tony&rodney

I wondered why Baldelli did not use one of his two challenges to see if New York would rule that Correa did not have a sliding lane. He could not reach the plate without making contact with the catcher, which resulted in Carlos sliding wide and never touching the plate.

Lewis actually has to make contact with Maldonado to get that call. i think Royce was a bit flustered or he should have intentionally run into him bringing on the interference call. Without contact there cannot be a ruling of interference.

Line drive single to right field. The outfielder made a good play and the throw was on the money to nail correa at the plate. Tucker is a gold glove outfielder, but it was a good send too. Nice swing by Julien. i hope he brings his A game on Tuesday.

No problem. I like Ryan too, quite a bit. In fact, I can agree that Ryan is a better pitcher in the big picture than Ober. I just agree with the decision to start Ober in Houston because Minute Made Park is a band box and punishes fly ball pitchers badly which is exactly Joe Ryan. I expect Ryan to win Game 4 on Wednesday. As far as other games, I get that many folks on Twins Daily are Twins fans and not necessarily hardcore baseball fans, but the games do tell a story of how difficult it is to be a successful baseball player. Success or failure can be just a couple of pitches.

This really depends on the hitters now, doesn't it?

Cory Provus is a good listen, but I really enjoyed most of the national broadcast yesterday. The Twins television broadcast can be painful due to the over the top homerism even though that is expected. A. J. has a good handle on the game. Most of his comments are right on. An example late in the game was when he chided the Twins batters for swinging at breaking pitches up 2-0 in the count in the 9th inning. The crew stayed away from any controversy as well, which is good. There were several strike three calls that should have been ball four but the pitches were close and the broadcast team avoided unnecessary criticism. Wainwright gave the pitcher's view on Wallner by citing his weakness on high fastballs, although that is the case for others as well. I agree that yesterdays game was handled well by the broadcast team.

Disagree, politely. Ober is a strong pitcher. He missed twice. Maybe if Ober is left in for two more innings you get the usual Ober, 5 innings giving up 3 runs. Houston has terrific hitters and their best are Altuve and Alvarez. If you are watching all of the games or just watching the Orioles-Rangers game today (Sunday), you saw Montgomery chased after 4+ innings having given up 5 runs and the fantastic Baltimore rookie, Grayson Rodriguez was roughed up for 5 runs in 1 and 2/3 of pitching. Maybe you watched Kershaw get torched last night. No, Ober was the right choice. The Astros are going to get their hits. It will take superb performances from Lopez and Gray to hold them down. If the Twins are going to win, the bats will need to step forward against Houston.

The Twins did plenty of things well today but they will need to be a better tomorrow. Bailey Ober threw the pitches that were called. I'm thinking fastballs down on Altuve and good luck anytime on Alvarez. Ober has to execute every pitch but I'm not liking some of the pitch calls or the manner in which pitches were received. Ober was ok. The early focus on laying off pitches out of the zone on breaking balls was good. I actually wanted Lewis to bunt in the first inning with Bregman playing so far back. That is admittedly controversial. The Twins then started to get away from their patient approach and Verlander took advantage of the hitter's aggression. Wallner had a tough game. Polanco and Lewis created temporary panic in the Houston crowd but Abreu made a great pitch on Kirilloff. Twins couldn't catch a break and the Atros are a good ball team. Tomorrow will be a real tough test. The Twins need to score runs whenever the opportunities present and force the action when possible.

That is exactly what people said about a couple of kids playing around with main frame computers and programming at the U of Washington a few years back, which helps us dilly-dally back and forth. Turns out that college is a positive thing, right?

Top of lineup in 9th inning.

Tough game thus far. Two good teams.

No

The approach by Kirilloff and Correa went back to patience which is what is needed. It is exactly what the Astros are better at than any team in baseball. Hopefully we do not see poor calls make a big difference in any outcome in this series.

Verlander doesn't need any help. That is two egregious calls for strike three from an umpire who has a good strike zone.

The Twins are now swing happy.

Base running mistake, yes. Turns out it didn't matter though, right? What else? I'm not thinking a leadoff walk to start the game and a ringing double plus a long at bat before striking out sounds rough.

It might be fair to say that the season sits in the hands of the Twins left-handed hitters.

Well, in all fairness that has been the case more than 10,000 times thus far against. Justin Verlander.

Ober is a hellava good pitcher. Even Sandy Koufax gave up a few home runs. The Twins need to score, that's all.

The Twins pitching has been pretty consistent all year. It might slip in a game or two but fans of the team can count on the pitching in my opinion. The Twins defense has been all over the map but fairly decent at making the outs. A few Twins look less than stellar in the field yet I'm comfortable with those awkward plays that result in an out. The primary pressure in this series will be on the Twins offense. They will need to lay off of pitches out of the zone and punish mistakes. The Twins have bats who can accomplish this and Houston pitchers will make enough mistakes to provide opportunities for Minnesota to score runs. This is actually the strength of the Astros offense right now, which will face a slew of Twins pitchers capable of throwing strikes on the edges of the strike zone. This series is a great matchup in my opinion and whomever manages to execute their plan should prevail in the games. National writers see the Astros as a far superior team while giving only a nod to the Twins pitchers and Correa. It is an opportunity for a number of unheralded Twins players to give the wider audience a chance to remember their names.

Bailey Ober has been pretty much good for 5+ innings, giving up 2 runs as a practice. I'm pumped for Ober to get the ball because he is really tough and will enjoy the atmosphere. The Twins need to score more runs in this series, but they can. One thing that may have been overlooked is how good the Toronto pitching staff was this year. Certainly Gausman is among the best starting pitchers in baseball. If guys like Julien, Wallner, Kirilloff, and Lewis can control the strike zone and lay off all of the tricks thrown by Verlander, the Twins can do very well. Go Ober. Go Twins.

Ober is a good choice for either Game 1 or 4. I think he would be really good on Saturday. Ryan goes in Game 4. Maeda is ready right away when he is needed. Funderburk is someone to keep but no surprise if he is left off the team. Stevenson provides speed and good defense. The Twins can run on Houston. Pinch running late and the added defense with a lead are huge in the playoffs. This addition of Ober, keeping Funderburk and Stevenson means that someone from Round One gets left off the roster. I think Chris Paddack has looked really good but the Twins need that roster spot; he is off the roster.

I have no quibble with anyone picking Max Kepler. I mentioned him by name for his strong second half. All season long, including during his dark first half, I have been in Kepler's corner. I like almost everything about the way Max plays baseball and he seems to be enjoying himself and smiling for the first time in a long while. My choice for 2023 Twins MVP is Correa though.

MVP is usually pretty divided unless one player puts up incredible numbers. Gray, Lopez, and the starting pitchers were the driving force for this Twins team. Kepler had a wonderful half season and there were noteworthy contributions from young players too: Julien, Wallner, Lewis, and Kirilloff in that order. I was never a huge fan of Correa until he became a Twin and saw his play on a daily basis. He led the team in at bats, hits, doubles, and was second in most other categories. His leadership and play at shortstop makes him the guy the Twins look to for words and action. Despite the subpar campaign this year for C4 with pedestrian numbers, I'm picking Carlos Correa as the most valuable Twin.

All teams will have shown significant change on their rosters since 2016. The front offices on every team do their best to sign and acquire whatever players they are able to gain with the resources at their disposal. Ownership changes for some teams and some owners change their practices on other teams. The Pohlads made significant financial investments since bringing on Falvey that were not a part of their plan previously. It is fine to think highly of this front office or any other one too. It is neither fair nor useful nor serves a purpose to make comparisons to past management folks. Change happens and circumstances do too. The players, ultimately, are the decisive factor in a winning year. If one knew before the 2023 season the specific numbers that Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa would finish with this year, there would not be an expectation of an AL Central crown. The Mahle trade was widely lauded across Twins fandom but took an unfortunate turn. Likewise the subtraction of Luis Arraez in a trade for Pablo Lopez was panned heavily, yet that trade helped both teams into the playoffs. Additionally, the Twins received wonderful performances from a number of players who worked hard last offseason to improve themselves. I'm happy for Falvey seeing some of his work bring positive results, but it is always the players who put their jobs on the line. MLB is really difficult. There are more billionaires than major league baseball players. Sometimes it it easy to forget the extremely long odds an athlete faces to reach the highest levels.