Yankees 8, Twins 1: Twins Hang in There, but Bullpen Again Leads to Blowout

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Bailey Ober 5.1 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (101 pitches, 69 strikes (68%))
Home Runs: N/A
Bottom 3 WPA: Taylor Rogers (-0.20), Austin Martin (-0.10), Ober (-0.08)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Twins only have pride to play for, and as they attempted to avoid another inevitable Yankees sweep at home, they sent the enigmatic Bailey Ober and his 89-MPH fastball to the mound Tueday night. As the writing on the wall begins to grow larger by the day about Ober's future with the team, the Minnesota faithful hoped the Bearded Nightmare could pull off another Maddux-like outing. He couldn't. Max Fried almost did, however. It was an ugly night for the hometown nine.

Having Two Changeups Ain't Enough
In reality, Ober doesn't have a fastball. He has two changeups, and Cody Bellinger tallywhacked a helpless specimen of the firmer variety in the top of the first inning to stake the Bronx Bombers to a 2-0 lead before most fans had a chance to sit down. Ober managed to maneuver his way around a two-on, one-out jam in the top of second, and the Twins actually made some noise in the bottom of the second against a tough lefty in Fried. Royce Lewis started things off with a single, eventually stole second base, and came around to score on an Emmanuel Rodriguez single up the middle to make it 2-1. That's literally the last hopeful Twins sentence that will be in this recap.

Ober surrendered a walk and two singles in the top of the third to immediately give that run back, but he again found his way out of a bases-loaded jam to give a false sense of hope to Twins fans. In fact, that was the last run the starter would allow on the night, but the Yankees battered him enough that he could only last one out into the sixth inning. Then, another round of bullpen implosion took the stage.

Tough End to a Great Era
When Taylor Rogers rejoined the Twins at the start of the 2026 campaign, we knew that he wasn't the Rogers who fired up the scoreboard with walkout music and mid-90s heaters several years ago. We don't know how many more nights at Target Field Rogers will get, but Tuesday night was a rough one. He entered the sixth inning with one out and empty bases, and by the end of the inning, the score was 7-1 Yankees. Kaelen Culpepper booted a ball that made the last three runs unearned, but the gopher ball to Spencer Jones that put the game on ice wasn't Culpepper's fault.

Meanwhile, Fried went seven strong in his playoff ramp-up; Andrew Morris coughed up yet another run in his attempt to right this season's ship; the Twins stranded Kody Clemens after a leadoff triple, with Lewis, Brooks Lee and Victor Caratini failing to manufacture a run; and the Twins fell lifeless down, down, down the AL Central division standings yet again.

To everyone who stopped watching in the third inning, congratulations. Luke Keaschall's three hits, Rodriguez's early success left-on-left, and Derek Shelton going apoplectic late in the game when the umps robbed a home run notwithstanding, tonight was a terrible night for Twins baseball.

What’s Next?
Believe it or not, the Twins can still tie the season series against the Yankees with a win on Wednesday afternoon. They send Zebby Matthews (9-10, 4.98 ERA) out to achieve this normally exciting feat. Carlos Rodón (6-3, 2.94 ERA) looks to achieve his playoff practice run and sweep the Twins back out onto the road. First pitch is scheduled for 12:40 pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Nance	24	0	21	22	0	67
Rogers	0	0	22	0	38	60
Morris	0	17	0	11	30	58
Minter	17	16	0	18	0	51
Funderburk	15	22	0	3	0	40
Hoffman	10	16	0	13	0	39
Adams	0	0	36	0	0	36
Gomez	21	0	0	0	10	31

 

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[DJL44]

The fans who showed up are getting what they paid to see - Yankee wins.

[LastOnePicked]

What about the clubhouse vibes, though? I hope those are still immaculate.

Poor Shelty looks like he has aged 15 years in five weeks.

[DJL44]

I doubt the Taylor Rogers retirement tour sold a single ticket. Next offseason I hope they sign players based on talent and not nostalgia.

[LastOnePicked]

2 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I doubt the Taylor Rogers retirement tour sold a single ticket. Next offseason I hope they sign players based on talent and not nostalgia.

Is that a no on Jake Cave?

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

What about the clubhouse vibes, though? I hope those are still immaculate.

Poor Shelty looks like he has aged 15 years in five weeks.

The number of posts her saying how much better the vibes are, etc, really cracks me up. They're losing. That's what matters. And I'm pretty sure you were being sarcastic, not praising this team and manager. 

Seems like this team is actually worse than last year after the fire sale..... So I'm not sure Rocco was the issue....

[thelanges5]

Gleeman:

Yankees 8, Twins 1.

Yet another ugly loss for the Twins, whose .350 winning percentage since August 1 is now even lower than their .352 winning percentage after August 1 (and the fire sale) last season.

[LastOnePicked]

7 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

So I'm not sure Rocco was the issue....

Reluctantly, I think I have to agree. I didn't like having Rocco at the helm the past few years, but I don't see any real difference in the style of play under Shelton.

If I owned this team, I think I'd use the potentially long offseason to look for a promising new GM and then let that GM select a new manager.

[Fatbat]

The lineup conveniently placed all the hits next to non hitters to minimize damage (runs scored).  Our RISP has sucked for the last 50+ games.  Its as if we are tanking. 

[Aggies7]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

The number of posts her saying how much better the vibes are, etc, really cracks me up. They're losing. That's what matters. And I'm pretty sure you were being sarcastic, not praising this team and manager. 

Seems like this team is actually worse than last year after the fire sale..... So I'm not sure Rocco was the issue....

The end results can be the same while the path is different. I don’t see the losses as a “vibes” problem. I see a below average team overall who overachieved, had a nice run and ran out of gas. Things don’t feel quite as hopeless as they did in 25. I enjoyed watching most of this year.

[D.C Twins]

Mets lost too.... those rascals are not going to make it easy on us to pass them for the 5th lotto spot!

[D.C Twins]

33 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

The lineup conveniently placed all the hits next to non hitters to minimize damage (runs scored).  Our RISP has sucked for the last 50+ games.  Its as if we are tanking. 

Regression to the mean is a b*tch!

[Aggies7]

1 hour ago, LastOnePicked said:

Reluctantly, I think I have to agree. I didn't like having Rocco at the helm the past few years, but I don't see any real difference in the style of play under Shelton.

If I owned this team, I think I'd use the potentially long offseason to look for a promising new GM and then let that GM select a new manager.

Hard disagree as far as how this team plays compared to recently. You don’t see any difference at all? Rocco’s teams were terribly unfundamental (is that a word?). It got to the point where I had to hate watch them to see how they’d bleep it up next. He had more talent and some of his teams were hard to sit through a whole game. 

I felt like teams of the past often weren’t trying, or more politically correct “were going through the motions”. Once the bullpen couldn’t be counted on, and the risp went into the tank, this year was a wrap. They had a nice run. I don’t see it as a lack of effort and I would honestly be surprised if I were to hear many fans feel that way

[Permanent Twins Fan]

Small sample size, but Emmanuel Rodriguez average exit velo is 102.9 mph through his first 4 games. James Wood currently leads qualified hitters with a 95.2 average EV.

[AceWrigley]

As I said in the game thread, this game pretty much sums up Twins vs Yankees this millennium.

[knothole61]

1 hour ago, LastOnePicked said:

Reluctantly, I think I have to agree. I didn't like having Rocco at the helm the past few years, but I don't see any real difference in the style of play under Shelton.

If I owned this team, I think I'd use the potentially long offseason to look for a promising new GM and then let that GM select a new manager.

I'm happier losing with Shelton, though I can't say why exactly. 

Advancing age?

[High heat]

I had a bet with brother is ST we would be a 90 lost team.  We still might get there!

[Chad Freyer]

If anyone here can name a manager that could manage this team to a .500 record please comment. 

[Vanimal46]

34 minutes ago, Chad Freyer said:

If anyone here can name a manager that could manage this team to a .500 record please comment. 

That was not possible this year 

[Vanimal46]

This team is really testing out the “any baseball is better than no baseball” litmus test. The last 4-6 weeks have been miserable 

[big dog]

6 hours ago, DJL44 said:

I doubt the Taylor Rogers retirement tour sold a single ticket. Next offseason I hope they sign players based on talent and not nostalgia.

To be fair, this team used some pitchers who were even worse than Rogers. They needed him early in the year.  It does some like he was kept past his sell-by date as the year went on, though. 

[HarmonK03]

8 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Reluctantly, I think I have to agree. I didn't like having Rocco at the helm the past few years, but I don't see any real difference in the style of play under Shelton.

If I owned this team, I think I'd use the potentially long offseason to look for a promising new GM and then let that GM select a new manager.

I hope he's already been searching for a new GM so they don't have to wait until after the lockout to do anything.

[PuckettPond]

Maybe the Yankees are better because of stronger fan support.

[DJL44]

7 hours ago, knothole61 said:

I'm happier losing with Shelton, though I can't say why exactly. 

Advancing age?

It is more pleasant to follow the team when there isn’t constant complaining about Rocco. I said before the season this team changed management as little as possible. I wonder if “run it back again” will be the philosophy again this offseason or if they will make actual changes.

[PuckettPond]

We were told buying @ the trade deadline our bullpen would improve. Buyer's remorse? Erod, some fans didn't want him called up plus he should be waived this winter. 

[Whitey333]

Another boring loss.  Not unexpected.  The yankees draw well as 27,000 people showed up.   So many holes to fill again on this team.  Maybe the writer should have listed all the stiffs we had gone thorough in the Pitching staff this year and acknowledge that Roger's was far from the biggest problem on that Pitching staff.  

 

[CRF]

The more things change...the more they stay the same. Wise old saying, if there ever was one. We just keep getting our a$$ kicked by the evil empire. Doesn't matter who our player are, they still can't compete with NY. It will never change. 

[Saxophone Joe]

5 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

This team is really testing out the “any baseball is better than no baseball” litmus test. The last 4-6 weeks have been miserable 

Since Aug. 1, when the Twins were, in Royce's words, "on cloud nine" after finally getting over. 500 (and still riding the high from Kody's ultimate grand slam), we've gone on a pair of three game winning "streaks." Outside of that, I can't recall another time we've won consecutive games. 

Total nightmare of a stretch. The wheels sure enough fell off. 

Well, at least we didn't have World Series expectations like Seattle. Of course, Seattle actually got their act together enough to beat us with two walkoffs. So it goes...

[MeleMouth]

9 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

The number of posts her saying how much better the vibes are, etc, really cracks me up. They're losing. That's what matters. And I'm pretty sure you were being sarcastic, not praising this team and manager. 

Seems like this team is actually worse than last year after the fire sale..... So I'm not sure Rocco was the issue....

One slight pushback I would make is that Rocco after the fire sale was a different manager than the one for the rest of his tenure. He decided to do his own thing and make decisions based on the skills of his players and the game situation, instead of following the orders of Falvey's algorithms. I would still take Shelton over pre-fire sale Rocco.

Of course, it's likely that Rocco's doing his own thing is what got him fired when Falvey said he was taking "personal responsibility." (Nothing like defining personal accountability as firing someone else.)

[MeleMouth]

8 hours ago, Permanent Twins Fan said:

Small sample size, but Emmanuel Rodriguez average exit velo is 102.9 mph through his first 4 games. James Wood currently leads qualified hitters with a 95.2 average EV.

Go look at how ERod was smoking the ball in St. Paul before his call-up. If he can keep his K rate below 25%, he will probably be a very good player.

He should also play CF instead of Jenkins.