The small sample notwithstanding I am worried that pitchers are now 'on' to Wallner and Julien. They flailed this series. I am hopeful that Royce Lewis is 'on-proof'.
If you have a ground ball pitcher then you need to place behind him a ground ball defense. Correa and Farmer, certainly, but maybe not Julien and sadly Polanco is showing some cracks too. Royce Lewis should soon help.. and sadly, Joey Gallo at First.
The strike zone seems like it has a big role in the success of a pitcher who throws up in the zone. Especially a pitcher who is prone to big innings and the accompanying frustration. The high strokes were being called Thursday.
Guess the Twins set the Royals right (five game winning streak!) and are now on the way to spreading the love up I 70 to St Louis. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of the Slump Buster moniker but here we are.
So who will help us since we won't help ourselves..
All these guys (and Solano and Occasionally MAT) seem to be the ones who come through in the most needy of situations. I have to say that pinch hitting Solano for Gallo last night was an unexpected burst of inspiration by Rocco that paid 😀 off nicely but barely by inches.
Has anyone else noticed that on the rare occasions when the Twins have a big inning it's almost always prefaced by a clutch hit by Taylor? Whether it's his speed or his bottom of the order spot, he's capable of being a sparkplug.
Truth. Now that the hand has been shown it's time to move on and go with what we have, and last night was exactly how this team will have to do it.. pitching, a few clutch hits and a few web gems.
The Keuchel thing still disappoints me though..
Without Kirilloff, Rocco may need to recalculate the top of the lineup. Is a return to Kepler in the cards? Kepler, Julien, Polanco, Correa, Buxton, Wallner, Jeffers, Castro, Solano.
Losing Gray and Madea would be an admission of the year being a lost cause wouldn't it? I guess you could go with Pablo-Ryan-Ober-Keuchel- Dobnak.. (pray for rain)