Twins 7, Giants 6: DaShawn Keirsey Jr. Snaps Slump, Twins Sweep and Extend Streak

[Hans Birkeland]

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Pablo López: 6 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K (91 Pitches, 55 Strikes, 60.4%)
Home Runs: Brooks Lee (3)
Top 3 WPA: Brooks Lee (.412), DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (.311), Danny Coulombe (.134)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

The Twins haven't lost in a while, and were set up to sweep what was a hot Giants team. The key factor there was that Pablo López got the ball for Minnesota, while San Francisco turned to Landen Roupp, who exhausted his rookie eligibility by a third of an inning last year and carried a 4.89 ERA into the day.

The Giants must think highly of Roupp, because he holds a rotation spot over recent top prospect Kyle Harrison—as well as Hayden Birdsong, who struck out 28% of hitters in his rookie campaign last year. Roupp, a sinkerballer, has been excellent at inducing soft contact, ranking at the 94th percentile for exit velocity and 98th percentile for hard hit percentage. He made quick work of the Twins over the first two innings, using only 23 pitches. Trevor Larnach's medium-deep fly ball was the closest thing to a loud out.

Meanwhile ,López started a little shakily, giving up a leadoff single on a fat fastball to Mike Yastrzemski, who was then put in motion while Jung-Hoo Lee leaned over and flipped a changeup the other way. Willi Castro saved a big inning by making a sliding grab on a liner from Heliot Ramos. Still, that did result in a sacrifice fly and the game's first run.

Ramos has been hot, going 10-for-28 in May coming into today's game, and he continued his tear in the fourth. After Matt Chapman smoked a ball off the high wall in right-center field, Ramos took a first-pitch curveball located fairly well down and in, and launched it over the same wall. Personally, I can't remember a right-handed hitter outside of Aaron Judge hitting a home run to that spot, and definitely not on a breaking ball on the inner half of the plate. It wasn't a fluke, though. This is the same guy who became the first right-handed hitter to hit a ball into McCovey Cove, last year at the Giants' home park in San Francisco.

Maybe he did deserve that All-Star nod last year.

Just when things seemed headed for a sluggish getaway day loss, Brooks Lee provided one of the more encouraging swings of his young career, launching a hanging curveball from Roupp 390 feet to his pull side, and with Larnach on base to boot after a sloppy play at first from Lamonte Wade Jr.

Yastrzemski curtailed any positive momentum by lacing a first-pitch changeup from Lopez into right field to start the fifth. He stole second and advanced to third on a balk, with López appearing rattled by the calls from the dugout to step off. That proved important, because Lee (the Giants one) lifted a medium-depth fly ball to score Yastrzemski. On the play, Castro took a weird route to the ball and needed to jump to grab it. He then delivered a throw so weak I had to double-check that it was him out there, and not Johnny Damon.

The Twins answered again in their half. Kody Clemens turned on a pitch and doubled past Wade, down the right-field line. Harrison Bader then legged out an infield single, and Buxton appeared to square up a curveball, lining it to the left-field corner. Alas, Ramos made a diving catch (his second of the day) to hold Buxton to a sacrifice fly, scoring Clemens.

After a key pickoff from Christian Vázquez swung yesterday's game, Ryan Jeffers delivered his version in the sixth. After Ramos was hit by a pitch to start the frame, Jeffers threw a seed to Clemens at second, and his quick tag recorded the first out of the inning. López cruised through the next two batters to finish off his day. The Twins' ace had shakier command than usual, but his stuff and velocity were good. Maybe he'll pitch around Heliot Ramos next time.

Lee led off the Twins half of the sixth with a sharp single off a lefty, Erik Miller. Jeffers worked a walk, and with the infield drawn in expecting a bunt, Castro lined a single over the shortstop to load the bases for the struggling Royce Lewis. It felt a little like 2023 again, as Lewis lined a single up the middle to tie the game 4-4 and keep the line moving.

That prompted Giants manager Bob Melvin to turn to his former closer, Camillo Doval. Although he no longer closes games for them, Doval still possesses excellent, high-octane stuff. He induced a quick groundout from Jonah Bride, pinch-hitting for Clemens. Bader then worked the count full, and eventually hit a dribbler that shortstop Willy Adames couldn't come home on, settling for an out at second and allowing Castro to score. Buxton struck out to end the rally, but the Twins had the lead.

Louis Varland worked a quick top of the seventh, which exposed the weakness of this otherwise quality Giants team: the bottom of their lineup looks rough, and the only player they're missing is young shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald, who impressed last year but has little in the way of track record.

Trevor Larnach led off the bottom of the seventh with a rocket off of the aforementioned Birdsong, hitting halfway up the wall in right-center for a leadoff double. Ominously, the next three hitters went down without much fight, stranding Larnach at second.

Griffin Jax took the ball for the eighth, and immediately surrendered a hit to Adames that Buxton did not get a great read on. After Jax retired Lee, Chapman singled up the middle, bringing up Ramos with the game on the line. Naturally, Ramos hit a grounder off of Jax, with the deflection redirecting the ball away from being an inning-ending double play to a game-tying single.

Jax did recover to strike out Wade, but walked pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores to load the bases. He fell behind another pinch-hitter, the starting catcher Patrick Bailey, 3-0 before getting Bailey to tap to Lee at shortstop for the final out.

Three scoreless half innings would follow, with Danny Coulombe extending his scoreless streak to 26 1/3 frames. Facing the heart of the Giants order in the 10th, Jhoan Duran allowed two topped ground ball outs, but that was enough for the Giants to score the go-ahead run.

Lee started the Twins half of the tenth by flipping a single the other way against the nasty Ryan Walker. Jeffers then made good contact on a slider, but on the ground. It popped up and hit the Platinum Glove-winning Chapman in the chest, allowing France to score the tying run; Jeffers was retired on the play.

After Lewis grounded out, Dashawn Keirsey Jr. was forced to bat, despite being mired in an 0-17 drought and rarely getting at-bats. To everyone's surprise, Keirsey slashed a single past Chapman down the left-field line to win the game and sweep the series.

Trends:

C	Ryan Jeffers ?	Christian Vazquez
1B	Ty France ?
2B	Mickey Gasper	Brooks Lee ?	Edouard Julien ?
3B	Royce Lewis	Jose Miranda	Jonah Bride ?
SS	Carlos Correa
LF	Trevor Larnach
CF	Byron Buxton	Harrison Bader ?	DaShawn Keirsey Jr.
RF	Matt Wallner
UTIL	Willi Castro ?	Luke Keaschall	Kody Clemens
SP1	Pablo Lopez	Bailey Ober ?	Joe Ryan
SP2	Chris Paddack ?	Simeon Woods Richardson
CR	Jhoan Duran ?	Griffin Jax
SR	Brock Stewart	Louis Varland	Cole Sands
MR	Danny Coloumbe ?	Justin Topa	Michael Tonkin
LR	Randy Dobnak	Jorge Alcala ?	Kody Funderburk
		Healthy	Hurt
	Performing
	Contributing
	Low Impact/Slumping
	IL/Minors

 

What’s Next: The Twins are off Monday, as they travel to Baltimore for a three-game set beginning Tuesday against the scuffling Orioles, whom they swept last week. Simeon Woods Richardson (2-2, 4.01 ERA) takes the hill opposing Cade Povich (1-3, 5.55 ERA), who just surrendered five runs in his start at Target Field this past Tuesday. Woods Richardson has been bending, not breaking thus far, but hasn't been given many opportunities to extend himself the third time through the lineup.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Coulombe	17	0	9	0	20	37
Jax	17	16	0	14	29	33
Varland	10	0	7	0	8	29
Sands	0	13	0	15	0	23
Durán	14	6	0	10	14	20
Stewart	17	0	0	0	0	17
Topa	0	7	0	0	0	7
Alcalá	0	0	0	0	0	0

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[RpR]

[Parfigliano]

Hopefully today gets Lewis bat going

[IndianaTwin]

After a rocky start, Lopez getting through six was huge, particularly with needing an extra inning from the bullpen. 

[jkcarew]

Less than two weeks ago we were in a stretch that reached back to late August where…at critical junctures…you KNEW something was going to go wrong. All of a sudden we’re at a place where you KNOW it’s going to go right.

Couldn’t be happier for Keirsey Jr.

[Jocko87]

The trends color code isn't doing anything for me.

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

32 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Hopefully today gets Lewis bat going

Yes.  Good to see Royce "I don't do slumps" Lewis come through and break his 0 for 36 non- slump.  Now watch him go on a tear for a month. 

[stringer bell]

21-20. 15-6 at home, but 6-14 on the road at the quarter pole.

It's early enough that a good game makes stats look pretty good (like for Brooks Lee and Trevor Larnach), but it is late enough that a bad series takes a dent out of your stats (Ty France).

Eventually one of the front line starters would have an off day and it was Pablo. He did give the team six innings and kind of keep them in the game. Jax gave up a run when he deflected a probable double play bouncer and Durán allowed a ghost runner to score, but the Twins had enough to pull out the W.

I thought Lee looked very good at shortstop. He doesn't play it quite like Correa does, depending on a quick transfer and release rather than setting and throwing a laser to first base. 

Lee and Keirsey's big hits in the tenth were examples of making contact. The balls were not hard hit, but found the grass in the outfield. 

[stringer bell]

24 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

After a rocky start, Lopez getting through six was huge, particularly with needing an extra inning from the bullpen. 

Day off tomorrow, so just about everyone should be available on Tuesday. 

[USAFChief]

ARE WE NOT ENTERTAINED??!!

 

[Whitey333]

Surprised Baldelli sent in Jax.  He has now pitched in 4 of past 5 days.  Alcala hasn't pitched at all.  Stewart has pitched on̈ce and sands twice.  He had other options.  I'm glad it worked out.  I just hope they don't burn out Jax.  He's thrown 76 pitches this week.

[Patzky]

22 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_For_Life said:

Yes.  Good to see Royce "I don't do slumps" Lewis come through and break his 0 for 36 non- slump.  Now watch him go on a tear for a month. 

Yes please!

[FlyingFinn]

48 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Surprised Baldelli sent in Jax.  He has now pitched in 4 of past 5 days.  Alcala hasn't pitched at all.  Stewart has pitched on̈ce and sands twice.

There is clearly a current top 5 in the bullpen for us right now. Stewart and Topa are next. Alcala is mop up or emergency only as we can't send him down with risking losing him.

[Mike Sixel]

I did not see this coming a few weeks ago. Nice surprise. 

[TheLeviathan]

57 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Surprised Baldelli sent in Jax.  He has now pitched in 4 of past 5 days.  Alcala hasn't pitched at all.  Stewart has pitched on̈ce and sands twice.  He had other options.  I'm glad it worked out.  I just hope they don't burn out Jax.  He's thrown 76 pitches this week.

Probably more than we'd like, but I think with the day off it was trying to get the W with his best.

Hopefully we can give Jax two days off and let Stewart and Topa get us to 9 in a row.

[TheLeviathan]

I still think the lineup leaves something to be desired, but this pitching staff is really good.  With the OF defense playing well, this team can rack up some wins if they just keep scraping together good at-bats.

I liked how often we saw guys hit by going with the pitch today.  They turned on inside stuff, they drove balls the opposite way when pitched outside.  

The manager is also getting the most out of this band-aid lineup right now.  Hopefully that keeps happening until we get Wallner or Keaschall back.  Or Lewis and Correa find their stroke again.

[Blyleven2011]

It was an entertaining game , but also a nail biter  ...

We came from behind to take the lead only to let them tie it in odd fashion off Jax's buttocks , oh well , baseball is a funny game at times  ...

10th inning Manfred man does sucks,  I'd prefer a team would earn the victory  , giants got 1 manfred run in and we also got our Manfred man in but we also got another run in so we earned the victory in walk off fashion ( whew ) ...

Happy for keirsey Jr  ,  that's how memories are made ...

What a homestand , won 3 àgainst orioles and 3 against giants  , wĥo would have thunk it  ...

And the best part is we are a game over 500 finally and we can feel a whole lot better that we don't stink up the division like the White Sox...

Worst team in the majors right now are the Colorado rockies , poor souls ...

Hope all you mothers enjoyed the game , America's past time with friends and family  ...

[Werbellik]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

ARE WE NOT ENTERTAINED??!!

 

Are we insinuating something USAChief?

[Mrs. Baseball]

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

Surprised Baldelli sent in Jax.  He has now pitched in 4 of past 5 days.  Alcala hasn't pitched at all.  Stewart has pitched on̈ce and sands twice.  He had other options.  I'm glad it worked out.  I just hope they don't burn out Jax.  He's thrown 76 pitches this week.

He had another option in Sewart. Alcala? Yikes

[Mrs. Baseball]

Just now, Mrs. Baseball said:

He had another option in Sewart. Alcala? Yikes

My bad. Stewart

[minman1982]

A nice win streak going right now with a chance to continue against a struggling Baltimore team. Unfortunately, the Twins are still five games back of Detroit and trailing both Cleveland and Kansas City. Neither Cleveland nor Kansas City looks like they are actually better than the Twins but the Tigers are looking really good to start this season.

There are a bunch of teams (like the Twins) sitting at a game or two above or below .500 right now in the AL. Let's see what happens the next couple of weeks. If they go 4-2 over the next week in Baltimore and Milwaukee, maybe it is time to flip some pitching prospects for some additional MLB ready offense. The following week against Cleveland and Kansas City should provide a good opportunity for them to make up some ground.

[Jocko87]

18 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

I still think the lineup leaves something to be desired, but this pitching staff is really good.  With the OF defense playing well, this team can rack up some wins if they just keep scraping together good at-bats.

I liked how often we saw guys hit by going with the pitch today.  They turned on inside stuff, they drove balls the opposite way when pitched outside.  

The manager is also getting the most out of this band-aid lineup right now.  Hopefully that keeps happening until we get Wallner or Keaschall back.  Or Lewis and Correa find their stroke again.

Going back to spring and the reports the first two rounds of BP were for going the other way. I bet they are still doing that and a change like that would take awhile to take hold. Hoping it's sustainable as it's been a focus.

The swings by Lee and Kiersey are exactly why you work it that way. It's not for hitting the meatball, it's for fighting for whatever you can get against a tough reliever.

[jmlease1]

Yeah, fearful managing of the bullpen right now and over reliance on Jax...whose stuff has been there but the results have not. Why not the well-rested Stewart? Maybe he had the same bug that nailed some of the other guys.

A very nice gritty win. wouldn't have complained about a series win, but a sweep is great. Rest up and let's go throw Balto an anvil and see if Jim Bowden can write a fire sale article for them like he kinda did already for us! :P

[stringer bell]

Each spot in the order either scored or drove in a run. France scored as the ghost runner in the tenth, but everybody else did something to help win the game. The ebbs and flows seem to be series by series. The Orioles couldn't get France out, but he only had one hit against the Giants. Larnach didn't do much against the O's, but was on fire facing the Giants. 

The lineup hasn't been consistent, but I think that's true of nearly all teams in MLB. The pitching is pretty damn good, even the White Sox have some pretty good arms. 

I'll mention it here because I really don't see a place to discuss it elsewhere--Mickey Gasper is probably the AAA Player of the Week. He's hit six homers in about 40 plate appearances and his OPS is 1.576. Just because guys can hit in AAA doesn't mean they'll help the big league club. Keirsey got a hit that won a game, but he hasn't come close to replicating his stats at St. Paul. Gasper hasn't looked like a major league hitter in his 40 or so PAs in the big leagues. 

[Aggies7]

At this point, I would take an overworked Jax over the other options in a tight game. 

[Doctor Gast]

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

Surprised Baldelli sent in Jax.  He has now pitched in 4 of past 5 days.  Alcala hasn't pitched at all.  Stewart has pitched on̈ce and sands twice.  He had other options.  I'm glad it worked out.  I just hope they don't burn out Jax.  He's thrown 76 pitches this week.

Alcala should only pitch 1 inning every other day. I suppose they are saving to pitch Alcala multiple innings on consecutive days.

[Doctor Gast]

I was expecting Lopez to pitch the best against SF, but Paddack & Ryan greatly outshone him. Yet, pretty good pitching all the way around. Who'd thought that we'd sweep the red-hot Giants? Great defense & great job by Brooks Lee. Extremely happy for Keirsey, a great gift for his mother. I've advocated for him to be sent down to AAA to finally get in some regular ABs but I hope this very important walk-off will jump-start something. A great ending!

[wabene]

56 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I'll mention it here because I really don't see a place to discuss it elsewhere--Mickey Gasper is probably the AAA Player of the Week. He's hit six homers in about 40 plate appearances and his OPS is well over 1.500. Just because guys can hit in AAA doesn't mean they'll help the big league club. Keirsey got a hit that won a game, but he hasn't come close to replicating his stats at St. Paul. Gasper hasn't looked like a major league hitter in his 40 or so PAs in the big leagues. 

True, but I'd still like to see the McCrusher get a shot at some point this year.

[JD-TWINS]

3 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

Surprised Baldelli sent in Jax.  He has now pitched in 4 of past 5 days.  Alcala hasn't pitched at all.  Stewart has pitched on̈ce and sands twice.  He had other options.  I'm glad it worked out.  I just hope they don't burn out Jax.  He's thrown 76 pitches this week.

Don’t think he expected 29 pitches today when he put him in…….I didn’t see that inning but it sounded like some tough luck in a double play ball? I thought Topa may come in……..Alcala & Stewart haven’t been consistently sharp, period……am sure Jax said he was good to go, nobody is forced to the mound if health is in question.

Jax will get 2 days off, I’m sure. 76 pitches is a light outing for a starter and Jax has his innings spread over 6-7 days…..he’ll be OK! Mental fatigue comes into play for a reliever as well…..I’m more concerned about that issue with Jax.

Topa - Stewart - Alcala will all 3 be very rested by Tuesday night………Sands will be fresh as well. Varland is a horse and he’s thrown 25 pitches over 3 outings this week (8 days including Monday off day)……he’ll be ready on Tuesday as well!

Just saw Team has outscored opponents 40-20 over last 8 games/wins. That’s 2.5 runs per game given up by pitching staff - excellent! 5 runs scored per game is what Teams do when they win games - nice contributions across the line-up. Defense is a little better now as well.

[jkcarew]

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Alcala should only pitch 1 inning every other day. I suppose they are saving to pitch Alcala multiple innings on consecutive days.

Apparently, Rocco is waiting for a scenario where the Twins are down by a half-dozen, or up by a full dozen. Can’t say I blame him. But, won’t be able to get away with that forever. Maybe we see a mysterious trip to the IL in his near future.