Dodgers 5, Twins 2: Twins Start with a Bang, Then Barely Muster a Whimper

1 for 8 RISP, 13 LOB - May has an era of 5.79 over his last seven games. Shuts us down. Story of 2025!

Good to see Royce the last two games. Buck keeps doing his thing. Clemens earning that playing time and as many RBIs as Correa (that’s bad for Correa) Lou Varland looks good in the pen. 

1 down , 2 to go ...

Wasn't a bad game , twins did put runners on in every inning but couldn't get that clutch hit to do any damage  , what is wrong with this picture , rbis do matter , we need that kind of production from our hitters ...

Has Lewis broken free of his curse  , let's hope so , he stung the ball tonight and got 3 hits , previous game in Colorado he accomplished 2 homeruns ...

They were competitive for parts of the game Monday against the Dodgers.  But it doesn't matter when your end result is another loss.  Unless of course you are Provus and Plueff who kept gushing about how great Buxton and Lewis are.  Buxton is finally having a good year.  But it took 10 years.  Lewis has had two good games in a row.  That's great but it doesn't make him a superstar.  And Audra Martin doing those tidbits during the game is numbing.  She continually babbles on and on about meaningless gibberish and talks over the game and the announcers.  She has a great voice and may be a good play by play person if she would ever stop talking and take a breath once in a while.  Can you imagine her and radio announcer Attebery working together?  There would be constant chatter and little announcing.  Sorry, just a meaningless rant on my part.  Twins are 48-52 .  That's where many of us figured this over hyped team would be.

Playoff odds down to 3.5%, dropped to 9th in the wild card race.

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

youth doesn't mean wins and more importantly show that youth doesn't mean losses.

Twins youth does mean losses. As you note, development is critical and Twins have failed at it.

5 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Playoff odds down to 3.5%, dropped to 9th in the wild card race.

For a team that relies on analytics, they can't ignore the one staring them in the face, can they? 

If anyone was surprised by the result, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona that I want to talk to you about. 

The game last night was interesting in several regards. The Twins seemed to make a concerted effort to run out every ground ball and fly ball, which is not the case in many games. The lack of aggressiveness cost a run (Lewis had a good secondary lead but was held up by the coach on a ground ball single by Wallner). I thought Festa pitched well. He made only about a half dozen mistakes and paid a high price for those mistakes. The Dodgers did not miss. The Dodgers pitchers made about three times as many mistakes, but only one ball made it over the fence. A couple of other balls were hit hard by the Twins though. Whether it is experience, skill, or that the Twins don't have power bats we can see the Twins miss or don't (at least didn't last night) make the opponent's pitchers pay big for their mistakes. Lastly, the Dodgers star relief pitchers looked beatable. One left via injury after ineffectiveness and one was saved by a foot. The price for Duran or Jax to the Dodgers should have gone up by the close of last night's game.

15 minutes ago, CRF said:

If anyone was surprised by the result, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona that I want to talk to you about. 

I am interested, which ocean? 🤣

Implement the ABS Challenge system yesterday.

42 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Four guys really came to hit. The other five? Ugh. How do you score two runs with that many  base runners?

When you manage to get Buxton into a double play (with second fastest runner behind him at the plate), that should tell you how this team hits. Following the hitting pattern, the batter would no doubt put a shallow popup or K if the runner was in the scoring position. We lose to teams playing good solid, fundamental baseball (like Rockies did) and opponent pitcher ERA has no relevance with general ineptitude of our lineup. Ty France is turning into CJ Cron when he was with twins (bunch of lazy popups in RBI opportunities)

Festa pitched well outside of 3 bad pitches (1 to Ohtani, and 2 to Smith). I liked to see the arm side change ups to RH batters, now throw it inside to LH batters! We hit more balls hard than they did, just didn't drop in. A few bad ball/strike calls. Their bullpen is pretty bad! 

10 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Implement the ABS Challenge system yesterday.

The umpire was a little shaky last night but it was pretty equal. The call that hurt was the check swing not called a swing (he went). Smith hit a home run on the next pitch.

The ABS challenge system flaws would have definitely been exposed last night. Both teams would have won a number of challenges to the point the umpire was getting embarrassed and a little pissed off. Eventually, one or both teams run out of challenges and now the bad calls are made in the critical late innings with no recourse. 

Manfred likes the drama of challenges shown on the big screens in the stadium. It is b.s. thinking which is all Manfred is capable of. 

There are two easy fixes. If the ABS is accurate, use it on every pitch. It is easy, the results are immediate which saves time, and everyone gets the results they desire. If people want the umpires calling balls and strikes, fine tune the monetary rewards for excellence behind the plate while retraining or demoting those umpires who cannot meet a high standard. The umpire last night would be called for retraining and be demoted if his subsequent games had similarly poor results. With high pay and financial rewards umpiring excellence would become really good. I think we already see very good umpire performances on most days.

The challenge system is a very, very poor choice. And yet, because it sucks and because Manfred needs people to know his name, I think the worst choice is what MLB will adopt. (As an aside, did you all read about the suggestion for home run derby to decide games after the 10th inning. I am going to suggest a race from home base to home base around the bases or a throwing contest to see who can throw the ball the furthest to decide the games. Of maybe a game of hacky sack to go for the W.)

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

Fangraphs has them at 15.2% so you'd obviously choose that number instead. And make up your own internal number that'd put you closer to 50/50 because you know when Lopez, Ober, and Keaschall are coming back and that's going to boost your odds. Super easy to ignore that number and look at others.

(This is sarcasm and not an endorsement of the Twins pretending like they're a contender this year. But also not really a joke because they absolutely have their own internal numbers.)

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics"

Sell Baby Sell!

Festa had 75% of the hits of him go for HR (3/4)!

1 hour ago, MMMordabito said:

Implement the ABS Challenge system yesterday.

Ump had a bad game behind the plate. 

Too many LOB 

But it was a fun game I thought

A level up in intensity. 

Bader is "off" at the plate. He doesnt look right. 

I hate losing, but we didn't quite deserve to win. 

We don't make their pitchers pay for their mistakes like they do ours.

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

I am interested, which ocean? 🤣

Take your pick! And rename it if you want.

Let’s hope for win tonight!!! Hate the late night west coast game times!!! 

1 hour ago, S Bart said:

....be 45 be asked to start a game at this level..

He only has 13 more years to catch Satchel Paige.

2 minutes ago, Peter said:

Let’s hope for win tonight!!! Hate the late night west coast game times!!! 

4 hours ago, shimrod said:

Twins youth does mean losses. As you note, development is critical and Twins have failed at it.

This is becoming tougher to argue against. The biggest debate is where the failings are occurring.

3 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

Oh, to be left-handed and breathing. 

The Jamie Moyer Effect to the extreme.  But Rich Hill still has 4 years to go so I can rename this The Rich Hill Effect.

2 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

The umpire was a little shaky last night but it was pretty equal. The call that hurt was the check swing not called a swing (he went). Smith hit a home run on the next pitch.

There was a short discussion last night during the broadcast about allowing the check swing to be added the plays that can be challenged.  Plouffe correctly stated that they would need to fix the rule before they could allow it as a challengeable play.  If you read the rule on a check swing, it's so vague that it is something only a politician would appreciate.  I don't see them allowing the check swing next year as the manager ejection meter would go down and that is entertainment according to Manfred.