Tigers 7, Twins 6: It's Always Something

It's always the same things...you can list them, but I don't have the stomach for it right now...

I just returned from the indolence of last September to look around. Nothing's changed. I'm outta here.

Scoring 6 runs should be enough to win most games.  But not this team.  If there is a way to lose, this team will find it.

That last at-bat gave me gasperitis.

Another example of Rocco’s genius. Pull the young pitcher with 2 outs in the fifth. Now your BP is going to be stressed for the rest of the series. Paddack pitching tomorrow. What’s the chances of another short start?! 
Castro with his usual great defense. But, oh he can play multiple positions! Stone Hands Julien also had one clang off his glove. Those errors may not have resulted in runs, but extra outs are further stress on the pitching staff. 
Rocco has Gasper at DH instead of Julien? If Gasper is a bat-first guy, Falvey is a failure at talent evaluation. 

5 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Fire the front office

Didn't Falvey just get a promotion?  The Pohlads think he's doing great! 

It is always the same thing actually.... just a bad baseball team that is poorly constructed, allergic to fundamentals, and devoid of passion being 'led' by a terrible manager. 

"Chris Paddack will start"

Message to the bullpen:

Funny how this works: TD writes an article about Julien and his slight improvements and he promptly goes 3-5.  They write an article about how the bullpen ranks and all of its warts and they promptly give up 6 runs in 4.1 innings (I know, one of them unearned). 

Is this spooky, or just irony?  🙃

3 hours ago, mark sills said:

let your young pitcher pitch

YES!

I'm starting to think the Mgr is trying to get himself fired so he can get out. Nobody could possibly be that inept as a Mgr. 

6 hours ago, D.C Twins said:

It is always the same thing actually.... just a bad baseball team that is poorly constructed, allergic to fundamentals, and devoid of passion being 'led' by a terrible 

Harsh, but pretty much inarguable.

Classic Baldelli Ball: where your starter needs an engraved invitation to pitch into the 6th, and your DH has the offensive upside of a folding chair. Can't wait to see how we reinvent the art of losing tomorrow.

Didn’t see the game. How did Alcalá give up 4 runs without recording an out?  That guy can implode with the best (or worst) of them. 

Another one pretty much all on Rocco. Turns a winnable game into another gut wrenching loss. It's gonna be a very long season. 

4 hours ago, Mark G said:

Funny how this works: TD writes an article about Julien and his slight improvements and he promptly goes 3-5.  They write an article about how the bullpen ranks and all of its warts and they promptly give up 6 runs in 4.1 innings (I know, one of them unearned). 

Is this spooky, or just irony?  🙃

  

YES!

Here is the thing: the manager is a problem in my estimation. One of about 10 huge problems the Twins have. The FO has somehow constructed a lineup that can’t hit, is slow, is unathletic and is poor in the field. We are much further away from winning than a new manager. To be clear: i am not defending Rocco - I’m done with him and the FO. I’m saying our problems go well beyond them. 

Wow.  I just love everyone's comments.  They are so spot on.  Baldelli ball?  I love it.  The comment, not the manager.  He continues to show why he is one of the poorest managers in baseball and maybe the worst manager in Twins history.  It would be comical if it wasn't so sad.  Only 12,000 people there.  How long will it take to start dumping payroll dollars?

I’m not usually one to pile on Baldelli and so I don’t often nitpick specific in-game decisions. But wowza, seeing the game end with the tying run at 3rd, the winning run at 1st, and Gasper at the plate… At the point when Bader pinch-ran, three things could have happened next: 

- the next batter (France) makes an out, ending the game with a loss

- the next batter homers, ending the game with a win

- the next batter drives in one or two runs, leaving the following batter’s spot (Gasper) next up to prolong the inning

 Bader’s speed only matters in the third scenario here. But in that scenario, if you need to play for the run that Julien represents, then having Bader’s bat available has to be more important than having his speed on base.
Just a bad tactical decision in what could have been an exciting end to the game.

For most of the fans who couldn't access apple+ you didn't miss a thing.

Hard to feel good about the decision to pull Festa there. Yes, he'd surrendered the lead, but he'd been pitching well. Not Festa's fault there was an error in there. Not much faith there from the manager. Only 64 pitches thrown, multiple clean innings, he's throwing strikes and there's 2 outs in the inning. Instead we burn Coulombe for 1 batter and after Alcala implodes ask Blewett to go 2+ to finish so we don't use 5 relievers to finish out the game?

I don't blame Baldelli for Alcala imploding; that's on the player. But Festa isn't in his first go-around, and the quick hook is a mistake. Feels like Baldelli is managing scared, trying to keep his job and instead is making it worse.

Offense finally does a little something and the pitching blows up. Twins cannot get it all together at the same time. By the time they do it may be too late. Alcalá is such a talented rollercoaster. 2 walks and 2 singles, pulled without recording an out.