Make It Official! Twins 6, Athletics 5: Max Kepler Walk-Off Punctuates City Connect Debut

[MMMordabito]

3 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Seems to me the Team record and the management of the resources and the individual’s performances to date have been very positive.

There's a rug to sweep 0-14 against Cleveland, Baltimore and New York under.

[terrydactyls]

6 hours ago, Alex Wilde said:

That doesn’t justify a bad decision. Vasquez and Margot should have never been batting in those situations even if they have been “hot”.

 

9 hours ago, RpR said:

Twins won, does not matter.

Can someone answer my question?  Is Lewis hurt or was he just not used?

[Doctor Gast]

4 hours ago, Ricky Vaughn said:

Did that god awful catchers gear gear distract Woods-Richardson enough to affect his command of the strike zone in the first inning.

I noticed that SWR had a tough time hitting his spots, maybe indeed that was the reason. (?) If SWR's command was just slightly better in the 1st inning, he'd easily have 0 ERs, gone longer in the game & pick up the win. With baseball, it's funny how a slight difference can make such a big difference. 

[Alex Wilde]

23 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

 

Can someone answer my question?  Is Lewis hurt or was he just not used?

I believe he just had a scheduled off day after coming back from the Quad injury.

[tony&rodney]

The Twins have had extremely good luck with their catchers. I don't really understand the criticism of a rotation that keeps both guys healthy. Teams need the catchers for defense, any offense is a bonus. 

I never understood the demand of catching until I caught several games. When I caught fifty games in a year the realization of the demands of the position became apparent. There is really very little comparison between the physical challenges of any position to catching. The Twins are doing well at the position.

[Shaitan]

10 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

Is Lewis hurt?  

For approximately 70% of his career so far, yes.

[stringer bell]

The rule of thumb is that you don't go offense for defense (pinch hitters) in a tie game. I presume also that Lewis was told he was off and wouldn't be used except in an emergency. 

BTW, Rocco used pinch hitters for platoon advantage, so maybe it was all about given Lewis a total rest day. 

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, MMMordabito said:

There's a rug to sweep 0-14 against Cleveland, Baltimore and New York under.

We'll undo all that when we win series against Baltimore, New York and Cleveland in the playoffs!! (Clueless optimism)

[SotaSports in NM]

3 hours ago, MMMordabito said:

Great walk-off win in a vacuum. They said that was Kepler's 10th walk-off delivery of his career. 

What surprised me about that was that it's also his first since 2021!

[ashbury]

3 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Margot was picked up to be a RH hitting platoon guy and for OF depth……,he’s a career .255 hitter …..BA for last 3 seasons has been .254, .274, & .264 ……he’s hitting .231 as of this morning…….he was at .130 about 5 weeks ago…they said on the broadcast that he’s hitting .371 over last 23 games. What’s the mean he’s regressing to?

Sounds like a rhetorical question, yet I'll answer it. 😀 Split the season at the mark where Margot hit bottom in OPS, namely May 17.

92 PA, .169 BA, .468 OPS, .203 BABIP

Since that date:

53 PA, .340 BA, .883 OPS, .381 BABIP

A straightforward way to look at it is that the BA on Balls In Play leads the way for the rest of the stats, and a nice stretch where the hits are falling in for him have helped bring him close (but not quite there yet) to career norms having a BA in the range of .250 and a BABIP just short of .300.  A little more of this good stretch and then normal rates of hits falling in could keep him as a backup the rest of the way.

That second line of numbers is no more believable than the first one, as a reflection of him as a player, and the truth lies somewhere in between, which the accumulated season stats are now reflecting.  There are people who are (rightly) skeptical about this current good stretch, and yet were willing to take the bad stretch at face value.

"Which player do you want, Player A or Player B?" "I want Player B, obviously." "Ha! They're the same player."

Mind, such numbers as backup would be what I presumed would be tied to CF skills, an expectation that most of us have found disappointing.  These are not numbers for a backup corner outfielder, regardless of the quality of defense there.

[bean5302]

I like the City Connect uniforms in a vacuum. They'd look great on a college team, but that's honestly what Nike seems to specialize in. Maybe these things will target a younger demographic MLB needs to reach?

Love seeing the walk off. These are games the Twins need to be able to win.

[RpR]

9 hours ago, Alex Wilde said:

That doesn’t justify a bad decision. Vasquez and Margot should have never been batting in those situations even if they have been “hot”.

A bad decision only in some one's opinions, get over it.

[Swing Batter-Batter]

14 hours ago, USAFChief said:

One of the best W's of the season.

I'm amazed Rocco let Duran go 2, and flabbergasted he let Margot hit in the 8th, and Vazquez in the 9th.

Pretty neat win though.

I was also amazed that Rocco let Duran go 2. Even more amazed that he let Kepler hit against a lefty. Margot and Vasquez, yeah, we have all watched that one before, no surprise.

[Shaitan]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

I like the City Connect uniforms in a vacuum. They'd look great on a college team, but that's honestly what Nike seems to specialize in. Maybe these things will target a younger demographic MLB needs to reach?

Love seeing the walk off. These are games the Twins need to be able to win.

My honest thought through most of this discussion has been "this board sure is showing its age demographic."

[wabene]

3 minutes ago, Shaitan said:

My honest thought through most of this discussion has been "this board sure is showing its age demographic."

Yes, Flo Rida likely isn't my cup of tea, but I'll bet that was a younger crowd last night.

[ashbury]

24 minutes ago, wabene said:

Yes, Flo Rida likely isn't my cup of tea, but I'll bet that was a younger crowd last night.

Fifteen years ago, maybe.  But, baby steps, baby steps.  😊

[karcherd]

6 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

6) Kirilloff - Wallner - Julien are the real disappointments ………all the guys above were to be role players…….these 3 were to be part of the CORE.

If these three players were supposed to be the core than why weren't they playing every day and for the whole game.  The way they were utilized does not shout they are core players.  Yes they underperformed but was it because of the way they were used.  I know this has been discussed on multiple threads but you can't consider them core players when they were treated as role players by the team.  And they gave Wallner an awful quick hook back to St. Paul.

[stringer bell]

2 hours ago, Swing Batter-Batter said:

Even more amazed that he let Kepler hit against a lefty. Margot and Vasquez, yeah, we have all watched that one before, no surprise.

How many times has Kepler been pinch-hit for this year? I haven't watched every game, but I don't remember any. Kepler hasn't started against left handers much at all, but he isn't lifted for a pinch hitter much if at all.

[TimMartin]

Another reason why Austin Martin deserves to remain on Twin's roster.