Twins 2, Guardians 5: Nauseating Ninth Repeats Another Late Loss to Cleveland

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn- IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Box Score
Taj Bradley: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K
Home Runs: None
Bottom 3 WPA: Yoendrys Gómez (-.470), A.J. Minter (-.290), Luke Keaschall (-.140)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Dead, but still living. Walking, though without a clear direction. At some point, the reality of postseason odds will reach through the nether and snatch these Twins, relegating them to a forgotten footnote, cursed to gather dust in the annals of baseball teams deemed too good to laugh at, yet not good enough to care about. A common outcome. One that was seemingly avoidable a month ago. One that grew slowly and slowly and now stands readily apparent. 

Mark Buehrle isn’t retired; rather, he lives through Parker Messick, the newest vessel containing the fast-paced, crafty lefty gene. And he can move ass. MLB officially calls him 6’0” and 225 pounds. The eye says a few more pounds. Undeniably svelte, he dances on the mound with the grace of a gymnast half his weight. His command-oriented game has fueled a massive rookie breakout season, in which he made the All-Star game, and carries an ERA of 2.53 in 167 innings. 

And the lefty was on his game. Twins batters stood befuddled by his heaters. Babbled at his control. Three of his five strikeouts were of the staring variety; in which Minnesota never even attempted to swing at the ball.

They broke from daze for a moment and struck for a run in the second, with Royce Lewis doubling in Kody Clemens.

The run was needed, as Taj Bradley looked off. Well, he was off: the righty started each of his first three frames with a free pass, and had offered four of them before he could net nine outs. It was only with grit—and luck—that he shook loose from the malaise to hold Cleveland at bay, finding the strike zone just enough to nab outs and avoid the looming run spectre that constantly threatened him. And then he found himself. A Travis Bazzana singled in the fourth was later erased with a double play. Then he sat six down in order to breeze through the fifth and sixth, concluding his day with an emphatic 99.7 MPH fastball to strike out Jo Adell.

Bradley gave way to A.J. Minter whose appearance sparked inspiration in a wilting Guardians lineup; Bazzana singled and Angel Martínez launched a devastating two-run blast, detailed with admiration and confident gait. 

We have a game. What would this be if the Twins and Guardians weren’t engaged, close, late?

An Austin Martin hit by pitch, Walker Jenkins bunt, and a subsequent bizarre obstruction at second placed Martin at… second. Brayan Rocchio’s only punishment for committing the infraction was to be seen and judged, apparently. Never mind: Kaelen Culpepper singled in Martin anyways.

An eighth. Nothing. A ninth. The deciding factor. Once more. As it always is with these two. Yoendrys Gómez fired wildly. The Guardians accepted their walks. A wild pitch. The few hittable pitches were knocked around for doubles. Three runs crossed the plate as the Twins closer failed to escape the frame, and Cade Smith entered in the bottom of the inning to silence any effort at a rally. 

Notes:

Kody Clemens is slashing .320/.393/.560 in his last seven games.

Taj Bradley is 10th in MLB with 190 strikeouts, a single-season career-high by 36 whiffs. He also earned his 600th career strikeout in the game. 

Austin Martin reached base twice in his first MLB game since August 16th.

Post-Game Interview:

 

What’s Next?
The Twins and Guardians meet again on Saturday, with first pitch coming at 3:10 PM. Connor Prielipp is set to pitch against the cool and collected TBD. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	MON	TUE	WED	THUR	FRI	TOT
Adams	0	0	42	0	0	42
Minter	0	23	0	0	17	40
Funderburk	0	0	22	0	15	37
Gomez	0	13	0	0	21	34
Nance	0	0	24	0	0	24
Hoffman	0	18	0	0	10	18
Rogers	0	0	16	0	0	16
Morris	0	8	0	0	0	8

View full article

[Saxophone Joe]

“This is a really dark period!”

[Parfigliano]

Another offensive gem.

[thelanges5]

9 games under .500 and worst record in the AL since the trade deadline. Should I be laughing or crying, maybe both. Ughh!

[Mike Sixel]

Now can we play the rookies?

[AceWrigley]

Guardians got game, Twins got lame.

[PuckettPond]

Would a 40%-60% roster turnover help? Curious who the Twins send to the AFL.

[LastOnePicked]

69-78. Is this "meaningful baseball" in September? Remember, Tom Pohlad said that payroll increases are contingent on being competitive in 2026.

To earn a WC spot, the Twins probably need to go 13-2 or better.

To get to .500, they need to go 12-3.

To beat their Fangraphs preseason projection, they need to go 8-7 or better.

To avoid last seasons record, they need to go 4-11 or better,

[h2oface]

Meaningful baseball in September? No. There is no meaningful baseball in September for the Twins. And there hasn’t been except in home town fans’ fantasies. 13-15 under .500 is where they will land. And that is OK. Home town fans have said they enjoy watching year’s team and this kind of baseball. Gomez’ luck was bound to run out. I’m surprised he had that much luck. Relax and ride the slide. That’s what the team is doing. All except for Jenkins, who is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his butt, in two weeks you’d have a diamond. 

[DJL44]

25 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Now can we play the rookies?

They’re already playing 

[LastOnePicked]

9 minutes ago, h2oface said:

Meaningful baseball in September? No. There is no meaningful baseball in September for the Twins.

Tom Pohlad is going to spend the entire offseason trying to convince season ticket holders that there was. If there's any silver lining in this terrible cloud of August/September, it's that it will be pretty hard to sell this snake oil to an exhausted fanbase.

[jaimedude]

You cannot be the Minnesota Twins of the past three years and not have a complete collapse in different phases of the game. Early on it was shoddy infield and outfield defense and a poorly constructed bullpen. Lately it has been a complete lack of clutch hitting and and  moribund offense. Just awful pitch selection and way too much chasing out of strikezone. Probably a good thing they are not making playoffs, they would get swept. Only thing we have going is decent starting putching. Team lacks a middle of the order bat and speed is lacking. Not enough difference making talent on the mlb roster. 

[DocBauer]

Sh*t happens. Even the best closers have bad days. 

At this point, why Martin instead of Gonzalez? Bring Rodriguez up tomorrow. And also let Ross play daily. 

[mark allen]

we did lose Ryan and buxton pretty much all the games after trade deadline that would kill any team

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, thelanges5 said:

9 games under .500 and worst record in the AL since the trade deadline. Should I be laughing or crying, maybe both. Ughh!

We accomplished nothing at the deadline , just another blundering mistake by the FO …

we could of sold and bought but Nooooooooooooooooooo .

[DJL44]

They are trending toward another top 10 draft pick. Then a new prospect can disappoint all of us!

[DJL44]

28 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

At this point, why Martin instead of Gonzalez? 

Because Martin is better at hitting, base running and fielding.

[Danchat]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Now can we play the rookies?

Nope, we gotta keep losing games with the vets! Because you know, we'll be so uncompetitive playing the prospects... just ignore that stat about the Twins being the worst team in baseball since the trade deadline. I'm sure positive regression is right around the corner! 

[knothole61]

Yeah, we needed to sweep Cleveland just to keep the flame of hope flickering a bit. Such a sad last few weeks-eh? I know that the offensive production has been spotty of late, but man wouldn't it be nice to have some faith in the relief staff to keep us in games after the 6th?

I now agree with Ash...stick a fork in 'em! 

[mikelink45]

6 hours ago, mark allen said:

we did lose Ryan and buxton pretty much all the games after trade deadline that would kill any team

This is the Twins mantra - we had injuries - but so did a lot of other teams - the Yankees lost Aaron Judge!   Check out this Rotowire where we are tied with the Cubs for ninth among all MLB teams and they kept winning. We are third in our own division!  Tampa Bay and the Dodgers have had more key injuries - where do they stand. 

[CRF]

They just keep adding exclamation points, to what was already a foregone conclusion. Disgusting. 

[Hunter4848]

7 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Tom Pohlad is going to spend the entire offseason trying to convince season ticket holders that there was. If there's any silver lining in this terrible cloud of August/September, it's that it will be pretty hard to sell this snake oil to an exhausted fanbase.

You are greatly over estimating Twins fans. Just look at the amount of fans that bought into this playoff "race."

[Saxophone Joe]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

This is the Twins mantra - we had injuries - but so did a lot of other teams - the Yankees lost Aaron Judge!   Check out this Rotowire where we are tied with the Cubs for ninth among all MLB teams and they kept winning. We are third in our own division!  Tampa Bay and the Dodgers have had more key injuries - where do they stand. 

Yeah…look at the A’s right now. Completely decimated by injuries yet 7-3 in their last 10 games. Totally ruining the Mariners’ & Toronto’s’ playoff hopes. Did us no favors in Sacramento either. How to Play Spoiler 101.

[Whitey333]

Yes blame it on losing Ryan and Buxton??  Sheesh Ryan has now been terrible and or injured in each of the last three seasons during the second half.  Not much of an ace if he cant be counted on to contribute.  Buxton?  He did nothing for two months when he was trying to play.  2 "full" seasons in 12 played.  Pretty pathetic.  Dont conveniently blame this on injuries.  That's what losers do.  That's the Twins.

[DJL44]

7 hours ago, Danchat said:

Nope, we gotta keep losing games with the vets! Because you know, we'll be so uncompetitive playing the prospects... just ignore that stat about the Twins being the worst team in baseball since the trade deadline. I'm sure positive regression is right around the corner! 

Culpepper, Jenkins, Matthews, Prielipp, Lee, Morris, Adams, Gomez, Funderburk, Clemens, Keaschall, Kreidler and Martin are all pre-arbitration players. That’s half the roster. They’re all playing. 

Rodriguez deserves a callup and Larnach should be benched. Beyond that I don’t see any moves that are necessary. Alan Roden deserves another chance but he would just take playing time away from Rodriguez, Jenkins or Keaschall. Is everyone super angry they haven’t brought back Eric Orze?

[HarmonK03]

8 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

We accomplished nothing at the deadline , just another blundering mistake by the FO …

we could of sold and bought but Nooooooooooooooooooo .

I didn't agree with the direction that the team took at the trade deadline.  But we are all assuming that we would have gotten this great haul of prospects setting us up for the next 10 years.  This front office has had 10 years to do that and haven't done it yet, what makes us believe that they would have been successful this year in any trades made.  Zoll could've cleared some of the outfield jam and still kept the mantra of being competitive and couldn't even do that.

I am hoping the day we are eliminated, Tom P. announces he is searching for a new POBO.  And the new hire can clear the front office and set a direction for this organization.  Otherwise it will be more of the same.

[Jack Pine]

8 hours ago, jaimedude said:

You cannot be the Minnesota Twins of the past three years and not have a complete collapse in different phases of the game. Early on it was shoddy infield and outfield defense and a poorly constructed bullpen. Lately it has been a complete lack of clutch hitting and and  moribund offense. Just awful pitch selection and way too much chasing out of strikezone. Probably a good thing they are not making playoffs, they would get swept. Only thing we have going is decent starting putching. Team lacks a middle of the order bat and speed is lacking. Not enough difference making talent on the mlb roster. 

Other than that they're pretty good.

[Vanimal46]

This roster needs a lot of help in order to be competitive as soon as next year. 

[saviking]

Twins needed to sweep Cleveland to have any chance. 

Stick a fork in em. They played just well enough to bypass trading Ryan and Jeffers. 

[rv78]

Outside of Ryan and Buxton, when healthy, there isn't anyone that is a real difference maker. When they are hurt, which is every year, no one else can carry this team. It seems almost every AAA player that gets called up anymore fizzles after a hot start or can't hit from day 1. Weaknesses in each player are exposed and exploited. Are the scouts that bad at evaluating talent or are the Twins that poor at developing them into major league players. Adding pieces from the scrap heap, ala Terry Ryan/Derek Falvey will never work. Never has. The Twins are proof of that. Like every year at this time and through every off-season we say the same thing. Change is needed. We all see it, and they don't. It has to start from the top. The Owners need to sell. Until then, we will be back again, next year, at this time, and discussions will not change, because the change that is needed, didn't happen.