Matt Braun

Ryan Jeffers' miracle homers remain blessed. Image courtesy of © Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports Box Score Joe Ryan: 5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 6 K Home Runs: Michael A. Taylor (21), Trevor Larnach (7), Ryan Jeffers (14) Top 3 WPA: Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) (Fangraphs is not working for some reason; we will have WPA info up as soon as it works again) For the first time since 2014, the Twins headed to Colorado to face off against the Rockies. The only player from Minnesota’s lineup that day still in MLB is Eduardo Escobar. Center fielder Sam Fuld is now the GM of the Phillies. Justin Morneau played 1st base for Colorado. Minnesota’s 3rd baseman—Trevor Plouffe—was at today’s game to support the broadcast. It had been a while. Given that the Twins were set to play in Coors, there was likely a skirmish amongst pitchers, with many hurlers protesting and petitioning Rocco Baldelli to avoid facing the thin air and hostile conditions. Evidently, Joe Ryan provided the least persuasive argument; he started the game on Friday. And he probably wishes he didn’t. His offerings of high fastballs and flyballs is the precise combination that inflates ERAs and bruises egos. He elicited 14 swings-and-misses, but Colorado clobbered three homers off him, leaving him holding six earned runs over five innings, otherwise known as a “Colorado quality start” (this is not true.) He finishes the season with 197 strikeouts, just one groin injury away from cracking the elusive 200 mark. Minnesota’s offense found Coors inviting—duh—at the start. Kyle Farmer flopped an RBI single to right and later grounded into a double play to invite another run home, but the big score came when Michael A. Taylor cracked a two-run shot to left. It was the longest homer a Twin had hit all year. It happened nine batters into their Coors adventure. Lest anyone would take that record sitting down, both Trevor Larnach and Ryan Jeffers offered legitimate claims to overtaking Taylor’s 468 feet of mashing. Their efforts tied the game. The Rockies—knowing that the Twins are undefeated when Jeffers homers—shook in their cleats, retreating to the safety of their bunkers, hiding in fear of the terror caused by the 26-year-old North Carolinian and the good fortune hidden in his bat. Well, that didn’t happen, but they had good reason to believe in Jeffers’ luck. With a runner on 1st in the 9th, Farmer grounded a single up the middle that struck former Twin Tyler Kinley’s leg, shooting the ball to a non-existent second baseman when an unimpeded ball certainly would have turned two. It didn’t. Instead, Max Kepler drove a fly ball deep to center to score Andrew Stevenson, successfully concluding Minnesota’s rally. Also, this didn’t have a place in my narrative, but Willi Castro made a hell of a play in the 7th—and I thought it deserved a mention. Emilio Pagán was the pitcher Rocco Baldelli's magic 8-ball spit out, so he received the call in the 9th. It worked. He allowed a single, but only threw nine pitches to earn his first save of the season. Notes: Michael A. Taylor extended his career-high in homers with bomb number 21; his previous record was 19 in 2017. Kody Funderburk won the second game of his MLB career on Friday. If he struck out three more batters, Joe Ryan would have made the 2023 Twins the first Minnesota squad since 1967 to have multiple 200 K pitchers. That team had three of them: Dean Chance, Jim Kaat, and Dave Boswell. Emilio Pagán is the 7th Twins pitcher to earn a save in 2023. Post-Game Interview: What’s Next? The Twins and Rockies will play the second game of their series on Saturday. It will be a legendary matchup, with the young but talented TBD facing off against the grizzled but tenacious TBD, looking for the 157th win of his career. First pitch is at 7:10. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

Well fortunately, we can use K%+ again to help cut through eras. You're absolutely on the nose with Bob Feller being an impressive strikeout artist; he struck out guys at a rate almost 70% better than his contemporaries, good for 10th all time amongst starters. The full list is here.

When Ryan Jeffers punched out looking in the 2nd inning of Sunday's game, he officially broke Minnesota's tie with the 2021 Cubs, becoming the team's 1597th strikeout of the season. Awards were had for all and the champagne popped in celebration was only the finest the team could find. Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports Unless your TV only plays reruns of the 1980s Cardinals, you've noticed that whiffing in today's game is at a rate never before seen in MLB. The average hitter in 2023 strikes out in 22.7% of their plate appearances, almost three points higher than a decade ago. You need not dig far to see why; hitters primarily focus on dispensing baseballs to the outfield bleachers, swinging recklessly in the hopes that something good may happen if they make contact. There are exceptions—such as a certain Miami Marlins infielder—but the art of the base hit is dying, which doesn't appear to be changing soon. The thing is, this strategy works. Minnesota's offense isn't bad. They're 11th in runs scored, 10th in slugging, and 8th in wRC+. Sure, their numbers aren't making anyone forget about the 1927 Yankees. Still, that perfectly cromulent offense—when combined with their excellent starting rotation—has won them plenty of games, enough to reserve them a playoff spot in 2023. And this isn't a uniquely Twins problem: because strikeout rates have risen so much, their K%+—a stat that adjusts strikeout rate with league norms—is just 117, meaning they're only 17% higher than your average squad in 2023. Plenty of teams have been worse than that: over 80 in the AL since WW2, to be exact. Shoot, the 1972 and 2013 Twins put up the same rate, and I doubt anyone who watched that 2013 team grumbled about how often they came up empty (although you probably weren't a fan of Pedro Florimón's 446 plate appearances that year.) Let me be clear, though: this isn't great. Strikeouts are both an aesthetic and strategic mess. Not putting the ball in play robs us of watching the greatest athletes walk the Earth, run, and be athletic. We want to see something amazing; a guy missing a slider in the dirt doesn't cut the mustard. You can't hit and run anymore because who knows if the man at the plate can make contact, and moving a guy over with a productive out hasn't been a viable strategy since the Obama administration. These issues, while minor, have built to create an often dull, stagnant, station-to-station brand of baseball that causes in-stadium fans to become restless while at-home fans fall into a good nap. Honestly, I don't know what the solution is. Pitchers are ridiculous these days; the best teams can build these guys in labs, upping their velocity and sharpening their stuff to the point where 98 and a wipeout slider barely registers in our brain. It's more notable if a guy doesn't throw 95. That cat's out of the bag: the training works, and MLB can't step in and tell teams not to be good at their jobs. Pushing the mound back could be a solution, but doing so would also allow more time for pitches to break, potentially negating the bonus reaction time for hitters. I've heard suggestions for baseball to follow a similar path as when golf had to reconcile with their new, young bombers. Players like Tiger Woods were eviscerating courses designed when woods were... made of wood. Now that they all can crush like crazy, courses are now designed to be longer and more challenging to offset the improved athlete. Pushing back the dimensions would be a similar feat—although doing so would likely cause many unwanted secondary effects—and, in the end, you wouldn't want to erase homers from the game completely; it's still the outcome that most excites a crowd. A change will come somehow, though. These things wax and wane as strategy evolves; eventually, it'll become more rewarding to focus on base hits and contact, and stacking the lineup with hulking sluggers will be as funny as Babe Ruth's 114 career sacrifice bunts. I don't think that time is now—ask Cleveland how awesome a holistic contact approach is—but it will come eventually. For now, congratulations to the Minnesota Twins and whatever team inevitably beats their record next year. View full article

I would have liked to have been more precise, but the rest of this thing was verbose enough, and quite frankly, I just wanted to put an end to what almost became four pages of typing.

You go five months perfect and then suddenly think every day is Saturday

But that year barely counts, so let's call it 2019 to make it more impressive. Image courtesy of Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports Box Score Pablo López: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K Home Runs: Alex Kirilloff (10) Top 3 WPA: Kyle Farmer (.165), Alex Kirilloff (.147), Louie Varland (.094) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) It was perhaps the most raucous night in Target Field history. With a playoff magic number down to 1, the Twins no longer had to TV-watch in the hopes that some other team could help their fortunes; they now commanded the situation, making a potential victory on Friday a clinching occasion. And, it was fitting that the man looking to lead Minnesota was the starter they acquired in an eternally controversial trade. Pablo López appeared dominant. He diced through the Angels early, either eliciting a strikeout or a groundout as LA’s hapless lineup fell over themselves with glee to get out. They were caught looking; they went down swinging. Even the one time they got on base was a 70 MPH lazy fly too lethargic to reach an outfielder. In every sense, they were overwhelmed. Minnesota’s offense, however, was energetic. From the beginning, there was a buzz surrounding their bats, fueling them; firing them up even after a quiet 1st. Silent no more, they took an inevitable lead when Michael A. Taylor shot a single into center field. So they added on in the 4th; Willi Castro blasted a triple out to left, and he would eventually be knocked in… with a walk. Unusual as it was, LA’s new bulk man—Davis Daniel—couldn’t find the strike zone if Vegas-style neon signs guided him to the plate. Balls begat walks; walks begat runs. Matt Wallner plated a run with a free pass before Alex Kirilloff knocked in a second one with a sacrifice fly. The three-run lead seemed a fortress. A baseball game can turn quickly, though, and an Angels offense that seemed impotent and stale suddenly turned. Jo Adell walked, setting up Jared Walsh to punish a López fastball thrown into the heart of the plate. If that were it, Minnesota would have still claimed the lead; but LA tacked on, riding López’s sudden lack of command for a trio of singles, turning the game tied when Nolan Schanuel’s opposite-field single fell safely into left. It was a sudden shock to the Twins’ system. The team appeared so in control of the game but found themselves tied with a squad only competent in half an inning. While Minnesota couldn’t answer in the 5th, they did in the 6th; Alex Kirilloff plastered a high-and-tight fastball deep enough into right to clear the overhang. The Twins had the lead again. It soon became a bullpen game. López fires off a scoreless 6th, giving way to the relief buzz saw that is Louie Varland in the 7th. He barely broke a sweat with a perfect inning. Instantly cooling was a breakthrough 8th—the kind of frame that decides the game and puts a manager at ease. Minnesota pummeled Jhonathan Diaz, sticking four runs on the lefty through a variety of methods. Most notably: yet another bases-loaded situation that turned into bonus runs. (This is quite the game to give a detailed playback if you didn’t notice). Somehow the runs didn’t discourage the Angels, though, as they struck back in the 8th with a two-run shot to slice the lead to three—making Jhoan Duran the likely candidate to end the game. If you thought that would be it, then you don't know Twins baseball. Duran indeed entered the game, but he soon labored. The strike zone was nebulous; his control sparse. He struck out the opening batter before entering into a prolonged Cold War, walking and allowing singles with un-Durian flair. Finally, after throwing God knows how many pitches, Duran coaxed the game-winning groundout, fielded by Edouard Julien, and transforming the Twins into the 2023 AL Central division champions. Notes: Alex Kirilloff’s homer gave the Twins 12 players with at least 10 homers on the year, a club record (the 2019 team had 11; Jake Cave was two away from being the 12th). Minnesota's 10 walks on Friday give them 557 on the year, good for the 12th most in franchise history. Pablo López's seven strikeouts pushed his season total to 228, tied with 1972 Bert Blyleven for the 9th-most in team history. Post-Game Interview: What’s Next? The Twins and Angels will play the second game of their weekend series on Saturday; Sonny Gray will take the mound with first pitch coming at 12:10 PM. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

Minnesota's ace battles forces beyond just his competition in his bid for the AL Cy Young. Image courtesy of Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports If you pay attention to more than just the Twins side of the internet sphere, you’ve probably noticed the vast amount of cyber ink spilled over the NL Cy Young race and its many complexities. Six pitchers can claim a legitimate case for the award. No stat agrees with another. Senior circuit sportswriters may need to reach nirvana before they can understand who is truly worthy; lest they be punished by future dorks chastising them for their lack of vision. Less controversial and more ignored is the battle in the AL. It makes sense; the AL offerings are less numerous, less convoluted. The baseball sphere seems satisfied with handing Gerrit Cole the trophy and calling it a day, wiping their hands of strenuous thought as someone who surely deserves the honor ends up winning it. And, well, can anyone blame them? Cole leads the league in ERA—one of the stats so ingrained in baseball’s DNA that the sabermetric movement couldn’t even kill it—while tossing more frames than anyone else. He’s 3rd in WHIP, 1st in rWAR, and, hell, even top 10 in wins, if that still excites you these days. Nerds may punch small holes in his resumé, crying about his swinging strike rates and soliloquizing about his contact numbers before retreating into their cave-dwellings, but the numbers the majority of baseball appreciates are rock solid. It’s his award to lose. But, maybe that line of thinking isn’t fair. Cole leads in crucial stats, sure, but we have a cornucopia of numbers to describe what an effective pitcher looks like; surely, there is someone else deserving of being in the argument. ------------------------------------ Sonny Gray is having a terrific season. The veteran leads the AL in FIP, largely due to his insane 0.4 HR/9, good for best in MLB. He’s a stone’s throw from Cole in ERA and bests all AL pitchers in fWAR. Yeah, the home runs may be fluky, but only the immensely pedantic among us care about that kind of stuff; being the best pitcher is about run prevention, and nearly no one has been better than Gray. The issue for Gray, though is that he must battle more than just Cole—he must face off against the forces he commands; of a player on an East Coast icon; of a superstar handsomely paid for his skills; of someone who really should have already won one of these awards, giving the voters an easy reason to write down his name before anyone else. ****, Cole’s catcher gets an article written about him. These are powerful forces and narratives that give tremendous wind to each number Cole claims. Being close or better will not be enough for Gray; he needs to be undeniably the better pitcher if he wants to claim the award, a deficit Cole will not face. Ultimately, Cole deserves the win. He owns a sizable lead over Gray in innings—and now matter the precision you slice Gray’s ERA with—Cole is simply better. He’s allowed runs at a better rate. That fWAR lead will ultimately mean nothing, and short of Cole full-on immolating in his next start, the Cy Young will be his. If it isn’t close, though—if the writers choose to be too passionate about handing it to him with votes dated in early September—it would be a disservice to Gray and his accomplishments. Maybe he’d be the winner if the roles were reversed and if humans don’t have their funny biases. But we do, and that’s not changing anytime soon. For more Sonny Gray content from Twins Daily, click here. View full article

Looks like it's a best-of-three. Andrew Morris will pitch Tuesday and Cory Lewis will pitch Wednesday if necessary.

The former top prospect’s four-seamer wasn’t cutting it; how much can the new offering help? Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports About a month ago, the Twins were losing handily to the Tigers when Josh Winder took the mound. Minnesota wasn’t expecting greatness; they just needed someone to eat outs in order for the game to continue to its dreadful conclusion. Sitting 2-0 against Matt Vierling, Winder uncorked his offering: Vierling looks perplexed. He is perplexed. He got the 2-0 heater he was expecting, but the pitch ran way more than he predicted, causing a foul off his foot, and an extended stare into space as he thinks “huh.” There’s a reason he acted that way; Winder is a four-seam guy, with movement dead and true. Yet, his offering here bored like it was looking for diamonds. What’s going on here? It’s a sinker; he threw a sinker. Winder has been underwhelming since joining the Twins, perhaps making it easy for some to write off his entire profile. You shouldn’t! Winder is a master spinner, firing junk that flummoxes hitters. His slider? Batters slugged .320 off it in 2022 and are slugging .256 this year; the change is similarly effective. The problem has been the four-seam fastball: hitters transform into prime Barry Bonds against it. That’s actually incorrect—they’ve been better than Bonds, slugging .713 against it last season and .905 in 2023. .905! That would be an incredible OPS. Why was his fastball so tasty? I don’t know the exact reason—I watch from behind a screen, not in the batter’s box—but we do have some other numbers that can explain his problems. You’ve probably heard a little about vertical approach angle. It was a big deal when Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober first came up, as their strange, oddly effective heaters blew hitters away despite unimpressive velocity. The gist is this: throwing from a lower slot makes high fastballs look extra-jumpy. They get that bonus ride that tricks hitters and hitters’ bats, and it’s usually whiff-city when a batter attempts to hit it when it's up in the zone. Winder… doesn’t enjoy this advantage. His angle is much higher than those two, keeping those high fastballs “on plane” before inevitably getting smacked into Wisconsin. A high approach angle by itself isn’t a death sentence—Félix Bautista basically drops pitches from the clouds, and he’s pretty good—but an average one, when combined with average fastball movement—which Winder has—turns his ERA sour and musty. I wish I could tell you that the sinker has magically turned Winder into a great pitcher, but that isn’t true; he’s walked more batters than he’s struck out since debuting the pitch on August 16th. His ERA sparkles at 1.69. His peripherals belch. The sinker alone has done well, though, in a miniscule sample. It's been especially helpful against righties, which is good; Winder has demonstrated reversed splits in his MLB career, with righties slugging .495 against him while lefties have only been good for a .367 mark. Frankly, it’s incredible that Winder introduced a foreign pitch on the fly. The offseason is usually when hurlers head to the drawing board and design a fresh offering; just ask Pablo López. But, when batters are slugging, *cough,* .905 against a pitch, that does tend to expedite change, especially for a player still battling for a secure role. I don’t know if the pitch will lead to the success that was promised for Winder, but it is encouraging that he’s proactively looking for solutions. Sometimes, quality performance is just one pitch away. View full article

The Saints were not as fortunate, though. Image courtesy of Ed Bailey (Photo is of Aaron Sabato) TRANSACTIONS None Saints Sentinel St. Paul 5, Iowa 7 Box Score Patrick Murphy: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Austin Martin (2-for-4, R, RBI) The Saints were eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday. Despite an incredible 80-62 record—good enough for 1st place in the International League West division—St. Paul trails two other teams in the International League in total record. With one of those teams being the seven games up Durham Bulls—victorious today while the Saints lost—the seven games remaining make it impossible for St. Paul to pass the Bulls, who own the tiebreaker over the Saints. It’s a tough outcome for a team that has played so well. Starter Patrick Murphy had seen better days. He oversaw runs in the first three frames, giving the Cubs a six-run advantage with some aid from poor defense. It was a rare stumble for the former reliever, who had dominated in his new role up to this point. Despite the immediate deficit, the bats rumbled, gestating for five innings before unleashing a pair of runs in the 6th and a trio of scores in the 8th. The first two plated when Gilberto Celestino swiped home after Iowa’s catcher fired a bad throw to 2nd in an attempt to catch Austin Martin stealing; Trevor Larnach then singled in Martin. The 8th was another democratic effort, with Michael Helman doubling, Martin grounding out, and Larnach coaxing in a final run with a sacrifice fly. That was it, though, as St. Paul finally receded and Iowa plated an unnecessary seventh run to bring the game to its eventual end. Technically old friend Nick Burdi pitched 2/3 of an inning for the Cubs. Minnesota’s 2014 2nd-round pick tossed three frames for the big-league club in 2023, but has spent most of the season in the minors; it’s the first pro season he has pitched in since 2020. Chicago’s 13th-best prospect—1st baseman Matt Mervis—doubled in four at-bats. Wind Surge Wisdom Wichita 7, Midland 8 Box Score Sean Mooney: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K HR: Alex Isola (20), Aaron Sabato (12) Multi-hit games: Alex Isola (2-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI), Jake Rucker (3-for-4, 2 R), Ben Ross (2-for-3, 2 R, RBI, BB), Willie Joe Garry Jr. (2-for-4, 2B, RBI) Wichita blew a 7-4 lead in the 9th, losing in horrifying fashion in the penultimate game of their regular season. Sean Mooney was the starter, but Jaylen Nowlin entered after an inning as the bulk pitcher. He was inefficient. Midland pounced on the lefty for four earned runs, not punishing his walks, and instead choosing to blast two homers off him, giving them a slim advantage. It didn’t last. Wichita kept pace early with piranha-esque singles and stolen bases before transitioning to modern Twins ball, smacking extra-base hits around the field to eventually give the Wind Surge a hearty 7-4 lead heading into the 9th. But then, tragedy. Miguel Rodriguez earned the inning’s first out, completely unaware of the fortune change soon to occur. Two singles, a walk, and a fielding error knocked him out of the game, scoring a run in the process. With Francis Peguero tabbed as the man set to establish order, the RockHounds simply continued their terror; Max Muncy—no, not that one—smoked a bases-clearing double, handing Midland a lead unthinkable just two outs earlier. The Wind Surge never recovered. Wichita is technically still alive in their playoff race, needing a win on Sunday with a Cardinals’ loss to punch their ticket. Catcher Daniel Susac served as Midland’s best prospect; he homered and struck out twice. Kernels Nuggets The Kernels did not play on Saturday. They won their previous playoff series, sending them to the Midwest League championship against the Great Lakes Loons with game 1 starting on Sunday. Mussel Matters The Mighty Mussels’ 2023 regular season is over; they will not play again this year. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Isaac Mattson Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Alex Isola PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #5 - Matt Wallner (Minnesota) - 1-3, BB, K #8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 2-4, R, RBI #10 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-1 #17 - Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 0-3, BB, K #18 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, K SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Iowa (1:08 PM) - RHP David Festa Midland @ Wichita (1:05 PM) - TBD Cedar Rapids @ Great Lakes (12:05 PM) - LHP Christian MacLeod View full article

I’ll be honest: I wrote this entire thing thinking today was Saturday. I thought I had everything switched back to normal, but alas.

This was not the same game as Thursday, I swear. Image courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports Box Score Bailey Ober: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K Home Runs: Royce Lewis (14) Top 3 WPA: Royce Lewis (.340), Matt Wallner (.139), Bailey Ober (.100) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) Across MLB on Friday, players and teams honored the great Roberto Clemente with special “21” patches on the jersey; some donned the number in favor of their typical digits. Two Minnesota Puerto Rican natives—Carlos Correa and Willi Castro —were amongst them. You may vaguely know of Clemente’s charity, especially as his unfortunate death came on New Year’s Eve during a plane ride to Nicaragua to deliver supplies to the country following a devastating earthquake. That story alone does not cover Clemente’s special altruism. He diverted funds from the opening of Three Rivers Stadium to Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital, he befriend the reverend Martin Luther King Jr., using his unique place as an early black, Latino baseball star to speak out against American discrimination in his time, and he did much, much more than this puny post-game report could never fully cover. He was a great man taken from humanity far too early. -------------------------------------- Bailey Ober started for the Twins. The elongated righty was sent to St. Paul to marinate as his new career-high in innings appeared to wear down his performance; his ERA since the beginning of July was 4.58. Back in the majors, Ober looked to silence a lineup killed many days ago. The 1st inning was a typical baseball sparring, with each team simply looking to get their feet wet, but action began in the 2nd. A pair of singles and a walk set up Royce Lewis with the bases-loaded and two men out. White Sox starter Jesse Scholtens—surely aware of Lewis’ prowess with men on every base—pitched him daintily, missing in relative degrees of closeness to signal that it was far from his intention to become a statistic. It didn’t work. Needing to attack 3-1, Scholtens fired a heater directly down the heart of the plate. The ensuing jog around the bases was a mere formality. (Get ready for some stat drops.) The grand slam gave Lewis the Twins single-season record for salamis (he’s played 54 games); he’s also two more bases-loaded homers away from tying the MLB record shared by Travis Hafner and Don Mattingly. His four grand slams in 18 games is the shortest span for any player in MLB history. September aloofness set in a while ago for Chicago—but it reached inexcusable levels on Friday. In one inning, Tim Anderson booted a routine grounder, Elvis Andrus never looked to turn a possible double play despite Correa being the runner heading to second, and Anderson lackadaisically allowed a pop-up to drop, scoring a run in the process. Impressive effort from a man with a batting average, on-base-percentage, and slugging under .300. Max Kepler added another run with a single into center the following frame. Ober was cruising. He didn’t need the run support—the White Sox could only claim a scattering of singles against him—but his efficiency quickly turned. A soft single begat a two-run shot, and while that was the only damage he allowed, Ober’s now somewhat inflated pitch count made the 5th his final inning of work. That was essentially the game. Between the 5th and the 8th was the kind of mushy, sometimes-threaten-but-never-score baseball that often describes even the finest games. The action didn't end, though, as Minnesota's dormant bats woke up when the White Sox sent Michael Kopech to the mound; he labored through a frame with four earned runs, giving the Twins the same amount of runs they plated on Thursday. Kody Funderburk pitched a scoreless 9th to wrap up the win, lowering Minnesota's magic number to seven. Notes: Louie Varland has a 2.16 ERA since joining the bullpen in September; he's struck out 11 and walked just one. Royce Lewis walked three times to set a single-game high in his MLB career. Bailey Ober lowered his BB/9 to 1.83, the 9th-lowest total amongst MLB starters with at least 120 innings in 2023. Post-Game Interview: What’s Next? The Twins and White Sox will play the third game of their series on Saturday. Pablo López is set to start opposite Touki Toussaint with first pitch coming at 6:10 PM. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet View full article

I will never complain about kicking the crap out of the White Sox

I don’t care about the platoon advantage; I’d much rather see Edouard Julien figure it out against a tough lefty when the alternative is Christian Vázquez.

To me, it's a sign of a good team when they can win while being lead by Willi Castro and Louie Varland

A good thing, too, because it was not a great day on the farm. Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge TRANSACTIONS RHP Jorge Alcala assigned to Low-A Fort Myers on MLB Rehab. Saints Sentinel St. Paul 3, Louisville 4 Box Score Bailey Ober: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Jair Camargo (2-for-4, RBI, K) The Saints blew up late, falling to the Bats after an excellent start by Bailey Ober. Ober was magnificent; the tall righty allowed just three measly singles, slicing through the Bats with his typical efficient style (he only needed 65 pitches). He also struck out three. You couldn’t draw up a more “Bailey Ober” start if you tried. St. Paul’s offense was occasionally patient, taking six walks on the day, but their issue was glaring, standing out like a neon light cutting through the night sky: 17 strikeouts. Three separate hitters whiffed at least three times, with Anthony Prato catching the worst of it; he punched out four times. They did score, though—three times in fact—as DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and Austin Martin both knocked in a run with 1st inning singles. Jair Camargo added another with an infield hit in the 3rd inning. Old friend Alan Busenitz (he’s back!) saved the game for Louisville, striking out one in a perfect inning. Both Jonathan India and Joey Votto played for the Bats; the rehabbing big-leaguers may be seen wearing Reds uniforms when the Twins soon come to town, but for now, the duo is based in Louisville. Votto singled. Reliever Levi Stoudt is Cincinnati's only top-30 prospect at AAA; he pitched a scoreless frame. Wind Surge Wisdom Wichita 3, Corpus Christi 7 Box Score Travis Adams: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Tanner Schobel (2-for-4, RBI, K), Alex Isola (2-for-4, RBI) A dreadful 2nd inning cursed the Wind Surge to lose on Saturday. Travis Adams did recover to eventually finish the 5th inning, but the 2nd inning dragged him down, limiting the greatness of his pitching line. It’s a shame; the rest of his start was pretty good, with each other frame only once seeing a runner reach second base. The bats were productive, with all but two batters earning a hit. Few were damaging. Just two of the knocks went for extra-bases. Coordination proved to be the problem; Wichita never scored in an inning more than once, leaving their rallies short and unthreatening. Carlos Correa’s little brother, J.C. Correa, singled in three at-bats. Houston’s best prospect, however, is centerfielder Jacob Melton, and he walked and struck out twice. Kernels Nuggets Cedar Rapids 2, Wisconsin 3 Box Score John Klein: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Misael Urbina (3-for-4, R, K) The Kernels lost a squeaker on Saturday. John Klein—the pride of Brooklyn Park—made his Kernels debut. The Iowa Central Community College product was excellent, whiffing four while only allowing two runs, giving up six hits in the process. He’s had quite the season, moving from the FCL to A+ ball, and he could see himself start to appear on prospect lists in the offseason. Cedar Rapids’ offense couldn’t support him, unfortunately, as a two-run Kala’i Rosario single represented the lone run-scoring hit of the night. The two RBIs pushed his season total to 94; he easily leads the Midwest League in RBIs; Jimmy Crooks is second with 73. The Kernels struck out 14 times, taking seven walks, while accruing six hits—all singles. Misael Urbina collected three singles and stole his sixth base of the season. Milwaukee’s 1st-round pick in 2023—Brock Wilken—struck out once in four at-bats. Mussel Matters Ft. Myers 4, Bradenton 5 Box Score Jose Olivares: 4 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 7 K HR: None Multi-hit games: None Despite a four-run 2nd inning, the Mighty Mussels fell to the Marauders on Saturday. Not even a rain delay could stop them; Fort Myers weathered a break in the middle of their rally, returning to plate four runs off a variety of Piranha-esque outcomes—singles, walks, and sacrifice flies. That was it, though, as the Mighty Mussels only had four total bases on the game. They did reach base often, taking an astounding 13 walks, but finding the critical knock proved elusive, and they scored no runs after their early outburst. They should have. The Marauders struck back with a four-run frame of their own, knotting the game in the middle innings. Though they sat dormant for a while as well, a 9th inning sacrifice fly broke the tie. Danny De Andrade’s lead-off double went nowhere. Alec Sayre’s groundout to the pitcher ended the game. Rehabbing big-leaguer, Jorge Alcala, struck out two in a perfect inning. He maxed out at 98.4 MPH. Second baseman Mitch Jebb is Pittsburgh’s 9th-ranked prospect, and he walked while driving in a pair off two sacrifice flies. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Bailey Ober Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Misael Urbina PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #1 - Brooks Lee (St. Paul) - 0-3, 2 R, 2 BB, K #2 - Walker Jenkins (Ft. Myers) - 1-5, RBI, 2 K #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, BB, 4 K #5 - Matt Wallner (Minnesota) - 0-3, 2 K #8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 1-3, RBI, K #10 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 2-4, RBI, K #12 - Luke Keaschall (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, R, BB #16 - Kala’i Rosario (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, 2 RBI, BB, 2 K #18 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, K SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul @ Louisville (12:05 PM) - RHP Blayne Enlow Wichita @ Corpus Christi (1:05 PM) - LHP Jaylen Nowlin Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin (12:10 PM) - LHP Christian MacLeod Bradenton @ Fort Myers (11:00 AM) - RHP Ben Ethridge View full article