Tom Froemming

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Bartolo Colon limited Cleveland to three runs over 5.0 innings, but was incredibly lucky to do so. All three runs were scored on solo homers, but Colon also walked four batters and gave up seven hits. In the first inning, Cleveland got a man on second with no outs and could not score. In the second, they loaded the bases with nobody out and could not score. They had runners at the corners and one out in the third, but Bartolo induced an inning-ending double play. Their luck turned in the seventh inning. Alan Busenitz retired the first two batters of the inning, completing 1.2 frames of scoreless work, as Buddy Boshers was brought in to face lefty Jay Bruce. Buddy got up 0-2, ever so close to closing out the inning, but ended up walking Bruce. Carlos Santana hit a swinging bunt single before Austin Jackson blasted a home run to put Cleveland up 6-1. Since returning from the DL in last July, Salazar has been one of the most dominating pitchers in baseball. He struck out 10 Twins over 7.0 innings, allowing just three hits and he didn’t walk anybody. Not much anyone could’ve done to overcome that kind of a pitching performance. Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler each had a double and Buxton had an RBI single. Those were the Twins only hits of the game. They drew no walks. Not much offense. There were, however, a couple of the best defensive plays the Twins have made all season Tuesday night. Buxton made the first Torii Hunter-esque theft of his career, robbing Edwin Encarnacion of a homer. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/897641735848964097 And Miguel Sano made probably the finest play of his career, featuring a loooong throw across the diamond. https://twitter.com/MLB/status/897648396680531969 Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/897662188378357760 Twins W-L Record Overall: 59-58 (.504) Last 10: 7-3 (.700) Last 20: 10-10 (.500) Last 40: 19-21 (.475) Last 80: 39-41 (.488) AL Central Standings Cleveland 65-52 Kansas City 60-58 (-5.5)* Minnesota 59-58 (-6.0) AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 63-55 WC2: Kansas City 60-58*, Angels 61-59 Minnesota 59-58 (-0.5) Tampa Bay 60-61 (-1.5) Baltimore 59-60 (-1.5)* Seattle 59-61 (-2)* *Tuesday game still in progress 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 (Kyle Gibson) vs. Cleveland (Carlos Carrasco), 7:10 pm CT THU: Twins (Jose Berrios) vs. Cleveland (Mike Clevinger), 12:10 pm CT FRI: Twins (TBD) vs. Arizona (TBD), 7:10 pm CT Question of the Day Glen Perkins has joined the Twins, and it appears he’ll be activated off the DL sometime soon. Who would you remove from the bullpen to make room for Perkins?

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Brian Dozier led off the game with a home run, his sixth big fly already this month. That’s now 19 of Dozier’s 23 homers this season that have been solo shots. Miguel Sano also homered, driving a two-run shot in the third inning. In contrast, 15 of Sano’s 26 homers have been with runners on. In between those two taters was a whole lotta bunting. The Twins offense has been hotter than a furnace, but they decided to give away a bunch of outs early in this one. They bunted three times in the first three innings, one of which was a successful squeeze bunt by Byron Buxton and one was an unsuccessful sacrifice by Robbie Grossman in which the lead runner was thrown out. They were feeling awfully generous on defense, too. Twins were up 4-1 in the fifth inning, but opened that frame with a Miguel Sano missed-catch error at first base. Things got really weird from there, as Chris Gimenez had an implosion behind the plate. Four balls got by Gimenez in the inning, three were scored passed balls and the other was credited as a wild pitch to Ervin Santana. To put that into perspective, Jason Castro has just four passed balls all season. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/896825314499842048 That fifth inning was Santana’s last, as he gave up four runs (two earned) on seven hits. He walked two batters, hit another and had six strikeouts. The score stayed knotted at 4-4 until the eighth. The inning opened with back-to-back walks. Jorge Polanco, just about the hottest hitter in baseball, bunted to move the runners up before Buxton hit the go-ahead single into center field. Ehire Adrianza followed with a sac fly to put the Twins up two runs. After a dreadful Saturday night, the bullpen got back on track. Alan Busenitz pitched a scoreless sixth. Tyler Duffey followed with 1.2 scoreless innings. He entered the game in a tie for fifth among AL relievers in most appearances recording more than three outs. Trevor Hildenberger, pitching for the third straight day, recorded the final out of the eighth and stayed out there for the ninth inning to earn his first career save. Eddie Rosario has been outstanding this season, and added two more hits today, but he also provides plenty of “what the …” moments. Sunday, he struck out on a ball that was thrown at his face. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/896820373513228288 Postgame With Hildenberger https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/896839221599641601 Twins W-L Record Overall: 59-57 (.509) Last 10: 8-2 (.800) Last 20: 10-10 (.500) Last 40: 19-21 (.475) Last 80: 40-40 (.500) AL Central Standings Cleveland 63-52 Minnesota 59-57 (-4.5) AL Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 61-54 WC2: Minnesota 59-57, Angels 60-58 (tied, Sunday LAA game in progress) Seattle 59-59 (-1.0, Sunday game in progress) Kansas City 58-58 (-1.0, Sunday game 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 Mon: Off Tue: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Cleveland (Danny Salazar), 7:10 pm CT Wed: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Cleveland (Carlos Carrasco), 7:10 pm CT

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Thanks in large part to a James McCann grand slam, the Tigers jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning. This game appeared to be headed toward another one of those ugly, one-sided losses we were accustomed to seeing earlier this season, but a monster third inning put the Twins right back in it. Joe Mauer cleared the bases with a double to get the Twins on the board and Eddie Rosario crushed a game-tying homer. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/896541331341881344 The Twins offense continued to roll, as they built an 11-6 lead by the sixth inning. Things would tilt back in the Tigers favor from there. Detroit scratched across a run off Dillon Gee in the seventh inning before tallying three more in the eighth, as Trevor Hildenberger allowed two runners he inherited from Gee to score and let in a run of his own to make it 11-10. The Twins managed to load the bases in the top of the ninth, but Miguel Sano struck out swinging for the third out. You could feel the momentum shift at Comerica Park. Matt Belisle, who bailed out Hildy by getting the final out of the eighth inning, opened up the the ninth by giving up a leadoff single to Mikie Mahtook. Belisle then fell behind Upton and surrendered the walk-off homer. https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/896559837290672129 It was too bad the pitching couldn’t hold it together, because this was a banner night for the Twins bats. Everybody in the starting lineup had a multi-hit game other than Jorge Polanco, which was pretty ironic, since Polanco entered the night with five-straight multi-hit games. Jorge still managed to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton and Joe Mauer all homered, and Joe drove in five runs for the first time since 2010. Jason Castro was 3-for-4 with a walk. Brian Dozier also had three hits. As impressive as it’s been to watch Polanco, Dozier and now Mauer break out over the past couple weeks, Rosario deserves a ton of credit for being such a consistent contributor. After getting off to a bit of a slow start, Rosie had at least an .800 OPS in May, June and July. That mark is up over 1.000 so far in August. But, again, as exciting an offensive output it was, the end result was pretty depressing thanks to a horrific night for the pitching staff. Jose Berrios gave up a grand slam in the first inning and left this one after just 3.1 innings pitched. He gave up six runs on six hits and two walks. He didn’t strike anybody out, either. Ryan Pressly entered with the Twins up 7-6, but Detroit had runners on first and second base. He retired both batters he faced to protect the lead. Gee shut out Detroit over the fifth and sixth innings before everything fell apart over those final three frames. The inning that really hurt the Twins was the eighth, and you can’t help but wonder if things may have ended up differently had they have been able to turn this double play: https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/896565240703463425 Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/896556441154199552 Twins W-L Record Overall: 58-57 (.504) Last 10: 7-3 (.700) Last 20: 10-10 (.500) Last 40: 19-21 (.475) Last 80: 39-41 (.488) AL Central Standings Cleveland 62-52 Minnesota 58-57 (-4.5) Kansas City 58-58 (-5.0) Wild Card Standings WC1: Yankees 61-54 WC2: Minnesota 58-57, Angels 59-58*, Seattle 59-58* (all tied) Tampa Bay 59-59 (-0.5) Kansas City 58-58 (-0.5) *Saturday game still in progress. The Angels and Mariners are playing each other, so by the end of the night one of them will jump above the Twins. 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 (Ervin Santana) at Detroit (Matthew Boyd), 12:10 pm CT Monday: OFF Tuesday: Twins (TBD) vs. Cleveland (Danny Salazar), 7:10 pm CT

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