Royals 3, Twins 2: Duran Command Derails Twins in 9th

Sometimes the Twins can be so frustrating.

You have 26 players on the team. If you don't trust the arms in the bullpen in pretty much any setting, why are they there. Wsa there a reason you dragged out Thielber, Jax and Lopez AGAIN after they pitched the night before, and NOT WELL putting eight Royal runners on base.

You brought up Winder to be a long-man. What better time to test him than to put him out there in a close game where 2-3 innings against a so-called weaker team would be a goodtime to reinroduce him to major league play.

If Pagan is just around for can't win or mop up situations, and even Moran slipping into that status, then the front office has made some mistakes in putting together a bullpen.

The Royals didn't give up. They played hungry.

You pinch-run Correa, who is not a disater on the basepaths, with more of a running machine like Castro, and he doesn't test the outfielder's arm. If Buxton comes to the plate with runners on first and third, and a Polanco dancing off the first base bag, it puts whole new pressure on the pitcher.

Sometimes, you feel, splitting a series is okay. Maybe it is. Let's get everyone out there to play (and I hate the B-squad day lineups). Bu the guys in your bullpen are major league pitchers. They are expected to be ready to come in and do a job.

Have no explanation for Duran who just needed to keep throwing 100mph strikes. Hell, evan Chapman managed to do that. Did the "immigration" blip throw him off the game? Three walks, a sacrifice bunt, a wild pitch and a strikeout. Worse than giving up a leadoff homerun (which he has done a couple of times) or letting a team bang together three singles.

On a plus note: Ober did well!

Another sloppy game for my favorite team. I HATE that players don’t run hard out of the box. Polanco goes into a home run trot on a ball that hits the wall?  Just effing run and show boat when the play is over. 

Twins couldn't generate much & KC beat us by small ball. Ober had a pretty good game considering.

Two pretty simple reasons for loss:

1. Offense goes 0-11 with RISP.  Pathetic.

2.  Walks will haunt---both leadoff walks in 8th (Jax) and 9th (Duran) both scored.

Also, sure don't understand Rocco's thinking pitching to Perez in 8th with 1st base open.  Not only has Perez demonstrated he's a monster at Target Field for years, but he was 5-7 lifetime against Perez prior to his AB.

Very frustrating loss which hopefully will motivate Baldelli NOT to trot out the JV lineup tomorrow! Absolutely zero reason, with an off day Monday, to see multiple hitters sitting vs. Brady Singer.

3 hours ago, h2oface said:

Used to be they would be benched for the next game, no matter who they were. At least not get the start. Polanco sure is hot at the plate, though. Now, Baldelli shrugs. Just talks about the play in the presser as if it is totally normal to assume the HR. Perfect opportunity to say "we have to run hard on all plays until the call is made." I truly don't understand it. All they have to do is play baseball with max effort for a couple hours a day. Not bolting on the base paths for every ball in play is just bad coaching and training. If you let them get away with it, they never change. And where was Conger? What was he doing as the first base coach? So many just stand there on the dropped third strike and give up, too. No matter how you hit the ball, even if you "think" you have crushed it, run your fastest until you see it land and if close, a call is made. The umps made the in play call right away. I guess, I do understand it. Different time. Different mentality from the players.

https://www.mlb.com/video/jorge-polanco-out-after-review?q=ContentTags == ["hitting","gamepk-718378"] Order By Timestamp DESC&pt=Offensive Highlights&p=0

 

How do you know he did not chew his a$$ out in private?

... and the aforementioned wild pitch, channeling a little Sam Deduno magic to avoid giving up any significant damage.

Man, that was a VERY wild pitch! Jeffers had almost no chance to keep that one from getting away. But your mention of Sam Deduno made me smile! I always thought he could have been a keeper ... if he had more control!

10 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

How do you know he did not chew his a$$ out in private?

That does seem to be the way this team does things: if someone needs a kick in the butt or be given some pointed instruction, etc they do it out of the view of the fans and the press. They're much more of a " keep things on an even keel" sort of squad for the most part, especially for the coaching staff and front office. That's frequently less satisfying for fans, but it's probably seen as a real positive by the players.

Disappointing loss, but hopefully the team comes out on fire on sunday and takes the series. a split would be disappointing, but taking 3 of 4 would be just ducky.

Ober did pretty well, looks like a major-league pitcher. Can he have a healthy season? I'd feel much more confident in him if he could get through a full season and throw 140-150 innings...

Need to score with runners in scoring position!!!0-11 unacceptable!!! Pitching especially bullpen was horrible!!! Lead off walks in 8th/9th inning 🤮🤬😡💩let’s get bats rocking today/sunny pitches deep get blowout win finish 3-1 with royals and 6-4 on homestand!!

10 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

How do you know he did not chew his a$$ out in private?

None of us knows what happens privately. What we do know is this team plays sloppy baseball and it has been that way for a couple of seasons. Whatever Rocco does or doesn’t do ain’t working. And this coming from a guy that generally likes Rocco. 

5 minutes ago, Linus said:

None of us knows what happens privately. What we do know is this team plays sloppy baseball and it has been that way for a couple of seasons. Whatever Rocco does or doesn’t do ain’t working. And this coming from a guy that generally likes Rocco. 

Rocco would have mentioned that they "talked to the player" if they had actually talked to him about it.  That was a coaching fail.  Conger as 1st base coach needs to be yelling instructions to players who the coaches have to assume are clueless.  Rocco needs to tighten up the ship....and we need to hear that he is working on it.  If no accountability.....nothing will change.  Is there any video of Polanco rounding 1st base with Conger in it?  If Conger is yelling "BACK, BACK"........then it is on Polanco..... and I take back the "coaching fail."

11 hours ago, darwin22 said:

Two pretty simple reasons for loss:

1. Offense goes 0-11 with RISP.  Pathetic.

2.  Walks will haunt---both leadoff walks in 8th (Jax) and 9th (Duran) both scored.

Also, sure don't understand Rocco's thinking pitching to Perez in 8th with 1st base open.  Not only has Perez demonstrated he's a monster at Target Field for years, but he was 5-7 lifetime against Perez prior to his AB.

Very frustrating loss which hopefully will motivate Baldelli NOT to trot out the JV lineup tomorrow! Absolutely zero reason, with an off day Monday, to see multiple hitters sitting vs. Brady Singer.

 

Plus the players took the field but did not bring the killer instinct to play and put the royals away  , lots of opportunities for the  taking   , the twins have only won 2 games scoring 4 runs or less ...

14 hours ago, Rosterman said:

 

Have no explanation for Duran who just needed to keep throwing 100mph strikes. Hell, evan Chapman managed to do that. Did the "immigration" blip throw him off the game? Three walks, a sacrifice bunt, a wild pitch and a strikeout !

This crossed my mind also , his mind was on immigration  and not on pitching ( could be )  ...

Another game lost due to Rocco not having a clue on how to handle pitchers. Bringing  in Lopez to pitch against a hitter that was 5 for 7 when facing Lopez has to be one of the worst pitching choices ever. Why would any manager make a choice like that?  It is really hard to think that Rocco is a good manager when he makes a choice like that.  Wish one of the writers would ask him why he made that move.

I put that loss 100% on Baldelli for choosing to pitch to Perez in the 8th. I was screaming at the TV to walk him. How can you let the same guy beat you over and over? 1st base was open.

It  was a typical Twins game Saturday as it has been the past 2+ years.  Sloppy, uninspiring play.  We have a manager that costs us several games per year.  A handful of managerial mistakes or at least questionable decisions made by him.  On Polanco not hustling; this is a frequent problem with the Twins that doesn't seem to be addressed.  Polanco should have been benched.  To the person that says he believes players like Rocco's approach to the way he handles things why not?  They obviously aren't held accountable.  This team continually plays boring and undisciplined ball under Rocco yet he isn't held accountable either.  I hope he doesn't put out a jv lineup today like he usually does on Sunday.  Due to yesterday's sloppy loss Sunday becomes a must win.  A loss would drop the homestand to 5-5 after taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees but not playing well against two teams in last place. Even a 6-4 record is helpful but underwhelming considering the opposition.