Tom Froemming

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) The Twins lineup is suddenly a finely-tuned machine. Over their six-game winning streak they’ve scored 42 runs, an average of seven per game. The big blows tonight were home runs from Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler, who both had three hits. Joe Mauer also had three hits for the second consecutive game. And, of course, Brian Dozier and Jorge Polanco had two hits each. I suspect Polanco won’t actually hit .500 for the rest of the season, but he’s now 16-for-32 this month, has a nine-game hitting streak and multiple hits in five-straight games. He was hitting .213 at the beginning of the month, that mark is already up to .242. Along with a stellar night offensively, the Twins also had a couple nice defensive highlights. Byron Buxton made a great diving catch on the warning track in the fourth inning. https://twitter.com/MLB/status/896171055429152768 Rhett (a.k.a. Wet Blanket) Bollinger pointed out that Buxton didn’t take the most efficient route, but that ball was smoked. It came off the bat at 109.2 mph, and Baseball Savant had the hit probability at 86 percent. https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/896166884088741888 Later on in the eighth inning, Kepler made a nice leaping catch at the wall that resulted in a double play. https://twitter.com/cjzer0/status/896193119619829760 Kyle Gibson was rolling right along until BAM, his start was derailed, as so often seems to be the case. In the fifth inning, he walked two batters, gave up two hits and uncorked a wild pitch. Gibby was pulled with runners on first and second with two outs and Miguel Cabrera due up. Ryan Pressly came in and got Cabrera to fly out to end the inning. Pressly also pitched a perfect sixth inning, finishing the night with his sixth-straight scoreless appearance. The bullpen did give up a run tonight, it was Trevor Hildenberger in the seventh, but it was after the Twins already built a four-run lead. Taylor Rogers pitched a scoreless eighth for his MLB-best 26th hold. Tyler Duffey turned in a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Gibson has been the beneficiary of some strong run support and help from the bullpen, but it’s worth noting that the Twins are now 10-10 in games he has started. Postgame With Buxton https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/896201050692009984 Twins W-L Record Overall: 58-56 (.509) Last 10: 8-2 (.800) Last 20: 10-10 (.500) Last 40: 19-21 (.475) Last 80: 39-41 (.488) AL Central Standings Cleveland 61-52 Minnesota 58-56 (-3.5) Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 60-53 WC2: Minnesota 58-56, Seattle 59-57 (tied, Mariners game still in progress) Defensive Lineups Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Saturday: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Detroit (Jordan Zimmermann), 5:10 pm CT Sunday: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Detroit (Matthew Boyd), 12:10 pm CT Next Series: vs. Cleveland Tues, Weds, Thurs.

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Now that Jorge Polanco is out of his funk, the only slumping Twins hitters are Joe Mauer (.194 average over last four weeks) and Byron Buxton (.559 OPS since returning from the DL). Well, better make that were Joe Mauer and Byron Buxton. Joe and Buxton had three hits each, Miguel Sano had a pair of hits and, of course, Polanco collected two more base knocks. Jorge is now 14-for-28 so far this month. I haven’t had the chance to fire that through my Internet machine to analyze, but that seems pretty darn good. Enns walked in a run with one out in the third inning, and that was enough to get the hook despite the Twins holding a four-run lead. He gave up two runs (one unearned, but due to his own error) on five hits and a walk while throwing just 53 pitches. The average velo on his fastball was 89.6 mph and his go-to secondary offering was his curveball, which averaged 79.8 mph, according to Baseball Savant. Enns will still be searching for his first MLB strikeout his next time out, whenever that may be, but he did cross another big milestone off the list. He got his first hit. Like, first hit ever as a professional. Enns had zero plate appearances in the minors, which was evident as he struck out trying to bunt in his first plate appearance. Things went much better his second time up. https://twitter.com/cjzer0/status/895815797599285249 Alan Busenitz was the first man out of the bullpen, making his first appearance since Aug. 1 and just his third outing since being recalled on July 24. Booze threw 2.2 perfect innings while striking out two batters. Sano made an excellent inning-ending double play to help him out of a jam in the third. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/895840206003339264 Ryan Pressly held Milwaukee scoreless in both the sixth and seventh innings, Tyler Duffey pitched a perfect eighth with two K's and Buddy Boshers capped off an impressive night for the bullpen with a scoreless ninth. Since the Brandon Kintzler trade, the Twins bullpen has given up just three earned runs over 31.1 innings (0.86 ERA). It’s so obvious now that trade was simply a motivational tactic by the new front office. Man, those guys are good. Both Cleveland and Kansas City lost again, putting the Twins back into second place in the AL Central, 3.5 games back. At the conclusion of the game, the Twins were just one game out in the Wild Card race, but Seattle’s game was still in progress. With all the victories lately, you’d think the Twins would loosen up a bit and have some fun. But, as evidence from this behind-the-scenes footage from FOX Sports North, the fellas have been all business: https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/895845091465543681 Postgame With Buxton https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/895850990624096256 Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/895857350539530240 Twins W-L Record Overall: 57-56 (.504) Last 10: 7-3 (.700) Last 20: 10-10 (.500) Last 40: 18-22 (.450) Last 80: 38-42 (.475) Defensive Lineups Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Friday: Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Detroit (Anibal Sanchez), 6:10 pm CT Saturday: Twins (Jose Berrios) at Detroit (Jordan Zimmermann), 5:10 pm CT Sunday: Twins (Ervin Santana) at Detroit (Matthew Boyd), 12:10 pm CT

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) There are very few things I feel I know for certain about baseball, and one of them is that the game is very difficult. That being the case, how in the world is it possible that Bartolo Colon can make it look this easy? Big Sexy cruised through 7.0 innings of work, holding the Brewers scoreless on five hits and a walk. He even struck out five batters. Milwaukee only managed to get two runners as far as second base against Colon, one of who was after the Twins had already built a 4-0 lead. You know what? Jorge Polanco and Brian Dozier have also been making baseball look really easy so far this month. Polanco got the scoring started with an RBI double in the second inning. He had a single later on in the game, and is now 12-for-24 so far in August. The second run came on yet another Dozier home run in the third inning, which was his fifth homer of the month. https://twitter.com/MLB/status/895452278186004480 The Twins tacked on two more runs in the seventh, one on a Joe Mauer reached-on- error and the other on a Miguel Sano double. Taylor Rogers pitched a perfect eighth and Matt Belisle struck out the side in the ninth. It was Belisle’s third outing in the past four games and it was not a save situation. Here’s hoping Paul Molitor doesn’t regret running him out there somewhere down the road. The victory gives Minnesota four straight wins, which is their longest winning streak since May 21-24. This streak has also put the Twins back to .500. Postgame With Polanco https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/895491100034572289 Twins W-L Record Overall: 56-56 (.500) Last 10: 6-4 (.600) Last 20: 9-11 (.450) Last 40: 18-22 (.450) Last 80: 38-42 (.475) Defensive Lineups Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Thursday: Twins (Dietrich Enns) at Milwaukee (Zach Davies), 7:10 pm CT https://twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/895480311164932097 The Twins acquired Enns in the trade that sent Jaime Garcia to the Yankees. He’ll be making his major league debut. The 26-year-old lefty has made just eight starts in Triple-A this season, posting a 2.38 ERA and 1.08 WHIP while averaging 8.1 K/9. To make room on the 25-man roster, poor Kennys Vargas is being optioned back to Rochester yet again. https://twitter.com/LaVelleNeal/status/895494846588301312 Friday: Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Detroit (Anibal Sanchez), 6:10 pm CT Saturday: Twins (TBD) at Detroit (Jordan Zimmermann), 5:10 pm CT

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) The Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a squeeze bunt. How adorable. After Kepler’s two-run homer, Milwaukee took back the lead in the top of the fourth, rallying for three runs. The Twins responded by scoring six runs in the bottom of that inning and never looked back. Rosario had a three-homer game this June, but tonight was the first two-homer game of his career. Kepler had really been struggling coming into tonight, posting a .162/.213/.344 (.469 OPS) line over his previous 80 plate appearances. Here’s hoping this gets him rolling. Speaking of guys on a roll, Dozier already has four homers in August, which is as many as he had in all of July. https://twitter.com/MLB/status/895124308405702656 Mejia lasted just three innings, as he was forced out of the game due to what the Twins are calling left lateral upper arm pain. That’s somehow the most specifically vague description of an injury I’ve ever heard. Mejia gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out three batters. Tyler Duffey, making his first appearance this month, gave up an unearned run over two innings. Gee came on to make his second appearance as a Twin and was terrific. He threw the final 4.0 innings to earn his first professional save on any level. He held the Brewers scoreless while giving up just three hits. He struck out five and didn’t walk anybody, giving him eight K's in 7.0 innings of work for the Twins. Dozier, Kepler and Rosario all had three hits each. Jorge Polanco was 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk. Byron Buxton stole a base, improving to 19-for-20 in stolen base attempts this season. That total of 19 doesn’t really seem like a ton, but the AL leader coming into tonight had just 27 steals. Joe Mauer also stole a base, his second of the season. Miguel Sano returned to the lineup and went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts. Postgame With Dozier https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/895130739045302273 Twins W-L Record Overall: 55-56 (.495) Last 10: 5-5 (.500) Last 20: 9-11 (.450) Last 40: 18-22 (.450) Last 80: 38-42 (.475) Defensive Lineups Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Wednesday: Twins (Bartolo Colon) at Milwaukee (Brandon Woodruff), 7:10 pm CT Woodfuff, 24, will be making just his second career start. The right-hander pitched 6.1 scoreless innings against Tampa Bay while striking out six. He had a 5.45 ERA in 15 Triple-A starts this year, but that was in the PCL with his home park being Colorado Springs. Colon will be making his 518th career start. Last time out, he threw his first complete game since 2015. Ryan Braun is 5-for-12 with a pair of home runs and a 1.333 OPS off Colon. Hernan Perez is 5-for-6 with a couple of doubles off him. Thursday: Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Milwaukee (Zach Davies), 7:10 pm CT Friday: Twins (TBD) at Detroit (Anibal Sanchez), 6:10 pm CT Saturday: Twins (TBD) at Detroit (Jordan Zimmermann), 5:10 pm CT Sunday: Twins (TBD) at Detroit (Matthew Boyd), 12:10 pm CT

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Rosario’s run made the difference, but the other big stories of this game were Jorge Polanco breaking out of his slump and the bullpen delivering another great performance. Polanco went 4-for-4 and hit a huge two-run double. It was his first multi-hit game since July 1 and just the second time all year he’s had more than two hits. Polanco had as many hits tonight as he did all last month. He’s opened August with a five-game hitting streak after going 4-for-51 (.078) in July. Paul Molitor has gone back to running Polanco out there at shortstop everyday again, and it appears to be paying off. Ervin Santana went 6.0 innings, was only credited with two earned runs of the four he gave up and had six strikeouts. For the second straight night, the bullpen shined bright. Trevor Hildenberger struck out the first two batters he faced before giving up a single to Ryan Braun. After Buddy Boshers recorded the last out of the seventh, it was Ryan Pressly who came in for the eighth. He walked the first man he faced on four pitches, but miraculously had a seven-pitch inning. His fifth pitch on the frame turned into a double play and he got the final out on a fly ball to end a two-pitch at bat. Molitor turned to Matt Belisle again for the save, despite the fact that he entered the night with a 9.85 ERA, 2.10 WHIP and 1.045 OPS against when working on zero days rest. Belisle answered the call and got the job done. Here’s the bullpen’s line from the past two games: 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K. All’s well that ends well, but this was not a very pretty win. The Twins had a difficult time scratching across runs tonight, going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position while leaving 11 men on base. They left runners on second and third in both the third and fourth innings, then left the bases loaded in the fifth. In the sixth, they got runners on first and second base with no outs. Those runners were stranded. In the seventh, Rosario was at second with no outs after Milwaukee right fielder Domingo Santana appeared to lose his fly ball in the lights. With no outs, Paul Molitor had Buxton bunt him over to third. Rosario managed to induce the balk, but the Twins left two more runners on that inning. https://twitter.com/cjzer0/status/894753770747248640 Along with struggling to deliver timely hits, the Twins also committed three errors. With two outs in the third inning, Polanco made a fielding error on what should have been the inning-ending ground out. That was the only really bad error -- the only one that should have resulted in an out. The others were on misplays that resulted in a player taking an extra base. That same third inning, Buxton mishandled a slow roller and turned a run-scoring single into a two-run hit. The next inning, Dozier was changed with a throwing error that allowed a runner to advance from second base to third. Luckily that runner was stranded. In the ninth, Buxton again misplayed a ball that allowed the runner to advance from first to second with two out. That was also originally scored an error, but was updated to a double after the conclusion of the game. Postgame With Rosario https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/894765565360742400 Twins W-L Record Overall: 54-56 (.491) Last 10: 5-5 (.500) Last 20: 8-12 (.400) Last 40: 18-22 (.450) Last 80: 38-42 (.475) Defensive Lineups Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Tuesday: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Brewers (Matt Garza), 7:10 pm, CT Old friend alert! After a couple of underwhelming and injury-riddled seasons, Garza is back to being an above average pitcher this year. He has a 3.68 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and hasn't given up more than two runs in five straight starts. Mejia is having an encouraging rookie season, but he's going to need to start pitching deeper into games. In his 17 starts this year, he's thrown 100 pitches just three times and has gotten an out in the sixth inning in six of those starts.

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) This game got off to a terrible start for the Twins, as Berrios gave up a three-run homer to Adrian Beltre and a two-run shot to Joey Gallo in the first inning. But the Twins answered with a pair of second inning homers of their own, as Kepler and Dozier each hit two-run blasts. Rosario provided a solo shot in the third to tie it up. https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/894329813103718402 The only run scored in the game that wasn’t on a homer was on a bang-bang play. With two outs in the fifth inning, Robbie Grossman hit a ball off the right field wall. Shin-Soo Choo played in beautifully, and nailed Grossman at second base. Luckily Eduardo Escobar touched home just before Robbie was tagged out to end the inning. But it doesn’t get much closer than that. https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/894330659996663810 This outing won’t look so good in Berrios’ game log, but he did a great job at collecting himself after a really ugly first frame. After a clean second inning for Jose, he had to sit through a 32-minute rain delay. He stayed in the game and retired the Rangers in order in both the third and fourth innings before facing five batters in a scoreless fifth inning. That effort, along with a great performance by the pen, allowed Berrios to pick up his 10th victory. Hildenberger pitched two scoreless innings and Taylor Rogers pitched a perfect eighth for his first shutout inning in seven tries. Belise needed just 13 pitches to record his first save since 2012, and just the sixth save of his 14-year career. He got Carlos Gomez to fly out, induced a ground out from Drew Robinson before striking out Choo to end the game. Miguel Sano, whose hand is still recovering from a hit by pitch from Friday, was out again. Dozier was forced to leave this game in the sixth inning due to an illness. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/894319931872784385 Twins W-L Record Overall: 53-56 (.486) Last 10: 4-6 (.400) Last 20: 8-12 (.400) Last 40: 17-23 (.425) Last 80: 38-42 (.475) Defensive Lineups Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Monday: Twins (Ervin Santana) vs. Milwaukee (Brent Suter) Tuesday: Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Milwaukee (Matt Garza) Next Series: Twins head to Milwaukee for two games.

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Hamels had his way with the Twins, carving up an “interesting” lineup. The veteran lefty pitched a complete game, with the only run he surrendered being unearned. Joe Mauer was getting an off day against a tough lefty and Miguel Sano was forced to sit after being hit in the wrist/hand by a pitch on Friday night. Both of their absences were 100 percent understandable, but since the Twins are still carrying an eight-man bullpen, Paul Molitor was very limited in his options for replacements. Kyle Gibson returned from Rochester, where he pitched quite well, to give up three runs over 5.1 innings. He threw more pitches (97) in that brief of an outing as Hamels did pitching a complete game (96). Gibby gave up seven hits, walked two batters and had four strikeouts. The Twins offense mustered just four hits. Jorge Polanco hit a double, the team’s only extra-base hit. That was especially nice to see, since he entered the night with a .465 OPS vs. lefties on the season. Dozier singled and drew the team’s only walk, but was also picked off while trying to steal second base to end the third inning. Eduardo Escobar hit a single in the fourth, but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double. Buxton scored the only run on a weak tapper to first after he stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error. The really fun highlights from this one came from the defense. The Twins, starting three shortstops in their infield in this game, resulted in some predictable problems in terms of generating offense, but the glove work was a thing of beauty. In the fourth inning, Jorge Polanco started a gorgeous inning-ending double play. https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/894011268914348033 Not to be outdone, Escobar responded by making three outstanding plays, all three of a different variety. In the fifth inning, he charged in on a ball and made a fine barehanded play. In the seventh, he climbed the ladder to keep a ball from getting into left field. To cap things off in the eighth, playing in the shift, he made a great diving stop. https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/894026808928161793 Ryan Pressly had a very encouraging outing, pitching two perfect innings while striking out a pair of batters. Taylor Rogers gave up a run in the ninth, and has now been scored on in six-straight appearances. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/894032332427886592 Twins W-L Record Overall: 52-56 (.481) Last 10: 3-7 (.300) Last 20: 7-13 (.350) Last 40: 17-23 (.425) Last 80: 37-43 (.463) Defensive Lineups Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games: Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Looking Ahead Sunday: Twins (Jose Berrios) vs. Texas (Nick Martinez), 1:10 pm CT It’ll be interesting to see if whether or not Sano is able to get back into action for this one. In three career plate appearances against Martinez, he’s hit two homers. Martinez was hammered for seven runs over 5.1 innings in his last start. Berrios has been able to do an outstanding job at keeping the ball in the park at Target Field this year. He’s given up just one home run at home and has a 2.61 ERA. On the road, he’s surrendered eight homers and has a 4.38 ERA. Jose was phenomenal in his last outing, pitching 7.0 two-hit innings while giving up one run. Monday: Twins (TBD) vs. Milwaukee (TBD) Tuesday: Twins (TBD) vs. Milwaukee (TBD) Next Series: Twins head to Milwaukee for two games.