Twins 8, Royals 6: From Laugher to Nail Biter, Twins Survive

Thankful for the bats today! Scoring 8 runs can win a lot of games. Royals even out hit us 12-8.

Lopez contract drunk. Since the signing only 4 games into the season, 2 starts, 10 innings, 11 earned runs (9.90 ERA albeit Jax let in 2 inherited runners of which one was on Lopez and one on Jax and his wild pitch) on 16 hits with 3 BBs and 2 hit batters with only one solo homer given up - all for the home fans. Yuk. Lucky to be 1-1 instead of 0-2 for these 2 starts. ERA now at 4.00, right about his career average of 3.94.

Vazquez sure loves to call the off speed/breaking stuff. Sometimes 12 in a row.....

"TwinsDaily readers pondered why Jhoan Duran was called into Thursday's game to close out a 7-1 affair. ( no we didn't. we all knew yesterday about the immigration when he came in the game ) Jorge Lopez responded today with the answer: "I used to do this at an All-Star level too." .........  and TwinsDaily readers pulled out their favorite commenting device in preparation to rip apart the Twins coaching staff in a way only that a group of fans who started their Friday fun-day early and often is capable of doing."

Loving your readers, I see. 😇

13 minutes ago, GNess said:

What does Kirilloff need to do at St Paul to get promoted?

BTW - Wins matter most, but playing sound baseball as an element of your team culture matters too. 

Kepler is hitting now. Gallo is hitting. Larnach has an option. Gordon doesn't. Solano doesn't. Where does he play? It might take an injury, for a IL replacement, and he keeps playing 2 days on and 1 off as they build up his wrist. Kirilloff has an option so he can move up and down. I think they would want him to play a lot, wrist watching, where ever he is playing

The offense wins a game where the pitching and defense were very sketchy. I guess that’s ok every now and then.

My philosophy is pretty simple, win more games than you lose. Sometimes you perform great and dominate. Sometimes you play great and win a close one. Sometimes you win an UGLY game, but you still win.

1] Lopez wasn't very sharp his last turn, though not awful. A bad weather day and a couple bad bounces, it wasn't pretty. Today, after a couple hours delay, still in bad elements, he was better than the Royal's starter. What I look at is not final numbers after a game like today. What I look at is the first 5 innings. 2 runs, a few hits, no walks, and 6 K's. Delay, bad weather, whatever, Lopez was solid through 5. Final numbers won't reflect that.

2] The bats are coming alive. Even the bats in the  3rd game of the NY series had us scoring 6 runs! STOP beating up on Larnach! He leads the team in RBI, plays solid defense except for one horrible play, and is starting to learn how to beat all the offspeed stuff he's seeing. Miranda and Correa are heating up.

3] Pitching depth is being tested earlier than I hoped for, or expected. I still agree with giving Maeda his due, as well as skipping one start. His first 2 starts were a solid 5 and 6 IP. And he can't be blamed for a liner off his ankle. Age and injury recovery seems to indicate an IL stint. Unless I've missed something, Mahle's recent early pull was precautionary. But he was still very good through 4. Is there cause for concern? ABSOLUTELY. But no need to panic just yet.

I believe it was the Dodgers...last year?...who set a modern day record for using only 8-9 SP for a season. It just doesn't happen like that. How many teams, including the Twins for the past 10-20yrs, wouldn't have had Ober and Varland in their opening day rotation?

The depth has been built up for a reason. And beyond Ober and Varland, there remains SWR as a young, top prospect hopefully ready to fill a role. Headrick has impressed me so far as another option, though I think he's destined to be a really good BP arm. Digging even deeper, we're talking about Sanchez and Rodriguez as 10th and 11th options! Unfortunately, Balazovic is being brought along slowly at this point, which makes sense, and he's not a rotation option at this point.

The Twins won an ugly game. They were the better team. They beat the Yankees. They beat the Astros. The offense is heating up. While early, they are on pace for 90 wins even though everything isn't clicking at 100%. They have pitching depth that we haven't seen in years. 

I'm having a lot of fun right now!

40 minutes ago, GNess said:

What does Kirilloff need to do at St Paul to get promoted?

BTW - Wins matter most, but playing sound baseball as an element of your team culture matters too. 

The offense is starting to click, for the most part.

Who do you remove on the roster to make room?

A little more time to make sure the wrist is not only 100%, but to make sure Kirilloff feels fully confident himself that he's 100% and ready to go.

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

Kepler is hitting now. Gallo is hitting. Larnach has an option. Gordon doesn't. Solano doesn't. Where does he play? It might take an injury, for a IL replacement, and he keeps playing 2 days on and 1 off as they build up his wrist. Kirilloff has an option so he can move up and down. I think they would want him to play a lot, wrist watching, where ever he is playing

I'm bias, as a Polanco fan, so take it with a grain of salt. What a difference having him in the lineup makes. No-hitter or 8-6 counts the same when the regular season ends. Kirilloff is hitting the leather off the ball in AAA..I get wanting to call him (Kirilloff) up from a few of the other posters, but I agree with H2o. Let's relax on the WHY and focus on the when. Unfortunately, an injury to a position player will happen...I think that will be the when. Until then he has to keep earning it. When that happens, he has to keep earning it.

3 hours ago, GNess said:

What does Kirilloff need to do at St Paul to get promoted?

BTW - Wins matter most, but playing sound baseball as an element of your team culture matters too. 

Hmmm… let’s see…Kirilloff missed most of last season, had no spring training games…hmmm… I guess maybe finish his rehab?  🤔 He did play back to back nine inning games and has hit 3 AAA HRs so let’s start cutting people to get him on the roster.  

With this kind of terrible weather, I was hoping that Lopez didn't have to pitch. But since he did, I thought the Twins would be considerate & only let him pitch 5 innings. To limit his suffering & chances to hurt something. When the 6th came around, I was shocked that Lopez was still out there, even more so after the 7th. Leading 8-2 is where Pagan comes in, if he allows some runs or gets hurt, it's no big deal. Pagan's on the roster this is how you use him, not risk your ace.

Another game with lousy ball/strike umping. Is this whole cru bad?

A win, is a win, is a win. It was pretty ugly and interesting at the end, but I'll take it. 

28 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

With this kind of terrible weather, I was hoping that Lopez didn't have to pitch. But since he did, I thought the Twins would be considerate & only let him pitch 5 innings. To limit his suffering & chances to hurt something. When the 6th came around, I was shocked that Lopez was still out there, even more so after the 7th. Leading 8-2 is where Pagan comes in, if he allows some runs or gets hurt, it's no big deal. Pagan's on the roster this is how you use him, not risk your ace.

I've been told repeatedly on this site that we must send starters deeper into games. I'm sure Rocco would have been absolutely buried if he had lifted Lopez after 5 innings and a low pitch count with a 6-run lead. I was surprised to see Lopez have two consecutive struggle innings in the 6th and 7th, and I'd argue that Vazquez didn't do him any favors by continuing to push the breaking stuff.

Good to see the offense rolling a bit right now. Jumping on a pitcher early is never bad.

Did we extend the wrong man?  Wow has Lopez looked bad since his contract.  I know the article says he kept pounding the strike zone.  They do that in batting practice too.  Now that the bats are going Lopez need to return to what he did earlier. 

Yes we can bring Kiriloff up.  Castro, Solano, Gordon are all expendable if a better player is ready to take the field.

I did enjoy the game, but the last inning should have been the Royals. 

Loved the comment on Taylor as “the only Twin allowed to steal a base.” Guess the learning to to be a ML manager is pretty steep for Rocco, today’s Earl Weaver. 

Sure is nice to have clutch hitting  , 2 out three run homer by Polanco  ...

Great to have a healthy  Polanco back and in the lineup , he has been the spark that ignited the other players as hitting is contagious ...

Since activated a healthy Polanco  has 9 rbi's ,  he has plenty left in the tank even though some have said he is past his prime ...

We have been and are lucky to have him ( Polanco) playing for the twins ... 

Rocco needs to be fired immediately if he is going to continue to pull pitchers too Earlate©, lol. 

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

But since he did, I thought the Twins would be considerate & only let him pitch 5 innings.

Rocco would have been torn to shreds on TD if he had done that. It's interesting that the tide has turned and now people are posting multiple times that Rocco is letting the starters go too long (Maeda earlier this year). A manager can never win on TD.

Never pitch to Salvador Perez. Walk him every time. He's a Twins killer.

There is no doubt that Rocco was pulling pitchers too early last year, several pitchers flat out shared their frustration on this topic. I would think most pitchers want to get the opportunity to get the win and a quality start if their pitch count is in a spot that allows, and they are still effective.  I didn't see yesterday's game, so I don't know how Lopez looked, but am guessing he appreciated the opportunity to secure a QS. After that was gone am a little surprised coming out to start the 7th.... but guessing it had something to do with Duran's availability, or lack of. Rocco has done a good job with the SP this year. 

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Rocco would have been torn to shreds on TD if he had done that. It's interesting that the tide has turned and now people are posting multiple times that Rocco is letting the starters go too long (Maeda earlier this year). A manager can never win on TD.

29 out of 30 times, I'd say Pablo Lopez go out there & pitch 7+ innings. He's used to MIA weather & has never pitched in cold & wet weather like this. If you're not used to this type of weather it could cause some issues. So this'd be the time if Lopez had to pitch just limit it to 5 innings. Yesterday, Lopez did not have his best stuff especially after 5. I'm just saying use some common sense, we want our best SPs in the rotation throughout the season & into the post season. Not the popular social media, LaRussa philosophy of having all your SPs pitch 7+ innings all the time no matter what, even if it results in injuries & ineffectiveness. I'm just voicing my opinion.

I'm curious about Kirilloff.  He's done very well at triple a a few times only to come up to the Twins and see only mediocre results for 2+ seasons.  Is he worth all the hype and consternation about calling him up?  I sure hope so.  This team should call up players if they are better than what they have now.  Maybe Kiriloffs great, or maybe he is just a great triple a player that doesn't quite make it.  I'd sure love to find out.

2 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

. A manager can never win on TD.

I think managers (and umpires) rarely win anywhere.

When the Blue Jays WON back to back World Series in '92 and '93, there was endless criticism of manager Cito Gaston.  Amazing....