Tigers 8, Twins 5: The Twins Are Who We Thought They Were, Lose Again to Tigers

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Zebby Matthews 4.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K (92 pitches, 51 strikes (56%))
Home Runs: N/A
Bottom 3 WPA: Brooks Kriske (-.164), Austin Martin (-.163), Byron Buxton (-.158)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

After a crushing extra-inning loss to the Tigers on Thursday night, and a blowout loss to them again on Friday night, the new-look Twins were reeling to say the least. Young hurler Zebby Matthews continued his quest to become a part of Minnesota's future, and he faced off against former top pick Casey Mize in the Saturday night matchup. On a night in which several Twins greats had gathered in anticipation of Corey Koskie's induction into the Twins Hall of Fame on Sunday, the future and past collided into a memorable and stressful ballgame. 

21 Innings Without a Run, and Danger All Around
Matthews struggled out of the gate, walking Colt Keith to start the game and Kerry Carpenter with one out. Facing the first runner in scoring position, Matthews struck out Riley Greene but couldn't escape Spencer Torkelson. Tokelson's single plated Keith, and the Tigers had another early lead at 1-0. Matthews went on to walk another two batters, but his six total strikeouts got him out of jams. Carpenter's solo homerun to lead off the third inning was the only other damage to Matthew's night, but it took him 91 pitches to survive just four innings.

Meanwhile, the Twins offense continued to give a new meaning to anemic. Mize struck out seven Twins over his first four innings of work, while only allowing a lead off Austin Martin single (who immediately erased himself on a caught stealing). The 21 consecutive innings without a run echoed off of the empty seats at Target Field.

Travis Adams came in to replace the pitched-out Matthews for the top of the fifth, and he immediately started clogging the bases. After two walks and a single the Tigers had the bases loaded with nobody out and it looked like deja vu from Friday night. The Twins played the infield in, and against all odds...it worked! The Rocket's son caught a rocket of his own at first for an unassisted double-play! Adams retired Dillon Dingler to end the threat, and hope started bubbling up again in Twins Territory. Even announcer John Smoltz recognized that if he was in Mize's shoes, you never want to wait that long in the dugout without any runs to show for it. After five innings the Tigers were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, and Mize went out to pitch the bottom of the fifth with only a two run lead.

If You Give the Twins a Chance...
Reigning hitter of the week Luke Keaschall put Smoltz's words into existence with a lead off walk. Ryan Jeffers "ripped" a 66 mph bloop to the outfield grass for the Twins' second hit of the night, and suddenly a rally was underway. Mize got Matt Wallner swinging and it looked as if another threat would go by the wayside, however Brooks Lee put a charge into a 2-0 slider with his pencil bat, and after the ball richocheted off the right field wall and back towards second base the Twins had tied the game and Lee was celebrating on third base.

The rally didn't stop there, as Royce Lewis took the first pitch he saw deep enough to become a lead-taking sacrifice fly. 3-2 Twins!

And the Twins' New Bullpen Still _____
Adams took his newfound lead and immediately wasted it. A leadoff double and two walks immediately filled the bases yet again for the Tigers, and after only achieving four outs on his 47 pitches, Adams night was over and newcomer Brooks Kriske came in to try to escape yet another threat. Kriske got Greene to fly out, but it was deep enough to score the tying run to make it 3-3.

After the Twins went back to their struggling ways against Mize in the bottom of the sixth (apparently some starting pitchers go longer than four innings?), the Tigers went right back to work against Kriske in the top of the seventh and got a leadoff double from Wenceel Perez. Perez advanced on a groundout, and Kriske gifted the Tigers their ninth walk of the night to put runners on the corners with one out. Lewis booted a grounder while trying to make a play at the plate to surrender the lead, and then it was Kody Funderburk's turn to enter a pressure cooker of a situation. Jahmai Jones made Funderburk pay, and after another double it was 5-3 Tigers. To add injury to insult, Funderburk uncorked a wild pitch to make it 6-3. Make it stop...

Ding Dong, Mize is Gone. But Can the Twins Rally Again?
Well, the Twins do have Keaschall. As Twins fans prepared for Luke's eventual Twins Hall of Fame ceremony in their hearts, he just hit another single to put MIze on the ropes. After a Jeffers fly out, the Tigers went to their bullpen and lefty Tyler Holton. Wallner dealt out some lefty on lefty crime, and laced a double down the right field line to advance Keaschall to third. Lee hit a ground out, but it scored Keaschall and advanced Jeffers to make it 6-4. After a Lewis walk, James Outman looked to make his first hero moment in a Twins uniform but was robbed of an extra base hit by a diving first baseman Torkelson. Torkelson's toss to Holton, however, got dropped and a hustling Jeffers came all the way home to pull the Twins within one at 6-5! After another pitching change, Will Vest got Martin to line out to right to end the rally before another tie could be found.

After Michael Tonkin took care of business in the top of the eighth, the Twins relied on Clemens and Keaschall to once again spark the offense, and they did by hitting back to back singles off of Vest with one out. After Jeffers got froze looking for the second out, Wallner didn't get thrown much and he took his walk to load the bases. It was again Lee in the batters box with runners in scoring position, but this time Vest took advantage of the youngster with a three pitch "no contest" strike out to end the threat. 

With the Tigers being 60-0 when leading after the eighth inning in 2025, things looked dire for the home team. By the time Justin Topa yeeted a ball off of the netting behind first base allowing a runner from second to score and the batter to reach third base, 61-0 was inevitable. The only question was how bad could it get, and the answer was 8-5.

What’s Next?
The Twins look to salvage at least one game in this series, and due to a completely bunk roster they have yet to name a starter. The Tigers will send out former Twin and current "only hope for a Twins victory" RHP Chris Paddack (4-10, 4.76 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm CDT. Hopefully the Corey Koskie extravaganza will light a fire under the team, but expect those events to potentially delay the start time as well.

Postgame Interviews
Coming Soon

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Adams	70	0	0	0	47	117
Hatch	99	0	0	0	0	99
Ureña	0	0	0	76	0	76
Topa	0	26	0	0	27	53
Funderburk	13	6	13	0	10	42
Sands	16	0	25	0	0	41
Kriske	0	0	11	0	29	40
Tonkin	0	0	9	0	15	24
Ramírez	0	0	11	8	0	19

 

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[mikelink45]

Good write up.  It reminds me of the amazing mets - if you have no chance at least have a laugh or two.  

[darwin22]

After Mick Abel's third consecutive strong start tonight for the Saints ----6 IP--2 hits---0 walks and 11 K's--can anyone explain why he hasn't been promoted yet?

I've see enough of Ohl and Adams.

Get Abel called up NOW!!

[D.C Twins]

It's almost like we don't have a bullpen.... WHAT... too soon ;)

May the Twins Win (the draft pick lotto :)

[LewFordLives]

Even by Twins standards that was an ugly game.

[Parfigliano]

15 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

Even by Twins standards that was an ugly game.

Glad I missed it.  This whole week.

[IndianaTwin]

23 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

Even by Twins standards that was an ugly game.

I’m guessing Tigers Daily also has laments about an ugly game. 

[knothole61]

I love the daily "passion plays" known as baseball games, and I find interest enough in the action even in dead end summers such as this. At this point, however, the Twins are taxing my stamina and resilience. The team is sorely in need of many things, but Falvey and company are not getting the most out of what they have, and the result is both sad and embarrassing.

Easy for me to say? Okay, but here's something to consider: bring up the damn starting pitcher pieces we acquired in the trade deadline massacre and let's see what we have. It won't be worse, and will likely be a whole lot better, than trotting out Ohl (8.18) and Adams (7.77), etc. as rotation regulars.

What am I missing?     

 

[USAFChief]

The Tigers were 4 for 21 tonight with RISP. 

That's right...21 official ABs with runners in scoring position. In a 9 inning game. An average over 2 such ABs per inning. And that number, of course, doesn't include walks with RISP.

That's like 3 series worth for the Twins. 

[Nshore]

Really a mystery as to why some of these players are on the Twins' roster.  Why not give some at bats toward the end of the season to a promising young player - or a kid chosen at random out of the stands - rather than to Gasper for example.  Must be Falvey's superior baseball mind at work again.

[old nurse]

Twins score 5 runs and it is called anemic. 

[Peter]

Tough series with Detroit!!! We got winnable games with A’s/white sox. 6-0 this coming week!!!

[Doctor Gast]

We were able to grapple the lead from Mize, We had solid defense (if you don't count Topa), where Clemens was impressive. We scored 5 runs but it's tough when you have a SP that can't go 5 & no BP.

[Whitey333]

Oh my.  It's only going to get worse.  So why is Adam's and Ohl still here?  Shouldn't be surprised with Falvey running the show.  What a joke

[Bamatwin]

http://Twins look like a high school team. Pitcher throws wild pitch and run scores. Pitcher can’t throw to first base and run scores. Really embarrassing.

[jmlease1]

3 hours ago, Nshore said:

Really a mystery as to why some of these players are on the Twins' roster.  Why not give some at bats toward the end of the season to a promising young player - or a kid chosen at random out of the stands - rather than to Gasper for example.  Must be Falvey's superior baseball mind at work again.

Gasper's the backup catcher right now with Vazquez on the IL. Do you really want us rolling with one catcher?

Pretty sure it doesn't matter when your pitchers give up 12 hits and issue 9 effing walks. Zebby has to do better; he wasn't terrible, but 90+ pitches in only 4 innings isn't the kind of length we need from a starter. The K's show he can be effective, but he's got to start having efficient innings and give the team at least 5.

Ugh, this bullpen is awful. Just don't know about Adams: he's had some moments, but also get knocked around like he's tossing batting practice. 

Offense took a while to get going, but put up enough runs to be competitive. Too bad Buxton had a bad day, might have added another one or two in there if he'd been in form, but that's going to happen. Pitching just wasn't good enough, and that was with them getting very lucky with runners in scoring position.

[Nshore]

43 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Gasper's the backup catcher right now with Vazquez on the IL. Do you really want us rolling with one catcher?

Pretty sure it doesn't matter when your pitchers give up 12 hits and issue 9 effing walks. Zebby has to do better; he wasn't terrible, but 90+ pitches in only 4 innings isn't the kind of length we need from a starter. The K's show he can be effective, but he's got to start having efficient innings and give the team at least 5.

Ugh, this bullpen is awful. Just don't know about Adams: he's had some moments, but also get knocked around like he's tossing batting practice. 

Offense took a while to get going, but put up enough runs to be competitive. Too bad Buxton had a bad day, might have added another one or two in there if he'd been in form, but that's going to happen. Pitching just wasn't good enough, and that was with them getting very lucky with runners in scoring position.

Rather than Gasper, I'd prefer that they have no catcher, and let the ball hit the limestone backstop and bounce back to the pitcher.

[AceWrigley]

24 minutes ago, Nshore said:

Rather than Gasper, I'd prefer that they have no catcher, and let the ball hit the limestone backstop and bounce back to the pitcher.

Sure would be fun for the umpire . . . NOT.

[LambchoP]

Are the Twins under direct orders to intentionally lose at all costs in order to get a top draft pick, because it sure looks this way. We are throwing guys like Ohl, Adams, and a scrap heap of a bullpen out to slaughter and going with "bullpen games" when we just acquired multiple SP at the deadline who have been pitching well. Pitching nonsense aside, we are also putting guys like Gasper in the lineup. Why not play some of our own young guys,call up prospects, audition guys for next year and see what we have. Sure looks like the teams given up and are trying to lose without making it too obvious. I'm tired of watching our pitchers throw a routine play away by chucking the ball into the stands. Watching our washed up waiver wire relief pitchers do what they do, having our "core hitters" come up in big spots to either strike out on 3 pitches, or watch the ball right down the middle multiple times for strike 3. I think I'm done this year.....can only watch this so many times :(

[David Maro]

Time to be honest,they have two SP and no BP. You see what happens when you gut a BP and your so called #1 starter goes down. Then your four and five who can't go more than 4-5 innings also go down. But hey we all heard that Falvey knows how to build a pitching pipeline. He forgot to tell us it will take 10 or more years.

Watching Lewis at bats,why is it that he thinks its a good idea to dive over the plate. If you have to do that isn't the pitch too far out of the zone. 

I'm glad the football season in both college and NFL is a couple of weeks away.

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, Nshore said:

Rather than Gasper, I'd prefer that they have no catcher, and let the ball hit the limestone backstop and bounce back to the pitcher.

I'm not confident last night's collection of pitchers have the command to consistently hit the limestone backstop.

[Blyleven2011]

12 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Good write up.  It reminds me of the amazing mets - if you have no chance at least have a laugh or two.  

The article could have been shortened to ,

The auditioning isn't going to well and that would have covered how the twins have been playing  ...

[AKTwinsFan]

Both Matthews and Adams struggled to throw strikes. Lucky it wasn't a blowout by the 3rd-4th inning. Baldelli and Borgshulte need to rethink the hitting on the team. Using the whole field is needed. We're too pull heavy.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

12 hours ago, darwin22 said:

After Mick Abel's third consecutive strong start tonight for the Saints ----6 IP--2 hits---0 walks and 11 K's--can anyone explain why he hasn't been promoted yet?

I've see enough of Ohl and Adams.

Get Abel called up NOW!!

Does it have anything to do with his time in the big leagues? I don't know if keeping him in the minors helps the Twins in the long run financially. It sure looks like he is a better option than Adams and Ohl.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

4 hours ago, Peter said:

Tough series with Detroit!!! We got winnable games with A’s/white sox. 6-0 this coming week!!!

I'm not so sure about that. 

[Western SD Fan]

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Too bad Buxton had a bad day, might have added another one or two in there if he'd been in form, but that's going to happen.

IMHO, I believe Buxton has mailed it in as much as his play will allow him to do so.  His AB's have collapsed like the strike zone is the size of the scoreboard out in left field and he has to swing at everything.  On radio, Molitor last night commented that his decision making in who to throw the ball into (going to 3rd vs 2nd) allowed Detroit to take extra bases and continue to put pressure on the pitching staff.  You can see it in his fielding where he is not as aggressive in the field.  An example was a ball that split the gap between Wallner and Buxton.  Although Wallner had the better play, it has typically been Buxton's MO to cut in front of Wallner and snag the ball to try to keep the runner from taking the extra base.  Finally, Buxton has incentive to try to take it easy and not injure himself since it's possible that he stays healthy enough this year to actually hit $500K incentives in his contract.  He gets a $500K bonus for 502 plate appearances and another 500K for $533 PA's.  He currently has 389 PA and doing the math, assuming 4 PA/game for the remaining 39 games, he will get to 545 PA, netting him another $1M for basically dogging the season out.

With that criticism in mind, some people would suggest that he should play out the string at his best no matter what because he is getting paid to do so.  If he is just playing out the string, I actually don't blame him.  By committing to this hard reset, if not rebuild, ownership and the FO have essentially killed what little HOF chances he may have had left since much of his remaining contract will be stuck between 3rd and 5th in the division.  They have also killed any chance Buxton could have had to make the playoffs.  Again, we can argue whether they actually had a playoff team or not, but on paper and in the clubhouse, they did have one and it was strip mined for parts.  I don't blame Buxton for playing out the string and trying to collect another $1M.  At least that's one less million that goes into the pockets of the Pohlads.

[jmlease1]

55 minutes ago, David Maro said:

Time to be honest,they have two SP and no BP. You see what happens when you gut a BP and your so called #1 starter goes down. Then your four and five who can't go more than 4-5 innings also go down. But hey we all heard that Falvey knows how to build a pitching pipeline. He forgot to tell us it will take 10 or more years.

Watching Lewis at bats,why is it that he thinks its a good idea to dive over the plate. If you have to do that isn't the pitch too far out of the zone. 

I'm glad the football season in both college and NFL is a couple of weeks away.

Pablo isn't a #1 pitcher? Please explain. ERA+ of 151, career best WHIP of 1.071...sure looks like a top of rotation starter to me, even if Ryan has actually been better (and healthier) this season.

The pitching pipeline was actually doing pretty well until they sold off the entire bullpen. It's hitting where this front office has fallen down in terms of development and it's showed out this season in particular. Selling off Bader & Castro and not getting anyone of MLB quality back in has made a bad offense worse. Beyond that, I'm confused as to how it's Falvey's fault that young pitchers with no real injury history got hurt...(neither SWR, Festa, or Matthews have any significant injury history)

I'm ready to move on from this crew of decision-makers, but let's apply logic, accuracy, and reality to them. When you don't you undercut any arguments you have about what we actually need going forward.

[Swing Batter-Batter]

16 hours ago, darwin22 said:

After Mick Abel's third consecutive strong start tonight for the Saints ----6 IP--2 hits---0 walks and 11 K's--can anyone explain why he hasn't been promoted yet?

I've see enough of Ohl and Adams.

Get Abel called up NOW!!

The Twins will wait until September to call him up. That's what they do.

[JD-TWINS]

15 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

We were able to grapple the lead from Mize, We had solid defense (if you don't count Topa), where Clemens was impressive. We scored 5 runs but it's tough when you have a SP that can't go 5 & no BP.

4 walks in 4 innings with two in the first for Matthews (4 innings & 92 pitches)…….next guy, 4 more walks ……… gave up 12 hits between the group with 9 walks.  Nobody wins that game with that pitching, including the ‘27 Yankees!