Hans Birkeland

Image courtesy of Matt Krohn- Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober: 6 2/3 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (89 Pitches, 65 Strikes, 73%) Home Runs: None Bottom 3 WPA: Brooks Lee (-.323), Royce Lewis (-.190), Harrison Bader (-.153) Win Probability Chart (Via FanGraphs): The Twins just keep winning, with all the situations that spelled doom for them over the first few weeks of the season flipping on their head, and in this series, resulting in two walk-off wins thus far. Today, however, the Royals turned to the surging Kris Bubic, who has been one of the better pitchers in baseball this year, with a 1.47 ERA and league-leading 2.8 bWAR. The Twins countered with Bailey Ober, who has been slowly Animorphing into his height-mate, Chris Young, former Royals starter and current Texas executive. Young could never crack 90 MPH on his fastball, but used his supreme baseball IQ and assortment of offspeed and breaking pitches to dance through enough raindrops to forge a successful major-league career. This all alludes to Ober's iffy peripheral stats in 2025, resulting from a decline in fastball velocity of roughly 1.5 MPH. He has allowed a lot of hits and loud contact, but has been able to pitch around heavy traffic to post an Ober-like 3.68 ERA, despite a decrease in strikeout rate from nearly 27% in 2024 to under 20% this year. This was all on full display Sunday, as Ober allowed traffic in each of the first four innings—particularly in the third, when Maikel García walked with one out and Bobby Witt Jr. followed with a scorching double to left. Vinnie Pasquantino softly lined out on a well-executed changeup, with Carlos Correa making the sprawling play at short with the infield playing back, and Salvador Perez lined out right to Willi Castro in left field. All of these outs were early in counts, a trend that continued throughout the outing, as Ober needed just 67 pitches to complete five scoreless innings. Bubic was greeted in the first with a sharp double to the opposite field from Ryan Jeffers. Ty France then blooped a single over second base, which Jeffers read well, and it was 1-0 Twins before Bubic had recorded an out. Unfortunately, that's when Bubic remembered how good he was, and started dotting his impressive changeup and sweeper combination whenever he wanted. After Royce Lewis drew a walk later in the frame, Bubic retired the next 14 Twins in order, with high efficiency, matching Ober with 67 pitches through five innings. That ended in the sixth, when Jeffers drew a leadoff walk. Just as I uttered the phrase, "This looks like a double play waiting to happen," Ty France grounded to first base on a changeup painted on the outside edge, and Pasquantino made the twin killing look easy. The Royals rode that momentum swing into the seventh, with the light-hitting Drew Waters getting on top of an Ober fastball and lining it down the right-field line for a leadoff double. Playing in on the grass, France made a nice pick on a sharp grounder from Nick Loftin, recording the out without allowing Waters to advance. For some reason, the Royals still believe in second baseman Michael Massey (.664 OPS in over 1,100 career at-bats), and he popped out quickly. Freddy Fermin was next, however, and he golfed a low 0-2 changeup (right where Ober wanted it) into the gap in left-center field to score Waters and tie the game. That spelled the end of the day for Ober, but Louis Varland was able to retire García to end the threat. Varland stayed in to face the only truly threatening portion of the Royals lineup, and retired Witt, Pasquantino and Perez easily. He struck out Witt on a curveball in the dirt, no easy feat, and got the other two stars on weak groundouts. The Twins went down quietly in their half of the inning, with Trevor Larnach pinch-hitting and at least ending the Twins' hitless streak, which had dated back to the first inning. Waters reached on an infield single against Cole Sands in the ninth, and despite having plus speed, he was pinch-run for with the ultra-speedy Dairon Blanco. That was a blunder on the Royals' part, because Jeffers threw out Blanco on the first pitch of the next at-bat. Maybe they should call Terrance Gore and see what he's up to these days. Larnach then made an awesome catch to end the frame, diving toward the infield to rob a hit from Loftin (.650 expected batting average). After going quietly against Royals closer Carlos Estevez in the ninth, Jhoan Duran took over for the tenth inning and recorded the first two outs without Loftin (the Manfred Man) advancing off of second base. García, who has really improved offensively this year, then lined an 0-2 curveball into left field, Loftin scored and the Royals had their first lead of the day. Duran then retired Witt to end the threat. Lewis popped up a slider in the middle of the zone to start the bottom of the 10th. Kody Clemens did draw a walk, and Brooks Lee, hero of Saturday's game, did come up with the winning run on second, but grounded out to end the game. Stray Observations: -Ober's ERA is down to 3.41. Can he keep this up or are we about to see the regression monster rear its ugly head? -Carson McCusker was removed for defense in the seventh in favor of DaShawn Keirsey Jr., which seemed reasonable. Then with the game tied in the eighth, Keirsey Jr. was removed in favor of pinch-hitter Trevor Larnach. To Baldelli's credit, Larnach did produce the first hit since the first inning against reliever Jonathan Bowlan, but the decision was curious, nonetheless. Of course, Larnach then made an impressive diving catch to end the top of the ninth inning. I guess even managers can have hot streaks. -Castro fouled another ball off his body, and for the 647th time this season, was evaluated by trainer Nick Paparesta. It's hard to keep track of where Castro is banged up at this point, but he has not looked good in quite a while. Kody Clemens can provide almost as much defensively as Castro and has been scorching hot at the plate, so the loyalty to Castro seems misplaced at this point. Clemens is a lefty hitter, but Castro has been so bad from the right side (.591 OPS) I don't feel that distinction matters. -Royce Lewis is back to struggling. Has there ever been a more cursed quote than Lewis's declaration that he doesn't slump? Following that quote on June 19th, 2024, Lewis finished the year with a .202/.265/.360 line and has begun this year .158/.226/.246. I'm not superstitious but I don't follow up a good golf game by saying my swing will always be good. What’s Next: The Twins head to Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Rays at George Steinbrenner Field. Chris Paddack (2-4, 3.98 ERA) takes on former Twin Zack Littell (3-5, 4.25 ERA) at the converted Yankees' spring training site. Paddack has posted 2.59 ERA since his first outing in Chicago that we would all rather forget. Littell has been solid since a rough start to the year, as well. The Rays are also riding a five game winning streak that has them back to .500, so despite a rather anemic offense, they will come to play. Postgame Interviews: Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Durán 23 0 0 23 18 64 Sands 20 0 14 0 12 46 Jax 20 0 11 12 0 43 Varland 14 0 9 0 12 35 Topa 0 0 0 34 0 34 Alcalá 0 0 0 26 0 26 Funderburk 11 0 0 0 0 17 Stewart 0 0 3 7 0 10 View full article

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Zebby Matthews: 3 IP 5 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 5 K (71 Pitches, 42 Strikes, 59.2%) Home Runs: Royce Lewis (1) Bottom 3 WPA: Matthews (-0.225), Ryan Jeffers (-0.110), Harrison Bader (-0.060) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): Following another win coupled with another key injury, (Danny Coulombe with a forearm strain) the Twins turned to Zebby Matthews to continue their outlandish winning streak (and nearly as outlandish scoreless inning streak) Sunday. It wouldn't be easy, as Milwaukee was running out their ace, Freddy Peralta. Peralta has been nails this year, the last remnant of the Brewers former three-headed monster that once included Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff (Woodruff resigned, but was only available because his shoulder was toast). The first two innings featured a Twins catcher hitting a sharp single as well as a hit by pitch, but Peralta worked out of trouble each time by making Twins hitters swing at exactly what he wanted them to, generally a fastball at the top of the zone. Matthews started almost immaculately, causing Brewer's hitters fits, as if they were not aware Matthews throws a slider (the contact oriented Brice Turang swung at a slider for strike three that landed a foot in front of home plate). Two called strike threes followed, with a 98 MPH dart that caught William Contreras looking punctuating the inning. The Brewers were not so accommodating in the second. They jumped on Matthews early in the count, allowing singles to Christian Yelich, Rhys Hoskins and Sal Frelick that ended the scoreless streak at 34 innings. It was up to Matthews to make the adjustment. He threw some better pitches in retiring Caleb Durbin and Joey Ortiz, but those guys weren't exactly lighting the world on fire. He struck out Turang again in the third but walked Contreras and was robbed of a call against Yelich on 3-1, with a cutter clearly hitting the edge of the zone. He then walked Hoskins on four pitches, bringing up Isaac Collins with the bases loaded. Matthews started Collins with a fastball at 96 MPH middle-in, and Collins laced it into center field for a two-run single. After Matthews fell behind Frelick, the Brewers right fielder sat fastball and got it, and Matthews was lucky the ball wasn't deposited in the seats, with Frelick instead settling for an RBI single. After recording the final out, Matthews' day was done. He did nibble, and was not granted several borderline calls, but similar to last year, was too predictable. The opposing hitters knew he would throw a lot of strikes with a fairly straight fastball, and they were aggressive. Once Matthews adjusted to throwing around the periphery of the zone, they became patient and waited him out. At that point, Matthews had also scrapped his breaking ball- his last 20 pitches of the inning were all fastballs and cutters. His stuff is better than last year, but his plan of attack still needs work. Royce Lewis cut the deficit in the Twins half of the fourth, slamming a 417 foot home run off a Peralta fastball. That was a good sign, as the lineup needs Lewis to step up minus Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton. The two catchers and Kody Clemens have done an admirable job carrying the offense lately, but Lewis joining the party offers a tad more sustainability. He then added a phenomenal play at third base in the fourth. The speedy Turang hit a swinging bunt that Lewis fielded bare-handed and threw a seed to first, beating Turang by half a step as part of a stabilizing 1-2-3 fourth inning from Cole Sands. Unfortunately that was all Peralta was going to allow. He breezed through his fifth inning (although Clemens did hit a 390 foot fly ball as Peralta's final batter) and then gave way to the strength of the Brewers- their high leverage relief arms. Abner Uribe knifed through the bottom of the Twins order in the sixth on the back of his 101 MPH turbo-sinker. The Twins did make some noise in the seventh, with Trevor Larnach roping a double off of Brewers lefty Jared Koenig and scoring off a clean single from Brooks Lee, making the score 4-2. Facing Nick Mears and his 0.42 WHIP in the eighth, Clemens began the frame with a sharp double down the right field line. Lewis then launched again, but this time to a deeper part of the park and Jackson Chourio pulled the ball back from being a sure home run, an amazing catch that saved the tying run. After Harrison Bader popped out, Carson McCusker made his debut, hitting for DaShawn Keirsey Jr, He would tap out to the pitcher to end the threat. Old friend Trevor Megill closed the door in the ninth for his sixth save. Trends: Bader doesn't look comfortable as he tries to play through a groin injury, and isn't playing center field as a result. Seems like an IL stint might be better, as Bader has gone 0-8 the past two days. Cole Sands looks to have righted the ship, pitching two scoreless innings that were fairly uneventful. Lewis made two great fielding plays, and if not for Chourio's incredible catch, would have two home runs. He may be, as they say, back. Clemens keeps contributing with his near-home run and clutch leadoff double against Mears in the eighth. Willi who? Jorge Alcala struggled again, walking the leadoff hitter in the eighth, throwing a wild pitch to advance the runner, and then allowing a deep sacrifice fly to score a key insurance run. What’s Next: Bailey Ober (4-1, 3.72 ERA) faces Logan Allen (2-2, 3.70 ERA) as the Twins try to begin a new streak against the devil-magic wielding Guardians at Target Field. Ober's strikeouts have been down, and the hard contact has been up as the righthander works through pitching with slightly diminished velocity. Allen was good in 2023, but pretty terrible last year and his 31/20 strikeout to walk ratio doesn't scream dominance. He is a lefty, though, so perhaps we see the first start of the year for McCusker. Postgame Interviews: Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Stewart 29 0 17 0 15 61 Varland 24 17 0 0 0 41 Durán 11 27 0 0 0 38 Alcalá 22 0 0 15 12 49 Topa 11 0 0 23 5 39 Jax 20 0 13 0 0 33 Sands 8 0 11 0 21 40 Funderburk 17 0 0 10 0 17 Coulombe 11 0 0 0 0 11 View full article

I think its time to put it out of its misery. RIP

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Pablo López: 6 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K (91 Pitches, 55 Strikes, 60.4%) Home Runs: Brooks Lee (3) Top 3 WPA: Brooks Lee (.412), DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (.311), Danny Coulombe (.134) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): The Twins haven't lost in a while, and were set up to sweep what was a hot Giants team. The key factor there was that Pablo López got the ball for Minnesota, while San Francisco turned to Landen Roupp, who exhausted his rookie eligibility by a third of an inning last year and carried a 4.89 ERA into the day. The Giants must think highly of Roupp, because he holds a rotation spot over recent top prospect Kyle Harrison—as well as Hayden Birdsong, who struck out 28% of hitters in his rookie campaign last year. Roupp, a sinkerballer, has been excellent at inducing soft contact, ranking at the 94th percentile for exit velocity and 98th percentile for hard hit percentage. He made quick work of the Twins over the first two innings, using only 23 pitches. Trevor Larnach's medium-deep fly ball was the closest thing to a loud out. Meanwhile ,López started a little shakily, giving up a leadoff single on a fat fastball to Mike Yastrzemski, who was then put in motion while Jung-Hoo Lee leaned over and flipped a changeup the other way. Willi Castro saved a big inning by making a sliding grab on a liner from Heliot Ramos. Still, that did result in a sacrifice fly and the game's first run. Ramos has been hot, going 10-for-28 in May coming into today's game, and he continued his tear in the fourth. After Matt Chapman smoked a ball off the high wall in right-center field, Ramos took a first-pitch curveball located fairly well down and in, and launched it over the same wall. Personally, I can't remember a right-handed hitter outside of Aaron Judge hitting a home run to that spot, and definitely not on a breaking ball on the inner half of the plate. It wasn't a fluke, though. This is the same guy who became the first right-handed hitter to hit a ball into McCovey Cove, last year at the Giants' home park in San Francisco. Maybe he did deserve that All-Star nod last year. Just when things seemed headed for a sluggish getaway day loss, Brooks Lee provided one of the more encouraging swings of his young career, launching a hanging curveball from Roupp 390 feet to his pull side, and with Larnach on base to boot after a sloppy play at first from Lamonte Wade Jr. Yastrzemski curtailed any positive momentum by lacing a first-pitch changeup from Lopez into right field to start the fifth. He stole second and advanced to third on a balk, with López appearing rattled by the calls from the dugout to step off. That proved important, because Lee (the Giants one) lifted a medium-depth fly ball to score Yastrzemski. On the play, Castro took a weird route to the ball and needed to jump to grab it. He then delivered a throw so weak I had to double-check that it was him out there, and not Johnny Damon. The Twins answered again in their half. Kody Clemens turned on a pitch and doubled past Wade, down the right-field line. Harrison Bader then legged out an infield single, and Buxton appeared to square up a curveball, lining it to the left-field corner. Alas, Ramos made a diving catch (his second of the day) to hold Buxton to a sacrifice fly, scoring Clemens. After a key pickoff from Christian Vázquez swung yesterday's game, Ryan Jeffers delivered his version in the sixth. After Ramos was hit by a pitch to start the frame, Jeffers threw a seed to Clemens at second, and his quick tag recorded the first out of the inning. López cruised through the next two batters to finish off his day. The Twins' ace had shakier command than usual, but his stuff and velocity were good. Maybe he'll pitch around Heliot Ramos next time. Lee led off the Twins half of the sixth with a sharp single off a lefty, Erik Miller. Jeffers worked a walk, and with the infield drawn in expecting a bunt, Castro lined a single over the shortstop to load the bases for the struggling Royce Lewis. It felt a little like 2023 again, as Lewis lined a single up the middle to tie the game 4-4 and keep the line moving. That prompted Giants manager Bob Melvin to turn to his former closer, Camillo Doval. Although he no longer closes games for them, Doval still possesses excellent, high-octane stuff. He induced a quick groundout from Jonah Bride, pinch-hitting for Clemens. Bader then worked the count full, and eventually hit a dribbler that shortstop Willy Adames couldn't come home on, settling for an out at second and allowing Castro to score. Buxton struck out to end the rally, but the Twins had the lead. Louis Varland worked a quick top of the seventh, which exposed the weakness of this otherwise quality Giants team: the bottom of their lineup looks rough, and the only player they're missing is young shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald, who impressed last year but has little in the way of track record. Trevor Larnach led off the bottom of the seventh with a rocket off of the aforementioned Birdsong, hitting halfway up the wall in right-center for a leadoff double. Ominously, the next three hitters went down without much fight, stranding Larnach at second. Griffin Jax took the ball for the eighth, and immediately surrendered a hit to Adames that Buxton did not get a great read on. After Jax retired Lee, Chapman singled up the middle, bringing up Ramos with the game on the line. Naturally, Ramos hit a grounder off of Jax, with the deflection redirecting the ball away from being an inning-ending double play to a game-tying single. Jax did recover to strike out Wade, but walked pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores to load the bases. He fell behind another pinch-hitter, the starting catcher Patrick Bailey, 3-0 before getting Bailey to tap to Lee at shortstop for the final out. Three scoreless half innings would follow, with Danny Coulombe extending his scoreless streak to 26 1/3 frames. Facing the heart of the Giants order in the 10th, Jhoan Duran allowed two topped ground ball outs, but that was enough for the Giants to score the go-ahead run. Lee started the Twins half of the tenth by flipping a single the other way against the nasty Ryan Walker. Jeffers then made good contact on a slider, but on the ground. It popped up and hit the Platinum Glove-winning Chapman in the chest, allowing France to score the tying run; Jeffers was retired on the play. After Lewis grounded out, Dashawn Keirsey Jr. was forced to bat, despite being mired in an 0-17 drought and rarely getting at-bats. To everyone's surprise, Keirsey slashed a single past Chapman down the left-field line to win the game and sweep the series. Trends: C Ryan Jeffers ? Christian Vazquez 1B Ty France ? 2B Mickey Gasper Brooks Lee ? Edouard Julien ? 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda Jonah Bride ? SS Carlos Correa LF Trevor Larnach CF Byron Buxton Harrison Bader ? DaShawn Keirsey Jr. RF Matt Wallner UTIL Willi Castro ? Luke Keaschall Kody Clemens SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan SP2 Chris Paddack ? Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland Cole Sands MR Danny Coloumbe ? Justin Topa Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala ? Kody Funderburk Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors What’s Next: The Twins are off Monday, as they travel to Baltimore for a three-game set beginning Tuesday against the scuffling Orioles, whom they swept last week. Simeon Woods Richardson (2-2, 4.01 ERA) takes the hill opposing Cade Povich (1-3, 5.55 ERA), who just surrendered five runs in his start at Target Field this past Tuesday. Woods Richardson has been bending, not breaking thus far, but hasn't been given many opportunities to extend himself the third time through the lineup. Postgame Interviews: Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Coulombe 17 0 9 0 20 37 Jax 17 16 0 14 29 33 Varland 10 0 7 0 8 29 Sands 0 13 0 15 0 23 Durán 14 6 0 10 14 20 Stewart 17 0 0 0 0 17 Topa 0 7 0 0 0 7 Alcalá 0 0 0 0 0 0 View full article

Image courtesy of Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images Box Score Starting Pitcher: Chris Paddack: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K (94 Pitches, 58 Strikes, 61.7%) Home Runs: Byron Buxton (7) Top 3 WPA: Harrison Bader (.296), Jhoan Duran (.215), Trevor Larnach (.124) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): It's been another rocky week. Like a struggling reliever, the Twins seemed to get back on track against the low-leverage White Sox and Angels. That even carried over into winning their opening game in Cleveland. But when facing more competent pitching, the Twins once again struggled to score, losing four straight. However, after somehow winning a pressure-packed one-run game yesterday at Fenway Park, they found themselves with a chance to take a road series against a quality opponent while salvaging a 3-4 road trip that, going into it, would have seemed an acceptable result. Trouble was, the Twins were starting the mercurial Chris Paddack and the Red Sox Garrett Crochet, who's left-handed stuff rivals that of any pitcher in the game. It started off well, with Byron Buxton launching a leadoff home run over the green monster off a Crochet fastball. Some good swings followed, with Twins hitters clearly trying to capitalize on the first fastball strike in each at-bat, in theory mitigating the effect of Crochet's excellent breaking ball, cutter and changeup. Paddack's stuff looked good to start, but you got the feeling he needed to be perfect against the patient, powerful and deep Red Sox lineup. The velocity was good, and he didn't give in, walking Rafael Devers who clearly wasn't going to swing through anything Paddack had for him. Two lineouts and a strikeout of Alex Bregman resulted in a scoreless frame, but it took Paddack over 20 pitches and none of it looked easy. The Twins then started making some dumb mistakes. After Trevor Larnach reached on an error, he tried to steal second and was thrown out fairly easily. Had he stayed at first and let Christian Vazquez, hitting ninth, get himself out, Buxton would have led off the next inning. But by then the lead was gone. Wilyer Abreau led off the bottom of the second with a pop up to left, but Larnach and Jonah Bride couldn't decide whose ball it was and it landed right between them. You could tell on Paddack's face he knew he was in trouble. Romy Gonzalez then laced a single to right, David Hamilton bunted the runners over, and backup catcher Carlos Narvaez hit a chopper over a drawn in infield to score two runs. To Paddack's credit, he induced a jam-shot blooper from Jarren Duran that Carlos Correa made an amazing over the head catch on, and got Devers to fly out harmlessly to left to end the threat. His pitch count was over 50, but the damage was minimized. After a quick top of the third, Paddack began the bottom half by walking Bregman. He got the phenomenal rookie Kristian Campbell to line out to center, but Abreau golfed a decent looking changeup into right center for a single, allowing Bregman to reach third. A Romy Gonzalez fly ball would score Bregman to increase the deficit to 3-1. I shudder to think how bad this would have been if Paddack didn't have some of his better stuff. Correa tried to make something happen in the fourth, and lined a ball off of Crochet's face. Unfortunately, it bounced right to the shortstop. It was also unfortunate that despite taking the comebacker and appearing pretty shaken up, Crochet stayed in the game. He would go on to retire the side without much fanfare. Somehow, Paddack responded with one of his easiest innings of the year, needing just eight pitches to retire the 8-9-1 hitters, with no hard contact to speak of. It also allowed him to start the fifth inning. Without much time to recoup, Crochet responded by walking Larnach and Vazquez. Buxton worked an excellent at-bat and made good contact, but lined out to Duran in deep left, Ryan Jeffers popped out and Ty France tapped out to third to end the threat. His velocity down, Paddack continued to show solid command, getting Devers to pop up and Bregman to ground out before inducing a fly out from Campbell. The line won't look great, but this was one of the best Chris Paddack outings of 2025. While Crochet was lifted after five innings, he was relieved by the talented but oft-injured Garrett Whitlock, who looked filthy, retiring Correa on a pop up and striking out Jonah Bride and Brooks Lee in dominant fashion using his high octane sinker-slider mix. He ran into some trouble in the seventh, walking the not-very-patient Harrison Bader and allowing a gapper single to Vazquez. Buxton then jumped on a first pitch slider, tapping to the shortstop Hamilton, who made a great play to retire Buxton. That did advance the runners, and Jeffers made Whitlock pay, crushing a hanging sweeper over Duran's head in left to tie the game. That score summoned Louis Varland to face the 9-1-2 portion of Boston's lineup, and in contrast to Friday's outing, it went quite well, including a nasty curveball that struck out Devers to end the frame. Correa then led off the eighth against righty Justin Slaten by singling off of Hamilton glove. Two quick outs followed, but the hot-hitting Harrison Bader demolished a Slaten fastball off the green monster, scoring Correa from first. The hot and cold season of Larnach continued afterward, with the Twins left fielder dribbling a single through the right side of the infield to score Bader for a crucial insurance run. Of course, Boston wouldn't go down quietly- Wilyer Abreu launched a mammoth solo home run off of Griffin Jax in the eighth to make it a one run game. It was a challenge fastball that wasn't far enough inside to avoid the barrel of Abreu, who has impressed with an .808 OPS and good defense in right field during parts of three seasons in Boston. Jhoan Duran came in for the save and induced two easy groundouts to start the frame. A third grounder forced third baseman Lee to his knees, which despite a good effort, allowed the speedy Cedane Rafaela to reach. A Duran-Duran matchup followed and it was Jarren who came undone, striking out on a disgusting curveball to end the game. Trends: C Ryan Jeffers ? Christian Vazquez ? 1B Ty France 2B Mickey Gasper Brooks Lee ? Edouard Julien ? 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda Jonah Bride ? SS Carlos Correa LF Trevor Larnach CF Byron Buxton Harrison Bader ? DaShawn Keirsey Jr. ? RF Matt Wallner UTIL Willi Castro Luke Keaschall SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan SP2 Chris Paddack ? Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax ? SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland Cole Sands MR Danny Coloumbe ? Justin Topa Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala ? Kody Funderburk Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors What’s Next: The Twins are off Monday before beginning a three game set at Target Field Tuesday against the struggling Baltimore Orioles. Pablo Lopez (2-2, 2.25 ERA) will take the ball opposing former Twins farmhand Cade Povich (1-2, 5.16 ERA), a casualty of the ill-fated Jorge Lopez trade. Povich has mostly struggled this year, but he is a lefty- maybe a Royce Lewis return will help? Postgame Interviews: Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Stewart 21 0 0 13 16 50 Durán 0 24 0 16 9 49 Jax 0 14 0 7 14 35 Coulombe 16 0 18 0 0 34 Sands 0 18 0 12 0 30 Varland 0 12 5 0 7 24 Alcalá 0 0 23 0 0 23 Topa 0 12 0 0 0 12 View full article

As terrible, no good, and very bad as this season has started, the Twins have shown life lately and perhaps those who called for Rocco Baldelli's job can touch some grass. Joe Ryan was incredible and the offense did just enough against a decent pitcher who threw well, Jose Soriano, to complete the sweep of the struggling Angels. Image courtesy of © Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 K (98 Pitches, 67 Strikes, 68.3%) Home Runs: None Top 3 WPA: Ryan (.391), Carlos Correa (.141), Ty France (.051) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): In each of the last two years, series sweeps at the hands of the Atlanta Braves have served as demarcation lines of the Twins' season. In 2023, a brutal sweep dropped the Twins to a 40-42 record on June 28th. They would go 47-33 the rest of the way, en route to breaking their playoff curse. In 2024, a sweep in late August etched in stone the fact that the Twins were in big trouble. That series at Target Field dropped the team to 72-61, and they would go 10-19 the rest of the way against a fairly easy portion of their schedule. Well, the Twins are 5-1 since yet another Braves sweep. Granted, the White Sox and Angels are dysfunctional at best (historically bad at worst), but wins are wins. Moreover, the Twins have shown the ability to produce a winning formula—some sort of identity. They've been scoring early and the foundation of a good hitting core has started to emerge with Trevor Larnach, Byron Buxton, Luke Keaschall, Ryan Jeffers and even Carlos Correa rounding into form. Brooks Lee looks more playable at the plate, and Royce Lewis has been the MVP of the first week off the injured list in his career; he's coming back soon. Matt Wallner could follow soon after. The pitching that was supposed to be the strength of the team has started to perform like it, and Griffin Jax no longer looks like a complete head case. But again, these are the White Sox and Angels. Sunday, Joe Ryan looked to redeem himself after being rattled into giving up three home runs against the Braves last Sunday. His breaking stuff looked as good as I've seen it, as he induced three pop-ups in a quick first inning. He then struck out the side in the second, two in well-placed fastballs up in the zone. His third inning may have been even better, recording all three outs on fastballs the Angels hitters simply couldn't pick up. Opposing Ryan was Jose Soriano, a sinker/slider pitcher who has had a couple of really nice outings thus far. He also boasts the highest ground ball rate among starters in baseball. Leaning more on his curveball in the first, Soriano walked Edouard Julien (including some impressive takes) before Correa ripped a double to left. Larnach then struck out before Ty France looped a fly ball the other way that the typically transcendent Mike Trout threw to third base on, allowing Julien, who didn't even get a good break on the play, to score from third. Correa delivered his second hit, a two-out single in the third. Larnach followed with a single to right that drew a throw from Trout to third base, allowing the Twins to put two runners in scoring position, but France tapped out to the pitcher to end the threat. Ryan ran into a little trouble in the fourth, allowing a booming 107 MPH double to the hot-hitting Zach Neto with one out. After inducing a fly out to Taylor Ward, Logan O'Hoppe worked an impressive at-bat and appeared to be close to squaring up Ryan's fastball on a series of foul balls. He didn't offer at the eighth pitch, a fastball that hit the bottom of the zone, but the pitch was called a ball. Rather than allowing the tough luck to affect him, Ryan struck out Travis D'Arnaud looking to end the frame. Meanwhile, Soriano was in a groove, as well. He was spotting his sinker extremely well and getting ahead of nearly every hitter. The Twins were also featuring one of their lightest-hitting lineups of the year, the day before they travel to Cleveland to face the Guardians in a pivotal (for April) four-game set. Mickey Gasper was DH'ing and DeShawn Keirsey Jr. was inserted to give Byron Buxton the day off. It sure would have been nice if Emmanuel Rodriguez was healthy and lighting it up at Triple-A. Through no fault of Soriano, the Twins added insurance in the sixth. Correa bounced a hard grounder past Kyren Paris for an error to start the frame. Larnach then squibbed a ball under Luis Rengifo's glove for another error (I sure want to like Rengifo as a player, but his glove is just terrible). France then got one of the first mistakes of Soriano's outing (an elevated breaking ball) and laced it into the left-field corner for a double to score Correa. That spelled the end of the day for Soriano. Gasper was lifted in favor of Jonah Bride to face lefty Brock Burke, and popped out weakly for the first out, which evoked memories of yesterday's bases loaded, no out situation that yielded nothing off Angels reliever Ryan Johnson. However, Jeffers then pounced on a Burke breaking ball and roped it into the corner to score both runners. The scoring would end there. The Angels tried to answer right back- Ward hit a laser to center field off a Ryan fastball, but Harrison Bader make a sprawling catch with his back to the infield to record the first out. A pop-out and a d'Arnaud double followed. Rengifo then hit a chopper off Ryan's glove that Julien couldn't flip to first in time on, putting runners on the corners for J.D Davis. But Ryan struck out Davis (for the third time) on an elevated fastball for his 11th strikeout, putting the finishing touches on one of his best outings in recent memory. Larnach added an RBI single to the opposite field in the seventh for the game's fifth run. Justin Topa pitched two scoreless innings to finish off the win. Trends: Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors C Ryan Jeffers ? Christian Vazquez 1B Ty France ? 2B Mickey Gasper Brooks Lee ? Edouard Julien 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda Jonah Bride SS Carlos Correa ? LF Trevor Larnach CF Byron Buxton Harrison Bader DaShawn Keirsey Jr. ? RF Matt Wallner UTIL Willi Castro Luke Keaschall SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan ? SP2 Chris Paddack ? Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax ? SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland ? Cole Sands ? MR Danny Coloumbe Justin Topa Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala ? Kody Funderburk What’s Next: Bailey Ober (2-1, 5.04 ERA) goes against Gavin Williams (2-1, 4.15 ERA) as the Twins return to the Major League portion of their schedule against the devil-magic-wielding Cleveland Guardians. Williams has been mercurial in his brief career, missing time with injury and mixing dominance with mediocrity. He struck out eight Yankees in 6 1/3 innings his last time out to record a win, however. Ober has been rounding into form, but did allow a lot of hard contact to the White Sox his last time out. Postgame Interviews: Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Topa 6 0 15 0 27 48 Alcalá 0 41 0 0 0 41 Varland 0 0 20 19 0 39 Jax 14 0 0 19 0 33 Sands 17 0 13 0 0 30 Stewart 20 0 0 6 0 26 Coulombe 13 0 12 0 0 25 Durán 0 0 0 7 0 7 View full article

The Braves wore Joe Ryan out, then capitalized on his mistakes, while the Twins offense was again dormant—against a pitcher without his best stuff. This might be a long season, folks. Image courtesy of © Dale Zanine-Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan: 5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (93 Pitches, 65 Strikes, 69.9%) Home Runs: Byron Buxton (4) Bottom 3 WPA: Ryan (-.286), Edouard Julien (-.097), Brooks Lee (-.093) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): The Twins wrapped up their series in Atlanta today after gifting the Braves two winnable games and awakening the perennial contender from its early season doldrums. Joe Ryan got the start for Minnesota, coming off an outing against the Mets in which he labored but gave the Twins five strong innings. As a California "Deadhead" laboring isn't Ryan's favorite vibe. Teams know that when the righthander is healthy and throwing well, the only way to counter him is to work long at-bats and hope to wear Ryan down, with a solo home run or two thrown in. Unfortunately for Ryan today, the home plate umpire called two clear strikes as balls to second place hitter Austin Riley, extending Ryan's pitch count and turning what looked like a quick inning, into a much longer affair. The horrid Marcell Ozuna worked a walk and Matt Olson finally caught up with a mistake fastball and rocketed a two-run home run to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. Ryan threw 32 pitches in the frame. That could have been workable except the Twins anemic offense offered no early fight against Braves journeyman starter Kenny Powers Grant Holmes. Following the long inning for Ryan, the Twins went down in order on eight pitches, forcing Ryan back out with hardly a chance to sit down. He retired the first two hitters of the second fairly easily, but then a barrage of singles scored a third run. The third was similar- after two outs, Michael Harris turned on a hanging splitter and roped it for a double, and then the highly touted rookie Drake Baldwin pounced on a 92 MPH fastball not quite high enough in the zone, and pummeled it the other way for a two-run home run. The Twins at least made Holmes work in the fourth. After Trevor Larnach ripped a one out single, so did Carlos Correa. Ryan Jeffers was hit by a pitch on his wrist and stayed in the game. After Luke Keaschall popped out, Holmes spiked a slider that Baldwin couldn't handle, allowing Larnach to score the first Twins run. Brooks Lee made good contact in his at-bat, but Harris tracked down the liner in the gap to record the final out. As expected, a rejuvenated Ryan then had his easiest inning, setting down the Braves 1-2-3. Holmes continued to struggle with his command, walking the free-swinging Harrison Bader to lead off the fifth before leaving a cutter up for Buxton to lace into the gap for a double. Holmes then walked Ty France, perhaps equal to Bader in free-swingedness, to load the bases. But Larnach struck out looking on the juiciest pitch of the at-bat, a fastball middle-in, and Correa tapped out to get Holmes off the hook. Ozuna, sadly still not incarcerated, jumped on an inside sinker from Ryan and delivered it into the left field bleachers. The Twins put two more runners on in the sixth, but Julien tapped out to strand the Twins' eighth runner in a span of three innings. Buxton did launch a no-doubt home run in the seventh to continue his strong stretch of games. Louis Varland, Jhoan Duran and Danny Coulombe pitched scoreless innings. All three are having nice years, at least. Trends: Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors C Ryan Jeffers Christian Vazquez 1B Ty France 2B Mickey Gasper ? Brooks Lee Edouard Julien 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda Jonah Bride SS Carlos Correa ? LF Trevor Larnach CF Byron Buxton ? Harrison Bader DaShawn Keirsey Jr. RF Matt Wallner UTIL Willi Castro ? Luke Keaschall ? SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan SP2 Chris Paddack Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax ? SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland ? Cole Sands MR Danny Coloumbe Justin Topa Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala Kody Funderburk What’s Next: Bailey Ober (1-1, 6.16 ERA) takes on Davis Martin (1-2, 4.84 ERA) as the Twins open a series at Target Field against the White Sox. Martin has been functional thus, far, but his peripheral numbers are rough. Ober has been pretty good since his opening clunker in St. Louis and will look to continue to have success against a White Sox lineup against whom statistics do count. Postgame Interviews: (Coming soon) Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Jax 22 0 26 0 0 48 Varland 19 0 18 0 6 43 Topa 0 0 17 24 0 41 Alcalá 0 0 0 39 0 39 Coulombe 9 0 17 0 8 34 Durán 19 0 0 0 11 30 Sands 7 0 13 0 0 20 Stewart 0 0 0 13 0 13 View full article

The Twins entered Sunday's tilt against the Tigers needing something—anything—to jumpstart their season. Fortunately, Byron Buxton was happy to oblige with two extra-base hits; the newly recalled Brooks Lee delivered a key RBI single; and the pitching bent but didn't break in a lovely little win. Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K (78 Pitches, 54 Strikes, 69.2%) Home Runs: Byron Buxton (3), Edouard Julien (1) Top 3 WPA: Woods Richardson (.171), Buxton (.126), Louis Varland (.079) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): What a week, huh? When I was recapping last Sunday's game, the Twins were three outs away from taking a series against a decent Houston team and moving to 4-5 on the year. Since then, the Twins have collapsed in on themselves, losing that rubber match against the Astros, dropping three of four from the Royals and losing the first two against Detroit—in, uh, less than impressive fashion. The face of the team's failures ended up being Jose Miranda, the jumpy third baseman who forgot first how to identify a strike, and later how to perceive a safe call. He was sent to St. Paul after yesterday's game in favor of a rehabbed Brooks Lee. Other changes included giving Carlos Correa the day off after playing every game thus far. Somewhat surprisingly, Willi Castro started at shortstop instead of the more natural fit, in Lee. Then again, Castro hasn't looked great at third, and perhaps that played into the decision. Matt Wallner was also moved out of the leadoff spot in favor of Edouard Julien, who earned the spot by quietly hitting .380 over the last seven games. On the mound was Simeon Woods Richardson, who has been hard to get a feel for thus far. His stuff hasn't looked amazing, but he has hung in and given the Twins a chance to win in each of his starts. He has emphasized his slider and curveball over his change-up in the early going and his fastball has lived in the 90-94 MPH range. The jury is out if his career trajectory is going to look like Boof Bonser or someone like Chris Bassitt. He hung a couple of sliders in the first. The first was smacked off the wall by Kerry Carpenter, the second got All-Star Riley Greene rung up for the third out of the inning. Opposing Woods Richardson was former number one overall pick Casey Mize. Mize sat 96 with his fastball but struck Julien out on four pitches to start his outing, all sliders and splitters. Byron Buxton hit next, and worked the count to 3-2 before pouncing on a mistake fastball that leaked over the heart of the plate and depositing it in the left field bleachers. The second inning may have been even more encouraging. After Ty France led off with a duck snort single, he was advanced to second by a Ryan Jeffers groundout, and to third on a wild pitch. Brooks Lee then fought off a splitter and grounded it back up the middle to score France. Maybe Lee just likes facing the Tigers? SWR kept dancing through raindrops, taking advantage of the bottom of the Tigers lineup and minimizing the damage done by the meat of the order. He struck out Greene to end the third on a 95 MPH fastball on the outer edge, stranding two runners in the process. Mize was in a groove by this point, not allowing any solid contact and locating his splitter well. He retired ten Twins in a row at one point in the middle innings. SWR allowed a fourth inning home run to the red hot Spencer Torkelson on a fat fastball but continued to compete well. He gave up a two out hit to Gleyber Torres before hitting Carpenter with a pitch in the fifth, but recovered to get Greene to pop out to right. SWR was removed after 78 Pitches and five innings. Some may have questioned that move, but Torkelson was leading off the inning and Woods Richardson threw a career high 107 pitches in his last outing. Louis Varland was the choice to replace him, and he looked the best he has in quite a while, locking up Torkelson on a nasty curveball, and striking out the side in order. That choice looked even smarter when Julien led off the bottom of the inning with an opposite field homer off a high splitter from Mize. Buxton followed with a single that he stretched into a double by virtue of his being Byron Buxton, and Castro hit a dribbler that became an infield single. After Wallner struck out, the best Twins' best hitter™ Ty France hit a chopper upon the middle that Torres tried to flip to second, only shortstop Trey Sweeney was not covering, allowing everyone to be safe. After a Jeffers fly out, Mize was done and threw a tantrum in the dugout, a sight for sore eyes. Everything was lined up for Cole Sands, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran to pitch the final three innings. That should have inspired confidence, but these are the 2025 Twins we're talking about. Harrison Bader did his part to make sure that Sands kept his inning scoreless: Jax looked locked in, 2024-style. He struck out Carpenter, Greene and Torkelson in order, mixing his assortment of pitches to perfection. Then in the eighth, to everyone's surprise, Wallner laced a double the opposite way (against a lefty with an 0-2 count), to score Castro and provide a crucial insurance run. Duran pitched an uneventful ninth to seal the win. Trends: Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors C Ryan Jeffers Christian Vazquez 1B Ty France ? 2B Mickey Gasper ? Brooks Lee ? Edouard Julien ? 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda ? SS Carlos Correa LF Trevor Larnach ? CF Byron Buxton ? Harrison Bader ? DaShawn Keirsey Jr. RF Matt Wallner UTIL Willi Castro ? SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan ? SP2 Chris Paddack Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland Cole Sands MR Danny Coloumbe Justin Topa ? Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala Kody Funderburk What’s Next: Joe Ryan (1-1, 2.65 ERA) takes on Clay Holmes (1-1, 4.30 ERA) as the Twins begin a three game set with the New York Mets. The Mets made it to the NLCS last year and added Juan Soto to their lineup, which so far has them leading the NL East. Holmes has spent the past three years as the Yankee's closer, but joined the Mets as a starting pitcher. His early results have been pretty uninspiring but there's nothing like facing the Twins to cure what ails a pitcher. Postgame Interviews: (coming soon) Bullpen Usage Chart: TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Sands 15 0 24 0 0 17 56 Alcalá 16 0 0 23 10 0 49 Funderburk 0 0 0 0 43 0 43 Jax 12 10 0 0 0 17 39 Topa 0 0 0 37 0 0 37 Durán 0 15 0 0 12 10 37 Varland 0 0 18 0 0 12 30 Coulombe 13 0 4 6 0 0 23 View full article

It started encouragingly, with Chris Paddack dancing through a lot of solid contact and the offense expelling Ronel Blanco before the second inning was through. But the Astros fought back, thanks to some clutch hitting from Isaac Paredes and Yordan Alvarez, and executed in extra innings to secure the win. Image courtesy of © Jordan Johnson-Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Chris Paddack: 4+ IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K (68 Pitches, 44 Strikes, 64.7%) Home Runs: None Bottom 3 WPA: Louis Varland (-.419), Griffin Jax (-.294), Paddack (-.140) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): The Twins had returned to functionality following Chris Paddack's last start, in which he allowed nine earned runs to the White Sox. That newfound competitiveness would be put to the test again Sunday, as Paddack took the mound against the Houston Astros in the rubber match of a three-game set in Minneapolis. As terrible as Paddack was in Chicago, his stuff appeared a little better than last year, another year removed from his second Tommy John surgery. He started Sunday's tilt with the same poor results. Jose Altuve smacked a single up the middle, the scuffling Isaac Paredes laced a single down the left-field line, and after two pitches, Paddack was facing a first-and-third situation. The fastball was 94-96 MPH, but he was locating it high in the zone, where it looked like it was hanging. Houston stacked their lineup with right-handed hitters, perhaps to counteract Paddack's changeup, but I'm not sure that was a smart strategy, as the White Sox lefties did damage in Paddack's first start. To Paddack's credit, he retired the fearsome Yordan Alvarez on a sacrifice fly, and after another single from Christian Walker, he retired Jeremy Pena and Yainer Diaz quickly to end the threat. Facing the impressive Ronel Blanco, who recorded both a sub-3.00 ERA and a no-hitter last year, the Twins responded. Matt Wallner led off with a line-drive single, Carlos Correa walked, and Byron Buxton nearly made the game 3-1, but his fly ball was caught on the warning track in left-center field. Normally, Twins lineups pack it in after a near miss like that, but Sunday was different. Wallner had advanced to third on Buxton's fly out, and Trevor Larnach tied the game with a sacrifice fly to right. Willi Castro worked an impressive at-bat, fouling off some 3-2 pitches and finally getting one to his liking, rifling a single to right that advanced Correa to third. Ryan Jeffers then worked a 2-2 count and launched an elevated slider off the big wall in right-center to produce a second and third run against Blanco. Blanco ended up throwing 33 pitches in the frame. I was not overly confident in Paddack throwing a shutdown inning at this point, especially after he left another fastball elevated in the zone that Brendan Rodgers scalded up the middle for another leadoff hit. Fortunately, Zach Dezenzo grounded to Correa's right, and he made a sharp feed to Edouard Julien at second, who completed the relay for an impressive double play. Paddack then dotted a 3-2 breaking ball to Jake Meyers that was clearly a strike, but it was called a ball. Luckily, Altuve did not make Paddack pay and bounced out weakly. The Twins continued to make Blanco work, as Mickey Gasper worked a 10-pitch walk, and Harrison Bader lined a single to left. Wallner struck out, but Correa delivered a soft liner to left to score Gasper and increase the lead. Buxton then struck out, but Larnach worked a walk. That was the end of the day for Blanco, who had thrown 62 pitches to record five outs. Paddack allowed a 400-foot foul ball to Paredes before retiring him on a 350-foot fly ball in fair ground. Alvarez then popped out on a fastball at the top of the zone... or did he? Jeffers dropped the pop-up, but Alvarez was called for interference, since Jeffers briefly bumped him on the way to mishandling the play. The call seemed unecessary. Alvarez didn't have much of a chance to get out of the way, and Jeffers still could have gotten to the ball. Besides that, Gasper (at first) could have made the play, as well. Paddack took the gift and struck out Walker to complete the frame. By that point, Paddack was emphasizing his breaking ball and changeup over his fastball, and locating them well, eliciting swing-and-miss and weak ground balls from the Houston hitters the second time through the lineup. Houston has struggled offensively, so that could be a factor, as well. Either way, the Twins jumped all over reliever Luis Contreras in the fourth. Wallner stroked another single to right, Correa walked and Buxton hit a missile off the right-field (yes you read that right) wall for a double to score Wallner. Larnach then golfed a low changeup over Walker's glove to score two more. Paddack's velocity dipped a little as the outing went along, sitting 91-93 MPH in the fifth inning. After Dezenzo walked, Meyers doubled down the left field line and Altuve reached on an error by Castro at third, to cut into the Twins' lead. Rocco Baldelli challenged the play, to no avail, and said after the game that he thought they "had completed the play, but that wasn't the ruling." That left Paddack staring down the middle of Houston's lineup the third time through, with two on and nobody out. Paredes hit a sharp single on a Paddack fastball to bring home Meyers, and that caused the Twins' bullpen to stir, with a presumably angry (based on the somewhat bogus interference call) Alvarez up to bat. Paddack induced a pop-up, but the ball fell right between Bader and the third baseman Castro. That prompted Baldelli to come get Paddack. Cole Sands came in and struck out Walker on a favorable call. Pena then lined out to Bader in left, but because Bader tried to catch the runner on second napping, Altuve read the play and scored from third. Yainer Diaz then popped out to Correa to end the threat. It could have been worse, but the blowout was no longer in order. Darren McCaughan entered for the sixth, a somewhat surprising choice given it was at that point a three-run game. But Louis Varland and Jorge Alcala had thrown the most of anyone in the past week, Sands was used for the second day in a row, and Baldelli seemed to be prioritizing using Danny Coulombe and Griffin Jax in the late innings. McCaughan also has looked really good in his brief time in the majors this year. Not so much today. He gave up a leadoff hit to Rodgers, retired Dezenzo on a grounder and walked Meyers on a borderline 3-2 pitch. He made a great pitch to Altuve, inducing a weak pop-up from the future Hall of Famer, but Paredes lofted a single to center to score Rodgers and make it a two-run game. Baldelli made the call for Coulombe to face Alvarez. It was an intense at-bat, and on the eighth pitch, Coulombe got a little too much of the plate and Alvarez lined sharply to left field. This time, though, Bader made a great read and came in to make a diving play and preserve the lead. After the Twins went down quietly in their half of the sixth, Justin Topa was brought in to protect the two-run lead, his first back-to-back appearance of the season. He hit Pena with a pitch, but otherwise looked effective, striking out the hot-hitting Rodgers on a nice sweeper to end the frame. The Twins made some decent contact against Houston lefty Bryan King, but didn't produce any baserunners in another scoreless inning. That led to Jhoan Duran getting the call for the eighth inning. The choice was interesting, because the 8-9-1 spots in the order were coming up, and Griffin Jax hadn't pitched since Tuesday. Duran emphasized his breaking ball and splinker and got the first two outs fairly easily, including a nice strikeout on a curveball to Meyers, dotted at the bottom left corner of the zone. Altuve then swung at the first pitch and grounded back to the pitcher to conclude the easiest Duran inning of 2025 thus far. Bader led off the eighth with a grounder to short that Pena threw wide to first on, allowing a hustling Bader to reach. Wallner then delivered his fourth hit of the game, and certainly his hardest (112 MPH) up the middle to set up the inning against tough righty Bryan Abreu. Correa tapped to the right side, and the lead runner Bader was retired. Buxton then flew out weakly to center and Larnach struck out on a ball in the dirt. Would the missed opportunity come back to bite the Twins? It did, and it didn't take long. Paredes singled sharply, his fourth hit of the game, and Alvarez took out his frustration on a Jax fastball at the top of the zone, tying the game in the blink of an eye. Walker then doubled off the wall in right-center and questions started to arise: Why has Jax not been used since Tuesday? Is he hurt? Did he catch the Ober/Julien illness? He then proceeded to strike out the next three hitters in convincing fashion, so who knows? The velocity and overall stuff still looked great. "Just matchup-based things," Baldelli said about using Duran before Jax, rather than the other way around. He noted that they've done that many times before, and might do so again. It's possible that, after Duran faced Altuve, Paredes and Alvarez in the ninth inning Saturday, his manager didn't want him to see the latter two on consecutive days. Still, plainly, the strategy didn't work. Josh Hader made quick work of the Twins in the ninth and Varland took the ball for the top of the 10th. Chas McCormick bunted Rodgers to third, Meyers walked and Altuve rapped a single through the left side to score the "Manfred Man." Altuve then stole second and Jeffers threw through, allowing Meyers to race home from third. On the throw home, the Twins nearly nailed Meyers. The safe call was upheld upon review, but it looked like a 50/50 case. Altuve was then caught off of second and Paredes struck out to end the frame. The Twins did not fare so well in their half. Miranda grounded out, Bader struck out, and since DeShawn Keirsey Jr. had pinch-run for Wallner, Christian Vazquez was brought in to face Hader. That went well last year but looked pretty pathetic this time around, although the ball that struck him out looked to be low. Trends: Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors C Ryan Jeffers ? Christian Vazquez 1B Ty France 2B Mickey Gasper Brooks Lee ? Edouard Julien 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda ? SS Carlos Correa ? LF Trevor Larnach ? CF Byron Buxton Harrison Bader DaShawn Keirsey Jr. RF Matt Wallner ? UTIL Willi Castro SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan SP2 Chris Paddack ? Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax ? SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland Cole Sands MR Danny Coloumbe Justin Topa ? Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala ? Darren McCaughan What’s Next: The Twins head to Kansas City for a three game set. Simeon Woods Richardson (0-0, 4.50 ERA) will face Michael Lorenzen (0-1, 5.06 ERA). Wood Richardson was adequate in a windy outing in Chicago last time out. SWR will be looking to maintain velocity deeper into his start against a light-hitting Royals team. Lorenzen is a fungible backend starter who peaked in 2023 when he was a default All-Star for Detroit, got traded to Philadelphia and immediately threw a no-hitter. The mirage has faded since. Postgame Interviews: Bullpen Usage Chart: WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT McCaughan 0 32 0 0 22 54 Varland 0 20 0 16 15 51 Alcalá 0 11 0 23 0 34 Durán 12 0 0 8 13 33 Topa 0 0 0 17 10 27 Coulombe 14 0 0 0 8 22 Sands 0 0 0 11 10 21 Jax 0 0 0 0 17 17 View full article

The Twins' miserable start continued Sunday, as the offense stayed cold against Andre Pallante and the Cardinals. Bailey Ober was obliterated, and the only positives were another strong day for Willi Castro and some fine relief work from Randy Dobnak, who entered for Ober in the third and finished the game. Image courtesy of © Tim Vizer-Imagn Images Box Score: Starting Pitcher: Bailey Ober: 2 2/3 IP 8 H, 8 ER, 3 BB, 3 K (77 Pitches, 44 Strikes, 57.1%) Home Runs: Willi Castro (1) Bottom 3 WPA: Ober (-.439), Trevor Larnach (-.079), Ryan Jeffers (-.042) Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs): After a couple of uninspiring games against the supposedly rebuilding Cardinals, the Twins wrapped up their series in St. Louis against the sneakily effective Andre Pallante. An extreme ground-ball pitcher, Pallante posted a sub-4.00 ERA last year in his first year as a starter over 120 innings. He also dominated the Twins last August at Target Field, throwing seven innings of one-run ball. He was pretty good again today. He got ahead of leadoff man Matt Wallner 0-2, before Wallner battled back to draw a walk. Carlos Correa tapped to short to advance Wallner, and Byron Buxton blooped a jam-shot single to score the game's first run (the Twins' first lead of the year). On the mound for the Twins was Bailey Ober—who, outside of a few notable blow-ups, performed as one of the better pitchers in the American League, and even has a little dark-horse Cy Young steam heading into 2025. He didn't look like that in his first start last year, and today was (in some ways) even worse. He began by walking newly-assigned Twins assassin Lars Nootbar. Willson Contreras then lined out sharply (109 MPH) to Harrison Bader in left field, and Brendan Donovan walked on a close pitch. A wild pitch advanced the runners, but Ober managed to strike out the red-hot Nolan Arenado and induced Alec Burleson to pop out to end the threat. It took 28 pitches, but Ober was squeezed on a couple of calls and held his composure. That wasn't the case in the second. Nolan Gorman rifled a single to right, backup catcher Pedro Pages jumped all over a hanging slider and laced a ground-rule double right off the chalk line in left field. Victor Scott II, who has been lethal in the field against the Twins thus far, attacked the first fastball he saw and launched a three-run home run to flip the game on its head. Scott posted a 40 OPS+ last season, indicating he was a 60% worse than an average hitter. However, he hit a game-tying home run against Zebby Matthews in the game now known for Edouard Julien making two misplays in the ninth to lose the series. In retrospect, that was a pretty big loss- the Twins had just come off their road trip to Texas (ending with the Jorge Alcala blow-up game) and San Diego. No one could have been sure the team was cursed yet at that point, but losing a series to the non-contending Cardinals at home was, perhaps, the first sign that something was terribly wrong. And Victor Scott II played a big part in that. Anyway, Scott now has three career home runs. Meanwhile, Pallante was starting to cruise, retiring six consecutive Twins batters on ground-outs. Wallner put an end to that by crushing a fastball (107 MPH) off the wall in right-center field. Correa then drew a walk, but Buxton struck out on a pitch in the dirt and Trevor Larnach grounded out to end whatever threat there was. And then Ober truly fell apart. The Cardinals started taking vicious hacks, the home plate umpire gave Ober nothing on the edges, and the first five Cardinals reached, culminating in a three-run homer run from Pages, the glove-first catcher subbing for the bat-first Ivan Herrera. That shot made it 8-1 Cardinals. The ambush was reminiscent of the Royals in Ober's first start of 2024. Maybe keep him out of Missouri for the first one next time. The velocity sat 90-91 but the main issue was his command. For every fastball he placed at the top of the zone in 2024, it sat thigh-high most of the time today, and his off-speed stuff wasn't sharp enough to keep hitters honest. He was done after recording eight outs. The Twins continued to top Pallante's pitches into the ground, although Willi Castro was able to get ahold of a hanging curveball (Pallante did not command that pitch well for much of the day) for his first home run of the year. Randy Dobnak made his 2025 debut, delivering five and a third innings of one run ball. That was interrupted by a 58 minute rain delay, but Dobnak kept the ball out of the middle of the zone and threw strikes for the most part, despite the layoff. The Twins were then presented with what figures to be the biggest weakness for their hitting group, a bulk left-handed pitcher. Steven Matz came out following the rain delay and carved up the Twins lineup. Matz has had flashes of success around myriad injuries in his career, but a team that is functional against lefties should have been able to make him sweat a bit, at the least. Castro laced an extra base hit against Matz in the seventh, for what it's worth. He, and to a lesser extent Larnach, have been the only bright spots for a lineup that so far looks pretty similar to the end of 2024. Trends: Healthy Hurt Performing Contributing Low Impact/Slumping IL/Minors C Ryan Jeffers Christian Vazquez 1B Ty France 2B Mickey Gasper Brooks Lee Edouard Julien 3B Royce Lewis Jose Miranda SS Carlos Correa LF Trevor Larnach CF Byron Buxton ? Harrison Bader DaShawn Keirsey Jr. RF Matt Wallner UTIL Willi Castro ? SP1 Pablo Lopez Bailey Ober ? Joe Ryan SP2 Chris Paddack Simeon Woods Richardson CR Jhoan Duran ? Griffin Jax SR Brock Stewart Louis Varland Cole Sands MR Danny Coulombe Justin Topa Michael Tonkin LR Randy Dobnak Jorge Alcala ? What’s Next: Chris Paddack (5-3, 4.99 ERA in 2024) faces off against old friend Martin Perez (5-6, 4.53 ERA in 2024) as the Twins look to get off the mat against the historically bad White Sox. The Sox have actually won a game in 2025- granted it was against the one team that rivals them in terms of organizational messiness, the Angels. Paddack was trending upwards in Spring Training, but no conclusions should be drawn from a start against the White Sox outside his ability to maintain velocity throughout the start. Perez has settled in as a mid-rotation option for teams that don't plan to contend. He is a lefty though, so it will be another test to see what Baldelli cooks up as a counter. Postgame Interviews: Bullpen Usage Chart: TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN TOT Dobnak 0 0 0 0 0 79 79 Varland 0 0 12 0 23 0 35 Topa 0 0 17 0 8 0 25 Durán 0 0 0 0 24 0 24 Jax 0 0 21 0 0 0 21 Coulombe 0 0 0 0 16 0 16 Sands 0 0 14 0 0 0 14 Alcalá 0 0 0 0 12 0 12 View full article

The Twins have plenty of guys who are good hitters. As the Yankees showed by giving themselves an atomic wedgie on baseball's biggest stage, however, sometimes you just need some ballplayers. Here are a few who might makes sense for the Twins. Image courtesy of © Eric Hartline-Imagn Images Welcome to the 2025 Offseason Handbook! This year, we’re offering the format online only through our Caretakers program. The Offseason Handbook is a comprehensive look at what challenges the Twins face in the coming winter to field a competitive team in 2025. To become a Caretaker, visit this page. On top of receiving exclusive access to the Offseason Handbook, Caretakers also receive in-depth analysis from national writers you cannot find anywhere else. You will also receive exclusive access to events and an ad-free browsing option. In celebration of the Offseason Handbook’s release, we’re offering 20% off all Caretaker programs for the next week. Use the code HANDBOOK at checkout to receive 20% off your purchase! In my last piece for Twins Daily, I opined on the downfall of a lineup made up of passive swing technicians, which I summarized as being haunted by the ghost of J.D Drew. While I accept that my premise was hyperbolic to some degree, watching the Twins in 2024 would make any fan mourn for the days of Nick Punto, Carlos Gómez, or heck, even Otis Nixon. There are a few solutions in-house to fix this energy and speed deficit. First there is DaShawn Keirsey Jr, the speedy, tattooed outfielder the Twins have stashed at Triple-A for most of the least two years. Byron Buxton, of course, is an "action guy" for however many games he plays, and Royce Lewis certainly provided a lot of energy prior to his brutal three-month don't-call-it-a-slump to end the year. Today, I want to explore what sorts of external options are out there as the Twins tiptoe into the offseason, without leaving the metaphorical bat on their shoulder. The first group I identified are both realistic (cheap), and perhaps exactly what the Twins need, as in hitters who are under no pressure to hit, but can help the team in other ways, namely with speed and energy. For fun, I listed the average sprint speed of all the players in question, per Baseball Savant. Zach McKinstry IF 28.4 f/s Jonny DeLuca OF 29.8 f/s Garrett Hampson IF/OF 29.8 f/s Amed Rosario IF 29.0 f/s Esteury Ruiz OF 29.4 f/s Edmundo Sosa IF 29.2 f/s Stuart Fairchild OF 29.1 f/s Travis Jankowski OF 28.5 f/s Cristian Pache OF 28.5 f/s Jake Cave OF 27.7 f/s These guys are barely starting-caliber players, evenwith the platoon advantage. McKinstry is an excellent baserunner who led the league in how often, relative to an average baserunner, they tried to take an extra base, taking off 47% of the time when an average runner would have tried 26% of the time. Not only that, he was successful 26 of the 27 times he tried it. He can't hit, at all, but has defensive utility and has been a thorn in the Twins' side a few times for the Tigers. Estuary Ruiz led the league in stolen bases in 2023 and spent time in the minors in 2024, after switching teams a few times as a high-profile prospect who scouts worried wouldn't hit. So far, they've been right, but he is just 25. Amed Rosario had some big moments against the Twins, hit .280 last year and is still just 28. Garrett Hampson had a big clutch hit for the Royals and was 3-3 with three RBIs this postseason. He can run, but couldn’t hit even when he called Coors Field home. A Cave redemption arc where there is no pressure on him to hit, only to play hard and fire the team up would, as they say, feed families. And that’s the appeal of these guys. You won’t expect them to hit, and those are precisely the conditions under which one of these guys can provide a high amount of excess value. My pick: Jankowski is Dan Gladden redux, and after a poor year in Texas, he won’t cost much more than Gladden did in his heyday. Next are the middle ground—guys who had enough established value that their teams won't just give them up for nothing. Some are slightly expensive. Others are cheaper, but with upside far beyond what the cheapest group can provide: View full article

That's a fair point, because as we saw, Josh Donaldson didn't do anything to fire up this team. There is a fine line between energy guy and jackass.

100% agree, they better hope Lewis returns to that version of himself

How bout Doug Mientkiewicz?