Astros 10, Twins 5: Berrios Bombs

Why did Twins take out Buxton? He okay?

Baseball is a funny game. If you don't get outs when you are supposed to get outs, the balance tips and sometimes it can tip dramatically. Looked like Jose did not get a couple outs when he could have in the second, didn't have command and that was the game that inning.

It happens. And, it happened to every Central team last night.

The Twins defense giveth, and taketh. I think it's time to end the Polanco experiment. That potential tailor made double play ball he booted was absolutely brutal. Berrios should've been out of that inning, and 8 runs followed.

I don't care if you're Nolan Ryan. It won't end well if your defense is giving the most dynamic offense in the game extra outs.

I said this in the game thread and I'll say it here.  Yes the error hurt, but Berrios was terrible.  He was going 2-0, 3-0 on almost every hitter.  A lot of his pitches weren't even close.

I don't like the underlying implications of this game.  Not ready for prime time.  This will hopefully be a painful learning experience, but it is in the zone of proximal development at least for this team.  They got the bases loaded a bunch, they got to two outs and even two strikes in tough situations.  They just need to learn to get over that proverbial hump.

Kudos to the bullpen (sans Hughes) for keeping things in check.  This could have been another 16-5 loss, further skewing that all important run differential statorama.

Berrios like every pitcher is going to have bad games - note that our best pitcher, Santana on June 3,14, 20 gave up 7,5,6 runs.  It happens.  Fielding is another issue.  Polanco has an error every 7 games and often it is on a DP ball and his rating in the fielding stats is really poor here.  That does not excuse Berrios, but we also cannot excuse Polanco. The ESPN site fielding rankings have him number 11 at SS in the American League - not MLB so number 11 of 15.  We do not have anyone better to put in at this time, but with his current batting stats he could be replaced by Adrianza or Vielma.    http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/ss/league/al/order/true

 

Hughes reminds me of the Pelfrey years.  Starters do suffer from relief pitchers who quickly give up the inherited baserunners, but more important, he has not shown any ability that is worth a position in the pen.

 

Let's hope this is an anomaly and not a sign for the second half. 

Yeah, we do.  Escobar.

Well, the Astro's lineup last night had 5 players in it who are hitting over .300 and another just a few points behind.  On the mound for the Twins, a young pitcher who's still trying to find his way.  I was hoping for something under double digits, but Berrios isn't just quite there yet.  

If there was anything good coming out of this game, they didn't run out their 3 core bullpen pitchers (Duffey, Rogers and Kintler) and the number of walks they had.  

It is time for everyone to get comfortable trading our 34-year-old “ace” at his peak value (yes, there will be a good market unlike for Dozier). I am super optimistic about our core, but our window really opens in 2019 if we are being honest with ourselves. Santana will not be part of that….I promise

Berrios? I totally agree. Polanco? I see a Florimon playing a lot of AAA ball and bouncing around as a utility throw away over and over and over.

Well so far he's amassed 1.2 WAR and he's only in his age 23 season - or the same age that Florimon was putting up a .483 OPS in AA.