Twins 4, Rays 7: Sonny Gray Notches 1,500th Career Strikeout Despite Tough Outing

“the Rays will send old friend Zach Littell out for the start. The one-time dominant reliever for the Twins…”

Which is to say…

the guy that was pretty good for about 27 low leverage innings across 3 months in 2019. And pretty much catastrophically horrible otherwise.

Also, it’s ZACK Littell.

27 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Floro is off the playoff roster, right? 

Jorge Alcala started rehabbing a couple of days ago.

(fingers crossed)

36 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Floro is off the playoff roster, right? 

They need to find someone better in order for that to happen. I am hoping that Alcala, Paddack, Ober and Stewart will be healthy so he is not needed.

The loss tonight was a team effort though. Errors. Passed balls on strikes. Running into outs on bases. In Floro’s case the inning is very different if Kirilloff makes the correct play and takes the ball to first base himself. His inning should have started with one out. The same thing yesterday where Wallner didn’t make a play when Jax entered. I think Correa also started off an inning with an error. If they make the plays tonight it is a different outcome. When they don’t, pitch counts escalate and runs score.

I don’t think Glasnow was the story for TB pitching-wise, was he?
I’m quite satisfied with what the lineup was able to do against him. 8 baserunners over 6 innings, and half those baserunners scored thanks to the long ball. 4 runs over six innings. If Glasnow had those results every outing…where is the Rays AAA affiliate?

The story for the Rays was their bullpen…completely shut the Twins down and out over the final 3 innings.

The race is on.  Will Minnesota win the division title before Cleveland and or Detroit outright lose it?  Addition by subtraction, at its finest.

jorgenswest pointed out Kirilloff’s mistake in the fifth inning. He would have gotten the out by committing to handling the play himself. The three-run home run would not have then occurred because the inning would have ended before it happened. It was a classic rookie mistake (that I hope is a lesson learned) that turned out to be the difference in the game. Floro deserved better. Even though the three runs show up on the stat sheet as earned runs it was a fielding mistake that allowed them to score. 

6 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

They need to find someone better in order for that to happen. I am hoping that Alcala, Paddack, Ober and Stewart will be healthy so he is not needed.

That's the key. Replace Floro, for sure, but we need someone better to replace him. Hopefully, one or more of those rehabbing arms will help a weary bullpen. 

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I wish Stevenson would get hot - he is very expendable at this point. 

And not enough accolades can be showered on Lewis!~

This is why you can't judge what a 29 year old is doing in AAA, he is 29 and in AAA for a reason.

100% agree on Lewis, He is 4th on the team in RBI while only playing 50 games, Everybody but Polanco should be embarrassed by that. (Correa, Kepler, Taylor, Buxton, Gallo talking to you)

AAAAndrew Stevenson can be kicked to the curb. Next.

Lots of blame to go around on this loss. Special mention to Jeffers for one of the worst baserunning plays I’ve ever seen. 

9 hours ago, jkcarew said:

the guy that was pretty good for about 27 low leverage innings across 3 months in 2019. And pretty much catastrophically horrible otherwise.

 

And yet, there he was in a high leverage situation in Game 1 of the wild card series, taking the L while failing to record an out.   

Can't hide bullpen arms....

39 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

AAAAndrew Stevenson can be kicked to the curb. Next.

A guy who works so hard to get back to the majors and by all accounts is a valuable teammate. That guy deserves more respect. We can do better here.

5 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

A guy who works so hard to get back to the majors and by all accounts is a valuable teammate. That guy deserves more respect. We can do better here.

Is that better?

1 hour ago, MMMordabito said:

Is that better?

No

This is the type of game a play-off team needs to win (especially if its in the play-offs) - the starter struggled, but left the only giving up 2 runs through 4, and the offense rallies to score 4 runs against the other teams starter. However, the BP immediately gave up 5 runs, which may have kept the opposing SP in through 6, to make it difficult to win. 

This team has just under 3 weeks to get things figured out, with the BP being most concerning.

10 hours ago, Patzky said:

The Twins recipe for success lately outside Giolito has been to wait out the opposing starter and then attack the bullpen. 

They got to Glasnow for 4 last night.