Blue Jays 10, Twins 4: Early Promise Portends Middle-Innings Muck

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

Box Score
Simeon Woods Richardson: 4 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Home Runs: Ryan Jeffers, (1) Brooks Lee (1)
Bottom 3 WPA: Simeon Woods Richardson (-0.37), Anthony Banda (-0.18), Josh Bell (-0.11)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Ah, the yearly foray into Canada. Everyone’s favorite trip. When the team travels to a strange and foreign land less than two hours away from Buffalo by car to play a squad also full of Americans and players of Latin descent. Apparently, their Heinz ketchup is made with Canadian tomatoes. That’s cool.

Simeon Woods Richardson earned the start. His mound opponent, Patrick Corbin, was set to make his Blue Jays debut. The veteran—armed with a slew of off-speed tricks—labored lethargically in an unrelenting first. He surrendered singles to Austin Martin and Luke Keaschall before offering Ryan Jeffers a cookie: a cement-mixing cutter aimed directly down the middle of the plate. The catcher didn’t miss. His blast left the bat at 107.7 MPH and landed 419 feet away. 

Woods Richardson—in contrast—was effective. Not quite dominant, the righty nonetheless found outs as they came, limiting the Blue Jays to just a double and a walk in his first three innings of work.

Brooks Lee homered to start the fourth. Minnesota’s win probability was nearly 90%. Martin slugged a double. Keaschall nearly blasted a home run out to dead center. Times were good. The team was in a rhythm tighter than Jeff Porcaro on Toto’s “Rosanna.”

 

 

That groove dissipated immediately. Toronto slugged back-to-back doubles to start their half of the fourth, Davis Schneider struck yet another two-bagger (with help from a Matt Wallner misplay), and Andrés Giménez singled to bring the game within one. No matter. The backup catcher was hitting; certainly, he wouldn’t hit a go-ahead two-run homer, his first as a big-leaguer.

 

 

Anthony Banda did little to stop the bleeding: Daulton Varsho cracked a solo shot off the reliever in the fifth, and even more doubles in the sixth pushed the Blue Jays’ run total to eight. 

Taylor Rogers came in; Toronto scored again. Justin Topa came in; Toronto scored again. All the while, Minnesota's once potent offense fell silent, as they only put a man in scoring position one time following their fourth and final run. Martin struck out looking to cap a loss that once appeared set to be a promising victory. 

Notes:

Ryan Jeffers hit his 69th career home run, the fourth-most by a primary catcher in Twins history. He's seven behind Earl Battey.

Taylor Rogers appeared in his 320th appearance as a Twin, the 11th-most in team history for a reliever. He's seven away from tying Al Worthington. 

Austin Martin's season OBP sits at .474.

Post-Game Interview:

 

What’s Next?
The Twins and Blue Jays return for a Saturday matinee, as Joe Ryan is scheduled to start opposite Eric Lauer. First pitch is at 2:07 PM. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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[GopherMike]

The Twins are 5-0 when Eric Orze pitches and 2-7 when he doesn't. 

Just saying. 

[thelanges5]

Per Bobby N:

Royce Lewis (left knee sprain) and Cody Laweryson (right forearm strain) are headed to the injured list. 

And Simeon Woods Richardson pitched sick today, vomiting pregame after a bad meal at Subway.

[Jacksson]

Banda, Rogers, Topa have their tickets punched ro St Paul and/or DFA.

Hawkins: You are supposed to do SOMETHING with these BUMS!

Shelton: 3 of your guys got HBP.  No Retaliation??  No Complaints?? No Arguments??

Show some backbone, defend your team.  Blow up and get tossed out !!

The Wallner facing lefty's move needs to change - it's not working.

Drop Buxton down in the batting order until he starts to HIT.  Bench him for a couple games and let him think about it and to work on his hitting.

Gray shouldn't have been in there against a lefty: what in the hell were you thinking?

Quicker hook on SWR.  Expect a Better Bullpen from Hawkins. 

 

[tony&rodney]

Stuff happens. It was a rough night. 

Wonder who comes up. Arcia pulled up lame late in the Saints game but stayed in, so perhaps he is ok. Culpepper is playing really well but he needs more time imo, plus he is much better at shortstop than at third base. Twins are a bit pinched. Guess Arcia comes up more than likely. Raya and Morris need more time but most of the other pitchers struggling a bit. Brebbia?

[h2oface]

What do you really expect?
 

Wallner is horrible. And not too smart.
Buxton cratered.
 

4-0 lead, too. Toronto FO says  “yup!”

The Detroit series was just a dream.     

[AceWrigley]

15 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

. . . after a bad meal at Subway.

That's predictable.

[GopherMike]

5 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Stuff happens. It was a rough night. 

Wonder who comes up. Arcia pulled up lame late in the Saints game but stayed in, so perhaps he is ok. Culpepper is playing really well but he needs more time imo, plus he is much better at shortstop than at third base. Twins are a bit pinched. Guess Arcia comes up more than likely. Raya and Morris need more time but most of the other pitchers struggling a bit. Brebbia?

Arcia would require a 40-man roster move. 

[Danchat]

Doesn't feel so bad to lose a game like this after inexplicably sweeping a 4 game series against a team that should be better than us... but they can't let this start snowballing.

13 minutes ago, Jacksson said:

Hawkins: You are supposed to do SOMETHING with these BUMS!

He can't turn water into wine, and coming into today I've thought they have pitched above their talent level. Talent trumps whatever a bullpen coach can offer.

[thelanges5]

5 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Stuff happens. It was a rough night. 

Wonder who comes up. Arcia pulled up lame late in the Saints game but stayed in, so perhaps he is ok. Culpepper is playing really well but he needs more time imo, plus he is much better at shortstop than at third base. Twins are a bit pinched. Guess Arcia comes up more than likely. Raya and Morris need more time but most of the other pitchers struggling a bit. Brebbia?

Arcia is not on the 40 but there are a couple moves I could suggest. 

[AceWrigley]

I think Toronto was using metal-core baseballs and have a powerful magnet under the center of home plate that they turn on when the visiting team is on the mound drawing pitches to the center of the plate . . . probably.

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Arcia is not on the 40 but there are a couple moves I could suggest. 

Yes, true, I did forget that little bit of information. Bebbia is not either. Does that mean Kent and Kreidler?

[thelanges5]

Just now, tony&rodney said:

Yes, true, I did forget that little bit of information. Bebbia is not either. Does that mean Kent and Kreidler?

Not my favorite options, but was just looking at the 40 man and I think they are the path of least resistance.

[Western SD Fan]

11 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Yes, true, I did forget that little bit of information. Bebbia is not either. Does that mean Kent and Kreidler?

I was going to suggest Altavilla, but I also see that he is not on the 40-man roster.  I don't see Raya coming up just yet.  He just pitched tonight in Toledo, and I would surmise that if he was to be brought up that they wouldn't have pitched him.

[Peter]

Not mad about loss just losing 4-0 lead is what’s upsetting otherwise this was bound to happen-jays are heavyweight big city championship team!!! Let’s flush this down toilet and get win tomorrow!!! As always let’s go Twins!!!

[Permanent Twins Fan]

I'm not that mad about this loss. Offense managed to score a few runs, and it was nice to see Lee, Martin and Jeffers have good offensive games. Some nights the starter doesn't have it going, and there isn't much you can do. Hopefully the Twins are able to bounce back with a win tomorrow with Joe Ryan on the mound. 

[stringer bell]

The word "exposed" comes to mind when thinking about the Twins' bullpen. There aren't a lot of overpowering arms and the margin for error is really small, so a misplayed fly ball or unlucky bounce can be fatal. We've seen too many bases on balls for a group that isn't going to strike out many. Letting a deficit go from one run to six runs isn't optimum, but it's far worse to give up a lead.

The injury bug bit today and losing Laweryson and Lewis is bad news. I don't know who is coming up, but I'm sure it won't be the last move we'll see. 

[Aggies7]

1 hour ago, AceWrigley said:

That's predictable.

Ain’t that the truth (if it’s not being said in jest). I don’t remember the last time I ate at subway. Can’t imagine why a big leaguer would have to do that. The smell makes me want to puke.

[Blyleven2011]

Can't win them all  , SWR had a good start first time through the order and then the start of the 10 unanswered runs began,  none of ours pitchers tonight were on there A game ...

Jeffers with his homer with runners on base was good to see  , Martin continues to hit , would like to see buxton batting behind some of these players , he's bound to get on a hot streak soon ...

 

[knothole61]

50 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Ain’t that the truth (if it’s not being said in jest). I don’t remember the last time I ate at subway. Can’t imagine why a big leaguer would have to do that. The smell makes me want to puke.

Aggies, try a hot meatball sandwich on toasted Italian bread. 

[knothole61]

16 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Can't win them all  , SWR had a good start first time through the order and then the start of the 10 unanswered runs began,  none of ours pitchers tonight were on there A game ...

Jeffers with his homer with runners on base was good to see  , Martin continues to hit , would like to see buxton batting behind some of these players , he's bound to get on a hot streak soon ...

 

Yeah, Buxton is a streaky player, but he's a year older now and has been cold for quite a while...he wasn't worth much in the World Baseball Classic either. He was great last year and will likely come around soon, although you never can tell.

[Wedman13]

3 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Stuff happens. It was a rough night. 

Wonder who comes up. Arcia pulled up lame late in the Saints game but stayed in, so perhaps he is ok. Culpepper is playing really well but he needs more time imo, plus he is much better at shortstop than at third base. Twins are a bit pinched. Guess Arcia comes up more than likely. Raya and Morris need more time but most of the other pitchers struggling a bit. Brebbia?

Wallner was personally responsible for turning the tide.  Brutal play in the 4th.  Cmon.  It's fun having athletes.  And  competent players makes that play, and it's 4-1.   he gave up 4 when SWR would have been out of the inning.  Brutal..  get GG up here now.  If all you advanced folks  think MW is killing it, fine.  (I disagree) But get him the heck out of the outfield.  This Could be fun athletic team.  Not with him 

[CRF]

...and another IL trip for Lewis. Ugh!

[Doctor Gast]

9 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Per Bobby N:

Royce Lewis (left knee sprain) and Cody Laweryson (right forearm strain) are headed to the injured list. 

And Simeon Woods Richardson pitched sick today, vomiting pregame after a bad meal at Subway.

Thanks for that update. SWR should not have been pitching today, yet he managed 3 good innings. Most of our BP, once our pitching starts to bleed, they don't have the ability or mentality to stop the bleeding, but instead, they make it worse. 

Our rotation & especially our BP, aren't deep enough, so SWR had to start & was forced to suffer through the 4th. We were still in the ballgame, but Banda killed the momentum and put the game to rest. Banda is an OK RP in low leverage, but doesn't have the ability or mentality to come in to operate & stop the bleeding. We desperately need RPs who can come in & do that.  Funderburk & Orse have been surprisingly impressive enough, yet are they good enough? We need another Duran, the best option IMO is Preilip. If we put him in the BP, it doesn't mean that he can't later become a SP. Many great SPs have made that transition, namely Johan Santana.

For years, I've been preaching the need for the Twins to insert long RP/ spot SPs & for years, the Twins have carried only short RPs. Which very quickly burns out the BP & consequently the rotation. Instead, promising young SPs are denied much-needed MLB experience & demoted to AAA, where they are wasting their bullets & battle with their confidence. Last night, when SWR was laboring in the 4th, he should have been lifted for such a RP, Which would've kept our momentum going & killed TOR's. That momentum would have won us the game & gone with us throughout the series & into BOS, but now it gave TOR a much-needed reprieve to come back from their slump to battle us for the series win. 

CWS has recently applied this philosophy of carrying promising young SPs as MLB long RP/ spot SPs. Their rotation WAR isn't that impressive now, but shortly, watch out, I predict they'll become a force to deal with. 

 

[umterp23]

Throw culpepper into the fire. Drop the dead weight of veterans that aren’t the future. Move Lee to third and generate some excitement with fan base with culpepper getting extended run. Detroit, pirates have bitten the bullet with McGonigle and Griffin. This type of move should be made but won’t be by twins.

[Patzky]

8 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Yes, true, I did forget that little bit of information. Bebbia is not either. Does that mean Kent and Kreidler?

Pray Kent needs to apply for a passport.

[DJL44]

5 hours ago, Wedman13 said:

Wallner was personally responsible for turning the tide.  Brutal play in the 4th.  Cmon.  It's fun having athletes.  And  competent players makes that play, and it's 4-1.   he gave up 4 when SWR would have been out of the inning.  Brutal..  get GG up here now.  If all you advanced folks  think MW is killing it, fine.  (I disagree) But get him the heck out of the outfield.  This Could be fun athletic team.  Not with him 

I think Wallner is no great shakes in the outfield but he is probably better than Gonzalez.

[DJL44]

Assuming we get Wagaman as the call up. Would like to see Arcia and cut Outman.

Probably Kent for the bullpen. They keep using Klein as a starting pitcher.

 

[Jack207]

It's time to end the Wallner experiment. Terrible in the OF, too many strikeouts or terrible at bats plus clogging the bases going one base at a time. Get an athlete who can play defense and run and hit for average in there.

[jmlease1]

Boy, Wallner better not make another mistake or strike out for a while, because the knives are out for him. It was a team loss, with struggles all over the place. Wallner may have misplayed a ball in the OF, but SWR was getting hit hard in the 4th. Banda struggled (that's 2 straight in the stinker column, which isn't great). The offense vanished once Corbin left. (nice to see Jeffers on such a hot streak, but he needs more help)

I think this was the kind of game going into the season we thought we'd see a lot from the Twins: if the starting pitching was off then the bullpen would just make things worse and the offense wouldn't be enough to bail them out and the defense wouldn't impress. The trick is for this not to be a pattern and hopefully they come back this weekend and get at least one win.

Bummer about Lewis and Laweryson. Royce was starting to look like he was settling in and was doing some damage at the plate, so it's bummer to lose him, and any injury to him just feels like "here we go again". Laweryson had been one of the brighter spots so far in the bullpen and it was nice to see him getting a chance. Forearm injuries frequently seem to be a precursor to elbow problems these days, and I hope it's not that.