Twins 3, Tigers 1: Mick Abel Shoves, Brooks Lee Delivers Late to Seal Sweep

[JD-TWINS]

Wallner, now over .230 - he’s got at least a four game hit streak!!! Coming around. And with another on Thursday he’s maintained his League strikeout lead at 26 total (in 56 PA’s) ….. getting his rate down just under 47%!

[tony&rodney]

3 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

It's funny that you think there's been this big organizational shift in the use of starters when the pitching coach didn't change.

I don't think there has been a shift so much as the manager wants to use his eyes and the catchers more for decisions as opposed to the concern about third time through the order. It is easy to accept that a manager would find it a sound decision to use reliable, proven arms in previous years though too. The current bullpen is light on power arms and closers.

However, now that you mention it (I had not thought of it), is it possible that Falvey's departure plays any role in player usage and/or pitch counts?

[karcherd]

8 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I don't think there has been a shift so much as the manager wants to use his eyes and the catchers more for decisions as opposed to the concern about third time through the order. It is easy to accept that a manager would find it a sound decision to use reliable, proven arms in previous years though too. The current bullpen is light on power arms and closers.

However, now that you mention it (I had not thought of it), is it possible that Falvey's departure plays any role in player usage and/or pitch counts?

I think Falvey had a larger role than we realize in determining the pitch counts and player usage.  We were churning thru waivef wire pickups for the middle innings last year, we weren't getting to the better arms until later in the game.  The only difference this year is we don't have the back end arms like last year.  

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, karcherd said:

Martin is not platooning with Larnach though, it is actually Clemens that has been keeping on the bench.  Because of their insistence on playing Clemens every day against RH pitching, that is what is keeping Martin on the bench.  They should DH Larnach, play Martin in LF and Bell at 1B.  There is no need for a platoon.

Bell is a bad defender. That’s why he’s the DH. 
 

This team needs a SS and a 1B.

[JD-TWINS]

2 hours ago, Bodie said:

Banda isn't right...

One bad outing - ball misplayed at 1B to fuel the outcome. Come on.

[jorgenswest]

The Tigers four starters combined for 19.2 innings giving up 30 hits, 18 earned runs with 10 walks and 19 strike outs. Their combined ERA was 8.24.

The Twins four starters combined for 23 innings giving up 18 hits, 5 earned runs with 7 walks and 25 strikeouts. Their combined ERA was 1.96.

The Tigers have committed 75.65 million dollars to those 4 starters. The Twins have committed 12.94 million dollars to their 4 starters.

[JD-TWINS]

Don’t want to tread on any specific comments, but contributors trying to somehow discern how two Manager’s styles may differ after 13 games is nuts!

90% of the Managers in baseball manage identically. It’s baseball - not very complex stuff. Bringing up Zoll’s influence or Falvey’s “influence on pitch counts” is nuts. Some spillover of Falvey into managing the ‘26 Team is nuts.

Guys get replaced due to ineffectiveness, fatigue, poor match-up, lack of control, pitch counts/health, and availability of arms in the Pen. It’s the same with ALL 30 Teams - nothing special about the Twins - their front office - nor their Manager.

[JD-TWINS]

Per Stringer Bell’s background on AAA:

Arcia or Culpepper for Lee by the end of the month?

Rodriguez for Outman?

Who, or are either, better in CF between Rodriguez & Roden? I think it’s Rodriguez. Martin can survive as occasional CF back-up. Need relief from Outman at some point soon.

[terrydactyls]

7 hours ago, JDubs said:

Shelton is not leaving the starters in longer for some weird ideological notion they need to learn to get through things or whatever, it's because the bullpen is absolute dogshit. The reason Rocco pulled starters earlier is because he could turn to Stewart/Varland/Jax/Duran to slam the door shut. When your options are waiver wire guys either long past their prime or who will never have a prime, you don't really have much choice but to hope the starter eats a lot of innings.

Why can't it be both?

[terrydactyls]

12 hours ago, mnfireman said:

Corbin's line tomorrow - Valdez on Wednesday or Abel on Thursday? Twins have a habit of making bad pitchers look good...

1. "Corbin's line tomorrow"

2. "Valdez on Wednesday or Abel on Thursday?"

3. "Twins have a habit of making bad pitchers look good"

I don't understand what items 1 and 2 are supposed to mean.  I do understand item 3 and agree 100%.

 

 

[terrydactyls]

3 hours ago, Peter said:

Although it’s only 13 games into season this was huge win and sweep!!! Especially against division favorite!!! It was intense and nerve wracking!!! You have to give credit where credit is due! Maybe the twins aren’t as bad as everyone thinks? Outman saved game with huge catch!!! Able 6 shutout innings And acton with only 6 innings pitched in big league career comes up with first ever win!!!! Great to see Lee come through with game winning hit as he was down 0-2 then full count with bases loaded 2 outs!!! Is it too early to say this could be season turning point? Let’s keep winning going against blue jays and see if we can win series against them!!! As always let’s go Twins!!

Did I miss the sale on exclamation marks?

[Squirrel]

15 hours ago, Jacksson said:

Hawkins needs to reemphasize to his relievers that when they enter a game, they SHOULD NOT HIT OR WALK BATTERS.  If the guy in the bullpen can't seem to throw strikes or close to strikes, don't let him get into the game and get somebody else warming up.

Another LUCKY win.  Those catch up to a team in a hurry and soon go the other way.

Right. Because we have the best bullpen in all of baseball and Hawkins is telling them not to throw strikes and to hit batters because they don’t know what to do on their own.

[Squirrel]

Fun series. I’ll enjoy whatever wins and/or sweeps that come our way. But it doesn’t turn the hope around. We still are what we are and if we outperform another team on occasion, that’s baseball.

[terrydactyls]

I really like the enthusiasm shown by Lewis and Lee over the past two days.  BUT... for heaven's sake, quit looking towards the dugout for peer approval when running to first.

[jmlease1]

1 minute ago, Squirrel said:

Right. Because we have the best bullpen in all of baseball and Hawkins is telling them not to throw strikes and to hit batters because they don’t know what to do on their own.

Reminds me of the old story from former Twins manager Ray Miller, back when he was pitching coach for Baltimore. Dave Stanhouse was on the mound, and was driving Earl Weaver crazy with walks and he yelled at Miller "just go out there and tell him to throw strikes!". Miller said he thought at the time that Stanhouse already knew that, but Earl was the boss so he trotted out to the mound. When he got there, Stanhouse sneered at him, "what are you doing here? You gonna tell me to throw strikes?" So Miller responded, "Nah, I'm just here to tell you your fly is down."

[LA Vikes Fan]

12 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I'd agree if the team keeps seeing 50% LH starters, but the reality is that a right handed platoon guy only ends up playing about 25-35% of the time. I think Martin's skill set would wear pretty well whether there is a lefty or righty on the mound. If Larnach is on the roster, I'd rather see him DH. 

This. Martin needs to play so we can decide if he's part of the developing core or not. I  know Bell stinks at 1B and Larnach can't play there but those are two facts we just have to live with. I'm willing to give up 1B defense so Martin can play regularly in LF. What I'm not will to do is trade Martin ABs for Clemens ABs, which is essentially what they're doing. Martin may be part of the near and long term future. Clemens is not. 

[D.C Twins]

18 hours ago, Nshore said:

The starting  rotation is the foundation of a baseball team. I would say so far so good.  Maybe Tom Pohlad is a genius.

There is already a large sample size that proves otherwise on that one....

[Blyleven2011]

9 hours ago, UK Twin said:

 

All in all, fantastic sweep. Shelton has clearly installed a tougher mentality in the players than Baldelli did. 

This series they did show more of a tougher mentality , first 9 games it was lacking  ...

Winning does sharpen the mental confidence  ...

Winning also enhances the fans confidence in the team ..

[Linus]

2 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

I really like the enthusiasm shown by Lewis and Lee over the past two days.  BUT... for heaven's sake, quit looking towards the dugout for peer approval when running to first.

Yea sometimes when Royce gets a hit I have to doublecheck and make sure I’m not watching game 7 of the World Series. 

[Bodie]

5 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

One bad outing - ball misplayed at 1B to fuel the outcome. Come on.

He has stunk up more than a single game...

[UK Twin]

2 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

This series they did show more of a tougher mentality , first 9 games it was lacking  ...

Winning does sharpen the mental confidence  ...

Winning also enhances the fans confidence in the team ..

Was it? They went down big in one game in KC, fought their way back, forced them to get their closer up. All the games were close. Sure, most of them didn't go our way but doesn't mean it was lacking. 

[JD-TWINS]

4 hours ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

This. Martin needs to play so we can decide if he's part of the developing core or not. I  know Bell stinks at 1B and Larnach can't play there but those are two facts we just have to live with. I'm willing to give up 1B defense so Martin can play regularly in LF. What I'm not will to do is trade Martin ABs for Clemens ABs, which is essentially what they're doing. Martin may be part of the near and long term future. Clemens is not. 

Is Clemens a substantially better defender at 1B than Bell?? ………. Bell’s substantially better than Clemens at the plate!

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Bodie said:

He has stunk up more than a single game...

6 appearances and 5 1/3 innings and one run prior to last outing. That seems better than adequate. ………….. he gave up 4 runs in last outing.

[IndianaTwin]

8 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Reminds me of the old story from former Twins manager Ray Miller, back when he was pitching coach for Baltimore. Dave Stanhouse was on the mound, and was driving Earl Weaver crazy with walks and he yelled at Miller "just go out there and tell him to throw strikes!". Miller said he thought at the time that Stanhouse already knew that, but Earl was the boss so he trotted out to the mound. When he got there, Stanhouse sneered at him, "what are you doing here? You gonna tell me to throw strikes?" So Miller responded, "Nah, I'm just here to tell you your fly is down."

That’s like the (probably apocryphal) story of Rick Sutcliffe giving up back-to-back homers in a visiting stadium that shot off fireworks after home team homers.

When the pitching coach came out, Sutcliffe barked at him with something like, “You’re probably just going to tell me to throw strikes.”

”No,” the pitching coach said. “I just want to give the fireworks guy time to reload.”

[Bodie]

4 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

6 appearances and 5 1/3 innings and one run prior to last outing. That seems better than adequate. ………….. he gave up 4 runs in last outing.

He fails the eyeball test.  

You can disagree.

[JD-TWINS]

11 hours ago, Bodie said:

He fails the eyeball test.  

You can disagree.

Almost wrote an apology in real time last night - hanging sliders is not part of a good pitch mix. He has been bad visually and in the scorebook for at least the last two appearances!!

[arby58]

On 4/10/2026 at 8:37 AM, JD-TWINS said:

Per Stringer Bell’s background on AAA:

Arcia or Culpepper for Lee by the end of the month?

Rodriguez for Outman?

Who, or are either, better in CF between Rodriguez & Roden? I think it’s Rodriguez. Martin can survive as occasional CF back-up. Need relief from Outman at some point soon.

Outman is not playing many innings. Emma, in particular, hasn't played that many MiLB innings because of injury. My guess is they want both Emma and Roden playing close to every day, not a couple times a week. If/when somebody goes on the IL, sure, bring them up then, but replacing Outman's innings right now isn't that big a deal.

[JD-TWINS]

11 hours ago, arby58 said:

Outman is not playing many innings. Emma, in particular, hasn't played that many MiLB innings because of injury. My guess is they want both Emma and Roden playing close to every day, not a couple times a week. If/when somebody goes on the IL, sure, bring them up then, but replacing Outman's innings right now isn't that big a deal.

IF Outman could hit, he’d play more. ……. Buxton is hitting .180ish and has been facing many LH pitchers - not good! Could use a day-off occasionally. Would be nice to have someone that can hit as an option for Larnach in LF (Larnach then as DH) …….. Wallner played the first 14 games straight, leads baseball in K’s…….IF Outman could hit, he’d have fairly regular playing time.

Emma, if he can hit, could play fairly regularly.