Twins 11, A's 3: Ober Dominates and Wallner Slams in a Rout

[Steven Trefz]

The Twins entered Tuesday night's game on the edge of "having something left to play for." It turns out that they played anyways, and played dominantly over the hapless A's. Here's how the rout went down.

Image courtesy of Jesse Johnson, USA Today

 

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober - 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K (86 pitches, 60 Strikes, 70%)
Home Runs: Matt Wallner (13, GS), Alex Kirilloff (11)
Top 3 WPA: Wallner (.228), Ober (.143), Kyle Farmer (.106)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

The Twins looked to continue to build momentum toward next week's playoff games. An essential part of that story involved eating innings and allowing a couple of needed bullpen arms to make their returns to the mound. All of that happened, and then some!

Cashing in Early Gifts
A's starter Paul Blackburn quickly retired the first two batters. The following five did not go away quietly. Four straight walks plated the first Twins run. Then Matt Wallner plated four more all by himself.

The Twins' offense didn't need much more, thanks to Bailey Ober's five innings of two-hit ball. But in the bottom of the fifth, Alex Kirilloff decided to go oppo-taco to steal that pretty vest back from his fellow lefty slugger. 7-0 Twins.

Welcome Back Gunslinger
Chris Paddack's tenure with the Twins has been a struggle. Tommy John surgery left the righty starter without a chance to help his team in either season until today. When Paddack took the mound in the bottom of the sixth, he was on fire and throwing fire.

The Game Tightens and Then Loosens
Paddack returned to pitch his second inning of work to much less success. The A's struck for three runs before he could escape the inning. Griffin Jax and the return of Brock Stewart handled the rest. Granted, their load was lighter thanks to Christian Vazquez and his angry response to having the bases intentionally loaded to face him.

What’s Next: Operation Playoff Push continues Wednesday evening as Pablo Lopez (11-8, 3.61 ERA) works his final tune-up before the Playoffs. The A's counter with RHP Joey Estes (0-1, 9.64 ERA), with first pitch going at 6:40pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews:

 

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Paddack	0	0	0	0	40	40
Winder	0	35	0	0	0	35
Durán	34	0	0	0	0	34
Funderburk	0	0	27	0	0	27
Varland	11	0	15	0	0	26
Thielbar	20	0	0	0	0	20
Jax	0	0	0	0	17	17
Stewart	0	0	0	0	16	16
Pagán	0	10	0	0	0	10
Keuchel	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

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[Rosterman]

Nice opportunity for Paddack and Stewart. The Twins can basically start all their rotation arms, and maybe even Keuchel. Each bullpen arm can comfortably make two appearances. All fielding guys should get ample playing time.

Can the Twins win 89 games?

[Melissa]

Some good signs in this last week:

Good to see Paddack and Stewart out there! Jax is looking sharper these days, too. Julien continues his phenomenal walk-friendly approach. Kiriloff may have his wrist healthy again! And Wallner is settling in so well.

Go Twins!!

[FlyingFinn]

I'm for winning one game at a time and one series at a time. Thus, I have Ober in the pen for the first series. If the game goes extras, him pitching or his earlier innings could be what wins it. He's one of our 10 best pitchers. Game 1 of the next series can be figured out when the time comes.

[jimbo92107]

Baldelli said it: Usually at the end of a season you're looking at a pitching staff that is injured, weary, or breaking down physically and emotionally. This season, for some reason, the Twins seem to be brimming with pitchers getting healthy just in time to help with a playoff push. 

Tell you one thing...Chris Paddock loves throwing a baseball really hard. Not always the best way to get guys out, but it's sure fun to watch. He was enjoying the hell out of his new elbow.

I wonder if it's time to stop putting an innings limit on Bailey Ober. He looks all growed up to me...

[BH67]

Seattle's win over Houston means that the West Division winner will have at least 89 wins. Thus, one more Twins loss ensures first-round playoff action at Target Field, and this is likely even if the Twins win out.

So it's essential to prepare for next week. To that end, the Twins did marvelously today. Seeing Brock Stewart back was particularly heartening, and seeing Bailey Ober dominate put a big smile on my face. 

Twins starters in September (23 games and 123.1 IP): 3.50 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 1.97 BB/9, 9.92 K/9.

[Blyleven2011]

Great double digit  game win tonight ...

Early bats awakened and the grand slam was possibly the furthest I have seen a ball hit to right center,  wallner tattoo it ...

Ober was Ober  and was in command  , paddack dazzled his first inning and wanted more but wasn't quite as successful  , but well take it , probably see him pitch once more in colorado , he threw 40 plus pitches ...

Stewart is back and throwing gas , might see him again on Thursday as he threw 16 pitches...

Jax was his normal self throwing 17 pitches ...

Pitching only walked 1 and struck out 15 A's ...

Kiriloff continues to hit homeruns to the opposite field , 8 of his 11 homers have been to left field  , amazing ...

Vasquez  hits another opposite field bases clearing double , he saw 3 pitches and all 3 were in the same location,  I kept saying  , hit it to right field and he did  ...

We got more runs than hits but the batters were very patient and walked 9 times , more walks than strikeouts ...

Good effort even if it was the A's , let's get more ...

[stringer bell]

Good health the rest of the way and recovery from Correa and particularly Lewis would make the Twins very dangerous in the postseason. I know he's going to slump and strike out a lot, but I've come around a long way on Matt Wallner. The Twins have a deep roster where not one position player deserved to be an All-Star, but their 13th and 14th guys are good major league players. 

I like the way the bullpen looks and it could be better than good depending on how Paddack, Stewart and Maeda come back and adjust to their roles. Bailey Ober looks like the odd man out for the first round and his stuff looked outstanding today. 

 

[Squirrel]

3 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

I wonder if it's time to stop putting an innings limit on Bailey Ober. He looks all growed up to me...

Maybe that’s why he’s not injured and ready to go for the playoffs?

[Squirrel]

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I like the way the bullpen looks and it could be better than good depending on how Paddack, Stewart and Maeda come back and adjust to their roles. Bailey Ober looks like the odd man out for the first round and his stuff looked outstanding today.

I said this in the game thread but I feel better about our BP now than I ever have all season long. But … ‘adjust to their roles’ … still some iffiness in that, too. I still think it could be our weakest link. As I’ve said all year, I think we’ve had the potential, just need to execute game day. That goes for our offense, too.

[adjacent]

What impressed me is the willingness to take walks. Those walks were Ks earlier in the year. 

[jmlease1]

Fun game last night. Twins just keep working the walks, and correctly assuming that the next guy will take care of business. Morneau making the call on Wallner's HR was pretty fantastic. My goodness he pounded that one; I know they reported it at 463 ft, but it seemed even longer. Just an absolute bomb.

Nice to see Paddack's stuff playing up. He looked great in the first inning he threw. Not so great in the second one, but it's good to have him back regardless. Should he be in the bullpen for the post-season? Maybe?

Oakland is a pretty bad team, though. Yikes.

[umterp23]

Paddock with the adrenaline inning was a great moment for him.  Next inning not surprised but I'm glad he gutted it out.  One inning if his name is called in playoff game, not concerned as I think he can control himself.  Nice to have him back along with Brock

I'm sure everyone is thinking well it is the A's but you beat up on teams you are supposed to and we did that last night.  

Talk of Buxton being an impact bat, but would he slow the mojo the boys have now?  Twins are 29-20 without him but in Sept they are 15-8 with 5 to go.  I like where this team is at the moment

[wabene]

4 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Maybe that’s why he’s not injured and ready to go for the playoffs?

I think Jimbo may be right and Bailey could be ready for a full session with no restrictions next year. It is also a good policy to keep a close eye these endurance athletes, starting pitchers, and give them a late season break if necessary. Cut their innings a little at the end if necessary. Whatever they are doing, having the starters fresh and dialed in come playoff time is about as good as it gets. 

[Squirrel]

5 minutes ago, wabene said:

I think Jimbo may be right and Bailey could be ready for a full session with no restrictions next year. It is also a good policy to keep a close eye these endurance athletes, starting pitchers, and give them a late season break if necessary. Cut their innings a little at the end if necessary. Whatever they are doing, having the starters fresh and dialed in come playoff time is about as good as it gets. 

Next season, sure. But how Ober was handled this year, I think was absolutely right, despite the calls this year to push him more. 

[wabene]

3 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Next season, sure. But how Ober was handled this year, I think was absolutely right, despite the calls this year to push him more. 

That's what I'm saying. I also agree with the way he was handled this year and pushed back against those calling for him to pitch longer in games. Gray was handled very well too. The only mishap was Ryan, but that is on him. Part of the reason the Twins have such a good staff is the management of said staff. 

[terrydactyls]

I know the A's are a bad team, and that Blackburn isn't the same caliber of pitcher that the Twins will face in the playoffs, yada yada yada..... (thank you George Costanza), but

Actually I got nothing to add.  I just wanted to use yada yada yada at least once this season.

[DJL44]

22 minutes ago, wabene said:

Part of the reason the Twins have such a good staff is the management of said staff. 

I agree with this. I also believe you have to give a lot of that credit to Rocco.

[Tibs]

Concerns over Wallner's demise were greatly exaggerated

[madtowntwin]

Only saw the end of the game and caught Stewart pitching....Looked comfortable and back in form. Peering at the boxscore  Solano was 4 for 4 and plated 3 runs - Wow. Lot's of understandable angst in losing Arraez, but did the Twins gain a hitter! A few games ago Baldelli switched out Kirilloff for Donovan to face a left hander and Alex struck out in an RBI opportunity situation. I wasn't shocked, but surprised in that I felt at the time and still do now that Solano was the better option for that situation - The man can bat! In terms of negative team records - Your Minnesota Twins are all time strike out champions! And now for positive team records - Atlanta sits at 299 home runs trailing the Twins season record of 307 with 5 games remaining. Win Twins!

[Alex Schieferdecker]

From a stuff perspective, Paddack and Stewart certainly had it. While his overall line was rough, I liked how CP worked the first, and I like how he bore down to squelch the A's rally in the second. Both guys will be in the playoff bullpen, I'm confident, so it's not the end of the world for them to get some game experience like that.

 

Ober looking good to me as the #4 playoff starter, hopefully his services will be needed in that role.

[BsuNemo]

Would've like to see them not send CP out for the second inning - let him bask in a great first inning for a great first game.  He battled it out the second inning but coming off not throwing in a major league game in 18 months, I just thought one inning should have been where they start.  I think Duran at 103, Varland at 99, Paddack at 99, Jax at 98, Funderburk at 98, Stewart at 98 - we have the power arms in the bullpen to dominate hitters IF we don't walk anyone.  I'm really excited for next week!  Stay healthy and be 1-0 next Wednesday morning.

[stringer bell]

Despite all the strikeouts, the Twins have a Top Ten offense. They've raised their team OPS to .749 and have been much better since the All-Star break. In their last five games, they face the two teams that have allowed the most runs in MLB, so their numbers figure to improve on offense. 

On the flip side, the Twins have allowed the fewest runs in the AL, fueled by a starting rotation that is top five in about every stat but victories. They are playing their best baseball right now. 

[Vanimal46]

I’m curious, how is @John Bonnes feeling today after attempting the 9 hot dogs, 9 beers in 9 innings challenge last night?

[stringer bell]

1 minute ago, BsuNemo said:

Would've like to see them not send CP out for the second inning - let him bask in a great first inning for a great first game.  He battled it out the second inning but coming off not throwing in a major league game in 18 months, I just thought one inning should have been where they start.  I think Duran at 103, Varland at 99, Paddack at 99, Jax at 98, Funderburk at 98, Stewart at 98 - we have the power arms in the bullpen to dominate hitters IF we don't walk anyone.  I'm really excited for next week!  Stay healthy and be 1-0 next Wednesday morning.

I don't think Funderburk has 98, but everyone else can reach those velocities. 

[jorgenswest]

Just now, stringer bell said:

I don't think Funderburk has 98, but everyone else can reach those velocities. 

Concur. He has a 22nd percentile fastball. Velocity isn’t his road to being effective. He has missed bats thus far.

[Mortimerkenny21]

Two G.S. for Wallner this season. One for 450 feet, one for 463 feet or maybe more who knows!?! When he hits a slam, it truly is the epitome of "Grand" slam! A thing of beauty!

[joefish]

3 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

I know the A's are a bad team, and that Blackburn isn't the same caliber of pitcher that the Twins will face in the playoffs, yada yada yada..... (thank you George Costanza), but

Actually I got nothing to add.  I just wanted to use yada yada yada at least once this season.

But you yadda-ed out the best part!

[wabene]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

I agree with this. I also believe you have to give a lot of that credit to Rocco.

Yes and Pete Maki. He looked overwhelmed last year when Wes Johnson flew the coop, but turns out he might even be an improvement.

[Shaitan]

14 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

I'm for winning one game at a time and one series at a time. Thus, I have Ober in the pen for the first series. If the game goes extras, him pitching or his earlier innings could be what wins it. He's one of our 10 best pitchers. Game 1 of the next series can be figured out when the time comes.

Not related to Ober, but to extras:

Does the stupid ghost runner rule apply to post-season too?