Royals 8, Twins 6: It was Like Tug-of-War Between Two Pigs in the Mud

[Sam Caulder]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Andrew Morris - 2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 2 K (48 pitches, 32 strikes (67% strikes))
Home Runs: Byron Buxton, Kody Clemens (2), Victor Caratini
Bottom 3 WPA: Anthony Banda (-0.39), Brooks Lee (-0.19), Justin Lawrence (-0.19)

Win Probability Chart (vis Baseball Savant)

The Twins opened a four-game series against the Royals on Thursday night, looking to build some momentum after taking two of three from the White Sox earlier in the week. Instead, a game filled with lead changes, defensive miscues, and missed opportunities slipped away late. Minnesota erased multiple deficits and got big offensive performances from Kody Clemens and Victor Caratini, but a disastrous ninth inning proved too much to overcome in an 8-6 loss to Kansas City at Target Field.

The defeat dropped the Twins to 29-35 on the season.

CLEMENS AND CARATINI KEEP THE TWINS IN THE FIGHT
After Andrew Morris allowed a first-inning sacrifice fly by Salvador Perez to give the Royals a 1-0 lead, Byron Buxton immediately tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. Buxton crushed a Seth Lugo sinker 430 feet into the Twins bullpen for his 18th home run of the season, continuing what has been one of the best offensive stretches of his career.

Minnesota answered again in the second after Kansas City reclaimed the lead. Victor Caratini lined a double to straightaway center field that scored Luke Keaschall and tied the game at 2-2.

The offense continued to deliver throughout the middle innings. Kody Clemens gave the Twins their first lead of the night in the third, when he launched a first-pitch curveball over the scoreboard in right-center field. The 414-foot blast was his seventh home run of the season and made him the first left-handed hitter to homer off Lugo all year.

After Michael Massey tied the game with a solo homer in the fourth, Minnesota answered once again. Trevor Larnach singled to open the inning and eventually scored when Ryan Kreidler ripped a triple into the left-center field gap, putting the Twins back on top 4-3.

Clemens wasn't finished. Leading off the fifth inning with two outs, he turned on a down-and-in sweeper and launched his second homer of the night into the right-field seats. His eighth home run of the season extended Minnesota's lead to 5-3 and gave the Twins some much-needed breathing room.

When that lead disappeared an inning later, Caratini stepped up with another huge swing. Following an hour-long rain delay, the veteran catcher turned on a 95-MPH fastball and drove it into the right-field seats for a game-tying home run that evened the score at 6-6. By the end of the sixth inning, Minnesota had already erased deficits three separate times.

DEFENSIVE MISTAKES TURN THE GAME AROUND
While the offense consistently responded, the Twins repeatedly undermined themselves defensively. Morris battled through a difficult opening two innings, in what was essentially a bullpen game. The rookie flashed electric velocity, touching 100.1 MPH for the second consecutive appearance, but needed 48 pitches to complete two innings and allowed two runs.

Mike Paredes provided exactly what Minnesota needed after that. The right-hander retired the first six hitters he faced and cruised through three scoreless innings before running into trouble in the sixth. Even then, it appeared the Twins were in position to escape the inning relatively unscathed.

Instead, everything unraveled. With two runners aboard and two outs, Anthony Banda entered to face Carter Jensen. Jensen ripped a double down the left-field line that scored two runs and tied the game. Moments later, Bobby Witt Jr. hit a routine pop-up behind second base that should have ended the inning. Neither Luke Keaschall nor Ryan Kreidler took charge of the play. The ball dropped untouched between them, allowing Jensen to score all the way from second and giving Kansas City a 6-5 lead.

It was another frustrating defensive sequence for a team that entered the night coming off a three-error performance the day before. Minnesota was charged with multiple errors again Thursday, and several other miscues that didn't officially go into the scorebook proved equally costly. Those mistakes ultimately erased much of the excellent work provided by Paredes, who allowed just one earned run across 3 2/3 innings while keeping one of baseball's weakest offenses largely in check.

THE ROYALS CAPITALIZE LATE
After Caratini's game-tying homer in the sixth, both bullpens settled things down. Eric Orze worked around traffic in the seventh inning, while Yoendrys Gómez and Taylor Rogers combined to navigate the eighth. Minnesota had a chance to grab the lead in the bottom of the seventh after Buxton reached on an infield single, but the Twins couldn't push him home.

That set the stage for the decisive ninth inning. Perez and Lane Thomas opened the frame with back-to-back singles against Rogers, forcing Minnesota to go back to the bullpen. Newly acquired Justin Lawrence entered with one out and immediately found himself in trouble.

After a walk loaded the bases, Josh Rojas delivered a two-run single to center field that gave Kansas City an 8-6 advantage. Lawrence struggled to find the strike zone throughout the inning, throwing just 10 strikes among his 24 pitches, though he did eventually escape further damage by striking out both Jensen and Witt.

Minnesota still had one final opportunity in the bottom of the ninth. Caratini opened the inning with a single, and Buxton later worked an eight-pitch walk to put the tying run aboard with two outs. That brought Brooks Lee to the plate. Lee has delivered in several big situations this season, but this time, he couldn't come through. The young infielder sharply grounded out to end the game, sealing another frustrating loss for a Twins team that spent most of the night battling back.

In a game that featured four ties and multiple lead changes, it was ultimately defensive mistakes and a rough ninth inning that made the difference. After fighting their way back time and time again, the Twins simply couldn't complete one final comeback.

What’s Next?
The Twins and Royals are back at it tomorrow night for game two of the series. First pitch is set for 7:15 PM on Apple TV. Zebby Matthews will take the hill for the Twins, and it’ll be veteran right-hander Michael Wacha for Kansas City.

Postgame Interviews
Coming Soon!

Bullpen Availability Chart

	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	TOT
Paredes	60	0	0	0	50	110
Gómez	0	15	15	0	18	48
Orze	0	0	0	26	16	42
Laweryson	0	0	0	26	0	26
Banda	0	0	20	0	8	28
Adams	0	19	0	0		19
Lawrence	0	0	0	19	24	43
Rogers	0	0	0	12	11	23
Morris	0	0	18	0	48	66

 

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[mrguy]

A lot of things went wrong with this game, but the thing that stands out to me is having a bullpen game with a manager who seemingly didn't trust some of his pen arms. The bullpen obviously isn't great, but these kinds of games live and die by manager decisions. Paredes was pitching well even if the strikeouts weren't there, only gave up 2 hits the whole outing with 1 walk in 50 pitches but somehow didn't trust him to try and get out of the 1st and 3rd jam with 2 outs in a game that was specifically trying to avoid stretching too many bullpen arms? To me, that was the first domino that led to this game being lost, this isn't even getting into the fielding which was rough all game for everyone not named Kody Clemens. Outside of that, not much to say, the offense was there when it needed to be early on, but for a bullpen game, it was not well managed and too many questionable choices went down and too many routine things were just not handled well

[Peter]

4 home runs and still lose 👎this can’t happen again!!! Need to beat teams like royals!!! No reason we can’t win all 3 this weekend as well against Detroit and cardinals next week!!!

[Patzky]

Bullpen game left no bullpen for the weekend. It's ok I'm sure Zebby will throw nine innings. The embarrassing play in the field has to stop or we'll be swept, the Royals are good at putting balls in play and we're good at misplaying them.

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

It was Like Tug-of-War Between Two Pigs in the Mud

Best headline for an article so far this season!

[mikelink45]

I quit early on this game so I missed the errors and the errors that were not marked as errors.  I feel like the Twins and baseball in general do not get called on errors like they should.  Not sure if this is to give hitters more hits or helping the fielders, but it ends up distorting the pitching stats.

I love good fielding and think that baseball needs to do some more glove work.

[DJL44]

Gomez has been dominant since the Twins picked him up off Tampa’s discard pile.

[JD-TWINS]

Banda being sculpted as a villain in the WPA is nuts. He came in with 2 runners on and a left handed batter hit a ball barely fair, on the ground, down the left field line…….. it barely got to the short walk. It was not “ripped down the line”. These things happen but no issue with the pitcher.

The throw home looked solid but Caratini was set up behind the plate to nreceive instead of adjacent to the plate …… it would have been a tougher short hop to catch but he caught it and had to reach across the plate to apply tag - I thought Larnach’s throw had the guy.

Then the pop-up to end the inning that was butchered by Keaschall ……. have some guts and call off the other guy! Clearly Kreidler didn’t think anyone else could make the play and the ball went off Keaschall’s glove……..not “untouched” unless my seeing it twice was confused, possible? Kreidler didn’t help the matter.

Ugly series of events over 5-6 pitches …. lost the lead in a flash.

[mrguy]

19 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Banda being sculpted as a villain in the WPA is nuts. He came in with 2 runners on and a left handed batter hit a ball barely fair, on the ground, down the left field line……..

While the fielders are also to blame for completely falling apart that inning, I mainly just don't think Banda needed to come in at all and giving up the only hit the batter he faced got in the 6 ABs he had just proved it was not the right matchup call. Can't even justify it stat wise since Carter Jensen hits lefties better than righties(though his stats aren't remarkable on either side). It felt like Shelton jumping the gun on Paredes being in the only jam he found himself in with the order turning over and wanting to hope a more experienced high leverage guy could bail him out only for the inning to completely go south. Just a questionable management decision.

[Mike Sixel]

I was told the manager had fixed the defense.... And was brilliant at bullpen management. It's the players.....

[Saxophone Joe]

About last night: 

[Vanimal46]

Do we need to see anything more from the new acquisition Lawrence? Because I'm good... We can end that experiment any time. 

[thelanges5]

SWR for Lawrence for cash. I’d say the Pirates win this trade. Good to see that the bats woke up out of their Wednesday slumber. I can see better defense at my local Northwoods league games. 

[DJL44]

34 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Do we need to see anything more from the new acquisition Lawrence? Because I'm good... We can end that experiment any time. 

Cole Sands should be ready soon.

[PDX Twin]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

I was told the manager had fixed the defense.... And was brilliant at bullpen management. It's the players.....

Turned it off in disgust after that little-league play behind second. Uggh!

[Maybe Next Year]

6 hours ago, mrguy said:

A lot of things went wrong with this game, but the thing that stands out to me is having a bullpen game with a manager who seemingly didn't trust some of his pen arms. The bullpen obviously isn't great, but these kinds of games live and die by manager decisions. Paredes was pitching well even if the strikeouts weren't there, only gave up 2 hits the whole outing with 1 walk in 50 pitches but somehow didn't trust him to try and get out of the 1st and 3rd jam with 2 outs in a game that was specifically trying to avoid stretching too many bullpen arms? To me, that was the first domino that led to this game being lost, this isn't even getting into the fielding which was rough all game for everyone not named Kody Clemens. Outside of that, not much to say, the offense was there when it needed to be early on, but for a bullpen game, it was not well managed and too many questionable choices went down and too many routine things were just not handled well

Just like Baldelli we seem to have another manager who has no clue whatsoever how to manage a pitching staff. Seven pitchers last night - seven. There was no need to use 7 pitchers. 

[Linus]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I quit early on this game so I missed the errors and the errors that were not marked as errors.  I feel like the Twins and baseball in general do not get called on errors like they should.  Not sure if this is to give hitters more hits or helping the fielders, but it ends up distorting the pitching stats.

I love good fielding and think that baseball needs to do some more glove work.

Official scoring is a joke. They should just do away with it as it doesn’t really represent anything. 

[Twinsoholic]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Cole Sands should be ready soon.

When Sands returns, the Twins will likely send Adams down and not Lawrence. 
 

 

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Do we need to see anything more from the new acquisition Lawrence? Because I'm good... We can end that experiment any time. 

I have zero confidence in this front office. Bell, Catatini, and this? 

[David Maro]

Musical chairs at SS has and is a liability for the middle infield. Added to that a poor defensive player at 2nd will put more games in the lost column. If Buxton isn't in CF the whole defense up the middle is one of the worst in baseball. Why are they waiting to bring up someone who can play SS. All you have to do is look at the pitchers face when they see a bad play behind them.

It isn't helping any of the slow to react players either with the over shifting. Time and time again with the pitchers missing their spot and hitters putting the ball in play in a straight up hole created by the shift. 

[C-Gangster]

4 hours ago, Bangkok Twins Fan said:

It was Like Tug-of-War Between Two Pigs in the Mud

Best headline for an article so far this season!

The Twins front office is definitely printing that out and framing it in the executive suites right now.

[bean5302]

I have it on good authority guys like Tristan Gray and Ryan Kreidler are practically Ozzie Smith in the infield and Willie Mays in CF. We have 1337 defense.