Make it Official! Twins 5, Mariners 1: Buck Truck Departs Again

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Minnesota Twins turned to Pablo Lopez on Saturday night and their ace gave them a lockdown performance. Byron Buxton continued his hot streak, and the Buck Truck remained on track with yet another home run.

Image courtesy of © John Froschauer-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Pablo Lopez 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K (94 pitches, 64 strikes, 18 whiffs)
Home Runs: Byron Buxton(8)
Top 3 WPA: Byron Buxton (.346), Pablo Lopez (.195), Carlos Santana (.115)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Max Stirs the Drink
The Twins and Mariners went through a feeling out period during the first inning. Minnesota went down in order, and while J.P Crawford was at third with two outs for Mitch Garver, Pablo Lopez recorded a pair of strikeouts to end the inning unscathed.

Max Kepler ripped a one-out double in the second inning off Bryce Miller. Jose Miranda stepped in to celebrate his birthday and battled to a 2-2 count before dumping a single to left center scoring the game’s first run. Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers couldn’t move Miranda, but the Twins put the pressure on.

Buck Answers the Call
Lopez has struggled with home runs for most of this season, and that reared its head again in the third inning. Mitch Haniger homered for the seventh time this season and tied the game at one.

Buxton made his presence felt in the fourth inning with his 13th double of the season. He plated Carlos Santana on the play and put Minnesota up 2-1. Eclipsing the 20.0 fWAR mark recently, Buxton continued to add to his impressive run. His sixth inning home run scored Carlos Correa and Miranda to make it 5-1 and put the Twins well ahead.

Jorge Alcala worked a scoreless inning of relief, and hit 101.2 mph on the radar gun. He is now throwing faster than closer Jhoan Duran this season. Steven Okert worked a 17-pitch scoreless eighth inning, but had to dance around both a hit and a walk.

After the Twins went down in order during the ninth inning, it was on Griffin Jax to close the game out. He got Garver on strikes for the fourth time during the tilt and needed just two more outs to shut things down. Luke Raley followed with a strikeout of his own and it was on Ty France to extend the game. He too went down on strikes and Jax struck out the side in the final frame.

Minnesota struck out a whopping 12 times while drawing just one walk, but that was better than the 15 strikeouts Seattle put up. The Twins managed ten hits, and Santana had three of them with Buxton adding a pair.

Notes
The Twins beat remains cultured! In case you’ve ever googled Carlos Santana, The Athletic’s Dan Hayes has you covered either way.

The victory for Minnesota represents their 5,000 in franchise history. The Twins have also won the last four Lopez starts, as well as five of his last six.

What’s Next? 
The Seattle Mariners will go with Luis Castillo for Sunday’s matinee, and Joe Ryan starts for Minnesota. This will be the seventh and final game between these squads during the 2024 regular season. Baldelli’s squad can push the season series to a 5-2 victory with a win.

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[BH67]

Buxton and Lopez displayed energetic leadership. Lively, inspirational, really uplifting. Loved every second.

(Oh...there's a hidden message in the above paragraph.)

[Matt Braun]

Man, Byron is swinging a hot bat. Feels like he’s about to carry the club for the next month or so. Good to see Pablo settle down and turn in a solid outing. Go Twins! 

[EPEZRider]

When I read the headline of the recap, I was afraid Buck got hurt again.

Nice of the Twins to record their 5,000th win on Harmon Killebrew's birthday (he would have been 88). Go Twins!

[arby58]

5 hours ago, Matt Braun said:

Man, Byron is swinging a hot bat. Feels like he’s about to carry the club for the next month or so. Good to see Pablo settle down and turn in a solid outing. Go Twins! 

Buxton has been great - and Correa may be even better of late. He's pushed his season WAR up to 3.1 and batting average to .311. 

[Whitey333]

Nice win Twins.  Let's take the series with a win Su n day.  Go Twins!

[mikelink45]

What a fun victory - is this the beginning of another streak?

[jmlease1]

Excellent win. Seattle is a good team, especially their pitching. 

Overall a good outing from Pablo, and hopefully he's getting back to form. The dingers are a little concerning, but the solo shots won't sink you (see Ryan, Joe). Alcala is a nice add to the back end of the 'pen, so if we can get Stewart back soon and Duran's issues sorted we'll be in good shape there, especially with Jax being so dominant.

Uncharacteristic struggles from Castro; no one likes to see the Golden Sombrero, but he's been so good this season you have to allow for the occasional stinker. And with Buxton on a heater right now and Carlos Santana refusing to change his Evil Ways the offense came through nicely. 

Winning the series on sunday would be an excellent way to wrap up the road trip!

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, arby58 said:

Buxton has been great - and Correa may be even better of late. He's pushed his season WAR up to 3.1 and batting average to .311. 

Miranda and Santana supplement them nicely. Jeffers and Larnach to a lesser degree.

 

Now if Royce could get hitting again!

[stringer bell]

Five thousand wins in franchise history and on Harmon's birthday. The win also clinched another winning month and a winning road trip. A lot of boxes checked in one game.

Yes, some guys are hot (Buxton, Miranda, Correa) and some are not (Lewis, Kepler), but there are enough guys hitting to put up runs. 

[USAFChief]

I didn't think Lopez looked good at all to start the night, but he really rallied and finished strong. 

Nice win. 

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, arby58 said:

Buxton has been great - and Correa may be even better of late. He's pushed his season WAR up to 3.1 and batting average to .311. 

Just saw on MLB network…..Buxton hit .242 first 40 games with 3 HR……last 17 games hitting .364 with 5 HR.

His success seems fairly recent & brief but he’s been rolling for 3 weeks. He is a BIG piece in the lengthening of the line-up. Don’t think any other team in baseball pencils in his talent in the #7 spot in the line-up every day.

CC is playing as well as anyone in baseball.

[stringer bell]

Buxton an All-Star? He doesn't have enough plate appearances to qualify, but his OPS would rate third among AL center fielders, behind Judge and Bleday. He isn't far behind Bleday (.760 for Buck, .774 for Bleday).

[Karbo]

So nice to see Buxton on a hot streak. Is it to soon to say Lopez is back?

[LambchoP]

Both Buxton and Correa are on fire. Then we've got Miranda and Lewis looking like Mainstays in the lineup for a lot of years. Alcala hitting 101 mph was cool, but even more impressive is how well he's pitched. If Duran can figure things out and we get Stewart back we'll have a solid bullpen. I still say we need a solid high leverage lefty at the deadline. Theilbar can go... Still think Farmer should be DFAd and Brooks Lee called up to man second base.

[Doctor Gast]

Coming into '24 season, SEA & MN matched up pretty closely. SEA may have had a better rotation, but RPs, defense, the "all or nothing" approach & dumping their biggest SO hitters are the same. Like MN, the league had the book against SEA. IMO MN has responded well to adapt & SEA has not, this area we need to capitalize more. SEA has been winning their games with pitching & defense & their offense has sucked. When SEA dumps their hitting approach they'll be a great force to deal with. If not HOU may catch them.

It's nice to win these blowout games but we'll need to find out how to win the close ones. Buxton has figured out that it's best to empty your head with analytics & go with how you feel & the flow. See ball/ hit ball.

[terrydactyls]

Great game but tough to watch on the East Coast.  The game finished at around 1:30AM.  Two observations.

1.  It appears that the Twins' players are no longer part of the "hide your baseball socks" trend (which I've never liked) and have gone to the other extreme of "how much sock will MLB allow".  Especially Santana.  His pants look more like baggy Bermuda shorts.

2.  Santana is much faster than I thought he would be.  He hustled out an infield hit and ran all the way to the bleachers in the right field foul territory trying to get a foul ball.

[arby58]

47 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

2.  Santana is much faster than I thought he would be.  He hustled out an infield hit and ran all the way to the bleachers in the right field foul territory trying to get a foul ball.

I've been on the Santana bandwagon from the start - he's one of those veterans who just knows how to play. Besides, he was a Twins killer for so many years, it's a plus just to not have him in an opposing team's lineup.

[awmonahan]

It took three ABs for Seattle to finally decide it's a bad idea to throw Buck fastballs. I also can't believe Rocco sat Buck on Saturday. I'd have given in to temptation and let it ride (I know he needs regular rest). Regular season baseball can be funny. 

[Parfigliano]

3 hours ago, arby58 said:

Buxton has been great - and Correa may be even better of late. He's pushed his season WAR up to 3.1 and batting average to .311. 

He's healthy

[wabene]

The Twins only have one more year before Alcalá becomes a UFA in his age 30 season. It's looking like we could get about 1.5 years of a back end reliever before he departs. That's if you don't include the 75 games of pretty decent middle relief in 2021-22 before his run of injuries started. He's pitching as well as Pressly was before we traded 1.5 years of him for Celestino and Alcalá. Celestino didn't provide anything. Alcalá could make it a much delayed wash. To bad it took them (the Twins and Alcalá) so long to get him going. I'm guessing they don't sign him to an extension. Yes the Twins could've used the Pressly Houston developed him into for those 1.5 years.

They've got 3 more years of Jax, UFA at 33 and 3 more years of Duran UFA at 30. Considering this makes an extension for Alcalá, or really any of them, even more unlikely.

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Buxton an All-Star? He doesn't have enough plate appearances to qualify, but his OPS would rate third among AL center fielders, behind Judge and Bleday. He isn't far behind Bleday (.760 for Buck, .774 for Bleday).

Not too many CFs hitting this season. Judge is in a different class, but Buck should start getting his reputation back. (Bleday isn't a great defender out there, but he can hit in a year when few guys can. Oakland actually has more than one not-terrible pick this year for their token all-star, maybe?)

The lineup is producing like most of us thought it could at the start of the season, albeit with some different characters in the cast. But it's awfully nice to have Correa and Buxton leading the way

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, awmonahan said:

It took three ABs for Seattle to finally decide it's a bad idea to throw Buck fastballs. I also can't believe Rocco sat Buck on Saturday. I'd have given in to temptation and let it ride (I know he needs regular rest). Regular season baseball can be funny. 

He flipped the switch in Oakland ("Watch Me!") and that's awesome.

 

I'm just worried the switch could easily flip back. Hope I'm very wrong..

[Jeff K]

3 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Both Buxton and Correa are on fire. Then we've got Miranda and Lewis looking like Mainstays in the lineup for a lot of years. Alcala hitting 101 mph was cool, but even more impressive is how well he's pitched. If Duran can figure things out and we get Stewart back we'll have a solid bullpen. I still say we need a solid high leverage lefty at the deadline. Theilbar can go... Still think Farmer should be DFAd and Brooks Lee called up to man second base.

100% with you on each of your comments.

[AceWrigley]

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

The lineup is producing like most of us thought it could at the start of the season, albeit with some different characters in the cast. But it's awfully nice to have Correa and Buxton leading the way

At the beginning of the year if you would have told me that at mid-season Julien and Wallner would be in the minors, Duran's effectiveness would be diminished and Pablo would have an era about 5.00, I would have thought the season must be sunk. Also, I think Rocco is having his best season so far.

[joefish]

Learn how to win those one-run games before we head into any post season play. Relieve that sinking feeling.