PHI 10, MIN 4: Polanco Cycles in the Rain, Rest Is All Pain

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs)

Full Box Score

Odorizzi: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 50.0% strikes

Home Runs: Kepler (1), Polanco (1)

Multi-Hit Games: Polanco (5-for-5, 2B, 3B, HR), Schoop (2-for-4)

WPA of +0.1: Polanco .220

WPA of -0.1: Harper -.134, Odorizzi -.209

And Polanco wasn’t done there, he added another single in the ninth inning. Here’s a look at the cycle:

https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1114355824690978817

With persistent rain and temperatures in the low-40s, the Twins got off to a terribly sloppy start at Philadelphia and just kept sinking. You know how you can tell it was really bad? This rabid Phillies fanbase, energized by a new star in town, left Citizens Bank Park largely unoccupied.

There were enough Phillies fans at Nationals Park earlier this week to get a “we got Harper” chant going in enemy territory, but the weather in Philadelphia led most fans to stay home despite the enthusiasm to shower love down upon their new star.

Jake Odorizzi struck out Bryce Harper in the first inning. That’s about the only thing that went well in the early going. Odorizzi recorded just two outs and it took him 36 pitches just to even do that.

It all got started with Andrew McCutchen drawing a walk after a borderline check swing was called a ball. Things just snowballed from there. Conditions were terrible, but as the old saying goes, they were the same for both teams.

One thing that didn’t help the Twins were a few poor ball calls. As you can see, quite a few of these pitches were in the zone.

I suppose when you throw as many pitches as the Twins did tonight a few are bound to not go your way. It was 192 pitches, to be exact. Wow.

It was appearing this one may get called before becoming an official game, but they pressed on and things cleared up around the bottom of the fifth inning. Too bad. The Twins would rather forget pretty much all of what transpired.

At least the Polanco cycle was fun.

Bullpen Usage

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

Next Three Games

Sat at PHI, 1:05 pm CT (Michael Pineda-Jake Arrieta)

Sun at PHI, 12:05 pm CT (Jose Berrios-Zach Eflin)

Tue at NYM, 6:10 pm CT (TBD)

Last Game

MIN 7, KC 6: Twins Come Back From 3-Run Deficit

More From Twins Daily

The 12 Stages of Willians Astudillo Fandom

Twins Winning in the Margins

Byron Buxton: Reckless or Aggressive?