Twins 8, Astros 2: Bats Erupt, Varland Throws a Gem, Twins Win the Series

What a showcase by Louie V. Hope it continues to build his pride and confidence. You belong here Louie! Nice win! And props for the offense doing some clutch hitting keep it up.

I really hope that no one in the Twins organization is considering putting Maeda back in the rotation.

12 minutes ago, twins_89 said:

I really hope that no one in the Twins organization is considering putting Maeda back in the rotation.

I really love Maeda... but with the rotation the Twins' strongest aspect and the bullpen struggling so, it just seems like it doesn't make sense to put him as a starter. If Varland had pitched horribly instead of fantastically today, then I could see it.

All that said, if Maeda could come back up and swing into action as a set-up man? Boy would that solve some problems! 

Twins win the season series against Houston, they win the season series against the Yankees. What next? Nice to see the Twins score 8 without hitting a home run as well. Jeffers is really hitting the cover off the ball right now - I would be having him catch more than Vasquez at the moment. Stewart did a great job coming in, mainly to prevent Duran from getting loose and potentially entering the game. Got a big 4 game series against Cleveland which we need him for. 

Here we are June 1st. Still in first place. Still over 500. Wrong again my friend. Get your crow. 

I winced when I opened MLB.com this morning, but when I was finally brave enough to open my eyes I couldn't believe it. 

A truer "getaway day" lineup doesn't exist, yet they went out there and clobbered the 'Stros and took the series. Castro, Solano, Kirilloff and Varland fill up the stat sheet? 

Would be happy if they could build on this. 

5 of the first 6 Twins outs came via strikeout, which is just something that can't continue to happen. 

Very nice game by Solano. Julien will be a great OBP guy and hitter but I'm just not seeing him ever being better than a bad fielder. Sure wish we had a DH spot open for him.

Varland was great, and should have been allowed to at least start the 8th IMO.

Enough of the Julien experiment at this time.  Send him back across the river, put Farmer at second until Polanco returns.  Also, how much longer until Wallner supplants either Kepler or Gallo?  Did anyone miss Correa and/or Buxton in the lineup last night?   Finally, is Willi Castro the Twins MVP through the first third of the season?

20 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Varland was great, and should have been allowed to at least start the 8th IMO.

You are entitled to that opinion and it is shared by many. 

My questions:

What is the fascination of pushing pitchers to their absolute limit at every opportunity? 

Does this make any sense to do this in an era with such frequent pitcher injuries? 

In a game like this with a lead like that, I would argue that is the exact time to ease up on your valuable young starter. 

I loved this game - maybe the best of the season.  Varland has proven he belongs in the major league rotation.   I do agree I would have let him go to the 8th and if a shut out the 9th.  

To have offense and pitching both clicking is great.

Too bad Lopez had to implode.  I have never seen a worse appearance.  But it is not a single event.  Look at his last  games.  He threatens to become this years Pagan.  After a poor second half last year what is our confidence level.  The BP needs help. 

Kepler at bat in 3rd was turning point of game. That was strikeout. Huge series win!! Much needed!!! Let’s hope this can spark twins rest of season

21 minutes ago, wabene said:

What is the fascination of pushing pitchers to their absolute limit at every opportunity?

He was averaging 12 pitchers per inning, if he goes one more he is still under 100 pitches. Is that the absolute limit? if so that is sad, the other starter threw 102.

My observation of the game was, the offense finally came though when needed. Maybe give Buxton and Correa another day off. As for pitching two complete opposite approaches one pitcher ran his pitch count up, lasted 4.2 innings recorded 13 outs of which 8 were K's. The other pitcher was way more efficient lasted 7 innings but only had 5 K's. Give me the more efficient pitcher every time, Maybe Gray could learn a thing or two about not trying to strike out every batter.

2 minutes ago, wsnydes said:

And I would add that a game like that is a perfect time to get a guy like Lopez work in a low leverage situation to work out some kinks.  It obviously went poorly, but that's why you do it.  You have some room for error.

Plus, there's still a lot of season left and the young starters are already being relied on heavily.  And as @IndianaTwin noted, they're coming up on a stretch of 28 games in 30 days.  Fresh bullpen arms are easier to cycle through than the rotation guys.

I wouldn't have been upset if Varland came out for the 8th, but I don't think it was necessary and there were better uses for that situation in my opinion.

I would argue this was the perfect game for Pagen to come in for two innings and close the game out and not waste Lopez and Stewart in a 8 - 0 game, but what do I know.

20 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

He was averaging 12 pitchers per inning, if he goes one more he is still under 100 pitches. Is that the absolute limit? if so that is sad, the other starter threw 102.

My observation of the game was, the offense finally came though when needed. Maybe give Buxton and Correa another day off. As for pitching two complete opposite approaches one pitcher ran his pitch count up, lasted 4.2 innings recorded 13 outs of which 8 were K's. The other pitcher was way more efficient lasted 7 innings but only had 5 K's. Give me the more efficient pitcher every time, Maybe Gray could learn a thing or two about not trying to strike out every batter.

If anything was "sad" wouldn't it be that the other starter only got 4.2 innings out of his 102 pitches?

We've got a young, strong, determined starter on our hands who is likely going to blow by his most innings pitched in a season this year. This management staff has managed to keep Duran healthy after only pitching 16 innings 2 years ago. They have Joe Ryan, a rising star with a smooth delivery and a clean injury history. If he's got his flow going they've run him up to I think about 108 pitches. When late in a start he had a draining what was it 15-20 pitch at bat and is losing velocity, they pull him at 89. This strategy seems to be working.

Pushing a starter to a complete game, shut out or no hitter etc achieves essentially bragging rights but not much else. I prefer a winning, healthy starter for a full season. Look at what happened with Johan, do you think he would trade that one game for a longer, healthy career? 

I think Rocco should ride this line-up for a few more games.  I know it is at home and fans want to see Buxton and Correa.  Kepler absolutely should be pulled.  This may give fans a chance to get to know the other players

What other game do they sit the hottest players?  I would go at least one more game to see what happens. This would give last night's players a "reward" for their hard work and incent others to play to their best or back to the bench.

7 hours ago, IndianaTwin said:

Starting on Tuesday, they have a stretch of 28 games in 30 days, including a stretch with 16 straight. If everyone remains healthy, I suspect we’ll see a couple trips through a six-man rotation when Maeda is healthy enough to join it. With the All-Star Break soon after, I could see that as a time to skip Ober and Varland to save a few innings. 

I think you've got this backwards. 28 games in 30 days isn't where you need an additional starter unless we end up with a double-header. It's the bullpen where we could get overstretched, especially if we get a couple of short starts. And adding a starter to the roster means one less reliever (remember, we're capped at 13 pitchers now). Maeda makes much more sense in relief right now, especially if as a former starter he could consistently take 2 innings every three days.

Really good start from Varland. I think I would have let him try the 8th; as much as giving Lopez a shot in low leverage makes sense, it was also an opportunity to see how Varland does 3rd time through the order and seeing how his stamina holds up pushing 100 pitches. But I don't have a big objection to giving him 7 shut-out and having him call it a night. (There's almost no chance of him throwing a complete game in this situation, so taking it off the table after 7 is fine)

Really good hitting last night overall too. Seems like every time I get down on Solano and start suggesting it's time to move on from him he has a good game. Castro is having an excellent stretch and is proving to be better that I thought for sure. He played nice defense at 3B too.

I love winning a series against Houston.

Just now, wabene said:

Pushing a starter to a complete game, shut out or no hitter etc achieves essentially bragging rights but not much else. I prefer a winning, healthy starter for a full season. Look at what happened with Johan. 

Is their a trend of players pitching at least 7 innings or 100+ pitches hitting the injury list the next day?

47 minutes ago, wabene said:

You are entitled to that opinion and it is shared by many. 

My questions:

What is the fascination of pushing pitchers to their absolute limit at every opportunity? 

Does this make any sense to do this in an era with such frequent pitcher injuries? 

In a game like this with a lead like that, I would argue that is the exact time to ease up on your valuable young starter. 

The answers would be:  No one wants to push a pitcher to their absolute limit; but 86 pitches should never be a starters limit.  And the theory is that the frequent injuries are as much from not being stretched out as it is from over taxing them.  And in a game like this, it is a perfect opportunity to stretch out a young starter a little further, and at the same time see what his stuff is like during a possible 4th time through a lineup.  

It wasn't THAT long ago that there were 10 man pitching staffs and 4 man rotations.  When 5 man rotations and 13 man staffs can't hold up because the starters aren't stretched out, and the bullpens are overused as a result, allowing young, healthy starters to carry their own load shouldn't be such a controversial thought.  But, then, what fun would it be to talk about such things if we all agreed with me?  😉