Twins 4, Angels 2: Taj Bradley Deals, Ryan Jeffers Delivers Big Hit to End First Half on High Note

[Hans Birkeland]

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Taj Bradley: 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K (99 Pitches, 66 Strikes, 66.6%)
Home Runs: Trevor Larnach (7)
Bottom 3 WPA: Bradley (0.19), Andrew Morris (0.20), Larnach (0.17)
Win Probability Chart (Via BaseballSavant):

Thanks to a victory Saturday against the Angels, the Twins entered Sunday's rubber game with a chance to win their eighth series in their past nine. That's pretty good any way you slice it, and the offense is for real, at least in a regular season context. Another ascending piece has been Taj Bradley, who has been great since a rough stretch following his activation from the IL in May.

Bradley took the ball against Jose Soriano, who looked like a world beater in the first month and a half of the season, but has fallen back into what he is: a live arm with trouble throwing strikes. Soriano did look good early, locating his breaking ball and sinker to great effect. Royce Lewis did work an 0-2 count into a one out walk in the second, but was picked off by Soriano shortly after.

Meanwhile, Bradley's stuff looked good, hitting 100 MPH on his fastball and throwing some nice cutters to keep the Angel's hitters off balance. He did hang a splitter to Josh Lowe in the second, resulting in the right fielder crushing the pitch 405 feet for a 1-0 lead.

The Twins showed their typical scrappiness in the third. Luke Keaschall, Ryan Kreidler and Trevor Larnach hit sharp singles to tie the game, and Ryan Jeffers followed by golfing a breaking ball down the left field line to score two more. Jeffers was subsequently thrown out trying to advance to third on a wild pitch in which the ball caromed off the limestone and right to catcher Logan O'Hoppe's glove, who relayed to third for the out.

Bradley moved off his splitter a bit, and featured mainly the four-seam fastball and cutter. The Angels had no answers, as he continually dotted the corners, and may have thrown even more strikes if Jeffers had challenged a few more calls behind the plate.

The Angels made some noise in the sixth, with Mike Trout leading off with a single followed by a sharp single by Nolan Schanuel (on an 0-2 count) to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Bradley bore down to induce a pop up to Jorge Soler, and got Jo Adell to bounce into a double play, featuring a great turn at second by Kody Clemens.

Bradley looked good striking out Oswald Peraza in the seventh, but he hung a cutter to Denzer Guzman, and the LA third baseman launched it just over Larnach's glove in left for a home run. Bradley then walked O'Hoppe on four pitches to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in Neto. Bradley got Neto chasing 98 MPH up and away to end the inning, and finished his first half in style (and with what would be a career best 3.59 ERA).

Andrew Morris took over in the eighth, and retired the 2-3-4 hitters in order, including a dominant sword inducing cutter against Soler to end the frame, his 16th straight scoreless inning.

Larnach led off the bottom of the eighth with a moonshot home run off of tough righty Ryan Zeferjahn. It was only Larnach's seventh homer of the year, but that .830 OPS is working pretty well at the top of the lineup. 

Morris stayed on for the ninth and retired the first two hitters rather easily before Wade Meckler worked a long at-bat that ended in a walk. Guzman then lined the first pitch from Morris back up the shoot for a single before Morris settled down to get O'Hoppe on a fly out to left.

Stuff I'm Tracking:
-Ryan Kreidler made three great plays at shortstop in the fourth and fifth innings, including a diving catch on a screaming liner  from Neto to end the fifth.

-Don't look now, but Keaschall is within shouting distance of a .700 OPS. An explanation as to why this Twins lineup has produced so well would be that almost everyone they put in the lineup is at least at .690 plus in the OPS department. A .690 OPS is pretty light on its own, but the Twins hitters at around that level (Keaschall, Austin Martin, Alen Roden) happen to be some of the strongest OBP guys on the team. The flaw in OPS is that it overrates slugging, so that is my theory as to why this offense is currently so effective.

-The Angels are so sad, and they remind me of the Twins over the past few years (the teams with expectations). They are too reliant on players with injury histories and hitters they hope will break out. Sometimes they do see breakouts from guys like Neto and Adell, but they are never sustaining, and eventually everyone ends up hurt. You can't accuse them of being cheap, unlike the Twins, so it is understandable why they fired their GM right before the draft.

-Speaking of the draft, I am definitely buying Vahn Lackey's breakout, especially since he was a high caliber hitter the year before, he just happened to add the power that made him a can't miss prospect. As someone who used to put Charles Johnson on all my teams in Triple Play 99 for Playstation growing up, it's cool to see the next African-American catcher come to my team.

-Brooks Lee stole his sixth base in the seventh. He is molasses slow, but so is Josh Naylor. If Lee can read pitchers and pick spots at a high level, that will be a fun wrinkle in his game that could be hugely beneficial to the Twins.

What’s Next: The MLB All-Star Game is this Tuesday, featuring Joe Ryan representing the Twins. Minnesota will begin the second half of the year in Chicago to face the Cubs, who finished the first half strong and hold the first wild card spot in the NL. They can hit, with their run output exceeding the AL-leading Twins, but their pitching is suspect, at least until they address it at the trade deadline.
Postgame Interviews: Coming soon

Bullpen Usage Chart:

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Morris	0	0	25	0	37	62
Rojas	0	47	0	0	0	47
Go	0	18	0	21	0	39
Gómez	19	0	0	18	0	37
Adams	20	0	12	0	0	32
Funderburk	20	10	0	0	0	30
Nance	0	0	0	27	0	27
Rogers	15	0	0	0	0	15

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[Patzky]

My brother lives in Chicago and he's already lamenting the 104 degree forecast for next weekend there. Eeek.. enjoy the ASB!

[mark allen]

Great win for twins Bradley Morris combo is looking hard to beat.

[Saxophone Joe]

What a ride!

Raise your hand if you predicted on Opening Day that this team would be tied for a playoff spot heading into the All-Star Break.

*crickets*

OK, maybe Peter?

 

 

[wesnewy]

36 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

What a ride!

Raise your hand if you predicted on Opening Day that this team would be tied for a playoff spot heading into the All-Star Break.

*crickets*

OK, maybe Peter?

 

 

this is my superbowl lol

[GopherMike]

43 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

What a ride!

Raise your hand if you predicted on Opening Day that this team would be tied for a playoff spot heading into the All-Star Break.

*crickets*

OK, maybe Peter?

 

 

What's funny is that this is basically exactly where FanGraphs had us, but coming off of 2025 and with the general distaste in everyone's mouth I think it was just hard to fathom. 

Which isn't to say the season has played out to expectations....just that being a .500 team maybe wasn't as fantastical as many fans thought.

[Andy MacPhail]

Love the Bradley/ Morris combo.

[Major League Ready]

This is a quite different team from the one that started the season.  Even the guys that are the same are playing better.  Bell, Keaschall, and Lewis are all hitting much better.   Caratini has stepped up too.  

Gomez and Morris are a start in the BP.  Sands will be back soon.  IDK know about Nance or Go but I think the BP will at least not be the giant liability it was early.  

They have a decent chance of making the playoffs in a year where the entire AL is quite weak.  Tampa is the only team that looks formidable.  I am not sure I find that scenario all that appealing but it's a lot better than expected.

[CharlieDee]

 Good pitching and awesome defense got the win for us today.  I know a lot of people are upset with ownership and refuse to support the team, but this team is fun to watch. These guys have no control over who owns the team or what the payroll is. They're just playing hard and trying their best, so I choose to pull for them and watch every game. Can't wait to see them in Chicago next weekend..............Win Twins!

[HerbieFan]

Maybe it's because of all the negativity regarding ownership or the expectations being so low but this might the most fun I've had watching the Twins since 2019.  If someone told you on March 1 that Pablo wouldn't throw a pitch all season and Wallner would spend as much time in St.Paul as in the bigs but they'd be a game below .500 and right in the wild card hunt.........

They grind out at bats, make pitchers work.  And they've knocked around some very good ones.

They battle back.  Get down a couple, not problem, just get a couple.  

Atmosphere around the clubhouse and team seem to be really good.  Is that a Shelton thing?

Great with RISP....amazing what happens when Shelton has them "trying to avoid strikeouts".  Not rocket science....don't strike out 12-14 times per game and you produce better in those situations.

The bullpen has been as bad as expected.  Morris though.  Man.  Gomez has been a find.  Losing Banda, who had been lights out for two months, hurts.

Lewis and Keaschall have their OPS up to .700 which isn't great.  But it IS pretty darn good after the start each had.

I've said for three months I didn't think the most likely guy to get dealt was Ryan or Buxton.  It was Jeffers.  They kept Jackson rather than lose him on waivers........

Tom.  Jeremy.  GET SHELTY SOME BULLPEN HELP!!!!!