Tigers 11, Twins: 6: One Rally Too Few, One Homer Too Many

[Riverbrian]

We will see what the Twins lineup looks like against the lefty Anthony Kay in the White Sox series. 

I'd expect Ggon to replace Larnach in LF. Let's see if there are any other adjustments. 

We've had a string of right handed starters and the lineup has been basically locked during this stretch. Only Caratini has a drawn a start out of the 5 who are firmly planted on the bench.  

Keaschall, Lee, Clemens, Jeffers, Bell, Larnach, Lewis, Culpepper and Jenkins. 

Until Buxton returns... these are the guys who will have to do it for us. 

They've been OK. But each player has roller coaster potential. 

[Saxophone Joe]

2 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Until Buxton returns... these are the guys who will have to do it for us. 

At this point, I highly doubt he comes back this season. Buck also confirmed yesterday to Bobby Nightengale that he'll need offseason hip surgery. 

[thelanges5]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

It's a hell of a lot easier to win these kinds of games when you don't take absolutely trash ABs in crucial situations.

Twins late innings at bats be like - 

 

[Riverbrian]

Just now, Saxophone Joe said:

At this point, I highly doubt he comes back this season. Buck also confirmed yesterday to Bobby Nightengale that he'll need offseason hip surgery. 

If that's the case. 

Those 9 guys will have to carry the bulk of the water the rest of the season. 

If there are any injuries to those 9. Someone will have to be dusted off and put back into circulation... or someone has to be called up from St. Paul to be the new member of the 9. 

Right Now... Jackson, Kreidler, Ross and GGon are going to be late game maneuver options. Caratini is probably going to spell Jeffers at lower frequency than previous. 

Like I said earlier. The majority of the chosen 9 have been decent recently but the roller coaster is still in motion and doing decently now doesn't mean doing decently later. We seem to be locked in. These are the horses to be ridden. 

[mrmpls]

we were lucky to even have a chance , the ball Royce hit was scored a hit - please slow it down it goes under the S,S,glove,  he makes that play and all the problems we saw with Twins batters never happen , Hit or Error ?  Tiger fans and players  announcers all said he should of had it - Twins fans of course call it a hit ,  I.D.Care either way  , winning is all that maters, and we lost !!!     

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I also can't help but wonder how bigger, louder crowds could've impacted some of these close home games. The drone shots of last night's crowd didn't look much bigger than when Detroit was here during April, when it was like 50 degrees colder. Sad. 

Teams with a below .500 record tend to draw small crowds in September.

[DJL44]

11 minutes ago, mrmpls said:

we were lucky to even have a chance , the ball Royce hit was scored a hit - please slow it down it goes under the S,S,glove,  he makes that play and all the problems we saw with Twins batters never happen , Hit or Error ?  Tiger fans and players  announcers all said he should have had it - Twins fans of course call it a hit ,  I.D.Care either way  , winning is all that maters, and we lost !!!     

 A ball a fielder can’t get to will always be scored a hit, regardless of whether they “should have” made the play.

[Saxophone Joe]

2 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Teams with a below .500 record tend to draw small crowds in September.

On the flip side, teams in a pennant race (which the math says we are/were) playing in a gorgeous ballpark on a summer's night tend to draw solid crowds across MLB. 

[Saxophone Joe]

16 minutes ago, mrmpls said:

we were lucky to even have a chance , the ball Royce hit was scored a hit - please slow it down it goes under the S,S,glove,  he makes that play and all the problems we saw with Twins batters never happen , Hit or Error ?  Tiger fans and players  announcers all said he should of had it - Twins fans of course call it a hit. 

Tigers' shortstop was pissed - he sure thought he should've had it.

Speaking of hits/errors, I thought the official scorer was going to give Kody a hit for his grounder that the first baseman bobbled earlier in the game. 

[MMMordabito]

2 hours ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I also can't help but wonder how bigger, louder crowds could've impacted some of these close home games. The drone shots of last night's crowd didn't look much bigger than when Detroit was here during April, when it was like 50 degrees colder. Sad. 

I was at last nights game.  The pin-drop feeling after the Tork homer was barely noticeable.  Fans were checked out.  My mother's giddiness with every positive for the Twins stuck out like a sore thumb. I wasn't about to tell her to match the energy at her only Twins game of the year though. There was a Tiger fan who completely lost his mind when Nance hit Peck in the helmet.  He ended up being a victim, IMO, of the small crowd.  The usher said, "You get one warning."  A few minutes later a Twins fan went over to that same usher and told him that she felt "unsafe".  The usher then kicked the guy out and his wife and elementary aged son had to follow.  If it would have been a Twins player getting hit in the helmet, I'm rather confident that emotional reactions would have been condoned.  I'm just reporting what I saw though.  I can't have a solid position, because maybe he was being a jerk earlier when the crowd was still bigger in the area where we were sitting.

[Saxophone Joe]

3 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

I was at last nights game.  The pin-drop feeling after the Tork homer was barely noticeable. 

There was a strikeout on the Tigers at some point last night where, on the TV, there was literally no audible reaction from the fans. Crowd just totally checked out. 

[DJL44]

12 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

On the flip side, teams in a pennant race (which the math says we are/were) playing in a gorgeous ballpark on a summer's night tend to draw solid crowds across MLB. 

Based on the “wisdom of crowds”, they’re not in the pennant race.

[Danchat]

I'm critical of scorers that call obvious errors hits, but that ball zoomed by the SS's glove and didn't touch it... so I agree, not an error. Doesn't change the fact that Royce had a stinky game at the plate other than that AB.

[Vanimal46]

Only 9 home games left… I am feeling the urgency to attend at least 1 more game at TF before a long offseason awaits us. 

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

All Culpepper had to do was get that sac fly and we'd have won 7 - 6 

[Saxophone Joe]

12 minutes ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

All Culpepper had to do was get that sac fly and we'd have won 7 - 6 

Also thought his oppo shot to RF in the 10th was going off the wall. The end of each Twins inning from the 8th through the 11th was just brutal. 

Ah...baseball! 

[Saxophone Joe]

28 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Only 9 home games left… I am feeling the urgency to attend at least 1 more game at TF before a long offseason awaits us. 

And in between those home games is a final West Coast road trip against two bad teams that is just destined for doom. 

I'm hoping to catch a game during the Rangers series though. 

[MapleGroveTwinsFan]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

We will see what the Twins lineup looks like against the lefty Anthony Kay in the White Sox series. 

I'd expect Ggon to replace Larnach in LF. Let's see if there are any other adjustments. 

We've had a string of right handed starters and the lineup has been basically locked during this stretch. Only Caratini has a drawn a start out of the 5 who are firmly planted on the bench.  

Keaschall, Lee, Clemens, Jeffers, Bell, Larnach, Lewis, Culpepper and Jenkins. 

Until Buxton returns... these are the guys who will have to do it for us. 

They've been OK. But each player has roller coaster potential. 

They said last night on TV, they have used the same lineup 4 days in a row, the first time this has happened since 2014, Justin could hardly believe it.

[Riverbrian]

15 minutes ago, MapleGroveTwinsFan said:

They said last night on TV, they have used the same lineup 4 days in a row, the first time this has happened since 2014, Justin could hardly believe it.

I think it's too soon to lock in but... as the season winds down... they've had an entire season to determine the best 9 and you are running out of time and space so you probably need to shorten. 

However... I still think it's too soon because our best 9 while doing alright. That alright-ness is only temporary because it is almost always temporary. Injuries will change that top 9 on a dime... hot and cold streaks start and stop on a dime. 

[Saxophone Joe]

Need a Houston win this afternoon over Chicago to feel like 7% recovered from last night. 

[Saxophone Joe]

2 hours ago, Saxophone Joe said:

Need a Houston win this afternoon over Chicago to feel like 7% recovered from last night. 

OK. Chicago and Cleveland both lost this afternoon. So I feel approximately 14% better;)

Doesn't seem possible that we could be as little as 3 down in the division by Sunday night, but here we are. Find a way somehow to win 4 of the next 6 games. A sweep in Chicago seems like a tall task but they still have a chance. 

The Wild Card is just a mess right now. I mean, Seattle is still in it, too. 

 

[mrmpls]

4 hours ago, DJL44 said:

 A ball a fielder can’t get to will always be scored a hit, regardless of whether they “should have” made the play.

watch it  ?

[Saxophone Joe]

OK, I'm officially turning the page from last night's trauma. After all, Dan Hayes just reminded me on the Twin Cities Territory podcast that the Rockies won 14 of their final 15 games to win the Wild Card in 2007 and then won 7 straight to go to the World Series. Nothing to it, we got this! 🤞

[howeda7]

7 hours ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I also can't help but wonder how bigger, louder crowds could've impacted some of these close home games. The drone shots of last night's crowd didn't look much bigger than when Detroit was here during April, when it was like 50 degrees colder. Sad. 

Since school started on Tuesday for most people, the low crowds for mid-week games are inevitable and not really a "everyone hates the Pohlads" issue. They had 29K last Friday and half of that last night.

[Shaitan]

46 minutes ago, howeda7 said:

Since school started on Tuesday for most people, the low crowds for mid-week games are inevitable and not really a "everyone hates the Pohlads" issue. They had 29K last Friday and half of that last night.

And there is something called "the state fair" happening.

Every business I go to is dead this time of year. (I love it.)

[Vanimal46]

2 hours ago, howeda7 said:

Since school started on Tuesday for most people, the low crowds for mid-week games are inevitable and not really a "everyone hates the Pohlads" issue. They had 29K last Friday and half of that last night.

There will be a bump in attendance for the last remaining home games. Gleeman and Bonnes discussed that in a recent podcast that even last year when the team was dead in the water since July 31, attendance was around 25-30k for the final regular season home games