Mariners 4, Twins 3: Defensive Brain Freeze from Twins Leads to Mariners Walk Off

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Connor Prielipp 5.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K (88 pitches, 58 strikes (66%))
Home Runs: Luke Keaschall (5), Trevor Larnach (9)
Bottom 3 WPA: Andrew Morris (-0.38), Prielipp (-0.14), Victor Caratini (-0.13)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

While trade rumors continued to swirl around the Twins organization, the team had a chance to keep above the .500 mark against a Seattle club suddenly on the "sellers" side of the ledger. Connor Prielipp hoped to build on a solid start last week, while veteran Logan Gilbert looked to turn the tide of his club towards "buyers" again. The Mariners came into the game 29th in the league against left-handed pitching, while the Twins looked to keep their recent homer surge rolling with the wind blowing out to left against a recently-stingy hurler. Something had to give on Saturday afternoon, but who would it be?

Prielipp Gives First
In Friday night's game, Zebby Matthews struggled out of the gate and loaded the bases before eventually surrendering two runs. Saturday afternoon looked like groundhog day for Prielipp, with lack of control again proving problematic early. Cole Young went first pitch hunting in the bottom of the first, and he ripped a leadoff double. Then Prielipp walked the bases loaded with nobody out, and Julio Rodriguez hit a grounder up the middle that Ryan Kreidler stopped but couldn't offload. With the Mariners up 1-0 and the bases still loaded, things looked dire for the young lefty, but he recovered to strike out Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor.

Things looked positive as Mitch Garver fell behind 0-2 in the next at-bat, but Prielipp couldn't put him away with fastballs, and eventually lost him as well to make it 2-0 Seattle. After the 35-pitch first, Connor came back out for the second and mowed down the first two batters and got two strikes against Randy Arozarena but then the aforementioned wind turned a warning track fly ball into a second row homer to make it 3-0.

Gilbert Gives Little
Meanwhile, Gilbert took care of the Twins with relative ease in the early innings. Royce Lewis hit a hard grounder to third to lead off the second, and Weston Wilson swiped the ball up and out into left for a double. Brooks Lee hit a rope to deep right, but his launch angle this afternoon didn't match his homer arc from Friday and it was tracked down at the wall. Lewis advanced to third, but was stranded there as Luke Keaschall and Victor Caratini struck out swinging to end the scoring opporunity. Gilbert was dealing with the Twins' kryptonite: splitters.

Powering Back Little by Little
Gilbert remained in the game after Lewis tried to break his shin in the top of the fourth, and he got Lee to ground out to start the fifth. Covering first base on the play also made Gilbert test that leg, and when he returned to the mound Keaschall was waiting to ambush him. The Twins were finally on the board as Keaschall connects for fifth homer of the season.

In the top of the sixth, it was Trevor Larnach's turn to turn the trade noise into a booming crack with a moon shot solo homer to right to make it 3-2.

GIlbert was only at 71 pitches, but he was beginning to look less invincible by the at-bat. Kody "Missile" Clemens missed tying the game by mere inches as his rocket turned right past the foul pole, but he drew a two-out walk to bring up Lewis to the plate. With Gilbert still wearing the results of Lewis' last swing, a battle at the crux of the game ensued. A passed ball on a swinging strike sweeper put Clemens into scoring position, but a 3-2 high slider froze Lewis and kept Seattle in the lead.

Prielipp and the Pen Hold the Line
While the first two innings were rough, Prielipp cruised through the middle innings and kept the Twins in the game until the sixth. After taking care of Naylor to start the inning, Derek Shelton went to the pen and brought in Travis Adams to hold the line. Adams decided to hold the line by walking Garver on four pitches, and could have walked Wilson right after that but Caratini rescued a strike with a challenge and hung on to a foul tip strike three.

Next came some umpire confusion and a bit of bad luck for the twins, as Cole Emerson hit a sinking liner to center that Keaschall appeared to catch. He also appeared to trap it. One umpire declared "out," while another declared "no out." The umpires gathered together, and the feeling from the reply was that whatever the call on the field would be would not have enough evidence to overturn the call either way. The umpire huddle stated "no out," but the call stood and now runners were at first and second with two out. This led to the Twins debut of A.J. Minter, who promptly induced a Young fly out on only one pitch.

More Late Inning Magic?
GIlbert stayed in the game to start the seventh, and Lee ambushed the first pitch he saw for a double down the right field line. Keaschall followed up his homer with a first pitch sac bunt to advance Lee to third, putting the onus on Caratini who hadn't connected from Gilbert all afternoon. Caratini still didn't hit anything solid, but his swinging bunt to third got the job done and tied the game.

The Twins tried to get into the lead in the top of the eighth, but Andres Munoz came in to strike out Lewis with runners on second and third to end the threat. Taylor Rogers came in to work the bottom of the eighth, and Naylor led off with a single and stolen base to immediately put the pressure on Rogers and the Twins defense. Naylor advanced to third on a ground out to third, but Wilson went to ambush Rogers and hit it right to the mound for out number two. Twins legend Rob Refsnyder came in to pinch hit, and Shelton elected to walk him. Yes, that happened with Young on deck. The stage was set for an evening of teeth gnashing and rage-posting, but Shelton won that chess match as Young bounced out to Lewis to end the Seattle threat.

Lee led off the ninth with a single against the nasty Munoz, but a strike-em-out, throw-em-out took care of that when Caratini froze after failing to challenge ball four, and Keaschall spun out on his way to second. Andrew Morris continued his quest to earn the moniker "nasty" with his third outing in a row, but an Arozarena was nastier and he laced a leadoff double off the wall in left. A fly out advanced Arozarena, and Shelton brought in Martin as a fifth infielder and walked Julio Rodriguez to put the double play into play.

Morris induced a double play ball to Lewis... but Lewis then had a brain freeze and didn't know where to go with it once he touched first base. With the force at second no longer in play, Lewis needed to throw home but the hesitation allowed Rodriguez to slide across home plate for the kind of loss good teams don't have. The Twins rise above .500 lasted less than 24 hours. 

 

What’s Next?
The Twins look to take the series and to once again taste that sweet nector of winning baseball on Sunday afternoon.  Twins righty Taj Bradley (9-4, 3.65 ERA) will look to keep being the ace of the staff, while trade bait rumor RHP George Kirby (8-9, 3.98 ERA) is scheduled to start but stay tuned for deadline news. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews
 

 

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Rojas	0	52	0	0	0	52
Funderburk	27	0	0	19	3	49
Gomez	0	0	21	25	0	46
Rogers	0	0	27	0	14	41
Morris	0	0	12	6	12	30
Nance	0	0	0	11	16	27
Adams	11	0	0	0	11	22
Anderson	13	0	0	0	0	13
Minter	0	0	0	0	1	1

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[AlwaysinModeration]

Throw to second

[Saxophone Joe]

I dunno, imo “good teams” do indeed lose those games. Hell, the Blue Jays - a great team - lost the World Series (!) because of situational mental errors like that. It happens. Remember how Philly lost to the Dodgers last year? They’re human. Even saw the Dodgers lose to Seattle the other night because Kyle Tucker didn’t run home from second when it was clear he should.

The Twins played hard, didn’t capitalize on some opportunities. Who knows what happens in the 9th if Caratini uses a challenge. Was waiting for Bell to pinch hit for Martin. Them’s the breaks.

[Cory Engelhardt]

I know it didn't matter in the outcome overall, but there were definitely some toss up challenges that went Seattle's way, as well as some ABS challenges not called by Caratini towards the end, that also didn't help the outcome of the game. Still, fun to see our team be the one to play to the end and not give up.

Win tomorrow.

[FlyingFinn]

What do I do with the ball when it's hit to me? At first base, in that last play, I would know I can never get the ground ball, step on first and then throw to 2nd base. That isn't one of my three options.

Anyone else think this is just a little bit of the "the players playing now have always been told what to do by the coaches rather than think everything through before the next batter?" I just know that coaching 11-15 year-olds, I was always disappointed how robotic the all-star players were in the rec leagues. They just would look to the coach to know what to do. Maybe I'm just old.................

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Come on Royce 🤦‍♂️ Gotta make that play in that situation. 

A bit of a frustrating loss, but let's get the W tomorrow and take the series. 

[Derojo]

It's not a brain freeze. He hasn't played enough games at first base to call it that. It's called a lack of training and repetition. With proper training and enough repetition any player will automatically make that play to home without hesitation. 

[jkcarew]

Score more than 3 runs. It’s not going to happen every game, but you can’t really expect a win when you don’t.

[tony&rodney]

32 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I dunno, imo “good teams” do indeed lose those games. Hell, the Blue Jays - a great team - lost the World Series (!) because of situational mental errors like that. It happens. Remember how Philly lost to the Dodgers last year? They’re human. Even saw the Dodgers lose to Seattle the other night because Kyle Tucker didn’t run home from second when it was clear he should.

The Twins played hard, didn’t capitalize on some opportunities. Who knows what happens in the 9th if Caratini uses a challenge. Was waiting for Bell to pinch hit for Martin. Them’s the breaks.

This captures the game much better than the summary does.

[tony&rodney]

23 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

What do I do with the ball when it's hit to me? At first base, in that last play, I would know I can never get the ground ball, step on first and then throw to 2nd base. That isn't one of my three options.

Anyone else think this is just a little bit of the "the players playing now have always been told what to do by the coaches rather than think everything through before the next batter?" I just know that coaching 11-15 year-olds, I was always disappointed how robotic the all-star players were in the rec leagues. They just would look to the coach to know what to do. Maybe I'm just old.................

We are all old. Shelton stated in his postgame comments that they were to go to second and complete a DP on a slow runner (Raleigh). However, stuff happens and so tomorrow the Twins go for the series win. 

We should be pretty impressed by the pitching. A little glitch with grips on the ball by Prielipp in the first  inning and a mistake to Arozarena were all our pitchers gave up. Prielipp looked strong again. The talk about pitch limits can go away now.

[Glorybound]

Lewis won’t make that mistake again. It’s just one of those things that happens and experience is a better teacher than any coach. 

[William K Johnson]

I think Shelton is a very good manager but question the walk to Rodriguez.   We lost the game when Caratini decided to leave the bat on his shoulder in the top of the inning and did not challenge two balls that were called strikes out of the zone.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, Derojo said:

It's not a brain freeze. He hasn't played enough games at first base to call it that. It's called a lack of training and repetition. With proper training and enough repetition any player will automatically make that play to home without hesitation. 

EXACTLY. The automatic muscle memory for these situations isn't there for a guy who'd played about 20 games at first base in his life. Same with 2B. Lewis is not going to be good at either position until he has a lot more experience at them. 

It took Joe Mauer like 2 years to truly get great at first base, and Mauer was as gifted as they come and he had the offseason to learn the position.

[bean5302]

41 minutes ago, Glorybound said:

Lewis won’t make that mistake again. It’s just one of those things that happens and experience is a better teacher than any coach. 

Maybe, but he's just as likely to throw to the wrong base in a rush to not have the exact same mistake again.

[RpR]

[bean5302]

Bummer the Twins weren't able to get the win. They need a Red Sox-like surge to allow them some roster decision stress relief.

I like Prielipp's stuff, and I think he'll be a really nice arm in the rotation next year as he gains command and experience. It's different than Matthews' struggles where it seemed like he should be better, but just wasn't. Prielipp seems like a young pitcher learning how to be good.

[RpR]

8 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Maybe, but he's just as likely to throw to the wrong base in a rush to not have the exact same mistake again.

Typical Lewis SNAFU, he was the same crap fielder at Third.  

If Clemens had made such a move last year at First this place would have been bellowing  to DFA him.

[bjorks]

At least we're buying this year

[90stwinskid]

1 hour ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I dunno, imo “good teams” do indeed lose those games. Hell, the Blue Jays - a great team - lost the World Series (!) because of situational mental errors like that. It happens. Remember how Philly lost to the Dodgers last year? They’re human. Even saw the Dodgers lose to Seattle the other night because Kyle Tucker didn’t run home from second when it was clear he should.

The Twins played hard, didn’t capitalize on some opportunities. Who knows what happens in the 9th if Caratini uses a challenge. Was waiting for Bell to pinch hit for Martin. Them’s the breaks.

Yes. Tough loss, and tough break for Lewis when he is still learning a new-ish position. Go for the series dub tomorrow. At least we're buying.

[HarmonK03]

1 hour ago, Derojo said:

It's not a brain freeze. He hasn't played enough games at first base to call it that. It's called a lack of training and repetition. With proper training and enough repetition any player will automatically make that play to home without hesitation. 

And stop moving him from game to game.  Commit to him as the first baseman and let him play.

[HarmonK03]

34 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Bummer the Twins weren't able to get the win. They need a Red Sox-like surge to allow them some roster decision stress relief.

I like Prielipp's stuff, and I think he'll be a really nice arm in the rotation next year as he gains command and experience. It's different than Matthews' struggles where it seemed like he should be better, but just wasn't. Prielipp seems like a young pitcher learning how to be good.

He gave up 3 runs in 5 plus innings, he made the necessary adjustments.  That is what you want to see from your less experienced pitchers.  Both Prieliepp and Matthews should be in the rotation right now unless they get a #3 or better.  They are giving a chance to win most every game they pitch.

[HarmonK03]

29 minutes ago, RpR said:

Typical Lewis SNAFU, he was the same crap fielder at Third.  

If Clemens had made such a move last year at First this place would have been bellowing  to DFA him.

He has played 30 games at 1B and is learning on the fly.  This is on the organization for playing musical chairs with the defensive alignment.  I am sure you never made a mistake in your first month when you started your career.

[Vanimal46]

37 minutes ago, RpR said:

Typical Lewis SNAFU, he was the same crap fielder at Third.  

If Clemens had made such a move last year at First this place would have been bellowing  to DFA him.

[Muppet]

35 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

He has played 30 games at 1B and is learning on the fly.  This is on the organization for playing musical chairs with the defensive alignment.  I am sure you never made a mistake in your first month when you started your career.

I’ve played zero games at first base, or any other position, and I know you throw to second to start the double play. Lewis has played at least 1000 games in his life. He should know that too.

Whatever….  Everyone screws up sometimes, just seems like this defense does it too often for a bunch of major leaguers. At any rate, a double play wouldn’t have guaranteed a win. The twins still need to score more.

[RpR]

48 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

He has played 30 games at 1B and is learning on the fly.  This is on the organization for playing musical chairs with the defensive alignment.  I am sure you never made a mistake in your first month when you started your career.

He has made a Lot of mistakes, he is a highly paid professional.

He has played baseball for a long time, if he does not know that when there is a runner on third, who if he scores the game is over ,  one makes darn sure if it is on him, he does every thing to prevent that.

The rookie excuses for him ended a long time ago.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

1 hour ago, RpR said:

 

Wonder what the Mariners would want in trade for Arrozarena?

[ashbury]

Didn't watch the game, saw the video of the last play.  I'm ticked off and gonna repeat/revise what I put in the game thread.

When the batter walks up to the plate, you ask yourself, "how many outs? how fast are the runners and the batter? what do I do if the ball is hit to me?"

Royce didn't have a clue.  He stepped on first.  Then he stopped to think.  You could practically see the wheels turning.  Too late.  Even then, a good throw to the plate would have saved their bacon, but it shouldn't have come to that.

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, bjorks said:

At least we're buying this year

We're going for it.

[Peter]

Let’s hope this loss won’t linger!!! Hate hate hate seeing twins lose!!! Easily could’ve got swept by Kansas City so this was due to happen-Cleveland and Chicago both lost nothing gained nothing lost-get the win tomorrow!!!

[Fatbat]

Today was actually a good loss. Sports psychology is a thing. This keeps the guys thinking about other plays that could have won the game. It was exciting and it was brilliant/brutal bang bang. This is meaningful baseball inAUGUST.