Make It Official! Twins 5, Rays 4: Trevor Larnach, Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee Force Rays to Take the L

[Nate Palmer]

Labor Day was a nervy one for the Twins. Rocco Baldelli had to turn to the bullpen early. The relievers lived up the task, though, and some young bats launched home runs to bring home the win. 

Image courtesy of © Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score
SP: Simeon Woods Richardson: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K (71 pitches, 47 strikes (66.2%)
Home Runs: Trevor Larnach (15), Brooks Lee (3)
Top 3 WPA: Trevor Larnach (0.352), Jhoan Duran (0.187), Jorge Alcala (0.117)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

 

As the Minnesota Twins continue to battle for playoff position, most closely with Kansas City, they set their destination for Tampa Bay to take on the sub-.500 Rays. 

The Twins took advantage of some two-out at-bats to get on the board early. In the first inning, it was Royce Lewis coming through, with Trevor Larnach on second base after a walk and advancing to second on a Jose Miranda single. Lewis, who hadn’t been his explosive self through the end of August, pulled the ball down the third-base line for a double. Larnach crossed home plate and gave the Twins a 1-0 lead.

The Rays wouldn’t let that score stand long. Also with two outs, Tampa's Dylan Carlson hit a 2-1 changeup in the heart of the plate for a single, which scored both Junior Caminero and Josh Lowe—putting the Rays up 2-1 to close out the first inning. 

Like in a great boxing match, however, the Twins and Larnach would fire back to start the second inning. With Edouard Julien and Christian Vázquez on base, Larnach hit a rocket, line-drive home run over the right-field fence. The lefty's home run ball was his 15th on the season and clocked in at 112.5 mph off his bat. The Twins lead stood at 4-2 in the middle of the second. 

Simeon Woods Richardson would give up another run in the third inning, and then leave in the fourth, with team clinging to a one-run edge. It left Rocco Baldelli in an interesting position, as he would need to manage his bullpen carefully. 

The first arm Baldelli called upon was Jorge Alcalá. Alcalá last pitched on Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves, where he only completed 0.2 innings and gave up a run. While the fifth inning wasn’t the cleanest, Alcalá gave the Twins 1.1 innings of scoreless relief. 

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Twins Daily's winning "Make It Official!" game recaps are sponsored by Official Fried Chicken, which you can find in center field of Target Field. With a name like "Official," we know we have to be the best in the game every day, and from your first bite, you'll know thats a promise we make good on.

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Ronny Henriquez was next to toe the rubber out of the bullpen. The Twins clearly had a plan for who Henriquez would face in the Rays lineup. The right-hander had been warming up earlier in the game before sitting down when Alcalá was brought in. After Alcalá faced six batters, the Rays lineup must have been back in the spot where the Twins wanted to bring Henriquez into the game.

The plan worked. Henriquez pitched a three-up, three-down sixth inning after accepting a big assist from Matt Wallner, who caught a long fly ball at the wall off of Taylor Walls's bat. The inning also included a significant induced ground out of the dangerous Yandy Diaz. 

As Baldelli continued to move the chess pieces, next up was Griffin Jax to face the Rays' 2-3-4 batters. Jax very clearly has become the most trusted reliever in the Twins bullpen, and deploying him in the seventh Monday evening was further evidence of that. It took four batters to get through the seventh after a weak Josh Lowe grounder up the middle allowed him to reach safely. Jax handled Lowe’s presence at first magnificently and struck out two batters on his way to a scoreless inning.

While the Twins were shuffling through their bullpen, the Rays were doing the same, as their starter, Zack Littell, who completed only four innings. The Rays bullpen did the job, until Garret Cleavinger gave up a leadoff home run to Brooks Lee in the eighth, for his first right-handed home run and a third home run of his rookie season.

With the Rays back up for the bottom half of the eighth inning, Baldelli next turned to Cole Sands, who tossed 13 pitches in Sunday’s game. Lee’s insurance run proved how important insurance runs are. While Sands cruised through the inning well, he made one mistake with Jonny DeLuca at the plate. DeLuca matched Lee with his own solo shot, bringing the game back to within one run, 5-4.

For the ninth inning, the Twins turned to Jhoan Durán. Durán slammed the door shut. Durán’s inning started with a rare pitch clock violation, but that didn’t rattle him. After two ground outs, the game ended with an emphatic strikeout of Caminero.

With that win, the Twins continue to get back on track, controlling what they can control by winning the game in front of them. If they do that, the playoffs will still be in the windshield for Minnesota. 

What’s Next?
On Tuesday, the Twins will send fellow rookie David Festa to the mound. Festa will look to follow up on his best start of the season after going six innings and striking out seven against the Braves. The Rays will hand the ball to Jeffrey Springs for his seventh start of the season. The left-hander brings a 3.67 ERA after giving up four runs in his last outing while facing the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Blewett	0	0	54	0	0	54
Jax	0	3	0	27	18	48
Durán	0	11	0	13	14	38
Tonkin	0	0	37	0	0	37
Alcalá	0	0	0	0	32	32
Sands	0	0	0	13	17	30
Henríquez	0	0	0	0	20	20
Thielbar	0	0	19	0	0	19
Castillo	0	8	0	0	0	8

 

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[Aerodeliria]

Tough win and very important. We haven't been playing well on the road lately, so starting off the trip with a W is huge. (TB is not a slouch team!!!!!)

[Colbeh]

+1 on the Royals and +4.5 on the Blood Sox.

Just gotta make it to the playoffs and see what happens. I always like to believe that its a 50/50 shot to win those whether you're the top playoff team or the bottom. This team can be streaky but it needs some playoff experience (and $$) for the future.

[blindeke]

It'll be fascinating to watch that bullpen chart over the next month...

[BH67]

Hey, Royce, can you spare me some of that oxygen?

[mnfireman]

2 minutes ago, blindeke said:

It'll be fascinating to watch that bullpen chart over the next month...

I'm thinking tomorrow....

[Blyleven2011]

The twins have started the month out right with 2 wins , the bats were active today  , the hitting has to continue  ...

The players  need to take the pressure off  themselves and just  concentrate on the daily game and not the pennant race unless they can develop a killer instinct  and go on a September winning streak  , then they can do whatever  they want ....

Get hot at the right time and the twins can still win the division  ... 

No days off for next 9 games , so they need to come to play  ...

Nice effort  for the win tonight ...

[Schmoeman5]

Good win. Springs is a tough nut. Hopefully the Twins can crack it. 

[TheLeviathan]

Another Rocco loss.  If he would just read the stats correctly and see SWR is terrible and we have MANY options that are CLEARLY better...we win this game.

Idiot can't even nerd right....

[mnfireman]

4 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

The twins have started the month out right with 2 wins , the bats were active today  , the hitting has to continue  ...

The 10 hits tonight was nice, but going 2-10 with RISP, not advancing runners and 2-out hitting all need improvement.

The pitching did hold the Rays to 1-9 with RISP, SWR managed to wriggle out of enough trouble to keep it close.

[Peter]

This was way way way stressful and nerve wracking 😬😬😬my nerves are fried 🔥🔥🔥🔥bullpen was great in getting huge huge huge win to start off series!!! 

[FlyingFinn]

Go for the win today and take care of tomorrow, tomorrow. Probably no Duran, Jax, Sands or Alcala tomorrow so that will allow the others to have their chance to step up tomorrow.

[darwin22]

Well.....a very nice W to start an important road trip.  

I, like possibly others, need to appreciate what our HEALTHY players are doing to make daily contributions to help this team win.  Tonight, obviously, the 2 main bats were Larnach's scalding 3-run BOMB and Lee's late HR.  

After a disappointing start by SWR it was great to see Alcala and Henriquez hold onto the lead with their scoreless outings.  Jax showed why he's our best and most reliable RP with his 7th inning work.  Bummer to see Sands give up a solo HR, but he pitched well again.  Duran closing things out with zero drama was much appreciated.

Really need Festa to duplicate his last outing as, imo, its unlikely to see any of Sands, Jax or Duran tomorrow night as each has pitched in back to back games.  Alcala also unlikely after his 32 pitch outing tonight.  That leaves Blewett, Tonkin, Castillo and Thielbar to pitch Tuesday night.  

Will be interesting to see if Rocco gives Helman a start tomorrow night against Springs.  

[Danchat]

Nice job by the bullpen holding up, let's hope for some longer starts in these next couple days.

[IaBeanCounter]

I'm surprised Winder and or Varland aren't on the active roster.  They could cover more than one inning.  I trust either of then more than Tonkin.  This was a big win, need to keep winning series.

[Mike Sixel]

45 minutes ago, IaBeanCounter said:

I'm surprised Winder and or Varland aren't on the active roster.  They could cover more than one inning.  I trust either of then more than Tonkin.  This was a big win, need to keep winning series.

I wonder if someone goes down before the next game and aRP comes up

[hitterscount]

1 hour ago, Colbeh said:

+1 on the Royals and +4.5 on the Blood Sox.

Just gotta make it to the playoffs and see what happens. I always like to believe that its a 50/50 shot to win those whether you're the top playoff team or the bottom. This team can be streaky but it needs some playoff experience (and $$) for the future.

Big difference between top and bottom playoff team… I’d rather host the wild card series versus being on the road. Higher seeded team has all 3 games if necessary at their park, pretty big advantage.

[hitterscount]

That’s how your closer should be used, only took 130 games to figure it out.

[mikelink45]

9 hours ago, Aerodeliria said:

Tough win and very important. We haven't been playing well on the road lately, so starting off the trip with a W is huge. (TB is not a slouch team!!!!!)

Have you looked at their lineup?  after the top four the best BA for the last five is Rortvedt.  I am delighted with the win, but we should beat this team every time.  The win was great and loved the fact that they continued to fight back.

[Whitey333]

Let's build on the recent short term success.  I believe the Twins have won 3 of their past 4.  We know this team is very fragile.  Never know which way they are going.  Let's win Tuesday.  Go Twins.

[mikelink45]

Excellent win, here are a few observations:

1. So glad to see Miranda and Lewis bust their slump.  I like the look of our lineup.  
2. Glad Santana is down in the order, I hope Lee keeps going and pushes him down another slot.
3. SWR was due a clunker and the fact we won anyway was excellent.
4. I think Rocco did well tonight - lineup, RPs.  But what is Farmer's PH record?  I cannot remember when this was last successful.  This is a crazy obsession.

[Doctor Gast]

9 hours ago, BH67 said:

Hey, Royce, can you spare me some of that oxygen?

I think the Twins need every bit of that

[Melissa]

Rocco seems to try to get his bench players in when possible, to keep them loose and engaged.

Thankfully with Margot on the IL there’s no perceived need to have him pinch hit. His complete lack of base hits in that role reached unsupportable levels. To be fair, I believe Margot did draw some walks and hit sac flies as a pinch hitter, but still…

18 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

1. I think Rocco did well tonight - lineup, RPs.  But what is Farmer's PH record?  I cannot remember when this was last successful.  This is a crazy obsession.

 

[stringer bell]

26 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Excellent win, here are a few observations:

1. So glad to see Miranda and Lewis bust their slump.  I like the look of our lineup.  
2. Glad Santana is down in the order, I hope Lee keeps going and pushes him down another slot.
3. SWR was due a clunker and the fact we won anyway was excellent.
4. I think Rocco did well tonight - lineup, RPs.  But what is Farmer's PH record?  I cannot remember when this was last successful.  This is a crazy obsession.

4-18 after last night’s line out. 

[Doctor Gast]

The rotation has been overstretched especially rookie Sims. Last night was a result of that. Our BP has been overstretched, we come into tonight's game with Alcala, Jax & Duran spent. Alcala looked kind of shaky but he didn't give up any runs & got the win. Sands should be available even though he pitched last night, that leaves pretty much Blewitt or Tonkin if there is a low-leverage opportunity. We desperately need Varland & Winder,

Our line-up is worn down,  Castro had been at SS too long, Martin in CF too long, Lewis admitted to being tired still he was put at 2B to learn. I like Helman but I don't see why he was brought up. 2B is his best position but we already have Julien plus versatile Farmer, Castro, Martin, Lee & now Lewis to play there. IMO we need much more help in CF & our line-up against predominately RHPs than much less frequent LHPs.

Going into a long road trip with little rest, I'm concerned.

[jmlease1]

Tight win. Not great timing for SWR to have a poor outing; while it's great that the bullpen picked him up, they've been pretty overstretched and it seems unlikely that any of our top guys are available today. Duran may not have the 104 mph velocity this season, but it's pretty ridiculous for him to be throwing a splitter at 99. My goodness.

TB is down this season, but they still have guys you've never heard of that will hurt you. Nice to see Rortvedt healthy and in MLB; if he can hit like this he'll be a quality second catcher.

[chinmusic]

10 hours ago, mnfireman said:

I'm thinking tomorrow....

Yeah, me too. I like this new "live for today" philosophy. At this point, they just need to rack up the wins where they can find them. Who knows, maybe Festa will throw 7 innings, or the offence will put up a few crooked numbers early. In any case, yesterday is in the books as a W.

[Swing Batter-Batter]

39 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

4-18 after last night’s line out. 

Still better than Margot PH appearances. :)

[mikelink45]

15 minutes ago, Swing Batter-Batter said:

Still better than Margot PH appearances. :)

.222 average is better than his overall average of 189.  With a WAR of -1.0 I am not sure he is worth a bench spot let alone a PH for a better batter.

[Doctor Gast]

35 minutes ago, Swing Batter-Batter said:

Still better than Margot PH appearances. :)

I'm kind of sad that Margot won't add to his PH streak. Maybe not.