Make It Official! Twins 13, Royals 3: Here Comes the Zoom

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Everything @Dmansaid — Matthews was good. Some hard contact but who doesn’t have that. Wont always get the calls from the home plate ump. But showed poise and command and acts like he belongs here. I think he moves ahead of Festa. 

also good write-up @Hans Birkeland

[William K Johnson]

Count on Okert giving up at least one run per appearance.

[mikelink45]

9 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

With a name like Zebby, ain't no need for a nickname. Don't change a thing, Zebby! I hereby add your name to my spelling dictionary!

I love it - his middle name I had to look it up today - his first name is Daniel.  His middle name is Zebulon.  Zebulon Pike was the first to come north and look for the source of the Mississippi - he chose Leech Lake.  Then he returned south and took his next expedition to Pike's Peak.  So we can use the peak as a talisman for Zebby's rise.  

[mikelink45]

6 minutes ago, William K Johnson said:

Count on Okert giving up at least one run per appearance.

He is the answer to who goes DFA from the 40 man next on my list. 

[Karbo]

8 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Why Varland tomorrow? Ober’s normal (4 days off) turn. Why save him for a team you’re 12.5 games up on instead of pitching him against the team you’re 2.5 games up on? Load management I suppose.

What the ____ is going on with Vazquez!?

Can Festa and Matthews find consistency right out of the gate?

So many questions! I’ll have to keep watching.

The Royals seem to have Ober's number. I agree with pushing him back a day. I wouldn't doubt it if they keep Varland up and use him in the pen as a long guy for now. 3 rookies in the rotation could lead to some short starts back to back. Would be nice to have both Winder and Varland in the pen just in case.

[CRF]

21 minutes ago, William K Johnson said:

Count on Okert giving up at least one run per appearance.

That's a lock.

[jmlease1]

Matthews did great. Love seeing that kind of performance from a rookie. He's got some things to work on, but the platform to build from is strong: he was locating pretty well, showed he had the stuff to miss bats in the zone, and got the job done. 

Nice to see the offense come out in force to support the rookie too. scoring runs in 6 out of the 8 innings the bats went up is impressive. Everybody except Santana had a hit, and Carlos drew 2 walks. Thought Miranda looked good at the plate in particular, and it'll be great if he's back to slashing the ball all over.

Great win; Twins needed to win this series after the split with Cleveland. Here's hoping they get the sweep!

[JDubs]

Whoever had "late season offensive explosion for Christian Vasquez" in the betting pool needs to get to a casino asap! What a delightfully unexpected development, especially with Jeffers scuffling.

[Whitey333]

Nice Twins win.  Great start for Matthew's.  Let's go for the sweep on Wednesday.  Please Rocco,  no throw away lineup and game.

[Peter]

Huge season series win!!! Let’s sweep royals today and clinch wild card! Time to focus on catching Cleveland and reclaim division!!! Go Twins!!!

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

9 hours ago, Shaitan said:

Does Martin look any better at 2B now that he's playing there with some regularity?

I think so. Certainly better than he's looked anywhere in the OF this year. 

[TFRazor]

9 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

We would've won this game if Rocco doesn't tear McCarthy's menicus subbing him in the early innings against a left handed secondary.

I hate it when he does that

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

Nice Twins win.  Great start for Matthew's.  Let's go for the sweep on Wednesday.  Please Rocco,  no throw away lineup and game.

With Buxton out, the lineup tomorrow pretty much writes itself--Lewis/Miranda 3B/DH, Castro SS, Farmer 2B, Santana 1B, Martin LF, Margot CF and Kepler RF and Jeffers C. I don't think this is a throwaway lineup vs. a tough lefty.

[JD-TWINS]

11 hours ago, Linus said:

Great debut for Mathews. He looked the part and handled himself well. Winder with another excellent 2 inning stint. If he can continue to pitch close to this level that will be a huge unexpected boost for the pen. 

Winder ……9 innings over 4 outings.

.888 WHIP

10-1 ….K/Walk ratio

3.00 ERA

Between Sands & Winder, seem to have some very nice, somewhat unexpected Pen depth!

Sands …… 54 innings over 45 outings.

.963 WHIP

7.63-1 ….K/Walk ratio

3.33 ERA

BOTH converted Starters over last 2 seasons…….Varland may join these two in ‘25.

 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

He is the answer to who goes DFA from the 40 man next on my list. 

Not Thielbar?

[jmlease1]

6 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Winder ……9 innings over 4 outings.

.888 WHIP

10-1 ….K/Walk ratio

3.00 ERA

Between Sands & Winder, seem to have some very nice, somewhat unexpected Pen depth!

Sands …… 54 innings over 45 outings.

.963 WHIP

7.63-1 ….K/Walk ratio

3.33 ERA

BOTH converted Starters over last 2 seasons…….Varland may join these two in ‘25.

 

Winder looking comfortable throwing 2 innings is a great development. You have to expect that the Twins will try and protect some of these young starters so having a reliever who can bridge things to the late innings is important. Winder and Sands are both doing better this year and look like solid middle relief fits.

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

The Royals seem to have Ober's number. I agree with pushing him back a day. I wouldn't doubt it if they keep Varland up and use him in the pen as a long guy for now. 3 rookies in the rotation could lead to some short starts back to back. Would be nice to have both Winder and Varland in the pen just in case.

Seems to me Varland is squarely the 5th starter……I guess, after Matthew’s first start, Louie cannot back slide today. Varland has pitched parts of 3 seasons and he’s had 3 straight very reasonable starts. Last outing v. Cleveland he gave up a HR on a hanging curve and then 2 consecutive singles - so 3 hits in 3 batters before he left the game and he gave up 8 total well into the 5th……not bad against a really solid line-up.

I’m interested in seeing who goes down today to make room for Varland on 26 man. Does Buxton go to IL? Does Matthews go down (not available for 10 days if so) or Winder? Winder has pitched really well over 4 appearances …..tough call!!

If it’s a spot start for Varland (he’s sent back down) and they keep Matthews up, makes sense to give Ober another 2 days rest.

[jimbo92107]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I love it - his middle name I had to look it up today - his first name is Daniel.  His middle name is Zebulon.  Zebulon Pike was the first to come north and look for the source of the Mississippi - he chose Leech Lake.  Then he returned south and took his next expedition to Pike's Peak.  So we can use the peak as a talisman for Zebby's rise.  

He must have great parents - they gave him a perfect set of names. He can go totally normal, Hi, I'm Dan Matthews. Or, he can be Danny, Dan'l, DZ, D-Zeb, Zeb, Zebbie, Zebulon, D'Zebulon, Zebulon the Conqueror, Admiral Zebulon of the Orion Invasion Force, D-Matt, Z-Matt... Best part is, none of them get picked on in 4th grade! This kid can't miss!

[JD-TWINS]

18 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Winder looking comfortable throwing 2 innings is a great development. You have to expect that the Twins will try and protect some of these young starters so having a reliever who can bridge things to the late innings is important. Winder and Sands are both doing better this year and look like solid middle relief fits.

VERY surprised - just looked and they kept Matthews on the 26-man and optioned Winder.

Maybe, going forward they’ll piggyback Varland & Matthews. Can’t imagine sending Louie down after today……doubt they take the leap and put him into the Pen with this many weeks left……..should be interesting.

[karcherd]

11 hours ago, darwin22 said:

2.  His 1st start came on July 4th at Metropolitan Stadium against KC. Hoping to (literally) cash in on Bane's debut like the Rangers did with David Clyde, who followed the same route out of college,

David Clyde came straight from high school to the majors, he never played college ball.

[LambchoP]

Why can't the Twins have nice things? If we could EVER just get all our stars healthy and playing at the same time, we'd have a very formidable lineup and be so fun to watch. Correa, Buxton, Lewis, Miranda and Wallner in the same lineup would be scary! Unfortunately it just never seems to happen. One or two guys are seemingly ALWAYS hurt with some kind of nagging injury:(

[mikelink45]

2 hours ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Not Thielbar?

Tough choice, but I think Rocco is pretty attached to Thielbar

 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

5 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Tough choice, but I think Rocco is pretty attached to Thielbar

 

Isn’t that more reason tho? Both are very ineffective