Twins 10, Dodgers 7: Twins Take Advantage of Dodgers Miscues, Hang On for Win

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson 3.0 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 K (58 pitches, 28 strikes (48%))
Home Runs: N/A
Top 3 WPA: Royce Lewis (.320), Ty France (.235), Christian Vázquez (.204)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Twins entered their latest round of "must-win" baseball on Tuesday night at Chavez Ravine, their second chance at defeating the 2024 champs. After Carlos Correa's ninth-inning blast fell one foot short of tying the game last night, Twins fans hoped that the winds of change would blow one foot higher and push the team back into a buying frame of mind. Simeon Woods Richardson (5-4, 3.86 ERA) got the call to keep hope alive, and he faced Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-7, 2.62 ERA), who has been muddling through a boom-or-bust sophomore campaign.

If They Catch the Homers...
Correa might have gotten robbed of a hero moment last night, but in his first at-bat to lead off the second inning, he started an early rally for his team. Instead of being disappointed by a 398-foot blast into the center fielder's glove, this time Correa tried the two-foot, 80.7-mph variety and legged out an infield single. After a Ty France walk, Correa advanced to third base on a Matt Wallner fly out, setting up the suddenly red-hot Royce Lewis with one out. Lewis bounced a hard grounder to third to score Correa, and France advanced to second on an error by Miguel Rojas at third base. Harrison Bader kept his "striking out with runners on base" streak alive, but he has a teammate (for now) named Christian Vázquez, and Vázquez delivered a two-out double to deep left-center to plate France and Lewis and make it 3-0 Twins early.

Woods Richardson Escapes, Until He Doesn't
Meanwhile, the young Woods Richardson held the All-Star-stacked Dodgers lineup to one hit and no runs through the first three innings, thanks to a couple of nifty double plays turned by France. What Woods Richardson didn't escape was the fourth inning. After walking Will Smith and Freddie Freeman on nine pitches, he hung a curveball, and Andy Pages hung three runs on the board to tie the game and end Woods Richardson's evening after only 58 pitches. The emotions were running high and positive early, but the fastballs kept riding high and outside far too often to save his night.

Yamamoto stayed in for the top of the fifth and completed his best inning of work, leaving the game tied after tossing his 100th pitch of the night. The bullpens took over in earnest after that, with Brock Stewart getting a crack at the top of his former team's lineup in the bottom of the fifth. Stewart looked stellar and set the Dodgers (including Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani) down. The Twins needed that, and thanks to Rocco Baldelli treating this like a mid-season playoff game, the game remained tied.

Ben Casparius got the top of the sixth, and if the Twins indeed saved their season tonight, then Mr. Casparius deserves a gift basket. He walked Correa to open the inning, and then surrendered a rocket double to France to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Then the wheels fell completely off, as he walked Wallner and Lewis to give the Twins the lead at 4-3. After an injury timeout, Alexis Díaz entered to pitch with the bases still loaded and nobody out. Bader beat what looked like an infield hit into the ground, but Rojas made a brilliant play to nab him at first. France still scored, and it was 5-3. Vázquez came up next with ducks still on the pond, and once again, he hit the ball like the Twins had just acquired his potential replacement a few hours earlier. That made it 6-3 Twins.

The Dodgers are Good, but Their Bullpen is...
Rocco kept bringing in the big guns, but Louis Varland misfired tonight. Will Smith led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and Michael Conforto ripped a two-out ground-rule double to put runners at second and third. Varland kept firing heat, but Hyeseong Kim was up for it, as he stroked a two-run single into center to pull the Dodgers within one at 6-5. 

The Twins escaped the sixth still in the lead, and then Will Klein did his best Casparius impersonation by walking Correa, France, and Wallner to load the bases with one out. Seriously.

Klein got pulled after only achieving one out, and Edgardo Henriquez got the call to face Lewis. Lewis thought he had good success with the infield chopper in the second inning, and hit another. By the time Henriquez's wild throw bounced off the right field wall (yes, you read that right), it was 9-5 Twins, and Lewis was laughing along with all of Twins Territory as he stood on third base with three RBIs and zero hits on the evening!

Must Win, Just Win
Even after regaining a commanding four-run lead, the Twins turned to Griffin Jax in the seventh. Unfortunately, Jax decided to hit James Outman on a 1-2 count to start the frame. With the momentum hanging on by a thread, Jax recovered to set down Betts, Ohtani, and Smith in order, to preserve the lead. With the score still at 9-5 in the eighth, Anthony Misiewicz got the call, with four of the next six scheduled batters being left-handed. Of course, it doesn't matter what batter's box you stand in if the pitcher doesn't throw strikes, and Misiewicz walked Freeman on a full count. The Twins thought they had Freeman picked off for the first out of the inning, but Freeman evaded the tag—and Misiewicz had to leave the game immediately thereafter, with a hand injury. Just like that, it was up to Jhoan Duran in the bottom of the eighth, with Pages up and a runner at first and a full count. Pages singled to left, and the game that would not end just kept rolling along.

Two splinkers later, though, it was still 9-5, and the game actually did get to keep on going. It only cost Duran seven pitches. By the time Duran came back out to pitch the ninth, Correa and France had pumped the lead up to 10-5 with back-to-back doubles. Lucky that they did, because the supernova that is Ohtani took a 100-mph Duran offering oppo-taco for a 2-run shot with two outs. Will the Twins regret that they used up Duran for the next few days with a five-run lead? It's mid-season playoff time, and we shall worry about that tomorrow. The Twins needed a win, and they got one, 10-7.

What’s Next?
The Twins look to (improbably) take the series from the Dodgers on the road in a Wednesday matinee. Righty Chris Paddack (3-9, 5.14 ERA) hopes to avenge his loss against the Rockies earlier in the week, while the Dodgers send righty Tyler Glasnow (1-1, 3.10 ERA) in need of a lengthy start. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Sands	22	0	0	28	0	50
Durán	0	0	16	0	24	40
Topa	17	16	0	0	0	33
Misiewicz	0	21	0	0	11	32
Jax	0	0	8	0	20	28
Varland	0	0	0	7	16	23
Coulombe	0	12	0	0	10	22
Stewart	0	9	0	0	12	21

 

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[glunn]

Nice writeup. I will get less teasing at the office tomorrow.

[JADBP]

Nice game but again Rocco pulls an absolutely boneheaded move by pushing out Duran for the 9th inning with a FIVE RUN LEAD!!!  What is wrong with this guy?  Now Duran is shut down for a few days to recover from overuse!  WTH was Rocco thinking?  This is just so frustrating. There was absolutely no need to put Duran back out in the 9th. His over-reliance on Jax and Duran is likely to burn out there arms well before we get into September.  Duran is just not built for long outings!  Grrrrr!!!

[JADBP]

Sorry “their arms…”

[Doctor Wu]

I have no idea how the Twins won this game, but I won't complain! Nice to see Vasquez get some clutch hits.

[Peter]

Huge big time win! Let’s take this series!

[Sjoski]

2 hours ago, JADBP said:

Sorry “their arms…”

You can always edit your post, just tap the three dots bar. ●●●  in upper right corner. 

[Whitey333]

Sloppy win but a win none the less. The game was gift wrapped by the Dodgers to the Twins.  Twins did a great job taking advantage of 7 walks from Dodgers pitchers not to mention their errors.  Dodgers have list 11 ot their last 14 games.  Hopefully they will gift wrap another victory for the Twins although it's highly unlikely.  Then they will tell us what a great road trip they had at 2-4

[TwinsDr2021]

3 hours ago, JADBP said:

Nice game but again Rocco pulls an absolutely boneheaded move by pushing out Duran for the 9th inning with a FIVE RUN LEAD!!!  What is wrong with this guy?  Now Duran is shut down for a few days to recover from overuse!  WTH was Rocco thinking?  This is just so frustrating. There was absolutely no need to put Duran back out in the 9th. His over-reliance on Jax and Duran is likely to burn out there arms well before we get into September.  Duran is just not built for long outings!  Grrrrr!!!

The only two options were Topa or Sands who had pitched 2 innings the night before. After the Misiewicz injury running 4 one inning pitchers out there you generally don't have many options. They did get 58 pitches from their starting pitcher that good, right?

[Sjoski]

6 hours ago, Peter said:

Huge big time win! Let’s take this series!

But Paddack is pitching,.

( Cue the Violins )

🎵 "There can be miracles

When you believe..

[Old Crow]

12 minutes ago, Sjoski said:

You can always edit your post, just tap the three dots bar. ●●●  in upper right corner. 

didn't know that,  thanks

[thelanges5]

Good win! We’ll take what we can get. 

Both BP are shot for today, both teams need length from their starter. Will be an interesting game. 

[Doctor Gast]

I went to bed with SWR vs Yamamoto thinking we had no chance. Pleasantly surprised that we won. Also 3 players that many TD members have been complaining about came up big. I scratched my head over Lewis's 0-4 with 3 rbi(s). Did he have 3 fielder's choices where a runner scored on 3 different occasions? Vazquez clutch hitting is icing on the cake. Nevertheless, Correa came through; if we have any chance, he has to, on a regular basis.

 

[DJL44]

Great job showcasing the Twins relievers for the scouts in attendance.

[Blyleven2011]

Crazy game baseball is .. 

Who would have thought the twins would beat the dodgers with Yamamoto pitching  ...

Pitching wasn't really at its best from either side but the twins prevailed  , 15 walks issued between both teams ...

[rdehring]

Today may be the biggest start of the year for Paddack.  Should he pitch like earlier this season with a good start, he may have some value for the Twins over the next week.  It is extremely unlikely he will be back next year.  Thus, I hope he has a good start, or two, and gets the Twins a nice prospect before the end of the month.

[tony&rodney]

If the Dodgers want Duran or Jax, the price went up after the last two nights. 

Has anyone else felt the Twins seemed more in tune and playing harder versus the Dodgers than what we witnessed against Colorado and Pittsburgh?

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

I went to bed with SWR vs Yamamoto thinking we had no chance. Pleasantly surprised that we won. Also 3 players that many TD members have been complaining about came up big. I scratched my head over Lewis's 0-4 with 3 rbi(s). Did he have 3 fielder's choices where a runner scored on 3 different occasions? Vazquez clutch hitting is icing on the cake. Nevertheless, Correa came through; if we have any chance, he has to, on a regular basis.

 

I kept dozing in an out , I hardly saw a run scored by the twins the whole game , saw some nice defense by France  ...

Lewis with no hits and 3 rbi's is a mystery to me , I think he had a fielders choice and the pitcher threw it away for some unearned runs  but he would have been credited for only 1 rbi  , did he walk or get hbp with bases full  , I'll have to check mlb summary. ...

[Blyleven2011]

2 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

If the Dodgers want Duran or Jax, the price went up after the last two nights. 

Has anyone else felt the Twins seemed more in tune and playing harder versus the Dodgers than what we witnessed against Colorado and Pittsburgh?

From what I saw between naps is that the hitters were hitting the ball hard , Crack of the bat was loud  , some outs , some hits 

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

I went to bed with SWR vs Yamamoto thinking we had no chance. Pleasantly surprised that we won. Also 3 players that many TD members have been complaining about came up big. I scratched my head over Lewis's 0-4 with 3 rbi(s). Did he have 3 fielder's choices where a runner scored on 3 different occasions? Vazquez clutch hitting is icing on the cake. Nevertheless, Correa came through; if we have any chance, he has to, on a regular basis.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I kept dozing in an out , I hardly saw a run scored by the twins the whole game , saw some nice defense by France  ...

Lewis with no hits and 3 rbi's is a mystery to me , I think he had a fielders choice and the pitcher threw it away for some unearned runs  but he would have been credited for only 1 rbi  , did he walk or get hbp with bases full  , I'll have to check mlb summary. ...

Fielder's choice, bases-loaded walk, fielder's choice.

The first fielder's choice was a fairly hard shot to the 3B's left that could have been ruled a hit. The second was a dribbler with the bases loaded that the pitcher threw away. Three runs scored on the play, but he only got credit for one RBI. 

[madtowntwin]

The Brewers absolutely HAMMERED Yamamoto recently. Listening to the Twins broadcast team describing his prima donna need for extra rest and days off make me wonder what exactly the Dodgers paid for...This can't sit well internally and exposes their bullpen even more. And all of this with Ohtani on the team. Yikes!!

[Senior Softball Guy]

Ohtani hit a Duran splinker at 98mph to the opposite field 400 ft. Wow! The Dodgers need BP help. What do they have to offer? Pages perhaps? Half the LA crowd lived up to their one foot out the door reputation and listened to Ohtani's epic blast riding on the freeway.

[Dman]

That Dodgers lineup is scary, but their pen is awful.  I don't know if they can fix all those holes at the deadline.  I think Graterol is coming back at some point and maybe a couple more arms get healthy, but there is no way they make it though the playoffs with that pen as currently constructed IMO.

[Doctor Gast]

1 hour ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I kept dozing in an out , I hardly saw a run scored by the twins the whole game , saw some nice defense by France  ...

Lewis with no hits and 3 rbi's is a mystery to me , I think he had a fielders choice and the pitcher threw it away for some unearned runs  but he would have been credited for only 1 rbi  , did he walk or get hbp with bases full  , I'll have to check mlb summary. ...

If there were unearned runs then there wouldn't be any rbi(s). Right?

[Blyleven2011]

9 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

If there were unearned runs then there wouldn't be any rbi(s). Right?

Right , it was posted by another member that royce had a fielders choice for a rbi , a walk with the bases loaded for a rbi and another fielders choice  that resulted in 1 earned rbi run but also allowed 2 more unearned runs to score  ...

No hits by royce , but 3 rbi's is productive   ...

The players were hitting the ball hard , the Crack of the bat was loud from what I saw and heard which was very little ...

[IndianaTwin]

11 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

If there were unearned runs then there wouldn't be any rbi(s). Right?

The bases were loaded. The first run would have scored on the out at first, so it was earned and Lewis got the RBI. The two additional runs scored because a) the second baseman backed up the throw too closely and b) the right fielder didn't bother to back up the throw and had to chase the ball down in the corner. Those runs were unearned and Lewis didn't get RBIs for those.  

[IndianaTwin]

10 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

 

The players were hitting the ball hard , the Crack of the bat was loud from what I saw and heard which was very little ...

With the exception of Lewis's second fielder's choice, which was a fight-it-off-and-get-out-of-way doinker up the 1B line. 😀

But he hustled down the line, which was a factor in the pitcher throwing it away. It would have been easy to not run or to give himself up and get tagged. 

[USAFChief]

32 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

If there were unearned runs then there wouldn't be any rbi(s). Right?

Not necessarily true.

Most often not, in fact. 

For example, If there's an error that prolongs an inning, followed by a 3 run jimmie-jack, the runs are unearned but the hitter still gets credit for 3 RBI.

[David Maro]

The Rocco effect could have cost them the game. How do you let SWR pitch to Pages after throwing 9 balls in a row. Basically SWR walked up and put the ball on a tee for him.

The thing that saved them was the Dodgers bad defense,booting groundballs and bad throws.

[USAFChief]

2 minutes ago, David Maro said:

 

The thing that saved them was the Dodgers bad defense,booting groundballs and bad throws.

The Dodgers' "anybody can play anywhere" defense model served them as well as it does Rocco and the Twins.

"Mookie, get out there and try short, whydontcha?"