Twins 3, Angels 4: Too Little, Too Late

Box Score
Zebby Matthews: 6 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Home Runs: None
Bottom 3 WPA: Kody Clemens (-.340), Zebby Matthews (-.190), Luke Keaschall (-.150)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The feeling can be fleeting. The hope and belief in a team. We follow these men—nearly every day, 162 games stretched across three of our four seasons—and want to judge them as right. A collection better than the typical. Sometimes we’re right. Sometimes we’re not. That’s the magic in the game: we get to see the players at every stage in their journey, with every rise and fall in play acutely observed and understood. Are these Twins capable? Is their recent solid streak an omen? Do we need to know more?

Adorned in the lake-blue uniforms that mark a Friday home game, our heroes took the field with Zebby Matthews on the mound. Square-jawed and apparently fine after an injury scare in his last outing, the righty was fine in the first, if not a little inefficient, as he surrendered a single and worked deep counts in an otherwise scoreless frame.

His opponent, Grayson Rodriguez, started matters differently. He saw an action-oriented frame. The Twins were ready to swing. And swing they did. Trevor Larnach doubled. Ryan Jeffers advanced him to second on a fly ball. Kody Clemens drove him home on a sacrifice fly. Josh Bell swatted a double of his own. Rodriguez had only thrown eight pitches. Beauregard’s bruisers wait for no one. 

A Royce Lewis lineout ended the frame with a prescient portend of Minnesota’s next few innings. They had opportunities—the runners were in place; the hard-hit balls were had—but the final product failed to match the sum of its parts, as the initial exciting strike devolved into a cold reminder of an inability to add on. Suddenly, after the fifth inning, those who care about such things like runs scored looked up and realized the home team still hadn’t done more.

All the while, the Angels had taken advantage of a Matthews who looked hittable. The first inning was no mistake; Matthews worked through quiet second and third innings before the Angels rattled him in the fourth. Vaughn Grissom pelted a fastball into the stands for a solo homer, and Jorge Soler pummeled a double into the left-center gap. He advanced to third. And Matthews was so outside himself, he attempted to pitch from the stretch before switching to the windup in the same at-bat, which the third base umpire easily spotted and sent Soler home on a balk.

The fifth mirrored the fourth. Something in Matthews took him out of his game. Los Angeles shot line drive singles around the ballpark, loading the bases with no one out. Nolan Schanuel scored one on yet another liner, and Grissom ushered in a fourth run with a sacrifice fly. Matthews limited the damage somewhat by coaxing a double play from Soler, but the Angels still led 4-1 against a Twins team trudging through the game.

Perhaps the team realized they were running low on time, or perhaps Derek Shelton told them “fellas, respectfully, it’s the Angels,” because the bats finally whipped into shape. The struck with precision in the sixth, with Bell doubling, Lewis singling, and Brooks Lee breaking through with a double smacked into the left field corner. Austin Martin grounded out productively; he allowed Lewis to scamper home safely.

It felt like a changing tide, the jump-start the offense would smoothly ride into the all-important rally that would shoot the Twins into the lead. The seventh flirted with a run but never finished the deed. The eighth only saw a base runner. Larnach doubled in the ninth. Finally! This must be it. And here it comes: Clemens smokes a ball destined to rattle around the right field corner, knotting the game in dramatic fashion. One problem. Schanuel, the Angels first baseman, leapt and stole the ball from its rightful home in the outfield grass. For out number 27 in the game. That's all. Try again tomorrow. 

Notes:

Post-Game Interview:

What’s Next?
The Twins and Angels return to Target Field on Saturday for an early-afternoon meeting, with Joe Ryan set to start opposite Ryan Johnson. First pitch is at 1:10 PM.

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet