Make it Official! Twins 11, Tigers 5: First Game Goes Off the Rails

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Twins and Tigers were scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday after Thursday’s outing was postponed. Rather than make it a straightforward affair between the clubs, they decided to play 12 in game one with the tilt going to the Twins.

Image courtesy of © David Reginek-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Joe Ryan 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K (96 pitches, 70 strikes, 20 whiffs)
Home Runs: Ryan Jeffers (3), Matt Wallner (1)
Top 3 WPA: Ryan Jeffers (.733), Jorge Alcala (.261), Brock Stewart (.140)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Facing the Former King
For the first time since he signed with the Detroit Tigers, Kenta Maeda was going to face his former Minnesota Twins teammates. A noticeable drop in velocity was a big talking point this spring, and that hasn’t slowed into the regular season as the Tigers starter is nearly 2 mph slower than where he sat last year. Topping out at 90.6 mph in the first inning, Maeda made the slow slop work as he struck out Edouard Julien and retired the Twins in order.

Joe Ryan was to oppose Maeda, and looking to set the tone for the doubleheader, Rocco Baldelli needed a strong showing from his game one starter. He got Riley Greene on strikes before Jose Miranda made an errant throw on an easy play that should have gotten Mark Canha. After a Spencer Torkelson strikeout, Kerry Carpenter made the error hurt with a two-run homer.

As the Twins have done almost all season, they struggled to turn the page or build momentum in their next chance as well. In the top of the 2nd inning, Manuel Margot and Matt Wallner both got outs on first pitch swings before Miranda lifted a harmless fly ball to left.

King of Doubles
Rolling through the 2nd inning, Ryan settled in. After a pair of strikeouts in the 1st inning, Minnesota’s starter got the Tigers in order on just ten pitches, for three strikeouts. Through his first six outs of the game, five of them came on punch outs.

Austin Martin hasn’t been in the big leagues long, but he’s been there long enough to know he won’t be stopping at first base any time soon. Following a 3rd inning Willi Castro double, Martin recorded his third big league hit. All of them are doubles, and this one drove in Minnesota’s first run. It took a bit, but the Twins had broken through against Maeda.

If there was someone fooled by Maeda early, it was Minnesota’s second baseman. Julien was the only hitter to strike out the first time through the order, and the Tigers pitcher punched him out for a second time to record the second out of the 3rd inning. Carlos Santana flew out softly to right, and Martin was left in scoring position.

Ryan continued his dominance in the bottom half, striking out Parker Meadows and Greene again. A walk of Canha interrupted the flow, but Torkelson went down on strikes and it was a second consecutive side of strikeouts. Ryan now had eight for the ballgame, and one bad pitch following an error, was the only difference.

Joe Keeps Rolling
Having struck out the side in both the 2nd and 3rd innings, Minnesota’s starter threatened to do it again in the 4th inning. Getting both Carpenter and Colt Keith, Matt Vierling broke things up with a single to left. Zack McKinstry then lined out to right and ended the inning.

Outside of the one miss to Carpenter in the 1st inning, Ryan absolutely diced up the opposition. Of the 12 outs he needed to get through four innings, Minnesota’s starter racked up 10 strikeouts. Detroit’s lineup was clearly overmatched when it came to deciphering Ryan’s stuff.

Maeda, a good fielding pitcher, got a weak comebacker from Julien in his third at bat, and instead of the double play he threw it into centerfield. With Martin at third and Julien at first, Minnesota was in position to tie the game in the 5th inning. Santana hit a ball to Torkelson, and looking for the double play, Detroit wound up with just one out as Martin raced home and tied things at 2.

Striking out Carson Kelly in the bottom of the 5th inning, Ryan tied his career-high of 11 strikeouts and needed just 13 outs to do it. After an infield single for Greene, Canha stepped in as the only Tigers hitter not to fan yet today. Ryan made sure to correct that, and with a 2-2 sweeper, he set a new career-high with his 12th strikeout.

Unfortunately the bottom of the 6th inning started with a Torkelson double that should have been caught. A Keith single brought him home and the Twins trailed again, this time 3-2.

Jeffers Steps Up
The 7th inning came and went with no noise being made on either side. Both Maeda and Ryan were out of the game, and it would be a battle of the bullpens to the finish. Steven Okert worked a scoreless frame for Minnesota, and Baldelli found himself pleading for the offense to do something.

Kyle Farmer pinch hit for Julien but came up empty, and Santana fared the same way he has all year. Then Ryan Jeffers came off the bench to hit for Kirilloff and he unloaded on a Shelby Miller pitch, sending it over the left centerfield wall, to tie the game at three. Griffin Jax was on for the 8th inning and the Twins were looking to complete the comeback.

Through eight frames, both teams accomplished the same output. Three runs on six hits and an error was as even as it was going to get.

On to Extras
Neither team could find the winning run during the first nine innings, so to extras they went. Christian Vazquez started at second base, and Martin seemed like an ideal batter to have up and, at worst, move him over. Instead Martin struck out swinging and the Twins needed a hit. Farmer grounded out moving Vazquez over, but once again Santana did nothing, and his fly out ended the half inning. Maybe this is a bad time, but Joey Gallo has twice the OPS of Santana to start the year. 

Jorge Alcala got the 10th inning an: walked Green to set up the double play. Canha followed through on the plan, and while Detroit had Gio Urshela at third base, there were two outs. Punching out Torkelson to end the inning, the 11th was on deck.

Santana started at second, and Jeffers immediately stepped in and came through again. His single scored Santana and gave Minnesota their first lead of the game. Matt Wallner advanced Jeffers 90 feet before Byron Buxton stepped to replace Miranda. He struck out swinging and left the insurance run stranded.

The insurance run would have been beneficial as Carpenter reached on catcher’s interference before Keith drove in Torkelson. Alcala struck out Vierling and then got McKinstry to put runners on the corners with two outs. Kelly popped out and these two decided that a doubleheader wasn’t enough, why not play 12.

And Finally, Conclusion
Going this deep into a game while needing to play two is a wild choice, but that’s where Minnesota was. Castro drew a walk with Buxton on second to start the 12th inning. Vazquez bunted them over and wound up safe, while Martin walked to bring home a run and make it a 5-4 game. Farmer then went down on strikes before Santana punched out as well. Jeffers worked a full count, and with the bases loaded everyone was in motion. McKinstry booted a ball at third, clearing the bases and putting Minnesota up 8-4.

The Tigers were clearly done with this game, and despite him being the reason Minnesota scored three runs, McKinstry came on to pitch. Wallner hasn’t found his groove to start that year, but facing a position player, he blasted his first homer of the year. The three-run shot made it an 11-4 game and all but ended the first tilt in the Twins favor.

Jay Jackson got the bottom half, and while the placed runner did score, that’s all the damage Detroit was able to do. Minnesota ended the long first tilt with a 7-spot in the 12th, and their eight hits produced twice as much as Detroit’s did. Jeffers came off the bench to lead the club, and now they’ll settle in for game two.

Notes
Jair Camargo earns his first major league promotion against the Detroit Tigers and Kenta Maeda. Camargo was part of the return Minnesota got from the Dodgers when dealing Brusdar Graterol.

Carlos Correa talked of his oblique injury before the games today. Baldelli suggested the hope is that it isn't a long-term thing. Dealing with some imaging, the Twins shortstop talked to Audra Martin about what he expects to come next.

What’s Next? 
Minnesota plays one more against Detroit on Sunday afternoon with Bailey Ober starting against Jack Flaherty. The two squads will then go their separate ways, but only for a brief period as A.J. Hinch brings his club to Target Field next weekend. Baldelli's group goes to see Jackson Holiday and the Baltimore Orioles for the first time this season.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[jmlease1]

you don't get extra for style: a win is a win. considering how much the team has been struggling with offense, I do not care how they got to the 11 runs.

interesting game for Ryan: pretty dominant, yet punished for mistakes. 12 K's is 6 innings is pretty good work, though.

[Jocko87]

Jeffers 0.733 WPA should carry him through the month.

[Linus]

Great to get the win but some sloppy ball again. Miranda with a bad throw and on the tying run in extras Wallner doesn’t get around the ball until after he fielded it meaning he couldnt uncork the throw right away. Runner just scores. Then Alcalá gets the double play grounder he needed and stood on the mound instead of covering first. Instead of being in the dugout he had to get another out in a tie game.  Say what you want about the TK era but his teams didn’t make these kinds of plays. 

[Shaitan]

1 hour ago, Linus said:

Great to get the win but some sloppy ball again. Miranda with a bad throw and on the tying run in extras Wallner doesn’t get around the ball until after he fielded it meaning he couldnt uncork the throw right away. Runner just scores. Then Alcalá gets the double play grounder he needed and stood on the mound instead of covering first. Instead of being in the dugout he had to get another out in a tie game.  Say what you want about the TK era but his teams didn’t make these kinds of plays. 

And most the the current team was in diapers when TK retired.

[mikelink45]

Give Maeda credit - he did not have the strikeouts of Ryan but he went six and gave up 2 (1 earned)

Who is Bowman?

Why would you pinch hit for Kiriloff, the only batter over 250 and not Santana?

[Doctor Gast]

Joe Ryan & Martin had a pretty good game; seems like Castro is ready to start to hit. Jeffers hit an HR but his best AB was his 12 pitch battle against a dealing Alex Lange in extra innings, he took what he gave him. Jeffers has modify his swing from the Twins' "all or nothing" approach. Sometimes he relapse & strikes outs a lot but here he was very impressive at this AB much more than the HR Wallner hit against McKinstry but the stats favor much more Wallner.

 

[Fezig]

"Maeda made slow slop work" proving that pitching is more than just throwing. Being able to locate pitches will keep you in the bigs for a long time. I will, for the most part, take a pitcher over a thrower any day.

[John Belinski]

Just did not understand why Rocco had Farmer pinch hit? I think Farmer has had just 1 hit this season. Farmer was up again in a later inning and had a strikeout in a key at bat.  I certainly would rather have a good hitter at bat than Farmer with just 1 hit this season.  It was a good day for the Twins  and the rookie pitcher really pitched a good game so gets hope he can continue pitching well.

[Karbo]

9 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Give Maeda credit - he did not have the strikeouts of Ryan but he went six and gave up 2 (1 earned)

Who is Bowman?

Why would you pinch hit for Kiriloff, the only batter over 250 and not Santana?

because AK was the DH I guess

[jorgenswest]

17 hours ago, Ted Schwerzler said:

Farmer then went down on strikes before Santana punched out as well.

Both went down looking and both after swinging at a ball out of the strike zone the previous pitch. It is critical to put the ball in play and our two largest winter expenditures looked at strike 3. Jeffers then went up to battle and put the ball in play after a long battle at the plate. We need Farmer and Santana to be much better.

[mikelink45]

8 hours ago, John Belinski said:

Just did not understand why Rocco had Farmer pinch hit? I think Farmer has had just 1 hit this season. Farmer was up again in a later inning and had a strikeout in a key at bat.  I certainly would rather have a good hitter at bat than Farmer with just 1 hit this season.  It was a good day for the Twins  and the rookie pitcher really pitched a good game so gets hope he can continue pitching well.

Who is the good hitter?  

[JD-TWINS]

Lots of misplays on both sides. Seems odd to give up down 4 runs.

Glad a few guys contributed!

6 innings and one earned is a nice job by Ryan. 6 more innings from the Pen, starting 2 innings with a guy in 2nd and only giving up 2 is very respectable!

Wallner jumped on an opportunity to at least establish some positive statistics.

Second game SWR set them up with another solid start! Nice depth.