Astros 2, Twins 1: Offense Absent Again, Houston Rallies Late to Sweep Series

[Hans Birkeland]

Image courtesy of © Erik Williams-Imagn Images

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (53 Pitches, 38 Strikes, 71.7%)
Home Runs: Brooks Lee (7)
Bottom 3 WPA: Jhoan Duran (-.309), Christian Vázquez (-.203), Cole Sands (-.194)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

You would be well within your rights to avoid watching Sunday's game in favor of celebrating Father's Day, watching the US Open, or drinking yourself into oblivion—maybe even all three! Nevertheless, there was a game to play, despite the Twins losing Pablo López, Zebby Matthews, Royce Lewis and (maybe) Byron Buxton in the past two weeks to injury, while losing games at an accelerating pace. Today was definitely a game to avoid, but the Twins themselves didn't have that privilege.

To try and salvage a win from this series against the Houston Astros, the Twins turned to Houston native Simeon Woods Richardson, who was obliterated his last time out, returning from the minor leagues to allow seven runs to the Texas Rangers—until then, a struggling offense.

Woods Richardson either made some adjustments, or was pitching angry, as his velocity was up and both his breaking balls looked sharp. He breezed through the first four innings on 31 pitches, without allowing a baserunner. If you've watched him at all, you know he tends to struggle to end at-bats and can be inefficient, even on a good day, so this was a welcome change of pace.

Meanwhile, the Twins were up against journeyman lefty Brandon Walter, making his third career start. Walter moved around his cutter pretty well with good command, but the Twins made pretty good contact against him. Brooks Lee extended his hitting streak to 15 games by smacking a hanging cutter into the Crawford Boxes for the game's first run in the third. 

Lee then began the fifth inning with a sharp single to center field. After Ryan Jeffers was hit by a pitch and Carlos Correa advanced the runners, Willi Castro (already with two hits on the day) came up with two outs and ran the count full—before taking a sinker right down the middle to end the inning.

The Astros finally got a baserunner in the fifth, as Jake Meyers hit a one-out grounder up the middle that deflected off Correa's glove. Woods Richardson then ran the count full against Saturday's walkoff hero, Cam Smith. All of a sudden, the game seemed to be in the balance, as this would not be the first time Woods Richardson looked great over the first three or four innings before giving it all up in the fifth. Smith did walk, which brought up the recently recalled Cooper Hummel for his fourth at-bat of the year. The Twins starter won that matchup, though, with a nasty changeup (allegedly a new split-change) darting away that got Hummel swinging. Mauricio Dubón did make decent contact with a Woods RIchardson fastball, but lined out to Harrison Bader in center to end the threat.

With the bullpen fairly fresh and Woods Richardson in need of some confidence, Brock Stewart was summoned to begin the sixth inning. This, despite the starter being at just 53 pitches and not through the lineup a second time. Perhaps if the Twins had extended the lead in the fifth or sixth, instead of going down 1-2-3 in quick fashion, Rocco Baldelli may have given his young righty more leash.

Conversely, Walter was allowed to begin the seventh inning. He allowed a one-out hit to Lee (his third), and was lifted after striking out Christian Vázquez for the second out. Credit to Walter: he showed some gumption, and has now delivered the injury-ravaged Astros rotation three solid starts. Whether he is actually part of the solution for Houston, or whether his good day was just a product of the Twins' offensive struggles, is hard to ascertain.

The bottom half of the inning began ominously, as Louis Varland hit Jose Altuve with a pitch on his right forearm. However, Victor Caratini immediately grounded to Lee at second, who began a fairly easy double play before Jake Meyers grounded out to end the inning, the lead still intact.

Varland was asked to start the eighth inning, as well, and he was greeted with a laser off the bat of Smith that nearly tied to game. It was hit so hard that Smith couldn't advance to second, however, as Castro made a nice play on the ball. A questionable sacrifice bunt call and two groundouts later, Varland escaped unscathed yet again.

Jhoan Duran was summoned to close out the game, after throwing 20 pitches and taking the loss on Saturday. He was tasked with the top of the Houston lineup and began Jeremy Peña with four straight balls. He recovered to strike out Yainer Diaz on a devastating splinker, but Peña stole second on the first pitch to Altuve the following at-bat. After running the count full, Altuve reached out (on ball four) and tapped a ground ball to Correa, who was playing back and wasn't able to retire Altuve, 

Altuve not taking the walk proved costly, as Caratini swung at the first pitch from Duran and lifted a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1-1.

Extra innings ensued, and the Twins executed their half of the inning about as poorly as humanly possible. The first hitter was Vázquez, who failed to advance the runners and popped out. Jeffers then struck out, and Correa popped out.

Cole Sands did his part, not allowing the advance on the first hitter, as Smith tapped out to the left side and Hummel struck out swinging. Dubón then lifted a fly ball to deep left-center that Castro appeared to get a glove on, but the ball dropped, allowing Houston to win and sweep the series.

Stray  Observations:

-Lee isn't just producing, but it looks somewhat sustainable, as he appears to be swinging less and waiting for the pitcher to come to him before making better contact; he's not getting popped up as often. His OPS has eclipsed the .700 mark for the first time in quite a while.

-Castro picked up two more hits batting right-handed, moving his OPS from that side of the plate over .800, a far cry from the hopeless at-bats Castro took against lefties the second half of 2024.

-Jonah Bride looks cooked, missing hittable pitches and running his hitless streak to 24 at-bats. There's a good hitter somewhere in there, but the Twins could use his roster spot a lot more efficiently right now. The combination of Edouard Julien and Jose Miranda being ineffective with Lewis and Luke Keaschall getting hurt have all conspired to keep Bride's spot on the team.

What’s Next: David Festa (1-1, 4.76 ERA) takes on the Reds and Andrew Abbott (6-1, 1.87 ERA) in the bandbox known as Great American Ballpark. The Reds have been playing well lately and Abbott is trying to strengthen his case for his first All-Star appearance. By the way, Abbott is a lefty. Festa looked great his last time out against the Rangers, pitching deep (for him) into the game in the one win they had in that Texas series. Festa establishing himself as a reliable starter every fifth day would go a long ways towards the Twins surviving the next 90 days without Lopez.

Postgame Interviews:

 

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Durán	13	0	0	20	21	54
Wentz	0	38	0	0	0	38
Varland	16	0	0	0	22	38
Sands	0	26	0	0	12	38
Jax	0	0	17	13	0	30
Stewart	13	0	0	0	10	23
Coulombe	0	1	19	0	0	20
Topa	0	0	16	0	0	16

 

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[Rod Carews Birthday]

The pitching staff deserves better.  Much better.

[darwin22]

Not much to comment on other than ANOTHER game just p*ssed away.

I've held my negativity to a point, but I can't much longer after watching our $30+ million player have ANOTHER in a long string of pathetic games at the plate.

1-5 today with a scalded infield single.  Yippee!

3 straight ABs in game today with RISP and Mr. Big Bucks fails to even get the ball out of the infield!

Wimpy ground ball to 1B---in 5th

Foul pop up to catcher in 7th

Popup to SS in 10th.

I know we're stuck with Mr. Big Bucks/Zero production for multiple years to come, but I will say---and please bring on the argument against this statement:

Carlos Correa is the WORST free agent signing in the HISTORY of this organization.  

[Aggies7]

6 runs and 37 strikeouts for the series. 

[CRF]

Very catchable ball that ended the game. We'd probably blow it at some point anyway, but Castro should have caught that one. 

[thelanges5]

Positives:

SWR bounce back 

Lee 15 game hit streak

Lou Varland 2 IP

[thelanges5]

13 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

6 runs and 37 strikeouts for the series. 

0 for 13 RISP, 8 LOB in the 2 walkoff losses. 

[jkcarew]

Today would have been a good day for Buxton to gut it out.

SWR with a step in the right direction. Nice to see Lee showing some pop from the right side recently.

Otherwise, same old, same old. The back end of the bullpen is far from dominant or even really good.  I’d call it extremely ordinary.

[Mark G]

Well, you know the old saying, "it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it".  So I will be the one.

5 innings of shutout ball, 1 hit, and only 53 pitches.  Then Rocco pulls the plug again, and the parade of RP's start.  As I have said until you all are tired of reading it, all it takes is one in the bunch to not be on that day and........🤕

SWR didn't just deserve a better fate, he deserved the chance to decide his own fate.  I just can't stand this anymore.......🤢

Someone shut me up, please.......😷

[dberthia]

Having Vaz (avg < .190) hit away instead of bunting in extras certainly was a choice. Nice job, Rocco.

[jkcarew]

27 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

Carlos Correa is the WORST free agent signing in the HISTORY of this organization

I mean he has, and needs to be, held to a higher standard than any other free agent simply based on price. So, not great. But, still no.

bWAR since he joined the club: 10.6

Buxton over the same period: 10.3

When the club has managed to make the postseason over that period..

Correa: 9 hits, 4 RBI, and about a 1.000 OPS.

Buxton: 1 plate appearance (career postseason OPS is 286)

[Patzky]

We are in a cesspool of our own making..

Sunday results..

[CharlieDee]

When Duran walked the lead off batter, for the second game in a row, I knew it was over.

[purplesoldier4u]

Back down to a game over .500. The Twins can be at bad teams, but struggle against "good" teams - a movie we've all seen before. Tough times result in making tough decisions, and Bride is not an MLB player. In addition, I'm not sure that Vazquez's defense out weighs his frequent offensive futility. 

We're now halfway between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the time where teams show what they are. Yes, the starting rotation is facing some hurdles, but the offense is not carrying their collective weight and with few options available, it looks like an 85 win season. Welcome back to mediocrity.

[Peter]

June has been crushing devastating!!! You have to believe things will turn around!!! They have to!!! It starts at Cincinnati!!!! 

[MinnesotaTwins26]

Oh, to be a Twins fan 😢

[jkcarew]

16 minutes ago, Patzky said:

We are in a cesspool of our own making..

Sunday results..

Ha! This is exactly what this organization has banked on for years. If they made ‘ALC Runners-Up’ pennants, this org would proudly fly them among the bevy of wild-card and ALC ‘championship’ pennants. It’s actually embarrassing.

The Poland’s may NEVER sell the team!!

[Doctor Gast]

SWR was in his MLB form, perfect game into the 5th, Castro was 3 for 4  but nobody drove him in nor did he drive anyone in. Lee was 3 for 4 one solo HR. Good job by them. Twins out hit HOU 8 to 4 but HOU was still able to win the game. During the Twins' winning streak, the Twins came through with a lot of clutch hits, but lately they don't seem to have the chemistry to get it done. They have to search deep & find out what made that magic & get it back. I don't think they can blame this on Lopez's absence.

[Eris]

Three at bats with RISP. Article mentions Castro taking a ball down the middle of the plate on call strike 3. Correa also took a fastball down the middle of the plate with RISP in the 7th or 8th inning before weakly popping out. No doubt Castro and Correa were waiting for “their”  pitch to drive. Contrast that with Altuve’s at bat in the 9th. Altuve was just trying to make contact. The outcome was a lucky infield single with the runner taking 3B.  But it was his approach that made the difference. I doubt that Altuve would have taken a pitch down the middle of the plate in that situation. 

[Patzky]

I look forward to a baseball stress free Monday.

Devers to the Giants.. huh!

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, Mark G said:

Well, you know the old saying, "it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it".  So I will be the one.

5 innings of shutout ball, 1 hit, and only 53 pitches.  Then Rocco pulls the plug again, and the parade of RP's start.  As I have said until you all are tired of reading it, all it takes is one in the bunch to not be on that day and........🤕

SWR didn't just deserve a better fate, he deserved the chance to decide his own fate.  I just can't stand this anymore.......🤢

Someone shut me up, please.......😷

No way,  rant on  ...

The pitching has been good and it's a shame it's going to waste this year with the same gutless offensive core we had in 2024 ...

This is supposed to be a professional team , from ownership  , FO ,  manager and coaches , the players to , it's suppose to be a team effort ...

But with the FO constructing this roster it sure doesn't appear to be a professional team ...

It's a pathetic,  pitiful  , putrid  , piss poor  professional  playing team ...

[Mark G]

1 hour ago, dberthia said:

Having Vaz (avg < .190) hit away instead of bunting in extras certainly was a choice. Nice job, Rocco.

I screamed at the TV in that moment.  A 1.93 hitter facing the ace reliever with a 1.50 ERA.  Let's see........guy on 2nd, no out, and the top of the order coming up after Vas.  Even Cory talked about how the Twins have had only one SH the entire season, right after Vas never even tried to advance the runner.  At some point.........aarrrggggg 😣 

[Blyleven2011]

42 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

Ha! This is exactly what this organization has banked on for years. If they made ‘ALC Runners-Up’ pennants, this org would proudly fly them among the bevy of wild-card and ALC ‘championship’ pennants. It’s actually embarrassing.

The Poland’s may NEVER sell the team!!

I concur , it is embarrassing  ,

Ownership has no desire to put together a championship team ...

There business philosophy is , put together a team that will play consistently and win enough games to keep the fans interested enough to fill the stands  ...

I want a professional caliber team that will win a division and contend in the playoffs and possibly win a championship  ...

Our pitching is going to waste as we trot out almost the same team as last year , we had injuries last year and we had bad offense  ...

Nothing is ever going to change , maybe new owners would help , first the team has to be sold before I can comment on that ...

I don't spend any money on the twins this year ,  i missed twins fest , i didn't go to spring training  and won't attend any games ...

When we instill a killer instinct into these players that every game can be won and also get a major league manager , then I'll shell out some bucks ...

The Yankees emphasis a killer instinct into its player's from rookie ball to mlb,  they want their players  to believe that they can win every game when they take the field ...

 

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Mark G said:

Well, you know the old saying, "it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it".  So I will be the one.

5 innings of shutout ball, 1 hit, and only 53 pitches.  Then Rocco pulls the plug again, and the parade of RP's start.  As I have said until you all are tired of reading it, all it takes is one in the bunch to not be on that day and........🤕

SWR didn't just deserve a better fate, he deserved the chance to decide his own fate.  I just can't stand this anymore.......🤢

Someone shut me up, please.......😷

The all star closer blew the lead. How is any of that different if SWR goes one more inning?

[Blyleven2011]

34 minutes ago, Patzky said:

I look forward to a baseball stress free Monday.

Devers to the Giants.. huh!

Here's something to watch , desclafini has been sign to a major league deal with Arizona  , he has been rehabbing with Arizona minor league clubs , so he must be ready for the show  ...

[HarmonK03]

4 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

The all star closer blew the lead. How is any of that different if SWR goes one more inning?

How about saving innings on the bullpen for later in the year or developing your staters.  SWR has been here almost a year and a half, at what point are they going to let him face the order a third time.  If they aren't then put him in the bullpen.  Pitchers need to pitch and face adversity and learn from it, that is how they get better.  Rocco almost always refuses to let SWR face the order a third time.

[Mark G]

7 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

The all star closer blew the lead. How is any of that different if SWR goes one more inning?

You're right.  One more inning wouldn't have made much of a difference.  

But I wasn't thinking only one more.  

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, karcherd said:

How about saving innings on the bullpen for later in the year or developing your staters.  SWR has been here almost a year and a half, at what point are they going to let him face the order a third time.  If they aren't then put him in the bullpen.  Pitchers need to pitch and face adversity and learn from it, that is how they get better.  Rocco almost always refuses to let SWR face the order a third time.

That wasn't the point of the post I responded to. 

[Whitey333]

Couple of thoughts:  Rocco should have let SWR throw at least one or two more innings.  He's mowing them down with only 53 pitches kn 5 innings.  Especially when he complains about having to use his bullpen too much.

Also:  Correa IS the most over paid and overrated free agent the Twins have signed.  He is a "stiff" and a huge disappointment.   No clutch in him at all.  What a waste of money and roster spot.

And I still say Rocco is one of the worst managers the Twins have ever had.  The Twins play very poor fundamental baseball.  They are listless make way too many mistakes for a major league team.  That is a direct reflection of the manager.  I am so sick and tired of our players not hustling out groundballs.  If you can't run hard to first base 3 or 4 times a day you shouldn't be playing.

That's my rant for the day.  But I will be watching them still.  After all they are the only major league baseball team we have.  But Vikings start practice in just a few weeks.

 

[Mark G]

5 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Couple of thoughts:  Rocco should have let SWR throw at least one or two more innings.  He's mowing them down with only 53 pitches kn 5 innings.  Especially when he complains about having to use his bullpen too much.

Also:  Correa IS the most over paid and overrated free agent the Twins have signed.  He is a "stiff" and a huge disappointment.   No clutch in him at all.  What a waste of money and roster spot.

And I still say Rocco is one of the worst managers the Twins have ever had.  The Twins play very poor fundamental baseball.  They are listless make way too many mistakes for a major league team.  That is a direct reflection of the manager.  I am so sick and tired of our players not hustling out groundballs.  If you can't run hard to first base 3 or 4 times a day you shouldn't be playing.

That's my rant for the day.  But I will be watching them still.  After all they are the only major league baseball team we have.  But Vikings start practice in just a few weeks.

 

Maybe the guys are watching Lewis keep getting injured running hard to first base and figure better safe than sorry.  😏