Make It Official! Twins 3, Mariners 1: One-Twelfth of a Whole New Streak

[Theodore Tollefson]

The winning streak may have ended at 12 games for the Twins on Sunday, but they looked to build a new one on Monday night as they welcomed the Seattle Mariners for a four-game series. With rookie Simeon Woods Richardson making his first career start against a team outside the AL Central, he’d have a chance to prove his worth against one of the American League’s top starters. 

Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson  6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K (82 pitches, 51 strikes (62.1% strikes))
Home Runs: None
Top 3 WPA: Woods Richardson .358, Carlos Correa .259, Max Kepler .122

Win Probability Chart 

Woods Richardson Goes Toe to Toe against Castillo 
The first four innings of this game were all pitching on both sides. The young and inexperienced Woods Richardson took the mound for the Twins against the Cy Young favorite Luis Castillo.

To start things off, Woods Richardson struck out the side in the top of the first on just 16 pitches, including former Twin and teammate Jorge Polanco to end the inning. The second and third innings would be much of the same as Woods Richardson continued to pile up strikeouts, tallying up four more by the end of the third, but it did not come without giving up a lead-off single in the third to former Twin Mitch Garver.

Woods Richardson’s first challenge came in the fifth as he allowed a lead-off walk to catcher Cal Raleigh. He was able to get the next batter Ty France out on a fly out to Max Kepler, but a wild pitch advanced Raleigh to second. 

Garver stepped to the plate with the first opportunity in the game for both teams to do damage with a running scoring position. But Woods Richardson came back to strike Garver out for his eighth of the game, and former Twin farm hand Luke Raley grounded out to end the inning. 
Woods Richardson didn’t record any strikeouts in the sixth but he still faced the minimum number of Mariners and kept them to one hit in his final inning of work. 

He’d end the night totaling eight strikeouts, getting Mariners batters to swing and miss at 27% of the pitches they swung at (10 for 37), and his third start this season where he’s only allowed one walk. 

Rebuttal in the Fifth 
The Twins followed up the Mariners' first threat to score in the top of the fifth with a little offensive spark of their own. Max Kepler would reach base on a fielding error that advanced him to second to lead off the Twins' half of the inning. 

Carlos Correa took advantage of this mistake made by the Mariners infield tagging a double of the right-center field scoreboard allowing Kepler to score the first run of the game and put the Twins up 1-0. But that would be the only run for the Twins in the fifth as only Carlos Santana followed Correa by reaching base on a walk. 

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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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Polanco’s Return Sparks Mariners' Comeback
It was a bittersweet return for two former Twins on the Mariners Monday night, but no former Twin had as big a spotlight as Jorge Polanco.

Polanco played his first-ever game against the team he’d spent all 15 years of his professional with before being traded to the Mariners on January 29. Like every other team in MLB, the Twins paid tribute to Polanco with a 90-second tribute video of some of his best moments in a Twins uniform before the start of the game. They also played Polanco’s walk-up song as he took his first-ever at-bat in a visiting uniform at Target Field. 

Polanco came into Target Field Monday night with a seven-game hitting streak on the line. It wouldn’t be until the seventh inning, when Griffin Jax entered the game that Polanco would get a hit to extend the hitting streak to eight games. 

The Mariners would rally around Polanco’s lead-off single as Mitch Haniger followed behind him with another single and Raleigh drew his second walk in the game. Garver would be the man to drive Polanco home on a sacrifice fly off of Griffin Jax. Jax would escape the jam started by his old teammate and keep the game tied at 1-1 into the bottom half of the seventh. 

Rallying For a New Sausage
While the Twins' former second baseman was the spark plug to tie the game for the Mariners, the Twins returned to answer in the bottom of the seventh. 

Kepler took the lead to mount a rally drawing a lead-off walk against Castillo to start the inning. Correa doubled once again, but this time to left field, which kept Kepler from advancing past third to score. 

Willi Castro followed up with a hit right to first baseman Ty France, but France threw the ball to Mariners third baseman Josh Rojas as he and Raleigh caught Kepler in a rundown and prevented him from breaking the tie. 

With two runners on and Santana coming to the plate, the Mariners decided to take their chances with the bases loaded against catcher Christian Vazquez instead of letting Santana hit with runners on first and second. That decision came back to bite them as Vazquez achieved the bare minimum hitting a sacrifice fly and breaking the tie. 

The sacrifice fly was enough for Castillo to be pulled from the game, who had a no-hit bid through 4 ⅓ innings. Even with a fresh arm on the mound in Trent Thorton, the Twins wouldn’t stop adding runs as Manuel Margot broke out of a 1 for 14 cold streak with an RBI single to make it 3-1 Twins. 

Thielbar Continues Rebound From Cold Season Start
With the Twins utilizing Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning, the save opportunity was given to Caleb Thielbar in the ninth. Thielbar had a rough start to his season, (which started late due to a hamstring injury), allowing five earned runs in his first three innings of work.

But since then he’s kept opponents scoreless as he’s overcome jams that could have cost the Twins chances to keep their 12-game winning streak going. But Thielbar showed his vintage self on Monday night retiring the minimum number of Mariners, retiring the minimum with two strikeouts and a flyout to give the Twins a 3-1 victory. 

What’s Next? 
The Twins play the second game in the series against Seattle on Tuesday night with another 6:40 start time. Bailey Ober will go for the Twins against Mariners' rookie Emerson Hancock. 

Postgame Interview 
Coming soon.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

 

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[mnfireman]

So, are we just looking the opposite way from Julien's 3 K's tonight... Or Kirilloff's...

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, mnfireman said:

So, are we just looking the opposite way from Julien's 3 K's tonight...

They literally just won, and the first comment is negative. 

Great start by SWR. 

[mnfireman]

Just now, Mike Sixel said:

They literally just won, and the first comment is negative. 

Great start by SWR. 

I won't disagree with you, SWR pitched great, but Julien's and Kirilloff's struggles have to be concerning.

[SteveLV]

Those two players did look bad, but Castillo is one heck of a pitcher and his stuff looked nasty tonight.

Correa was the only one who seemed to be able to barrel him up at all.

[GNess]

11 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

I won't disagree with you, SWR pitched great, but Julien's and Kirilloff's struggles have to be concerning.

 

11 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

I won't disagree with you, SWR pitched great, but Julien's and Kirilloff's struggles have to be concerning.

Agreed: SWR was dominant. That plus Correa's performance stand out the most to me.

Julien and Kirilloff's recent struggles are worth noting I suppose, but hardly that concerning overall. Players sometimes slump - it happens to every player. Both have produced enough in their short careers to likely be on course to be solid-good MLB hitters.

[jimbo92107]

Great start by WoodRick, good article. Pretty impressive pitcher's dual with a Cy Young candidate. I bet SWR was feeling pretty good when he hit the bench. 

As for the struggles of Julien and Killer...isn't that fairly common when facing a Cy Young candidate?

[OBX 3 6 28 29 34]

Simeon has showed some impressive growth just when we needed another starter to step forward. Julien and Kiriloff have been struggling but it's tough to get better against Castillo.

As for Carlos, he looks like a different player compared to last year. The offense is clutch and sorely needed with Lewis and Buxton out while the defense and leadership is a real treat to watch every game. Which shortstops in Twins history compare? I didn't see Zoilo's 1965 season.

[mnfireman]

Julien's and Kirilloff's struggles of late are real, let's not gloss over them

[Patzky]

Anyone else believe that Rocco forced Margot to put up or shut up tonight, not only starting him but leaving him to bat in the high pressure point in the seventh. Margot put up... Give him credit and give Rocco credit too (neither a popular thing to do) for making the right move at the right time.

 

I expect he'll be on the bench again tomorrow..

[Linus]

One possible explanation is that Rocco wanted to show confidence in him after a really rough game. 

[Patzky]

11 minutes ago, Linus said:

One possible explanation is that Rocco wanted to show confidence in him after a really rough game. 

I can see that kind of motivation coming from Rocco, honestly.

[Jocko87]

1 hour ago, James Rivah Twins Fan said:

As for Carlos, he looks like a different player compared to last year.

On the contact play where Max got in the run down he looks positively spry.  They showed a high angle replay of the play and the ground he covered was impressive.

[RpR]

1 hour ago, jimbo92107 said:

Great start by WoodRick, good article. Pretty impressive pitcher's dual with a Cy Young candidate. I bet SWR was feeling pretty good when he hit the bench. 

As for the struggles of Julien and Killer...isn't that fairly common when facing a Cy Young candidate?

Julien has 9 Ks in the past three games, too many watching the balls go by.

[blairpaul715]

Need to update the bullpen usage board. Duran pitched tonight!!!

[Ghost of Kirby Puckett]

1 hour ago, mnfireman said:

Julien's and Kirilloff's struggles of late are real, let's not gloss over them

It's a 162 game season. Find me a player in baseball history who DIDN'T slump at some point.

[Parfigliano]

Good pitching tonight and another win without hitting a HR.

[Cap'n Piranha]

1 hour ago, mnfireman said:

Julien's and Kirilloff's struggles of late are real, let's not gloss over them

And Julio Rodriguez went 0-4 tonight, and is now sporting a .603 OPS, more than 100 points below either Kiriloff or Julien.  I suppose you think the Mariners should at least bench him, if not send him to AAA?

[mikelink45]

This is one of those games where I wish the official scorer would use the discretion that they are allowed and given the win to SWR.  SWR six and no runs, Jax one inning one run and he gets the win.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[ashbury]

5 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

This is one of those games where I wish the official scorer would use the discretion that they are allowed and given the win to SWR.

This is not one of the situations the rules give the scorer any discretion.  (And in the case, not at all similar to tonight, where discretion is allowed, the starter can't be given the win.)  Been that way a long time.  Sorry.

[Mike Sixel]

5 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

This is one of those games where I wish the official scorer would use the discretion that they are allowed and given the win to SWR.  SWR six and no runs, Jax one inning one run and he gets the win.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It's a terrible stat that needs to die. 

[ashbury]

1 minute ago, Mike Sixel said:

It's a terrible stat that needs to die. 

Of neglect.

[bean5302]

SWR has made the most of his velocity improvement in a year where he was nearly written off. Glad to see him stepping up! Heck of a game.

[UK Twin]

4 hours ago, mnfireman said:

So, are we just looking the opposite way from Julien's 3 K's tonight... Or Kirilloff's...

Given they were up against a perennial Cy Young candidate, that's probably not a bad idea. 

[UK Twin]

Seattle's pitching is clearly their strong point right now so for SWR to duel Castillo like he did was awesome. The Berrios trade is looking better now! 

When you're facing a pitcher like Castillo, it's likely going to be a low scoring game so you have to hope our SP can keep us in the game. SWR did that and more. Good bounce back win.

[Major League Ready]

Since the start of the win streak, Julien has a wRC+ of 168, Kirilloff 37.  Julien has had a couple bad games where Kirilloff has looked lost the last couple weeks.   What's weird is he looked pretty locked in before the streak.  Sure would like to have good Alex back.

BTW .... The streak started the day Max Kepler came back from injury.  Since then, he has a 243 wRC+.   In other news, we are on pace to win 95 games.  

[Doctor Wu]

6 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Good pitching tonight and another win without hitting a HR.

We are getting a LOT of these wins without hitting home runs. On one level, that's a refreshing change; hit the ball and advance runners and score runs. But at some point it may get a bit concerning if our homers start to vanish. 

[Doctor Wu]

5 hours ago, bean5302 said:

SWR has made the most of his velocity improvement in a year where he was nearly written off. Glad to see him stepping up! Heck of a game.

I'm delighted at how good Woods-Richardson has looked so far this year. Do you think he stays in the rotation at this point, or still too early to pronounce him a keeper?

[TwinsDr2021]

33 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

I'm delighted at how good Woods-Richardson has looked so far this year. Do you think he stays in the rotation at this point, or still too early to pronounce him a keeper?

yes to both of your questions. He has faced the white sox twice, det and sea (whose lineup looks like the Twins a few weeks ago (terrible). It was very impressive they way he dealt last night, not as impressive as the Wolves but real close and that says a lot.

[LewFordLives]

9 hours ago, mnfireman said:

So, are we just looking the opposite way from Julien's 3 K's tonight... Or Kirilloff's...

If Brooks Lee was ready to go, I suspect Julien would be in St Paul at this point.