Twins 4, White Sox 0: Twins Close Out Series Win on Sonny Gray's Gem

[Steven Trefz]

The Twins let one slip away Saturday night on the South Side of Chicago, but they never lost control of Sunday's game. The magic number continues to fall, and the Twins playoff hopes continue to rise. Here's how the Twins victory transpired.

Image courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski - USA Today

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Sonny Gray 7 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K (81 Pitches, 57 Strikes, 70%)
Home Runs: Edouard Julien (14), Jorge Polanco (13)
Top 3 WPA: Gray (.378), Julien (.225), Matt Wallner & Ryan Jeffers (.038)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

The Twins entered Sunday afternoon's final matchup with the White Sox having missed a golden opportunity to shave the magic number and creep closer to Houston for the #2 seed in the AL. Redemption would rest on the golden arm of Sonny Gray, and a lineup of rookies, free agent role players, and the longest-tenured Twin. That was all that the Twins needed to win the day.

Sonny Side is Looking Up for Playoffs
Gray's last outing against the Rays didn't last past the fourth inning, but today showed the best of what he has to offer on the mound. Other than a lead-off double in the bottom of the sixth inning, Elvis Andrus, Gray held the White Sox out of scoring position throughout his seven innings of shut-out work. 

A Rookie Shall Lead Them
The Twins offense failed to match Gray's success, going scoreless through the first four innings. Jeffers singled with one out in the top of the fifth off White Sox starter Dylan Cease. Kyle Farmer drew a walk. Rookie (and ceremonial Mountie) Julien did the rest, to the tune of 410 feet, 103 mph, and 27 degrees of launch angle. 3-0 Twins and that would prove to be more than enough to seal the victory.

Switching Gears to the Record Books
Not to be outdone by the young whippersnapper, the longest-tenured Twin Polanco greeted Luis Patino with 396 feet, 105.2 mph, and 22 degrees of his launch angle to put the Twins ahead 4-0. In so doing, Polanco took sole position as "most home runs by a switch hitter in Twins history" from Roy Smalley. I don't know what the trophy looks like for that prize, but the Twins playoff hopes rest on the hope that it won't be his last career home run.

Sunday Cruisin'
Gray was lights out, Griffin Jax and Emilio Pagan didn't let the White Sox hope again, and the Twins cruised to their 79th win of the year and scraped their magic number down to six. This was the kind of stress-free victory the Twins needed as they head to Cincinnati for a competitive series. The bullpen leaves in good shape, a few more lineup components should be able to return to the field, and playoff tickets go on sale without any real fear of jinxing it.

What's Next: Twins RHP Joe Ryan (10-9, 4.20 ERA) takes the mound against a Reds team currently on the bubble of the NL wild card race. The Reds have yet to name a starter for any of the three-game set. First pitch is scheduled at the Great American Ball Park for 5:40pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews:

 

 

Bullpen Usage:

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Pagán	29	0	0	0	22	51
Jax	16	0	16	0	13	45
Winder	0	14	0	25	0	39
Varland	0	0	29	0	0	29
Thielbar	17	0	0	0	0	17
Funderburk	0	0	16	0	0	16
Floro	13	0	0	0	0	13
Durán	0	0	0	9	0	9

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[Patzky]

Started tight, ended easy.

Just like.. we needed.

[darwin22]

Considering I anticipated TEX helping us this weekend (thanks for nothing!), today's W, imo, was very important.  

As well as the Royals are swinging the bat recently, I'm hoping they can put a dent into the recent momentum of CLE.   Living in the KC area for the last 20+ years, I've never been a Royals fan (lifelong Twins fan), but will be the next 3 games.  

With a rested bullpen need Ryan to give us a strong 5-6 IP start tomorrow night,

Keep grinding boys.

[mikelink45]

Nice game - Gray stepped up today and remains the staff Ace.  Julien showed us why he should not be PH for and Wallner has turned a real corner after realizing he needs more contact with the ball and less Ks.  Add in Lewis and hope Kiriloff gets hot and we have a wonderful foundation for the playoffs and the future. 

[Jocko87]

1 hour ago, darwin22 said:

Considering I anticipated TEX helping us this weekend (thanks for nothing!), today's W, imo, was very important.  

As well as the Royals are swinging the bat recently, I'm hoping they can put a dent into the recent momentum of CLE.   Living in the KC area for the last 20+ years, I've never been a Royals fan (lifelong Twins fan), but will be the next 3 games.  

With a rested bullpen need Ryan to give us a strong 5-6 IP start tomorrow night,

Keep grinding boys.

Not worried about Cleveland. Can't decide if I want Texas to keep winning or not.

[stringer bell]

1 minute ago, Jocko87 said:

Not worried about Cleveland. Can't decide if I want Texas to keep winning or not.

Of the four possible opponents, Houston has seemed to have the upper hand, and they have a lot of winning playoff experience. Each of the other three have pluses and minuses, and it won't probably be determined until the last day. 

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

 Wallner has turned a real corner after realizing he needs more contact with the ball and less Ks. 

Not really. He mentioned in the post-game radio interview that he's been working on specific zones, adjusting to where they have been getting him out. Making adjustments. He didn't wake up this morning and say "I should try hitting the ball instead of missing it!"

[Blyleven2011]

Missed almost all of this series , out-of-town  ...

Catching up on the series  ...

Nice taking 3 of 4 from white Sox  .. 

Lopez had 1 bad inning and it looks like it cost us  , winder allowed the game to get out of reach  , Twins mounted a comeback but fell a run short  ...

Now to today , looks like Sonny  pitched a gem  , I got into town and tuned into the radio for top of ninth with pagan pitching ( oh boy I said ) , he gave up 2 base runners  and had the tying run on deck but managed  to get through the inning unscathed  and preserving the shutout  ( thank goodness ) ....

We now go to Cincinnati who are also playing for a playoff spot , get ready to see some of our traded away prospects  ...

I'm hoping for some good solid baseball games  , win or lose it should give us some good games ( kind of a playoff  type series ) to watch , we'll see which team is the most focus ...

[stringer bell]

The Twins are now 36-39 on the road, not great, but respectable. I'd like to see them win the next two road series and at least get 40 wins on the road. Yes, I guess I'd like to see them clinch earlier rather than later, but playing games the matter is good for the team.

[RpR]

Hopefully the Cincinatti games are not of extra importance but while they have been subject to blow-out losses they lost six of seven to Atlanta by one run each game and won one by one run, plus they took two out of three from the Dodgers.

If they take two out of three from Cin. it is a good sign.

[mikelink45]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Not really. He mentioned in the post-game radio interview that he's been working on specific zones, adjusting to where they have been getting him out. Making adjustments. He didn't wake up this morning and say "I should try hitting the ball instead of missing it!"

I took this from a quote that was on TD last week.  But no matter what the quote should be he has made adjustments and I am delighted.

[DocBauer]

Any time you beat the Dirty Sox it's a good thing!

I just wish we could have swept.

GREAT start by Gray! Might be nothing, but I have this feeling that he has not only been focusing more on his approach to PUT GUYS AWAY EARLIER, which he has commented on previously. (He seems to be a bit of a perfectionist, which I get, as well as a competitor). But I think he is mentally ramping himself up for the post season. 

I'm just NOT worried about 1 bad inning from Lopez in game 3.

I'm more worried/curious about Ryan. I think he's fine both mentally and physically. I just want to see him "turn it up" a notch one game before the season ends. 

I dismiss the arguments regarding Wallner. He struggled for a couple of weeks. And I hate the Gallo comparisons, especially so early in his career. Yes, there is a comparison. But he's been much better lately. And their approach might be similar, but their swing is  different from what I've seen. Gallo is all or nothing. Wallner seems to have a swing that's adjustable. He doesn't "golf" at everything. I do hope Wallner follows a different path than Gallo. It's great to be able to work a count like Julien does. But not everyone can do that. And I don't see Wallner following Gallo from what I've seen of him. I think he's got a good evaluation of the strike zone. I think he has a more aggressive attitude to swing at a ball in the zone than Gallo has. I think he's a future .240-.250 hitter with a decent OB and still tremdous power. I've watched both of them enough to believe Wallner is going to be a better "hitter" than Gallo.

[JD-TWINS]

3 hours ago, Jocko87 said:

Not worried about Cleveland. Can't decide if I want Texas to keep winning or not.

I think we gotta hope for Texas as our opponent……..weakest pitching by far……not a great road team. They have some thumpers in the line-up for sure.

We’ve outscored our opponents the last 16 games - since September 1st, by a total of 102-58…….scoring runs ourselves at a nice clip. 

Seattle - Toronto both have good staffs. Texas has a bunch of lefties but we didn’t seem to have a problem with them in our recent 7 games.

[Blyleven2011]

8 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Gallo is all or nothing. 

No one is worse , even sano was a bit better and he was not tendered a 2023 contract ... 

[John Belinski]

The Twins are 1-0 without Rocco. Starter got to pitch 7 innings. Wonder how many games  Rocco will miss?

[jmlease1]

Excellent series win. Taking 3 of 4 on the road against a division rival is very good baseball, even if the ChiSox stink this year.

Gray looked very good and it was nice to see him bounce back after an outing he wasn't happy with to shut things down. he's looking healthy and ready and will start either game 1 or game 2 of whatever playoff series we land in. He's done a great job keeping the ball in the park this season. After he next start, he'll have thrown more innings this year since he was 25. Twins have done a good job keeping him healthy and strong this season.

Good work by Pagan and Jax, but hopefully we'll be able to get Jax some additional days off. He's been worked pretty hard this season.

On to Cincy!

[Alex Schieferdecker]

The bullpen usage chart is so fresh and clean!

[D.C Twins]

1. We are going to miss Gray

2. Gray is going to get Paaaaaaaaid next season

[roger]

As I watched the game, I kept wondering how the Twins will approach next season with Gray.  Gotta believe they will want him back and if he won't agree to an extension before testing free agency expect they will use the QA.  That should be a start, but I really want to see him pitching with the Twins the next three or so years.

Lopez, Gray, Ryan, Ober, and Paddack with Varland/SW-R in St. Paul ready to join the rotation when needed would look awfully nice.  And that group is under control for several years.  Could be the basis for a nice multi-year run of playoff seasons with the potential to go beyond the first round, well beyond.  

Let's remember what Tom Kelly always said, "you are only as good as your next day's starting pitcher."

 

[jmlease1]

1 minute ago, roger said:

As I watched the game, I kept wondering how the Twins will approach next season with Gray.  Gotta believe they will want him back and if he won't agree to an extension before testing free agency expect they will use the QA.  That should be a start, but I really want to see him pitching with the Twins the next three or so years.

Lopez, Gray, Ryan, Ober, and Paddack with Varland/SW-R in St. Paul ready to join the rotation when needed would look awfully nice.  And that group is under control for several years.  Could be the basis for a nice multi-year run of playoff seasons with the potential to go beyond the first round, well beyond.  

Let's remember what Tom Kelly always said, "you are only as good as your next day's starting pitcher."

 

I think they do want him back and would be happy to sign him to a 3-year deal...I just think he's going to get 4-5 year offers from someone, and the Twins won't want to go that long on a pitcher who's almost 34 already. Putting the QO on him makes perfect sense and will return value. I think the Twins have a better chance of retaining Maeda on a shorter term deal, and they might be interested in that to maintain rotation depth.

[USNMCPO]

3 hours ago, Alex Schieferdecker said:

The bullpen usage chart is so fresh and clean!

Not sure i would have used Jax in this game. Another day rest could have been good for him. With a 4-0 lead against a team that appears to be looking forward to vacation I might have used Floro or Funderburk.