Twins 8, Royals 4: Ryan Strikes Out Nine, Julien Homers in Twins Win

Correa with a 4 hit night , if he can be the spark leading off the game  , so be it ...

I also said the same thing about the pinch hitting  , was nice to see they got 2 hits in 3ctries with a pinch hitter  , Julien ignited the eighth  with a blast , the ball off the bat was loud and I knew  it was a homerun  by the sound ...

Good game  , only 1 homer so the others runs came by walks , singles , doubles  and some stolen bases and a uncharacteristic bunt in the eighth  that scored a run , strikeouts were down so contact was made as the twins had 14 hits for their efforts ...

We need games like tonight on a consistent  basis , still would like a 10 game winning streak  before I get to serious  ...

We were at the game tonight. Began with that uh-oh first pitch home run by Garcia, but then the boys came through with some clutch hits and fine defense. Michael A. Taylor and Max Kepler were especially adept.

Scoring on a bunt single was delicious.

Bottom of the eighth was FUN! Then Emilio made me sit down and close my eyes and truly wonder whether a five run lead would be enough.

Sent us home with a fireworks show!

36-42 against the league;

7-1 against the Royals

For the Twins, the Kansas City Royals remain that brief stretch of track between long tunnels. 

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

Only one game, but more evidence there is an effort to make contact with two strikes and to use the whole field. Seven Ks in 39 PAs is not bad. 

I would say that's really good at just under 18%

Even when he's got a 5 run lead Pagan can't do the job properly. Jax had to start warming up again which really should have been avoided. Need to trade for some bullpen help ASAP with Stewart and Thielbar on the IL and Lopez struggling. 

Still, a win is a win and a 4 hit game for Correa. 

6 hours ago, Melissa said:

We were at the game tonight. Began with that uh-oh first pitch home run by Garcia, but then the boys came through with some clutch hits and fine defense. Michael A. Taylor and Max Kepler were especially adept.

Scoring on a bunt single was delicious.

Bottom of the eighth was FUN! Then Emilio made me sit down and close my eyes and truly wonder whether a five run lead would be enough.

Sent us home with a fireworks show!

I love those bunt singles!

1 hour ago, UK Twin said:

Even when he's got a 5 run lead Pagan can't do the job properly. Jax had to start warming up again which really should have been avoided. Need to trade for some bullpen help ASAP with Stewart and Thielbar on the IL and Lopez struggling. 

Still, a win is a win and a 4 hit game for Correa. 

Obviously there is a lot of angst and distrust of Pagan. I've gone back and forth as to whether the team should keep him, but at this point I'm ready to say "enough is enough".  I do think the front office needs to make a decision before the end of July.  If it looks like this team can win the division, they certainly DO need to go out and get a more reliable reliever than Pagan. As you noted, even with a big lead he often coughs up the long ball. We need someone MUCH more reliable.

8 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

Is the strike zone box supposed to be accurate?  There were a lot of pitches tonight that were clearly outside the box that were called strikes.  Some even a full ball-width outside the box.  If he box is accurate, that was some pretty crappy umpiring.

6 hours ago, IndyTwinsFan said:

Supposedly, the strike box that home plate umpires are rated on each game is slightly larger than the strike box that is superimposed on the televised games.  Exactly how much, I'm not sure, but it's definitely the case (or so I've heard).

I've heard that the umps have a buffer zone at the edge where neither missed balls or missed strikes count against their grading. Kind of similar to having a larger zone.

The box on the TV is definitely not always accurate, though I think it is usually pretty accurate on the sides but is often clearly wrong at the top and/or bottom. I think there is a bit of a range in where the dot for the ball crossing the plate ends up too. You can't take it for gospel.

I think the ump last night wasn't great, but I've seen a lot worse.

Nice win, but Pagan REALLY needs to hit the bricks! Anyone would be better than he is. 

.935 OPS for Correa in his last 7 games now.  Still only a .720 OPS in his last 14 games, so he needs to sustain it a bit longer before I think it's real.

I definitely didn't think he'd been doing enough prior to being put in the leadoff spot after the players meeting. Although the upside was he could get a lot of at bats without necessarily always ending up in the most important RBI spots all the time, which he had just failed in so much in the first half.

Turns out it's worked out well. There have been a couple points earlier in the season where it seemed like maybe he was turning it on only for him to go super cold again. It does seem like he's made much more consistent contact in the last week stretch. He really needs to keep it up for the team.

25 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

.935 OPS for Correa in his last 7 games now.  Still only a .720 OPS in his last 14 games, so he needs to sustain it a bit longer before I think it's real.

I definitely didn't think he'd been doing enough prior to being put in the leadoff spot after the players meeting. Although the upside was he could get a lot of at bats without necessarily always ending up in the most important RBI spots all the time, which he had just failed in so much in the first half.

Turns out it's worked out well. There have been a couple points earlier in the season where it seemed like maybe he was turning it on only for him to go super cold again. It does seem like he's made much more consistent contact in the last week stretch. He really needs to keep it up for the team.

All evidence suggests his BA and OPS will only go in one direction now. He'll still have ups and downs but I get the feeling things have started to click in the last couple of weeks. 

Boy, Ed Julien really got a hold of that one! That was a no-doubter from the second it came off his bat. Great timing and it ignited a great inning. Really good to see the bats pile on a bunch of runs late, that hasn't happened too much lately.

Ryan pitched pretty well, but he is going to have to be a little careful about guys jumping on him. He's been way too homer-happy lately and while the solo shots won't do too much damage, you don't want him to start getting careless about leaving balls out over the plate in places where hitters can do damage.

Great job by Correa in piling up the hits today. Love seeing a guy get a 4-hit game.

Bullpen is definitely scuffling a bit right now and they definitely could use to get some guys back from the IL. Pagan giving the Royals hope in the 9th and the fans heart palpitations was disappointing, but Headrick giving up the bomb in the 8th was worse. Not convinced he's well-suited that kind of relief role. Balazovic, on the other hand, is starting to look interesting.

Balazovic has gotten some good results and I'm rooting for him, but he has to keep his breaking pitches in the zone for longer. No one would offer at them and he had to resort back to the fastball. 

Easily the best offensive performance by the Twins since the 9 - 4 win over the Blue Jays on 10 June. Refreshing number of hard hit balls. Appears to renew the promise that the season has started.

Players only meeting and Rocco going off on them seem to have worked. Got nervous and upset after game was tied going to bottom of 8th but twins came through!!! Got to sweep KC and Atlanta sweep Cleveland and have division lead going into all start break!!! 

Correa seems to be on to something. Buxton is hitting the ball hard most AB’s. Kiriloff had some solid hits and maybe out of his “mini” slump. If the big guns (I consider Kiriloff a big gun now) can keep doing what they’re doing and the other guys stay solid we’ll be in good shape. Just having good at bats and not striking out so much is huge! Getting a guy over, putting the ball in play. As much as it pains me old school Twins baseball. It’s what we need right now.

I wouldn't mind it if they removed that white box from the tv screen. 

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

It doesn’t seem to matter if the Twins are facing 4A starters or All-Stars. They’ve handled Gausman and Strotman, attacked Williams and got Pressly to blow a save. They’ve been shut down by a number of no names.  
 

No team is on top of their game every day and the Twins had at best, a mediocre, inconsistent first half. If they can look like they did today in 70 of the last 77 games, they’ll be just fine. 

The Twins probably have a book on veteran pitchers, but just a.blank piece of paper for unknowns.