Twins 5, Tigers 3: Wallner Slam Leads Twins Over Miguel Cabrera and the Tigers

Success in modern baseball seems to depend most on the quality of the bullpen en masse. Not my flavor, but oh well.

Feels like we've been waiting for that sixth inning all season.  My goodness.

Are we done being (the wrong kind of) streaky?

Lewis/ Julien/ Wallner all near 900 ops, carrying this offense.  So cool to watch, if the vets can consistently show up it can be a competitive lineup.

Duran is worrying me a tad bit, they need to get him some rest but then Pagan or Jax is your closer for a week which is far from ideal.

That was Cabrera's SECOND homer of the season? Woof. That said, I agree with others, guy's a class act and he deserves every accolade given. I'm sure the Tigers are pretty pleased he's moving on.....

Wallner continues to be 'da man on offense. Bat this kid 4th every day, best offensive weapon we have. Next to Royce, of course, who should be batting 3rd. The time is now for these guys. 

Let's win today. 

Defence was magnificent!!! C4 and Polanco were awesome!!! Grand slam by Wallner. Twins win!!! Get the sweep today!!!

I don't know why we have so much trouble with the Tigers, but we sure do. We make all their starting pitchers seem like ace material. Last night was looking like another clunker until Wallner rescued us. Another one of their "aces" going today...Olson, and he made us look like total chumps last time. We have to FINALLY clobber these guys. We need another great start from Maeda today, and the bats have to deliver. 

I'll eat an appetizer portion of crow on Wallner because I was ready to trade him at the deadline. He's showing that he could very well be a long-term fixture in the outfield.

Oh, and the Tigers are just an annoying team. Vierling, Carpenter, Torkelson, McKinstry. Pesky and they don't go away. They also have a pretty good manager. Will be glad when the Twins are done with them for the season.

Huge hit by Wallner, an absolute no-doubter to finish off a really good AB. His approach at the plate has been very good and he's doing a very nice job out there. (a little less excited about him nearly wiping out Correa on defense; need a little better communication out there) I'll admit, I enjoyed how much Justin Morneau was into Wallner's slam, that was fun.

Hopefully we can find a little more consistency in the offense and it's not just one big inning or bust. Those games get a little nervvy. Thought Royce looked pretty good out there considering the fairly long layoff.

I love Correa's defense. I know his stats haven't been as impressive as some other years, but he's still so good out there. He makes plays few Twins have ever made at SS. Polanco had a couple of really nice ones out there too, which was good to see.

Wallner and Lewis had good at bats. Swinging at strikes laying off the balls and battling. It’s interesting that they seemed to be getting fooled less than the veterans. Hat tip to Polo - he saved them a couple of runs with some slick defense. He and Correa seem to work together nicely. 

7 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I'm still uncertain where Polanco fits in for 2024, but he's a favorite of mine. And he looked like he had 28yo legs tonight, not 35yo legs.

Ober worked a little hard, but was still very good.

I'm NOT going to miss Cabrera as an opponent, but I'm going to miss him as a baseball fan. Absolutely a HOF. Has anyone ever said a bad word about him?

Wallner....hmmm...milb hitter of the year....rakes at AAA...flashes potential when given a chance. FINALLY given a real opportunity over poor veteran production and what does he do? Make a serious splash!  Is the FO starting to finally realize they should trust in the talent they've accumulated vs poor depth pieces?

Sure wish we could see a few more younger guys before the season is done.

He did make significant strides in his strikeout rate between his first and second call up. Credit to him for the work.

It was a great crowd last night, especially for a Tuesday night game. It was very loud at Target Field for Wallner's grand slam

Duran is not pitching well lately. It shows how good his stuff is that he can pitch poorly and still do the job but he needs to make some adjustments.

Wallner was recalled on July 15th to replace Miranda  on the 26 man roster ....

 Since recall  , 

92 at bats ...

9 home runs ...

22 rbi's ... 

Scored 18 runs 

In a month he has been productive , on pace for a full season his numbers would be mvp worthy  ...

It was a great at bat and a game changer last night , we needed the win and you were the one that stepped up and won it , thank you   wallner ...

I've been complaining about Duran use of the curveball.  I thought he was getting beat badly on the curve, so I googled his batting average against the curve.  BBSavant had the breakdown against his FB, Split & Curve.  I was shocked to see his curve was statistically his best pitch .154 BA, .144 XBA, .308 SLG & .244 XSLG.  FB is .241, .256, .466, and .436 respectively.   Split is .246, .186, .333 & .293.  Can someone give a reason as to why the curve numbers are so good?  My bias may be that I feel Duran's FB is his best pitch and when someone hits it, I just tip my cap.  When someone hits the curve, I feel like Duran should have used his best pitch.

Just now, JD-TWINS said:

Gotta think with Lee pushing into the infield by middle of ‘24……,the fact that Farmer is signed for ‘24………..the need to get Julien on the field………….Castro being the speed catalyst for the club………all this adds up to a bunch of guys at 2B & letting Jorge go after ‘23, IMO.

Saving approximately $10M as well.

Not sure how letting Jorge go is related to Wallner’s work getting his strike rate down.

I can add that Farmer is not signed through 24. They do have control if they choose to bring the 33 year old back on his third year arb salary. I wouldn’t bring him back. I would exercise Polanco’s option.

I would like to see how we compare to giving up HR'S with 2 strikes on the hitters. And two strike hits as well. Is it pitch calling/selection, or location. Way too many, way too often, in big situations

10 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said: