Royals 8, Twins 1: Another Fielding Blunder Leads to Another Ugly Inning

Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs)

The Twins entered the bottom of the fourth inning up 1-0 thanks to a Miguel Sano RBI single. In the bottom of the inning, Santana gave up a leadoff single before committing the error on the potential double play. Next pitch: home run. Eric Hosmer put KC up 3-1 and Ervin gave up four more hits in the inning.

Maybe the biggest reason why the Twins have been playing as well as they have so far in 2017 has been due to a huge defensive turnaround. The gloves have slumped of late, as the team has given up nine unearned runs over the past four games.

There was some controversy over both Hosmer’s homer and a foul call on a ball Brian Dozier thought stayed fair. Both plays were reviewed, but the Twins were apparently still not satisfied with either call.

https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/880992315908788224

Here’s the top-down view of Hosmer’s homer via Baseball Savant:

In what basically equated to garbage time late in the game, Jorge Polanco made a beautiful play ranging deep in the hole and rifling the ball over to first to record the out.

https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/880981946653978624

Alan Busenitz was another bright spot, as he threw the final 2.2 innings, shutting out the Royals in the process. With the double dip tomorrow, that was huge. What did he get for it? A demotion. Life as a middle reliever can be tough. Having thrown 35 pitches, it wasn’t likely Busenitz would be available anytime soon, so a fresh arm in Ryan Pressly was called up.

Postgame With Molitor

https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/880994524826292224

Bullpen Usage

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

*Busenitz was optioned. Ryan Pressly, who threw 19 pitches Monday and 21 Thursday was called up.

Saturday

Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.98 ERA) at Royals (Luke Farrell), 1:15 pm CT

Twins (Felix Jorge) at Royals (Jason Hammel, 4.75 ERA), 7:35 pm CT

There will be two Major League debuts tomorrow: Luke Farrell for the Royals in Game 1 and Felix Jorge for the Twins in Game 2. Farrell, a right-hander, had a 3.83 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 8.4 K/9 in Triple A. Jorge, 23, has been developing a feel for getting the third strike of late. Through his first nine starts he averaged 5.2 K/9 for Chattanooga, but over his last five starts that’s kicked up to 8.2 K/9. He’s also induced 20 swinging strikes in two of his past four starts.

Jose Berrios’ ERA on the road is nearly a run higher than at Target Field (2.51 vs. 3.41). Jason Hammel has been on a roll, registering a 2.51 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over his past five starts.

AL Central Standings

Cleveland 42-36

Twins 40-38 (-2)

Kansas City 39-39 (-3)

Detroit 35-43 (-7)

Chicago 34-44 (-8)