Twins 5, Diamondbacks 3: Keuchel Shines and Twins Bats Rally for a Walk-Off and Series Sweep

Nice win Twins!!  Kuechel was ok.  Not great but not bad.  He had some great defense helping him and the Dbacks have been terrible lately.  They all of a sudden can't score.  Since everything came together at least for this past series.  Well done Twins.  Kurchel will be ok but since his fastball is routinely around 90 or less he needs to be pinpoint perfect.  Otherwise they will light him up like a Christmas tree.  It's interesting hiw they seem to play better when Buxton and Gallo aren't in the lineup making the automatic outs.  On to Detroit boys.  GO Twins!!

The combination of an experienced ground ball pitcher like Kuechel, the pitch clock, and the lineup deployed yesterday, made for an MLB defense primed - ready - and able to go....Castro was wizard. Though not as precisely as Maeda on Saturday, "One Of The Best Beards In Sports" generally hit his spots and pitched to said defense. A little luck here and there helped and the difference in a few MPH was also apparent compared to Kenta's effort (in the Maeda side of the ledger). I was concerned about the two pitchers with not dissimilar styles going back to back, but it played out OK. Perhaps a turning point both for the Twins Season as well as Wallner as player?? Let's hope....But on that theme - When was Kepler's "Turning Point"?? As many have stated - His play has been prime of late. Win Twins. 

3 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

23 exclamation points in a 48 word comment.  That's a .471 exclamation slugging percent.

When it comes to bringing the enthusiasm, Peter does not disappoint, lol!!!! 

25 minutes ago, madtowntwin said:

The combination of an experienced ground ball pitcher like Kuechel, the pitch clock, and the lineup deployed yesterday, made for an MLB defense primed - ready - and able to go....Castro was wizard. Though not as precisely as Maeda on Saturday, "One Of The Best Beards In Sports" generally hit his spots and pitched to said defense. A little luck here and there helped and the difference in a few MPH was also apparent compared to Kenta's effort (in the Maeda side of the ledger). I was concerned about the two pitchers with not dissimilar styles going back to back, but it played out OK. Perhaps a turning point both for the Twins Season as well as Wallner as player?? Let's hope....But on that theme - When was Kepler's "Turning Point"?? As many have stated - His play has been prime of late. Win Twins. 

It's been about 8 weeks.  Since 6/20 his wRC+ is 152.  He has been pretty consistent too.  His wRC+ is also 152 for the last 4 weeks.

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Keuchel strikes out zero - the Twins strikeout 10 times and we win.  It reminds me of all the pitchers in years past who relied on ground balls to win and knew how to pitch.  Nice game. 

Yes. We struck out 10 times and gave up 8 stolen bases. How do you win games like that?

With a walk off HR I guess.

Strange game. 

1 hour ago, Nine of twelve said:

Twins fans look at the bottom of the ninth as a hitting success. Diamondback fans look at the bottom of the ninth as a pitching failure. Not sure which is more accurate.

The pitch to Max was especially bad. You can throw it anywhere but there to get him out. Fastballs up or slow stuff away will get him out. 

12 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

There's a first baseman at AAA with a massive OPS. Just try it! 

It's hard to imagine Williams could we worse than Gallo at this point.  He has been brutal for a couple months now.  I would say give Prato a few starts at 1B in AAA.  He is 5'9 so not ideal but they need some of the dead weight off the roster.  How about giving Severino a few starts at 1B in St. Paul?

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

Putting Correa in the #2 slot is foolish. He hits so many hard grounders that with a guy on 1st are automatic DP's. I'd drop him down to 7 or 8.

And yet he drives in the tying and go-ahead runs, and anchors the infield behind Keuchel, hovering up those ground ball outs. 

"The Diamondbacks had two double steals against Keuchel, and stole bases eight times in the game, six of them double steals. "

Holy hell!

Nice to see the sweep. For those saying things like "now it's time to overtake Texas for the 2 seed" or something crazy like that, remember what happened last week, they lost 5 straight and got swept by KC.  This team will continue to have ups and downs as we roll into the dog days of August. Nothing should be taken for granted and a division win is still very much up in the air, despite what fangraphs says. Tread lightly with your hopes. 

This Wallner kid is everything we hoped Trevor Larnach would be. Might be the best offensive weapon the Twins have right now. He should be playing every day until the team's season is over!

Offense was flat until Castro got the double. He is the straw that stirs the drink right now. Once he is on base he puts the pitcher on defense. Good defense played kept game in reach. Correa did make up for his 2 DP by finally getting a hit and 2 RBI's to take the lead. With Cleveland reeling need to take care of business in Detroit. 

To say Keuchel shined is a monstrous overstate......walks and hits all over the place.......hard hit outs and a couple double plays saved him.   He did ok.  And that's all we should expect.  He's been done for a couple years already.

If kuechel shined yesterday  is was the only shine we had yesterday  , the sunshine was missing  ....

Kuechel  kept us in the game  but  he worked  5 nervous innings  , Arizona hit some balls hard and some balls soft for infield and blooper hits ...

It was a team effort  and Kuechel has earned another start  ....

53 minutes ago, Karbo said:

After grounding into 2 more double plays

Would you rather Annie called your name on the double plays, or his name on the 2-RBI single?

Keuchel got the job done, but nothing about that performance was sustainable. Hopefully Joe gets healthy soon.

Floro has been a good pick-up so far. He hasn't looked unhittable, but he's looked like a dependable mid-inning guy. He's not going to beat himself the way that guys like Jorge and Jovani were doing.

1 hour ago, bighat said:

"The Diamondbacks had two double steals against Keuchel, and stole bases eight times in the game, six of them double steals. "

Holy hell!

Nice to see the sweep. For those saying things like "now it's time to overtake Texas for the 2 seed" or something crazy like that, remember what happened last week, they lost 5 straight and got swept by KC.  This team will continue to have ups and downs as we roll into the dog days of August. Nothing should be taken for granted and a division win is still very much up in the air, despite what fangraphs says. Tread lightly with your hopes. 

This Wallner kid is everything we hoped Trevor Larnach would be. Might be the best offensive weapon the Twins have right now. He should be playing every day until the team's season is over!

Wallner has much better defense numbers in right field but I think it would be a good idea to play him in left enough times to see if he can do as well there as in right.