Twins 9, White Sox 7: Royce Lewis Slam Sets Tone in Series Opener

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Zebby Matthews: 4 2/3 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (7)
Top 3 WPA: Royce Lewis (.440), Luke Keaschall (.146), Brooks Lee (.123)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Apathy is the worst of all human emotions. Some may believe that title belongs to sadness, but there’s a beauty in its sting; the knowledge that there’s something in this world to provoke such a feeling—the rawness of genuine morose dawning—reminds us that we still care. Caring is important. Indifference is nasty, with its creeping, lingering sense that things don’t matter. It consumes and destroys. Gobbles and spits out. All things matter as long as you place importance upon them. The Twins have given us extraordinarily little to consider important.

Fresh off a convincing sweep at home at the hands of one of the worst teams in the AL, Minnesota’s doldrum-findings appeared complete. They’ve played swampy, dreck-full baseball since their great trade-off just three weeks ago, with just a handful of bright spots working to inspire.

One of those bright spots might be Zebby Matthews. The 25-year-old has flashed immense strikeout ability in his three August starts, whiffing 21 across 14 2/3 frames. Various bugaboos and afflictions—the common menace, cursing young players looking to establish themselves—have limited his effectiveness to “mild,” rather than “dominant,” but potential clearly thrives in him. Perhaps Friday could be a coming-together party for the righty.

Unfortunately, Matthews ran into the same inconsistencies he had seen before. His slider ferried hitters to the dugout, but command eluded him; Chicago pounced for a first-inning run, attacked once more in the fourth, and he was essentially knocked out of the game with a two-run Colson Montgomery homer in the fifth.

Aaron Civale started for the White Sox. His usual bag of tricks—looping curves; fastballs that break left or right but never straight—baffled the Twins for three frames. He looked set to hold Minnesota at bay all night. 

Then, a beautiful moment. A shining beacon suddenly streaking through the screen. Just as we all can be heroes, just for one day, we can also experience gorgeous flashbacks to previous elations, reminding us briefly of what once was. With three men on, Royce Lewis stepped up to the plate. Civale threw a cutter. It sat too high. It flattened out. Lewis swung and drilled the pitch out to left. For a second, he remained in his back-swing; with bat aimed directly towards the sky. Though it had been some time, he knew the feeling of hitting a grand slam. He must know. He perhaps just needed to remember what it was like. The ball traveled 386 feet out to left field and bounced off a seat. 2023 no longer seemed so far away.

The bomb aided in a curt outing for Civale, giving way to the White Sox’s tender underbelly: their bullpen. And it proved to be a weakness once again. Trevor Larnach drove in a go-ahead run in the sixth, which begat a Luke Keaschall RBI knock one batter later. Unsatisfied, Minnesota returned for more in the sixth, striking Wikelman González for two; one off an errant throw by infielder Chase Meidroth; the other thanks to an opposite-field slash by Edouard Julien. 

 

The tenor of this piece—undoubtedly already all over the place—nearly took a turn. Génesis Cabrera entered in the eighth. Innocuous enough. He earned his first out after two pitches. Innocuous enough. The next six batters reached base. Huh. The White Sox did it the old-fashioned way: one base at a time, advancing on Cabrera and eventually Justin Topa in a methodical rally that put three runs on the board. Win probability suddenly favored Chicago. Topa netted a pop-out turned savior rally-ender when Miguel Vargas broke for the plate, just for Lewis’ throw home to nab him by two steps.

Providence never dipped further the rest of the way. Byron Buxton added a ninth and final run to the Twins' total, and Topa sat down the White Sox in the ninth to conclude an eventful game. 

Notes:

The grand slam was the sixth of Royce Lewis' career.

Four players, Byron Buxton, Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee, and Lewis, reached base at least three times on Friday.

Buxton earned his 100th (and 101st) hit of the season, the second time he's reached that milestone in his career (2017). 

Post-Game Interview:

What’s Next?
The Twins stay in Chicago for game two of their series against the White Sox. The talented yet enigmatic TBD will start opposite Davis Martin. First pitch arrives at 6:10 PM. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[jorgenswest]

I think it will be Abel tomorrow

[Dman]

Lewis seems like the only player on this team that can hit grand slams and or isn't afraid of a big moment.  Rough year with the bat, but nice to see the grand slams continue.

[stringer bell]

 

11 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

I think it will be Abel tomorrow

I can't find the link, but Abel is in Chicago and will start tomorrow's game.

[stringer bell]

1 minute ago, Dman said:

Lewis seems like the only player on this team that can hit grand slams and or isn't afraid of a big moment.  Rough year with the bat, but nice to see the grand slams continue.

Good game for Lewis. Hit a grand slam, two singles, stole a base and made the key defensive play of the game. 

[IndyTwins]

Nice write up Matt, this prose deserves to be a short story! 

[Doctor Gast]

Yesterday, I posted that I heard 2 Twins abandoning the Twins' hitting approach & returned to their old swing. Lewis is one of them. & I posted that I expected good things from them. I saw that both Teel & Quero were playing & that the streaming was free, so I tuned in. When the base became loaded for Lewis, I felt in my bones that he was hitting a grand slam.

I also watched Keaschall when he 1st got on. I expected him to steal 2B. He looked confused & uncharacteristically apprehensive. He stayed put. 

[Peter]

Great to see Royce hit grand slam!!! This needs to continue!!! Next year is make or break for him along with other twins!!!

[mikelink45]

9 hours ago, Dman said:

Lewis seems like the only player on this team that can hit grand slams and or isn't afraid of a big moment.  Rough year with the bat, but nice to see the grand slams continue.

The rule should be that the Twins always have the bases loaded when he comes to bat.  No problem!

[mikelink45]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

Yesterday, I posted that I heard 2 Twins abandoning the Twins' hitting approach & returned to their old swing. Lewis is one of them. & I posted that I expected good things from them. I saw that both Teel & Quero were playing & that the streaming was free, so I tuned in. When the base became loaded for Lewis, I felt in my bones that he was hitting a grand slam.

I also watched Keaschall when he 1st got on. I expected him to steal 2B. He looked confused & uncharacteristically apprehensive. He stayed put. 

I have been concerned about over coaching for a long time with this analytic driven team.  I remember Buxton's early years when they changed his batting stance, approach, etc every other month and he finally said screw it.  Let's hope they are not trying to change Keaschall. 

[mikelink45]

I hate to say it, but despite the win, we also established that we are on a par with the SOX.  Let's hope we use this slugfest to right the ship and keep Chicago with their losing ways.

[Old Crow]

2 hours ago, IndyTwins said:

Nice write up Matt, this prose deserves to be a short story! 

Amen to that!  Dreck,  I just increased my vocabulary.

[Jeff K]

9 hours ago, Dman said:

Lewis seems like the only player on this team that can hit grand slams and or isn't afraid of a big moment.  Rough year with the bat, but nice to see the grand slams continue.

I like even more that he is starting to play well in the field and he stole a base.  Good signs.

[Senior Softball Guy]

Royce is the modern era Pat Tabler! Load 'em up and his eyes widen. Even the most optimistic of us were starting to wonder if he was going to be the next Julien/Miranda. Perhaps not!

[jmlease1]

Battle of the crap bullpens.

Good to have Lewis with a good night at the plate. Him finishing strong would be very nice, even if it sounds like he's worrying about his stats a bit too much. He is looking very good at 3B right now, making some impressive plays and looking very comfortable there. Maybe that will quiet the calls for him to move to 1B.

Pretty ugly game with 15 walks between the two teams.

[Galen]

Lewis pulled an outside pitch for a grand slam.  Normally he pops up or strikes out on that pitch.  Should he continue pulling everything or hit the other way?

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I hate to say it, but despite the win, we also established that we are on a par with the SOX. 

Events since mid-July have already established that.

[TheLeviathan]

1 minute ago, ashbury said:

Events since mid-July have already established that.

We established it about a month and a half before that by my eye.

[ashbury]

28 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Battle of the crap bullpens.

That was the working title for one of the Turtles albums until their record label stepped in and put the kibosh on the word "crap" on the cover.

[terrydactyls]

Bad night for our boy.  they dropped two places into a tie for 5th.  Go CWS!

Team	W	L	PCT	Eligible
Colorado Rockies	37	92	0.287	N0
Chicago White Sox	45	83	0.352
Washington Nationals	53	75	0.414	N0
Pittsburgh Pirates	55	74	0.426
Atlanta Braves	58	70	0.453
Whatever Athletics	59	71	0.454
Minnesota Twins	59	69	0.461
Baltimore Orioles	59	69	0.461
Miami Marlins	60	68	0.469
San Francisco Giants	61	68	0.473
Los Angeles Angels	61	67	0.477
Tampa Bay Rays	62	67	0.481
Arizona Diamondbacks	63	66	0.488
Texas Rangers	64	66	0.492
St. Louis Cardinals	64	66	0.492

[chinmusic]

24 minutes ago, ashbury said:

That was the working title for one of the Turtles albums until their record label stepped in and put the kibosh on the word "crap" on the cover.

yup...and yet we remain "Happy Together"

[D.C Twins]

Lewis absolutely has the talent... that never went anywhere.... the question is if he can stay healthy for long enough periods of time to truly get comfortable at the plate so that he can rake.

History shows that when he gets injured, it takes him a long time to get back to baseline (potentially because he comes back sooner than he should) 

It is hard for the Twins to depend on him for their long term plans because of that injury history....