Twins 3, Guardians 4: Griffin Jax Goes from Hero to Goat, Offense Goes Silent After Early Flurry

3 hours ago, tampatwins said:

I’m holding out hope that they’ll sneak in, but man they really didn’t have to make it this interesting 

Interesting , it's pathetic , pitiful and piss poor baseball  ...

I hope  you get your hope !!!!

I almost don't want them to make the play-offs. They don't deserve it, likely won't win a game, and this organization deserves to lie in the bed it made and take a hard look at itself. 

I've seen some pretty big breakdowns before, but this team is pushing to be the biggest in my time. The thing is I'm not surprised, and it's not even because of the nameless guy that leads in the clubhouse. If a professional team is going to have a colossal choke, why wouldn't it be one from Minnesota? 

2 hours ago, howeda7 said:

I almost don't want them to make the play-offs. They don't deserve it, likely won't win a game, and this organization deserves to lie in the bed it made and take a hard look at itself. 

Totally disagree with you!!!! This would be the worst thing to happen-the big city national media won’t ever let the state of Minnesota live it down!!! Thais can’t happen!!! That’s why it’s so so so important twins get in playoffs!!!

9 minutes ago, Fezig said:

I've seen some pretty big breakdowns before, but this team is pushing to be the biggest in my time. The thing is I'm not surprised, and it's not even because of the nameless guy that leads in the clubhouse. If a professional team is going to have a colossal choke, why wouldn't it be one from Minnesota? 

NO WAY!!!! Twins have to make playoffs!!!

The prevent offense is gonna doom this team. It's just not going to happen. They will miss the dance. 

21 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I want to watch the Twins in the playoffs. 

I want to watch the Twins aspire to be in the playoffs. Not just be good enough to be the 6th best team in a 15 team league which is all they tried to do this season. 

6 hours ago, NYCTK said:

I think bullpens are less of a financial investment as they are a scouting and development issue.

I think that statement is very accurate. Finding the right arms, either in our system or elsewhere, is the key to building a good bullpen. Sure, we can fork out money for "name" arms but that doesn't always guarantee success. I mean, look at the Guardians bullpen, and they aren't stocked with a bunch of big free agent arms either. 

38 minutes ago, Peter said:

Totally disagree with you!!!! This would be the worst thing to happen-the big city national media won’t ever let the state of Minnesota live it down!!! Thais can’t happen!!! That’s why it’s so so so important twins get in playoffs!!!

A Napoleon complex of some fans is not a great reason for the Twins to have to make the playoffs. I can assure you, no one in New York will care if the Twins get in or miss out. Seeing as we all know there's essentially no chance they'd get past the ALDS. 

We needed this game because it was our best chance to win one & set the mood going into this important series. Lopez pitched a great game against a pretty good team & until the 7th which Vazquez helped get him through. Correa, Lewis & Buxton got it done in 1 inning that'd have been good enough if Capt. Jax was superhuman but alas he is human.

I disagree with sending Alcala down (IMO Baldelli is holding a grudge against him for some reason). They only needed to manage him better & send someone else down. It doesn't look good going forward. IMO a lot of little things that should have been done in the beginning of the season they are starting to do now but now it's too late & now it's snowballing out of control.

you have to score runs...Twins *&^%$## the bed at the plate. too often bats go silent..and they only score 2 - 3 runs or less. this staff is not built to only give up 3 runs at best. we need someone ..someone to step up and hit the #$%^ ball with RISP. unbelievable how this entire team has went into the tank

Twins lost 4-3 to a better team last night.  CCleveland has been leading the central since mid April.  This has been one of the most frustrating seasons in my nearly 60 years of following them.  They have only won like 9 of their last 27 games.  Not much of a "playoff run"  

Very confusing headline considering the 2nd, contradictory meaning of the word "goat"

It's ready sad that our bullpen has no depth at all because guys like Duran Jax and Alcala usually thrive in Max effort one inning stints. When they get asked to sit down and come back out for another inning, things tend to go bad. Rocco needs to know his guys and understand who is up for the challenge of multiple innings. Of course none of this matters if we can't score any runs. Buxton and Correa look pretty dialed in already which should help. I just don't get this two year long problem of hitting with RISP. We've got to be one of the worst in the league. You can't leave 10+ guys on base per game while your offense is struggling. Boys better figure it out ASAP otherwise we'll be watching the damn Tigers in the wildcard which would be an embarrassment.

8 hours ago, knothole61 said:

I haven't done a statistical deep dive, but off the top of my head (and forgive me if I state the obvious) until recently the Twins were missing Correa and his .906 OPS, and Buxton and his .863 OPS, while Castro, Lee, and Lewis have experienced extensive slumps--and then there was that whole Julien thing!  

Entire offense slumping at the same time, that was the story of the first part of the season as well. They were doing well without Correa, but the wheels really fell off when Buck went out.

Offense ranks #18 in OPS w/RISP. 

KC #2, DET #5, CLE #9. And then there’s also this.

Stick a fork in um!!