Royals 3, Twins 2: Twins Waste Opportunities, Royals Don't, and It's Another Series Loss

[Matthew Taylor]

Thanks to cold bats and more missed opportunities, the Twins dropped yet another winnable game on Thursday afternoon, dropping three of four to the Kansas City Royals and bringing their record to a worrisome 4-9.

Image courtesy of © Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Bailey Ober 6.0 IP, 5H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (73 pitches, 53 strikes (73%))
Home Runs: Ty France (2)
Bottom 3 WPA: Cole Sands -.390, Willi Castro -.214, Jose Miranda -.175

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

The game got off to a rocky start for Bailey Ober, who gave up three straight singles in the first inning, including an RBI knock from Salvador Perez that put Kansas City up 1-0. But the Twins quickly responded. Ty France stayed hot, launching his second home run in as many games to tie the game at 1-1 in the second.

Minnesota nearly grabbed the lead that same inning, after Edouard Julien doubled and advanced to third on a throwing error. But he was cut down at the plate on a perfect play from Jonathan India, and the game remained tied.

The deadlock continued until the sixth inning, when the Twins finally broke through. Trevor Larnach and Ty France worked walks, setting the table for Ryan Jeffers to drive in Larnach with an RBI single. But the Twins squandered yet another golden opportunity to add on. With runners on the corners and one out, Julien struck out looking and Jose Miranda pushed a weak grounder to second to end the inning.

That missed opportunity came back to haunt them quickly. Cole Sands relieved Ober (who had thrown just 73 pitches through six strong innings) and got into immediate trouble. After hitting Freddy Fermin and allowing back-to-back singles, Sands gave up a game-tying sac fly. One batter later, Kansas City took a 3-2 lead on a Michael Massey single.

The Twins tried to rally in the ninth. They got two runners aboard with one out, but once again, the bats went cold. A strikeout and a groundout ended the threat and the game.

Minnesota went just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, stranding runners in multiple key spots. The offense simply hasn’t clicked, and now, 13 games into the season, the Twins sit at 4-9, with only one series win (against the White Sox) to show for it.

Another talking point will surely be the decision to pull Ober after such light work. While his velocity dipped into the upper 80s late in his outing—possibly a lingering effect from the virus that limited his first start—the choice to go to the bullpen early proved costly.

What’s Next?
After dropping the series in Kansas City, the Twins return to Target Field for a three-game weekend set against the Detroit Tigers. David Festa is slated to start Friday’s opener against Reese Olson, as the Twins look to capture their first non-White Sox series win of the season and dip for the first time into their wealth of minor-league starting depth. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[Aggies7]

White Sox still haven’t won since beating the twins on March 31

[h2oface]

73 pitches and cruising. Thinking too much and pulling the starter. Baldelli Ball returns. If Ober is getting bombed leave him in to eat innings, but cruising and winning? Pull him with only 73 pitches after 6. And why? 

Best bullpen in MLB. Just don’t ask them to hold a runner and throw it to first. Or not hit batters. And now use 3 pitchers in 2 innings. Smart though. By blowing the save and relying on an anemic offense, you save an inning for the pen and don’t have to pitch the 9th. 
 

And that Julien slide? Decisive. 

[Mike Sixel]

Gotta make some changes. 

[Peter]

Was soooo excited for twins/mlb season but now it’s 🤮💩🗑️😤🤬😡👎could care less about nfl what a massive disappointment-as I said before season ended with loss to Houston last Sunday. Going to be difficult to watch twins as its wasted summer and wasted season🤮🤬😡💩🗑️👎

[Galen]

Maybe next time they'll build up Ober's stamina with  74 or 75 pitches.

[RpR]

23 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

White Sox still haven’t won since beating the twins on March 31

They are waiting for the Twins.😎

[Road trip]

Looks to me like a team with B- talent playing down to D+ baseball.  You can blame a variety of individual players (and I do), but it wasn't hard to project that this team was going to struggle to score runs even if all starters were available and playing.

Changes are needed if ownership is interested in salvaging the season.  Soon.  And they can't fire 25 players.  

[mikelink45]

Yes - pulling the starter early is disastrous - is there a learning curve here?  I am hoping Festa does well, but based on the season so far, I wish it was Zebby.

[h2oface]

Looks like Varland didn’t pitch…

[jkcarew]

The very best managers in baseball…even if they have “good” overall pitching…are not going to be able to manage 0-4 runs scored per game into consistent winning.

And we don’t have one of the best managers in baseball. So the losing will be consistent.

[darwin22]

Living in the KC area this abysmal performance the last 4 days (minus last night) makes for some rough upcoming days being surrounded by a plethora of bandwagon Royal fans.

As mentioned in the game summary--the Twins CONTINUED FAILURE to produce with RISP far beyond "worrisome."  It is absolutely PATHETIC!

For anyone interested this collection of misfit hitters.... minus the 3 games in Chicago (9-20) are hitting just over the Mendoza line for the season against STL, HST and KC.  Now 19-84 (..226 average) on the season.  Making matters even worse in their now 9 losses (with many more to come) this group of POOR hitters are hitting .181 (13-72).

As we all know you have to score RUNS to win!  Twins have scored 3 runs or less (all losses) in 8 games already.  They've scored 2 runs or less in 7 of 13 games.

Beyond the lack of clutch hitting---KC was only 5-25 in this series---is the continued poor defense and inconsistent to BAD pitching, especially with our supposed strong bullpen.

This is a LOST season already.  For those naysayers out there, please point out ANY REASON to believe this team will rebound and even sniff contending for a playoff spot.  

The inevitable injury to Buxton (who's not producing) is inevitable.  Lewis is no reason for hope.  Castro hasn't done anything.  Lopez going on DL for likely at least a 2-3 week stretch.  

Since their absolute tank last season losing 27 of their last 39 games this team is now 16-36, 16 wins and 36 losses for a winning percentage of .307.  This team is cooked and any long time/open minded  fan (I've been a Twins fan since the early 1970s) knows it.

Nothing will EVER change with this franchise until NEW OWNERSHIP comes in and makes a concerted effort (like the Wolfs/Vikings) to put a winning product on the field.  

I really hate being so negative so early this season, but I cannot and will not invest my time and support to an organization that has zero accountability and leadership.

[KirbyDome89]

KC scored 3 earned runs combined the last three games of this series. They won 2 of those 3 games. Can't make this stuff up...

[LastOnePicked]

Are we 100% sure Popkins isn't still the hitting coach?

Or, maybe it's something else with this organization. Too much analysis. Not the right tone. Our highly-touted prospects bats are just awful. And the highly-touted, highly-paid veteran bats aren't any better.

[D.C Twins]

All histrionics and hyperbole aside, this is just a very poor hitting team.

While it will likely be marginally better over time... there is no reason to believe that the hitting will be good enough to compete for a playoff spot. 

[D.C Twins]

I feel bad for the TD writing staff and site.... the apathy that is likely to evolve over this season could be pretty rough...

... perhaps a rebrand to 'Saints Daily' for the foreseeable future?🤔

[Danchat]

10 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

Are we 100% sure Popkins isn't still the hitting coach?

Or, maybe it's something else with this organization. Too much analysis. Not the right tone. Our highly-touted prospects bats are just awful. And the highly-touted, highly-paid veteran bats aren't any better.

We're on our 4th hitting coach of the Falvey regime, you have to wonder if it's more about the talent than the coaching. Many of us gave acclaim to Rowson (the first hitting coach), but if you compare the players there's no questions we were fielding better lineups in 2019 compared to now.

[USAFChief]

8 minutes ago, D.C Twins said:

I feel bad for the TD writing staff and site.... the apathy that is likely to evolve over this season could be pretty rough...

... perhaps a rebrand to 'Saints Daily' for the foreseeable future?🤔

Eh, I dunno. I get the impression a good portion of the writing staff here doesn't particularly care for baseball and sure as hell rarely watches it 

[RpR]

42 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

Living in the KC area this abysmal performance the last 4 days (minus last night) makes for some rough upcoming days being surrounded by a plethora of bandwagon Royal fans.

As mentioned in the game summary--the Twins CONTINUED FAILURE to produce with RISP far beyond "worrisome."  It is absolutely PATHETIC!

For anyone interested this collection of misfit hitters.... minus the 3 games in Chicago (9-20) are hitting just over the Mendoza line for the season against STL, HST and KC.  Now 19-84 (..226 average) on the season.  Making matters even worse in their now 9 losses (with many more to come) this group of POOR hitters are hitting .181 (13-72).

As we all know you have to score RUNS to win!  Twins have scored 3 runs or less (all losses) in 8 games already.  They've scored 2 runs or less in 7 of 13 games.

Beyond the lack of clutch hitting---KC was only 5-25 in this series---is the continued poor defense and inconsistent to BAD pitching, especially with our supposed strong bullpen.

This is a LOST season already.  For those naysayers out there, please point out ANY REASON to believe this team will rebound and even sniff contending for a playoff spot.  

The inevitable injury to Buxton (who's not producing) is inevitable.  Lewis is no reason for hope.  Castro hasn't done anything.  Lopez going on DL for likely at least a 2-3 week stretch.  

Since their absolute tank last season losing 27 of their last 39 games this team is now 16-36, 16 wins and 36 losses for a winning percentage of .307.  This team is cooked and any long time/open minded  fan (I've been a Twins fan since the early 1970s) knows it.

Nothing will EVER change with this franchise until NEW OWNERSHIP comes in and makes a concerted effort (like the Wolfs/Vikings) to put a winning product on the field.  

I really hate being so negative so early this season, but I cannot and will not invest my time and support to an organization that has zero accountability and leadership.

The team is not cooked but some thing has to change, internally.

At that - so many of the AAA wonder kids, posters kept saying bring up So and So and So and So and So ... either turned out to be false hopes, or are already gone.

It is not a team, it is Rotating door.

[Longball]

15 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

Living in the KC area this abysmal performance the last 4 days (minus last night) makes for some rough upcoming days being surrounded by a plethora of bandwagon Royal fans.

As mentioned in the game summary--the Twins CONTINUED FAILURE to produce with RISP far beyond "worrisome."  It is absolutely PATHETIC!

For anyone interested this collection of misfit hitters.... minus the 3 games in Chicago (9-20) are hitting just over the Mendoza line for the season against STL, HST and KC.  Now 19-84 (..226 average) on the season.  Making matters even worse in their now 9 losses (with many more to come) this group of POOR hitters are hitting .181 (13-72).

As we all know you have to score RUNS to win!  Twins have scored 3 runs or less (all losses) in 8 games already.  They've scored 2 runs or less in 7 of 13 games.

Beyond the lack of clutch hitting---KC was only 5-25 in this series---is the continued poor defense and inconsistent to BAD pitching, especially with our supposed strong bullpen.

This is a LOST season already.  For those naysayers out there, please point out ANY REASON to believe this team will rebound and even sniff contending for a playoff spot.  

The inevitable injury to Buxton (who's not producing) is inevitable.  Lewis is no reason for hope.  Castro hasn't done anything.  Lopez going on DL for likely at least a 2-3 week stretch.  

Since their absolute tank last season losing 27 of their last 39 games this team is now 16-36, 16 wins and 36 losses for a winning percentage of .307.  This team is cooked and any long time/open minded  fan (I've been a Twins fan since the early 1970s) knows it.

Nothing will EVER change with this franchise until NEW OWNERSHIP comes in and makes a concerted effort (like the Wolfs/Vikings) to put a winning product on the field.  

I really hate being so negative so early this season, but I cannot and will not invest my time and support to an organization that has zero accountability and leadership.

The Twins dull off season gave me no reason for optimism.  I have been a twins fan since their move from DC.  This is one of the most boring and lifeless teams they have ever put on the field.  Too many players on the active roster that are not ready for prime time.  I have always been a spring training optimist, believing that the vets would be healthy and perform up to their potential and the youth would break out.  I chose not to invest $100 in Twins.tv.  I chose instead to wait for them to prove they were worth watching.  Still waiting.  

I agree with much that has been said in recent days. Knock knock, where is the leadership?  On the field and in the office?   Rocco is boring and predictable.  If ownership and management were stable and competent he would be gone last November.  Will they have the courage to make changes?  They look like July sellers to me.  Hope I am wrong...but, I don't think so.

 

 

[shimrod]

Bader is praised almost daily for his enthusiasm and visible love of the game. Twins used to field entire teams with that attitude. Even when those teams didn't win they were fun to watch. 

Then there's this bunch...

 

[jkcarew]

So far this season, the Twins have fielded the OLDEST lineup (batters) in the division…4th oldest in the AL.

Honestly, I think that among all the feeble statistics that can be pointed to, THIS is the most damning in terms of representing where this organization is.

Mature/developed and mediocre (let alone just plain bad) is a horrible place to be.
 

 

[gregens]

1 hour ago, Road trip said:

Looks to me like a team with B- talent playing down to D+ baseball.  You can blame a variety of individual players (and I do), but it wasn't hard to project that this team was going to struggle to score runs even if all starters were available and playing.

Changes are needed if ownership is interested in salvaging the season.  Soon.  And they can't fire 25 players.  

I agree with what you're saying, but I'll break it down a little further about what I thought before the season started.  Starting rotation = B+;  relief pitching = C+; hitting D+; defense = D;  manager = D-.

[gregens]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

Yes - pulling the starter early is disastrous - is there a learning curve here?  I am hoping Festa does well, but based on the season so far, I wish it was Zebby.

I get that for sure, but since they are pushing the starters back a day, it had to be Festa based on the Saints last starts for those two.

So, why push the starters back again? ... good question

[Doctor Gast]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

Yes - pulling the starter early is disastrous - is there a learning curve here?  I am hoping Festa does well, but based on the season so far, I wish it was Zebby.

I wouldn't doubt when it comes to Lopez again, they bypass him & call Zebby.

[Linus]

So Ive typed these observations several times this year. Several good fielding plays were made - all by KC. The Twins made several mistakes which cost them. If you are in close games mistakes are magnified. You are not going to win many close games playing like the Twins are right now. 
 

During spring training I mentioned that this season is going to be pivotal to the careers of Larnach Wallner Julien Miranda Martin Jeffers and Lewis. The early returns are not good. 

[saviking]

Poor Pohlads. First you can't attract a buyer for the team and now you can't attract buyers for tickets. This is when Ibusuallybstart harping about putting 26 million into one player but the rest of the hitters aren't performing either. 

Starting pitchers has had a few bad games but over they have pitched well enough to be tied for first place. Unless the Twins can pick it up by the end of May they need to bring in a new manager and use him like a defibrillator. 

[mark allen]

I guess stats don't matter to us. Zebby should of defiantly been next one up and I think Andrew before Fiesta

[Blyleven2011]

2 hours ago, RpR said:

They are waiting for the Twins.😎

Today's matinee game was winnable ...

The matinee is usually rated PG , but after all the cursing the game was rated R ...

 

[gregens]

18 minutes ago, Linus said:

So Ive typed these observations several times this year. Several good fielding plays were made - all by KC. The Twins made several mistakes which cost them. If you are in close games mistakes are magnified. You are not going to win many close games playing like the Twins are right now. 
 

During spring training I mentioned that this season is going to be pivotal to the careers of Larnach Wallner Julien Miranda Martin Jeffers and Lewis. The early returns are not good. 

Of the players you've listed, I give Wallner the highest chance of having an above average MLB career.