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    Make it Official! Twins 17, Rockies 9: Twins Punish Rockies

    Ted Schwerzler

    By Ted Schwerzler

    The Minnesota Twins needed a victory on Wednesday against the Colorado Rockies if they were going to take a series win against one of baseball's worst teams. It was a slow start, but Rocco Baldelli's squad started scoring and kept it going for a blowout victory.

    Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

    Twins Video

    Box Score
    SP: Pablo Lopez 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K (91 pitches, 60 strikes, 14 whiffs)
    Home Runs: Willi Castro (5), Royce Lewis (5)
    Top 3 WPA: Carlos Santana (.195), Jhoan Duran (.153), Carlos Correa (.097)

    Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)
    chart.png.bc6a4d4fc9cd7a0296e2a841f004acdd.png

    Round Goes the Carousel
    Pablo Lopez gave up a first inning run to the Colorado Rockies, but his teammates had his back in short order. Facing former St. Louis Cardinals lefty Austin Gomber, Rocco Baldelli’s right-handed-heavy lineup went to work. Manuel Margot, Carlos Correa, and Royce Lewis singled in succession to load the bases. Jose Miranda couldn’t hold up on a check swing, but Byron Buxton singled to left field and drove in the tying run. Carlos Santana then crushed a ball high off the right-center field wall, clearing the bases, and he advanced to third base on the throw. Minnesota’s early deficit had quickly turned into a 4-1 lead.

    Kyle Farner stepped in, needing to keep producing, and his single back up the middle scored Santana to make it 5-1. Unfortunately Gomber picked him off of first base due to some bad instincts, but the Twins had done their damage. Forcing Gomber to throw 36 first inning pitches, Minnesota was in a great spot.

    Rockies Claw, Twins Answer
    Ryan McMahon got Lopez for a solo shot in the fourth inning to make it a 5-2 game, but the Twins weren’t content with a three run lead. Willi Castro launched his fifth homer of the season to open the fourth inning, and a Margot double scored Vazquez. Correa then singled home the outfielder and Minnesota led by six, up 8-2.

    Jacob Stallings grabbed a run back for the Rockies in the sixth inning, but Lewis had some firepower ready to unleash. His fifth home run of the season scored Correa and made it a 10-3 game. The home run master just continues to bash big flies. Brenton Doyle singled home Adael Amador and Charlie Blackmon to halve the lead, and then the rains came.

    Twins Daily's winning "Make It Official!" game recaps are sponsored by Official Fried Chicken, which you can find in center field of Target Field. With a name like "Official," we know we have to be the best in the game every day, and from your first bite, you'll know that's a promise we make good on.

    A Slight Delay
    After the Rockies completed the top half of the seventh inning, the Twins rushed out the tarp and put a delay on the contest. A delay of about 30 minutes slowed the contest, but both teams returned to sunny skies. Reliever Caleb Thielbar took over in the eighth inning, and he had some depressing thoughts following his outing on Tuesday night.

    Continuing to put up terrible results, the lefty walked McMahon to start the frame before giving up a double to Stallings. Michael Toglia then walked before Jake Cave got to first on an error that scored a pair and made it a 10-7 game. Jhoan Duran took over with runners on the corners and no outs. He walked Elehuris Montero on five pitches to load the bases and Minnesota was clearly in trouble.

    A double play from Amador scored a run, but allowed Minnesota a chance to close out the inning. Facing Blackmon, Duran tried to push 99 mph past him, but a curveball induced a pop out to Miranda at third, ending the frame.

    Miranda cashed in a Correa single and Lewis double to score a pair on his 12th double of the year. Pushing the Twins lead to 12-8, Minnesota had some serious breathing room late against Colorado. Buxton followed with a walk putting runners on first and second before Santana singled home Miranda. Farmer followed with a single to score Buxton, and Vazquez plated Santana and Farmer with a double of his own. Kepler lifted a sacrifice fly to drive in Castro and make it 17-8.

    Recently promoted Jay Jackson came on for the ninth inning. He struck out Greg Jones before allowing an Alan Trejo single. Hunter Goodman then punched out before Stallings doubled home Trejo. Jackson got Toglia on strikes to end the game and Minnesota won 17-9.  Correa recorded a career-high five hits, an Lewis, Santana, Farmer, and Castro each had a trio of their own.

    Notes
    The Twins made a couple of moves, with Louie Varland being optioned as expected. Grabbing another bullpen arm, Minnesota selected the contract of recently DFA’d Jay Jackson. In the process, they also designated Diego Castillo.

    Royce Lewis has already begun to incorporate new City Connect colors into his regular routine.

    What’s Next? 
    With the Oakland Athletics coming to town, Joe Ryan will kick off the series on Thursday. Friday night’s game includes the on-field debut of Minnesota’s City Connect uniform as well as a postgame Flo Rida concert.

    Postgame Interviews

    Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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    A blogger for over a decade, passion for baseball and the Minnesota Twins runs deep. Whether at the ballpark or on the couch, I'm probably tweeting.
    Follow Ted Schwerzler on Twitter: tlschwerz

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    Featured Comments

    Whitey333

    Whitey333 3,632

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    It's amazing how one blowout game against a lousy Colorado Rockies team sku things for so many.  Yes they won.  They should be walking all over teams like that.  We are in the midst of another 13 game schedule of bottom feeders.  Let's take advantage all weekend against Oakland. IMO one reason we do not have a better record is because we have a mediocre manager.  He's permanently attached to his analytical spreadsheet and has very little feel for the game itself.  Play Lewis everyday.  It's time to dump Rocco and Falvey

    David Maro

    David Maro 405

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    It is time to be concerned about Lopez,he looks like he is fighting every pitch thrown.He has not looked good for weeks,yes he had a good outing against the Astros.But you can't say he looked good in this or that outing.And the BP made this game way closer than it should of been.They now have the A's for 4 that will not be easy.

    bean5302

    bean5302 9,281

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

    He admitted that the rise on his fastball is gone. Without that movement it is very hittable. 

    Caleb Thielbar struggles in loss to Rockies (mlb.com)

    It's a very good article. The Twins and Thielbar know exactly what is wrong. He's very aware that he needs to fix the problem or his career may be over. The question I have is why the Twins keep running him out there when his stuff is broken. He is not a pitcher they should be using in a tie game.

    I think the problem is fixable but it may not happen this month or even this season. He is healthy and lefthanded which means he will keep getting chances.

    I like Thielbar's commitment and his attitude about it all. He's an easy guy to cheer for, but as you say, he can't be used in medium/high leverage right now.

    He's working a lot higher up in the zone with his fastball to try and compensate for what he thinks is a lack of rise, but I think that just results in the batter expecting the pitch to land high and it actually landing high so the batter puts the right swing into motion to zero in on the pitch. His rise isn't elite on the fastball, but it's been far above average this year.

    His real issue is probably control/walks, and with him aiming higher, he's going to get more pitches called balls, dropping him behind in the count and forcing him into bad situations.

     

     

    DJL44

    DJL44 16,605

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    19 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

    He's working a lot higher up in the zone with his fastball to try and compensate for what he thinks is a lack of rise

    Interesting. It could also be that he doesn't have the same finish on the pitch. If he lets go of the ball earlier it will spin less and locate higher. It might also explain the increased velocity. A pitch that "rises" is experiencing lift which means it is spending some of its thrown energy pushing air. We're talking about fractions of a second on the fingertips.

    insagt1

    insagt1 1,661

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    A win is always nice. Period. However there should be some concern when you give up 9 runs (and the game was not played at Coors!) Thielbar is a guy you just love to cheer for, but reality is setting in, even by his own admission. I don't think he will be OK. Perhaps a stint in St Paul...but I think it may be pretty much over for him.

    Lopez has to be a concern as well. He is not pitching the way he did last season and he just doesn't look like he is in command out there this year. Still half season left to correct, so not giving up on him. But he may be a cautionary tale. We need him to be better. Sooner the better.

    On the bright side, teams don't often get 24 hits in a game, no matter who the opponent so it was great to see the bats flex. Hope this re-energizes a lot of the guys

    bean5302

    bean5302 9,281

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    2 hours ago, insagt1 said:

    A win is always nice. Period. However there should be some concern when you give up 9 runs (and the game was not played at Coors!) Thielbar is a guy you just love to cheer for, but reality is setting in, even by his own admission. I don't think he will be OK. Perhaps a stint in St Paul...but I think it may be pretty much over for him.

    Lopez has to be a concern as well. He is not pitching the way he did last season and he just doesn't look like he is in command out there this year. Still half season left to correct, so not giving up on him. But he may be a cautionary tale. We need him to be better. Sooner the better.

    On the bright side, teams don't often get 24 hits in a game, no matter who the opponent so it was great to see the bats flex. Hope this re-energizes a lot of the guys

    I consider Lopez to be pretty similar to Jose Berrios in terms of value. Even though Berrios is chided against for his 2022 campaign (5.23 ERA, 4.55 FIP, 4.21 xFIP), Toronto went 23-9 (.718) in the games he started that year. Berrios gave the Blue Jays a quality start (5+ innings ERA under 4.00 or 6+ innings 3ER or less) in 19 of those contests.

    Lopez has long been an up and down pitcher without many long streaks of dominant starts you'd associate with elite starters (aces).
    Sonny Gray opened the season with 6 consecutive stars allowing 2 ER or fewer, and 9 of his first 10 games doing that. He only allowed more than 3 ER in 3 games last year, and only 2 with more than 4 ER.

    Lopez did have a similar (but less impressive from an ERA/FIP standpoint) 6 game run as Gray last year, but he had 8 starts allowing more than 3 ER, and 7 of those more than 4 ER.

    If you reframe expectations for Lopez to be Berrios, Lopez's rough start is a lot easier to accept, and a lot less worrisome than if you expect Lopez to be a front line starter.

    insagt1

    insagt1 1,661

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    interesting comparison. i have to think that so far this season its hard to think that Lopez's season is anything other than dismal. Lately he can barely get thru 4 innings. He is giving up runs by the boatload. The ERA and WHIP make you want to cover your eyes. TWINS have to be concerned.

    We need for him to turn it around 2nd half, because the team does appear to be righting the ship, especially offensively. I wasn't confident that this would happen but they once again are perhaps able to contend with Cleveland. (now if only they could beat them head to head) So a strong Lopez would be nice 2nd half.

     

     

     



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