Make It Official! Twins 7, White Sox 0: Sheriff in Charge, Twins Blank the White Sox

[Nate Palmer]

The Minnesota Twins' left-handed bats came alive to start the game Monday, and Chris Paddack showed the White Sox who is in charge with a much-needed series-opening win. 

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Chris Paddack: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 K (96 pitches, 64 strikes (66.7%)
Home Runs: Edouard Julien (5)
Top 3 WPA: Max Kepler (0.219), Chris Paddack (0.209), Trevor Larnach (0.092)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The limping Twins welcomed in the 3-18 White Sox, who are struggling far more than the Twins are to begin the 2024 season. On Bark on the Park night at Target Field, the Twins wanted to leave the canines as the only ones taking trips to the doghouse. They managed it, in just the type of decisive fashion the team and the fans needed.

Twins Strike First
The Twins got rolling in the first inning with a two-out rally. The conflagration began with Trevor Larnach's excellent at-bat, which resulted in a walk. Ryan Jeffers followed with a solid single, which allowed Larnach to go first to third. On the throw to third base, Jeffers advanced to second. 

With runners on second and third, Max Kepler stepped up to the plate for the first time since landing on the injured list. Kepler put together his own “welcome back” party by driving a pitch with a 110.8 mph exit velocity for a two-RBI double. 

Larnach-Kepler Strike Again
As the Twins hit in the third inning, the same part of the lineup helped put runs on the board. Edouard Julien got the action going with a single. Larnach came to the plate again and made an impact with the swing of his bat, hitting a double to score Julien from first. 

Kepler didn’t want to be outdone and again plated Larnach with a single. The struggling Willi Castro kept the scoring rolling, giving the baseball a ride to deep right-center for an RBI double. In the early going, the Twins put a crooked number on the scoreboard and increased their lead to 5-0. 

Twins left-handed hitters (traditional and switch) did well against White Sox starter Jonathan Gannon. Those lefties collected eight hits as a group. Max Kepler would finish his return to the lineup by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs. 

Law and Order
On a night of great performances, Chris Paddack likely gets the award for “top dawg.” Monday night’s start will undoubtedly be marked as one of those great leaps forward in reestablishing himself after recovering from Tommy John surgery. Paddack starte the game masterfully, collecting two strikeouts in the first inning, and from there on, he looked to be efficient and in cruise control. 

There was a bit of a blip in the fourth, which has been a mark of Paddack’s good starts this season. The difference in this game is that the right-hander was able to shake free of that adversity. He pitched around some tough plays that Castro was unable to complete on defense. With the bases loaded and one out, an amazing Alex Kirilloff grab at first followed by a Paddack strikeout got the Twins out of the inning.

Paddack ended the night with his longest start of the season, generating 16 swings and misses while also collecting ten strikeouts. The White Sox are a struggling group, but no matter who is on the other side, a performance like that is still something to celebrate.

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Twins Daily's winning "Make It Official!" game recaps are sponsored by Official Fried Chicken, which you can find in center field of Target Field. With a name like "Official," we know we have to be the best in the game every day, and from your first bite, you'll know thats a promise we make good on.

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Henriquez Season Debut
Getting the call-up on Monday, Ronny Henriquez got the opportunity to make his 2024 debut out of the bullpen. Henriquez would end up with a nearly flawless first inning. With a slightly more interesting ninth inning, the righty would finish the game for the Twins with a line of 2.0 IP, two hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. 

What’s Next?
Pablo Lopez will look to keep the Twins in the win column. On the other side, Erick Fedde will take the bump for the White Sox. Fedde’s overall numbers do not look as rough as his Baseball Savant page does. There is a lot of blue and the Twins should have a good opportunity to hit the ball hard again Tuesday. 

Postgame Interviews

Coming Soon...

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Henríquez	0	0	0	0	47	47
Thielbar	0	17	0	22	0	39
Jax	0	21	12	0	0	33
Bowman	0	0	3	30	0	33
Sands	0	0	10	23	0	33
Jackson	0	0	0	32	0	32
Funderburk	0	2	22	0	0	24
Okert	0	0	17	0	0	17
Stewart	0	15	0	0	0	15

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[Matt Braun]

Kicking the crap out of Chicago will never get old 

[minman1982]

Nice way to start the series and take care of a team that is barely MLB caliber. The Twins needed a convincing win tonight. There is this saying "hitting is contagious". I hope there is some truth there because there will be plenty of chances to get the ball rolling against this Sox squad that looks down right putrid. I am not a big believer in "momentum" but the Twins need something to bounce their way and winning three or sweeping all four with the Sox would be a good way to start the week.

[mikelink45]

So glad we won.  Just cannot make a lot of comments when we are playing the worst team in MLB.  We just beat a pitcher with a 7.10 era.  It is what we are supposed to do. 

[Vanimal46]

So the White Sox might legitimately challenge for the single season loss record, eh?

[Seth Stohs]

19 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

So glad we won.  Just cannot make a lot of comments when we are playing the worst team in MLB.  We just beat a pitcher with a 7.10 era.  It is what we are supposed to do. 

Well, he was a pitcher with a 1.80 ERA until he faced the Twins offense tonight! 

[Parfigliano]

43 minutes ago, minman1982 said:

Nice way to start the series and take care of a team that is barely MLB caliber. The Twins needed a convincing win tonight. There is this saying "hitting is contagious". I hope there is some truth there because there will be plenty of chances to get the ball rolling against this Sox squad that looks down right putrid. I am not a big believer in "momentum" but the Twins need something to bounce their way and winning three or sweeping all four with the Sox would be a good way to start the week.

Need all 4 against these dregs

[Shaitan]

[mrtwinsfan]

1 hour ago, Shaitan said:

[wabene]

Seven games against these clowns? Think of the possibilities!

[Fezig]

11 hits. One HR. Victory. 

H > K = W

[CRF]

One game at a time. Let's keep it going. 

[Joe A. Preusser]

I honestly don't care that they're the worst team in baseball.  Winning breeds winning.  Beat the snot out of them,  gain condlfidence and momentum and swagger.  Get out of our own heads.   This is how things turn around.  

[Peter]

A win is a win even if it’s the white sox-hopefully we can get sweep and have 5-2 home stand and get closer to getting over .500, 

[bighat]

Twins only struck out 6 times, and nobody struck out twice. Maybe there's something to this "making contact" thing? 

With 11 hits tonight the Twins batting average as a team has climbed to .201. That is second-to-last in baseball next to Chicago's .191. 

[TwinsDr2021]

8 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

Well, he was a pitcher with a 1.80 ERA until he faced the Twins offense tonight! 

1.80 ERA is one five inning game against the Royals.

He is 23 which by Twins starting pitchers is a baby, In 31 games in the minors he 4.96 ERA. Not to take away what the Twins did last night, but by all accounts this guy is only pitching in the majors on one team and that team is 3-19.

Now go and hit around another guy tonight that probably shouldn't be in the majors or at the least starting in the majors.

[Patzky]

30 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

1.80 ERA is one five inning game against the Royals.

He is 23 which by Twins starting pitchers is a baby, In 31 games in the minors he 4.96 ERA. Not to take away what the Twins did last night, but by all accounts this guy is only pitching in the majors on one team and that team is 3-19.

Now go and hit around another guy tonight that probably shouldn't be in the majors or at the least starting in the majors.

You mean a guy like Paddock with his 8 plus era? 🧐

[Jocko87]

47 minutes ago, Joe A. Preusser said:

I honestly don't care that they're the worst team in baseball.  Winning breeds winning.  Beat the snot out of them,  gain condlfidence and momentum and swagger.  Get out of our own heads.   This is how things turn around.  

Agree. What I don't understand is that they legitimately looked like they knew what that were doing for the first time all season. They didn't look like they out bumbled them, which is nice.

[mikelink45]

37 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

1.80 ERA is one five inning game against the Royals.

He is 23 which by Twins starting pitchers is a baby, In 31 games in the minors he 4.96 ERA. Not to take away what the Twins did last night, but by all accounts this guy is only pitching in the majors on one team and that team is 3-19.

Now go and hit around another guy tonight that probably shouldn't be in the majors or at the least starting in the majors.

Last year he had a 4.46 era in the minors.  I am glad we won and I hope that the Twins have a fun playdate with the Sox, but we should win them all and hopefully the positive attitude will carry over against other teams.

[Riverbrian]

I won't overlook the White Sox and I won't diminish the win. 

The White Sox have had a dreadful start. Historically bad start.

I have no thoughts that the White Sox will maintain a .136 winning percentage throughout the year.

They will start winning some games. They have to win some games just to reach the level of the worst single season record since 2000...The 2003 Detroit Tigers.

Only 3 teams have finished with a winning percentage worst than .300. 

The White Sox are going to win some games at some point just to catch up to bad. 

When do they start winning some games? I don't know but they will and they can't wait too much longer.

 

 

[jmlease1]

Yes, it's the ChiSox who are awful. But even jaw-droppingly, historically dreadful teams win 30% of their games so you have to take them seriously and beat the team in front of you.

It was very nice to have a easy win. Paddack did the job very well, kept the ChiSox locked down. The changeup has always been good, but the fastball seems to be holding that additional velocity and the curveball has been better this year. Hopefully this is a start he can build on.

Good job by the offense jumping on the ChiSox early and keeping it going. Is Max Kepler back? Be interesting if he's the catalyst

[MABB1959]

Love the headline!  Like we won the WS.  

[stringer bell]

Nice job by Paddack. We can play the game of "throw out the worst start" and he has a 2.30 ERA in his other four starts. If the Twins can count on him for the long term, it makes starting pitcher depth less daunting. Also nice to see the players take the extra base, first to third on a single and first to home on a double. 

I know most won't be satisfied unless the Twins sweep the Sox, but even three of four would be a step in the right direction. 

[wabene]

28 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Is Max Kepler back?

Max has great incentive this season. What are the odds Minnesota resigns him if he has another plus .800 OPS season? I'm guessing slim. This is likely our last year with Kep. There is a chance this conditioned athlete has a lot left.

[Whitey333]

Tough series for the Twins because the Sox are so bad they resemble a AA team.  So it's tough because they should beat them.  Hopefully this will expected sweep of the White Sox will help them gain some confidence and build some momentum.  But scoringn7bruns and shutting out a team that is so bad is not a great achievement.  But a necessary one.  With Lopez,  Ryan, and Ober the next 3 scheduled starters anything less than a sweep is inexcusable.  Go Twins!

[Doctor Gast]

The pitchers had adjusted to Kepler's "all or nothing" approach & Larnach's weakness against off-speed stuff. Going through spring training & into their IL stint, I was wondering if Kepler & Larnach were going to readjust to the pitching that had adjusted to them. Larnach showed me in the last DET game & Kepler in rehab in AAA along with the CWS game last night that they had. I'm very encouraged about the much needed offense.

[Twins GFP]

I only wish Hawk Harrelson was still announcing.  The joy of listening to him complain about how bad the Sox are would warm my heart. 

[Linus]

Good start by Paddack. Which is really important given the lack of depth in the starting rotation. 

[dex8425]

12 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

So glad we won.  Just cannot make a lot of comments when we are playing the worst team in MLB.  We just beat a pitcher with a 7.10 era.  It is what we are supposed to do. 

Of course the Twins started a pitcher with an ERA over 8...

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, wabene said:

Max has great incentive this season. What are the odds Minnesota resigns him if he has another plus .800 OPS season? I'm guessing slim. This is likely our last year with Kep. There is a chance this conditioned athlete has a lot left.

The Twins are in quite the crunch. If Kepler blows the doors off the season like he did in the last half of 2023, Kepler is going to get 3yrs at probably $15-20 AAV. Normal Kepler will just get fewer years, but the AAV won't drop below $10-12MM. Bad Kepler is a why would you bring him back?
2025
Correa $37MM - Full NTC
Lopez $22MM
Buxton $15MM - Full NTC
Vazquez $10MM
Paddack $7.5MM
That's $90MM locked up and guaranteed for the Twins next year in 5 players. Doesn't leave a lot of space if the Twins don't raise payroll. Payroll won't jump unless people go to the games or the Twins land a great TV contract.

So far, the Twins have 19.5k per game attendance. 23rd in baseball. The AL Central has become quite the embarrassment to MLB. The weather really hasn't been great so hopefully this shifts a bit.
CLE = 21.3k (22nd)
MIN = 19.5k (23rd)
DET = 16.7k (25th)
CHW = 16.1k (26th)
KCR = 15.9k (27th)