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

[stringer bell]

SWR looked very hittable against a poor White Sox lineup in his last outing, but then came out with a gem against the Mariners. He got very few swings and misses against the Sox, but plenty against the Ms. I guess we can expect some inconsistency from every starter. 

Correa had the big hits and Kepler continued to contribute. Castillo is a fine pitcher and a lot of teams are going to look bad against him. Getting the win against the other team's ace is huge.

[stringer bell]

1 hour 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?

I think the good outings by SWR give him slack in the event he struggles. His start against the White Sox wasn't very good at all, but he bounced back with the best start of his (brief) career. You (and many here at TD) may or may not remember that Varland had a nice run of starts in 2023, so there are no guarantees but each solid outing gives evidence that SWR can more than survive in the majors. 

[Doctor Gast]

A great pitching duel. SWR stepped up & showed us what he's capable of. Jax didn't deserve the win, SWR did.

SEA & MN are very similar. Great pitching, line-up focused on HRs w/ by-product of tons of SOs. They both stuck w/ the "all or nothing" approach & tried to curb the SOs by letting the greatest SO contributors go. Both lineups went through big offensive slumps. The main difference is MN woke up while SEA has not. Watch out when they do. MN also has to be careful that they don't fall into old habits.

It was so strange to see Polanco on the field. Not only him in a different uniform but Polanco was different, quiet, no fire, no celebrating. It had been also strange not seeing Polanco in the middle of the Twins celebrating their winning streak & having Santana & Margot there instead.

[NotAboutWinning]

Let's give some love to Vazquez. He called a great game and kept the Mariners guessing most of the night. SWR commented on it in the presser. And oh by the way, he hit a sac fly to add an insurance run!

[stringer bell]

1 minute ago, NotAboutWinning said:

Let's give some love to Vazquez. He called a great game and kept the Mariners guessing most of the night. SWR commented on it in the presser. And oh by the way, he hit a sac fly to add an insurance run!

It was the go-ahead run. Vázquez' offense hasn't come around, but he's been a better defensive catcher this year (wasn't bad last year). 

[chinmusic]

7 hours 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

Jason deGrom won consecutive Cy Young awards with the Mets in 2018/19. His win totals? 10 and 11.

When openers are used, it is pre determined that they cannot get the win , no matter what they do.

I see your point. SWR "deserved" the win. But the game has changed, and wins are just not that relevant of a stat any more.

I suspect this is bothering you more than SWR. 

 

 

[Schmoeman5]

10 hours ago, mnfireman said:

 

Yep

[Schmoeman5]

10 hours ago, mnfireman said:

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

Apparently. 

[wabene]

6 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.

 

Changing your mind about SWR?

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

20 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

SWR looked very hittable against a poor White Sox lineup in his last outing, but then came out with a gem against the Mariners. He got very few swings and misses against the Sox, but plenty against the Ms. I guess we can expect some inconsistency from every starter. 

Correa had the big hits and Kepler continued to contribute. Castillo is a fine pitcher and a lot of teams are going to look bad against him. Getting the win against the other team's ace is huge.

Thankfully Seattle has been putrid offensively. They've really only got 1 or 2 guys hitting, and Josh Rohas is massively overperforming anything he's done in 5 seasons. I think only 2 players were above a .700 OPS in their lineup last night, one of whom was Raleigh their catcher. 

[wabene]

Seattle has great starting pitching. Ours isn't too bad and we have the better producing lineup. The Mariners are beatable. This looked like the toughest matchup.

[Old Crow]

10 hours ago, mnfireman said:

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

They are probably working on their launch angle.

[wabene]

A couple of notes by Bobby N of the Strib. 

Garver on Royce Lewis, "You get in those [playoff] situations, and you see who can rise to the occasion," said Garver, who had three homers and 14 RBI in 14 postseason games last fall. "I was like, 'Dude, Royce, I loved watching you play in the playoffs last year. That was so much fun. You were made for the playoffs.' He did it. I was just like, 'You are worth more on the field than you are off, so run at like 85%.' ". I hope Royce was listening

Zebby Matthews, the Twins' minor league pitcher of the month for April, was promoted to Class AA Wichita on Monday. Matthews, an eighth-round pick in 2022 whose fastball sat at 96 mph in his last outing, had a 1.59 ERA in four starts with 28 strikeouts and zero walks in 22⅔ innings. 

Zeb getting closer 

[Whitey333]

Very nice win Twins.  Let's win another on Tuesday.  

[bean5302]

4 hours 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?

I'd imagine his leash is very long at this point. How could it not be without the Twins having any legitimate starters pushing Woods-Richardson? Woods-Richardson sticking in the rotation also wipes a lot of egg off Falvey's face from the Berrios transaction in a year where Falvey is on the hot seat in the final year of his contract.

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, wabene said:

 

Changing your mind about SWR?

So far, so good! I was a big proponent of SWR years ago before his inability to replicate his mechanics sank his ship. The biggest problem I have from his struggles with mechanical issues for 7 years. It's smacks of arrogance and laziness to me. Like a player who refuses to keep themselves in shape until their game suffers.

Woods-Richardson has had bouts of dominant pitching in the past so it'll take a couple months before I buy in. In the meantime, I'll continue to root for him, and hope he's turned the corner.

[USAFChief]

Not at all ready to believe in SWR.

That said, concur with Bean he's got some leash at this point. For one thing there's limited alternatives.

And he was legitimately great last night. It didn't look anything like "lucky" to me. He dominated that Seattle lineup. A lineup currently above .500 and expected to contend in the ALW.

[JD-TWINS]

13 hours ago, mnfireman said:

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

I think 3rd time mentioning is a charm - we’re all concerned.

[JD-TWINS]

3 hours ago, NotAboutWinning said:

Let's give some love to Vazquez. He called a great game and kept the Mariners guessing most of the night. SWR commented on it in the presser. And oh by the way, he hit a sac fly to add an insurance run!

Sac fly drove in the go ahead run!

Margot singled the 3rd run home.

[JD-TWINS]

12 hours ago, RpR said:

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

He is the most arrogant young man I’ve seen on the team for as long as I can remember.

A I said last year - he thinks he’s Ted Williams.

Morneau said last night - briefly - that his approach was riding a line between stubbornness and disciplined………to me, he needs to learn/try to fight off close 3rd strike offerings. Leading the League in called strike threes takes a lot away from his “disciplined approach”.

[AceWrigley]

5 hours 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?

I think if he keeps his command and composure . . . he stays in the rotation. He sure has looked like a major league starter this year.

[RpR]

9 hours ago, UK Twin said:

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

Rationalization.

[Shaitan]

4 hours ago, wabene said:

A couple of notes by Bobby N of the Strib. 

Garver on Royce Lewis, "You get in those [playoff] situations, and you see who can rise to the occasion," said Garver, who had three homers and 14 RBI in 14 postseason games last fall. "I was like, 'Dude, Royce, I loved watching you play in the playoffs last year. That was so much fun. You were made for the playoffs.' He did it. I was just like, 'You are worth more on the field than you are off, so run at like 85%.' ". I hope Royce was listening

Wow, that's terrible advice. 

People still criticize Randy Moss for that like 25 years later.

[David Maro]

Great game by SWR and the team needed it,so often after a winning streak teams go into a slump.It maybe time to sit Julien or send him to St Paul to regroup.He looks lost just like Wallner before they sent him down.I think Kirilloff may be in his head a little about not playing 1st anymore.That or he is hurt again and wants to play.They have to keep going because Cleveland will be without Kwan for at least a month.

[DocBauer]

SWR has been an enigma since acquired and I've been very torn on him to this point.

I kept hearing how great a HS prospect he was, how much potential he had, how he was traded twice for a reason, but he was pretty bad when the Twins got him in 2021. But I pointed out how young he was, was rushed to AA, and how his whole season was a massive cluster with preparing for the Olympic team, going oversees, and then having to re-acclimate once back. He then went out and had a really nice 2022 and seemed to re-establish himself again. 

His first half of 2023 was horrible. Even his better second half wasn't exactly great when you looked at his peripherals. And I kept reading articles about "stuff plus" and we shouldn't give up on him. So I had some hope. And then I read about adjusting his mechanics, and new found velocity, and I had a little more hope. 

He's looked really good, for the most part, here in 2024. Being a rookie is hard enough, but facing the same team twice in 10 days...even the Dirty Sox...is pretty hard to do. I still expect rookie growing pains and bumps in the road. (witness Varland as a recent example). So I'm not going to proclaim him as a fixture at this point. But the command and control are largely there and consistent. And yes, his "stuff" I kept reading about looks genuinely nasty at times. 

Varland looking much better recently for St Paul, Festa starting to get stretched out now, Headrick hopefully back at some point in the near future, I'm feeling a little better about our depth. I'll feel even better as Raya keeps adding pitches/innings, Matthews looks good at Wichita, Ohl starts warming up, and Lewis makes it back. (I'm not including Canterino at this point).

[JD-TWINS]

17 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

SWR has been an enigma since acquired and I've been very torn on him to this point.

I kept hearing how great a HS prospect he was, how much potential he had, how he was traded twice for a reason, but he was pretty bad when the Twins got him in 2021. But I pointed out how young he was, was rushed to AA, and how his whole season was a massive cluster with preparing for the Olympic team, going oversees, and then having to re-acclimate once back. He then went out and had a really nice 2022 and seemed to re-establish himself again. 

His first half of 2023 was horrible. Even his better second half wasn't exactly great when you looked at his peripherals. And I kept reading articles about "stuff plus" and we shouldn't give up on him. So I had some hope. And then I read about adjusting his mechanics, and new found velocity, and I had a little more hope. 

He's looked really good, for the most part, here in 2024. Being a rookie is hard enough, but facing the same team twice in 10 days...even the Dirty Sox...is pretty hard to do. I still expect rookie growing pains and bumps in the road. (witness Varland as a recent example). So I'm not going to proclaim him as a fixture at this point. But the command and control are largely there and consistent. And yes, his "stuff" I kept reading about looks genuinely nasty at times. 

Varland looking much better recently for St Paul, Festa starting to get stretched out now, Headrick hopefully back at some point in the near future, I'm feeling a little better about our depth. I'll feel even better as Raya keeps adding pitches/innings, Matthews looks good at Wichita, Ohl starts warming up, and Lewis makes it back. (I'm not including Canterino at this point).

The upbeat view of pitching prospects is good to see here!!

On the other hand, Canterino, with his history, may never pitch in the Show. He has shown zero capability to throw more than 15 innings between injuries. I hope he’s a pleasant surprise at some point, but following him has gone by the boards for me. ………pitch over the course of a month w/o an injury first.