TwinsCD

The 1 run and 2 hits should be more informative. Ober and Sands did fine. Thielbar is a junkballer who should get lit up if the hitter keys on just the slow stuff. Stanton must have read his scouting report.

Yes. A professional umpire should never miss a pitch on the inside edge of the plate. The only grace I'd give on that is if the batter is hanging out over the edge of the plate and the catcher is set up inside and then the umpire has a very small sliver to see the pitch clearly.

Correct. At the MLB level, if a catcher sets up where Vazquez was, you're expecting the pitch there. But I feel like you still need to see the whole picture. Speaking from my experience at the HS level, just because the catcher sets up there, doesn't mean the pitch will be anywhere near there (as I hope not to flinch because of all that exposed space).

Make that twice. Of course, if Vanover would get into position and not be making calls on the move, maybe he'd see these things.

Whatever the Savant is showing is off. Not sure if you can watch the game but it wasn't even close and Judge had a look on his face like 'oh crap'.

Does that make his OPS like 3 million?

It is infuriating how many backwards K's these batters take. When I was a kid, I'd get sent to bed without supper if I watched a called 3rd strike.

A bandbox dinger and a gnat's eyelash double are the two scoring plays. He handled himself pretty well through 2 1/2 spins of that lineup despite all the nibbling.

This umpire has been grossly inconsistent on the edges all night and now he just got fooled and that could lead to bad things.

I wonder what it's like to make a call at a base and then have to announce to the world that the call is overturned. WHAT A PLAY BY LEWIS

Smaller RF -- this POS stadium or Minute Maid?

Speaking of stats, Miranda adding to his TiH rate.

Pretty funny that Soto got called for interference on a very similar situation last week.

Then why'd the Yankees always seem to get the big hit when they needed it and the Twins didn't?

Get out and play better teams in the non-con schedule. Wright's smart enough to know that the Tournament breeds a different type of game than they see in conference play. As an example, the Big East doesn't really have a Belmont (maybe Creighton could fit but not really) or a Stephen F. Austin so they should be thinking about playing a team in that same skill level. But big-time teams are so loathe to go on the road to play the mid-majors of the world and in my opinion, that puts them at a disadvantage sometimes when they get to March. The mids aren't afraid to ball out when playing the big boys because they've basically been doing it the whole non-con season since they often have to go into the bigger arenas. This year, Nova's got Ohio State, Kansas, UCONN, and Temple as their biggest non-con games. That's a good start but they're all virtually the same type of team. I'd argue the games against Ohio and Middle Tennessee will be just as important to your March success. Good luck to Nova...but not too much cuz I'm a Temple fan and I'm sick of being on the short end of the rivalry the last few years.

Two things that concerned me about this team all the way back in July ended up coming to fruition in the playoffs: --Rocco's lack of being able to manage a pitching staff. The examples have been discussed ad infinitum in this thread already so no sense in repeating them. This is the playoffs and you have to go with your absolute best on the mound, not some silly 'rotation' that worked in the regular season. Stashak had no business being out there in Game 1 and Dobnak should not have started Game 2. I was fine with him starting Game 3 at home but not in that crucible of Yankee Stadium. --Hitting all these home runs is great but it won't win you playoff games. The lack of situational hitting throughout the regular season was annoying (despite the high placement in RISP stats). The at-bats in the playoffs are a lot more pressure-filled. The Twins came up extra tiny when it mattered most time and time and time again. That being said, I hope that this season is one that can be built on rather than a cute one-off. But for that to happen, Falvine is gonna have to pick up at least 1, if not 2, front-line, high-end starters. If the starters can match the quality of hitting, then they'll be built more for a playoff run. But to attract those FA starters, they better make sure that guys like Cruz are back for another bomba run.

And most every college fanbase except probably Duke and Carolina would be overjoyed with that 2016 and 2018 run. But you find a way to crap on it.

Good. Get out.

This season, especially the 2nd half, was a good lesson in how to keep the faith. There were a lot of bridge jumpers in early August when injuries started setting in and the Twins were having problems beating the Indians and kicking away games to teams like the Marlins. But this team is different and they're resilient and it's a testament to the depth that the organization has for numerous fringe guys to step up -- especially the ones in the bullpen -- and pull everyone through to this point. This team is NEVER out of a game and there's no deficit too big with the power in the lineup. The bullpen is starting to round into a formation where if the starter can only get thru 6, there's credibility to finish the game. I think this is the year they finally slay the dragon and get that gorilla off the franchise's back.

Random thoughts... --Given the pitching matchups, I had a bad feeling that the Indians would win the first two games. Matchups are reversed with Odorizzi and Berrios going this weekend. Have to take advantage of those two guys and get that 2-game lead back. --It's great that they're hitting all these home runs but the lack of situational hitting and the ability to string together an inning continues to bite these guys. They could have stolen Thursday's game with one timely hit and last nite, it seemed like everybody wanted to hit a 5-run home run to get them back in it. When you get to the postseason, you're not going to see crap starters so the Rosarios and Crons and Sanos of the world need to be finding singles and doubles as much as they are hunting homers. --Walks have crushed the starters during this 4-game losing streak. When you're dealing with higher-caliber hitters from teams like the Braves and Indians, the amount of nibbling increases and the amount of wayward swings decreases. Control and aggressive pitching have to return. --No time for negativity yet. Yeah, it sucks to have lost an 11 1/2-game lead but it's not like the Twins played sub-500 ball to cause that. It took Cleveland going 41-16 since that point to catch them. 26 of the last 46 come against the soft underbelly of the AL Central, the same three teams that Cleveland used to get back into the race. It would be nice to have the full complement of hitters in the lineup for the rest of the season but what is in the batting order now is more than adequate. Comes down to the pitching staff and Rocco's ability to maneuver through it, which I don't think he's found a grasp of yet.

My concern with the bullpen isn't so much the personnel as much as it is Rocco's ability to manage it and recognize when a guy doesn't have it and pulls him. I'm still a touch dubious at this point. Rogers seems to be the guy to use in the 9th, though I still think Trevor May as a closer wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. In the end, I don't care who gets it done as long as someone gets it done and tries not to make a 3-run lead interesting in the 9th against a very mediocre offense. The nice thing -- and it's very rare for us to be able to say this -- is that we have a 10 1/2 game cushion to work with and can test guys and not feel like they lose too much if there's a hiccup.

If anything, we don’t have to face his bat this season. He seemed to hit Twins pitching pretty well. I like this one a lot. Solidifies the DH spot and as one poster said, maybe provides a little veteran kick in the rear to some of the Latin players (read: Sano).

IMO, this was the correct move. I felt like the Twins got to the WC last year in spite of Molitor, not because of him. Don't get me wrong, I loved the guy as a player and he's been a terrific baseball ambassador not just for MLB but for Minnesota as well. I never felt like he had a good feel for a situation, especially when it came to handling a pitching staff. How many times would we rant and first-guess in gameday threads about decisions that went awry. The percentage of decisions that went wrong, I believe, outweighed those that went right. However, this organization is still trying to dig out of the mess that Bill Smith and Terry Ryan 2.0 created with their trades and their rushing certain players through the minor league ranks. The current GMs made a nice attempt at bringing in some FA talent for this season and it just completely backfired. Lynn was terrible, Morrison was even worse, Odorizzi was average at best, Duke and Reed were pretty brutal. Unfortunately, it left us with a fire sale at the trading deadline and the only significant piece that came back was Tyler Austin. Let's hope that the farm system that has been growing over the last couple of years can yield a bumper crop for 2019 because I'm not sure that many will be confident in the FA market this year...unless Bryce Harper likes cold springs.

I'd like to see the Twins bring him back. I think he can still be a positive contributor over the long haul of a season and if he's able to stay healthy. Whether that's for 1 or 2 years and at what price, I think that will be determined by how they do with offseason acquisitions. There's always room in the lineup for someone who can hit around .280. It's up to the manager to figure out how to handle that properly. I'm not confident about that side of things, though. If I was Mauer, I might have already asked my agent to test the waters out there to certain traditionally-contending teams to gauge interest for 2019. He's certainly running out of time to be on a team that wins a playoff GAME, let alone a series, and that's unlikely to come if he stays in a Twins uniform. Why wouldn't he have done this prior to the trading deadline? Who knows. Maybe there wasn't any interest. But if he wants to cap off his career with a ring, that's a route he should look into. And I say that despite being a staunch proponent of loyalty to one team. Whatever he and/or the team decides, it's been a ton of fun watching his career and I think we can all agree that we shake our heads at what could have been if he had been able to stay even 90% healthy throughout his career.

Well done, Fernando. Too bad you had that small bout of wildness late in the 6th.