Western SD Fan

Good job by Kody to stay out of the double play. The sound bite with Derek about Wallner really screams that he needs a tune up in St. Paul to work on his swing and get him some confidence again.

Taj looking good so far. Pitch count a little high, but still looking effective.

This instantly reminded me of the Twins commercial when they first moved to Target Field. TC Bear had to be led to his new 'habitat'. Has anyone tried baiting Joe Pohlad with $100 bills? I would think a Pohlad could smell money faster than Scrooge McDuck.

Highlights of the game: 1. Prielipp did well for his second start on a cold Minnesota day. I wasn't sure he would finish 5 and get the win since he was likely on a pitch count. He buckled down and got the last out in the 5th, which is a credit to him and his manager for believing in him. 2. The bats came out today. All started with the aggressive send of Bell to the plate. At that time, we didn't know how the game would turn out. The lack of offense in previous games definitely creates desperate times. The bats worked Castillo, both in walks and hits, which is something that we haven't seen in a week. Gray continues to flash the bat, and we may see him in a Wili Castro role as someone will always be taking a bench seat for him, at least for now. 3. Andrew Morris saves the bullpen again. Three innings of work. I know he gave up 2 runs in his 3rd inning of work, but that extra inning likely only needed one more reliever instead of 2. I'll also say that it was an 8-2 lead so trading 2 runs for a bullpen arm will hopefully make dividends later this season. Lowlights: There are still a couple of lowlights. First has to be Wallner. He continues to look lost at the plate and providing a dark hole in the lineup. Austin Martin should be playing every day. I'm not sure if they are afraid that they would expose something about his swing. At this point, I don't care as it couldn't get much worse. The defense was still putrid and bailed out by Prielipp's ability to miss bats and create pop ups. There were definitely plays that could have been made. I suppose some grace needs to be given considering the playing conditions. Hopefully this is the game they need to everyone to reset and get back on track. Joe Ryan is going tomorrow so we can root for another game to win and take the series against a quality opponent.

I'm impressed they got the full game in. From the TV, it looked like there has been a steady rain the entire game.

Nice job for Prielipp in getting his first career win!

Now a question pops up. Do you run Morris back out there for the save and help the bullpen out one more day?

I If anyone listens to the Skor North Twins Show on YT, they have Trevor Plouffe on Tuesdays. Plouffe has been in contact with both Wallner and Lewis and expressed to them that right now is the most important time in their career. That time where they have shown brilliance but haven't adjusted back to the league and now there are viable replacements for them either on the team or in AAA. Plouffe also expressed to them that this is the year which will define their next contract, if there is one.

Don't worry, we have 8 so there's a little extra cover. 🙂

I've said this before. If you look back at early Falvey drafting philosophy, he wanted to draft big college bats with the intention of rushing them to the majors or high minors and making them trade bait for other teams. It worked for CES and Steer, but we ended keeping Larnach and Wallner and now we are trying to make them work.

I'm pretty sure in today's article that Topa is leading the AL in appearances and Banda is second on the team. I'm reasonably certain that is the much of the answer to the bullpen issues. Morris only has 24 pitches. He should get another inning with a quick hook.

The rain-soaked infield caused two plays by the Mariners. The double play that wasn't and the ball that found the right spot hitting the base and popping in the air.

That's what I figured. He would have a little league start. 80 pitches max unless he is in the middle of a batter. Sad as I really wanted him to make it 5 innings to qualify for the win. Real time update: It looks like he will get one batter to get out of the 5th! Great confidence for the young man.

The Twins haven't had a bad ABS challenge in awhile and they must have banned Wallner from making any more so someone needed to take the mantle.

53 pitches through 4 for the young man. A great start so far. Real question will be how much longer they are willing to let him go.

Great forshadowing!

That was one of the slowest triples I've seen in quite a while.

Great move by the Rays. Getting a crew chief review, not losing their challenge, and getting extra time to get a reliever warmed up.

This should be an embarrassment on the offense that the Rays intended on a bullpen day and may end up using fewer pitchers than us.

I see the website glitches are back. I didn't get to see the thread update in about 20 minutes.

At the speed that the Twins are getting themselves out, Jax may be able to go at least 2 innings.

Morris stays out there at least this inning until the Mets prove they can do something off of him.

My Gameday has everything fixed again and Morris is actually pitching.

Apparently MLB Gameday can't read the name on the back of the jersey. They are listing Topa as the pitcher instead of Morris. Hopefully Morris can go 4 innings and save the bullpen. Maybe C-Gangsters bullpen color watch will go back down to yellow. It can never go green since they are the epitome of:

Likely longer than you're giving Lee. Lee's replacement looks nearly ready to call up in St. Paul. Keaschall likely means that Clemens is playing 2B for most of the games. I'd rather let Keaschall figure it out.