Twins 4, Tigers 5: A Cold, Sloppy Team Loses a Cold, Sloppy Game

[Matt Braun]

That was almost fun. 

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Joe Ryan: 5 ⅓ IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Home Run(s): Trevor Larnach (1)
Bottom 3 WPA: Caleb Thielbar (-.327), Joe Ryan (-.228), Kyle Farmer (-.104)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

No introduction to this game could have matched the stadium’s mood more than the opening frames; a cold, miserable late-April aura fueled the frigid team’s early performance, perhaps a little too on the nose. Joe Ryan allowed a sharp double to Kerry Carpenter. He scored when Edouard Julien’s short hop skidded strangely on the wet grass. Christian Vázquez stood at home masquerading as a particularly embarrassed matador. 1-0 Detroit.

But, fortune changed quickly. The Twins did have someone looking after them, after all. Jack Flaherty inexplicably offered a token of friendship in the form of a low 0-2 fastball—an attempt to “sneak cheese past a rat,” as Justin Morneau interpreted it. The ball landed 415 feet away. Minnesota now had the lead.

Because the 2024 Twins play a strange, cursed form of baseball, with higher beings frowning on them like a disapproving father, the game had no choice but to turn bizarre. A strike soon turned into a ball. The unearned runner—as anyone and everyone predicted—scored when Wenceel Perez flared a single to left. Once more, Carpenter held up and was rewarded when his check swing bled beyond Willi Castro’s grasp. The two hits were 68.7 and 68.1 MPH, respectively. That’s even too slow for the right lane. 

Not long after this point, Detroit plated a fourth run when Carpenter did himself one better and plopped one into left field at 57.6 MPH after Perez tripled. Ryan was left wondering what sins he committed to invoke such a wrath.

Finally, the great luck spotlight moved its focus: Ryan Jeffers reached on an error from Perez, setting the stage for Byron Buxton to uppercut a slider into left, just tricky enough to avoid a glove. He scored two but lingered too long at home plate to reach further than 2nd base.

That was the best of it; Caleb Thielbar surrendered a run in the top of the 9th, and the Twins couldn't respond fast enough, dropping the game after some mild late-inning excitement fell by the wayside. The loss pushed Minnesota to 6-12, fourth place in the division, with only the lifeless White Sox sitting behind them. 

Notes:

• Joe Ryan is five strikeouts away from passing Juan Rincon for 34th place on the all-time Twins strikeouts leaderboard.
• Caleb Thielbar is five outings away from passing Tyler Duffey for 18th place on the all-time Twins appearances pitching leaderboard.  
• Minnesota's pitching staff has struck out 181 batters, 6th most among MLB teams.
• Kody Funderburk lowered his career ERA to 0.92.

Post-Game Interview:

 

 

What’s Next?

The Twins and Tigers will play on Saturday, with first pitch coming at 1:10 PM. Bailey Ober will start opposite Detroit’s Reese Olson. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

View full article

[USAFChief]

Another game, another series of senseless manager moves.

Nobody can make players get hits. Or catch simple long hops with approximately 15 seconds to tag the runner out. 

But Rocco's glaring mistakes are done on purpose. 

[Vanimal46]

37 minutes ago, Matt Braun said:

Byron Buxton to uppercut a slider into left, just tricky enough to avoid a glove

.140 xBA on that hit and he pimped that hit like it was hit 500 feet. I'm glad he tied up the game, but this is what the likely outcome should have looked like... Or, like they say in Major League 2, it must have been the wind.

 

[darwin22]

When does football season start?

[h2oface]

Even with the Tigers gifting runs, our boys can't get it up. The losing culture starts with lackadaisical spring trainings. Soulless analytics lead to brainless managerial decisions. Our whole lineup begging for walks instead of practicing situational hitting. And tonight, the play that pissed me off more than any all season, and it didn't even really cost a run because of other inept hitting, was Buxton standing there begging for a home run and not a foul, and he didn't even start running, even with being in a horrible familiar Buxton slump, this time with fine knees. And the embarrasing moment got scored a hit on a ball that should have been easily caught. Pathetic.

No need to go see them in Anaheim and suffer this year. 

[Parfigliano]

Bad team loses bad game.

[mikelink45]

I have never cared about the velocity of hit balls. In this report Detroit hitting balls that are well below the exit velocity that everyone wants, but guess what. They were hits and thus they won. Won. I still like the old wee Willy keeler statement about hitting him where they ain't. That's still the best strategy.  

[Parfigliano]

36 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

.140 xBA on that hit and he pimped that hit like it was hit 500 feet. I'm glad he tied up the game, but this is what the likely outcome should have looked like... Or, like they say in Major League 2, it must have been the wind.

 

 Buxton is a joke.  Has been for years.

[wabene]

That third inning can kiss my ass

[FilthyMogwai]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

Another game, another series of senseless manager moves.

Nobody can make players get hits. Or catch simple long hops with approximately 15 seconds to tag the runner out. 

But Rocco's glaring mistakes are done on purpose. 

I've been beating on that drum for years. But there are always Baldelli apologists and they come out in groves.

[wabene]

20 minutes ago, FilthyMogwai said:

I've been beating on that drum for years. But there are always Baldelli apologists and they come out in droves.

 

[FilthyMogwai]

8 minutes ago, wabene said:

 

Weak, pathetic, grammar police. How petty of you. 

[h2oface]

6 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Another game, another series of senseless manager moves.

Nobody can make players get hits. Or catch simple long hops with approximately 15 seconds to tag the runner out. 

But Rocco's glaring mistakes are done on purpose. 

 

And it seems Baldelli thinks the throw was the downfall of the play. Sure, the throw could have been better, but that is our 10 million dollar/yr Mr Defense catcher, that as long as he isn't hitting anymore, needs to make that catch on the hop. Look at all the throws he makes to second that hop and the infielders make the play anyway (like Vazquez's subsequent throw back to Castro that was 6 feet to the wrong side of the bag and Castro still made the play). I would hope our catcher(s) can handle throws like that.

“We just have to stand up and make a good throw,” Baldelli said. “It’s an awkward part of the field, not a throw you make very often, but a play we have to complete.”

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, FilthyMogwai said:

Weak, pathetic, *grammar police. How petty of you. 

*spelling police

[D.C Twins]

Yikes... I'm moving toward the indifference phase with this season at an alarming rate....

[sweetmusicviola16]

10 seasons later Byron Buxton looks like the same player that debuted who didn't have a clue of how to hit ML pitching. 4 more seasons to go of watching him regress and taking up a large portion of payroll.

[CRF]

Bad game, same result, no end in sight. Same old, same old. Buxton needs to be sent to StP to figure out wtf he's doing...or trying to do. 

[Doctor Wu]

7 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I have never cared about the velocity of hit balls

I'm with you on that one. Possibly the most useless of all the new so-called "advanced" stats that are flying around all too often in posts and articles. 

[wabene]

7 hours ago, FilthyMogwai said:

Weak, pathetic, grammar police. How petty of you. 

Sadly the police get little love these days.

[Doctor Gast]

I felt sorry for Larnach being called up w/o ample time to heat up but he came through tonight. Wish for continued success for him. This game had to be & should have been won. Hitting & pitching was adequate to win the game but what really lost the game was the defense. GBs bled through the INF mainly because as always SS & 1B shade too much towards 2B to cover for Julien so GBs get through between Santana & 1B and between SS & 3B. And when Santana has to hold the runner on 1B, GBs bleed through 2B & 1B. On a wet field the throw home needed to be on the fly and Julien had plenty of time to make a good throw but he didn't. To blame Vazquez for the ball skidding past on a wet field is pretty lame.

[Rigby]

30 minutes ago, wabene said:

Sadly the police get little love these days.

I dunno....Roxanne is still a classic.

[Karbo]

Rocco still can't manage a bullpen.

[adjacent]

9 hours ago, darwin22 said:

When does football season start?

Be careful what you wish for.

9 hours ago, darwin22 said:

When does football season start?

 

[Whitey333]

The excuses keep piling up.  Bad luck?  Crummy weather? Weak hits by opponents.  Keep in mind the Twins were gifted 2 runs by Tigers mis-playing them.  If Baldelli had any guts he would have benched Buxton after he stood at home plate watching his fly ball being mis- played then almost getting thrown out at home.  Continually pinch hitting for Kiriloff because of him maybe having to face a left handed pitcher is getting old.  Especially when you have a right handed stiff pinch hitting for him.  Kiriloff is your best hitter in the lineup at the moment.  Analytics are ok but if your players can't perform then you need to manage the game.  Plus we keep getting told it's early.  We will be fine like last year.  I'm not buying it.  But I will say this.  We are in the beginning of a time where we will play the White Sox 7 times in 10 days.  Yes the lowly 3-16 Sox.  They should win most if not all of those games.  Then they will proclaim how great they are playing.  If they are still playing poorly at the end of that stretch then it's time to dump Baldelli and the coaching staff.

[JD-TWINS]

7 hours ago, FilthyMogwai said:

I've been beating on that drum for years. But there are always Baldelli apologists and they come out in groves.

How did the Manager lose the game?……,catch the ball in the 1st at home………Thielbar needs to get 3 outs …………he can’t hit FOR them…….their pitcher had 8K’s in the middle of the 4th inning - terrible hitting. Neither Kirilloff nor Larnach can ground out to 2B to score a run - both K - pathetic. ……Santana - Castro should bunt every other time they come up because they can’t hit………Castro has speed and the 3rd baseman was shifted to SS (3 AB’s) - BUNT!!!!

Don't see, didn’t see how managing has any part of the debacle.

[rv78]

32 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Rocco still can't manage a bullpen.

Your sentence is too long.... It should be............. Rocco still can't manage.

[ChermesZ]

7 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

How did the Manager lose the game?……,catch the ball in the 1st at home………Thielbar needs to get 3 outs …………he can’t hit FOR them…….their pitcher had 8K’s in the middle of the 4th inning - terrible hitting. Neither Kirilloff nor Larnach can ground out to 2B to score a run - both K - pathetic. ……Santana - Castro should bunt every other time they come up because they can’t hit………Castro has speed and the 3rd baseman was shifted to SS (3 AB’s) - BUNT!!!!

Don't see, didn’t see how managing has any part of the debacle.

Don’t you feel his pinch hitting is not logical?  

[David Maro]

A real manager would have told Buxton to take a seat for not running.The way the ball came off the wall he may of gotten a inside the park HR.

[rv78]

11 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

If they are still playing poorly at the end of that stretch then it's time to dump Baldelli and the coaching staff.

Unfortunately, they can play poorly and still beat the WhiteSox, so nothing will change.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, wabene said:

8 hours ago, FilthyMogwai said:

I've been beating on that drum for years. But there are always Baldelli apologists and they come out of groves.

wabene I believe you made the wrong change.

FilthyMogwai, it is just people’s frustrations coming out. Please take this as fun, cause the Twins ain’t.