Cubs 6, Twins 2: Ineffective Bats Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Taylor and Buxton running was the right move. Pinch hitting Gallo was not, because Solano will take several pitches. The offense continues to struggle but tomorrow they get another chance. 

The pitching continues to be good. Gray is having a fine year. Alcala struggles after 20 pitches. I thought Jax could have frozen a few guys with his fastball because they were clearly sitting on the slider. Moran is an enigma from pitch to pitch. No matter the six runs the pitching is not a concern at this time.

10 minutes ago, ashbury said:

So we ran into the reincarnation of Cy Young.  Again.  Bad luck, that.

Smyly gets by on opposing batters salivating to hit the long ball. We saw big swings, line drives foul, and hacks at high pitches. I am amazed that Smyly gets away those pitches.

The bullpen usage chart is a concern imho.

To say the club is vulnerable against anything more than decent left-handed pitching is a bit of an understatement. Probably not going to get fixed until Buxton and Correa are both clicking at the same time…AND Farmer/Miranda and/or Lewis become factors.

As is…I don’t know why you don’t just start two of Kepler/Kirilloff/Gallo rather than bother with Solano and Castro. At least you’d have a puncher’s chance of one of those guys running into a mistake pitch or two.

Gray wasn’t getting hit, but he wasn’t aggressive enough or efficient enough. Too many pitches for Gray. Too short of a start.

25 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Griffin Jax has recorded 27% of the team's losses this year to date.

Not really interested in hearing how unlucky he is.

This.  I saw the article headline saying that and didn’t bother reading the rest.  I watched him closely tonight- I didn’t see him being “unlucky”- the Cubs put together nice at-bats against him using the opposite field when they needed to- quite the concept actually!

Switch Pagan and Jax’ roles

Send Alcala to AAA and see if he can figure something out

Probably need to mess with the batting order a bit (or a lot) too

16 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Taylor and Buxton running was the right move. Pinch hitting Gallo was not, because Solano will take several pitches.

The move to Gallo didn’t work, but not because Solano takes more pitches. Gallo sees more pitches per at-bat than does Solano…this year and career.

10 minutes ago, MplsFan said:

the Cubs put together nice at-bats against him using the opposite field when they needed to- quite the concept actually!

This.  There are some out there who believe that runs scored any way except via home run are lucky.  To me it looked like the Cubbies had done their homework.  

9 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

The move to Gallo didn’t work, but not because Solano takes more pitches. Gallo sees more pitches per at-bat than does Solano…this year and career.

Yes I know that, but Solano would be taking for Buxton to run. Byron had a huge jump. Situational. It doesn't really mater because the offense was stalled tonight. 

5 minutes ago, MplsFan said:

This.  I saw the article headline saying that and didn’t bother reading the rest.  I watched him closely tonight- I didn’t see him being “unlucky”- the Cubs put together nice at-bats against him using the opposite field when they needed to- quite the concept actually!

Switch Pagan and Jax’ roles

Send Alcala to AAA and see if he can figure something out

Probably need to mess with the batting order a bit (or a lot) too

 

He had been unlucky, but for the most part, tonight it was more about horrible execution. Threw a horrendous up and inner-half change on the long double. Threw Gomes 5 sweeper in a row, and the 5th got hit real hard for the winning RBI.

If the Twins are counting on their pitching staff to keep opponents to a single run or two in every game, it is going to be a very long season. I wasn't in agreement with the pitch selection by Jax and felt that one inning from Alcala was enough, but nothing the bullpen does matters if the offense is good for four hits. I'm expecting some different approaches to at bats, but maybe that makes me insane. I'll expect more offense tomorrow. Relying on four or five pitchers to shut down the opposition is not realistic.

I'm not sure who is available to exchange for Alcala from St. Paul. Henriquez was just optioned, Sands and Winder do not look good right now, and Headrick threw five solid innings tonight. That leaves Balazovic. 

I thought Gray cruising.  Is 91 pitches really a reason to pull someone with 9 strikeouts in 5 innings?   

Time to kick off the training wheels and welcome Buck back to his rightful home in center field. 

This will make the team better (and more specifically the line up).

Buck was never, is not, and will never be a good candidate for permanent DH. 

I will gladly take 80-100 games of real Buck over 150 games of bubble wrapped DH Buck.

Enough already. Ferraris were not meant to sit in the garage (even Farris Bueller knew that)

Bottom line: 4 hits ain't going to win you many games. 

Is Jax this years new version of Colome or Pagan? Rocco continues to use him as a high leverage pitcher even though he is not up to it the task this season. Making adjustments according to performance doesn't seem to be on Rocco's spreadsheet. Using Alcala for more than 1 inning at a time also seems to be an issue. Again, shouldn't Rocco's spreadsheet tell him that? Also agree that Gray could have and should have gone longer that 91 pitches. Rocco has reverted back to burning through his bullpen. The offense is showing it's lack of production and they can't win games without hitting homeruns. Rocco won't manufacture a run, period. Miranda is sent down to AAA to try to get out of his slump. Is the hitting coach in AAA better than Popkes? Looks like the whole team needs to go to AAA to solve that problem, which means the coaches and Manager at the majors aren't any worth their weight in jelly beans. Last year Toronto fired their skipper midseason and they immediately turned things around with the same players. This team needs new leadership and nothing will change until it happens.

Quote

Jax is a good reliever. He’s probably even a great reliever. But some evil force—some diabolical demon unphased in his cursing of the right-hander—continues to wreck his outings and stomp on Minnesota’s chance of winning. His location does not matter; the beings lording over baseball refuse to allow normality. Tonight was death by sequencing

Yes, death by pitch sequencing. The Cubs knew exactly when the slider was coming based on the count and the location. They were sitting on it and hit singles twice. Jax is too predictable, they need a new game plan.

I got to see why Nick Gordon isn't getting any walks. Pitchers challenge him in the zone knowing he'll get himself out or at worst slap a single. No respect because he has no power. I had flashbacks of Tsuyoshi Nishioka.

I said it at the end is spring training. We will be cursing this bullpen by the all star break. Change that to the fishing opener. Derek Rodriguez?  I hate the way this FO constructs bullpens. 

Need more than 4 hits to win! Bullpen was beat up by San Diego. Ryan has to go deep into game and twins need more then 2 hit/runs to win.

The way the Twins are currently playing is a bit like my golf game. I’m not putting very well, so there is tremendous pressure on my iron game to have to hit it close. That pressure is not improving my iron game, per se.  Or it’s similar to the Vikings last season - the D was so bad, the O felt like it had to score each time it had the ball.

Right now, the Twins relief staff must feel if they give up any runs, the bats won’t pick them up.  It’s not a helpful feeling. IMHO, I’d think a pick up in our bats would improve the quality of our relief pitching. The two go together to some degree.

Having said that, championship teams in the modern era of baseball almost always have shut down pens. Some of us have been harping on this point for some time. It’s clear, we do not have anything near a shut down pen at the moment. Ergo, this team, especially when combined with its poor hitting and short outing, albeit superior, starting pitching, is not built to compete for a championship.