Yankees 5, Twins 1: Sheriff Overpowered by Big-City Bullies

[Ted Schwerzler]

Facing former Chicago White Sox starter Carlos Rodón, the Minnesota Twins got a leg up early. Thereafter, though, couldn’t find a way to add on, and they dropped the first in a three-game set against the New York Yankees.

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Chris Paddack 5.0 IP, 12 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K (95 pitches, 66 strikes, 13 whiffs)
Home Runs: Ryan Jeffers (10)
Bottom 3 WPA: Chris Paddack -0.293, Christian Vázquez -0.078, José Miranda -0.073

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Jeffers Jolts Early
The Twins sent Chris Paddack to the mound, and he could’ve had a clean first inning, had Willi Castro not let up on a ball that went for a Juan Soto double. He escaped real damage, though, and sent his team to the batter’s box level. Ryan Jeffers wasted no time sending the second pitch he saw over the left-field fence. Carlos Rodón was down in a hurry.

Carlos Correa entered the contest with the highest career slugging percentage against the Yankees among active players, and he quickly singled to get on base following Jeffers’ blast. He never got past second base following Manuel Margot’s single, however; the one run was all Minnesota could muster.

After three straight hits in the top of the second inning, an Oswaldo Cabrera sacrifice fly scored New York’s first run. Anthony Volpe then lifted a liner to left fielder Austin Martin, bringing Gleyber Torres across the plate. Paddack bounced back to wiggle out of further trouble, again.

Stanton Spanks One
If you missed it, Major League Baseball put out new Statcast metrics that track bat speed. There’s lots of good stuff about how the Twins fare and Matt Trueblood recently wrote about that. There’s also plenty to talk about how much the Yankees Stanton punishes baseballs, and after getting out in his first at bat, he destroyed a Paddack pitch for a home run in his second. New York then led 3-1.

In the top of the fourth, Paddack notched two quick outs before walking Soto. Aaron Judge singled, and Alex Verdugo then doubled to score a pair and make it a 5-1 game. While Paddack has been good this season, he has dealt with a ton of traffic and threading that needle is difficult. Bad defense didn't help, but he surrendered 12 hits in five innings of work; the Yankees were too much for him.

A Limp to the Finish
Despite pushing Rodón to an uncomfortable pitch count in the middle innings, Minnesota allowed him to come out for the sixth inning and couldn’t mount any real threat. Ian Hamilton took over, and although the Twins created some traffic, he stifled their attempts at a comeback, as well. The former Minnesota pitcher worked a pair of scoreless innings and kept the Twins at bay. Clay Holmes came in to close things down, despite New York holding a four-run lead, and he retired the Twins in order.

No Twins hitter recorded a pair of hits, and with an 8/0 K/BB on the evening, no one reached base twice either.

Notes
The Twins haven’t won back-to-back season series against the Yankees since 1992. That’s what they’re attempting to replicate this season.

Center fielder Byron Buxton was eligible to come off the injured list on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays. That was never going to happen, with the team wrapping up a road trip. Despite suggesting he could miss only the minimum number of days, Buxton wasn't activated on Tuesday either. Despite not being a fan of rehab assignments, Buxton will play for the Saints this week in St. Paul.

Justin Topa isn’t any closer to returning for the Twins as he has a 25% tear of his patellar tendon. He’s currently on crutches and received a PRP injection in hopes of returning this year. Outside of Gabriel Gonzalez, Minnesota’s Jorge Polanco trade looks like an absolute disaster.

Royce Lewis continues to work back towards an activation onto the roster, and his baserunning is helping to determine when that date could be. Minnesota may have their Opening day third baseman back in the next two weeks

An update on Matt Canterino was provided, and while he has been injured for the vast majority of his professional career, this season appeared to be one he could debut in. With a summer resumption of play on deck, he’ll need to get healthy and immediately find his way to the big leagues.

What’s Next? 
Wednesday is a Pablo Day with Pablo Lopez making a home start against Marcus Stroman and the Yankees.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[Parfigliano]

Playing the Yankees you have to go with your best.  Margot and Farmer starting are not TCs best. The R-L platoon strategy to start the game is basically playing with 21 outs because those guys are auto 6 outs at least.

[USAFChief]

Tonight's outfield play by the Twins was not major league.

Castro was awful, and the Twins can't continue to run Martin out there. 

To top it off, tonight's lineup was about as weak as you'll ever see from a MLB team. 

 

 

[mikelink45]

We play the Yankees with a starting lineup that features Margot, Farmer, and Vasquez - did we not want to win.  I do not care about the righthanded/lefthanded bs.  learn to hit anyone.

[Parfigliano]

5 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

We play the Yankees with a starting lineup that features Margot, Farmer, and Vasquez - did we not want to win.  I do not care about the righthanded/lefthanded bs.  learn to hit anyone.

Cant learn if you dont get the chance to answer the question.

[Parfigliano]

7 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

We play the Yankees with a starting lineup that features Margot, Farmer, and Vasquez - did we not want to win.  I do not care about the righthanded/lefthanded bs.  learn to hit anyone.

Cant learn if you dont get the chance to answer the question

[Danchat]

I always wondered why the Twins didn't give Ian Hamilton a shot when we stashed him in AAA for about 2 years... and now he's doing quite well for the Yankees. Hmmm.

[Ted Schwerzler]

1 hour ago, Parfigliano said:

Playing the Yankees you have to go with your best.  Margot and Farmer starting are not TCs best. The R-L platoon strategy to start the game is basically playing with 21 outs because those guys are auto 6 outs at least.

Margot singled in his first AB

[VivaBomboRivera!]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

Castro was awful, and the Twins can't continue to run Martin out there.

In the same way Julien picked up his defense at second base, those two fellows need to learn their outfield positions.

[Parfigliano]

3 minutes ago, Ted Schwerzler said:

Margot singled in his first AB

Yea.  His .427 OBP went up.  Rent  platoo guy is the key to the future.  Play him over the young future.

 

[Parfigliano]

37 minutes ago, Danchat said:

I always wondered why the Twins didn't give Ian Hamilton a shot when we stashed him in AAA for about 2 years... and now he's doing quite well for the Yankees. Hmmm.

Ha

[Patzky]

6 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

In the same way Julien picked up his defense at second base, those two fellows need to learn their outfield positions.

Guess Buxton will wind up being a few days too late.

[bighat]

Stuffed into a locker at home on the opening game of a big series.  Twins now 1-6 against the Dodgers, Orioles, and Yankees. 

A 12-game winning streak is nice but the results sure look different when the Twins aren't playing the Eau Claire School for the Blind for a change. 

How can this team can expect to win any game with Margot, Vasquez and Farmer all in the lineup at the same time? 

The Twins can't DFA all three guys, but it's almost June. At this point it's almost certain they are going to be forced into making a decision on at least one of them. 

[CRF]

It looked like amateur hour out there. Paddack deserved better. You just can't put Martin, Castro, and Margot in the outfield together, in the same game.  

[Patzky]

8 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Tonight's outfield play by the Twins was not major league.

Castro was awful, and the Twins can't continue to run Martin out there. 

To top it off, tonight's lineup was about as weak as you'll ever see from a MLB team. 

 

 

Just when you think about Matt Wallner he lay an 0-5 egg in St Paul with four K's..

[Karbo]

Another lefty shuts them down. Bottom 1/3 of lineup is an almost sure 3 outs. The 6 million dollar backup (Farmer) looks lost. Margot looks like a bad trade.

[MABB1959]

9 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Tonight's outfield play by the Twins was not major league.

Castro was awful, and the Twins can't continue to run Martin out there. 

To top it off, tonight's lineup was about as weak as you'll ever see from a MLB team. 

 

 

I want them to keep Martin up.  They need to see what he has.  

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

1 hour ago, bighat said:

Stuffed into a locker at home on the opening game of a big series.  Twins now 1-6 against the Dodgers, Orioles, and Yankees. 

A 12-game winning streak is nice but the results sure look different when the Twins aren't playing the Eau Claire School for the Blind for a change. 

How can this team can expect to win any game with Margot, Vasquez and Farmer all in the lineup at the same time? 

The Twins can't DFA all three guys, but it's almost June. At this point it's almost certain they are going to be forced into making a decision on at least one of them. 

The Twins were playing their worst baseball - in years - when they played the Dodgers and Orioles. They are better teams, but I think if they played them now, the Twins would be far more competitive. Even last night, if Buxton is in centerfield, the game looks dramatically different.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

The game turned on misplays and mental mistakes in the field - and the bats went ice cold - essentially, last night was a carbon copy of what the Twins have done against the Yankees more or less for the last 20+ years. I'm not going to take too much from it.

[Linus]

9 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Tonight's outfield play by the Twins was not major league.

Castro was awful, and the Twins can't continue to run Martin out there. 

To top it off, tonight's lineup was about as weak as you'll ever see from a MLB team. 

 

 

Almost makes a person wonder why Martin played SS for years in the minors when everyone knew he would never play there in the bigs. 

[Whitey333]

My concern was the mi or league starting lineup put up by Rocco at a home game.  You need to play your best players against the best teams.  Forget the lefty/righty bs.  Plus the Twins are 24 out of 30 in home attendance.  The fans shelling out big bucks at home deserve better.  The outfield put out there was strictly minor league.  This is why Rocco is not one the better managers.  He may have some decent analytical insight but has very little game management.  It appeared right off the bat that he had little interest in winning the game or even being competitive.  Chalk up another loss by Baldelli.

[Doctor Gast]

Paddack pitched a great 1st inning but he is still a work in progress. Rodon against this lineup last night is tough. Jeffers started us out well but the well went dry. Happy that Margot got a single but still can't figure why he's was place so high in the lineup. Really missed Buxton in CF, if we had him & Lewis we'd win that game. We can still win the series. Go Twins

[TwinsDr2021]

Just like they last loss it isn't the end of the world, they are going to lose another 50 plus games this year. But even Rocco had to realize this was going to be a very tough game to win when he was writing out the lineup card.

At some point don't they have to do something with Vazquez (maybe a injury)? Since going 7/12 in a three games at the end of last month he is 1/28 with 11 K's. Actually if you take out those 3 games he is hitting .103 for the year. Having him, farmer and Martin hitting back to back to back is giving the other team's pitchers a relative break.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Instead of trusting analytics, Rocco needs to trust his players. Kepler, Larnach, Julien should have been in the lineup last night. Would it have made a difference? No one knows, but give yourself a puncher's chance.

[Karbo]

21 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

The game turned on misplays and mental mistakes in the field - and the bats went ice cold - essentially, last night was a carbon copy of what the Twins have done against the Yankees more or less for the last 20+ years. I'm not going to take too much from it.

Actually, the 3 of Margot, Farmer, and Vazquez did what was expected, which is almost nothing. Taking 1/3 of your top players out and putting in guys that haven't hit at all in their place kind of starts them out short handed on talent from the start!

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Just now, Karbo said:

Actually, the 3 of Margot, Farmer, and Vazquez did what was expected, which is almost nothing. Taking 1/3 of your top players out and putting in guys that haven't hit at all in their place kind of starts them out short handed on talent from the start!

Yup, no lies told.

[stringer bell]

It was only one game, granted one of their worst of the season.

The Twins start two of their top guys the next two days. Winning today and tomorrow afternoon would make it a lot easier to forget last night's poor performance.

 

[roger]

Tough game for Castro last night.  Catch that ball in the first inning and two Yankee hitters don't come to bat.  That changes the game going forward.  Also would be 9 less pitches thrown by Paddach.

And Buxton catches that ball in the fourth inning without any problem.  That's two less runs.  Yes, Castro has been a fine utility player, but not last night.  As for Martin.  Really like what he has done and will do in the future.  But I believe he needs a good part of the summer playing left and center in St. Paul.  He can be a special offensive weapon, just needs some time learning in AAA.  Expect that move will happen later this week when Buxton comes off the IL.

[SockNet]

On th radio it sounds like the outfield doesn't know what base to throw to. Could have given up 1-2 less runs. Rocco's got to be losing his mind over that.

Could really use Buxton out there. I also bet the Fo is rethinking not signing Taylor.

 

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

9 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Yea.  His .427 OBP went up.  Rent  platoo guy is the key to the future.  Play him over the young future.

 

If only his OBP was ,427