Cardinals 9, Twins 6: Twins Rallies Can't Overcome Bullpen Implosion This Time

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Connor Prielipp - 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K (98 pitches, 66 strikes (67%))
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (22), Royce Lewis (6), Luke Keaschall (2)
Bottom 3 WPA: Justin Lawrence (-0.32), Travis Adams (-0.14), Prielipp (-0.12)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 


The Twins came into Saturday's matinee at Target Field riding the waves of an exciting comeback victory. Young lefty Connor Prielipp hoped to right his ship after a series of sub-par performances, especially as his 2026 inning count approaches max capacity. Not-so-young lefty Matthew LIberatore took the ball for the Cardinals in hopes of sparking another St. Louis winning streak. 

Prielipp Ambushed Early and Often
This game got off on the wrong foot for the home team, as Prielipp couldn't control his fastball in the opening at-bat, losing Masyn Winn to a five pitch walk with mostly non-competitive efforts. As designated hitter Ivan Herrara stepped into the box, Prielipp was determined to get a fastball over the plate. By the time that center-cut fastball landed in the bullpen for a 2-0 Cardinals lead, the momentum of Friday night had morphed into a typical Saturday afternoon funk.

The top of the second inning didn't start out any better for the home team. Prielipp again served up a center-cut first pitch fastball, this time to Blaze Jordan who promptly put it over the super-short arms of Austin Martin and off of the right-field wall. By the time Ryan Kreidler could catch up to the ball, Jordan was standing on third with a lead-off triple. Pedro Pages doubled in Jordan, and eventually came around to score himself to make it 4-0 Cardinals.

Royce Lewis is On a Tear, and that Buxton Guy
Liberatore tore through the Twins lineup in the early innings like they were wet toilet paper. When he faced Lewis in the bottom of the second inning, Lewis ripped a double but got stranded at third. That was the only hit the Twins could muster in the first three frames, so things were starting to get desperate as the bats came back around in the bottom of the fourth. This time it was Liberatore's turn to see what happened when a first pitch fastball catches the power zone for a major league hitter. That hitter was Byron Buxton, and the Twins were finally on the board.

Two batters later, Lewis decided to not rely on his teammates to get him home. He took of that part himself with his third homer in the last four days to pull the Twins within two at 4-2.

Afternoon Rallies and Homer Hankies
The Twins came into Saturday's contest a measly 14-20 during day/afternoon games in 2026. If they want to get back into the Wild Card race, finding a way to get awake in time for matinee outings will have to be a part of the equation. Liberatore did his best to wake-up the Twins offense again in the bottom of the fifth. After losing Kriedler on a full count walk to start the inning, the Cardinals lefty thought he might get away with a first pitch fastball to Luke Keaschall. Wake up Twins fans! Its a 4-4 ballgame!

Falvey's Sins Remain
As unlikely as it seemed in the second inning, Prielipp managed to cover six full innings before giving way to his minor league bullpen. For all the excitement of last night's victory, the effort left the Twins bullpen pretty exhausted. With few quality options available, first man up was Justin Lawrence. The seventh inning started off innocently enough with two strike outs, but then Herrera and Jordan Walker went back-to-back. Derek Shelton stuck with the steaming hand of Lawrence not once, but twice more, as Lars Nootbaar and Alec Burleson both got to tee off for singles. Finally, Travis Adams came in to stop the bleeding. Instead, he started a gusher. This time the center-cut fastball gave Blaze Jordan his first career homerun, and the Cardinals a sudden and depressing 9-4 lead.

Adams remained in the game as the sacrificial bullpen lamb, and he managed to get his team into Sunday. The Twins briefly got their rally mojo going again in the bottom of the eighth, but after a Kody Clemens RBI single, Lewis aggressively tried to pull a first pitch changeup on the outside corner. That leads to a rolled-over 6-4-3 rally killer in most Major League ballparks, and it did here today as well. Things got slightly interesting again in the bottom of the ninth, as reliever Riley O'Brien tried his best to keep the home crowd in it by walking the bases loaded to bring the tying run to the plate with nobody out. Keaschall got the first crack at the hero moment, but went down looking for the first out. Josh Bell got the next attempt, and he could only muster an RBI fielder's choice grounder to second. Shelton thought that Victor Caratini stood a better chance of keeping the rally alive than today's lead off man Austin Martin, but he was wrong. A harmless pop fly generated a 9-6 Cardinals victory, with Buxton left on-deck.

What’s Next?
Tomorrow is another day, but unfortunately for the afternoon-challenged Twins its another day game. Twins righty Taj Bradley (5-3, 4.02 ERA) looks to get his season back, while the Cardinals will turn to former 1st rounder, righty Michael McGreevy (3-5, 2.99 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm CDT. Twins bullpen implosion is scheduled for approximately 3:15pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Adams	0	31	0	0	37	68
Paredes	0	58	0	0	0	58
Rogers	17	14	0	22	0	53
Lawrence	26	0	0	0	24	50
Morris	0	39	0	9	0	48
Laweryson	12	0	32	0	0	44
Gómez	0	27	0	15	0	42
Orze	23	0	0	16	0	39
Banda	0	30	0	9	0	39

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[h2oface]

4-4 to the 7th. How is Adams even pitching in MLB? Yet…….

[thelanges5]

Prielipp gave them a chance to win it, the bullpen did not. 

[karcherd]

15 minutes ago, h2oface said:

4-4 to the 7th. How is Adams even pitching in MLB? Yet…….

I think Lawrence blew up worse than Adams.  

[Glorybound]

This bullpen misses few bats. Hard to see this changing much without some talent infusion of some sort.

[thelanges5]

Nick Nelson:

The Twins bullpen

Last 16 games: -0.3 WAR (25th), 6.97 ERA (28th), -2.08 WPA (29th)

[Mike Sixel]

7 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Nick Nelson:

The Twins bullpen

Last 16 games: -0.3 WAR (25th), 6.97 ERA (28th), -2.08 WPA (29th)

Imagine, there are somehow worse pens!

[ashbury]

When you need to pinch hit for your right-handed leadoff hitter in the ninth inning because a righty is on the mound , ...

[jkcarew]

Tomorrow is another day, but unfortunately for the afternoon-challenged Twins it’s another day game.
 

When you’re also below 500 in night games, I don’t really think 14-20 or 14-21 in day games is really a thing. It’s not like “except for day games, they’re good!”.

[mikelink45]

Not not one pitcher deserves any praise. 

[jkcarew]

3 minutes ago, ashbury said:

When you need to lift your right-handed leadoff hitter in the ninth inning because a righty is pitching, ...

Looking for a HR in that situation rather than a single or a walk, and Caratini has…(checks stats)…never mind.

[JADBP]

Ok. Enough already.  I am just sick of this bullpen!  We are constantly losing games with this inept bullpen.  This is the result of Falvey thinking he was the smartest guy in the room.  I am so sick of this!!!  
 

Just so ya know….Varland has a 0.96 ERA with 49 Ks and only 10 walks over 37.1 innings this year.  How’s that trade working out, Mr Smart Guy?  Geez, no wonder Falvey left town.  He wouldn’t have survived the heat!  

[JADBP]

14 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

Looking for a HR in that situation rather than a single or a walk, and Caratini has…(checks stats)…never mind.

Yeah with Buxton in deck too!   

[hitterscount]

They battled.... not much else to say. This BP is a joke, starting pitching has dug some deep holes early, however it wouldn't matter if the starters were given the team QS's, if you don't have a 4 run lead, at minimum, there is 1-2 guys that would have the ability to hold and close.... that's being generous. Get Culpeper up, Jeffers back and hope Royce is still playable at that point and they could be entertaining. 

[ashbury]

28 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

Looking for a HR in that situation rather than a single or a walk, and Caratini has…(checks stats)…never mind.

I wasn't really questioning the tactical decision.  More, that this roster has problems too deep to fix easily.

[Hunter4848]

19 minutes ago, JADBP said:

Yeah with Buxton in deck too!   

Buxton only hits solo shots...

If there's any pressure on him he folds.

[D.C Twins]

Yesterday we won the Battle of the Bad Bullpens (trademark pending), but alas, today we lost the Battle of the Bad Bullpens. 

[thelanges5]

44 minutes ago, Hunter4848 said:

Buxton only hits solo shots...

If there's any pressure on him he folds.

If you mean that he’s struggled in 43 at bats this year then you are correct. Pretty small sample size.  In 2025 he had a .957 OPS w/RISP

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Again with this bullpen 🤦‍♂️

Is Sands the only "reinforcement" coming back from the IL any time soon? Even at his best it wont be enough. 

Even the starters, outside of Ryan, aren't pitching well. 6 runs should be plenty to win a ballgame. 

[jorgenswest]

40 minutes ago, ashbury said:

I wasn't really questioning the tactical decision.  More, that this roster has problems too deep to fix easily.

I can question it. The pitcher had a hard time throwing strikes. Caratini swung at a pitch out of the zone. Keaschall took a swing at one just about in the dirt. Both were in the second pitch. Batters should have had a real small strike zone until they had two strikes. I would have trusted Martin to manage the strike zone over Caratini and get Buxton in the box.

I also don’t get it defensively if they tie it up. Who are they playing in the outfield among Bell, Keaschall, Lewis, Lee and Gray? I guess they give up the DH and put Buxton out there. 

[Blyleven2011]

Prielipp gave us some innings  , first 2 innings were not favorable but kept them off the board the next 4 innings and kept us in the game as we tied it up ...

Prielipp is new to the MLB and not an established pitcher yet but he managed to go 6 innings , give him credit for adjusting to their hitters , it's a learning experience ...

Rocco would have replaced him alot sooner than 98 pitches  ...

The offense has been battling of late , down 4 nothing they did battle back to tie it up  ...

Twins territory was rocking and Lawrence snuff it out  ...

Get them tomorrow and win the series ...

[Hunter4848]

1 hour ago, thelanges5 said:

If you mean that he’s struggled in 43 at bats this year then you are correct. Pretty small sample size.  In 2025 he had a .957 OPS w/RISP

Yes that's what I'm saying...

Some players rise up when the situation calls for it and some fold like Buxton does. Thats why he has 22 homeruns and only 34 RBI. Absolutely pathetic 

[Hunter4848]

21 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Prielipp gave us some innings  , first 2 innings were not favorable but kept them off the board the next 4 innings and kept us in the game as we tied it up ...

Prielipp is new to the MLB and not an established pitcher yet but he managed to go 6 innings , give him credit for adjusting to their hitters , it's a learning experience ...

Rocco would have replaced him alot sooner than 98 pitches  ...

The offense has been battling of late , down 4 nothing they did battle back to tie it up  ...

Twins territory was rocking and Lawrence snuff it out  ...

Get them tomorrow and win the series ...

Twins territory was not rocking. There were like 13 fans at the game

[Patzky]

3 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Prielipp gave them a chance to win it, the bullpen did not. 

Yer they had nearly the same lines. Funny sport, baseball 

[Patzky]

2 hours ago, Hunter4848 said:

Buxton only hits solo shots...

If there's any pressure on him he folds.

The double steal game disagrees with you.

[Patzky]

2 hours ago, JADBP said:

Ok. Enough already.  I am just sick of this bullpen!  We are constantly losing games with this inept bullpen.  This is the result of Falvey thinking he was the smartest guy in the room.  I am so sick of this!!!  
 

Just so ya know….Varland has a 0.96 ERA with 49 Ks and only 10 walks over 37.1 innings this year.  How’s that trade working out, Mr Smart Guy?  Geez, no wonder Falvey left town.  He wouldn’t have survived the heat!  

Ah jeez Varland blew it today. He's good he's not Jesus it was the combination of all the valid pieces disappearing all at once. 

[Patzky]

3 hours ago, karcherd said:

I think Lawrence blew up worse than Adams.  

One planted the dynamite the other Wile E Coyoted the plunger.

It takes two to make it outta sight.