Tom Froemming

Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Old friend Jaime Garcia … wait, can we even call him that? I mean, it was really just a one-night stand, right? Anyway, the guy the Twins traded for and then traded away after just one start absolutely killed them tonight. Since the trade, Garcia had struggled to find his footing with the Yankees. Over six starts he had a 4.60 ERA. There were no such struggles tonight. The veteran lefty gave up one unearned run over 5.2 innings and struck out nine batters. Below is a breakdown of Garcia's pitches on the evening via Baseball Savant. While he may have gotten a couple of generous called strikes, Twins hitters swung through a ton of pitches outside the zone. The Twins got a leadoff double from Jorge Polanco in the second inning, but failed to score. They got their first two batters on in the fifth. Eddie Rosario had gone first-to-third on an Eduardo Escobar single, with an error being charged to Aaron Judge. The Twins managed to scratch across a run that inning on a Robbie Grossman fielder’s choice. The Twins went down in order in both the sixth and seventh innings. The dominant Dellin Betances came in for the eighth inning and led things off by hitting Grossman with a pitch. Luckily it was an 84 mph curve and not a 100 mph fastball. Now one thing to note about Betances is that while he has been just as overpowering as ever, his control has been all over the place. After averaging 3.5 BB/9 last season, that number has spiked to 6.6 this year. Jason Castro was due up next, but Paul Molitor opted to bring in Zack Granite to bunt. The first pitch was high, but Granite got the bunt down on the second pitch of the at bat. Per Fangraphs, the Yankees’ win probability actually increased from 65.9 percent to an even 70 percent as the result of that bunt. Max Kepler pinch hit and was walked on four pitches to turn over the lineup. With Brian Dozier batting, Betances threw a wild pitch that advanced both runners. Dozier ended up walking after a nice eight-pitch battle. Betances exited, leaving the bases loaded. Just six of the 17 pitches he threw went for strikes and the only out he recorded was on the Granite sac bunt. Aroldis Chapman came in and struck out Joe Mauer on three pitches and got Byron Buxton to fly out to end the threat. Chapman pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. It was a shame, too, because the Twins pitched pretty well tonight. Ervin gave up a pair of runs over 5.2 innings, but Trevor Hildenberger and Taylor Rogers pitched out of jams they inherited and Tyler Duffey had a scoreless appearance. The Yankees got their first run on Judge’s 44th homer of the year. In the sixth, they had back-to-back one-out singles. Santana threw a wild pitch that allowed the runners to move up to second and third. After intentionally walking the next batter in hopes of setting up a double play, Todd Frazier hit a sac fly to score what went down as the game-winning run. AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 83-67 (+5.0) WC2: Twins 78-72 Angeles 76-73 (-1.5) Mariners 74-76 (-4.0) Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/909974001258086400 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Tue: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Yankees (CC Sabathia), 6:05 pm CT Wed: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Yankees (Masahiro Tanaka), 12:08 pm CT Thu: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) at Tigers (Myles Jaye), 6:10 pm ET Looking Back MIN 13, TOR 7: Mauer Grand Slam Among 4 Twins Homers In Comeback Victory TOR 7, MIN 2: Pub Crawlers Have Best Night Ever Despite Twins Loss TOR 4, MIN 3: Pressley Fails To Pounce, Is Victim Of A Bad Bounce

Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Gibson entered this game on quite the roll, having pitched to a 1.38 ERA over his previous five starts. Matt Trueblood of Baseball Prospectus did an excellent overview of Gibby’s turnaround, and among the reasons for it he cited the fact that Gibby has been doing a better job of mixing things up, deploying a five-pitch repertoire. He seemed to have a feel for zero of those pitches in the early innings of Sunday afternoon’s game. Gibson walked four batters in the first inning alone and Josh Donaldson took him deep twice, giving him back-to-back multi-homer games. The Blue Jays jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and it was starting to look like the Twins lead for the second Wild Card spot was in jeopardy. But the offense erupted for seven runs in the second inning and Gibson found himself as he cruised through the next four frames. The bats would add six more runs in the fifth inning, allowing a low-stress day for the bullpen. The five earned runs and five walks make Gibson’s line look pretty ugly, but he only gave up three hits and had eight strikeouts over 6.0 innings. He didn’t allow a single base runner from the third through sixth innings. Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton got the comeback started by hitting back-to-back homers. The big blast of the day came from Joe Mauer, who hit a grand slam in the fifth. Later that inning, Rosario addd his second home run of the day. https://twitter.com/Twins/status/909518709743587330 Mauer, Rosario and Buxton all finished with three hits. Byron also drew a walk. Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar and Jason Castro all had a pair of hits. Escobar added a walk and stole his fifth base of the season. AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 82-67 (+4.0) WC2: Twins 78-71 Angels 76-73 (-2.0) Mariners 74-76 (-4.5) Postgame With Dozier https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/909534081880178688 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Mon: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Yankees (Jaime Garcia) , 6:05 pm CT Tue: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Yankees (CC Sabathia), 6:05 pm CT Wed: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Yankees (Masahiro Tanaka), 12:08 pm CT Looking Back TOR 7, MIN 2: Pub Crawlers Have Best Night Ever Despite Twins Loss TOR 4, MIN 3: Pressley Fails To Pounce, Is Victim Of A Bad Bounce MIN 3, TOR 2: Buxton Blasts Walk-Off HR

Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) The Twins may have lost Saturday night, but it could have been worse if not for a brave pub crawler. In the middle of the fifth inning, with the Twins already down 3-0, a brave man recklessly tore through Minnie & Paul’s reminding every fan he could possibly get the attention of that the Twins were in the process of being no-hit. Some fans met this news with disgust, but the brave town crier carried out his job, undeterred by the negative reactions, for he knew somewhere, somehow the Baseball Gods were listening. Thankfully, the brave work of that unknown man (it was Nick Nelson) paid off, and the no-hitter was effectively jinxed. Eddie Rosario blasted a homer run in the bottom of the fifth, his 24th of the season. What of the rest of the game? Well, never mind that. Rest happily knowing that there was many a pub crawler who had an excellent evening watching a meaningful Minnesota Twins game on a wonderful mid-September evening. Looking back to March, could you have asked for anything better than that? Yes, the Twins lost. Yes, the stadium was filled with Blue Jays fans. Does that make us all losers by association? … Wait, what were we talking about again? AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 82-66 (+5.0) WC2: Twins 77-71 Angels 76-72 (-1.0) Seattle 74-75 (-3.5) Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/909243540194058240 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Sun: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Blue Jays (Joe Biagini), 1:10 pm CT Mon: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Yankees (Jaime Garcia) , 6:05 pm CT Tue: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Yankees (CC Sabathia), 6:05 pm CT Looking Back TOR 4, MIN 3: Pressley Fails To Pounce, Is Victim Of A Bad Bounce MIN 3, TOR 2: Buxton Blasts Walk-Off HR MIN 3, SDP 1: Rosario Hits Walk-Off HR in 10th Inning

Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) With the game tied at 3-3 with two outs in the seventh inning, Josh Donaldson sent a comebacker right toward Ryan Pressly. The ball ricocheted off Pressly’s leg and shot toward the hole between shortstop and third base. Jorge Polanco, who had broken toward where the ball had been hit, could merely watch the go-ahead run cross the plate as he retrieved the ball. The Blue Jays bullpen did an excellent job of making that one-run advantage hold up, combining for 2.2 perfect innings. The Twins led 3-1 heading into the top of the sixth, but Colon started to run out of gas and Pressly couldn’t quite contain the Jays. Big Sexy gave up a solo homer to Donaldson in the sixth, but had a very manageable pitch count. He opened the seventh by walking the leadoff man and giving up a double to the next batter. On the very first pitch Pressly threw, he was unable to bounce on a bunt (there goes that word again), and gave up a single. With the bases juiced, he managed to retire the next two batters, but Donaldson’s tough-luck comebacker was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Colon gave up four earned runs on five hits and two walks over 6.0 innings. He had just one strikeout. Brian Dozier was 2-for-4 and hit his 31st homer, which was the Twins lone extra-base hit. Byron Buxton was also 2-or-4 and stole his 26th base. Tyler Duffey had been scuffling, but he held Toronto scoreless over the final two innings. AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 81-66 (+4.0) WC2: Twins 77-70 Angels 74-72 (-2.5)* Friday game still in progress when this published. Seattle 74-74 (-3.5) Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/908897593274507265 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Sat: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Blue Jays (Marco Estrada), 6:10 pm CT Sun: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Blue Jays (Joe Biagini), 1:10 pm CT Mon: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Yankees (Sonny Gray) , 6:05 pm CT Looking Back MIN 3, TOR 2: Buxton Blasts Walk-Off HR MIN 3, SDP 1: Rosario Hits Walk-Off HR in 10th Inning MIN 16, SDP 0: MIN 16, SDP 0: Twins Hit 7 HRs, Set New Record

Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Might as well get right to it, here’s video of the walk-off homer: https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/908541786573881345 I think these guys are going to need some more Dubble Bubble. What a moment for Buxton. This is exactly the kind of stuff that makes being a fan so much fun. We’ve watched this young man endure a lot of difficulties and make countless adjustments. All those struggles make a moment like that all the more sweet. Jorge Polanco drove in the Twins first two runs with a bases-loaded single in the fifth inning. Jose Berrios held the Blue Jays to one run on five hits over 5.2 innings. He walked four batters and had five strikeouts. Buddy Boshers (0.1 IP), Alan Busenitz (0.1), Trevor Hildenberger (1.0 IP) and Taylor Rogers (0.2 IP) combined for 2.1 shutout innings. Hildy struck out all three men he faced. Here’s where we get to the daily "complain about bunting" section of the recap. Seems like I can’t get through one of these things without bringing up the “b” word. With the Twins leading 2-1, Buxton opened the eighth inning by drawing a walk. Eddie Rosario laid down a sac bunt, but Toronto committed a throwing error that allowed Rosie to reach safely. With two on and nobody out, Kennys Vargas was due up. Given that Rosario bunted with a runner on first and no out, this seemed like a gimme that Paul Molitor would be bunting with two on and no outs. Zack Granite, among others, was available off the bench if needed. Instead, Vargas hit into a double play. If you’ve been keeping up with the game recaps, you know I’m not a fan of bunting. But there definitely are situations in which it makes more sense than others. Having an opportunity to get a man on third base with one out in the eighth inning of a one-run game is probably among the strongest arguments one could make for bunting. And we know Molitor LOVES bunting, so it’s especially odd that wasn’t the play there. It almost feels like Molitor is managing just by his gut, because there doesn’t seem to be any logic to why you’d have Rosario bunt, but not the next batter. There's also an argument to be made that they should’ve just had Buxton attempt to steal second in the first place. He is 25-for-26 on stolen base attempts this year. Anyway, the Twins did not score that inning. Belisle blew the save in the next half inning and it was feeling like that was huge blunder. Thank goodness Buxton delivered and just made that whole fiasco something we can have fun bantering about as opposed to having a discussion that would give the excellent moderators here (thanks for everything, by the way) a whole lotta cleanup work. AL Wild Card Standings Cleveland will never lose a game ever again. I don’t wanna talk about it. WC1: Yankees 80-66 (+3.0) WC2: Twins 77-69 Angels 74-72 (-3.0) Seattle 74-73 (-3.5) Postgame With Buxton https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/908538138515070978 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Fri: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Blue Jays (J.A. Happ), 7:10 pm CT Sat: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Blue Jays (Marco Estrada), 6:10 pm CT Sun: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Blue Jays (Joe Biagini), 1:10 pm CT Looking Back MIN 3, SDP 1: Rosario Hits Walk-Off HR in 10th Inning MIN 16, SDP 0: MIN 16, SDP 0: Twins Hit 7 HRs, Set New Record KC 11, MIN 3: Big Dud from Big Sexy & Co.

Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/908181665700343811 We knew it was unlikely the Twins would explode for double-digit runs again, but one night after slugging seven homers they really struggled to scratch across runs. Their lone run prior to extras came in the second inning. Rosario hit a leadoff double. He scored, but it was thanks to a wild pitch followed by a throwing error. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/908172504254074880 The first inning ended with a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out. Jorge Polanco, who had a full count, watched strike three go by and Joe Mauer was easily thrown out trying to steal. Polanco led off the fourth inning with a single, which was followed by an Eddie Rosario walk. But Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and Eduardo Escobar were retired in order. The Twins got their lead off man aboard again in the sixth, as Mauer singled. Polanco bunted him over to second, but that’s as far as Mauer would go. Again, Polanco was the number three hitter tonight. He bunted. This is a regular thing now, I guess. In the seventh, the Twins once again got their leadoff man on. Kepler singled, Escobar followed suit and Jason Castro was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. Robbie Grossman grounded into a double play and Brian Dozier struck out to end the threat. In the eighth, Polanco hit a one-out single and Buxton dropped a bunt for a two-out hit. With a tough lefty in Brad Hand on the mound, Ehire Adrianza pinch hit for Kepler (.129/.198/.168 vs LHP this season), but could not deliver. But this team, as it has all year, just kept fighting. As much fun as I like to poke at Paul Molitor for the ridiculous bunting, his club has clearly taken heart to his message of no retreat, no surrender. Mauer hit a one-out single in the 10th before Rosario ended it with two down. Postgame With Rosario https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/908177658793533442 Standings The Yankees beat Tampa Bay, and remain 3.0 games in front of the Twins. At the time this published, the Twins held a 2.5 game advantage over the Angels, but they were beating the Astros 9-0. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Thu: Twins (Jose Berrios) vs. Blue Jays (Brett Anderson), 7:10 pm CT Fri: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Blue Jays (J.A. Happ), 7:10 pm CT Sat: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Blue Jays (Marco Estrada), 6:10 pm CT Looking Back MIN 16, SDP 0: Twins Hit 7 HRs, Set New Record KC 11, MIN 3: Big Dud from Big Sexy & Co. KC 5, MIN 2: Molitor Pushes All the Wrong Buttons in Loss

Snapshot (chart via Fangraphs) Brian Dozier got things started with his 30th homer of the year to lead off the first inning. Then it was Jorge Polanco in the second, Jason Castro in the third, Eddie Rosario in the fourth, Castro again in the fifth, Eduardo Escobar in the sixth and finally Kennys Vargas in the seventh inning. Seeing is believing: https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/907802686552145920 Along with the dingers, there was plenty more to get excited about. Kyle Gibson continued to roll, throwing 6.0 shutout innings of four-hit ball while striking out six batters. Niko Goodrum got his first major league hit, which was well received by the home crowd. Reliever Gabriel Moya made his major league debut and recorded his first strikeout in a clean inning. And both Byron Buxton and Zack Granite made great catches up against the wall in center field. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/907804371676692480 It doesn’t get any better than this. All together, Castro had three hits, four RBI and scored three runs. Dozier also had a three-hit game, recording his fourth triple of the year. Rosario, Robbie Grossman and Ehire Adrianza all had two hits apiece. Standings The Yankees lost, so the Twins now trail New York by 3.0 games for the top Wild Card spot. The Angels trail the Twins by 1.5 games for the second spot, their game was still underway at the time this published. Postgame With Castro https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/907806457533407232 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Wed: Twins (Ervin Santana) vs. Padres (Dinelson Lamet), 7:10 pm CT Thu: Twins (Jose Berrios) vs. Blue Jays (Brett Anderson), 7:10 pm CT Fri: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Blue Jays (J.A. Happ), 7:10 pm CT Looking Back KC 11, MIN 3: Big Dud from Big Sexy & Co. KC 5, MIN 2: Molitor Pushes All the Wrong Buttons in Loss MIN 8, KC 5: Rosario Drives in 4, Hildenberger Holds it Together