Twins 5, Pirates 6: Bullpen Carries That Weight, Fails in the Ninth

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Box Score
Taj Bradley: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Home Runs: Kody Clemens (6), Trevor Larnach (3)
Bottom 3 WPA: Taylor Rogers (-.790), Taj Bradley (-.180), Byron Buxton (-.160)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Ah, welcome back, Apple TV. How we all missed signing up for a free trail with a new email, or prodding a friend or family member for their log in. What a wonderful present the captains of industry have created for us.

Taj Bradley earned the start for Minnesota, as Jared Jones—in his first major league outing since 2024—took the mound for Pittsburgh. That’s two power pitchers on the mound; owners of the kind of regal stuff that so dominates today's game. Either hurler is capable of unleashing diesel, owning hitters with raw velocity and jet-fueled breaking balls, corkscrewing batters too antsy for their heat. They could turn any band of batsmen on the run back to the dugout. Naturally, they were both hammered early.

Jared Jones looked like Nolan Ryan’s lost grandson in his first two batters, before Kody Clemens stepped to the plate and swatted one of his lethal fastballs for a solo homer. “Hit this,” said Jones. “I Will,” said Clemens.

The early support didn’t aid in Bradley’s mound endeavors. Runners appeared here, there, and everywhere in the first, as walks begat hits, which begat runs (though not without some poor defense from the corner infield spots; both Brooks Lee and Josh Bell aided in abetting runs to their counterparts). Suddenly, the Pirates claimed three runs, Bradley had thrown 30 pitches, and the only help he received was in a confirmed strike three call on Endy Rodriguez. 

As Pittsburgh’s lead said hello, Minnesota’s offense quickly bade it goodbye: they loaded the bases in the second, and tied the game when Tristan Gray found a lovely gap in the infield that scored two.

Maybe we’re amazed at this game’s pace; maybe we were soon to be amazed at what was a mammoth match-altering blast by Trevor Larnach. He saw one of Jones’ signature fastballs and smoothly stroked the offering deep into the Pittsburgh night, perhaps flirting with the Allegheny River in the process (neither Kris Atteberry or Glen Perkins could parse whether the ball landed in water, or whether it was an ordinary stands-clearing shot.) In any case, his silver hammer returned the lead to Minnesota. 

Oneil Cruz immediately refused to let Larnach’s blast be; indeed, he sent one 450 feet out right, almost certainly entertaining the aquatic life in the 325-mile tributary of the Ohio river with red-stitched leather. 

Editor's Note: A couple of innings later, the Pirates media relations staff announced that the two home runs both ended up in the river. Larnach's got there. Cruz's homer was the seventh home run to land in the river. He had hit two of the seven while Twins Josh Bell is the only other with two homers landing in the river. 

All of this occurred in just three innings, mind you. If Apple was paying for efficiency, they must have been pleased with their investment.

The early excitement gave way to a long and winding road: the Twins and Pirates settled into a typical baseball stalemate, perhaps occasionally trading baserunners and mild excitement, but never ultimately impacting the score. The fourth became the fifth, which became the sixth, which became the seventh. The “Bradley and Jones” of before turned into afterthoughts. Did Clemens homer in the first? Only a historian could answer that.

The eighth appeared to change matters. Cruz walked, and Konnor Griffin reached on a “fielder’s choice,” with an error unfairly charged to Tristan Gray (the real culprit was Luke Keaschall, whom the scorer must assume has the range of a caterpillar.) In any case, reliever Cody Laweryson was now in real trouble—runners stood on the corners with no one out. He blew a fastball by Rodriguez for the first out. Then Jake Magnum grounded one to Clemens, now at first, who didn’t make the same mistake Bell once suffered: he easily threw the runner out at home. Jared Triolo flew out to get the Twins back to their unthreatened lead.

The eighth apparently was a portend of things to come, as Taylor Rogers entered to save the game for Minnesota. A well-placed single placed a man on base, and an inside sinker never reached the front door; rather, Bryan Reynolds crushed the pitch for a walk-off two run-homer. It was only waiting for its moment to arise, apparently. 

Notes:

Taj Bradley's K% of 27.5 ties him with Joe Ryan for the 15th-best mark amongst qualified starters (though Bradley is just barely not a qualified starter).

Kody Clemens is slugging .508 in his last 15 games.

Trevor Larnach's .374 OBP would be a career-high, besting his .338 mark set in 2024.

Cody Laweryson pitched a shutout inning in his first MLB appearance since April 8th.

Post-Game Interview:

The Apple state media halts any release of a post-game interview (at least so far as this author can see).

What’s Next?
The Twins and Pirates continue their Central Switch-Up matchup with a 3:05 PM matinee on Saturday. Bailey Ober is scheduled to start opposite Mitch Keller. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	TOT
Woods Richardson	0	35	0	0	67	0	102
Gómez	22	0	18	0	17	14	71
Orze	10	0	0	29	0	23	62
Banda	10	0	10	0	14	18	49
Rogers	13	0	16	0	7	12	48
Morris	0	0	8	0	29	0	37
Laweryson	0	0	0	0	0	16	16
Funderburk	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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[Aggies7]

4-4 road trip should feel a lot better than it currently does 

[mikelink45]

15 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

4-4 road trip should feel a lot better than it currently does 

That's because we entered losing four out of five

[jkcarew]

Two ways to look at this one…

It’s not good when you have to use guys like Taylor Rogers (at this stage of his career) to close one-run games.

It’s not good to go 6 straight innings without scoring one measly run after you’ve taken a one-run lead through 3. If you’d told me the Twins wouldn’t score again after the 3rd, I probably would’ve been happy with a one-run loss.

[Blyleven2011]

Shelton has to put up signs ...

signs signs , everywhere a sign , DO THIS , DON'T DO THAT , can't you read the sign  ...

Hang a sign that says the season starts tomorrow !!!

BRADLEY wasn't on his game , hitters shut down after third inning , defense had some worst moments ,,, bullpen worked hard to earn a victory but for not ...

Reynolds tattooed that fast ball ...

Good game but the outcome was not in our favor ...

Alot of happy Pittsburgh fans go home happy with a walk off , twins fans just have to wait till tomorrow and try , try again  ...

[Permanent Twins Fan]

It's hard to praise the bullpen in a game that was lost because of the bullpen, but aside from that 9th inning they were really effective. I think any of us would take 5 innings allowing just one run any day. Taj Bradley wasn't at his best today. The offense kinda quit after Larnach's home run. Hopefully they can bounce back tomorrow. Go Twins.

[Peter]

Crushing walk off loss😡😤🤬💩🤮😭need to win next 2 games to finish off road trip with winning record 

[DocBauer]

I still don't dislike Rogers on the team as a veteran reliever who's BTDT. And he hasn't been terrible in his probable Swang Song, but that was a brutal loss.

The pen was pretty good otherwise.

The offense went to sleep again. 

Hopefully we can rebound and take the next 2 and finish with a solid road trip. 

Despite massive injuries to the pitching staff, overall, the young depth has come through and been exciting. I keep waiting and hoping the team can reach and stay around .500 and we can FINALLY see K-Pepper,  Rodriguez,  Roden, and Jenkins, possibly Gonzalez and Mendez as well. No offense to the guys playing now, but we've already seen the future with the young arms...though some of them have already had injury stints...but WHEN do we get to see the talented young prospects get an opportunity?

The injuries are MADDENING! This was SUPPOSED to be a team that MIGHT contend if they could just hang around for the first couple of months, waiting for bullpen help and a collection of AAA talent waiting in the wings. 

Instead, we have a decimated rotation that has really surprised. And the bullpen has SLOWLY gotten better. And I don't want to diminish Buxton or Jeffers, or improvement from Lee, and Martin, and Larnach. Even Clemens has surprised a bit. But the offense is really shallow right now. But what do you do when 2 of your top prospects are injured. Plus another player that isn't far removed from rookie status that is also injured. 

I keep waiting for the 2nd half of the season, which I've always spoken of. I've always believed the Twins were going to have to halves of a season. The first one was hopefully being in contention and at least sitting around .500 at worst.  MAYBE, considering TP's comments the Twins might be buyers. (Cough). But at least they wouldn't be SELLERS.  

What we NEED is our young arms to be healthy, bullpen AND rotation. And then we need our young top prospect OF to be healthy. I mean, it's NUTS that the ENTIRE primary AAA OF of Roden, Jenkins, and Rodriguez are ALL hurt! Mendez has been amazing since his promotion and Gonzalez has gotten hit since a bad start.  But WTH is with a curse of top prospects getting hurt?

You don't even have to squint to see a really good, and really fun 2027 Twins to follow, IF, we can just be reasonably healthy for the next few months. 

[knothole61]

2 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Shelton has to put up signs ...

signs signs , everywhere a sign , DO THIS , DON'T DO THAT , can't you read the sign  ...

Hang a sign that says the season starts tomorrow !!!

BRADLEY wasn't on his game , hitters shut down after third inning , defense had some worst moments ,,, bullpen worked hard to earn a victory but for not ...

Reynolds tattooed that fast ball ...

Good game but the outcome was not in our favor ...

Alot of happy Pittsburgh fans go home happy with a walk off , twins fans just have to wait till tomorrow and try , try again  ...

A Five Man Electrical Band reference to cheer me a bit after a gut-punch of a loss!

[knothole61]

Cruz had to have short-hopped that homer into the Allegheny...what a beast!

[h2oface]

Gray gets Keaschall’s error? That was all Keaschall. CATCH THE DAMN BALL. 

[William K Johnson]

It may be time for a Keaschall reset at St. Paul.   A lot of popups to the right side and his defense makes Julien look like a gold glover.    Perhaps Lewis back to third and Lee to second to see if that works better.

[karcherd]

To do list for the Twins Front Office-5/30

1. DFA Bell-Bring up Sabato, he can replace Bell on the 40 man.  Bell is unplayable at 1B and does not hit enough to be a full time DH.

2. Call up Culpepper and option Gray to St. Paul.  There is an open spot on the 40 man for Culpepper.

3. DFA Outman and swap him on both the 26 and 40 man roster with Fedko.  He can be the 4th outfielder and play in CF with Martin for Buxton.

4. Strongly consider calling up Gonzalez and option Kreidler.  Gonzalez can rotate at the corner OF spots and DH.

5. Give some consideration to calling up Ross for Arcia.  I am not sure if Ross can play 3B, so not sure who would fill in for Lee when he needs a day off, even though I think Clemens could play there. This is one move that could be held off but would give some consideration.

6. Work with Shelton and have Clemens play as a late inning defensive replacement starting 2 or 3 days a week.

7. Call Scott Boras and find out what it will take to sign Jeffers to an extension.  You can't go into next year with Caratini as your primary or top catcher being behind the plate for 80 to 100 games. However they would do the split without Jeffers.

8. Tom P., start the process of hiring a top baseball executive, ideal to have them in place by the end of July.  But at a minimum you need someone hired by the end of the season.  So they can set a course for the offseason to building a sustainable winning team.  At a minimum bring in a senior adviser for Zoll to guide him until the hire is made.  I am not in favor of Zoll making any big moves at the deadline either as buyer or seller.  I think we need a fresh perspective and I am not sure he is much different than Falvey.  

This team has surprised by hanging around .500 but is that sustainable when 5 of your 13 position players should be the 26th man on the roster.  Not your starting SS or every day player like Clemens.

So these moves may not help winning this year but they need to find out what they have going forward.  And it gets them younger and more athletic.  I fully understand everyone of these players may not have success but let's find out what we have.  We know what we have in the players I am suggesting moving on from and they are not going to substantially help us this year and definitely not next year.  You find out where you need help or depth and where you may have excess or strength to deal from.  Maybe you can avoid loading up on LH hitting corner outfielders this way.

And they will not block the injured players when they are ready to come up. if they are playing well that would be a great problem to have.  Players truly pushing for playing time because of performance.

I know this got long but I have never been this frustrated with the direction or lack of direction from this team.

[mikelink45]

Two games in one - first 5 went well, 6,7,8 - boring.  Then we bring in Rogers who is not the pitcher that he was in the first round.  He just does not have enough left in the tank for important innings like the 9th.  But then, if they did not score, we might have continued our punchless ways for however many innings it went. 

By the way Rogers has a 4.15 ERA - unacceptable for a RP. AND A 1.569 whip - totally unacceptable. 

[DJL44]

I am willing to bet Royce Lewis will be better than Josh Bell for the remainder of the season.

[shimrod]

Missed the game thanks to Apple. Pricks. 

No contending, or even pretending team is playing Bell at first. Lousy first base defense hurts the entire infield. We see it game after game and it needs to stop. 

[Sjoski]

8 hours ago, DocBauer said:

You don't even have to squint to see a really good, and really fun 2027 Twins

If there is even a season.  Both sides are apparently building massive war chest of cash to survive a strike.  

A team like the Twins, in developmental phase...gets hurt by the strike more than others. 

[LeatherAntenna]

9 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Two ways to look at this one…

It’s not good when you have to use guys like Taylor Rogers (at this stage of his career) to close one-run games.

It’s not good to go 6 straight innings without scoring one measly run after you’ve taken a one-run lead through 3. If you’d told me the Twins wouldn’t score again after the 3rd, I probably would’ve been happy with a one-run loss.

Roger’s committed an Emil Pagan.

[LeatherAntenna]

Just now, LeatherAntenna said:

Roger’s committed an Emil Pagan.

Emilio….

[David Maro]

This is what happens when you play musical chairs with the infield. Don't have enough everyday players on the roster. Saw this loss from a mile away,asking the BP to pitch 5 innings again is asking to much. When only getting 2.1 innings out of SWR the day before and Bradley's short day it was easy to see the outcome.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

I had to pause after I had perused Matt's perfectly pithy prose so I could pursue the purported definition of "parse".  

[Palindrome Bob]

To the OP — that makes two of us! I’m so tired of the infield defense costing games. Something’s gotta give; yesterday’s game was one of the worst, defense-wise, I’ve seen in my life as a Twins fan.

I will agree that we should say good night to Bell (it’s the end for him) and Luke Keaschall should get back to AAA to find his bat. You won’t see me clamoring for Lee to move to 2B (because his defense won’t be getting better there) but with Lewis at DH, Culpepper at SS, and Fedko replacing Outman, the offense should be more high-flying, while simultaneously fixing a hole (or two) on defense.

I don’t expect a revolution, but the Twins have a more exciting batch of ready and near-ready prospects than they’ve had in a long, long, long time, and tell me why we shouldn’t see them in 2026!

 

 

[Linus]

1 hour ago, shimrod said:

Missed the game thanks to Apple. Pricks. 

No contending, or even pretending team is playing Bell at first. Lousy first base defense hurts the entire infield. We see it game after game and it needs to stop. 

This is the most succinct summation of my feelings towards TV baseball coverage. 

[mark allen]

shocked we released Simeon. Bull pen has been holding its own, I would have liked to see Morris finish the game out, butt understand with the match up against lefty lefty, Rogers has pitched good for the most part, and is a great example for our young players to learn from.

 

[karcherd]

2 minutes ago, mark allen said:

shocked we released Simeon. Bull pen has been holding its own, I would have liked to see Morris finish the game out, butt understand with the match up against lefty lefty, Rogers has pitched good for the most part, and is a great example for our young players to learn from.

 

I have liked how Shelty has managed the bullpen so far.  But it is time to establish roles and stop trying the matchup game for every situation.  You can move people out of roles after a while if they struggle.  But we need some backend guys and let them get used to pitching in those situations.  Even Shelty has mentioned he wants this, hopefully he will move quickly in this direction.

[DJL44]

25 minutes ago, mark allen said:

shocked we released Simeon. Bull pen has been holding its own, I would have liked to see Morris finish the game out, butt understand with the match up against lefty lefty, Rogers has pitched good for the most part, and is a great example for our young players to learn from.

I am also shocked. SWR got two appearances as a reliever (and pitched 3 scoreless innings). 

[Hunter4848]

11 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I still don't dislike Rogers on the team as a veteran reliever who's BTDT. And he hasn't been terrible in his probable Swang Song, but that was a brutal loss.

The pen was pretty good otherwise.

The offense went to sleep again. 

Hopefully we can rebound and take the next 2 and finish with a solid road trip. 

Despite massive injuries to the pitching staff, overall, the young depth has come through and been exciting. I keep waiting and hoping the team can reach and stay around .500 and we can FINALLY see K-Pepper,  Rodriguez,  Roden, and Jenkins, possibly Gonzalez and Mendez as well. No offense to the guys playing now, but we've already seen the future with the young arms...though some of them have already had injury stints...but WHEN do we get to see the talented young prospects get an opportunity?

The injuries are MADDENING! This was SUPPOSED to be a team that MIGHT contend if they could just hang around for the first couple of months, waiting for bullpen help and a collection of AAA talent waiting in the wings. 

Instead, we have a decimated rotation that has really surprised. And the bullpen has SLOWLY gotten better. And I don't want to diminish Buxton or Jeffers, or improvement from Lee, and Martin, and Larnach. Even Clemens has surprised a bit. But the offense is really shallow right now. But what do you do when 2 of your top prospects are injured. Plus another player that isn't far removed from rookie status that is also injured. 

I keep waiting for the 2nd half of the season, which I've always spoken of. I've always believed the Twins were going to have to halves of a season. The first one was hopefully being in contention and at least sitting around .500 at worst.  MAYBE, considering TP's comments the Twins might be buyers. (Cough). But at least they wouldn't be SELLERS.  

What we NEED is our young arms to be healthy, bullpen AND rotation. And then we need our young top prospect OF to be healthy. I mean, it's NUTS that the ENTIRE primary AAA OF of Roden, Jenkins, and Rodriguez are ALL hurt! Mendez has been amazing since his promotion and Gonzalez has gotten hit since a bad start.  But WTH is with a curse of top prospects getting hurt?

You don't even have to squint to see a really good, and really fun 2027 Twins to follow, IF, we can just be reasonably healthy for the next few months. 

Twins would be extremely short sighted to not be sellers at the deadline 

[Jeff K]

36 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I am also shocked. SWR got two appearances as a reliever (and pitched 3 scoreless innings). 

I think they are hoping he clears waivers and goes to St. Paul.  But I like the accountablity.

[karcherd]

1 hour ago, Hunter4848 said:

Twins would be extremely short sighted to not be sellers at the deadline 

Who do we have to sell, Ryan and maybe Jeffers.  Buxton has a no trade clause and Bell no one wanted last year and no will want him this year.  I personally think they should be doing everything they can to extend Jeffers, do you really want Caratini behind the plate for 100 games next year.  There will be no one else that will draw any interest from around the league.

[AceWrigley]

1 hour ago, Jeff K said:

I think they are hoping he clears waivers and goes to St. Paul.  But I like the accountablity.

That and the fact (if my math is correct) the bullpen guys have thrown 217 pitches over the last 2 games, we need some fresh arms.