Twins 10, White Sox 2: Homer Happy Rookies Go Off In Chicago

[Sherry Cerny]

Heading into the Chicago series, the Twins were sitting comfortably with their magic number nine and safely above the Guardians at seven and a half games. Tonight's victory over the White Sox reduces that magic number down to eight.

 

Image courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski usa today

 

Box Score
SP: Kenta Maeda 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K (105 pitches, 66 strikes (66%)
Home Runs:  Edouard Julien (13), Royce Lewis (13), Kyle Farmer
Top 3 WPA: Kenta Maeda (.341), Edouard Julien (.87), Royce Lewis (.71)
Bottom 3 WPA: Jorge Polanco (-.052), Christian Vazquez (-.032), Max Kepler (-.026)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Rookies Rake Again
Edouard Julien hit a solo home run dead center in the fourth inning. A batter later, Royce Lewis smashed a ball into the left-field bleachers for the second run. 

Lewis's home run traveled 426 feet, the longest shot of his young career. 

As he rounded the bases with his 426-foot home run, he paid homage to his character from Wednesday night's annual rookie night, Dr. Evil, by putting his pinky to his mouth as he rounded third. 

The Twins offense reset again. Alex Kirilloff got a fastball over the plate that went into center field after deflecting off the glove of Lenyn Sosa. Willi Castro followed with a line drive double, moving Kirilloff to third. 

With only one out and Wallner sitting on two strikes, Wallner hit a line drive past the infield, and Kirilloff and Castro made it home, adding two more runs to the board to make it 4-0. The fun wasn't over yet. In fear of being left out of the party, Kyle Farmer launched a two-run home run, pushing the score to 6-0. 

Maeda SHINES
Kenta Maeda has been consistent throughout the comeback. His last five games have been up and down, and tonight, in the second inning, it took him 19 pitches to get out of the inning, nine of them going to Andrew Vaughn. His third and fourth innings were much smoother and easier to execute, keeping the White Sox off the board. 

After the second inning and grimacing through his pitches, Maeda made his third trip to the order almost seamlessly. Strikes were striking, and the defense chased down the grounders and fly balls. Maeda had allowed two base runners in the fifth but kept his scoreless innings alive as a fly-out ended the inning.

With a nice lead, the Twins brought Maeda back out for the seventh inning, but he walked Yoan Moncada, showing some visible frustration thinking a strike did not get called, which returned to haunt: Vaughn caught a slider for a two-run home run to put the White Sox on the board 6-2. 

This outing was Maeda's second quality start after the win against the Mets, and he was on fire. While he looked at times unhappy with a pitch or a call, he stayed consistent and focused, had six scoreless innings, and pitched undoubtedly one of his best games of the season. 

Josh Winder came in to relieve Maeda in the eighth inning, only allowing one base run and working around Tim Anderson, Andrew Benintendi, and Luis Robert to close out the inning, only throwing 14 pitches. 

Baseball is Weird
The ninth inning was the longest, but craziest of the game. Farmer made it to first base on a dropped third strikeout error from catcher Korey Lee during his at-bat. 

With two outs, Polanco grounded to Anderson at short but hustled down the line to make a close play. Initially, Polanco was punched out, but a timely challenge showed that the Twins' switch-hitter was safe by a step. 

On the play, Tommy Watkins wheeled Farmer home, a headsy play knowing that the White Sox would likely not have a return throw home. 

The game cracked wide open at that point. The White Sox burned through two relievers, which saw a bases-loaded walk from Lewis and a 2-run single from Kirilloff making the score 10-2. 

Brent Headrick came out to finish the game for the Twins, and a lead-off double got the White Sox fans thinking there was life left in the game, but Headrick and the defense shut them and the team down, bringing the magic number to eight.

What’s Next? 
Friday 6:40 pm CDT: RHP Bailey Ober (6-6, 3.67 ERA) vs. RHP Jesse Scholtens (1-8, 4.44 ERA)
Saturday 6:10 pm CDT: RHP Pablo Lopez (10-7, 3.43 ERA) vs. RHP Touki Toussaint (3-7, 5.65 ERA)
Sunday 1:10 pm CDT: RHP Sonny Gray (7-7, 2.96 ERA) vs. RHP Dylan Cease (7-7, 4.87 ERA)

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

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[Matt Braun]

I will never complain about kicking the crap out of the White Sox 

[Danchat]

Should have watched this rather than the Vikings game. Uffda.

[darwin22]

Nice to see the offense kick it into gear the 2nd time through the order as the first trip produced nothing.

See Ober is being recalled to start tomorrow night. 

What is the corresponding move?  I'd seem to think it will be Headrick getting sent down as Thielbar and Funderburk provide enough help out of the bullpen. If thats the case, will Keuchel be moved into a long/middle relief role?  Or...will Keuchel remain in rotation with Twins going to a 6-man rotation for remainder of year?

Sorry for the questions as I wasted my evening watching the Vikings play another inept game.  

Need to take care of business this weekend in CHI before moving onto Cincinnati.

 

[twinssporto]

2 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Should have watched this rather than the Vikings game. Uffda.

The Vike's might blow it this year but I truly believe this Twins team has a better chance of winning the World Series than the Vike's getting to the NFC Championship game.

I think the Twins are a real sleeper team this year...I might have to blog an article to give more info.

This team is starting to "Gel"...

[blindeke]

Burning through their relievers while not using any of ours is big going into tomorrow and the next day too.

[SotaSports in NM]

I was watching the Vikings game instead of the Twins, and I feel bad for missing Maeda go 7 innings! Not to mention that beautiful swing Eddy put on that home run. It's also getting easy to take Lewis for granted with his consistency this year, in spite of his injury interruptions. I admire his skill and persistence.

In all seriousness, when was the last time Maeda went 7 innings?? Not because of ineffectiveness (necessarily), but simply because of workload... I know, it was against the error-ridden South Siders, but nonetheless. I still think he's best suited as a piggy-back guy for the playoffs, though.

EDIT: I found that this was just the third time in in his last 40 starts that he's gone 7 innings, and the second time this year.

This is the kind of win that a playoff team gets against an inferior team. Love to see us stop playing down to the competition.

[Aerodeliria]

2 hours ago, Matt Braun said:

I will never complain about kicking the crap out of the White Sox 

That's a historical quote...

[Aerodeliria]

The biggest thing for me is that whatever was bothering Maeda seems to have vanished at least for this game. I still think he tweaked something--some kind of muscle strain or something--because he wasn't getting many swings and misses. Today he seemed to be back to 'normal,' which is a relief heading towards October.

[BH67]

Kenta Maeda threw 77 pitches through six innings and 28 more in the seventh. Many years ago a 100+ pitch night wouldn't capture my attention, but it's less common now and makes me wonder if that creates risk to the health of a starter. I understand Rocco's strategic reasoning, of course. And Ryan had 102 pitches and Gray 89 against the Rays, and neither made it to the 6th inning.

But Maeda looked brilliant in the middle innings. The Twins' starting pitching on the whole seems to be peaking as the playoffs arrive.

As for the Vikings, the two fumbles in the first quarter against the Bucs revealed to me that the 2023 vintage of Kirk Cousins would not be as sweet as the 2022 variety. Ergo, it's time for Kwesi and Kevin to implement their vision of the future. Their 2025 team could be fun to watch...as the Twins are now.

[Western SD Fan]

I know no one wants to hear a Carlos Correa comment in this thread.  I do find solace that the offensive can produce without him for a few games.  Even in Wednesday's loss to the Rays, the offense showed fight to come back and tie the game. I would rather that Correa takes a few days off here or there and be healthier for the postseason than Rocco believing the offense won't work without him in the lineup as I am under no illusion that we will need him in the lineup as close to 100% as possible in the postseason.

[Peter]

Total domination!!! Magic number down to 8!!! Take next 3

[mikelink45]

Great game and the rookies are really leading the team.  Nice game for Maeda, but I have to ask about 

Quote

Kenta Maeda has been consistent throughout the comeback. His last five games have been up and down

So is it consistent or up and down?

Earlier an article asked if the rookies could handle the post season - I think this rookies can handle anything. 

[jmlease1]

Very nice game. ChiSox do still have some talent in their lineup, so it's good to see the Twins handle them fairly easily.

Wallner had been scuffling a bit, so it's good to see him getting some hits again. Julien's approach really doesn't change whether he's getting the balls to drop or not, and that's pretty advanced for a rookie. Royce Lewis made me nervous when he rolled the ankle; dude has had way too much injury bad luck, so I'm glad it didn't take him out of the lineup. Moved to the edge of my seat when he came up with the bases loaded. Would have loved to see the dinger there, but I love the fact that he calmly drew the run-scoring walk and didn't expand the zone and chase looking for glory.

A good game for the Twins. I love beating Chicago. I thought they were being overrated going into the season (a lot of people picked them ahead of the Twins this year) and they stink. Let's beat up on a team that desperately needs the season to be over and shrink that magic number fast!

[Old Twins Cap]

Watching Julien run around the bases without a helmet, awkward but determined -- it kind of changed my life.

[bighat]

So many of Royce's homers are just like the one he hit last night in Chicago - no-doubter bombs! 

Haven't seen that type of power in a Twins uniform in recent memory. 

[BobAzar]

9 hours ago, Matt Braun said:

I will never complain about kicking the crap out of the White Sox 

When they messed up on Farmer's K late in the game I laughed and said to my wife "God, I love when the Sox are terrible". and I thank @RandBalls Stu for naming them the Godless White Sox

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

Great game and the rookies are really leading the team.  Nice game for Maeda, but I have to ask about 

So is it consistent or up and down?

Earlier an article asked if the rookies could handle the post season - I think this rookies can handle anything. 

Castro’s “line drive double” wasn’t exactly accurate either as Kirilloff stood between first & second until he saw the ball bounce off the fence - Castro almost lapped him coming around first…….it was a double, all good.

[Althebum82]

Headrick has been announced as the move to make room for Ober. 

Nice to have our two back-end bullpen guys finish the game pretty cleanly so that everyone else is fresh for the rest of the series.

Based on Maeda's performance it would appear that Keuchel is a likely odd man out of rotation unless things go horribly for Ober for some reason.  His inclusion in the bullpen is still of good value to the Twins, and he is smart enough to adjust to whatever role the Twins need him in.

[MMMordabito]

1 hour ago, bighat said:

So many of Royce's homers are just like the one he hit last night in Chicago - no-doubter bombs! 

Haven't seen that type of power in a Twins uniform in recent memory. 

Gallo? Yeah, the contact isn't there, but the ones he has hit out were all no-doubters.

[madtowntwin]

10 runs scored in multidimensional fashion.....HR power, savvy alert base running, and capitalizing on your opponent's defensive miscues. Such offensive prowess will be important in the concentrated pressure games that the MLB playoffs present. Oh, and then there's Pitching & Defense....Win Twins. 

[MN_ExPat]

3 hours ago, Old Twins Cap said:

Watching Julien run around the bases without a helmet, awkward but determined -- it kind of changed my life.

Yeah... he almost seemed to have a "This feels weird look" on his face at one point .

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, MMMordabito said:

Gallo? Yeah, the contact isn't there, but the ones he has hit out were all no-doubters.

Gallo and Wallner both have more raw power than Lewis for sure. But it's awfully nice to see Royce pound one like that. You can really see the talent that made the Twins grab him in the draft. So nice that he's finally getting to show it. Hope he stays healthy because the dude can play.

[cmoss84]

Wallner wins rookie dress up day!

If Lewis can ever play 150 games in a season, we might have a legit .280/35/120 guy! 

[IaBeanCounter]

5 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

 Moved to the edge of my seat when he came up with the bases loaded. Would have loved to see the dinger there, but I love the fact that he calmly drew the run-scoring walk and didn't expand the zone and chase looking for glory.

 

Watching the Sox broadcast when Lewis came up the bases loaded they showed his 2022/23 base loaded history.  11 PA, BA .545 4 grand slams, I don't think the Sox wanted to give him anything to hit.  Closest thing to an intentional walk.  

[terrydactyls]

Can someone attach names to the rookie dress up day picture?  An amazing group of giants and little people.  Or maybe they only look small because of all the redwood trees around them?

[AceWrigley]

That dress up day pic looks like the cast from a legos movie or something, pretty awesome.

[Brandon]

I will go with scooby do for dress up day.

and Headrick is on the reliever usage chart twice.  
 

Bombs, rookies, wins against the white Sox, and rock and roll!