Make It Official! Twins 4, Rangers 3: Carlos Santana Homers, Same As It Ever Was

[Matt Braun]

You may ask yourself: "What is that beautiful first baseman?"

Image courtesy of Raymond Carlin III, USA Today Sports

Box Score
Simeon Woods Richardson: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Home Runs: Ryan Jeffers (18), Carlos Santana (17)
Top 3 WPA: Carlos Santana (.282), Jhoan Durán (.203), Griffin Jax (.143)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Welcome to Player’s Weekend! The state-mandated fun begins Friday and the festivities will play out through the entire weekend. Observe such unique, fun examples of player personalities, such as special bats and… different cleats? You can’t have nicknames anymore—that was too much fun—but you can swing a pencil bat now; enjoy a party thrown by Captain Ray Holt. 

Friday was a homecoming of sorts for Simeon Woods Richardson. The Sugar Land native grew up some four hours away from the plot of land that would become Globe Life Field; an afternoon saunter for Texas standards. 

And he was fine. Gritty if you were in a complimenting mood, inefficient if your grade curves harder. He netted just five swings and misses the entire game. Instead, fortune took his hand and turned a 408-foot missile by Adolis García into a warning track flyout; later, Josh Jung saw much the same. By totality of fly ball distance, Woods Richardson’s start probably looked ordinary, but he still walked off the mound with just two earned runs on his ledger—enough to put him in line for the win.

“Well, how did he get there?”

Thank the long ball, all hail. Andrew Heaney diced up the Twins for two frames before a lethargic changeup turned 106.7 MPH screamer off Ryan Jeffers’ Ticonderoga #2 gave Minnesota their first score of the day. 

 

 

Another scoreless frame begat an eventful 5th. The all too important should-I-stretch-my-starter-one-more-frame-or-call-in-the-cavalry decision burned Bruce Bochy: he gambled with Heaney against Carlos Santana and could only watch helplessly as the 38-year-old blasted a three-run shot just above the wall in left-center field. All hail the long ball.

 

 

So began the running of the bullpens, with trapdoors and booby traps abound as the plethora of vaguely trustworthy arms give way to the guys the manager actually wants to use. This movement spat out Caleb Thielbar and Cole Sands; the former, nearly completely effective in handling his three batters, the latter, stumbling with a pair of singles to draw the game within one. Then he literally stumbled in an attempt to touch first base on a routine groundout in the 7th. Job security for the Griffin Jaxs of the world.

Indeed, Jax pitched a breezy 8th with two strikeouts before Jhoan Durán introduced himself to the game. He didn't need to stick around long. Leody Tavares snuck a cheeky infield single in, but a pair of Ks with an excellent Willi Castro diving play sandwiched in-between ended Texas' day and gave the Twins the victory.

Notes:

Carlos Santana hit his 318th career home run, putting him in a tie with Roy Sievers for 136th place in MLB history. 

Jhoan Durán earned his 53rd career save, good for 8th place in Twins history. He is 23 saves away from tying Ron Perranoski for 7th.

Manuel Margot's lead-off plate appearances took 16 pitches, the most of any in MLB this season. 

Post-Game Interview:

 

 

What’s Next?
The Twins and Rangers play the third game of their series on Saturday, with rookie David Festa set to match up against the veteran 262 starts his senior, Nathan Eovaldi. First pitch is at 6:05 PM.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

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[USAFChief]

Feels like we stole one.

It counts. 

[BH67]

Jax and Duran were lights out on consecutive nights? And I may tell myself, this is not my usual bullpen!

[arby58]

I've been high on Santana since they signed him, and he continues to deliver in a lot of games. It's good to have players who have been there before.

[arby58]

4 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Feels like we stole one.

It counts. 

How so? We only trailed for a half inning in this game. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

Guess I was wrong about who the closer was..... Nice to win, and keep winning series. 

[FlyingFinn]

I was wrong. Santana has been a very good signing.

Henriquez and Richards, get ready. You are pitching on Saturday in relief. If we are behind, you each will pitch a lot.

[DocBauer]

SWR was pretty good except for 1 pitch.

A little disappointed the offense didn't add an additional run or two.

I think I would have brought Alcala in instead of Sands who doesn't seem to do nearly as well with runners already on base.

Santana has produced WAY above my thoughts and predictions and I've been pretty honest in that. 

My biggest concern for Saturday isn't who's starting, but Jax and Duran not available. But then again, Texas has gone to their pen a bunch as well. Next 2 games might be slugfests 

 

 

[Shaitan]

3 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

My biggest concern for Saturday isn't who's starting, but Jax and Duran not available. But then again, Texas has gone to their pen a bunch as well. Next 2 games might be slugfests 

 

 

A 7 IP start would be amazing. 

But it isn't happening with a rookie, unless he's prime Carlos Silva tomorrow and can get a bunch of 10 pitch innings.

[JD-TWINS]

20 minutes ago, arby58 said:

How so? We only trailed for a half inning in this game. 

Guys were making leaping catches in LF - 2 balls hit 400 ft that were outs.

Sands stumbled past 1B to give them a free AB.

Okert K’s Seager.

Tying run gets to 2B in bottom of 9th.

Castro comes in, in the 9th to play SS and he makes a fantastic play in the hole for 2nd out.

Duran pitches on 3rd consecutive day.

Very fortunate!

[mikelink45]

We got a win with Margot and Santana at the top of the order!  The baseball gods are giggling and we are having fun. 

Richards continue to be our number two behind Ober.  How great. 

[tony&rodney]

It is a fine line for the Twins. Sure would be nice to see Correa in the lineup before August is over.

Festa will be hungry tomorrow.

[TheLeviathan]

We win this game if Rocco doesn't move the North Stars to Dalls and force our new team into Christmas Hockey Sweaters every night.

 

Traitor.

[darwin22]

Mentioned this a few weeks ago:

Is the time approaching that the Twins make a legit effort to re-sign Santana for next season?

My answer:  A strong "YES"

Yes, I know he's OLD, but he has produced with the bat in key situations all season and has proven he's the best defensive 1B we've had since Mauer---maybe even better.

I'm completely DONE with Kirilloff and I don't want to hear anything about Julien.  

Miranda is a viable option at 1B, but imo, his best position is 3B/DH.

 

[gregens]

Ahhhh, that ancient biblical beast once more troddens the sacred twins daily garden of eden breathing scorching vengeance toward any being that dares to entertain  a fleeting brain synops of criticism near the annointed holy one of managerial perfection.

[ashbury]

Once in a lifetime?  No, I want this to continue!

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Shaitan said:

A 7 IP start would be amazing. 

But it isn't happening with a rookie, unless he's prime Carlos Silva tomorrow and can get a bunch of 10 pitch innings.

Dont think Silva types exist in todays MLB

[Shaitan]

4 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Dont think Silva types exist in todays MLB

I know they don't, but you do get the odd exception (Ober's recent CG).

[Shaitan]

58 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

Mentioned this a few weeks ago:

Is the time approaching that the Twins make a legit effort to re-sign Santana for next season?

My answer:  A strong "YES"

Yes, I know he's OLD, but he has produced with the bat in key situations all season and has proven he's the best defensive 1B we've had since Mauer---maybe even better.

I'm completely DONE with Kirilloff and I don't want to hear anything about Julien.  

Miranda is a viable option at 1B, but imo, his best position is 3B/DH.

 

I like the 3 player 1B/3B/DH rotation, at least with the current roster.

[Patzky]

5 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Guys were making leaping catches in LF - 2 balls hit 400 ft that were outs.

Sands stumbled past 1B to give them a free AB.

Okert K’s Seager.

Tying run gets to 2B in bottom of 9th.

Castro comes in, in the 9th to play SS and he makes a fantastic play in the hole for 2nd out.

Duran pitches on 3rd consecutive day.

Very fortunate!

All hail Rocco!

[William K Johnson]

Julien is completely lost at the plate and is going to get hurt playing second.   That line drive that hit off his glove tonight could have been serious.

[Fezig]

I hate that this has to be considered, but unfortunately it needs to be done.

https://puckettspond.com/posts/new-mlb-rule-could-make-it-harder-for-rocco-baldelli-to-pull-his-starters-01j5bd1yeasy

[CRF]

We're not doing much, but we're doing enough to win games. That's definitely a good thing. Has Rocco learned something about using relievers on consecutive days, and that it's ok to actually do that?  

[big dog]

re: pinch-hitting (appropriate to the thread, perhaps not last night's game):

And you may ask yourself, "Am I right? Am I wrong?"

And you may say to yourself, "My God! What have I done?"

Gotta love Margot's 16-pitch lead-off plate appearance, though.

[Whitey333]

Nice win Twins.  Saturday will be tough as our bullpen is pretty used up and we have the rookie Festa starting.  Hopefully we can do it.

[JD-TWINS]

44 minutes ago, CRF said:

We're not doing much, but we're doing enough to win games. That's definitely a good thing. Has Rocco learned something about using relievers on consecutive days, and that it's ok to actually do that?  

It’s easy to critique if the only thought is the game that day……they got the win, that’s great! Problem Baldelli (mgrs) has is he is responsible for the next game & the game after that, etc. Can’t always have your foot on the accelerator to win today and everything else be damned.

Pen isn’t looking too good for today’s game relative to availability……hoping Festa can at least get 5 innings plus and then cross our fingers.

Sands was a bit shaky and then missing 1B - that made things a bit more tense than needed. Overall, Pen was really good again.

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, William K Johnson said:

Julien is completely lost at the plate and is going to get hurt playing second.   That line drive that hit off his glove tonight could have been serious.

It was his first game back against a LHP. He's been looking good at the plate again in AAA, so maybe give him a few games before you throw him on the trash heap. 

[NotAboutWinning]

Watching Santana last night, I was wondering if he might be the Twins next Nelson Cruz... With a very good 1st base glove as a bonus!

[Peter]

That was another nerve wracking intense game!!! Huge huge huge win!!! Tonight will another difficult intense nerve wracking game. But gained game on Cleveland!!! Let’s sweep the rangers and take back division lead for good!!! Let’s go twins!!!

[David Maro]

Big win with Cleveland going down in Milwaukee.

What is going on with Julien,he looks like a deer in the headlights.He has been here before but seems like he hasn't.

Santana saved this one with his glove and his bat.