Brewers 8, Twins 4: Best Game in Target Field History Leaves Sour Taste for Twins

[Matthew Trueblood]

After five days off, the Twins and Brewers packed about five days' worth of close plays and fraught moments into a single contest. The home team gave Target Field's biggest-ever crowd two comebacks to love, but the Brewers spoiled the party.

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Pablo López - 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K (109 pitches, 68 strikes)
Home Runs: Carlos Santana (14)
Bottom 3 WPA: Josh Staumont (-.428), Cole Sands (-.230), Ryan Jeffers (-.216)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

 

As an organization, the Twins weren't thrilled to have to wait five days between games for the All-Star break, thanks to the quirk of playing one of their two-game series against the rival Brewers on this weekend coming out of that layoff. As an extra poke in the eye, then, Mother Nature dropped a brief pop-up shower on Target Field minutes before the scheduled game time, pushing the season's resumption back an extra 14 minutes.

Once the action began, though, it was a little slice of Baseball Heaven--and hopefully, for Joe Pohlad (who was in attendance), a reminder of what's possible. A buzzy crowd of both Twins and visiting Brewers fans packed the place to the rafters, giving the game a charge and a self-consciously inflated sense of importance right from the first pitch. The crowd was big and enthusiastic enough, on a summer Saturday evening, to sustain the cheerful thump and palaver that makes it great to take in a game when the team is winning. It's the environment the Twins should be trying to cultivate at all times. As he always does, too, Pablo López rose to the heightened occasion, striking out the first two batters in a 1-2-3 top of the first.

The early stages of the game were as even as the records of the two playoff hopefuls contesting it. Through two scoreless innings, each side's hitters could console themselves by noting some tough at-bats and walks drawn, but each defense showed its quality, too. The top of the second ended when Ryan Jeffers threw out Sal Frelick attempting to steal second, and while his throw was on the money, Willi Castro (whom Rocco Baldelli said will be the everyday shortstop in Carlos Correa's absence) matched Jeffers's effort with a deft tag.

Willi drip dropped the perfect tag ? pic.twitter.com/foX5Bvt4p7

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) July 20, 2024

The Brewers did get to López in the third, though, and he was probably fortunate to give up just one run. A leadoff double set them up to score, and a single from ninth hitter Andruw Monasterio did bring Garrett Mitchell around, but a 108-MPH screamer off the bat of Joey Ortiz became a groundout, and a long fly ball by Brice Turang found the glove of a gliding Byron Buxton at the wall in right-center. López righted the ship with a scoreless fourth, despite more hard contact, and the game stayed taut.

Meanwhile, though, Freddy Peralta frustrated the Twins at every turn. They worked two early walks and forced his pitch count to balloon, but they couldn't break through in the bottom of the third, despite putting two runners on with Buxton at bat. While the team awaits the convalescence of Correa, José Miranda, and Royce Lewis, Buxton is back in the heart of their order, and if we're honest, we have to admit that the 2-3-4 sequence of Trevor Larnach, Buxton, and Brooks Lee is conspicuously non-threatening. The team still has multiple threats and ways to score, but they're not the best lineup on the junior circuit in their current form.

Working on extra rest on a perfect night, the aces of each team rode the rise and fall and clash of two fan base's cheers packed into a single venue, keeping the game 1-0 through six frames. Neither blinked, but López (slightly more economical through six) got through a tough seventh inning without letting the lead lengthen, whereas Peralta departed after 102 offerings in six frames.

That would turn out to mean everything. Milwaukee reliever Bryan Hudson sailed through the seventh, but only faced two batters in the eighth, giving up well-struck balls to each. Austin Martin's fly ball nestled into the glove of Mitchell in center field, but Willi Castro laced a bounding gapper the same direction. Jackson Chourio came up throwing, and might have had a chance to nail the hustling Castro at second, but he mishandled the transfer and lost his opportunity.

Next came the chess match, with Baldelli and Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy trading maneuvers. Baldelli used his second pinch-hitter of the inning and third of the game to force Murphy to lift Hudson. Elvis Peguero replaced Hudson, and on a 1-2 pitch to Diego A. Castillo, he uncorked what would turn out to be an enormous wild pitch. Castro advanced to third, forcing the Brewers infield to come up. Castillo then hit a sharp ground ball to Turang at second, but Castro was off on contact. 

It was an incredibly close play. Turang's throw beat the diving Castro, but Castro was aimed like a missile at the back corner of home plate. William Contreras did what catchers nearly always do on such plays, trained by years of instruction on pitch framing and following the natural momentum of a play on which they necessarily come forward to set up for the hurried throw: He snatrched it too soon. Traveling more slowly under the control of Contreras's muscles than it had been in flight, the ball didn't quite swipe Castro's side until his hand had acquired its target. A replay review confirmed the game-tying run.

Castillo reached in the process, and after a Buxton strikeout, Brooks Lee reached on an infield single. It was the Twins' second-most promising rally of the game, but it didn't bear any more fruit, as Max Kepler flew out deep to center.

It only felt right for the game to go to the ninth inning knotted; each team played too well to give the other a clear advantage any sooner than the game's final breath. Griffin Jax got the call for the top of the frame and took care of business, but so did Joel Payamps in the bottom half.

That brought on a funny bit of baseball irony, as Frelick (who had just been picked off to record the final out of the previous inning, marking his second out on the bases in one contest) took second as the automatic runner for the 10th inning. For his sins in past innings, Frelick's penance in the extra frame was to stand mostly motionless at his station, helpless to do anything. Jhoan Durán came on (to the delight of the sellout crowd, with the effects of the lowered lights and scoreboard animations heightened by the deepening darkness) and put away three straight Milwaukee batters, without even allowing for much in the way of luck.

Austin Martin was the automatic runner for the Twins' end of the 10th, but Willi Castro couldn't move him over. Leading off against an extremely aggressive bunt defense from the Brewers, Castro, instead, took a full swing--but he flied out, and Martin couldn't advance. Castillo therefore got his a chance to play hero a second time, but he struck out looking. Murphy elected to intentionally walk Byron Buxton, after Trevor Megill threw two unintentional balls to him, but Brooks Lee couldn't make the visitors pay, grounding out to first base.

The tension of this game--from the stands, where warring chants of "Let's Go Brewers" and "Let's Go Twins" bounced off each other every time a sequence even hinted at the possibility of runs scoring--refused to break. In the 11th, the Brewers scored on an infield-in fielder's choice (sound familiar?) and a subsequent squeeze bunt. The Brewers play that kind of game often. The Twins don't, at all.

No, the Twins get their runs this way, mostly.

Down to their last strike, the Twins were saved by the seemingly unstoppably clutch Carlos Santana, and though they could do no more than tie the game, they forced a 12th inning. That would, eventually, mean turning to their seventh pitcher, on a night when their starter bravely threw seven frames, but sometimes, the game grabs ahold of you and won't let go. Though those nights are less frequent, now that there are automatic runners in play as soon as the game reaches extra innings, they're even more special when they happen.

Alas, someone has to win those games, and the Brewers had the depth and the energy to do it Saturday night. A pair of infield singles (one on a nearly-botched but ultimately perfectly placed pop-up bunt) ignited a rally that finally gave the Brewers real breathing room. After a Joey Ortiz sacrifice fly, Jackson Chourio stroked his third hit of the game, bringing home an insurance run against Josh Staumont. Chourio then alertly stole second, taking the double play off the table and forcing the Twins to play the infield up again against Turang. He hit a sizzling single that probably would have punched through anyway, cleanly into right field to break the game open. By the time the relentless Brewers were done, it was a five-run cushion, and the bottom half of the frame was all protracted anticlimax.

The Good: I don't need the national anthem to be played before baseball games. I'm not hungry for the fight that would be required to get there, but I'd be fine with the tradition being discontinued. I often make myself busy with something else during the song, not protesting but not concelebrating, either.

As a men's quartet sang the song before the game Saturday evening, though, I was struck by something I rarely think of when it comes to the anthem: It can be a very beautiful song, when prepared and performed with loving craftsmanship. It's a challenging piece of music, but in such pieces lies the opportunity to create beauty. Sports are, ultimately, an artistic endeavor, though we rarely consider them that way. The performers Saturday evening gave a rendition as pretty as a 4-6-3 double play, setting an aesthetically wonderful tone for the event. It was one of the tiny ways that the game will surprise you, even in ways that stretch beyond the game itself.

On the field, there were plenty of encouraging things. Ryan Jeffers's bat seemed to have slowed down as the summer heat hit--because it did. 

But Jeffers's swing looked better Saturday night, from a process standpoint. His first two at-bats yielded well-struck but not torched balls, but it was the way he swung that seemed encouraging. Pair that with the great throw to nail Frelick, and he looks somewhat rejuvenated after the break, which would be welcome news for the Twins.

López, too, gave encouraging returns. He held his velocity throughout the start, survived an early wobble unfazed, found feel for his sweeper late in the going and gave the team an excellent chance to win. If he can pitch like this down the stretch, the Twins not only have a chance to catch Cleveland for the AL Central leadership, but would feel supremely confident going into almost any first-round playoff matchup.

The Bad: It would be grossly unfair to blame the Twins offense for being dominated by Peralta, an ace in his own right who was one of the best pitchers in baseball in the second half of last season and still possesses every bit of the talent López does. We have to return, though, to that sense that the team is more than just depleted by the absence of (arguably) their three best hitters; they seem utterly deflated without them. That's not a knock on Baldelli or the character of the team; it's just how it goes. There's a certain amount of talent and production that, added together, creates a critical mass. No club can replace guys who were doing as much for the team as Correa, Lewis, and Miranda. They just have to wait for them to return. That's a worrisome reality, though, since there's no guarantee that any of them will be back (and at full strength) soon.

Once extra innings arrived, we also saw a glimpse of the lurking issue that is the soft underbelly of the bullpen. With injuries to Chris Paddack and Brock Stewart still stretching the staff a bit out of its optimal shape, they could use some reinforcement there. Otherwise, it will be important for them to play from ahead, because games like this one (and those in which they face a narrow deficit going into the late innings) will continue to get away from them.

What’s Next: Though next year's schedule will restore the annual interleague rivalry series to a pair of three-game sets, this season's Border Battle with the Brewers concludes with the fourth game between the two teams on Sunday. Joe Ryan and Milwaukee trade addition Aaron Civale will toe the rubber, for a 12:05 PM local start. It's so early for a good reason, too: The game will be on Roku, so for disenfranchised fans who want to see their team, this is a rare opportunity.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Sands	0	0	0	0	10	10
Jax	0	0	0	0	14	14
Durán	0	0	0	0	12	12
Staumont	0	0	0	0	20	20
Alcalá	0	0	0	0	17	17
Funderburk	0	0	0	0	0	0
Thielbar	0	0	0	0	0	0
Okert	0	0	0	0	11	11

 

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[BH67]

Missing Miranda, Lewis and Correa is the key factor tonight. Winning without any of their bats is lucky at best, but the Twins gave it a good effort.

[USAFChief]

Sure glad Rocco managed himself into yet another "all my best hitters are out of the game" corner for the umpteenth time.

We need a MLB manager. 

[thelanges5]

Can we tread water and hang on to a wild card spot. Is that the focus right now?

[wabene]

Bummer

[akmanak]

This is what happens when you don't have enough depth in your bullpen, regardless it was a great game. Just a bad end.

[FlyingFinn]

How many times do we field a bunt that is going foul when we have no chance to get an out?

[DJL44]

12 minutes ago, akmanak said:

This is what happens when you don't have enough depth in your bullpen, regardless it was a great game. Just a bad end.

Most bullpens are pretty shallow when you get to the 6th best pitcher.

My god, how can Margot be that bad at pinch hitting. Someone pointed out to me Giancarlo Stanton's struggles pinch hitting. He may have a rival.

[Schmoeman5]

57 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Most bullpens are pretty shallow when you get to the 6th best pitcher.

My god, how can Margot be that bad at pinch hitting. Someone pointed out to me Giancarlo Stanton's struggles pinch hitting. He may have a rival.

Stanton may struggle. But Margot doesn't struggle. His average as a ph is ZERO. That's beyond the definition of struggling. 

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Sure glad Rocco managed himself into yet another "all my best hitters are out of the game" corner for the umpteenth time.

We need a MLB manager. 

Its a gift

[Schmoeman5]

A thread from earlier in the week asked the question. How many games has Rocco cost the Twins? Rocco has a habit of emptying his bench way too early in games. He gets the match-ups he wants initially. But then later on in games like tonight he has Castillo, Margot, Martin in situations that favored the Brewers. Did Rocco cost them the game? I won't say it's all on him. But he handcuffs himself time after time in close games. Martin and Margot aren't even a step up defensively. Some will come back with Castillo coming through in his ABs. Yeah. He's a guy I want in those situations numerous times. With Miranda Lewis and Correa out. You have to manage differently. JMO

[Mark G]

2 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

How many times do we field a bunt that is going foul when we have no chance to get an out?

🤔  Good question.

[Doctor Wu]

It may not have been a factor in the game, but someone needs to permanently ban those horrible uniforms that the  Twins were wearing yesterday. 

[Whitey333]

JInteresting game.  Interesting article.  Many ups and downs.  Santana Homer in 11th was clutch with 2 strikes and two outs he homers to tie the game.  Baldelli burning his pinch hitters early again handcuffed the team late in the game again.  Entertaining game but hardlh the best ever game at Target field as you mentioned.  The 41,679 fans in attendance was biggest regular season crowd In Target Field history thanks in huge part to the thousands of Brewer fans in attendance.  Yes missing Lewis, Miranda and especially Correa hurt.  Not so much Lewis, and Miranda. Twins have been winning without them.  But we do need them.  

22-30 against teams with winning records. 

After Brooks Lee great start he is in a 1 for 16 slump. Looks like league is making adjustments.

twins bullpen continues to have one of the worst inherited runners scoring in all of baseball.  Staumont came in and let all 3 of his inherited runners score.

twins 4 hitters in middle of lineup went 2 for 19.

Margot is 0 for 22 pinch hitting but our grest manager keeps sending him up there.

Lopez pitched a very good game.  I hope he continues that trend.  He needs to return to his number one status as a starter.

Played poor defense at times especially with the game on the line.  Let's win Sunday.  Go Twins.

  

 

[DJL44]

12 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

After Brooks Lee great start he is in a 1 for 16 slump. Looks like league is making adjustments.

This was inevitable and probably necessary. Don't give up on him after he goes back to AAA.

[DJL44]

14 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Margot is 0 for 22 pinch hitting but our grest manager keeps sending him up there.

I looked up his stats before this season and his pinch hitting was worse than his overall hitting (.188) but it wasn't this bad. The crazy part about that stat is he's almost always brought in to hit a lefty pitcher so he should be in a situation to succeed. I'm pretty sure the opposing manager didn't swap pitchers every time.

[Whitey333]

Yes Indeed I agree.  

[Doctor Gast]

Lopez pitched a good game against a good team. On that CS, Pablo threw a perfect pitch to put Jeffers in the perfect position to make the throw down to 2B, Jeffers throw was on target & Castro laid down a perfect tag. W/o the great cooperation of all 3 there'd be no CS.

Last nite was a perfect example of our need of Varland in long relief that I've been advocating all season. Before the All-star break our pitching staff (rotation & BP) were showing signs of fatigue. Our 1st game into the 2nd half has already put a lot stress on our BP. It's time to chuck TB's strategy of 1 inning-relief dependence. We need our BP & rotation, especially Paddack rested ready to pitch quality innings.

Last nite was a heart-breaker

[karcherd]

This is what we will continue to see from the Twins, some good, some bad and sloppy baseball.  And we will have success against 60% of the teams but unfortunately these are not the teams that makes the playoffs.

We need to identify 6 or 7 players that are your core and play them everyday and only replace in the later innings based on the situation like Milwaukee did with Hoskins yesterday..  Quit moving players around defensively and in the lineup, get some stability.  Then when injuries occur slide someone into that spot to hold it down until the injured player comes back.  You are not going to have sustained success with a team of role players and that is what this team is. 

Larnach and Wallner are getting very few reps in the later innings due to the insane pinch hitting, if we are going to count on them, they need reps in these situations.  Almost every game they are done by the 6th or 7th inning.  Notice how Milwaukee let their young OF Frelick hit against Okert.

Just because a player can play multiple positions doesn't mean they play them all well.  And this why we keep seeing sloppy ball,  You become better defensively with reps, learn the situations and what to do in each situation.  Moving around hampers this ability, some players can do it but not many.

 

[JD-TWINS]

I get the frustration after a loss.

Baldelli is managing to get ahead & generate offense when the opportunity arises in the middle of the game so there is no need to rely on Martin - Margot - Castillo or anyone else in the 9th - 10th - 11th - 12th. Every Team is out of options that late in a game……it’s not unique to the Twins!

Margot doubled and gave the Team a chance to go ahead earlier but it didn’t happen. That’s not on him - it’s not on Baldelli, just baseball.

Did we all see Okert absolutely butcher a gift out on a pop up bunt - he’s a major league player…….,,not only did he not catch the ball, he then made sure it hurt more by touching the ball just before it was to go foul……Baldelli, nor any Legion Ball coach teaches either of those decisions.

All have a right to complain but every loss being Rocco’s fault in some twisted way seems odd, to me.

[JD-TWINS]

35 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I looked up his stats before this season and his pinch hitting was worse than his overall hitting (.188) but it wasn't this bad. The crazy part about that stat is he's almost always brought in to hit a lefty pitcher so he should be in a situation to succeed. I'm pretty sure the opposing manager didn't swap pitchers every time.

They do switch pitchers essentially every time - that’s part of why he does it, so they need to get further into the Pen and to get a right handed pitcher back in the game for the others in the line-up. If he doesn’t pinch hit him the flow of the guy on the mound stays in tact and the defense still has a mismatch v. whatever LH hitter is in the box.

Margot’s been worse than brutal when this happens but from a strategy angle, it makes sense.

[mikelink45]

I just did not see the need for the pinch hitters.  We are down to a lower level of lineup, but what they started with was the best they could offer so forget pinch hitting.  Let them work our the left/right deliveries. 

[USAFChief]

30 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

They do switch pitchers essentially every time - that’s part of why he does it, so they need to get further into the Pen and to get a right handed pitcher back in the game for the others in the line-up.

I think you're confused on which manager can't wait to get his RH relievers back in the game once Rocco removes all his LH hitters. 

[DJL44]

51 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

They do switch pitchers essentially every time - that’s part of why he does it, so they need to get further into the Pen and to get a right handed pitcher back in the game for the others in the line-up.

Except Margot is in the lineup now, the LH batter is gone and you're basically guaranteeing Margot will face a RHP twice. They pull Wallner and Julien early so the only advantage is the switch hitters Castro, Lee and Santana get to hit LH. The opposing manager is not going to keep a lefthanded reliever in the game for multiple innings. Wait him out and the LHP will be gone anyway.

[Blyleven2011]

Santana's homer was a lift but scrap the blue uniforms they are a let down ...

Late inning action once again , a tying homerun by santana only to be let down by the bullpen  ...

Didnt castro a couple of weeks ago do the same thing , homer to tie the score only to be let down by the bullpen  ...

Sure hope  FO and Rocco are gone after this season  , they will never win with their strategy of baseball  ...

Expiring contracts want to know  , because they truly are a total system failure   ( example , they can't beat the better winning teams , they pick on the losers to win ) ,  is that a playoff teàm ???

[karcherd]

11 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Santana's homer was a lift but scrap the blue uniforms they are a let down ...

Late inning action once again , a tying homerun by santana only to be let down by the bullpen  ...

Didnt castro a couple of weeks ago do the same thing , homer to tie the score only to be let down by the bullpen  ...

Sure hope  FO and Rocco are gone after this season  , they will never win with their strategy of baseball  ...

Expiring contracts want to know  , because they truly are a total system failure   ( example , they can't beat the better winning teams , they pick on the losers to win ) ,  is that a playoff teàm ???

It shouldn't have come down to the bullpen.  Bunt the runner over in the 10th inning, but of course Larnach the best option for a fly ball is not in the game any more.  The early pinch hitting moves and lack of playing fundamental baseball hurt as much as the bullpen.

[Linus]

Great game from Pablo. Hat tip to Julien making a couple nice plays and getting a hit. 
As I have posted about a hundred times the Twins frequently play sloppy baseball. Sometimes it costs them and sometimes it doesn’t. Last night it cost them. I truly believe poor fundamentals have cost the Twins a half dozen games this year. 

[LambchoP]

Our so called manager needs to stop pinch hitting and removing starting players from the game in the fifth or sixth innings. Sure, you get a better matchup for that one at bat. But then your stuck with guys like Margot at a disadvantage for the rest of the game. Offense looked completely lifeless today, like they were on autopilot or something. Hopefully we can wake up and get a win today.

[D.C Twins]

We need to acquire relief help at trade deadline. Period.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

Having a hard type typing this comment under the intense pressure of the sky falling!!