Recap: Sano Homers Twice, Jorge Impresses as Twins Split

Game 1 Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs)

The Twins blew a lead, made some poor plays in the field and were the victims of some poor umpiring. These things seem to be common themes of late.

With the Twins leading 5-4 in the top of the fifth inning, the first two batters of the inning (Byron Buxton and Brian Dozier) were called out on strikes. Here are the locations of those pitches, per Baseball Savant:

The Royals tied it up with a homer in the bottom of the fifth and added three runs in the sixth to put the score at 8-6. In the seventh inning, Jorge Polanco made a throwing error on a potential double play and the next batter, Alex Gordon, blasted a three-run homer to put the game out of reach.

Jose Berrios gave up five runs for the first time this season, Tyler Duffey surrendered three in his inning of work and Ryan Pressly gave up three (two earned) over two innings. Miguel Sano hit another majestic home run.

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/881232349240991745

Game 2 Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs)

Felix Jorge made his major league debut with second place in the AL Central on the line and about the only thing you could complain about in regard to his performance was that it was too short.

Things got off to a sketchy start, as the 23-year-old gave up a two-run homer to Eric hosmer in the first inning. Jorge settled in from there, however, throwing four straight scoreless innings.

Jorge gave up a leadoff single to Lorenzo Cain in the sixth and was pulled after just 85 pitches. Jorge had averaged 98 pitches over his previous five starts with Chattanooga. It was almost as if Paul Molitor had it in his mind that he was only going to get five innings from the young Dominican.

At the time, the Twins were up 7-2, and maybe there’s an argument to be made that it was wise to let Jorge quit while he was ahead. But, Buddy Boshers gave up a two-run homer, allowing Jorge’s runner to score. Buddy also gave up a double and was lifted for Matt Belilse, who gave up an RBI double of his own. The Royals brought the score to 7-5, and 20/20 hindsight sure made it look like a mistake to have gone to the pen that early.

Jorge finished with five innings, he gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk. He struck out two batters. It was a line that looks very similar to some of his Double-A outings earlier this season, which is a huge compliment. He did not seem rattled by the big stage.

Jorge is arguably the Twins’ most athletic pitching prospect. Some of that athleticism was on display, as he showcased his smooth, low-effort delivery that produced a 95.2 mph fastball and also started a nice double play.

https://twitter.com/Twins/status/881336585844920320

Luckily Belisle threw a perfect seventh, Taylor Rogers followed with a perfect eighth and the Twins added three runs in the top of the ninth.

Oh, and all those terrible things that had been happening to the Twins? They basically all happened to the Royals this time. They blew a lead and played dreadful defense.

Eddie Rosario was 5-for-5 and scored three runs. Jason Castro hit a pair of doubles and had three RBI. Miguel Sano hit yet another, even more majestic homer in this one. He broke Statcast, so I don’t have the data to share, but just look at this thing:

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/881340136763650048

Phil Miller shared this interesting tidbit regarding Sano’s 20th home run:

https://twitter.com/MillerStrib/status/881334295352225792

Bullpen Usage

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

Sunday

Twins (Hector Santiago, 5.37 ERA) at Kansas City (Travis Wood, 6.28 ERA), 1:15 pm CT

Wood will be making his first start of the season. The lefty has been hit very hard in his first season in the AL, seeing his ERA spike from 2.95 with the Cubs last year to 6.28 in 2017. His longest appearance of the year was three innings and the most pitches he’s thrown is 49, so expect to see a lot of the Royals’ bullpen.

You could say the same thing for the Twins. Santiago did not have the opportunity to get any more stretched out in his last start thanks to a rain delay. He threw 57 pitches for Rochester on June 21 and just 49 on Tuesday, so it’s likely he’ll be on a limited pitch count.

AL Central Standings

Cleveland 43-37

Twins 41-39 (-2)

Kansas City 40-40 (-3)

Detroit 36-44 (-7)

Chicago 35-45 (-8)