Royals 2, Twins 0: The Twins Fail to Take Advantage of (Many) Opportunities.

No clutch hitting especially from Lewis.  It's funny how Lewis has one or two good games and the tell genis a superstar.  But you don't hear much when he is playing poorly.  He is in another slump but you would never know it by the announcers.  It was tough missing Wallner and Buxton.  Buck has the unique ability to take a day to day injury and be gone for weeks.  His career is loaded with that.  Ober pitched great.  Does anyone know about Ryan Fitzgerald?  They call him up quite a while ago but never gets in the game.  If he isn't good enough to play get rid of him.  He is wasting a spot if the great Rocco refuses to.play him.  Team is playing ok since the deadline.  At least so far.  But why is Gasper on this team?  He just cannot hit major league pitching.  He has no business on the team.  Hone plate umpires was awful today.  No he was brutal. But at least he seemed incompetent for both sides.  Letsvwin Sunday and take the series.  We have a tough schedule coming up.  Go Twins.

Too many men left on base and not a single extra-base hit. Heck, what happened to our "new" strategy of stolen bases and bunts? We might have been able to manufacture a single run, but we still would have lost the game.  Oh well, at least Ober looked better. But as others have noted, the whole lineup failed to provide any clutch hitting when needed. Not encouraging. 

8 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Why why why is Gasper getting AB?

He has absolutely no business being in the majors. Completely worthless. 

Awful loss last night!!! We have chance to finish with winning record-why is gasper on team? Great story that he made big leagues but time to release him! Royce is 🤮🤡👎🗑️get rid of stupid face paint and start hitting 5 home runs only 24 RBIs???? Seriously!!! Today is must win!!! Then it’s Yankees/tigers this week! Still believe we can have winning record this year!!! Let’s go twins!!!

If Lewis doesn’t start going opposite field, pitchers are going to continue to pound him outside. 
 

Outside of Lewis and maybe super Mario, that was a pretty solid game all around. For a bullpen that I thought would implode, we haven’t seen that yet. 
 

For as good as Duran is doing in Philly, Jax start isn’t going so well for the Rays. Gave up a 3 run HR to the dump truck the other night to lose the game. I don’t think Jax has been right all year. We may have sold high on him when he requested that trade. 

Why is it that Lewis thinks he its a good idea to swing for the fences on every swing. How about a base hit to a wide open right side. 

What is Gasper doing on the roster,Julien probably would have been better playing 1st and batting 9th.

This game was given away by the  manager with his lineup construction.

I guess I will join the chorus of having seen enough of Gasper. He’s not part of the future so let’s take a look at someone else. 

1 minute ago, Linus said:

I guess I will join the chorus of having seen enough of Gasper. He’s not part of the future so let’s take a look at someone else. 

They have given Gasper a pretty good run. I know his stats are better at AAA but I’m just not seeing it. Roden is putting good contact on the ball the last 3 or so games. I think he is going to start hitting here to end the season. 
 

As frustrated as I have been with Martin’s defense, the bat looks legit. Opposite field, pull or straight center he is hitting all over. He is extremely aggressive on the basepaths. I think you continue to work on his reads and defense. As a 4th outfielder, base runner or even pinch hitter, he looks like he could fill that role really well. 

31 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

As frustrated as I have been with Martin’s defense, the bat looks legit. Opposite field, pull or straight center he is hitting all over. He is extremely aggressive on the basepaths. I think you continue to work on his reads and defense. As a 4th outfielder, base runner or even pinch hitter, he looks like he could fill that role really well. 

Morneau talked quite a bit about the swing adjustments Martin had made. They appear to be helping. The scouts will have to create a new plan of attack, then he'll have to adjust again.

33 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

They have given Gasper a pretty good run. I know his stats are better at AAA but I’m just not seeing it.

You know how people talk about clutch not being a thing? Part of that is players who can't handle the pressure at MLB are weeded out pretty quickly. Gasper might be one of those players who can't block out the crowds and the bright lights.

2 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

If Lewis doesn’t start going opposite field, pitchers are going to continue to pound him outside. 

His spray chart is very pull-happy. I agree with this assessment.

This game illustrates the biggest weakness of the team that has been apparent since opening day:  there is no one on this current roster that comes close to resembling a cleanup or #3 hitter.  Yes, Buxton and Wallner did not play, but neither of them resembles a true middle-of-the-lineup bat.  Wallner is a home run or nothing batter and Bux, the best power hitter in the lineup, is far too streaky(and far too injury prone) to be a consistent #4.  He probably slots best as a #2 hitter - not cleanup.

Today we used Keaschal and Lewis as #3/4 and the results were predictable.  Keaschal, though far from being established, has the makings of a good leadoff man with a combination of OBP and speed.  Why isn't he slotted there, Rocko?   Lewis is no longer the power threat hoped for.  He belongs in one of the #7/8/9 slots and perhaps not even there.  He is a huge disappointment!  Lee, while showing some improvement offensively, also belongs in the bottom 3 of the order, until Culpepper can be brought up..  Jeffers has come on strongly recently and based on his track record, should probably be in the #5/6 position.

Offense is still this teams achilles heel.  The trade deadline did absolutely nothing to correct this glaring weakness.  Instead, it just turned the pen into another glaring weakness.  So what's the solution here?  I can see only one: new ownership willing to spend money on at least one or two 30HR/100rbi potential 1B/ DH players,  sign a guy like Jeffers to a long term contract, and hope that guys like Jenkins, Gonzales,  Rodriguez, and/or Culpepper turn into genuine middle of the order bats.  And as part of this new ownership - get rid of Falvey for his failure to develop offensive players and Rocko for his inexplicable lineup constructions.  The alternative to this overhaul is more years of failure and very limited playoff chances.

Last night's game is a reminder that it's hard to put up runs with no extra base hits. Twins offense is impressively bad against LHP, never did any real damage. Royce had a bad game at the plate, but no one did well with runners in scoring position. If you're relying on 2-out hits to get runs, you're going to have plenty of games where you come up short.

Ober did pretty well, looked more like the guy we've seen over the past 3 seasons, which is nice against KC, because they have killed him before. 

11 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

No clutch hitting especially from Lewis.  It's funny how Lewis has one or two good games and the tell genis a superstar.  But you don't hear much when he is playing poorly.  He is in another slump but you would never know it by the announcers.  It was tough missing Wallner and Buxton.  Buck has the unique ability to take a day to day injury and be gone for weeks.  His career is loaded with that.  Ober pitched great.  Does anyone know about Ryan Fitzgerald?  They call him up quite a while ago but never gets in the game.  If he isn't good enough to play get rid of him.  He is wasting a spot if the great Rocco refuses to.play him.  Team is playing ok since the deadline.  At least so far.  But why is Gasper on this team?  He just cannot hit major league pitching.  He has no business on the team.  Hone plate umpires was awful today.  No he was brutal. But at least he seemed incompetent for both sides.  Letsvwin Sunday and take the series.  We have a tough schedule coming up.  Go Twins.

Fitzgerald is really just insurance because they don't have anyone else on the roster who can play SS. What are they going to do, throw Martin in there? I mean, I guess they could have called up Eeles, but he wasn't going to play either, because they want to see how Lee does every day at SS. But with Correa and Castro both gone, there's no other real SS on the roster and they're not going to want things to go sideways if Lee rolls an ankle in the 3rd inning. Call it a reward for Fitz for being a good organizational player.

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

Fitzgerald is really just insurance because they don't have anyone else on the roster who can play SS. What are they going to do, throw Martin in there? I mean, I guess they could have called up Eeles, but he wasn't going to play either, because they want to see how Lee does every day at SS. But with Correa and Castro both gone, there's no other real SS on the roster and they're not going to want things to go sideways if Lee rolls an ankle in the 3rd inning. Call it a reward for Fitz for being a good organizational player.

I am not sure that you couldn't roll with Martin for a game or two if needed.  If Lee goes down with an injury then you call up Fitzgerald.  I would rather have 13 guys on the roster that are going to be used than 11.