Twins 3, Cleveland 1: Buxton, Jeffers Sting Bieber; Maeda Sails Through 7

5-3 against Cleveland in the season series. The Twins need to win at least one more this weekend to clinch hold the tiebreaker, then beat the White Sox three of four.

 

I think Cleveland is the better team despite a less-than-stellar offense. They pitch better than anyone, have a nice defense and have the top pitcher in the AL. 

Spoken like a true MN sports fan

As punchless as the Twins' offense has looked for much of the season, Cleveland's bats have been so, so much worse. If they could cobble together even a league average offense, look out.

Sano the bouncer and peacekeeper. I like it.

Jeffers and Astudillo raking.

Must be a typo in those earlier comments because when these two teams get together it's clear the Twins are the better team. Maeda just hammers the point home. Tonight it was Buxton and Jeffers tomorrow who's next Donaldson, Cruz, Sano, Polanco?

I knew Maeda was going to help the Twins, he exceeded my my expectations. Great game 

Dick Bremer: "Bieber and Giolito are probably the best two right-handers in the league"

My first thought was, what about Maeda? I mean surely Bieber is the best in baseball, but Maeda's numbers match up with both of those guys and he's a TWIN!

Dude's gotta be the most underrated/forgotten pitcher in baseball right now. Only because Rogers has blown 3 wins for him (and worked on blowing another last night). Speaking of, no more 9th innings for Rogers. How about Duffey, Wisler, or May from now on?

I really wonder what is wrong with Rogers.  I have no faith in him anymore.  But to go from dominating to middling reliever seems odd without an injury or some other factor.  I know RP are notorious for up and down seasons, but Taylor seemed so solid. 

 

Jeffers has reached a point where I would hate to see Garver or Avila replace him.

 

Final thought - Gonzales now has a 200 BA - he has continually gone down hill in the batting department.  Why not Blankenhorn?  I would even use Astudillo for the bat.  

I agree on Rogers. He has been mediocre to brutal all year. He cannot be our closer in the play-offs if we have any intention of advancing. Rocco seems incredibly stubborn on this though. 

Maeda's starts are a must watch. So fun to watch him pitch. That trade is working out very nicely for the Twins, regardless of what Graterol does for the Dodgers. I like the fact that they are letting him go deeper into games now as well. I've been really impressed with his control this season but even if he regresses a bit on the walks he's still going to be excellent. Bieber is the obvious pick for the Cy this year, but Maeda deserves some votes and attention.

How many of us have said, "The Twins are a much better team when Buxton is playing?" I know I have on several occasions. And last night he was huge, again.

Didn't think Jeffers was ready for the big leagues when he arrived. Kid is getting invaluable experience and is starting to look like he belongs. Will be interesting to see who the starting catcher is next year? Only problem is that Garver and Jeffers are both right handed hitters. 

Like many of us I was disappointed to see Graterol traded to the Dodgers. Still would like to see him in a Twins bullpen, but that trade sure as heck is working out great for the Twins. All of you searching for a Twins ACE, may not need to keep looking. Maeda, Berrios and Pineda are looking great for a 3-game series. Should be interesting battle between Odorizzi, Hill and Dobnak for the 4th spot in the rotation should the Twins get past round one.

Excited to see where Hill is today. The top three are set and look great, Maeda, Pineda and Berrios. Very nice and quite the improvement from last year. Maeda is driven and wants to be relied upon as a top starter. The Twins will keep him happy by keeping him in the rotation. Hill, on the other hand, could be quite valuable in a hybrid role of shorter outings in the short series. Now who steps forward in the next couple of weeks to be the 4th guy when we need it later? Odo, Hill? Dobs doesn't have my confidence as a playoff starter but my also be useful for shorter outings.

Lindor is NOT the easy-going player everyone thinks he is. Evidence: his over the top chattering in Cleveland when when Romo was on the mound. Last night his "smile" that would provoke anybody [after his chattering in Cleveland]. It appeared initially, that Romo was going to put some distance between him and the chattering in Cleveland [good idea Romo...just pitch!!].

Or...Clear the benches and let the boys work it out. Lindor needs a smack in the face. Lots of players have obnoxious antics and mannerisms that agitate. At some point, Lindor has to put on the gloves or let it alone.

If it affects Lindor that much....then maybe Romo's antics are working.

Rogers needs to start placing his pitches in another spot....other than the heart of the plate!! His curve ball is waiting to be smacked, and the fastball is 95 and right down the middle. he is getting what he dishes up there.

Like many Twins fans, this year's results have certainly led me to have far less confidence in Rogers than I had last year. That being said, I think he still has the best overall "stuff" in the bullpen, and I don't see any obviously better options to replace him as closer. At one point this season, I may have suggested Duffey, but he has been knocked around quite a bit lately as well (his hard hit rate this season is 50%! That's bad). May gives up far too many home runs, and I think it's very likely the Twins let him walk after this season. Romo and Wisler have been effective this season, but they just aren't the type of pitchers I'd be comfortable trusting to close games on a regular basis.

I know people are sick of hearing this, but Rogers really is being stung by quite a bit of bad luck this season. His BABIP is .413, his walk rate is lower than last year, his K rate is only down slightly, his FIP and xFIP are about 1.5 runs lower than his ERA, and according to Statcast, his expected ERA is almost a full run lower than his actual ERA. His hard hit % and barrel % are definitely way up from last season, but his hard hit % is still much lower than Duffey's.

Given that he's only pitched 15 innings this season and none of his underlying numbers are raising any obvious red flags, I still think his stellar performance since 2018 has earned him the benefit of the doubt. I guess this is just part of life with relievers. They're going to have their ups and downs, especially when you're only looking at 15 inning samples. I would hope that the Twins aren't as reactionary as many of their fans in this regard and are basing their decisions on solid evidence instead of the somewhat random results of a small sample.

Edit: One possible theory that just occurred to me is that maybe he's being hurt by pitching almost exclusively to AL Central teams this season, who have all seen a lot of him over the past couple of years? If this is part of why he's having issues, he may be much more effective in the playoffs against teams that haven't seen him nearly as much.

I think it is track record more than wins. Maeda has been great this year, but only this year — 9 starts. Bieber and Giolito were aces last year too.

Hopefully Maeda has nice deep postseason run to make his case this year, though!

It's interesting. Maeda's improvement seems to be mostly the result of throwing more sliders, which is getting him more ground balls and increasing the rate of hitters chasing outside the zone. Increase in breaking ball usage is a much-discussed MLB-wide trend the past few years, but Maeda seems to be benefitting more than most despite the fact he already threw a ton of off-speed pitches.

On the flip side though, it's hard to see how those relatively minor changes in Maeda's pitch mix would sustainably elevate him all the way from a good #3 starter   to a #1. That would be an unfair expectation driven by Twins' fans thirst for a true ace.

Edit: One possible theory that just occurred to me is that maybe he's being hurt by pitching almost exclusively to AL Central teams this season, who have all seen a lot of him over the past couple of years? If this is part of why he's having issues, he may be much more effective in the playoffs against teams that haven't seen him nearly as much.

Add Milwaukee to this as Rogers always seems to struggle against them also...