Blue Jays 10, Twins 8: Early Lead Falls Apart

[ToriiRules!!]

Still Don’t like Rocco give me Toby gardenhire!!!!

[David HK]

Story of this one, in a nutshell-- these freakin' pedestrians.  🙄

Inherited runners-scored:Sands 1-1; Okert 2-2; Thielbar 2-2; Staumont 3-0.

[Patzky]

6 hours ago, DocBauer said:

The offense quit. SWR wasn't what we've seen so far, and hope to see. Toronto had some very good players who are dangerous. They broke through today. 

Despite today, the pen has been very good so far, despite being pieced together due to injuries. The Twins BLEW this game. Period! But despite being an embarrassing performance, it's still ONE GAME. 

The Twins have been on a winning role! The sky is not falling. I do think the Twins need to take a hard look at Jackson. I'm still sold on Okert overall. I believe Alcala should be up and pitching 1 inning at a time. Period! He's proven to be damn good in that role. I think the Alcala and Sands roles have been used incorrectly. I'm ready to move on from Jackson, better K numbers than his previous performance, but not the ground ball arm he has been previously, and not really contributing much so far. He's been mediocre at best. I'm willing to move on for SOMEONE to get a shot as the 8th man at this point. 

Topa is STILL out. Stewart is out for now. Jackson didn't lose this game by himself. But he was responsible for inherited runners, as he had been too many times previously. 

Alcala should be throwing ONE inning. Sands should be throwing 1-2 innings as needed. 

But this was still a BS loss where SWR didn't have it, and the pen didn't have it, and the offense went to sleep.

Next game!

Guards lost.

Royals lost.

I'm still unhappy with the turnout of yesterday but the end result is nothing gained or lost in the standings.. the sun did rise Tomorrow.

[Blyleven2011]

Ugly loss today , let's get them tomorrow  ...

[bighat]

I wonder if any team who has won 5 straight series has blown a 6 run lead in a game? Seems highly improbable. 

Is this Twins team smoke and mirrors or the real deal? I know one thing: Cole Sands is not a guy who should be pitching in high leverage situations. He's a mop-up guy, not a fireman. 

[Doctor Gast]

15 hours ago, John Bonnes said:

One fact Kris Atteberry pointed out in the ninth before Kepler's single is that after the fourth inning, the Twins had only seen 42 pitches between their 14 straight retired batters. And Toronto's bullpen has not been very good (though some of the guys the Twins saw have been better). The bullpen will be blamed, but this was a team loss. The lineup absolutely flailed about after the 4th. 

When the ump gave a gift to TOR in the 5th I felt the danger of the floodgates for TOR being opened & our bats going dry. IMO the door should have been slammed shut right away in the 5th. before things got out of hand. IMO SWR pitched a good game until then & we have a very good pen. Some of our new acquisitions are undependable & should be treated as such. IMO they are not needed & could be traded. Here again I'll advocate for Varland in long relief & have Alcala more available in short relief & have him worked into high leverage slowly. 

[Whitey333]

It was a bullpen loss plain and simple.  Although the umpiring at home by Cuzzi was questionable, it was questionable for the Jay's as well.  To blame the loss on blown ball and strike calls is ridiculous.  It was the Twins that blew it.  And I am no fan of major league umpires behind the plate.  They do miss too many calls in very important situations.  But it was the Twins that blew a 7-1 lead.  I am expecting a Twins win on Sunday at the Twins will take the series.  Go Twins.

[DJL44]

The unusual thing about the bullpen is how ineffective they all were. It's hard for that many people in a row to have a bad day.

[jmlease1]

Tough loss. Toronto had not been hitting well, so to let them up off the mat isn't great. But it's not like there isn't talent there. Shame that SWR struggled so much against his former organization. How he learns to finish off MLB hitters is going to define his success and he didn't get it done here.

Bullpen really got torched, but it's sort of funny to see the overreactions here; a week ago people were clamoring for Cole Sands to be the set-up man, now you have declarations that he's nothing more than a mop-up guy. Jackson's the guy to be the most concerned about: he seems to have dropped a little velocity and he's not been particularly effective, and at his age that's worrisome. Okert has had 2 poor outings in a row, but overall he's been good enough that throwing him on the fire at this point makes little sense. But with Thielbar & Okert in the 'pen we probably don't need Funderburk to be a mop-up lefty. Not having Stewart or Topa is stretching the bullpen...but as noted by Gleeman & the Geek: this is what happens when you're in a lot of close games and winning.

The Alcala situation is interesting. He'd been successful as a 1 inning guy, very good against RH and someone that looked like he could be trusted in the 7th inning. But he's been used to go 2 innings this year and the second inning hasn't gone well, so is it that he's not great or being used wrong? There was also a note from Hayes that Alcala is in the Twins doghouse for a bunch of reasons and it sounded like it was about both in-game actions (failing to cover home, etc) and outside the game (unknow?). Who knows.

Get 'em on sunday and win the series. Any series win is a good one, especially on the road. No panic.

[Doctor Gast]

11 hours ago, David HK said:

Cripe!  We gave that one away!

Mr. Jackson, et. al.- holy moley, what a stink-o-rama.

At least I was able to catch the White Sox SWEEP of Cleveland! *Edit*- (beg pardon, still one more game tmw.)

Mike (the guy I REALLY wanted to pick up this winter) Clevinger shut them down!

Then 'closer' John Brebbia (and guy you thought you saw at the laundromat last week) blew them down in the 9th!

Still a half a buck out, but in danger of being passed by the Royals.  

First place if we didn't have that El Gasolino bullpen today.

I'm beginning to like CWS more everyday. Go CWS!

[Riverbrian]

I CAN'T WATCH THE GAME!!!

[mnfireman]

46 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

When the ump gave a gift to TOR in the 5th I felt the danger of the floodgates for TOR being opened & our bats going dry. IMO the door should have been slammed shut right away in the 5th. before things got out of hand. IMO we have a very good pen. Some of our new acquisitions are undependable & should be treated as such. IMO they are not needed & could be traded. Here again I'll advocate for Varland in long relief & have Alcala more available in short relief & have him worked into high leverage slowly. 

What gift in the 5th? According to Baseball Savant's Illustrator option, the  HP umpire missed 0 called balls or strikes for either team. Please enlighten me.

[Squirrel]

30 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I CAN'T WATCH THE GAME!!!

That would have been a blessing yesterday

[stringer bell]

15 hours ago, ashbury said:

The Twins: Great bullpen?  Or, GREATEST bullpen?

There are reinforcements available. It does seem they don't want to toss away Jackson/Okert just yet and they can't be sent down. I'm honestly surprised they didn't call up Boushley for some length out of the 'pen for the next two days.

[LambchoP]

After Duran, Stewart and Jax, I think our bullpen needs serious help. Call up Alcala and put Varland in the bullpen. Pick up a starter and a solid setup guy at the deadline and I think we'd have a chance. Worried about Topa, sounds like he might be another trade acquisition that will never throw a single pitch for us. Are we really this lazy with our physical examinations?

[David Maro]

How can anyone say the pen needs Topa.What he has done in the past may not be him today.This team started to play homerun again after the 3rd inning.When Sands threw a second fastball in the same location to Jansen that may have been the game.It is time to let Jackson go.The BP is showing a lot of problems and a shake up is needed.

[joefish]

Blowpen showed up. Pfffft.

Get away game today. This one could get ugly fast.

[JD-TWINS]

16 hours ago, John Bonnes said:

One fact Kris Atteberry pointed out in the ninth before Kepler's single is that after the fourth inning, the Twins had only seen 42 pitches between their 14 straight retired batters. And Toronto's bullpen has not been very good (though some of the guys the Twins saw have been better). The bullpen will be blamed, but this was a team loss. The lineup absolutely flailed about after the 4th. 

8 runs - along with inexplicable outcome of Julien being thrown out by 3 steps trying to score from 2B with 2 outs on a hit to LF - is enough offense……even if it all happened in the 1st inning!

It was squarely on SWR & the Pen……..SWR was responsible for 5 runs in 4 1/3. I’m sure it’s difficult to sit for 30 pitch opposition innings for 3 straight innings - difficult to get rhythm and maintain concentration. 5 runs is too much.

Topa & Stewart being out is a hole …….. Thielbar was really disappointing as he was theoretically the best option they sent out there. Gotta throw strikes………he’s devolved to the #8 guy if everyone is healthy.

Jackson, honestly looks like he’s 42 on the mound. Seems the tank is empty. Maybe he needs a 10-15 IL stint for “tired arm” or some ailment?

Okert’s slider seems not quite as effective as we all might have hoped. Gotta have MLB stuff to get guys out.

[Schmoeman5]

11 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

A couple years ago (before they traded Garver), I predicted that Ryan Jeffers would be a starting catcher for the Twins for the next decade. Got one! Of course, I also predicted a lot of other things that didn't come true.

The only way to beat my Jeffers call is...

I predict a lot of Twins pitching prospects and veteran free agent pitchers will have arm trouble. There, now I can get my psychic average above 50 percent. Throwing a baseball as hard as you can, over and over, with spin, is bloody dangerous. Doesn't even matter if you can aim it.

Not close to a decade at this point. But you'll get half credit for your prognostication. 👍 

[Schmoeman5]

I'm not quite ready to push the panic button just yet. If memory serves me correctly, at this point and even much later last year. The bullpen was a BIG disappointment. Yes, they can use some shoring up. I'm still more concerned about that 5th spot in the rotation. SWR is going to give us games like yesterday and he'll have some games like his previous start. I just think he's going to have more bad starts than good. 

[bean5302]

14 hours ago, adjacent said:

Many mentioned this before. The reliable part of the bullpen is Duran, Jax?, and.?????😰

Funderburk... if Baldelli will quit sending him out for another inning. Baldelli's usage of bullpen arms has really irked me. Alcala's been good, though he got rocked in his second inning of pitching on May 7th.

[bean5302]

34 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

8 runs - along with inexplicable outcome of Julien being thrown out by 3 steps trying to score from 2B with 2 outs on a hit to LF - is enough offense……even if it all happened in the 1st inning!

It was squarely on SWR & the Pen……..SWR was responsible for 5 runs in 4 1/3. I’m sure it’s difficult to sit for 30 pitch opposition innings for 3 straight innings - difficult to get rhythm and maintain concentration. 5 runs is too much.

Topa & Stewart being out is a hole …….. Thielbar was really disappointing as he was theoretically the best option they sent out there. Gotta throw strikes………he’s devolved to the #8 guy if everyone is healthy.

Jackson, honestly looks like he’s 42 on the mound. Seems the tank is empty. Maybe he needs a 10-15 IL stint for “tired arm” or some ailment?

Okert’s slider seems not quite as effective as we all might have hoped. Gotta have MLB stuff to get guys out.

SWR was held responsible for 5 runs, though he was only pitching for 4 of them. Looked to me like Simeon was having a hard time throwing strikes, but the velocity was there anyway. Just seemed like regression to the mean as his ERA was 1.74, but his xFIP was 3.69 coming into the game.

If Jackson looks like he's 42 on the mound, I'd rather have him at 2B. Word is #42 was a pretty good infielder.

[JD-TWINS]

14 hours ago, D.C Twins said:

THIS... Jay Jackson was not alone responsible for the loss, but he has brought less than zero to the table this year and at age 36, it is not like he has some untapped potential.

SWR - 5 runs in 4 1/3 has some responsibility as well!

Sands not stellar! Okert - Jackson - Thielbar were ALL sub par!!!

Alcala back in 5 days - Stewart in 3 weeks - Topa in June. Gotta hold it together in short-term. It’s a loss - tough to watch and worse for position guys to get behind - but just a single loss.

Funderburk - Jax - Duran - Sands can get a bunch of outs…….Staumont has some value. Thielbar will contribute - really bad day.

Okert & Jackson are minimal contributors 2 decent outings & 1 bad outing seems to be their level……consistently.

[JD-TWINS]

57 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Funderburk... if Baldelli will quit sending him out for another inning. Baldelli's usage of bullpen arms has really irked me. Alcala's been good, though he got rocked in his second inning of pitching on May 7th.

Nobody else left - had to throw 2nd inning.

[mnfireman]

2 hours ago, LambchoP said:

After Duran, Stewart and Jax, I think our bullpen needs serious help. Call up Alcala and put Varland in the bullpen. Pick up a starter and a solid setup guy at the deadline and I think we'd have a chance. Worried about Topa, sounds like he might be another trade acquisition that will never throw a single pitch for us. Are we really this lazy with our physical examinations?

Alcala can't be recalled before the 18th unless there is an injury - 10 day rule. 

Varland started Thursday, he is probably scheduled for a BP session today, so calling him up for a few days could be an idea.

Regarding Topa, I think he will pitch this season, I just don't know when. It would be a bad look for the team and medical staff if neither DeSclafini nor Topa, both acquired in the same trade, did not pitch for the team this year.

 

[bean5302]

5 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Nobody else left - had to throw 2nd inning.

Baldelli being unable to manage a pitching staff is still his problem. Also, I don't know what game(s) you're referencing?

Funderburk's been asked to pitch multiple innings roughly half the time this year. He certainly isn't the last guy standing every game, and I'm not aware of any games where there weren't other options.