Riverbrian

Good Take from Sano

Cool... We got the check swing.

C'mon Sano.

Here come the Sliders Sano... Hold off on them.

There ya go Eddie... Swing at a pitch at your hairline.

There ya go Eddie. Take a pitch.

Yeah... Batters can get rewarded for having real real short and I mean short compact swings.

OK... Fastball/Change Up Guy in Severino. We got some hitters who like that sort of thing.

If the ball is where the bat is... He hits it. Strike in my book.

I agree the play wasn't routine. Probably a ball that you hope a MLB player catches but certainly not routine. I think you are spot on in your assessment of the play. Also... I have no idea what went into the front office decision making but I'm reasonably sure that with the presence of Schoop on the roster... the fact that Arraez was in the lineup makes an assumption pretty easy that his ankle was tested and came out OK. Putting an injured player in the lineup, is working way too hard to keep a decent player out of the lineup against a left-handed starter. I really don't think the Twins are that down on Schoop to do that type of thing.

I worry this was some sort of script that they tried to follow. Kind of like the offensive coordinator scripting the first 20 plays or something. No idea the reasoning... but... it happened for some reason.

First... Finding an exact match for the conditions will be really difficult. Second... It doesn't matter what happened in Game One or Game Two... They were both losses including a supposed soul destroying 9-0 (game two) loss with Madison Bumgarner (the future world series hero) getting tagged during the loss. Game three is going to be a fresh set of zeroes on the scoreboard no matter what happened in the previous two games. Third... What the Giants didn't do is throw the back end of the bullpen in game one with a one run deficit. They were staring at 3 run deficit and they turned to George Kontos who had a 2.47 ERA with 44 K's in 43.2 innings over 44 appearances in 2012. Sergio Romo was there in 2012 and he is probably wondering why we turned to Stashak.

Not really... What really matters is that all margin of error is now gone. They can't suffer a bloop hit now. The Reds destroyed, dismantled and out everything'd the Giants in San Francisco in 2012. The Giants survived it... this can happen again. The odds are against it because all margin of error is now gone... but, It will be a fresh set of zeroes tonight on the scoreboard and what happened on Saturday was yesterday. Win tonight, You play again on Tuesday... Win Tuesday... You play on again on Friday. It's been done before.

Data Report: Playoffs Game One & Two Friday October 4 (Game One) This group produced 674 posts out of a total of 1360 for 50% of the total content. 33 Participants from this group for an average of 20.4 posts per. 11 of the 33 used the poll to announce participation. Saturday October 5 (Game Two) This group produced 221 posts out of a total of 553 for 40% of the total content. 27 Participants from this group for an average of 8.2 posts per. 7 of the 27 used the poll to announce participation. 1 of the (8) announced participation but did not participate

I am over the moon happy with Baldelli and I am over the moon happy with Falvey and Lavine BUT... IF ...after two games of do or die playoff baseball. No matter if those games produced wins or losses. IF... you have stats that look like this. Stashak 2 Games 1.2 innings Romo 1 game 0.2 innings May 1 Game 0.1 innings Rogers 0 games 0 innings You have a first time manager and a fairly young front office making a significant mistake. The Twins are the only team in the playoffs utilizing the back end of their bullpen before they utilize the front end of the bullpen. I'm not saying the results would have been different but when they turned to Stashak with a one run deficit in game one, and did so with all of Romo, May and Rogers available or even letting Duffey throw another inning. They didn't take into account the stark difference between Game one of the ALDS and Game 95 of the regular season. The only thing I can think of... is that they tried to keep the bullpen fresh in anticipation of game two with Dobnak starting. So they tried to wing and a prayer through game one. Which was still close! Just to focus on game two instead. Just a constructive criticism. THROW YOUR BEST ARMS... RIGHT NOW... Don't save them for tomorrow. There may not be a tomorrow as you just learned. Would you rather throw Romo and May with a 1 run deficit or a 7 run deficit. Your save them for tomorrow plan just plain disappeared on you. So you end up choosing Stashak in a one run deficit and Romo and May in a 7 run deficit.

Nope... I get the Capital Letters. I've been RB in Twins Territory longer than he has.

First off... This ain't over yet. If they win Monday... they play Tuesday... If they win Tuesday... They play Thursday. 13 separate times the Twins have won three games in a row this year. Lots of talk about a difference in talent. The Yankees won 103 games, the Twins won 101 games. Whatever difference in talent you are all talking about, it amounted to 2 extra wins over the course of 162 games. Coming back from an 0-2 deficit in a DS has happened before. The Yankees came back against the Indians from 0-2 in 2017. 2015... The Jays came back from 0-2 against the Rangers... That was the Bautista Bat Flip series. 2012... The Giants almost didn't win one of their World Series because the Reds had them pinned 0-2. 2nd loss of that series for the Giants was a blow out, bigger than what we just experienced. The Reds made a big statement in game two and they made that statement in San Francisco. The Giants had to win 3 in a row in Cincinnati and they did. Losing the first two games sucks... It eliminates all margin of error and puts our backs firmly against the wall and it decreases our odds of advancing to horrible levels but... what happened yesterday was yesterday. You put the uniform on and make some plays.

I agree but they have to take my phone calls and listen.

If the Twins lose this game... It looks like they will. The series against the Yankees this year will be at 6-2 in favor of the Yankees. I'm thinking 6-5 in favor of the Yankees sounds about right.

I kinda wish I was still at the football game.

Could have used that strike call Blue!!! The kid just got married... Keep that in mind.

I had to work the football game today. It started at 1PM and I knew it was go past first pitch. I was yelling at the coaches for calling time outs. I gotta Twins game starting... Let's Go.

If I were to guess. I'm not in the room so it is a guess. My theory... I believe the front office and Rocco put together a plan to start Dobnak. But, since they don't totally trust Dobnak... (they shouldn't after only 28 innings and rising out of nowhere from Low A). They probably had a condition that Dobnak would require full support from the bullpen in order to start game 2. In other words... plan for a short Dobnak start. Meaning the plan to start Dobnak Game two is intact if he doesn't have to burn the bullpen Game One. If they were to burn the bullpen out in Game One... They would have to then name Odorizzi the Game Two starter. With a hope that Odorizzi can go more innings than they will allow Dobnak to throw. This desire to stick with this plan, led to using the very back end of the bullpen with a one run deficit instead of getting another inning out of Duffey, then turning to Rogers, Romo or May. Stashak has been decent this year but he has no high leverage appearances. He's Mike Morin... decent numbers... not trusted in high leverage. And here he is with the ball in hand... making his first high leverage appearance because they want to save the bullpen for Dobnak... who they don't trust. They go they someone they don't trust during the regular season (Stashak)... to protect against their concerns about going with a guy that they didn't trust during the regular season(Dobnak). IT'S OCTOBER!!! You go with your guys now. The ones you trust and have rewarded that trust. The Nats are going to use their starters and toe dip into the bullpen. Now... Everybody can rest when the playoffs are over. You don't save arms for tomorrow because there may not be a tomorrow. A 1 run deficit is not impossible to make up, you don't throw the back end of the bullpen. This team hit 307 home runs... they can find the fence. But if you allow that lead to stretch in the middle innings... You need someone to hang zeroes. Good luck getting 3 runs back against Chapman, Britton, Ottovino and Crew. You were choosy all year on who you threw. during the regular season. It's the playoffs... now is the time to be choosy... Not back then. You shouldn't be choosy during the regular season so you can choose better right now. The got it backwards.

Yes

See... Here's the thing right here. 6 run lead... Chapman in the game. The Yankees don't mess around. Tyler Lyons is on the roster and could have saved Chapman for another night.