Final: Diamondbacks 5, Twins 4: Comeback Thwarted Late

Hate the one run games-especially when they lose the one run games😥😭🤬😡🤮💩

The margins, they're small

That Jeffers guy who leads the team in HR's is pretty good. Too bad he's only legally allowed to play 50% of the games. 

Bad defense by Buxton, that should have been ruled an error. He straight up dropped the ball. 

Ryan should have pitched the 7th. The bullpen has limited options - that's on the front office. But it is on Rocco to read the room and not be so quick to yank his starter. 

Four straight 1-run losses. That's the sign of a poorly managed team.

Maybe TD should start charging for emoji usage. First one per post is free, next one is 25¢, third one 50¢, 4th one 75¢ and so on. If we had to we could crowd source Peter.

It was a nail biter for sure.  One loss isn't the end of the world but they need to avoid losing the series and going on losing streak.  It is mid season and Cleveland is right now the top team in the MLB and on a 7 game winning streak and the Twins are 9 games behind.  Not impossible to catch up but it will be hard.  Overall a little disappoint in June given their schedule.  Astros .494, our favorite Yankees .642, Pirates .491, Rockies .342, A's .354, TB .500, AZ .494 and upcoming Seattle .549.  The Twins are .500 for the month (thank you A's for 6 of the total 11 wins in June.  Two more against Arizona is a must as they wrap up June with the Mariners.

IMO going to be tough to win the ALC and a Wild Card spot may be hard too.

Not looking good for the Twins at this point.  Simply put Cleveland is just a better team than the Twins.  Although our great radio announcers keep blaming bad luck, bad umpiring, and bloop hits that always seem to go against the Twins.  It's obvious to them that the Twins never get those bloopers.  After today Cleveland plays 4 against the free falling Royals then e against the hapless White Sox.  Twins need to stay afloat.  This is such a Jeckyll and Hyde team.

27 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Very few would have gotten to that ball, but he did. I thimk 90% of the time he holds onto that.

Agree that few would have got to that ball. 

But he did. And he dropped it. 

That's a play Buxton makes most of the time. It was an error. 

15 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I like one run games - that is how parity should work, but the Twins have obvious weaknesses in the pen.  All the washed up arms available during the off season does not make a good pen. 

I am surprised that Varland was not mentioned for the Paddock spot, but I am happy to see any young arms come up.

Mike, kind of agree, but he did just get lit up in last start at AAA.  Now the flip side is has been okay last couple of big club starts.  Some folks reference our AAA hitters and does it translate to big club due to quality of pitchers at AAA... does it not say something about AAA starters if they get crushed?  Reason I pose the question is do we believe Varland jus thad a bad day or just isn't a good starter option.  I don't know good answer, but on paper stats don't look great.  

35 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I like one run games - that is how parity should work, but the Twins have obvious weaknesses in the pen.  All the washed up arms available during the off season does not make a good pen. 

I am surprised that Varland was not mentioned for the Paddock spot, but I am happy to see any young arms come up.

Disagree about the one run games!!! That needs to stop rest of season-hate hate hate them!!! What good is comeback if you can’t win? Twins need to win these next 2 with Arizona and win series against Seattle! Same with winning series rest of season! No more one run games and losing streaks. Division title is gone but make playoffs-wild card will be better instead. It’s all about winning!!! Winnings fun losings not!

Just now, stringer bell said:

14-9 in one-run games, so previously they were well managed?

There's layers to it. Not all one-run games are created equally. Some instances, you'll have a big lead and hang on. Other times, you'll be down big, get within a run and fall short. Managers not always at play.

But these last four games, we've seen some really bad bullpen management and its bit them in the ass each time. That's on Rocco.

Ryan threw 86 pitches and had retired 14 of his last 15 batters. And he's pulled. There's no defending that. It was a terrible decision.

I’m doing this from memory so…..but if I recall the Twins have gained zero ground on Cleveland during the Twins hot streak and have now dropped back even further. Nothing is impossible but as the games click by without the Twins gaining ground makes the math really hard for winning the Central. 

6 hours ago, howeda7 said:

That Jeffers guy who leads the team in HR's is pretty good. Too bad he's only legally allowed to play 50% of the games. 

He's 4th on the team in games played, 4th on the team in plate appearances. Currently appearing in 80% of the games, not 50%. He's only catching 50%, but they're still getting his bat in the lineup.

Good news on Topa and Stewart, hopefully getting them back soon will help the pen a lot. Too bad about Canterino though. Iv always thought he had the best stuff out of all our minor league pitchers and would be a huge weapon in the bullpen. Sure sounds like he's done though, guy just can't stay on the field. Heck he can't even GET on the field. Do the twins give up on him and give his roster spot to someone else? I'm sure if he goes to another team he'll finally get healthy and become an all star closer lol...

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Not so much this month. With Miranda around to DH, he hasn't been DHing against RH pitching. It is an opportunity to play him more behind the plate (with less Vázquez), but so far Rocco has resisted that temptation and stuck with alternating the two catchers. 

He also had a rotten June hitting, that would have been almost impossibly bad if not for a good last week, so the idea that the Twins have been failing Jeffers by not playing him more recently is an interesting one. If he doesn't get hurt (which is something they're working hard to guard against because he's an important player) he's going to easily play in more than 50% of the games this season and hit career highs for starts and games played. Seems fine, especially with Vazquez no longer looking helpless at the plate (in an admittedly small sample, but his June was certainly good enough).

I mean, i think we want Miranda's bat in the lineup too.

Maybe it would be better to play Jeffers and extra 3-4 games a month at catcher and tilt the balance, but this is also getting into the part of the season where players start getting worn down and dinged up. Since Jeffers slumped badly for most of June, maybe he was feeling a little worn down from handling a bigger workload (in total) at this point in a season than he's ever experienced in his entire MLB career...

8 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Who threw the ball off line to first allowing 3rd run to score last week? (Lewis) …..should have been 3rd out in inning.

Who got thrown out at 3B when tagging up at 2B in the 10th inning? (Lewis)

Who walked #9 hitter with 2 outs last night? (Alcala)

Off top of my head, these 3 of last 4 one run losses that have zero to do with the Manager.

1. Rocco pulled Ryan last week. Turned it over to Sands. Tossing gas on the fire with Sands in a high leverage spot.

2. Rocco let Jackson pitch the 9th and essentially conceded the game.

3. Rocco put Alcala in the game last night despite his starter throwing less than 90 pitches and having retired 14 of 15.

With the way Rocco manages the 'pen, he really must have believed all those off-season fluff pieces.

Rocco zealots out in full force this morning! 

18 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

but this is also getting into the part of the season where players start getting worn down and dinged up

This excuse/reason is absolutely unacceptable excuse/reason. These are professional athletes and have the best nutrition, workouts, doctors and such. I agree with the rest of what you said.

I am not a huge fan of Rocco; would I have liked Ryan to come back out, yes I would have, but with the way Alcala has been pitching, it made perfect sense to bring him and set up Duran and Jax for the 8th and 9th. I am not going to complain about that decision.

As for Buxton, if he catches that ball it would have been an amazing play. It certainly looked like he was aware that he was running at a high speed and was going to hit the wall pretty hard (which he did anyway) but I think we should be happy he was self aware enough to get into a position to protect himself.