Tom Froemming

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) The more level-headed segments of Twins Territory have been preaching that things will get better once we start playing our lowly divisional opponents. Well, things aren’t off to a great start. Reed gave up the walk-off homer, but it was primarily the defense that allowed Chicago to sneak its way back into this game. Chicago scored its first run of the game in the third inning thanks to a missed catch error on shortstop Gregorio Petit. Adam Engel had drawn a one-out walk and stole second. Petit couldn’t corral the throw, allowing Engel to advance to third. He scored on a ground out the very next play. That didn’t seem like it’d be a big play after the Twins went up 5-1 in the top of the fourth inning thanks to a Logan Morrison homer. https://twitter.com/BallparkVids/status/992213399667970048 Former Twins prospect Daniel Palka blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of that inning and the White Sox scored another run in the fifth, putting the pressure back on the Twins. In the sixth inning, Robbie Grossman played into a hit a ball that many MLB outfielders would have caught. To make matters worse, he committed an error that allowed Jose Abreu to score the game-tying run all the way from first base. https://twitter.com/BallparkVids/status/992225596334919680 That play also knocked Jake Odorizzi out of the game. He lasted 5 1/3 innings and gave up five runs, though only three were earned, and struck out eight batters. Taylor Rogers had his most impressive performance of the season, pitching 1 2/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts. Ryan Pressly followed that up with a perfect frame of his own, striking out two batters in the process. Reed retired the first two batters he faced. Just when it was looking like the Twins bullpen was having an excellent night, it was all over. Morrison had a great night, going 3-for-4 with a double and that two-run homer. Petit was 2-for-4, meaning he’s 5-for-11 since being called up from Rochester, though he’s still searching for his first extra-base hit. Other than those two, the Twins lineup was 2-for-25 with a couple walks. Eddie Rosario had a double and made a nice leaping catch in left field. https://twitter.com/BallparkVids/status/992230560549482496 Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/992246983933902848 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Three Games Fri at CHW, 7:10 pm CT Sat at CHW, 6:10 pm CT Sun at CHW, 1:10 pm CT Last Three Games MIN 4, TOR 0: Fernandomania! TOR 7, MIN 4: WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!?!? TOR 7, MIN 5: Twins Can’t Recover After Another Poor Start by Lynn More From Twins Daily Twins Minor League Report (5/3): Royce Lewis Continues to Crush in A-Ball Twins Minor League Starting Pitcher Of The Month - April 2018 The Beginning of the End for Phil Hughes

Snapshot Win Expectancy Chart via FanGraphs Romero pitched as well as anybody could have expected. The 23-year-old came into his major league debut with just 208 1/3 innings under his belt at the three highest levels of the minor leagues. To put that into some perspective, Jose Berrios threw more innings than that at Triple A alone and more than 450 innings at the top three levels combined. Fellow 23-year-old prospect Stephen Gonsalves has logged over 350 innings combined at those top three levels. Simply put, it would have been reasonable to suspect that Romero wasn’t ready to be exposed to major league hitters. Romero answered the bell, however, and delivered 5 2/3 shutout innings. He racked up five strikeouts, gave up four hits, walked three and had one hit batsman. He threw 59 of his 97 pitches for strikes. He topped out at 98.4 mph and he got 12 swinging strikes, which were fairly evenly distributed among his four offerings. https://twitter.com/MLBPipeline/status/991788237252415490 The lineup managed to provide Romero a little bit of wiggle room early, scoring runs in both the second and third innings thanks to an Eddie Rosario solo homer and a Max Kepler RBI groundout. After Romero exited, Trevor Hildenberger recorded the last out of the sixth inning, Zach Duke pitched a scoreless seventh and Addison Reed worked around a leadoff single to hold Toronto scoreless in the eighth. The Twins offense provided two huge insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, as Robbie Grossman hit a sac fly and Gregorio Petit drew a bases-loaded walk. Joe Mauer, Eduardo Escobar and Rosario all had a pair of hits. It was a better day with the bats, but the Twins were still just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. Fernando Rodney set down the Blue Jays in order in the ninth inning to secure the shutout victory. Postgame With Romero Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Three Games Thu at CHW, 7:10 pm CT Fri at CHW, 7:10 pm CT Sat at CHW, 6:10 pm CT Last Three Games TOR 7, MIN 4: WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!?!? TOR 7, MIN 5: Twins Can’t Recover After Another Poor Start by Lynn CIN 8, MIN 2: Berrios Bombs as Twins Drop Series to Cincy ICYMI on Twitter/Periscope Seth Speaks on Romero https://twitter.com/SethTweets/status/991779541315010560

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) New game, new thing to worry about. Let’s turn our attention to Addison Reed. Reed entered the eighth inning of this game with the Twins leading 4-3. He walked the leadoff man, gave up a double and then a sacrifice fly to tie it up. He managed to work out of the inning, sandwiching an intentional walk between two strikeouts. Reed has now given up four earned runs over his last five innings pitched. His main issue was with location tonight, as he threw just 11 of his 23 pitches for strikes, but there is also an alarming trend with his fastball velocity. Reed averaged 90.5 mph on his fastball and topped out at 91.6, per Baseball Savant. Here’s a month-by-month breakdown of his fastball velocity since the start of last season via Brooks Baseball: Uh-oh. The game remained tied thanks to Fernando Rodney working around some suboptimal defense to pitch a scoreless ninth. John Curtiss, making his 11th career MLB appearance, was tasked with keeping things afloat in the 10th inning. To say things didn’t go well would be an understatement, but to be fair it wasn’t all on Curtiss The inning opened with Kevin Pillar smashing a double into the gap. He would later steal third without a throw and then score the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. The Blue Jays scored a second run on a hot grounder that Gregorio Petit, who was playing in, failed to field cleanly. Then just for good measure a third run scored on another wild pitch. https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/991526406663364608 Ouch. Three runs and the Blue Jays only had to hit one ball out of the infield. This game actually got off to a great start, as the Twins took a 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to Joe Mauer’s first homer of the year and an RBI double by Eddie Rosario. https://twitter.com/BallparkVids/status/991475057011646466 Kyle Gibson was cruising along until he gave up a couple of runs in the fifth to tie the game. He finished the night with six strikeouts over five innings, giving up those two runs on five hits and a couple walks. Ryan Pressly gave up a homer to give Toronto its first lead of the night, but it was short-lived. Rosario blasted a go-ahead homer, scoring Eduardo Escobar. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/991499866713899008 Another positive note was that Petit went 2-for-4 in his Twins debut. And guess what? It’s Fernando Romero day tomorrow! So … everything’s still really, really, really great in Twins Territory. Really great. It’s still early, right? Right? Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Three Games Wed vs. TOR, 12:10 pm CT Thu at CHW, 7:10 pm CT Fri at CHW, 7:10 pm CT Last Three Games TOR 7, MIN 5: Twins Can’t Recover After Another Poor Start by Lynn CIN 8, MIN 2: Berrios Bombs as Twins Drop Series to Cincy MIN 3, CIN 1: Losing Streak Snapped as Odorizzi Delivers Quality Start More From Twins Daily Twins Minor League Report (5/1): No Hitter In Cedar Rapids Upstages Gonsalves Performance Can Fernando Romero Spark The Twins? Sano to DL, Petit Promoted, Enns Designated, Kinley Returned Royce Lewis is Finding His Stroke Something Has Clicked with Eduardo Escobar

Sano experienced tightness in his left hamstring during Friday's game and sat out the last three contests. Eduardo Escobar is expected to shift over to third base while Ehrie Adrianza takes over at shortstop. Sano's absence in the lineup has created a huge void. With Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco also inactive and Brian Dozier slumping, the Twins are severely lacking offensive punch against left-handers outside of the surging Escobar. The Blue Jays are scheduled to start right-handers the next two nights and they only feature one southpaw in their bullpen, so that flaw may not be exposed in the short term. Petit has hit .293/.323/.362 as the everyday shortstop for Rochester so far this season. He has 171 MLB games under his belt, previously playing for Oakland, Houston, the Yankees and Angels. He has a .643 OPS against major league pitching over his career. Enns, who was also in Rochester, has a 4.50 ERA and 1.65 WHIP in 20 innings so far this season. That's come with a rather underwhelming 11 strikeouts and 11 walks. The soon to be 27-year-old was acquired from the Yankees last July. His left-handedness and ability to throw multiple innings could make him interesting for teams combing the waiver wire. Kinley gave up nine earned runs while recording 10 outs for the Twins. He was removed from the 25-man roster, giving the Miami Marlins the opportunity to bring him back, though it's a little surprising the Twins couldn't work out a trade to keep Kinley in the org.