Final: Yankees 9, Twins 5: Paddack Done in Early for Minnesota

Through five innings, the fecklessness was breathtaking. After the rally in the 6th and 7th, it is also arguably hypnotic.

I listened on the radio. Should Margot have caught that ball in the 1st inning? Would Kepler have caught it?

Paddack needs a 2-week break

The Twins may as well just concede the wins to the Yankees and take the extra rest so they can be fresh for the teams that they can actually compete against.

Oh and one more thing....

ROYCE F-ING LEWIS!!!!!!!

Sad, but not unexpected losses to the Yankees. A win tomorrow will provide sufficient salve for me heading into Pittsburgh still six games over .500—but that doesn’t seem likely against this mostly healthy and nearly $306,000,000 New York lineup.

This is not a bad Twins team, and with Lewis back (for now) they should make some noise going forward. They have a good chance to end up in the postseason as a wild card entry, yet this Yankee thing continues to be so disheartening. I have put out a standing offer to play the role of Joe Hardy in all of this, but I haven’t heard back yet…I’ll keep you posted.

To rub salt in the wound. The Yankees got 2 no calls yesterday and today. Yesterday Soto should have been called out at first for making contact with Miranda on the pop-up to 1st. Judge was clearly inside the line on the sac fly. Jeffers was giving Judge a clear lane and he could have done a better job. But Judge initiated that contact. Sour grapes for sure. But Boone would blow a gasket if the roles were reversed. 

Yankees pounded twins last night but seeing Royce break another twins record was awesome 3 home runs coming back injury is awesome!!!! With him back in lineup future looks great!!! Let’s at very least take win today and even up road trip to .500 with excellent chance in having winning road trip which is way more important!!! Go twins!!!

10 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

What you’ve been watching is one group of professional athletes being completely intimidated by another. Surprised it happens at the Major League level.

Are they intimated or just bad?  What is wrong with Buxton now!  He needs a time out but who could they play?  Alex or Trevor seem to be a bit better but IMO it is time to bring up Gonzales, Keirsey and Martin.  Get rid of Margot and Farmer to make room.

Twins don't measure up to Yankees at all in any way. This season maybe  nobody measures up. O's Kimbrel blew one in the 9th against Toronto so they fell back another notch. The 5 games vs NY have been non competitive...like spring exhibition tryouts. Glad to be done with them after today. However Twins can't compete with the best teams at all this year. Not a good sign.

10 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

We played the Yankees - we lost - expected - yes.  Disappointing - extremely.

But after this game I have to say that any of you who are against the electronic strike zone have me shaking my head in disbelief.  

I understand it is not perfect, but it is consistent and that is something these umpires are not.  

The old guy (I believe crew chief) should retire, he missed both calls at first the night before, and was missing ball/strike calls both ways last night.

8 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Side note. Brent Rooker (who most folks on this site insist is a AAAA, journeyman, flash in the pan type) is sitting at .279/.368/.553 OPS .921 wRC+ 165. His xwOBA (.392) is right in line with his actual production (.396).

I'm happy for Rooker. The Twins could use that batting line from a regular position player but there was never any way Rooker was going to get regular at bats until he landed in Oakland.

I guess the question is would the Twins use a single player as a DH. Nelson Cruz was the last guy to be a DH for the Twins, although the team does have players whose defense makes them suited for DH duty.

The only thing I will say in the Twins defense is NY has had some real duck farts fall for hits in both games early. Of course some rockets as well. Their hitters sure look different than ours with two strikes on them. We continue to struggle in the field - it would be nice for our fielders to help a pitcher out once in a while instead of giving extra bases and outs to the Yanks

10 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

I listened on the radio. Should Margot have caught that ball in the 1st inning? Would Kepler have caught it?

No doubt but because the mgr loves right handed offense he's riding the bench.

10 hours ago, ashbury said:

Is Royce running OK?  On his final at bat he seemed to be going at less than full speed, but I don't know if that was because of the potential for a collision on the play.

He looks fine, he started quick out of the box, but like every other major league player slowed down when the ball was fielded cleanly, and then slowed down and put his hands up to avoid contact when the ball was thrown a bit wildly. The TV crew has been talking about how the Twins want to be smart and not play 100% all the time to stay healthy and that seemed like he followed that in this situation.

Also I agree with Perking and Plouffe about how he should be hitting 1 - 3 in the lineup.

Yes a poorly umpires game especially at home plate.  But that didn't cause the loss.  The Twins just have a meltdown when they have to play the Yankees.  Thank goodness Thursday is the last day we play them during the regular season.  What was just as annoying as the Twins loss was listening to Kris Atterberry lament the lack of umpiring skills of the home plate umpire.  It was worthwhile mentioning the poor umpiring but this was his theme ALL game long.  It was obnoxious.  Just like he normally is.

For those who want an electronic strike zone I believe that it is years away due to comments from Manfred and likely the influence of the umpires. 

There really isn't any reason that baseball cannot have the ABS challenge system put into place. The lame arguments of how to cue the strike zone have not shown in AAA. At a minimum, the use of an ABS challenge system reduces complaints about ball/strike calls and rewards or punishes players for their knowledge of the strike zone. 

Two years ago I was not convinced that the use of an electronic zone would be beneficial. There were irregularities at that time which have been totally cleared up. The issues with balls and strikes is virtually nonexistent in AAA. It makes for a cleaner game. MLB could actually use it next year if there wasn't politics involved in the decision.