stringer bell

The Twins entertain the Royals in the rubber game of a three-game series today (weather permitting). Matt Shoemaker opposes Brad Keller in the mound matchup. The Twins stand at 21-29 while Kansas City is 24-26. At about 75 miles from Target Field it is raining here, but according to weather.com no rain is forecast in Minneapolis. I checked my calendar yesterday and saw that the end of the month payments were coming out. That must mean another month is almost done and that it's time to turn the page. A month is approximately 1/6 of a baseball season and is a large enough sample size to show what is working and what isn't. Here's a (premature) look back at the merry, merry month of May from a Twins Baseball perspective. The Twins are 12-15 this month after a 9-15 month of April. That's a hole folks. The team is in the top half of MLB in runs scored and homers this month. However pitching has been poor--team ERA, WHIP and BAA are all in the bottom five. Here is a look at how individuals have done in the month: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zpjY3J0dYtgFpBvetruiieJBpaTasIJnfoDr6-4RSQk/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/131zo8C37b5X8k-wo2ap_XdnSMs3rkvUhV4LSPgYgb84/edit There are several nuggets in the month's statistics. On a positive note, Rob Refsnyder has been a revelation and a godsend for his contributions. Miguel Sanó showed why it is so hard to quit on a guy who has such power potential. Mitch Garver had an excellent month after a disastrous month of April. The final positive I'll mention is the good hitting of rookies Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach. Both of those guys are going to be outstanding offensive players for years to come. My observation is that neither is a candidate for a gold glove in the outfield, but that Kirilloff looks pretty smooth at first base. Now for the downside--the pitching across the board was subpar (by a lot). Two non-competitive outings each by Shoemaker and Happ made their stats for the month (and the season) look very bad. The bullpen is leaky and the starters don't give a lot of innings. The team ERA this month is over 5 and even subtracting poor work from fringe players, the team did not pitch well again in May. Offensively, two veteran right handed hitters have struggled mightily this month. Josh Donaldson has had a rough month at the plate and has made a few fielding miscues at inopportune times. Nelson Cruz' tough month has slid under the radar. His season numbers are still good, but three homers and six RBI and a .703 OPS from a middle of the order fixture is not getting the job done. I'd expect a resurgence for both Donaldson and Cruz, but sometimes players fall off a cliff. Father Time is a tough adversary. A win today would give the Twins three straight series wins. Baby steps. Enjoy the game! Royals (24-26) Lineup: W. Merrifield2B 47-190 27 4 14 .247 C. Santana1B 42-168 34 10 2 .250 A. BenintendiLF 48-170 16 4 6 .282 S. PerezC 54-195 31 10 0 .277 A. MondesiSS 7-18 3 1 1 .389 E. OlivaresRF ----- -- -- -- -- K. Gutierrez3B 11-44 1 0 0 .250 H. DozierDH 17-122 14 5 1 .139 J. DysonCF 8-36 0 0 3 .222 Twins (21-30) Lineup: Polanco 2b Donaldson 3b Kirilloff rf Cruz dh Sanó 1b Larnach lf Refsnyder cf Rortvedt c Simmons ss Pitchers: Shoemaker (MN) 2-5 5.48 ERA Keller (KC) 4-4 5.72 ERA Rortvedt in the starting lineup. I would presume Kepler has been placed on the IL, but have seen no verification.

Two for one ex-Twins transaction--Chase De Jong was selected by the Pirates and Ildemaro Vargas was DFAed (for like the sixth time in 12 months).

Robles has a had couple of those saves. Rogers seemed to pitch with some anger after letting Mondesi go deep.

Charmers just doesn’t throw enough strikes. Minaya, well everyone else they’ve tried has failed. Change the names and see what happens.

Nice innings from Alcala and Duffey.

Hernandez couldn’t find the plate with a searchlight and map last inning and then throws two breaking pitches on the black and a 97-mph fastball on the outside corner.

I predict Kepler goes to the IL for his injury. He can’t seem to shake the hamstring issue. I wonder if they add another outfielder.

Oops, Pérez is the DH. Cameron Gallagher is catching.

IDK if it’s age or just a slump, but JD is really hurting the team.

Donaldson brings in a run (kinda).

The best bet now is weeks. He’s still got some pain when running.

He failed, now the K-prone Sanó.

Really important for Simmons to get a run in.

Erv’s glove fits with his uniform.

Two millionth run?

Add Mitch Garver too.

Nice job HBD! Ervin Santana gets the start for the Royals. How many of his ex-teammates are in the Twins lineup?

The game turned on the failed relay to get Hunter Dozier in the fifth inning. Refsnyder to Simmons to Garver got the ball to the plate in plenty of time to end the inning, but Garver couldn't hold the one-hop throw. Two more singles, including one where Kirilloff overthrew the cutoff man, yielded two more runs and that was that. Baldelli has always seemed to give Dobnak a short leash for going deep into games, but yesterday with a low pitch count, he let him start the seventh. The results seem to justify a short leash--three straight singles--and when the inning was over, so was much chance of coming back in the game. Dobnak's crazy-movement fastball was present during his good innings, but the improved slider was not. He's got to have a second reliable pitch to be effective, and having yet another pitch to mix in would be optimal. It's not there yet.

Royals say “who cares about exit variety?”

Dobnak allowed to start the seventh. I was surprised and the 7-9 hitters get three straight singles.

Okay, how about a half dozen hits.

Dropped throw, missed cutoff man and meat pitches.

Had him if the catcher holds the ball

Tight, but consistent, strike zone for the home plate ump.

Hey Game Threaders—I’m looking for volunteers to do introductions for Twins game threads in the month of June. A Google Doc has been posted in the pinned thread entitled “2021 Regular Season Game Threads”. We’ve had several volunteers but it is never a bad thing to have more people involved. If you’re interested, send me a message and we can work out a date or several dates to do an intro. Here’s your chance to show your brilliance (and writing skills). Thanks in advance! stringer bell