Twins 1, Mets 5: Pitchers are the Best Athletes (Derogatory)

[Nate Palmer]

The Minnesota Twins' bullpen (and bats) fell flat once again. Add two more pitcher throwing errors to Minnesota's tally, and the New York Mets didn't squander their opportunity to easily take the first game of the series.  

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Joe Ryan: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K (101 pitches, 65 strikes (64.4%)
Home Runs: N/A
Bottom 3 WPA: Justin Topa (-0.251), Jorge Alcala (-0.111), Byron Buxton (-0.106)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Minnesota Twins finally put together a complete game to close out their series and get a win against division rival Detroit Tigers. They welcomed the New York Mets to Target Field Monday to build on that momentum. A cold, windy, did I say windy Target Field? 

Joe Ryan Strikes Out Eight
As the Twins looked to build on Sunday’s win, Joe Ryan also took the mound looking to build on his last outing, against the Royals. In that start, Ryan completed seven innings, struck out four batters, and held the Royals scoreless. Ryan’s first inning Monday was also scoreless, but set the righthander up in a hole. He had to spend 27 pitches to get through the inning after allowing a double to Fransisco Lindor and a walk to Pete Alonso. 

Coming out of the first, there was good reason to question how the start would go. Ryan rebounded well, though, and only really had a third-inning series of events to hang his head about. In that frame, Luisangel Acuña walked as the ninth hitter. He used his speed to steal second base, putting him in place to score on a Pete Alonso single. 

The elongated first inning did limit Ryan to five innings pitched, but he kept them very much in it over 101 pitches. The Acuña run was the only run allowed by Ryan, while he struck out eight Mets batters. 

Twins Runs
With Ryan heading out of the game, the Twins were able to put together a little rally of base activity of their own. Ironically, most of it centered around walks. Trevor Larnach walked, Ty France was hit by a pitch, and Brooks Lee also walked. That set up a Christian Vázquez sacrifice fly. That would be all the Twins could muster, though, leaving the inning with the game tied at 1-1 after five innings. 

Pitcher Fielding Errors Bury Them Again
The glimpse of hope didn’t last long for the Twins. With Justin Topa in the game as the first arm out of the bullpen, Alonso singled, and Mark Vientos doubled to score a run. The maddening part of the inning came as Vientos also would come around to score, due to another throwing error by a Twins pitcher. Obviously, this time, Topa made the mistake, airmailing a throw in an attempt to retire Luis Torrens.

The seventh inning became "second verse, same as the first," in too many ways. Jorge Alcala took the mound and promptly committed his own throwing error, as he tried fielding an Acuña bunt but ended up putting the speedy second baseman on second base again. That set the stage for the heart of the Mets lineup, and Juan Soto, who had been held in check, would no longer be. Soto took Alcala deep to right-center to stretch the lead to 5-1 in favor of the visiting team. 

Christian Vázquez Exits in Ninth
Catcher Vázquez was hit on the hand by a foul ball with Tyrone Taylor up to bat in the final frame. The cold weather certainly didn’t help with how that would have felt. Vázquez exited the game and was replaced by Mickey Gasper to finish things off. 

Ryan did plenty in setting the Twins up to win the game. Once again, the bullpen failed to hold off the opposing offense from there, in large part due to the fielding issues. The bats also did not come through, and that bases-loaded fifth-inning situation will haunt the Twins into the twilight. 

What’s Next?
The Twins need to find a win again, and find it quickly. Bailey Ober will be tasked with that duty. Ober looked strong in his third outing of the young season, and the Twins will lean on him to start a winning streak. The Mets will counter with righthander Tylor Megill, who comes to Target Field with a minuscule 0.63 ERA over 14 ⅓ innings. The Twins bats will be challenged once again. 

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	MON	FRI	SAT	SUN	SUN	TOT
Funderburk	0	0	43	0	36	79
Topa	0	37	0	0	21	58
Alcalá	0	23	10	0	18	51
Sands	24	0	0	17	0	41
Varland	18	0	0	12	0	30
Durán	0	0	12	10	0	22
Jax	0	0	0	17	0	17
Coulombe	4	6	0	0	0	10

 

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[rv78]

Last 2 wins came with either Buxton or Correa sitting on the bench. Today they both play and promptly go a combined 0 fer 8. Good thing for them and unfortunately for us they are supposed superstars or they be next in line to be DFA'd. Maybe they'd wave their no trade clauses and we could trade them both for one Luis Arraez. then we'd at least have 1 player that could hit.

[RpR]

[Mike Sixel]

I'm done with alcala at this point. 

[Nashvilletwin]

Again, it’s not rocket science.  Walks turn into runs, throw the ball all over the field like little leaguers, no key hits, the “stars” you count on to lead the team go 0-7 with 4ks.  You lose.

It’s basically as predictable as the sun rising in the east.

Btw, what was the attendance tonight?  Yeah, it was cold, but  geez, the stands looked barren tonight.  Better get used to it - we keep playing like this and even nice weather won’t save the gate this year. 

[Parfigliano]

5 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Again, it’s not rocket science.  Walks turn into runs, throw the ball all over the field like little leaguers, no key hits, the “stars” you count on to lead the team go 0-7 with 4ks.  You lose.

It’s basically as predictable as the sun rising in the east.

Btw, what was the attendance tonight?  Yeah, it was cold, but  geez, the stands looked barren tonight.  Better get used to it - we keep playing like this and even nice weather won’t save the gate this year. 

They said 10,240 attendance.  My wife and I were there and I'd say 4,000 tops of which a lot were Met fans.

[tony&rodney]

Three hits is not going to cut it. The miscues didn't really factor into the game tonight but they add up. Among the plays/non-plays that were obvious are Larnach lumbering late on a foul ball, Larnach waiting for a base hit to get to him instead of charging the ball (it wouldn't have made a difference), a slow and poor relay and subsequent throw to a base without a defender there, a very poor throw on a steal, and the pitchers doing their thing. It was a real ****** night to play baseball but the number of little things add up. I am still not seeing Twins running out simple groundouts where I see the other teams hustling down the line. Buck and Carlos? Oh my.

Tomorrow the Twins should see the sun at game time. Maybe that will help. Ryan was good if not exactly efficient tonight. Maybe Ober can go 7 innings tomorrow. The bats need to show though.

[Aggies7]

Consistently getting one extra inning from our starting pitchers would change so much. Our guys just need to many pitches to get outs, even when they keep the opponent off the board.

[Aggies7]

1 minute ago, tony&rodney said:

Three hits is not going to cut it. The miscues didn't really factor into the game tonight but they add up. Among the plays/non-plays that were obvious are Larnach lumbering late on a foul ball, Larnach waiting for a base hit to get to him instead of charging the ball (it wouldn't have made a difference), a slow and poor relay and subsequent throw to a base without a defender there, a very poor throw on a steal, and the pitchers doing their thing. It was a real ****** night to play baseball but the number of little things add up. I am still not seeing Twins running out simple groundouts where I see the other teams hustling down the line. Buck and Carlos? Oh my.

Tomorrow the Twins should see the sun at game time. Maybe that will help. Ryan was good if not exactly efficient tonight. Maybe Ober can go 7 innings tomorrow. The bats need to show though.

The miscues did factor in. Failing to tag up from second (I forget the runner) on the sac fly probably cost a run (and the lead). 

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

They said 10,240 attendance.  My wife and I were there and I'd say 4,000 tops of which a lot were Met fans.

It looked empty. Some sloppy public relationship gaffes, crappy weather, losses, poor fundamental play, boring style of play, negative press, etc. It all adds up. Things could get ugly.

I'm hoping for some wins and sunny days ahead. Today is over and tomorrow should be better.

[Blyleven2011]

According to the title  ...

If the pitchers are the best athletes on the team , I bet we could convince Bert Blyleven  to come back from retirement  ....

[Western SD Fan]

6 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

It looked empty. Some sloppy public relationship gaffes, crappy weather, losses, poor fundamental play, boring style of play, negative press, etc. It all adds up. Things could get ugly.

I'm hoping for some wins and sunny days ahead. Today is over and tomorrow should be better.

I don't see attendance improving much for tomorrow.  Tomorrow may be an important game for future attendance as the game will be broadcast free over the air on Fox 9 for people who live in the Twin Cities Area.  If they play like they played tonight, that may end up sealing the season's worth of attendance.

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

The miscues did factor in. Failing to tag up from second (I forget the runner) on the sac fly probably cost a run (and the lead). 

It was France and it takes him a while to get from base to base. Mostly, I meant that 3 hits is not good odds for a win and then catalogued a few sloppy plays for examples of what has been too often a pattern, which I'm hoping the Twins will stop.  I would have tagged up but France, who is currently our best player, doesn't like to run. France, Miranda, Lee, and Vazquez have serious gravity when running. 

[Parfigliano]

14 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Three hits is not going to cut it. The miscues didn't really factor into the game tonight but they add up. Among the plays/non-plays that were obvious are Larnach lumbering late on a foul ball, Larnach waiting for a base hit to get to him instead of charging the ball (it wouldn't have made a difference), a slow and poor relay and subsequent throw to a base without a defender there, a very poor throw on a steal, and the pitchers doing their thing. It was a real ****** night to play baseball but the number of little things add up. I am still not seeing Twins running out simple groundouts where I see the other teams hustling down the line. Buck and Carlos? Oh my.

Tomorrow the Twins should see the sun at game time. Maybe that will help. Ryan was good if not exactly efficient tonight. Maybe Ober can go 7 innings tomorrow. The bats need to show though.

Met Brandon Nimmo runs to first on a walk.

[Vanimal46]

The Twins are the 27th ranked team in watchability, according to the analytics. So we got that going for us. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/44629277/mlb-2025-rankings-most-fun-teams-watch-dodgers-red-sox-phillies-cubs-padres

[Guest]

Four teams in MLB with more errors per game than the Twins.
https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/stat/errors-per-game

Good defense is just not their thing. I remember how Twins fans made fun of the White Sox for years because you could count on them giving you two runs in a three game series, but at least they had offense.

Seems like it is all or nothing with Alcalá. He is infuriating.

[tony&rodney]

1 minute ago, Parfigliano said:

Met Brandon Nimmo runs to first on a walk.

I want to let the Twins slide on hustling due to the weather or maybe just empathy, which actually sounds a little pathetic. I was watching a few other games on the computer though and wasn't seeing much of this jogging to refrain from hurting oneself. Also, we did watch the Mets hustling on balls hit for easy outs, or errors in the case of grounders to the pitchers. Some things should be easier to address than others and hustling at all times is a start. 

[Aggies7]

6 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

The Twins are the 27th ranked team in watchability, according to the analytics. So we got that going for us. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/44629277/mlb-2025-rankings-most-fun-teams-watch-dodgers-red-sox-phillies-cubs-padres

Seems about right. Plenty of tickets still available for that big twins-Rockies series July 18-20 at Coors field 

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Seems about right. Plenty of tickets still available for that big twins-Rockies series July 18-20 at Coors field 

I actually watched several innings of three Rockies games thus far this year. They play much better defense and try to run the bases. They were more watchable in those games than the Twins in my opinion. Sad statement of my age and baseball addiction that I'm still watching the Twins.

Looking forward to watching Zebby Matthews pitch tomorrow night against a pretty strong Iowa Cubs team. I hope he isn't rusty from sitting for a week.

[terrydactyls]

A great, and typical, rally by the Twins.  Two walks, a HBP, and a sac fly.  Crappy defense.  No hustle on offense.  What an awesome team.  And Tuesday is a free televised game for twin city viewers?  Glad I live in Maine.

[Vanimal46]

4 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I actually watched several innings of three Rockies games thus far this year. They play much better defense and try to run the bases. They were more watchable in those games than the Twins in my opinion. Sad statement of my age and baseball addiction that I'm still watching the Twins.

Looking forward to watching Zebby Matthews pitch tomorrow night against a pretty strong Iowa Cubs team. I hope he isn't rusty from sitting for a week.

You mean a Rockies pitcher can field a ground ball and throw it to first base without a catastrophic error? What a crazy concept 

[Aggies7]

3 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

You mean a Rockies pitcher can field a ground ball and throw it to first base without a catastrophic error? What a crazy concept 

It’s going to be interesting to see if this continues throughout the year. The yips are real and can affect multiple players. A play you aren’t supposed to think about while doing is now something they’re going to think about every time they get a chance.

[Dave Borton]

Twins pitchers done have the "yips."

 

https://www.baseball-yips.com

[AlLagoon]

Joe Ryan is about the only Twin worth a damn. Excellence.

[Nashvilletwin]

1 hour ago, Parfigliano said:

They said 10,240 attendance.  My wife and I were there and I'd say 4,000 tops of which a lot were Met fans.

Props for sticking it out. Even better with the wife.  Nice catch. 

[knothole61]

Pardon this glimmer of optimism (it's not my nature vis-a-vis the Twins), but I'm pretty happy with the starting pitching at this point. Even SW-R is a bit of a gamer and Ryan, despite the high pitch count, looked solid tonight. When Lopez comes back, (and I really don't think he will be gone a long time), and we get extended "prime time" looks at Festa and Matthews, we may find that we have a very formidable rotation going forward. That's just one piece of the puzzle, but a major piece for any team.

 

[stringer bell]

29 minutes ago, knothole61 said:

Pardon this glimmer of optimism (it's not my nature vis-a-vis the Twins), but I'm pretty happy with the starting pitching at this point. Even SW-R is a bit of a gamer and Ryan, despite the high pitch count, looked solid tonight. When Lopez comes back, (and I really don't think he will be gone a long time), and we get extended "prime time" looks at Festa and Matthews, we may find that we have a very formidable rotation going forward. That's just one piece of the puzzle, but a major piece for any team.

 

I fear that if López is back soon he’ll be a member of another team by the trade deadline. 

[USAFChief]

How the hell is it possible a major league team can't execute a simple cutoff play to the point theres nobody covering 2nd base on a ball to the gap in right center??

Comically inept manager. 

[S Bart]

 I get so very frustrated with Buxton and his nonchalant strikeouts. Maybe he should spend more time looking at the ball rather than concentrating on his constant bubble gum chewing. When he does finally get a hit, he has to show off by pulling his BUCK TRUCK HORN.

[h2oface]

I'm switching to Banana Ball! They sell out every game, now. MLB stadiums. No walks. It's a sprint. Did you catch the 60 minutes this Sunday?

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/savannah-bananas-60-minutes-video-2025-04-13/