stringer bell

Well, it's settled. The Twins will score two runs tonight unless they hit more solo homers. Will that be enough?

Houston is playing very well. At the top of their game they are superior to the Twins. The thing is that no one goes through an entire season on the top of their game. Even at the top of their game, the Twins have some gaps. They definitely don't have much team speed they are strikeout prone. They're reliant on homers to fuel their offense. This would seem to be a formula where there are slumps and the past week has shown an offense that just doesn't measure up. Over the course of a long season, the offense will have peaks and valleys. Guys like Arraez who make contact and work counts tend to have fewer slumps and dry spells. Guys like Buxton are a bit of the opposite. I am worried about the rotation and the back end of the bullpen still needs at least one reinforcement. I do think the Twins are better than they showed against Houston and they will play better ball. I'm not sure they have enough talent to make up for their shortcomings.

Yup, it's fun to see all the young unproven talent and have them sweep a series against the A's, but the club needs to get healthy if they want to consistently win games. Not to make too big a deal about it, but the 2021 Twins won a series in Houston (which was on their way to the WS) last year. There is something to it's not who you play, it's when you play them (except for Twins vs. Yankees--that never has seemed to matter).

So who goes back to St. Paul first, Kirilloff or Miranda? Before today, I was pretty sure it was Kirilloff, now I'm not too sure.

I do want to mention that I have a special spot in my heart for Niko Goodrum. I believe it was Spring Training of 2016 (maybe 2015) and I sat next to Niko's dad at a minor league game. His dad was pulling for him and hoping he would just get a chance to play somewhere. Niko had kind of gotten lost in the shuffle in the minors. Anyway, dad talked about how hard he worked and what he had to offer (speed, power and versatility) and sure enough he made his debut with the Twins in 2017. Niko had been a high draft but really didn't find his way for a while in the minors. His dad wore a sweat suit and had a few chains, kind of stood out among all of us who were wearing tee shirts and shorts. Just about every big league player is a success story in the big picture, especially if their personal life isn't a mess.

It seems the Twins aren't getting bludgeoned, so much as having a pillow put over their face and smothered.

I agree on the sentiment of letting Gordon run in that situation, but the fact is they're only succeeding on about 45% of their steal attempts. Gordon is 0-2. Outs are too precious to take a 50-50 chance of succeeding.

I would like to see Winder come back and complete six innings. Not sure if it will happen.

Were Nick Gordon and Niko ever teammates?

It could be that they have enough speed throughout the team that they can afford to send their runners. Also they have more guys in whom they are confident that they will make contact.

Nice catch Nick!

Probably Jeffers best throw to second and it still wasn't close.

Astros probably have the deepest lineup we've seen, with exception of their catchers.

Speed is not Miranda's calling card.

Make this guy throw out of the stretch, so we don't have to watch the gyrations.

Buckle up! Here comes Winder!

Would someone post the lineups when they become available? Thanks!

Anyone who sees the lineups, please post them on this thread. Thank you!

There is a game thread for the regularly scheduled game started by sampleSizeOfOne. We can wrap this game thread in the next five minutes and move on to the next. Thanks!

I’m a bogey golfer and couldn’t break 90 today. The putter was not my friend.

I just got home from the golf course and see the the ‘Stros put up a big number on Canó and Stashak. The reason for trying to give Canó a third inning and letting Stashak take a beating are pretty clear. There are fourteen innings to cover. Somebody is going to be extended. As Houston turned the game into a laugher, it is more clear that the Twins shouldn’t waste resources on a lost cause. Cano’s line looks crummy and Stashak is wearing a bit hit on his stats. That’s the way it happens sometimes.

Does Cano have to face three batters today?

I agree that Kepler looks much better this year and would expect the batted ball data to back that up. Larnach's batted ball data isn't radically improved? To the point of whether Kepler will be supplanted this year, I sincerely doubt it. In particular, he's a fine fielder and a decent base runner, in addition to showing a lot of improvement with his hitting. Larnach has shown enough to get regular playing time when he returns (hopefully soon) and to date Celestino has shown he belongs as well, in a smaller sample.

What was it, two weeks ago when we were commenting on how effective the rotation was? Since then, Joe Ryan has looked human in two straight starts, Chris Paddack hurt his elbow with likely TJ surgery, Dylan Bundy threw two consecutive stinkers, and Chris Archer is getting even less far into games and giving up runs to boot. Josh Winder has two outstanding starts, so we can expect regression at some point and Bailey Ober is on the Injured List. Ober has passed the minimum time to be on the list, but it appears that he will need to make at least one rehab start. Sonny Gray returned to the rotation after missing about three weeks. Gray was supposed to make another rehab start, but instead faced the AAAAs and pitched four scoreless innings. Not exactly as rosy as things were about May 1. We fans can expect that, not just Twins fans, but all fans. Starting pitchers get ineffective (see Shoemaker and Happ) and they get injured. If a starting pitcher stays both effective and healthy enough to take his turn, he is worth tens of millions of dollars to his team. Thoughts on the current rotation pieces: 1) Gray is as advertised. He a quality starter, not as durable as he was in his 20s, but he will give the club innings and give them a chance to win almost every time out. 2) Ryan is a rookie with a nice future. It remains to be seen if he can be effective for a whole season. He needs to find the right formula of being a strike thrower and making hitters chase. It didn't work on Tuesday. 3) Ober's contribution will go a long way towards determining the success of the rotation and the season. He's not pitched many innings over his career and is on the IL now. He finished very strong last year (with innings restrictions). I hope and expect he can do the same this year. 4) Josh Winder is another wild card. I hope the Twins manage his innings and get him through the season. He's got enough stuff to be very successful. 5) Chris Archer. Archer can't seem to have quick innings and get deep enough into games. His 5-run in three innings appearance made his formerly gaudy ERA swell to 4.43. He's got an adequate change to go with enough fastball velo and a decent slider, but he's made it hard on himself in every start with high pitch counts. Changes need to be made to get him deeper into games. 6) Dylan Bundy. Great command his first three starts followed by two straight where he didn't give his team much of a chance. I guess I would expect something in between most often going forward, but Bundy knows how to get people out, so I wouldn't write him off quite yet. 7) Chris Paddack. If by some miracle he doesn't require his second TJ surgery, he might be pretty good. If he does go under the knife, the Twins can hope to get at least a full year out of him. He could be a veteran presence in the middle of the decade. Lots of question marks for this rotation. Two big prospects are on the horizon--Matt Canterino is only going four innings per start, but he's been lights out in AA and Jordan Balazovic made his first St. Paul start this season and made it 3.2 innings. If either of these guys could come up and augment the current starters, it would be a win for the pitching pipeline. The future looks very good for both of them if they can stay healthy.

I don’t want to apologize for the Twins effort in 1 1/3 games, but Houston is pretty healthy and at the top of their game other than slugging. The Twins are playing them at the wrong time and it certainly is the wrong time to have control problems. It’s nice to see the Twins young players hold their own against Oakland, but they need their best players against Houston, the way they are playing right now.