Mets 2, Twins 0: Blanked on Deadline Day, On and Off the Field

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Minnesota Twins took the field looking to rid themselves from the ugly outing on Monday night. Unfortunately, they came up empty in the box score, effectively matching their efforts at Tuesday's trade deadline.

Image courtesy of © Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: David Festa 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K (68 pitches, 44 strikes, 9 whiffs)
Home Runs: N/A
Bottom 3 WPA: Byron Buxton (-.139), Christian Vazquez (-.104), Jose Miranda (-.095)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Festa Rides Again
David Festa was promoted for a pair of starts earlier this season that didn’t go well. When the Twins needed him again, he was called upon as the bulk guy after Steven Okert. Working against the Phillies, he shoved and earned himself another turn. Tuesday night against the New York Mets, Minnesota’s top pitching prospect turned in another good outing.

Festa worked five innings of two-run baseball. He allowed just three hits and walked one. Mark Vientos got him for a solo home run, but Festa struck out six. Rocco Baldelli’s lineup managed just two hits and did little to support their arms on the evening.

Late-inning intrigue
The recently acquired Ryne Stanek took over for Sean Manaea in the eighth inning. The Mets starter punched out 11 while walking only one, and despite being left-handed, Minnesota failed to show any level of prowess against him. Stanek walked one while getting a pair of outs, but turned the ball over to closer Edwin Diaz. After Max Kepler reached on an error and Brooks Lee walked, Byron Buxton stepped in with two outs. Up against a full count, he chased out of the zone for his fourth strikeout of the night, and the man with a lesser entrance than the Twins Jhoan Duran stifled Minnesota’s threat.

Caleb Thielbar came on in the bottom of the eighth inning and quickly retired Harrison Bader and Francisco Lindor. Brandon Nimmo beat out an infield single to give the Mets a baserunner, but struck out J.D. Martinez to give his lineup a chance in the ninth inning.

The Twins recorded just a pair of hits on the evening, with only two passing the hard-hit threshold. Not a single ball Minnesota put in play was hit harder than 100 mph. Buxton, Royce Lewis, and Jose Miranda combined to go 0-for-11 with 10 strikeouts. Minnesota struck out a whopping 13 times with just two walks.

Notes
After more than 1,000 days since his last day on a major league roster, Randy Dobnak is back. He announced the move in the most perfect way. Minnesota moved Alex Kirilloff to the 60-day IL and placed Brock Stewart back on the injured list to accommodate the roster juggling.

Despite being the absolute last team to make a move of any sort prior to the trade deadline, the Twins added Trevor Richards from the Toronto Blue Jays. With ownership unwilling to do anything to support their product, they sent out prospect Jay Harry for a reliever with mediocre numbers and less than $1.5 million left on his 2024 contract.

What’s Next?
Pablo Lopez will look to play stopper on Wednesday afternoon. The Mets are one game away from a series sweep and will send Luis Severino to the mound. Minnesota has an off day Thursday before returning home to a pieced-out Detroit Tigers club over the weekend.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[Parfigliano]

Festa good.  Hitters bad.

[gregens]

Perfect headline for this game recap!!

[BH67]

Strong outing for Festa -- he's figuring this out and may earn a place for October. Good to get Alcala and Jax some work, and Thielbar was also good.

The bats were, um, breezy. Good thing the White Sox are next.

[thelanges5]

Twins play the ChiSox at home this weekend. 
 

Guardos play 4 against the Os starting Thursday.  

[bean5302]

25 minutes ago, BH67 said:

Strong outing for Festa -- he's figuring this out and may earn a place for October. Good to get Alcala and Jax some work, and Thielbar was also good.

The bats were, um, breezy. Good thing the White Sox are next.

4.56 FIP. Festa's giving up like 3HR/9 right now. He's not punching any October tickets like that, but the last two starts produced solid results, even if the metrics weren't outstanding.

[tony&rodney]

Baldelli was spot on in his interview. The Twins have been a good club, will get guys back from the Il, and a player or two from the minors will play a useful role here and there.

Strikeouts were up tonight. Hopefully, this practice does not continue. The Twins will need Buxton, Lewis, and Miranda to flush this game and return to hitting the ball.

[Blyleven2011]

Festa going 5 innings and only allowing 2 runs , I would say that was a quality start for a rookie ...

Our heart of the lineup  struck out 10 times , hope the get away day game tomorrow  they have better eye site in the sun ...

[Dman]

Really happy with the way Festa pitched and that he made it 5 innings.  If he can just keep improving and prove that he can make it at the MLB level that is huge for the future of the team.

This team just struggles mightily to have both pitching and hitting working together any given game.  When the bats show up the pen or a starter gives it away. Pitch well and the bats go quiet. Hopefully we get guys back and go on a run.

[Fatbat]

18 mlb teams have between 50-59 wins. Twins have 58. Six teams have 60 or more wins.  We are above average in every thing except health.  When we get C4 back and our recently acquired slightly above average RP in uniform, we will be even better.  Its time to make a run at another winning streak. Oh and we cant have the #2,3,4 batters in the lineup strike out 10 times in a game. That was just horrible tonight!

[Mark G]

6 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Twins play the ChiSox at home this weekend. 
 

Guardos play 4 against the Os starting Thursday.  

On paper that makes me very confident that we are going to make up some ground before the big series with the Guardians.  But part of me is really leery about the White Sox coming up.  They have lost, what is it now, their last 16 games in a row?  They have to win at some point; can we avoid being the one?  Although they do have the A's after us..........let's hope they hold off until then.  Or beat the Royals today.  But it still makes me nervous.  😳

[Aerodeliria]

How many players have the Mets acquired in the last month or so? 4 or 5? Two different mentalities...

 

(Really, I was just asking for one high quality or even one above average acquisition...)

[Patzky]

8 hours ago, BH67 said:

Strong outing for Festa -- he's figuring this out and may earn a place for October. Good to get Alcala and Jax some work, and Thielbar was also good.

The bats were, um, breezy. Good thing the White Sox are next.

Hitting like this, Festa is auditioning for March. October ain't happening.

[Patzky]

2 hours ago, Mark G said:

On paper that makes me very confident that we are going to make up some ground before the big series with the Guardians.  But part of me is really leery about the White Sox coming up.  They have lost, what is it now, their last 16 games in a row?  They have to win at some point; can we avoid being the one?  Although they do have the A's after us..........let's hope they hold off until then.  Or beat the Royals today.  But it still makes me nervous.  😳

Two out of three would be a nice series for us 

[Patzky]

8 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Twins play the ChiSox at home this weekend. 
 

Guardos play 4 against the Os starting Thursday.  

Think we will each win two.. don't cross your fingers.

[adjacent]

8 hours ago, BH67 said:

Strong outing for Festa -- he's figuring this out and may earn a place for October. Good to get Alcala and Jax some work, and Thielbar was also good.

The bats were, um, breezy. Good thing the White Sox are next.

Will there be place for anyone in October?

[Doctor Gast]

Rotten luck we got NYY, NYM & HOU when they were hot not cold

[Whitey333]

Wow.  Not really surprised about the loss to the Mets.  They are hot and we are just meh.  Plus we have a terrible record against teams at .500 or better.  Not making a trade of any significance was predictable but still pretty disappointing.   It was also disgusting listening to Atteberry and Perkins on the radio defending Pohlads and the team not making any moves implying it wasn't due so much to money but everything was too expensive and the players the Twins wanted weren't that great anyways.  Really??  Falvey also said he wasn't under money restraints.  There was plenty of quality trades made by other teams improving, or at least attempting to improve their team.  If this is all Falvey could do was get a hang on reliever from Toronto then he should be fired.  Listening to Falvey gush over ownership, then the radio duo backing Falveys play was very well scripted.  I hope the Twins finish the season strong  but I guess I'm prepared if they dont.

[Whitey333]

By the way the Twins are currently 24-34 against teams with winning records.  Pretty indicative of where this team stands and the help they needed at the trade deadline.

 

 

[Karbo]

Rocco manages by a stat sheet, so I wonder how it is that he stacked the lineup with RH hitters, while the stats say Manea is much better against righties than lefties. Probably wouldn't have made a whole lot of difference, but just curious.

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

Rotten luck we got NYY, NYM & HOU when they were hot not cold

The good team would chill them.

[Peter]

Get a win today/sweep white sox-we’re good! Twins will be just fine!!! But as I said last night hate when small town twins play big city teams😤😡 

[Doctor Gast]

Twins were flat all over although Festa & BP were good

[chinmusic]

I'll be watching the Twins energy level post deadline. For this fan, the lack of activity was  deflating, even if it was expected. I'm hoping the guys can just forge ahead. We shall see.

[hitterscount]

Really cannot afford to get swept this time of the year when in a tight playoff race…. big game today, lose and you’re lose 3 games versus only losing 1 game with a win.

Now 6.5 out of first in the division, tied for 2nd in the WC, with KC and Boston, Houston and Tampa bearing down on a spot. 
 

The team doing nothing at the trade deadline while the other contenders made moves to improve will make this race really difficult… no room for sweeps, no margin for error need to play the best ball the last 8 weeks of the season to make the playoffs. My enthusiasm took a gut punch yesterday with lack of urgency in getting some much needed help.

 

[DJL44]

Thielbar has put together a decent July. Hope he can repeat it in August and September.

[Blyleven2011]

2 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

Wow.  Not really surprised about the loss to the Mets.  They are hot and we are just meh.  Plus we have a terrible record against teams at .500 or better.  Not making a trade of any significance was predictable but still pretty disappointing.   It was also disgusting listening to Atteberry and Perkins on the radio defending Pohlads and the team not making any moves implying it wasn't due so much to money but everything was too expensive and the players the Twins wanted weren't that great anyways.  Really??  Falvey also said he wasn't under money restraints.  There was plenty of quality trades made by other teams improving, or at least attempting to improve their team.  If this is all Falvey could do was get a hang on reliever from Toronto then he should be fired.  Listening to Falvey gush over ownership, then the radio duo backing Falveys play was very well scripted.  I hope the Twins finish the season strong  but I guess I'm prepared if they dont.

I've been a life long fan of the twins ...

I can't even be a fan of the FO and the pohlads for a day ...

Does richards really move the needle , guess we will see ...

 

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

Twins were flat all over although Festa & BP were good

Seems like crappy pitching is easier to instantly remedy than crappy hitting, which is persistent and contagious with these guys.

 

[Patzky]

47 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Thielbar has put together a decent July. Hope he can repeat it in August and September.

The guys everyone wanted gone in May (Thielbar, Vazquez, Margot) are instrumental in July. 

Is a Farmer recurrence in the near future?

[LambchoP]

This team looks to have absolutely no fight to them lately. No momentum whatsoever. What's even more alarming is this lineup is looking more and more like the lineup from the start of the year when we were striking out 12-15 times per game. Hopefully tomorrows lineup isn't a typical Rocco rubber game lineup with no Lewis, Buxton or Miranda. I really think our playoff chances are going to hinge on the 8 games we play against Cleveland. Hopefully we can get fully healthy and on a bit of a roll before we play them. Since we didn't upgrade our pitching at all, anyone think there's a chance we see Zebby out of the bullpen? I think Varland will be first man up, but if he struggles like he has as a starter, we're going to need someone to pitch quality innings