Red Sox 8, Twins 1: Triston Casas is a Tigers Fan (Probably)

[Hans Birkeland]

Coming off a win that has been described as both "gifted" and the "best win of the year," the Twins decided to take game one of today's doubleheader off. Nick Pivetta dominated them on the mound and Triston Casas outscored the Twins by six runs by himself.

Image courtesy of © Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Pablo Lopez: 4 IP, 9 H, 7 ER, 1 BB 3 K (86 Pitches, 56 Strikes, 65.1%)
Home Runs: None
Bottom 3 WPA: Lopez (-.315), Willi Castro (-.060), Trevor Larnach (-.056)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

Following a merciful rainout of Saturday's game, there was a lot on the line in game one of a doubleheader against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Pablo López, who carried a 1.12 ERA over the past month (almost exactly coinciding with the team's freefall), faced a Boston lineup now lacking its $300-million superstar, Rafael Devers, who finally called it quits on the season after playing through injuries in both of his shoulders for the past few months.

The Twins got right to work against Red Sox starter, Nick Pivetta, who is as likely to strike out 10 as he is to serve up five home runs in a start. Byron Buxton led off by flipping a single to right field. Trevor Larnach advanced him to second with a hard smash that was expertly gloved by Boston's first baseman, Triston Casas. Carlos Correa walked, and Buxton advanced to third on a curious interference play. Pivetta tried to pick Buxton off of second base, and in catching the ball, shortstop Trevor Story put his knee down to block Buxton's access to the base. The umpiring crew conferred and granted Buxton third base, much to Boston manager Alex Cora's chagrin. Cora made a whole production out of his displeasure and was ejected from the game pretty quickly.

That may have given Pivetta the breather he needed, as he struck out Matt Wallner, walked Royce Lewis and induced a popout from Willi Castro to end the threat.

That momentum swing was compounded when, after an impressive strikeout of Jarren Duran, López induced a weak dribbler from Romy Gonzalez, which hit first base and popped into Carlos Santana's chest for a gifted single. Looking for a ground-ball double play, Lopez got the grounder off the bat of the slow-footed Masataka Yoshida, but it scooted past the shifted Lewis for another single. Story struck out on a high fastball, but Casas was waiting for a fastball and got one down in the zone that he crushed for a three-run home run.

After an uneventful second inning, López got Gonzalez to ground out to start the third.  Yoshida and Story both singled on elevated offspeed pitches, which brought up Casas once again. This time, López started him with a changeup, naturally, but with the count 2-2, he tried to sneak a fastball by him up and away. Casas lifted it the other way, over the Green Monster for another three-run bomb. Red Sox 6, Twins 0.

López's velocity had been trending up recently, with some of his fastest career pitches coming in the past month. Today, he threw quite a few 93-MPH fastballs and topped out at 95 MPH.

 The Twins scratched across a run in the fourth, with a Castro infield single, groundout, sacrifice fly and error. Buxton ended the inning with a line shot toward the Pesky Pole, which right fielder Wilyer Abreau made a tremendous catch on as he ran into the wall.

What looked like maybe a 6-3 game with Buxton's ball in the air quickly became 7-1. Duran singled and stole second, and Gonzalez hit a five-hopper up the middle to score the speedy leadoff man.

López was done after four, and newly recalled Brent Headrick got to make his season debut against... Triston Casas. Headrick's second pitch of his year was a fastball at the top of the zone that Casas pummeled 423 feet, past the triangle in center field for his third home run in five innings. Casas, who tore his rib cage cartilage in April and missed four months, is a big reason why the Red Sox feel confident about their future (in addition to three top-25 global prospects in the high minors). He posted an .856 OPS his rookie year in 2023 and added about 80 points to his 2024 OPS just today.

The Twins had traffic in each of their five innings against Pivetta, but went down 1-2-3 against fungible reliever Luis Garcia in the sixth, which prompted Rocco Baldelli to throw in the towel and remove Correa and Buxton from the game.

They made nary a whimper the rest of the game as the Boston bullpen, almost 100% responsible for their fall from contention as a team, cruised to victory.

Trends:

	Healthy	Hurt
Performing
Contributing
Low Impact
IL/Minors
C	Ryan Jeffers 📉	Christian Vazquez 📈
1B	Carlos Santana 📉	Alex Kirilloff 📉	Jose Miranda 📉
2B	Edouard Julien 📉	Kyle Farmer 📈'
3B	Royce Lewis 📈
SS	Carlos Correa 📈	Brooks Lee 📉
LF	Matt Wallner 📈	Trevor Larnach 📈	Austin Martin 📉
CF	Byron Buxton 📈	Manuel Margot 📉	DaShawn Keirsey Jr. 📈
RF	Max Kepler 📈
UTIL	Willi Castro 📈	Michael Helman 📈
SP	Pablo Lopez 📉	Bailey Ober 📈	Joe Ryan 📉	Chris Paddack 📈
RSP	David Festa 📉	Zebby Matthews 📈	Simeon Woods Richardson 📉
CR	Jhoan Duran 📉	Griffin Jax 📉
SR	Brock Stewart 📉	Cole Irvin 📈	Cole Sands 📈
MR	Caleb Thielbar 📈	Scott Blewett 📈	Michael Tonkin 📈	Louie Varland
LR	Josh Winder 📉	Ronny Henriquez 📈	Brent Headrick 📉	Diego Castillo 📈

 

What’s Next: Zebby Matthews (1-3, 6.30 ERA) goes against Kutter Crawford (8-15, 4.19 ERA) as the Twins try to salvage a split of the double header. Crawford is a good pitcher despite the inflated surface numbers, as opposing hitters have hit a combined .220 over the past two seasons. He does like to give up home runs, however, allowing a league-leading 33 of them this year in 171 innings pitched. And yes, he does throw a cutter.

Postgame Interviews:

(Coming soon)

Bullpen Usage Chart: 

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Headrick	0	0	0	0	60	60
Varland	10	16	13	0	0	39
Sands	0	17	16	0	0	33
Durán	11	0	20	0	0	31
Irvin	0	30	0	0	0	30
Jax	0	15	8	0	0	23
Thielbar	0	12	10	0	0	22
Blewett	0	0	12	0	7	19
Tonkin	2	0	14	0	0	16

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[Blyleven2011]

Bad day at that office for game 1 ...

New name for a floundering twins team ...

The Minnesota possums  ...

They play dead at home and get killed on the road ...

[USAFChief]

If the Twins fall in a forest, and there's nobody paying attention, do they still make choking noises?

[hitterscount]

They do not deserve a playoff spot. Pulling for Detroit, KC and Seattle losses for the past two weeks is really not that fun as this team play shows they really don't give a sh** .... . Cannot end soon enough, then the question becomes will the owners make sweeping changes to the front office and coaching staff or are they content with the product they expect us to support.

[mikelink45]

The Ace falls can the kids come to the rescue?  Everytime the Twins win the posts are filled with promise.  We lose and funeral dirges resound.  Pohlad is going to make another million with his fan counseling clinics opening soon.   

[Aggies7]

I’m going to riot if this mess of a team qualifies for the playoffs

[S Bart]

The picture is sideways on purpose. Let's hope the team can straighten the 2nd half. I left halfway through the first game in disgust and watched the Vikings game on my phone in a nearby bar. Detroit won and it is now ZEBBY time. All hands need to be on deck. Crunch time has arrived.

[thelanges5]

Where have all the good bats gone?

[chinmusic]

If the Twins make the playoffs, and end up looking as flat as the Jays did against them last year, I'd STILL want them in. That's my point of view, and I'm sticking to it. 

I know they're not very good, but they "don't deserve it" ...what does that even mean??

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, hitterscount said:

They do not deserve a playoff spot. Pulling for Detroit, KC and Seattle losses for the past two weeks is really not that fun as this team play shows they really don't give a sh** .... . Cannot end soon enough, then the question becomes will the owners make sweeping changes to the front office and coaching staff or are they content with the product they expect us to support.

How's the bottom line? 

[Guest]

GO VIKINGS!!!

[Linehan]

NAZ REID 

[saviking]

4 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Bad day at that office for game 1 ...

New name for a floundering twins team ...

The Minnesota possums  ...

They play dead at home and get killed on the road ...

All of our relievers should be named Blewett

[JD-TWINS]

No hits - no runs………Lopez could have pitched a gem and they still lose. 4-6 guys per game going hitless makes it tough to back the Team.

The Royals are struggling - that’s the best thing to discuss. Swept in back to back series & 4 runs over their last 5 games…….Twins like.

 

[twinzcynic]

Bro I for one am GLAD we gave up watching a perennial batting champion chase all-time records (while setting modern day records for lack of strikeouts) so that we can have our ACE show up big time in games like this where you absolutely need him. Bro have you seen our Ace's expected stats bro?? Bro?