Danchat

Yeah, Littell not only has a much better minor league track record but has also seen his fastball reach 97 MPH in the pen and had a stretch of 11 scoreless innings before giving up those 2 HRs to the A's. He's got far more potential than Stewart, at least in my eyes.

Yes, it sounds completely insane. Why would Cleveland "drop" their all-star closer because two of their starting pitchers are getting healthy?!

Kohl Stewart just isn't a MLB-quality pitcher. His minor league track record has always indicated that, and if he's going to post poor stats in AAA, there's no way he's going to stop the Yankees lineup. Unfortunately [whoever our current coach is]'s only other option was to use one of our starters... and I can understand why he didn't want to do that.

I believe the last time they went to extra innings, the Vikings had an 80 yard TD to Jarius Wright. Wait...

YES!!!!!!!!!

If we don't score at least a run here, Twins Daily is going to have a total meltdown and probably be unavailable for the next 24 hours.

Why sac bunt when the pitcher can't throw a strike?

Fully agreed on that. We desperately need another lefty as well as another 9th inning arm.

Huh? He pitched in yesterday's game and barely made it out of there, not to mention he's been going in multi-inning saves lately. He's certainly not fresh and rested.

I would trust Rogers with any lead if he was fresh and rested...

I really want to see what Davis can do in the majors, but we don't have anybody to send down outside of Cave. Perhaps he'll got a shot in September, if we have enough room on the 40 man roster at that point.

So much for "Sano not being clutch". 2 multi-run HRs!! This is what we all hoped you would become, Sano!

Both Waynes and Alexander will be FAs next year... we'll have to keep an eye on Mike Hughes to see if he develops and could replace one of them. Plus Rhodes might be in his last year, so the CB position could be in a lot of flux.

What else is he supposed to do, get May out there again? What else is he supposed to do with Parker if he can't get more than one out? There's only so much he can do with these limited options. The margin for error is incredibly slim and I think he's doing a fine job managing around that.

The first place Twins and the first place Yankees clash in a Strat-O-Matic battle of epic proportions! Both teams carry high-powered offenses in, and the while the real life game was exciting, this one was too... for a while. Game Summary You would expect the Twins and Yankees to score a lot of runs. Well, you won't be disappointed by this result! The first inning went off with a bang, as both teams loaded the bases with no outs, and both teams came up with 3 runs out of the 1st. The Yankees got a RBI single from Gary Sanchez, an RBI walk Luke Voit, and an RBI groundout from Gleyber Torres. Meanwhile, the Twins got an RBI single from Rosario, and LF Tauchman errored another run in, and then Gonzalez hit a sac fly. -- The second inning didn't have a baserunner, oddly enough. Then the Yankees struck back in the 3rd inning - Sanchez singled, Sano errored a ball at 1st base, and Luke Voit crushed a 3 run HR to make it 6-3. But that's not all! Perez inexplicably allowed the bases to get loaded again, just for Judge to hit a 2 RBI double to make it 8-3. Ouch. And now I'll have to dive into the bullpen! -- Sano nailed a solo HR in the 3rd, inching the Twins closer at 8-4. Then the Yankees piled on 3 more runs in the top of the 4th with Tyler Duffey pitching, with a 2 run HR from Voit and a solo shot from Tauchman. The Twins scratched one more run across in the 4th with a Schoop triple and a Polanco triple... very unlikely to happen in real life, but I'll take it. -- I got Lewis Thorpe to pitch clean 5th and 6th innings, which was nice, for a change. The Twins hitters found some life in the bottom of the 6th against Luis Cessa, as Arraez led things off with single, followed by two more singles from Garver and Polanco, making it 11-6. Cruz struck out, but Rosario was able to hit a sac fly, making it 11-7. And in the 7th, Cessa returned to give up a double to Gonzalez, an RBI single to Kepler, and a double to Schoop, making it 11-8 with runners on 2nd and 3rd one out. Unfortunately, Chad Green was able to come in and save the day, getting three outs in that RISP situation. -- Cody Stashak took the 8th and 9th and did a great job in his first MLB appearance, giving up just a single hit and a walk. However, being up by just 2 runs caused the Yankees to get Ottavino and Aroldis Chapman pitching, and the Twins' batters were blown away by these two. We've lost again, dropping our Strat-O-Record to 1-4. Very disappointing, boys! -- Box Score --

Oh whoops, you're right. Perhaps Larnach would be a bit much then...

To those who said it back in May/June... they got his trade value up! Time to trade him! I jest, but boy, this team sure has a lot of utility guys. I looked back at our 2018 roster and I gagged when I realized our bench at one point was Bobby Wilson, Ryan LaMarre, Gregorio Petit, and Adrianza. But Adrianza does deserve credit where it's due - he's turned into a very successful waiver claim, which I think was the very first move by the Falvey/Levine regime. I also think Rowson deserves some credit (the guy doesn't get enough IMO) helping develop Adrianza over the years.

Well, this team has not proven to be able to develop relievers, and they are seemingly very good at developing hitters, so why not trade from what we do well with to acquire a guy that we haven't been able to develop? I get that they also need starters, but I think 2.5 years of Yates is reasonable for Larnach. Maybe it's not an ideal move, but I'd rather do that than trade for nobody.

I remember someone saying last year in a game thread that we needed to keep Gibson because he pitches well against the Yanks. Time to prove it, Gibby. (Last year he went 6 scoreless innings with 10 Ks vs NYY)

Just eight days left and we’ve had what, 3 trades in July? Methinks the final two days are going to be nuts, with tons of trades getting pulled off.

Methinks a Yates trade would need to be headlined with somebody like Larnach and have a couple additional prospects along with him. It sounds like they’re looking to trade, but their asking price is high.

The pen really saved us today, getting 5 innings with just 1 run given up is amazing against the Yankees lineup. We could badly use some reinforcements, though... And boy, if this lineup could just get a runner on before they unload all these HRs, this offense could be unstoppable. We just need to get them clicking again.

This has felt like a 5 game playoff series... just 2 games to go, and then we get a bunch of cushy games against a bunch of lousy teams. I'd be happy with one more win on the Yanks.

3 Ks and a solo HR. Your boy Cruz also has 3 Ks.

Strat-O-Matic update: I'm in the top of the 8th, and the Yankees are up 11-9, but we've rallied the last 4 runs in the last two innings. Polanco is 5 for 5 and Thorpe threw 3 scoreless innings from the 5th to the 7th.