Mets 2, Twins 0: Lopez's Gem is Wasted as Twins Take Sunday Off at the Plate

Starting pitching for the Twins in the playoffs will provide a huge advantage against teams of similar skill.

Maybe Rocco wanted to see if Jax could put together stops in consecutive appearances. He could afford that luxury today.

Bats were stymied. It happens occasionally. The overall trend is very good.

The Guardians may yet lose today.

Kirk Cousins reverted to pre-2022 form. PJ Fleck is wasting another good defense. All good reason to focus on baseball entirely. Go Twins!

(UPDATE: GUARDIANS LOSE. Magic number 12.)

Pablo is so much fun to watch pitch and he is also such a well spoken person in interviews.

Wallner seems to have forgotten about left field and has resorted to more uppercuts as well. He doesn't look like a tough out right now. Julien is in a slump but still is giving pitchers a headache by fouling off pitches and taking walks. He sure is missing some pitches that look like he should mash though, which means he is in a slump.

6 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Was that a mistake by Julien or just one of those things.

Did Gladden or Provus comment on it? Dick is pretty clueless and the camera did not show us anything to show a mistake. Perhaps someone else saw something to indicate what happened but it was a big out and tough for Kirilloff to lose a base hit too.

Frustration is the diagnosis. Pressure is the answer. 

Pro hitters like to talk about "process," rather than isolated instances of success or failure. They spend years refining their processes, which consist of purifying their swings, analyzing game situations, reading subtle physical signs that pitchers  and other players give off, etc. The result of all that work isn't a guarantee of getting a hit at any particular time, but it is supposed to make hits more likely.

That is where pressure comes in. If a hitter is doing all the stuff he has been practicing, then the pitcher should face maximum pressure from each of that player's at bats. If that is not happening, the first thing to look at is if each batter appears to be applying as much pressure as possible, in the form of plate discipline, situation analysis, swing mechanics, etc. 

Even acknowledging how hard it is to hit a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher, it is hard for me to believe that the entire Twins lineup was applying as much pressure as they could. 

2 hours ago, BH67 said:

Starting pitching for the Twins in the playoffs will provide a huge advantage against teams of similar skill.

Looks like we're in line to play Toronto or Seattle.  I'm not sure we'll have a starting pitching advantage against either team, much less a "huge" one.

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

I was in my car in the middle innings when Castro was on second, Julien on first with one out when Kirilloff hit a ball the fell in front of the left fielder, but Julien was forced out. Was that a mistake by Julien or just one of those things. If Julien gets to second, it is bases loaded with one out. 

I want to say it was on Julien. The play was right in front of him. I mean if Castro was able to reach 3rd Julien should have been able to make 2nd before the force out. Kind of a tough call. The umpire did signal no catch. But I guess you could say damned if you do, damned if you don't.  And you're right. There really wasn't much comment on that play. 

The score should have been 5 or 6 to zero entering the 9th. So many lost opportunities.

Great pitching from Lopez  , the loss hurts cause this was a winnable game ....

If this was a playoff game and  we lost 2-0  , I'd take it  if the twins had better results at the plate  , 9 strikeouts  , 6 walks but 4 hits  , now if they had possibly had 8 hits with 6 walks maybe  we could have scored or not but it would have been  a better game , got to take advantage of opportunities  ...

I've said this a zillion times  ,,, if Jax is on his game he pitches less than 15 pitches in the inning and gets 3 outs  , you will know within the 3 batters  , Jax pitched to 6 batters  and threw 24 pitches ,,, 

Why Rocco  ? , why ??? ...

This has happened  quite a few times this year where Rocco leaves Jax in the whole inning , he only needs to pitch to 3 batters , I like captn Jax  but get him out of there when you know he's not on his game ,,, not all was his fault today though , wallner  gifted a hit , Jax hit a batter and the rest is history  

Hmmm.   Solano plays second over Julien. 

4 minutes ago, Linus said:

Hmmm.   Solano plays second over Julien. 

Noted. Interesting to an extent.

In defense of Jax he got Lindor to pop up with an expected batting average of .070. Instead of an out it was ruled a double. A left fielder with any kind of range makes that play. Later Stewart fights through a 9 pitch at bat. Credit to Stewart for the at bat but I also think Jax can pitch a little differently if Lindor isn’t standing on third with one out instead of two.

The run expectancy of a runner on second with no outs vs bases empty and one out is very different. If the Twins make that play I don’t think the Mets score.

8 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Big league players don’t go to the AFL.
 

I think part of the problem for both Wallner and Julien might be fatigue. It was noted that Miranda struggled in September of his rookie year. These guys aren’t used to playing after Labor Day especially facing major league pitching every day. Neither has been on the IL all year, so I’m sure this is their longest professional season. 

Fatigue? 24 and 25 year old men that have played 126-129 games? and lets be honest this downward trend didn't just happening in the last week or two it started the beginning of August.

Miranda's OPS was .743 in September last year and for the year was .751, his September was actually better than August. So I don't think he is a good comparison for these two. I still have high hopes for Julien and not so much for Wallner, but if the Twins keep Polanco, Julien could find himself without a spot. As for Wallner my take hasn't changed they need to bring in a starting left fielder, because I believe they will keep Kepler.

To be fair to Bremer on the Kepler deep fly...Kepler clearly thought it was out off the bat and so did I. Dick's had more of these these year than usual, but the Twins have also had a LOT of towering flies that have died at the wall, on the track, and at the edge of the track this season.

Lopez was really great, that was fun to watch. I'm really happy with his season, and he sure looks the part of a #1 starter.

Bats just couldn't get it going. They did a good job grinding out some walks, but just couldn't find the hits.

10 hours ago, davidborton said:

The whole scoreboard arrangement, the ads, the "visual litter" all over the place makes it hard to focus on pitch count, outs, pitch speed, type of pitch, etc. I just find it visually noisy.

 

Couldn't agree more. Info is moved all over the place constantly. By the time you find what your looking for the at bat is over. I also agree about the noise, you have to pick your spots to have any kind of conversation. Maybe their just trying to get people to look up from their phones.

This was our first game this year so you can blame me for the loss if you want. Pablo looked great but the hitting uninspired. Seems to happen every time their in position for a sweep.

Time to sit Wallner down,apparently he has been taking Strike Out lessons from Joey Strike Out. He also has trouble in the field,hasn't been good in Right or Left. With Polanco out for a few days someone needs to step up. Again can't seem to put the ball in play. Correa takes a pitch down the middle,then swings at one down and away before taking again outside edge. Playoffs are coming and can't waste good SP like this.