Twins 2, Guardians 1: Cleveland Rocks, But Buxton And The Twins Rolled to Victory!

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of © David Richard-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Joe Ryan 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K (107 pitches, 66 strikes (62%))
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (13)
Top 3 WPA (via FanGraphs): Eric Orze (0,48), Ryan (0.22), Luis Garcia (0.20)

Win Probability Chart (via BaseballSavant) 

On the day that Taj Bradley found his way onto the IL, the Twins hoped that Joe Ryan's return to the rotation and avoidance of the IL wasn't just a mirage. After losing three in a row and finding themselves once again in the basement of the AL Central, Minnesota could not afford to lose another winnable game to the Guardians on Saturday night against a winless Tanner Bibee. The chance of thunderstorms delayed the inevitable by two hours, but baseball was played, and a result that no Twins fans expected transpired in Rock and Roll City.

Buxton Rocks
Byron Buxton waited and waited to get his chance to lead off against Bibee, but it only took three pitches before Byron and the Twins were out in front 1-0. Lead off homerun number 22, and homerun number 13 on the season, for number 25!

 

Ryan Also Rocks, Even on the Rocks
With the Twins' offense silenced after Buxton's homer, the pressure fell on the ace shoulders of Ryan to keep Cleveland off the board. Joe delivered consistently and efficiently in the early innings, allowing just a walk over the first three frames on only 41 pitches. The fourth inning was less efficient and definitely not as clean, as Jose Ramirez golfed a one-out single into center, stole second base, and scampered home to tie the game on a Kyle Manzardo single. A walk and a beanball created a bases loaded situation, but Ryan was able to deliver two straight strike outs to escape the inning with minimal damage. 

The elevated pitch count of the fourth ended up limiting Ryan to six innings on a whopping 107 pitches, but he kept the score knotted at one, which was necessary due to the fact that the Twins didn't muster any more hits after Buxton's blast. The Twins bullepn held serve through the seventh and eighth innings, with a couple of mammoth fly balls causing small panic attacks, but without any actual injury.

Rocking and Rolling Into the Ninth
After eight innings, the two squads had combined for three hits, two runs, and 21 strikeouts. To say the action was limited would be an understatement. The Twins hoped that red-hot Brooks Lee would be their key to the top of the ninth, but Brooks watched a 3-2 fastball go down the heart of the plate, and pinch-hitting Austin Martin and Josh Bell couldn't do anything to break the tie.

Kody Funderburk started off the bottom of the ninth with two walks, and almost disasterously missed a chance to get the first out on a bunt. The Twins successfully challenged the call, and found themselves facing runners at second and third with only one out. Derek Shelton pulled Funderburk for Eric Orze, brought in Martin as a fifth infielder, and intentionally walked David Fry to load the bases. Orze induced a grounder to Luke Keaschall, and he nabbed the lead runner at the plate. Steven Kwan was next man up, and Orze was miraculously up to the challenge! Kody Clemens secured yet another three unassisted on the night to send us to bonus baseball!

Extra Innings, Twins 
In the top of the tenth, the Twins were still looking for their second hit of the ballgame. They headed to the bottom of the tenth without finding it. Orze stayed in, and got the first out on a liner to Clemens. After intentionally and wisely walking Ramirez, Orze unintentionally walked Rhys Hoskins to load the bases. Again, Shelton brought in the fifth infielder, and this time it was Lee's turn to save the game.

 

Orze still had to get rookie phenom Travis Bazzana to keep the Twins alive, and he did just that by inducing a fly out to a left-field-playing-again Martin to send us to the eleventh.

Buxton still had the only hit of the night for the visiting team. Matt Wallner started out the eleventh as the ghost runner, and advanced to third on a "get him over" grounder by Royce Lewis. This brought up the aforementioned Buxton in a big spot. By the end of the at-bat, Buxton was still the only Twin with a hit on the night...but now it was "two." 2-1 Twins on a booming Buxton double off the left-field wall!

Buxton was stranded in scoring position, and Twins fans hoped that this wouldn't come back to bite them as the much-maligned Luis Garcia got "last man standing" duty in the bottom of the eleventh with the speedy Bazzana on second as the ghost runner. Garcia got the first man with a shallow fly ball, but Bazzana stole third anyways. Fry flew out to an even shallower left field for the second out, and Garcia got Rocchio to two strikes. But Rocchio hit the kind of back-breaking seeing-eye grounder up the middle that Twins fans have seen year, after year, after year, after...oh wait! Brooks Lee equals Ballgame now!

What’s Next?
The Twins look to steal the series in Cleveland in a Sunday afternoon tilt. Twins reliever Andrew Morris will open things up and an assortment of bullpen arms will aim to fill Bradley's shoes on Sunday. The Guardians will counter with righty Gavin Williams (5-2, 3.28 ERA) in hopes of reclaiming their home-field advantage versus Minnesota. First pitch is scheduled for 12:40pm CDT with no rain in sight for once!

Postgame Interviews

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Banda	19	0	20	22	0	61
Funderburk	0	17	0	22	10	49
Orze	16	0	0	16	15	47
Rogers	0	0	26	0	17	43
Garcia	13	14	0	0	13	40
Topa	0	32	0	0	0	32
Morris	0	14	0	0	11	25
Gómez	0	0	0	2	5	2
Adams	0	0	0	0	0	0

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[tony&rodney]

Great win for the Twins. The team plays hard, that much can be said. Baseball can be hard with so much difficulty finding success.

[jaimedude]

This was the kind of game that Cleveland has stolen from the Twins a lot the past 4 years, especially at Progressive field.. 15 strike-outs is far to much., Twins hitters have to be more selective and foul off more close pitches, choose more pitches that they can drive. 

[DJL44]

Great game. 25% of the season complete with a 68-win pace.

[terrydactyls]

6 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Great game. 25% of the season complete with a 68-win pace.

Now that is what is known as "being competitive".

[tony&rodney]

20 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Great game. 25% of the season complete with a 68-win pace.

That is not too far off from the expected 72 wins. 

FWIW, I have raised my prediction from preseason 71 to 77 victories for the season. Realism is hard for us Twins fans.

[AceWrigley]

"And the Twins somehow win in Cleveland!" Classic call.

[knothole61]

I'm very happy with the win, but it's a good thing that I'm a fan of an occasional pitching duel because we just watched two teams go 11 innings while combining for 4 hits! Just when you thought you'd seen it all!

Hey, Orze is starting to grow on me...I like his spunk! 

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

I like a good pitchers duel. With our bullpen, the game could've ended poorly many times. Good job to them this night for keeping Cleveland off the scoreboard. Fun game. 

Tomorrow will be interesting with Morris starting. We used almost the entire bullpen tonight. It will be fun to see how it plays out. 

[Peter]

I think we found our new closer!!! Orze/buxton and Lee were clutch!!! Buck with hr and game winning rbi and Lee with 2 great plays in 10th/11th inning!!! Huge huge huge win!!! Let steal this series with win today!!! Go twins!!!

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

An insanely strange but pleasing game. The Twins can only manage 2 hits in 11 innings (thank you, Mr. Buxton) but manage to win the game?! I'm still in shock. And the bullpen allowed zero runs?! I hope this win doesn't use up the rest of our luck for the season. 

[Blyleven2011]

I can't believe fangraph didn't add buxton to the list , shows how flawed it is  ...

Close game , both starters pitched a good game , 2 hits apiece for both teams , pitchers duel with great defense ...

I can't believe the bullpen got us a win ....

17 strikeouts was just to many for the twins ...

They say one man can't carry a team , Buxton is the one man to carry the team to a 2-1 victory  ...

Nice going twins , extra inning victory  , who would of seen this coming  ...

[mnfireman]

In a testament(?) to how bad the bottom of the line-up has been, Buxton driving in Wallner in the 11th was his first RBI that wasn't by HR since he drove in Josh Bell with a SF on April, 2nd, thank you Rob Manfred for the Manfred Man in extras or these two teams may still be playing...

[DJL44]

7 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Great game. 25% of the season complete with a 68-win pace.

Also, Buxton on pace for 52 HR

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

Looks like Morris, Adams, and Gomez throwing on Mother's day.

[howeda7]

Good win. They have to do something with Bell and Wallner though. They're both unplayable right now. Bell should be a DH against lefties only and Wallner needs to go down. Lewis is right behind them, but at least he can play D and draw a walk once in a while.  

[Blyleven2011]

16 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Also, Buxton on pace for 52 HR

I hope they are not all solo homeruns  ...

Speaking of homers  , Bell  , Larnach and Wallner are not hitting their share to help the offense  ...

[CharlieDee]

So satisfying beating Cleveland in a game like this. Way to go Twins!

[mikelink45]

I know we call out Bell, Wallner, Lewis for not hitting and it is frustrating to have Buxton at leadoff with no one on base from the bottom of the lineup, But right now they are not the only issue - we have Outman (121) who cannot pinch hit, Clemens batting 184,  Kriedler 214 and Caratini 200.  No bench, and a lot of louse hitters.  Love what Buxton did, but when Keaschall at 232 is the fourth best bat in the lineup we need to win some more 2 - 1 games, but then there is the rotation!

[Colbeh]

19 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I hope they are not all solo homeruns  ...

Speaking of homers  , Bell  , Larnach and Wallner are not hitting their share to help the offense  ...

Larnach is hitting .264 with a .391 OBP, thats pretty picky to complain about

[Patzky]

36 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_For_Life said:

Looks like Morris, Adams, and Gomez throwing on Mother's day.

Topa is ready to gooooooo

[HarmonK03]

13 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Kriedler 214

Well Kriedler is in St. Paul, so as long as we keep him there that is one problem solved.

[Old Twins Hat]

Went to bed after the top of Eight thinking to myself:  Twins are going to go hitless in the ninth, meaning, with Buxton's leadoff homer, they made 27 outs without a hit.  I was watching what amounted to a no-hitter of a losing team, without a bullpen and in last place in the division.

Pathetic.

But, turns out it may have been one of their better games this season.  Somehow.

Baseball.  Kind of crazy game.

[jorgenswest]

Great defense around the diamond. Great clutch pitching start to finish. Buxton.

[shimrod]

1 hour ago, howeda7 said:

Good win. They have to do something with Bell and Wallner though. They're both unplayable right now.

And Bell was the big offseason acquisition. A "professional hitter". 

Anyone wondering why the team is so bad can start there. Most agree last years Twins lacked athleticism, defense, and contact skills. FO shot their wad on a player who provides none of that. 

EDIT: That said it was nice to see the Twins pull out a win in Cleveland. 

[Eris]

A win is a win. The Twins had 4 straight hitters at the bottom of the order with a BA of 0.200 or less. Not sure why they were not willing to PH Jeffers or Gray in the 10th. 

[Melissa]

4 hours ago, mnfireman said:

In a testament(?) to how bad the bottom of the line-up has been, Buxton driving in Wallner in the 11th was his first RBI that wasn't by HR since he drove in Josh Bell with a SF on April, 2nd, thank you Rob Manfred for the Manfred Man in extras or these two teams may still be playing...

Excellent point! RBI stats rely so much on opportunity.

[David Maro]

Good win,but can't strikeout 17 times and win many games. The manager has to make tough decisions when a player should take a seat after striking out 2 or 3 times like Bell or Wallner. Games like this can be won playing small ball,that's getting the ball in play not swinging for the fence.

[HarmonK03]

1 hour ago, Eris said:

A win is a win. The Twins had 4 straight hitters at the bottom of the order with a BA of 0.200 or less. Not sure why they were not willing to PH Jeffers or Gray in the 10th. 

Jeffers yes, but Gray is not any better than what they sent out to the plate.

[JD-TWINS]

9 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I can't believe fangraph didn't add buxton to the list , shows how flawed it is  ...

Close game , both starters pitched a good game , 2 hits apiece for both teams , pitchers duel with great defense ...

I can't believe the bullpen got us a win ....

17 strikeouts was just to many for the twins ...

They say one man can't carry a team , Buxton is the one man to carry the team to a 2-1 victory  ...

Nice going twins , extra inning victory  , who would of seen this coming  ...

5 innings from PEN - no hits!……….won’t mention the details on Funderburk