Week in Review: Series Win and a Serious Loss

[Nick Nelson]

The opening series in Kansas City featured no shortage of ups and downs, with a pair of impressive wins followed by a brutal loss, as a much more critical loss from the roster looms over everything.

We're only three games in, but there's plenty to discuss.

Image courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Weekly Snapshot: Thurs, 3/28 through Sun, 3/31
***
Record Last Week: 2-1 (Overall: 2-1)
Run Differential Last Week: -4 (Overall: -4)
Standing: 3rd Place in AL Central (1.0 GB)

Last Week's Game Results:

Game 1 | MIN 4, KC 1: López Leads Twins to Win, Lewis Injured
Game 2 | MIN 5, KC 1: Buxton, Vázquez Fuel Late Offensive Surge
Game 3 | KC 11, MIN 0: Royals Obliterate Ober and Twins

NEWS & NOTES

In Thursday's season opener, Royce Lewis instantly kicked the hype machine into overdrive by homering in his first at-bat and singling in his second. His spectacular start made what followed all the more crushing: Lewis hurt his right leg while sprinting from first to third, exiting the game and throwing the fanbase into a collective panic.

We got specifics a couple days later, which were well covered by Twins Daily's resident injury specialist Lucas Seehafer. In short: Lewis has a severe quad strain, and the team will wait a month before re-evaluating and setting a timeline. Given the nature of these injuries and information shared by the team, Lucas concludes that the "most optimistic return for Lewis would be in 50 days, or May 19. A more realistic return date may be June 1, which is 63 days from the time of writing, though a later return date can't be ruled out."

In other words, be prepared for Lewis to miss around two months, at least. For now, he's been replaced on the roster by Austin Martin, who made his first big-league start on Sunday. Eventually, Brooks Lee could get a chance at third base for the Twins, though he himself is currently sidelined 3-4 weeks by a back injury.

We also learned over the weekend that Anthony DeSclafani will miss the entire season, which was expected. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Minnesota's rotation hit the ground running in Kansas City, led by verified ace Pablo López. In his Opening Day start, the right-hander picked up where he left off in October, firing seven innings of one-run ball and mowing down Royals hitters with ruthless efficiency. You couldn't have asked for much more from López, who cruised deep into the game after giving up a leadoff homer, even talking his way into completing the seventh during a mound visit with Rocco Baldelli. 

 

 Joe Ryan followed on Saturday with a very sharp and encouraging start, peppering the strike zone with fastballs while mixing in plenty of splitters and a few sweepers on the way to 5 ⅓ innings of one-run ball. He showed added life on all of his pitches and continues to evolve in the way he executes, living up so far to his sequential billing as the Twins' No. 2 starter.

With Sonny Gray out of the picture, López and Ryan are facing heightened pressure to perform atop the rotation. Early in the season, while Jhoan Durán and Caleb Thielbar are sidelined, the same is true for Griffin Jax and Brock Stewart at the back of the bullpen. This duo also looked ready to answer the call in the opening series.

The two relievers combined for four scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Each of them flashed stuff befitting the label of "bullpen ace" – Stewart flirting with triple-digit fastball velocity, Jax unleashing devastating sweepers. Having two relievers of this caliber on hand to hold down the late innings in the absence of Durán is a tremendous luxury, for which the front office deserves credit. Now the Twins just need to both to keep it rolling. The stakes are high.

 

For me, seeing Byron Buxton healthy and playing his game without restriction was the biggest highlight of the opening weekend. Buxton started all three contests at Kauffman – two in center and one at DH – and he looked fantastic. Among his three hits were a pair of doubles, including a hustle play on a chopper over third base that saw Buxton open up on the basepaths and let loose, without issue. A joy to behold.

 

As long as Buxton is healthy and doing his thing, it's kinda hard to not feel good about the Twins and their chances on any given day. He and Stewart are among the handful of players who entered the season with lingering injury concers but are sending positive early signals. This group also includes Carlos Correa and Alex Kirilloff, who parlayed their own strong springs into impressive starts to the season.

The Twins are going to need all of these guys to keep on cooking if they're to stay on track and keep rattling off wins in the absence of Lewis. 

LOWLIGHTS

Watching Lewis limp into third base and quickly leave the game on Opening Day was an absolutely gut-wrenching moment, for so many reasons. The extent of his impact on the team's outlook is one thing, and the crappy cards he continues to get dealt is another. It was fairly evident from the instant it occurred that Lewis's injury was a significant one and would cost him a bunch more time.

 

After getting more details on Saturday, we still don't know exactly how much time that will be, but suffice to say Lewis will be sidelined for the foreseeable future. The team's best hitter joins the team's best reliever in this category, which is not a great thing for the Twins. On the bright side, it's better to be without Lewis and Durán – two crucial postseason performers in 2023 – at the beginning of the campaign than the end. With this in mind, it will be critical to handle these key players cautiously. and steer clear of any setback that puts their season at risk. This has proven to be a strength under head trainer Nick Paparesta.

Bailey Ober is not injured, that we know of, but his first start of the season raised all kinds of alarms. In stark contrast to López and Ryan, Minnesota's No. 3 starter was bad against the Royals. Actually bad doesn't do it justice – he was horrific. While recording just four outs on Sunday, Ober was knocked around for eight earned runs on nine hits, including three homers. He struck out just one batter and induced only one swinging strike on 53 pitches. It was the worst start of his career and nothing else has come particularly close.

 

Along with Ryan, Ober is being counted on to step up his game in the post-Gray era, so this was a very disturbing season debut. But at the end of the day, it's only one game. The big righty has been as consistent and reliable as they come in the past. We'll need to hope everything is fine with him physically and this was just an isolated clunker of epic proportions. 

TRENDING STORYLINE

Max Kepler got X-rays after fouling a ball off his leg on Opening Day, but seemingly got news when the scans came back negative. On Sunday, Baldelli shared that Kepler was still struggling to run at full speed. If the right fielder isn't feeling right following an Monday's break, the team will likely need to make an IL move and bring someone else up.

 

Who might that be? Unfortunately, the Twins are shorter on options than they would like to be. Trevor Larnach, who would be a rock-solid candidate to replace Kepler on the roster, has begun the season on the IL with turf toe. No other outfielders at Triple-A are presently on the 40-man roster, though it wouldn't be all that surprising to see an IL move for Lewis open up a spot. Maybe for DaShawn Keirsey Jr. or Michael Helman?

LOOKING AHEAD

TUESDAY, 4/2: TWINS @ BREWERS – RHP Louie Varland v. RHP Jakob Junis
WEDNESDAY, 4/3 :TWINS @ BREWERS –  RHP Chris Paddack v. RHP Joe Ross
THURSDAY, 4/4: GUARDIANS @ TWINS – RHP Tanner Bibee v. RHP Pablo López
SATURDAY, 4/6: GUARDIANS @ TWINS – RHP Carlos Carrasco v. RHP Joe Ryan
SUNDAY, 4/7: GUARDIANS @ TWINS – RHP Triston McKenzie v. RHP Bailey Ober

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[walkstar89]

Thanks for writing these! Look forward to them weekly!

[mikelink45]

Let's use the IL and get a real outfielder on the roster

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Let's use the IL and get a real outfielder on the roster

What does this mean? 

[Kummel]

Ober looked injured. 

[h2oface]

There went the run differential, eh? But I would take a 2 wins one loss all year..... 108-54.

There was a lot of 'spring training means nothing' going on, but Ober had a horrible ST, too. Not one clean outing in 5, and 5 homers in 13 innings, a 5.65 ERA, which only takes into account the 9 earned runs he gave up, and hides the other 5 unearned, so 14 runs in 13.0 innings. The first outing of the regular season was even worse, but the oft ignored tell tale signs of things to come were staring one in the face with bright lights on them. So yes, he has still been consistent in 2024, just consistently awful.

If Lopez is already a 2024 verified ace after his one homer, one earned, 7K, 7 inning first outing (84-61), what does that make Singer, who gave up only 3 hits, no homer, no runs, and 10Ks in his 7 innings (98-64) against a professed better Twins lineup? Sure, Lopez had a much better 2023, but only this season matters now. So I guess they are both verified aces for 2024 😇

[David HK]

Geez Louise, what a debacle.

[MABB1959]

Horrible hitting as well. Ober shouldn't take all responsibility for yesterday's disaster.  Scary we have #4 and 5 to take on the Brewers in Milwaukee

[mikelink45]

7 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

What does this mean? 

It means we should bring up a player who is a fulltime, career OF like DeShawn Keirsey or Helman

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

It means we should bring up a player who is a fulltime, career OF like DeShawn Keirsey or Helman

Got it. I'm not sure either is a major league hitter. But now I understand. 

[Rosterman]

Not recognizing that Ober just didn't have it and leaving him out there beyond the five runs, especially coming off of solo home runs, is on the manager and coaching staff. You ahd the pitchers to use with an off day.

Also, clearly seeing that attacking the Royals pitcher wasn't working and NOT readjusting your batters is also on the staff watching the game. 

You have to adjust when playing the game, often sooenr rather than later. Not just ... let's keep with the plan.

[Doctor Wu]

22 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

It means we should bring up a player who is a fulltime, career OF like DeShawn Keirsey or Helman

I don't think either one of those guys will embarrass himself if called up. Give one of them a chance.