Nationals 15, Twins 2: This One Was Ugly

[Cory Moen]

Image courtesy of © Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober - 5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (82 pitches, 52 strikes (63.4% strikes))
Home Runs: Matt Wallner (4) 
Bottom 3 WPA (via FanGraphs): Ober (-0.31), Byron Buxton (-0.09), Brooks Lee (-0.08)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Coming off an offensive outburst in game one of the series, the Twins handed the ball to Bailey Ober to face the Nationals and veteran starting pitcher Miles Mikolas Wednesday night. Ober was coming off three straight quality starts. Mikolas was struggling coming into the game, and has been struggling for multiple seasons, really. 

Both Ober and Mikolas started with two perfect innings, so it was starting to look like a potential pitcher’s duel. The Twins got the first baserunner on a leadoff check-swing double by Luke Keaschall in the top of the third inning, his eighth double of the season. In the very next at-bat, Matt Wallner hit a 106-MPH single, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead. 

The Nationals finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth inning, on a CJ Abrams one-out double to tie the game. 

The tie didn’t last long, as the Twins took the lead in the top of the fifth on a Wallner solo home run. You may not believe me, but I was talking to my dad on the phone and I called the homer. (I guess, maybe, you'll believe me this one time, since Mikolas was pitching.)

The Nationals responded in the bottom of the fifth, though, on a Drew Millas two-run home run, after a leadoff single by Jacob Young. 

Ober was chased from the game in the sixth inning, after giving up back-to-back doubles to Abrams and Brady House, giving the Nationals a two-run lead. Jose Tena greeted Andrew Morris with a double of his own, stretching the lead to three runs. The Twins rookie wasn’t able to get out of the inning after giving up a two-out triple to Nationals second baseman Nasim Nuñez, making it 6-2. The Twins were into their pen, and the rout was soon on.

The Nationals added insult to injury on a House two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning off of Justin Topa. 

Topa and Luis García went to pieces, and the game turned from that taut early battle into a bruising blowout by a bad team.

Tena didn’t want to be left out of the home run party, adding a solo shot of his own and giving the Nationals a 15-2 lead. Former Twin Zak Kent made his debut with the Nationals by pitching a scoreless ninth inning. 

The Twins will look to forget about this game and move on quickly in the final game of the series in DC. 

What’s Next?
The Twins and Nationals will face off on Thursday afternoon in game three of the series. The Twins will send Simeon Woods Richardson (0-5, 6.49 ERA), while the Nationals will counter with Minnesota native Jake Irvin (1-4, 4.93 ERA).

Woods Richardson will look to get on track after struggling for much of the year thus far. In his most recent start, he threw 4 2/3 innings and gave up four earned run in a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. After tomorrow’s game, the Twins will travel to Cleveland to face the Guardians in a three-game series.
 

	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	TOT
Orze	0	24	0	16	0	40
Morris	0	57	0	0	14	71
Rogers	0	32	0	0	0	32
Garcia	18	0	0	13	14	45
Banda	18	0	0	19	0	37
Topa	10	17	0	0	32	59
Funderburk	14	3	0	0	17	34
Klein	12	0	0	0	0	12

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[Aggies7]

Do we really have not a single pitcher or two marginally better than some of these guys we’re trotting out there? There isn’t one guy in the minors better than Garcia? Yikes.

[thelanges5]

Good thing they dropped Kent so that they could pick up Garcia. Three hits on the offensive side of the ball. These guys are either fun or unwatchable, but it’s mostly unwatchable.

[Vanimal46]

We’ve seen a lot of terrible relievers in a SSS over the years. Luis Garcia might be the worst of them all. 

[Aggies7]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

We’ve seen a lot of terrible relievers in a SSS over the years. Luis Garcia might be the worst of them all. 

Bro threw 14 pitches and gave up 5 runs 😂 

[Vanimal46]

1 minute ago, Aggies7 said:

Bro threw 14 pitches and gave up 5 runs 😂 

I thought Joey Wentz was going to hold that crown for a long time after his 15.75 ERA in 8 innings last season. Give Garcia another 5 innings here and his ERA might be over 30. 

[Jacksson]

What an embarrassment.  Both Topa and Garcia need to be DFA IMMEDIATELY,  Should have DFA Garcia and kept Roa.  Should have kept Kent also.

Both Clemens and Wallner are looking up at the Mendoza Line.

[just-a-fan]

When will we see change? Seems to be no repercussions for lack of performance, same guys same lack of execution.  Will this be the game that forces front office to make some changes?  

[mikelink45]

It really isn't much to say after a game like this but Garcia today is the same player that we've seen each of his turns and that's bad. Topa was supposed to be someone we could count on but I don't see it. As a matter of fact it's hard to find somebody in our bullpen they can give us a clean inning. 

[USAFChief]

Topa hanging around as a little reminder of one of the worst trades in team history.

 

 

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Jacksson said:

Should have DFA Garcia and kept Roa.  Should have kept Kent also..

Roa would walk in a bunch of runs instead of giving up dingers. None of those pitchers will help.

[Danchat]

5 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Topa hanging around as a little reminder of one of the worst trades in team history.

Come on, they traded one year of Polanco who hit .213 (.651 OPS) and could have re-signed him after 2024 or 2025. As I said at the time of the trade, Gonzalez was the most valuable part of the trade and they could have chosen to use him as a trade chip (instead of continue to hoard OF prospects and not play them). We are talking about one year of control of turned out to be a 1.3 WAR 2B, it's hard for that to be a all-timer bad trade when we didn't give up very much.

[DJL44]

9 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Topa hanging around as a little reminder of one of the worst trades in team history.

The one where the Twins traded away an expensive season of a poor performing player?

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Jacksson said:

Both Clemens and Wallner are looking up at the Mendoza Line.

Can we save the Wallner bashing for the games where he didn’t drive in all the team’s runs?

[Rosterman]

Let's see what the Twins next visit to The Dollar Store will bring. Maybe they need to try Savers, or Goodwill.

[Blyleven2011]

This one was ugly because the twins are lacking pitching of any kind from the bullpen  ...

I was happy last night with the way they played the game ...

Tonight it was wallners night , 2 hits and his first homerun for quite sometime  , the only other hit was a check swing double by keaschall ...

I was not happy with tonight's performance  ...

Embarrassing ugly loss tonight ...

[Mahoning]

Wallner has had two good games in a row; opposite field extra base hits in both. Could it be that he has figured something out? And then there's Royce Lewis . . . hitting .167. What must be going through his mind?