Twins 5, Dodgers 1: Kyle Farmer Vanquishes Dodger Stadium Curse

Studly outings by Ober, Stewart, Moran and Jax to spell the rest of our bullpen. Meanwhile, the offense continues to generate runs that wears theirs down (159 pitches last night, 75 more tonight).  Looking forward to an intense series finale (and a win!) tomorrow. 

Bailey Ober - you just outdueled Clayton Kershaw in LA. Take. A. Bow. What a response to a really tough loss. I was honestly expecting LA to sweep this series so the fact we've won one and could easily have won the other game is really encouraging. 

Good to see Moran step up when we really needed him to. Still needs to work on his control, but he got 4 outs at the end of the day.

The FO deserve quite a lot of credit for acquiring Farmer and Taylor. They have really exceeded my expectations. And Farmer has had to recover from taking a fastball to the face! I've got huge respect for him for carrying on as if nothing happened.

Way to capture all of the unique aspects and angles of this game!  Ober continues to provide a terrific boost to the success of this team, and after knocking off one jinx against the Yankees this franchise has now seen a second historic jinx ended as well.

10 minutes ago, Althebum82 said:

Way to capture all of the unique aspects and angles of this game!  Ober continues to provide a terrific boost to the success of this team, and after knocking off one jinx against the Yankees this franchise has now seen a second historic jinx ended as well.

Just the biggest jinx of them all to go now!

6 minutes ago, UK Twin said:

The FO deserve quite a lot of credit for acquiring Farmer and Taylor. They have really exceeded my expectations. And Farmer has had to recover from taking a fastball to the face! I've got huge respect for him for carrying on as if nothing happened.

The offseason additions, which seemed uninspiring before the season, has really carried the team. Besides the two that you mentioned, I can pretty much find a positive for every player they added.

Joey Gallo: His tremendous power, and solid on-base skills have been crucial given the early season offensive struggles. He provides good defense as well.

Christian Vazquez: Offense hasn't been great, but the I think we can attribute at least a part of the resurgent pitching performance to his game calling behind the plate.

Willi Castro: Wasn't impressed by him at the beginning of the season, but he seems to do a lot of things well that don't show up on the stat sheet. He's played every position besides 1st and C and has 3 DRS (defensive runs saved) according to Fangraphs. He seems to run the bases well (4 steals) and hits the ball decently hard. His defensive flexibility has definitely allowed Rocco to be more aggressive with in-game substitutions.

Pablo Lopez: Hasn't been great recently, but the upside is clearly there and he is at worst a decent No.2.

Brock Stewart: He looks a lot like Pagan from last year, but without the HRs. As long as he keeps the ball in the ballpark I think he's can be at least a mid-level reliever, which we sorely need with Alcala struggling and Thielbar injured.

Kudos to the FO for seeing the value in these players. They were exactly the types of additions we needed to shore up our depth.

On another note, I noticed that "sticky-fingers" German finally got his comeuppance - 4 weeks too late. Interesting that Hoye was umpiring when he was ejected AND in the game against the Twins when he wasn't. 

That is a huge outing by Ober, after burning through the bullpen in a loss the night before.

Ober/farmer and Moran were clutch!!!  4th and 7th innings were turning points of game! Huge win !!! Let’s win series!

4 hours ago, UK Twin said:

The FO deserve quite a lot of credit for acquiring Farmer and Taylor. They have really exceeded my expectations. And Farmer has had to recover from taking a fastball to the face! I've got huge respect for him for carrying on as if nothing happened.

Totally agree with that. Like many on this board, I was a bit underwhelmed by the trade for Farmer. But man, he has shown a lot game and grit, and some timely hits. Glad to have both him and Taylor with the team!

Loved that squeeze bunt by Jeffers to score Buxton. Just shows that there are all sorts of creative ways to score runs when you need to. 

4 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

Loved that squeeze bunt by Jeffers to score Buxton. Just shows that there are all sorts of creative ways to score runs when you need to. 

Nothing causes the fielding side more panic than a well executed bunt, especially in extra innings (hey, White Sox). 

17 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

Totally agree with that. Like many on this board, I was a bit underwhelmed by the trade for Farmer. But man, he has shown a lot game and grit, and some timely hits. Glad to have both him and Taylor with the team!

Nobody disagrees, but we must remember that Farmer was acquired to essentially be our everyday SS before we (re)signed CC. If CC had signed first, it is unlikely Farmer would be a Twin - so we lucked into that a bit, which is nice.

Farmer is 100% a professional ballplayer. The FO was correct to target him and he’s having a big influence on this team I think in ways beyond his performance on the field.  

Color me shocked - a convincing win against LAD with timely two-out hitting and safety squeezes? What team are we watching? Great performance by Ober, really nice win. 

Please Rocco, let's go for the jugular today! 

Correa 1-for-5 and now batting .201 as we rapidly approach June 1st. 

When I saw that Solano and Castro were in the lineup, against Kershaw, I thought we were dunzo. I was wrong. They held their own and Ober was very good. Great win! I'd LOVE to win the finale today! 

Early in the game I was thinking "here we go again" when Buxton got rung up on a curveball that never entered any part of the zone and you had to wonder if Kershaw was going to get the marginal pitches and Ober wasn't. (and to be fair, Kershaw was closer to the zone more often than Ober early) but the Twins hitters stuck with the game plan and made Kershaw really work. Ober looked wobbly in the first and then really settled down to contain a tough lineup with 6 very good innings.

Very nice win. Here's hoping they pull off the win this afternoon and take the series.

Ober was so focused last night and put on quite a pitching display last night. The pitchers have been keeping the Twins around in most every game. Moran showed again why he deserves his roster spot. Yes, he wobbles with his control but hitters struggle against his pitches.

The Twins have been having good at bats more consistently and making the opposing hurlers work hard. Kershaw needed 90 pitches to complete four innings. 

The base running and situational hitting has improved dramatically from last year. When was the last time the Twins had four stolen bases and really another when Kershaw threw to first base three times. That was a real display of professionalism by Kershaw, knowing his catcher has arm issues right now. Bunting and running are good options to use and it is encouraging to see the Twins use every strategy possible to score runs.

Correa has struggled to bring in runners in some important at bats but is also running into a little hard luck. One thing not to be overlooked is how often Correa is involved in a difficult play that results in an out. His play at shortstop this year has been absolutely terrific.

Farmer a really good story for the Twins this year.  I know people are clamoring for Lewis to take 3rd in June, but if Farmer keeps playing the way he is, why bump him off the bag?  Castro under the radar type of contributor and Solano has his moments.  Do we try and trade Gordon for minor league prospect if we bring Lewis up?  Tough decision and but nice to have to make one vs a necessity move because guys aren't worthy.

I get that Ober and Farmer will get the majority of the kudos for last night and deservedly so.  However, I thought the unsung heroes were:

1. Solano.  His double to lead off the game set the tone that Kershaw is human.

2. Castro.  Two hits- I believe both off Kershaw.

3. Moran.  I’ll admit I groaned when I saw him coming in, but to get 4 outs- and against the guys he did it against, was huge

Just a great performance all around, quite a few heroes. However literally the most exciting thing of the game was seeing Buxton run. When Byron is allowed to be a difference maker on the bases it is an entirely different team. Just imagine if/when he gets the green light to play center!!

1 hour ago, umterp23 said:

Farmer a really good story for the Twins this year.  I know people are clamoring for Lewis to take 3rd in June, but if Farmer keeps playing the way he is, why bump him off the bag?  Castro under the radar type of contributor and Solano has his moments.  Do we try and trade Gordon for minor league prospect if we bring Lewis up?  Tough decision and but nice to have to make one vs a necessity move because guys aren't worthy.

I get your point but also think back to the energy that Lewis brought the team last year in his short stint prior to injury. He gives them an element of speed that they are lacking right now, along with his solid bat. You continue to give Farmer at bats in the utility role that he does well, third, SS, second, etc, while injecting the youth, defense and speed of Lewis into the lineup.