that Willi is a decent golfer 🤣. Fun game to watch in person but $18 beers😳. 

Bottomless glass of Pepsi and a body flask?