Tom Froemming

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Of course, in order to get to 2,000 Mauer had to get 1,999. He delivered an RBI single in the third inning and also walked in the first. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/984629661387894784 Mauer has been one of the best hitters in baseball so far in this young season. He closed the night with a .412 batting average and 1.074 OPS. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/984631309820571648 Berrios was incredible. He tied a career high with 11 strikeouts and did not walk a batter over seven shutout innings. Of his 99 pitches, 73 were for strikes. On the season, Jose has 24 strikeouts, one walk and an ERA of 2.18. Wow. He’s on quite a roll heading into the Puerto Rico series. According to Baseball Savant, Berrios racked up 17 swinging strikes tonight, 11 of them on the 37 curveballs he threw. That pitch is developing into one of the more formidable offerings in baseball. Brian Dozier had an RBI double and scored twice. He has a hit in every game so far this season. Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario also doubled. Byron Buxton stole a pair of bases, giving him four on the year already. He didn't swipe his fourth base until May 18 last season. 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 vs. CHW 7:10 pm CT Sat vs. CHW 1:10 pm CT Sun vs. CHW 1:10 pm CT Last Three Games MIN 9, HOU 8: Max to the Rescue! MIN 4, HOU 1: Odorizzi, Twins Battle Their Way to Victory HOU 2, MIN 0: Failure to Launch More From Twins Daily Minors Report A Milestone For Minnesota And Mauer Logan Morrison: Bad or Just Bad Luck? Changing Timeline: Is It Time To Start Worrying About Santana?

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Here’s the walk-off homer: https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/984174861286338562 For a moment, it appeared the Twins were going to turn a game-ending double play in the top of the ninth. Instead, Brian Dozier’s throw sailed past Fernando Rodney, who was coming over to cover first base. The ball bounced into the stands allowing two runs to score, tying the game at 8-8. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/984203530071429121 And if we go back even earlier in this game, there was a point where it really seemed unlikely any ninth inning dramatics were going to place. Lance McCullers Jr. had a shut out going through three innings, but he fell apart in the fourth and the Twins pounced. The inning opened with back-to-back four-pitch walks followed by Ehrie Adianza and Brian Dozier each delivering RBI singles. McCullers has extreme reverse splits over his career (.754 OPS vs. RHB, .628 OPS vs. LHB), and entering this game left-handed hitters had only gone 3-for-19 against him in 2018 with all three hits being singles. Instead of going to the bullpen at that point, McCullers remained in the game to face a lefty-heavy portion of the Twins lineup. Joe Mauer walked to load the bases, then McCullers threw Eddie Rosario five-straight knuckle curves, the last of which was tattooed into the gap for a bases-clearing triple. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/984140033723588608 Logan Morrison followed with an RBI single and Kepler blasted a two-run homer to cap off an eight-run inning for the Twins. I enjoy a good bat flip, but Kepler may start a new trend with this savage mic drop he did after destroying that pitch: https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/984153865900539904 Pretty impressive display from that trio of left-handed swingers. Unfortunately, that big lead didn’t last long. Up 8-1, Kyle Gibson came back out in the top of the fifth and did some unraveling himself. After striking out the leadoff man, Gibson gave up four straight hits. Trevor Hildenberger took over with one out and the bases loaded. He could not stop the bleeding. Houston tallied four runs in the fifth to pull back to within three runs of the Twins. They scored again in the sixth. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/984203359480578048 Things could've gotten worst if it hadn't have been for Addison Reed. Zach Duke came in for the seventh inning and walked the leadoff batter. He struck out the next hitter, but then hit a guy and issued another free pass to load the bases. Reed got a massive strikeout and then induced an inning ending fly out from George Springer. Reed also pitched a scoreless eighth inning. All’s well that ends well, but there are a few guys who I’m sure will be offering to buy Kepler dinner tonight. This series figured to be a huge test for the Twins. I'd say they nailed it. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/984180348312403968 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 vs. CHW 7:10 pm CT Fri vs. CHW 7:10 pm CT Sat vs. CHW 1:10 pm CT Last Three Games MIN 4, HOU 1: Odorizzi, Twins Battle Their Way to Victory HOU 2, MIN 0: Failure to Launch SEA 11, MIN 4: That Escalated Quickly More From Twins Daily Logan Morrison: Bad or Just Bad Luck? Changing Timeline: Is It Time To Start Worrying About Santana? The Twins Almanac for April 8–14

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Houston scored 57 runs in their six games against the Twins last season, but in their first two contests of 2018 have been held to just three runs. The Astros lineup looks very similar to last season. The Twins pitching staff? Not so much. Odorizzi had some kind of magic working tonight. The Astros had two men on with one out in the first, but Odorizzi coaxed an inning-ending double play. He walked the leadoff man in the second. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any spells to ward off a haunting. That ended up being the lone runner who scored for Houston. Odorizzi walked two men in a scoreless third, but his most impressive wizardry came in the fifth inning. Alex Bregman hit a leadoff single, but he was soon picked off. Jose Altuve followed with a single himself, but Carlos Correa hit into an inning-ending double play. Odorizzi capped off the night with a 1-2-3 sixth. He walked five men, continuing a troubling trend for the Twins, but held the defending champs to one run on five hits over six frames. Neither Odorizzi nor Lance Lynn necessarily looked great against the Astros, but they showed what established, professional pitchers can do: Go to work even without their best command or stuff. Speaking of work, Twins hitters put Dallas Keuchel to task. He threw 101 pitches over just four innings. Minnesota scratched across a couple of runs in the first inning thanks to an Eduardo Escobar sac fly and a Robbie Grossman double. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/983868197290983424 Joe Mauer drew a bases loaded walk in the second, but from there the Twins struggled to deliver with men on base. Brian Dozier reached safely in all five of his plate appearances (1-for-1 with four walks) and Mauer was on base in four of his five PAs (2-for-3 with a pair of walks). The thing that kept the Twins from really blowing this one open was that Miguel Sano went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts and left 10 men on base. Fortunately, Odorizzi was tough as nails and the bullpen turned in another great outing. Ryan Pressly, Zach Duke and Fernando Rodney each pitched a scoreless inning to help lift the Twins to an impressive win. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/983911320708726784 Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/983921285158780938 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. HOU 12:10 pm CT Thu vs. CHW 7:10 pm CT Fri vs. CHW 7:10 pm CT Last Three Games HOU 2, MIN 0: Failure to Launch SEA 11, MIN 4: That Escalated Quickly MIN 4, SEA 2: Bombs and Bullpen More From Twins Daily Twins Minor League Report (4/10): Kernels Pop Peoria Behind Rortvedt Logan Morrison: Bad or Just Bad Luck? Changing Timeline: Is It Time To Start Worrying About Santana?

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) You see a lot of weird stuff in baseball, but this outing from Lance Lynn tonight was one of the stranger pitching performances I can remember in a while. He channeled his inner Francisco Liriano, striking out nine batters while only lasting five innings. It took Lynn 105 pitches just to make it that far and only 57 of which were strikes. Lynn walked four batters, but two of the three hits he gave up never left the infield and probably would’ve been outs more often than not. Eduardo Escobar had trouble picking up a slow roller at shortstop and Miguel Sano charged in to field a ball but failed to pluck it out of his glove. It’s always difficult to evaluate performances early in the season, especially for guys like Lynn who sign late, but this cold weather is making it even more difficult to draw conclusions. Lynn clearly did not have great command, he was either having issues gripping the ball or blister problems, but he made pitches when he needed to. You’ll take the five shutout innings any day of the week, but I’d imagine under normal circumstances this would have been an even better outing for Lynn. Or maybe it was just really hard to hit tonight. The teams combined to record far more strikeouts, 23, than base hits, 13. The Twins lost this game because they were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. In both the eighth and ninth innings, the Twins came close to slugging epic homers that would have changed the game (first Sano, then Byron Buxton), but it wasn’t meant to be. They both had the distance but sailed foul. Our friend Eddie Rosario had another adventurous night at the ballpark. In the sixth inning, a hard liner was hit right at him. It should have been an RBI single, but Rosie couldn’t keep it in front of him and was charged with a two-base error. Luckily that runner did not score. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/983556809943408640 In the eighth inning, a long fly ball hit off the wall, but it appear Eddie should have had a play on the ball. I’m not sure if he lost it at the last minute or what, but Rosario whiffed, the ball rolled quite a ways toward the infield and a runner came all the way around to score from first base. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/983557602129956865 I was accused of being unfairly hard on Rosario earlier in the week, so you all are gonna have to let me know what you thought of that play. He had to go a real long way to get to the ball, but it certainly looked to me like it was catchable. And even if he pulled up and just played it off the wall, that run probably wouldn’t have scored from first. Anyway, unlike the other night where we could laugh off Rosie’s antics because he made a huge game-changing throw, things got worse from there. The Twins loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning and on the first pitch of his at-bat, Rosario hit into an inning-ending double play. Rosario finished the game 0-for-4 with seven men left on base. Joining him in the 0-for-4 club were Sano, Buxton and Logan Morrison, who has started his Twins career 1-for-23. Do you remember how terrible Rondell White’s start was in 2006? Well, he had three hits through his first seven games with the Twins that season. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/983556871272382464 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Three Games Tue vs. HOU, 7:10 pm CT Wed vs. HOU, 12:10 pm CT Thu vs. CHW, 7:10 pm CT Last Three Games SEA 11, MIN 4: That Escalated Quickly MIN 4, SEA 2: Bombs and Bullpen MIN 7, PIT 3: Rosario Sparks Comeback, Inspires Some Head-Scratching More From Twins Daily Twins Minor League Report (4/9): KKKKKKKKKohl Stewart's 2018 Debut Twins vs Astros Series Preview Changing Timeline: Is It Time To Start Worrying About Santana?