OAK 6, MIN 5: Deja Vu

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs)

The Twins built up a 5-0 lead early but, once again, they failed to tack on. Taylor Rogers, who gave up the walk-off homer last night, came in to pitch the eighth today. He got the first two batters he faced out before issuing a four-pitch walk.

Oakland pinch hit Rajai Davis, who just so happened to be the guy who hit that walk-off homer off Rogers Saturday night, and he delivered a clutch single. Rogers was lifted for Ryan Pressly, who gave up a game-tying double to Matt Chapman. In a situation that clearly called for a no-doubles defense (game-tying run at first base with two outs), left fielder Eddie Rosario was inexplicably playing in.

https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/891798759482568709

With those two runs charged to Rogers, his ERA is now 3.79. It was 1.93 just 10 days ago. This game remained tied until Yonder Alonso hit a ball up over yonder to walk it off in the 12th.

https://twitter.com/BrodieNBCS/status/891814671325331457

Bartolo Colon, pitching in his old home park (I guess you could say that about a lot of places now) lasted into the seventh inning. He held Oakland to three runs on eight hits over 6.1 innings. With the Twins clearly being sellers now, one has to wonder how much longer Colon sticks around, regardless of how well he pitches.

Brian Dozier got the Twins off to a great start, hitting another leadoff home run. And Eduardo Escobar added a two-run shot in the first frame.

https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/891801294498926592

https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/891801771890413569

Things did not go well for Dozier from there, as he struck out in all five of the rest of his plate appearances. He was visibly upset with home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi, Minnesota's favorite ump, all game. Miguel Sano got called out on strikes in the 11th inning, and decided he had enough.

https://twitter.com/cjzer0/status/891810158023782401

Taking a look at the data at Baseball Savant, a site affiliated with the MLB mind you, it’s easy to see why the Twins hitters were so fed up by the end of this one. Here is a look at all the strikes that were called on Minnesota hitters:

Lost in this mess of a game was an incredibly encouraging outing from Trevor Hildenberger, who was pitching in front of several friends and family members. The San Jose native struck out five batters in two innings of work. He worked around leadoff hits in both frames he pitched. Hopefully this means he's graduated to being trusted in high-leverage situations.

Postgame With Molitor

https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/891821716082638849

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

Monday

Off

The Twins get to spend another day off in California tomorrow. Not a bad deal. Tuesday evening they’ll open a quick two-game series at San Diego. Jose Berrios is scheduled to start against Jhoulys Chacin.

The big news, of course, is the upcoming trade deadline, which is Monday at 3 pm CT. Be sure to be refreshing Twins Daily often, as we’ll keep you updated on any rumors or trade news between now and then.