Make it Official! Twins 7, Royals 6: Bats Back Paddack

[Ted Schwerzler]

In need of a victory to complete a 3-of-4 series win over the rival Royals, the Twins were knocked backward early. Their bats responded, clobbering Kansas City pitching for seven runs, and then everyone held on for dear life.

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Chris Paddack 5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 88 pitches, 54 strikes, 8 whiffs
Home Runs: Ryan Jeffers 2 (12)
Top 3 WPA: Carlos Correa 0.30, Ryan Jeffers 0.22, Max Kepler 0.15

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Paddack Welcomed by Pasquantino
Starting Thursday for the Twins, Chris Paddack was looking for smoother sailing than Kansas City afforded their son, Bailey Ober. Walking leadoff batter Maikel García wasn’t ideal, but he did get Bobby Witt Jr. to fly out. Vinnie Pasquantino then stepped in, healthy and back in the lineup following his collision on Tuesday with Byron Buxton. Paddack flipped a curveball that hung, and the Royals first baseman sent it 417 feet into the right field bleachers. 

Manuel Margot singled to respond in the bottom half for the Twins, and Carlos Correa nearly had one of his own, but Witt Jr. ranged and made a tremendous throw to get him. Outs from Ryan Jeffers and José Miranda stranded the leadoff hitter-cum-baserunner at second base.

Not to be outdone defensively, Carlos Santana flashed his athleticism in the top of the second inning. While his bat has yet to produce consistent results, he’s been every bit as billed in the field.

Witt Wallops One, Jeffers Answers
As he has done all series against the Twins, Witt Jr. made his mark on this game, crushing a double deep into the left-center field gap. García came around to score for the second time and gave Kansas City a 3-0 lead. An MJ Melendez fourth-inning solo shot made it a 4-0 game, and this one seemed to be slipping away.

Finally awakening from a slumber that they had slogged through for three innings, though, the offense showed signs of life in the bottom of the fourth. Correa reached on an error by García, before Jeffers broke out of his slump with a two-run shot into the bullpen. Keeping the party going, José Miranda and Willi Castro sandwiched a Byron Buxton out with a pair of singles, to put runners on first and second with just the one out. Kyle Farmer got plunked on a slider and the bases were loaded. Santana got gassed up on a 92-mph fastball to go down with a 3-2 count. That left things up to Christian Vázquez, and he lofted a lazy fly out to left, leaving the bases chucked.

They'd cut into Kansas City's advantage, though, and it continued the next inning. Trying out a new strategy, Jeffers decided he was going to send baseballs into the Royals bullpen and take them out before they could enter the game. Launching his second dinger of the game, recording his third multi-homer game, Minnesota’s designated hitter made it a one-run game in the fifth.

Kepler Comes Up Clutch
As Rocco Baldelli has done for some time now, he worked a platoon lineup again on Thursday. Castro flipped sides at the dish with Chris Stratton coming on in relief, and after beating out an infield single, he advanced to second on Witt Jr.’s throwing error. Max Kepler came off the bench to pinch hit for Kyle Farmer, and dumped a single to left field to drive in the tying run. 

Walks for Santana and Margot brought Correa to the plate with the bases loaded. Getting into the #WolvesBack flavor before Thursday’s Game 5 at Target Center, the Minnesota shortstop banged a triple into the corner, clearing the bases and making it a 7-4 game. Minnesota knocked Stratton out of the game and John Schreiber was tasked with getting Jeffers and stopping the damage. Walking the designated hitter, he did get Miranda to ground out, stopping the bleeding.

Jorge Says Nope to St. Paul
Coming on to protect the three-run lead, Jorge Alcala was set to remind the Twins why he has no business in St. Paul. Striking out a pair, he hit 100 mph for the first time since 2021, while getting three whiffs on just 13 pitches. Griffin Jax then DMX’d his way onto the field for the eighth inning.

With Jhoan Duran coming on to his day game experience, the Twins were in position to lock it down. He made things entirely too interesting with a walk and a throwing error for what should have been the second out, allowed a Witt Jr. single to make it a 7-6 game. Pasquantino gave Duran another opportunity to make a play, and he executed this one to end the game.

Notes
Royce Lewis started at third base and batted second today for the St. Paul Saints. Walker Jenkins led off for the FCL team and played center field. Lewis went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts while Jenkins doubled and scored going 1-for-4. Minnesota heading to play the Yankees on Monday means Lewis would have a quick trip from upstate down to the city.

What’s Next? 
Minnesota heads to Houston for a three-game series with the Astros. It kicks off a 10 day, nine game, road trip that includes stops in New York and Pittsburgh. Pitch matchups for the series against Houston are as follows:

5/31 Pablo Lopez vs Ronel Blanco
6/1 Joe Ryan vs Framber Valdez
6/2 Simeon Woods Richardson vs Hunter Brown

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

View full article

[weneedneshek]

Jeffers and Correa

[DJL44]

Manuel Margot is on a hot streak this week

[RocRedWing]

Knew that year over year improvement would be expected for jeffers, but love to see him consistently crushing the ball. hope he stays hot and is an all star!

[BH67]

The Twins pounded Lynch en masse the second time through the order. Nice to see. And wonderful for Alcala, whose trajectory is much different from that of another familiar Jorge DFAd by the Mets today.

[UK Twin]

Great win. I just had that feeling when Correa came up to the plate with the bases loaded he was going to deliver. Big series win and Lewis will be activated any day now. On to Houston!

[stringer bell]

Getting the count to 3-1, I thought Correa would get on and maybe do more. It happened!

Cant help but be a bit concerned about Durán. Velocity is down. 

[CoastiePilot08]

Duran needs a break. 
 

No more StP for Alcala. Let him cook. 

[OvertheHill]

A very entertaining game, and credit due to Rocco for pulling Julien back and batting Kepler in that RBI spot. 3 out of 4 from a pretty good team is awesome. Now if we just could figure out Witt, Jr.  He’s going to plague us for a long time I fear! 

[Patzky]

Rocco pulled all the right levers today. I didn't like the starting lineup and Paddack's soft touch against KC had about as much success as Ober did.

The bullpen worked flawlessly until the ninth. The pinch hitters mostly hit.

 

I'm pulling for Seattle to burn through Houston's bullpen today to even the score for Friday.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Manuel Margot is on a hot streak this week

Heck yeah, he's hitting like an MLB regular player this week! Tearing it up!

[Peter]

Huge nerve wracking statement series win!!! Royals are tough good young team getting better!!! 5-2 against them and on homestand!!! Let’s enjoy this before tough upcoming road trip!!! Go Twins!!!

[Parfigliano]

53 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Getting the count to 3-1, I thought Correa would get on and maybe do more. It happened!

Cant help but be a bit concerned about Durán. Velocity is down. 

He is not last years version.

[bean5302]

Noticed Duran was asked to throw a whole lot of off speed and breaking stuff again today.

[Parfigliano]

25 minutes ago, OvertheHill said:

A very entertaining game, and credit due to Rocco for pulling Julien back and batting Kepler in that RBI spot. 3 out of 4 from a pretty good team is awesome. Now if we just could figure out Witt, Jr.  He’s going to plague us for a long time I fear! 

He only signed a 10 year contract.  No worries.

[bean5302]

 

Nice views from todays game. Truly on Deck and Club Level R

[OvertheHill]

6 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

He is not last years version.

I worked really hard to try convince my wife that he (or any baseball player) might actually be worth $35M/yr based on what we’re seeing. In the past few years we’ve gone from having Buxton be the “face?” of the franchise to Correa, with Lewis hopefully waiting in the wings. 

[Doctor Gast]

Paddack battled to get through 5. Alcala & Jax were great in the pen (happy they kept Alcala at 1 inning). Love the clutch triple by Correa with 2 outs and Kepler had a clutch hit. Jeffers's 2 HRs were both needed. Happy we pull this game out.

[Doctor Gast]

50 minutes ago, Patzky said:

Rocco pulled all the right levers today. I didn't like the starting lineup and Paddack's soft touch against KC had about as much success as Ober did.

The bullpen worked flawlessly until the ninth. The pinch hitters mostly hit.

 

I'm pulling for Seattle to burn through Houston's bullpen today to even the score for Friday.

HOU is up 4-0 in the 9th.

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, Parfigliano said:

He is not last years version.

"I'm playing on two feet!" 🙂

[Patzky]

58 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

HOU is up 4-0 in the 9th.

Maybe the jet won't start..

[LewFordLives]

Other than the NY series coming up, the Twins have a soft schedule going into the all star break. Hopefully they can pile up some wins and put themselves in the driver's seat for a playoff spot.

[Shaitan]

It feels like Kepler is hitting about .750 as a pinch hitter lately. (Not going to look up the real stats.)

[Shaitan]

Controversial take: maybe Alcala is looking so good right now because he was sent to AAA to fine tune.

But, honestly, I just don't care that he was sent down earlier. Let's live in the now instead of retreading transactions of a month ago. It's a long season.

[tony&rodney]

Nice series versus a very solid Kansas City team. First two months have been good with the team on schedule to win around 88 games, which is really good baseball.

[bean5302]

9 minutes ago, Shaitan said:

Controversial take: maybe Alcala is looking so good right now because he was sent to AAA to fine tune.

But, honestly, I just don't care that he was sent down earlier. Let's live in the now instead of retreading transactions of a month ago. It's a long season.

Alcala is a veteran player with 100 MLB appearances, who was arbitration eligible last year, and he made his way back to the big show at the end of last year with a full Spring Training this year. 

Your comment seems to suggest he's a rookie or prospect who needs some seasoning in the minors.

[Shaitan]

2 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Alcala is a veteran player with 100 MLB appearances, who was arbitration eligible last year, and he made his way back to the big show at the end of last year with a full Spring Training this year. 

Your comment seems to suggest he's a rookie or prospect who needs some seasoning in the minors.

Rocco literally said they sent him down to 'work on some things,' or some such language when it happened.

This might mean mental, mechanical, or otherwise. I wasn't privy to that conversation.

[DocBauer]

Only got to see the last 3 innings, but watching Correa stroke that triple made up for what I missed! The guy is a JOY to watch!

Small bummer Paddack couldn't get that last out to get the win.

Great way for Jeffers to break out of a bit of a slump!

Alcala hitting a 100 and 1 inning again and he dominated. I think we're finally going to see him used the way he should be.

Not going to pretend to know what's up with Duran. He's been working on some mechanical things, and has been using a slide step more. Couple days ago he was hitting 101 and 102 again. Still not really worried at this point.

Crazy to me how pitchers can throw darts at 90+ mph 60 feet and have so much trouble throwing a ball to 1B. He made a UGLY throw to Santana for sure. Still, it looked like Santana probably should have snagged it. But it was a tough play.

Duran makes a semi decent throw, that whole 9th inning probably looks different. So again, not really too worried right now.

KC a much better team than they've been. I think the Twins are better. Taking 3 of 4 is still really good. Won't get back to the top of the standings in a day, or a series, just need to keep winning and chip away.

[darwin22]

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Getting the count to 3-1, I thought Correa would get on and maybe do more. It happened!

Can’t help but be a bit concerned about Durán. Velocity is down. 

Considering Duran has pitched in 5 of last 7 games, his velo may be down a tad, but looking at ESPN box score/ pitch tracker, Duran averaged 99.4mph on 8 four-seam fastballs he threw out of his 20 pitches. Not 102+, but still pretty darn good considering his high usage rate recently.

[JD-TWINS]

2 hours ago, Shaitan said:

Controversial take: maybe Alcala is looking so good right now because he was sent to AAA to fine tune.

But, honestly, I just don't care that he was sent down earlier. Let's live in the now instead of retreading transactions of a month ago. It's a long season.

IMO - he threw a bunch of pitches in his last outing before he was sent down…..he would have been unavailable for 3-4 days. He has options so he gets moved. Also, he was still walking too many guys through his first two stints with big club.

Looks focused and very effective in first two outings since getting back this week!