Twins 3, Guardians 4: Griffin Jax Goes from Hero to Goat, Offense Goes Silent After Early Flurry

[Nate Palmer]

The Minnesota Twins needed to grab onto whatever momentum they could from Sunday; they couldn't. Pablo López and Griffin Jax both looked like heroes, until Jax gave up the knockout blow in the form of an eighth-inning homer. 

Image courtesy of © Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Pablo López: 6.1 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K (92 pitches, 61 strikes (66.3%)
Home Runs: N/A
Bottom 3 WPA: Griffin Jax (-0.236), Pablo López (-0.106), Christian Vázquez (-0.084)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Minnesota Twins looked to build on their nine-run outburst in Sunday’s game and ride rotation leader Pablo López to start their four-game series with Cleveland on the right foot. Early on, the game looked to be in the Twin's favor, but would that reality hold for all nine innings?

Third-Inning Rally
The Twins got into an offensive rhythm in the third inning, and were able to move around the base paths to build themselves an early lead. It started with Carlos Correa, in his second game back, hitting his 18th double of the season. Behind him, Ryan Jeffers and Royce Lewis both walked to load the bases for Byron Buxton.

In his third game since returning from the IL, Buxton hit a ball off the glove of Guardians starter Matthew Boyd that ricocheted to the outfield, scoring both Jeffers and Lewis to give the Twins a quick 3-0 lead. Kyle Farmer followed up with a single. The hit didn’t score a run, but was enough to chase Boyd in favor of reliever Padro Avila.

Runs and Long Plate Appearances
With several long plate appearances, the Twins could get deeper into the Guardians bullpen than a three-run lead would typically allow. One that stood out that didn’t result in a hit, but sucked up plenty of bullpen energy, was Carlos Santan’s 10-pitch at-bat in the fifth inning.

Runs weren’t scored in each inning, but getting to see as much of the Guardians bullpen as the Twins did should, hopefully, pay dividends as the series continues. (Gosh, though, in hindsight, runs sure would have been nice.) 

Guardians Capitalize on Mistake
It wasn’t the largest of mistakes, but with two outs in the fifth inning, López let a sweeper get away from him, hitting Brayan Rocchio. That opened the door for the Guardians to get back-to-back hits. Rocchio was able to score on an Andrés Giménez single that Lewis did not cleanly field. With some heads-up defense, Correa finished the play by throwing behind Angel Martinez at third for the final out of the inning, preserving two runs of cushion.

Jax saves the lead in 7th
López spent most of the night cruising through the Guardians lineup. He once again looked like the ace of the Twins staff he needed to be. The seventh inning was scary, though, as Cleveland loaded the bases with no outs. At that moment, the Guardians sent Daniel Schneeman as a pinch-hitter, and Christian Vázquez visited the mound to discuss it with his starter. 

López responded by striking out Schneeman, but then gave up a single to Martinez, cutting the lead to 3-2. Enter Griffin Jax. With the bases still loaded, Jax would pitch the biggest pitches of the evening. He began by fanning Giménez, then induced the dangerous José Ramírez (who already had two hits on the night) to ground out to Santana at first base. Once again, Jax shut the door in a vital spot while facing some of the most dangerous hitters in a lineup. 

Until the 8th...
As well as the seventh inning went, the eighth inning erased all those good feelings. Jax remained in the game and led off the inning by giving up a double to deep right field to Josh Naylor. The Twins reliever did respond by striking out Lane Thomas for the first out. He would not be as lucky with rookie Kyle Manzardo, though. Manzardo hit a tank for his third home run of the season to put the Guardians up 4-3.

What is unfortunate about this game is that the loss will be pegged on López and Jax, when, in reality, they were just unable to work within margins for error left too fine by the rest of the team. It is the road to October, and when the Twins haven't been playing well as a team, it makes these moments bigger than they should be. It will need to be another "flush it" moment for the Twins and their two leading pitchers, but too many of those are piling up.

What’s Next?
As the Twins send Zebby Matthews to the mound on Tuesday, he will look to continue to trend back to having more quality outings. After a few clunkers, Matthews controlled his earned runs allowed, which was limited to two, but he will look to pitch deeper than the 3 1/3 innings he notched against the Angels. The Guardians’ Gavin Williams will pitch for the home team, and the Twins will look to continue to add to a primarily rough season for the right-hander. The Twins could also change things up a bit, now that they have newcomer Cole Irvin in the rotation mix.

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Blewett	0	0	41	0	0	41
Alcalá	0	9	0	31	0	40
Thielbar	0	0	27	0	13	40
Sands	0	0	0	36	0	36
Varland	0	0	29	0	0	29
Tonkin	0	28	0	0	0	28
Jax	0	0	0	0	21	21
Henríquez	0	0	0	17	0	17
Durán	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

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[Peter]

Horrible crushing crushing crushing loss😭😥need to find way in playoffs-will be shame if we miss out this year. Totally ruined my day 😥😭

[IndyTwinsFan]

Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  AGAIN!

Mostly due to the generally inept bats.

[jkcarew]

Cleveland’s pen…zero runs allowed in 7+ innings…using primarily their B-team.

The best bullpen in baseball…2 runs allowed in 1+ innings…using their best reliever.

That’s where these two clubs are right now. You can look at Cleveland and say they’re really not that good. The lineup sure doesn’t say powerhouse. But, they just PLAY BETTER BASEBALL than the Twins.

[NYCTK]

This playoff "chase" is just a reminder that mlb screwed up by expanding the playoffs. No one wants to watch the Twins or Tigers in the playoffs. We are a team that should be 5 games back, not 2 games back. 

[NYCTK]

9 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

Cleveland’s pen…zero runs allowed in 7+ innings…using primarily their B-team.

The best bullpen in baseball…2 runs allowed in 1+ innings…using their best reliever.

That’s where these two clubs are right now. You can look at Cleveland and say they’re really not that good. The lineup sure doesn’t say powerhouse. But, they just PLAY BETTER BASEBALL than the Twins.

Cleveland legit has the best bullpen in the American League though. 

[DocBauer]

I hate this loss. But I also don't like the headline. Jax might have been the losing pitcher, but he's not a "goat". That's lazy headline writing.

Jax is one of the best RP in MLB. He came in to finish off the 7th in a tight spot and got the job done! Then he was asked to sit down and come back in again, something he's seldom asked to do. And he allowed only his FOURTH HR of the entire season on a hard pitch that was high and a bit inside. And the batter did a hell of a job to jack it.

Meanwhile, the Twins bats went silent after the 3rd inning despite chances to add to the lead. Jax may have taken the loss, but he's no "goat"!

[DocBauer]

I think you nailed it.

With all due respect to Cleveland...and I mean that sincerely...I would put $ on a healthy Twins 26 man roster up against a healthy Guardian...(still can't get used to that name)...most any day/series.

But Cleveland just doesn't make many mistakes. (Not saying the Twins do). And they have a great pen. They nickle and dime offensively, keep the opposing team down, and then nickel and dime the offense to a winning run total.

The season isn't over! Who knows what can happen in a short series! But right now, the Twins lineup has been injured and terribly inconsistent. And the reliance on injured players and 3 rookies in the rotation has just been tough to deal with.

SWR has been awfully good until starting to hit a wall. Festa and Matthews have flashed, and will learn a ton from their experiences this year. But the rotation is hurting, and the pen hasnt helped.

Of note, I believe the Guardians relied heavily on 3 or 4 rookies in their pen this season. When we look at the Twins for 2025...getting ahead of myself here I know...and the arms coming back and on their way up, I wonder if they might not trust more of the young arms at the ready for a potentially young and talented pen going forward.

[NYCTK]

11 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

I hate this loss. But I also don't like the headline. Jax might have been the losing pitcher, but he's not a "goat". That's lazy headline writing.

Jax is one of the best RP in MLB. He came in to finish off the 7th in a tight spot and got the job done! Then he was asked to sit down and come back in again, something he's seldom asked to do. And he allowed only his FOURTH HR of the entire season on a hard pitch that was high and a bit inside. And the batter did a hell of a job to jack it.

Meanwhile, the Twins bats went silent after the 3rd inning despite chances to add to the lead. Jax may have taken the loss, but he's no "goat"!

Keeping him in the game was 100% the correct move. Jax threw 4 pitches in the first 2/3 and the Twins went down 1-2-3 on 9 pitches. 

[big dog]

This is the most disappointing season for me in my baseball life, which covers nearly 60 years of Twins baseball. And there have been some doozies. 
It wont be the most crushing playoff loss, though.  If they win a game it will be a surprise. Every game, something crucial breaks down. Well, unless everything breaks down. 

[Blyleven2011]

We need a bigger boat ...

The Twins are sinking faster than the titanic  did ....

1 inning they flex there muscles and no clutch hitting on opportunities throughout the rest of the game  ...

They score 3 runs on softer  contact balls in play  , then the  rest of the game they are swinging hard and trying to elevate it when they need to adjust there approach  and get a .single or double down the line  , they once agaiin had opportunities , but once again they failed to capitalize on it .....

[thelanges5]

Offense and lack of RISP (2-10) and the Cleveland bullpen are the stories here. 

Tigers sold at the deadline and are now only a game and a half back. 
 

Still cannot get over the fact that  we were 17 games above .500 after the 3 wins in Texas. This is an epic collapse. 

[NYCTK]

4 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

With all due respect to Cleveland...and I mean that sincerely...I would put $ on a healthy Twins 26 man roster up against a healthy Guardian...

Y'all are being such irrational homers. The Guardians have been by far the superior team this year and they did it without their second best player for all but one game. 

[DocBauer]

Just now, NYCTK said:

Keeping him in the game was 100% the correct move. Jax threw 4 pitches in the first 2/3 and the Twins went down 1-2-3 on 9 pitches. 

Not saying you're wrong. I want to say they did the same thing a couple games ago when he also finished off an inning on a couple of pitches?

My objection is one of the top RP doing the "up-down" over a pair of innings that he's not used to, and having a night where a hard to hit pitch was NAILED and then calling him a goat for the game. 

I think he deserves better than that. Plus, the offense was just poor in all crucial opportunities the rest of the game.

[BH67]

From Nate's summary:

"What is unfortunate about this game is that the loss will be pegged on López and Jax, when, in reality, they were just unable to work within margins for error left too fine by the rest of the team. It is the road to October, and when the Twins haven't been playing well as a team, it makes these moments bigger than they should be."

Then why call Griffin Jax a goat in the headline? The mood around here appears to induce seppuku. Please don't exacerbate it.

[NYCTK]

1 minute ago, DocBauer said:

Not saying you're wrong. I want to say they did the same thing a couple games ago when he also finished off an inning on a couple of pitches?

My objection is one of the top RP doing the "up-down" over a pair of innings that he's not used to, and having a night where a hard to hit pitch was NAILED and then calling him a goat for the game. 

I think he deserves better than that. Plus, the offense was just poor in all crucial opportunities the rest of the game.

Thems the breaks as a professional athlete. He's got by far the worst WPA on the day so unfortunately he's the one that's gonna get the negative attention. 

[DocBauer]

2 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

Y'all are being such irrational homers. The Guardians have been by far the superior team this year and they did it without their second best player for all but one game. 

It's irrational to give respect to a good team playing good ball but stating my opinion that position by position, man for man, overall, I believe the Twins stack up better if both teams are healthy and putting their best team on the field?

Offensively, the Twins outscore the Guardians. That's just a fact of real numbers. A healthy Ryan in the rotation, and even a healthy Paddack, the Twins are probably at least even in SP. The Guardians have one of the best pens in MLB, a given.

It's NOT being a HOMER to look at numbers and see truth. I believe the Twins are the better team, overall, fully healthy vs a fully healthy Guardians team. 

And if being a fan makes me a HOMER, then so be it. I try to examine everything with an accurate lens. And if you are a Twins fan, then wouldn't you be a "homer" to some degree as well? Or do you just prefer to be negative and troll vs having a real and logical diacussion?

[Nashvilletwin]

16 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Offense and lack of RISP (2-10) and the Cleveland bullpen are the stories here. 

Tigers sold at the deadline and are now only a game and a half back. 
 

Still cannot get over the fact that  we were 17 games above .500 after the 3 wins in Texas. This is an epic collapse. 

Epic collapse.  100% correct. 

[DocBauer]

6 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

Thems the breaks as a professional athlete. He's got by far the worst WPA on the day so unfortunately he's the one that's gonna get the negative attention. 

Oh, so a very good, outstanding player even, has a bad pitch. And suddenly he's a goat? 

So Pablo allowing an extra run or baserunner or two, or nobody in the lineup getting a clutch hit, makes Jax a "goat"?

We're talking simple semantics that I object to. I don't believe that term applies here. I think its an unfair label to a top player having one hard to hit pitch being nailed for the winning difference. It's derogatory in my mind. And if you find it an acceptable term for any player to be responsible for losing a game, then every single pitcher and position player has been a "goat" at some point this season in a loss.

Teams win and lose as a team. If you believe someone should be labeled as a goat in every loss, that's your opinion. I find this conversation to be dull and limited in scope, and over henceforth. 

[NYCTK]

7 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

It's irrational to give respect to a good team playing good ball but stating my opinion that position by position, man for man, overall, I believe the Twins stack up better if both teams are healthy and putting their best team on the field?

Offensively, the Twins outscore the Guardians. That's just a fact of real numbers. A healthy Ryan in the rotation, and even a healthy Paddack, the Twins are probably at least even in SP. The Guardians have one of the best pens in MLB, a given.

It's NOT being a HOMER to look at numbers and see truth. I believe the Twins are the better team, overall, fully healthy vs a fully healthy Guardians team. 

And if being a fan makes me a HOMER, then so be it. I try to examine everything with an accurate lens. And if you are a Twins fan, then wouldn't you be a "homer" to some degree as well? Or do you just prefer to be negative and troll vs having a real and logical diacussion?

I'm a baseball fan first. Yesterday someone here said Elly De La Cruz wasn't very good defensively nor with the stick. That just level of ridiculous fandom is detrimental to the sport. 

The Guardians are a better team. And our 2-7 record and 7 game defecit show that. Complaining about injuries which frankly haven't been that bad, is just loser mentality, seeing as how Shane Bieber missed nearly the entirety of their season. In comparison, complaining that players that are consistently hurt got hurt again is just so lame. 

[S Bart]

After Detroit's victory over KC this evening, I believe that they are sitting 1 1/2 back of the Twins. The Twins also would have the position of breaking a tiebreaker.  They need to boost their hitting and pitching. Corey stated this evening that the relief pitching ERA is next to last in the majors. Zebby is on the mount with his 7.11 ERA on Tuesday. 

My fingers and toes are crossed that something happens to boost the adrenaline. 

[Mike Sixel]

I just don't get what happened to the run scoring for this team. 

[Old Crow]

39 minutes ago, big dog said:

This is the most disappointing season for me in my baseball life, which covers nearly 60 years of Twins baseball. And there have been some doozies. 
It wont be the most crushing playoff loss, though.  If they win a game it will be a surprise. Every game, something crucial breaks down. Well, unless everything breaks down. 

Turn out the lights the partys over......

[tampatwins]

I’m holding out hope that they’ll sneak in, but man they really didn’t have to make it this interesting 

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, thelanges5 said:

Offense and lack of RISP (2-10) and the Cleveland bullpen are the stories here. 

Tigers sold at the deadline and are now only a game and a half back. 
 

Still cannot get over the fact that  we were 17 games above .500 after the 3 wins in Texas. This is an epic collapse. 

It is, but they were never as good as a +17 win team. The White Sox compete failure of a season and the Twins 12-1 record against them vastly inflated the Twins record. Even the 12 game win streak was a mirage, with half of those wins being against those lowly Sox. 

[insagt1]

Since that loss against Texas that prevented a Twins sweep there have been simply too many gut wrenching losses like this one. Twins offense has gone south. They have managed to beat Cleveland only twice this season. And lets be totally honest...games are won and lost on the field, not on paper or computer stats. Cleveland has been the top team in the division most the season. They have weathered all the storms that have swamped the Twins. Let's not forget KC too. They are every bit as good, on the field. Twins don't deserve a playoff spot and they probably won't get one. Their lead has pretty much melted down and they are trending away from post season.

Thats a reality. Even with a full lineup, they can't get the job done. And even just one mistake kills them because they can't score runs. If on Sept 16th, in a playoff race for their lives, they can't figure out how to win these games, then its time to turn out the lights.

Of course, since the game IS played on the field, they could suddenly flip the switch and get hot JUST at the right time, starting Tuesday. Odds are it won't happen. too much is missing.

As a fan, naturally I hope I'm wrong. (I'm battling a parallel problem...as most of you here know, with the Orioles...the other team sucking on the exhaust pipe right now because their bats have disappeared) Neither team is making me very happy right now. But until the math says its over, we hang on. Frustrated, but still kicking. Thats why we are fans.

[Linus]

2 hours ago, NYCTK said:

Cleveland legit has the best bullpen in the American League though. 

Hmmm…almost like bullpens are important. Maybe worth investing in?

[NYCTK]

2 minutes ago, Linus said:

Hmmm…almost like bullpens are important. Maybe worth investing in?

I think bullpens are less of a financial investment as they are a scouting and development issue. We brought in some budget arms and they all failed to even meet lowered expectations. 

Gonna be interesting to see what they cheap twins do with all of Brock Jax and Duran due for arbitration raises. Wouldn't be surprised to see Duran shopped. 

[Linehan]

Don’t think Griffin Jax is losing sleep over Twins Daily headline describing how he went from the hero of the game to the goat. Relax Francis. 

[mikelink45]

I can accept the loss. It's just a fact. But the WPA putting Jax and Lopez as the worst is ridiculous. I never like WPA and this is a good example of why.