Tom Froemming

The Twins lost a tough game at Houston, but there were plenty of bright spots across the minor league system on Sunday. Fernando Romero delivered another strong, albeit brief start and Brent Rooker hit his seventh homer. Plus, the Kernels finally busted out of their hitting slump, scoring eight runs in a victory. Oh, and how could I forget, it was Sean and Poppen (h/t Jeremy Nygaard) in Fort Myers once again.Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Sunday. RED WINGS REPORT Lehigh Valley 4, Rochester 3 Box Score J.R Murphy hit a solo homer, but the Red Wings could muster only three other hits and Tim Melville had his worst start for Rochester. Over 4.1 innings, Melville gave up four earned runs on seven hits. All that’s a shame, too, because the bullpen was phenomenal. Craig Breslow retired both batters he faced, one on strikes. Mason Melotakis gave up a hit over his 0.2 shutout innings. Alan Busenitz was particularly impressive, striking out four of the five men he faced. John Curtiss finished things off with a perfect inning with two strikeouts. The Wings were rallying in the eighth, as Matt Hague reached on an error with one out, and would scored on an Edgar Corcino double. ByungHo Park drew a walk, but the Iron Pigs were able to turn two on a Tommy Field grounder to third to end the threat. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 5, Jacksonville 2 Box Score Fernando Romero held the Jumbo Shrimp to two runs over his five innings of work, striking out six in the process. Romero threw 82 pitches, 54 for strikes. It was the third-straight start in which Romero pitched exactly five innings despite not eclipsing even 90 pitches. It would appear he’ll be on a pretty strict innings limit for the rest of the season. The Lookouts were trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the second, but a big two-out rally led to Chattanooga tallying three runs in the inning. Travis Harrison had the big hit of that frame, a two-run double. Nick Gordon had a nice night at the plate, going 2-for-5 with an RBI and a stolen base, but he also made his 19th error of the season. Jonathan Rodriguez and Max Murphy also had two hits each. Ryan Eades followed Romero with three shutout innings and Paul Clemens pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 6, St. Lucie 3 Box Score The Miracle improved to 17-5 in the second half behind another great start from Sean Poppen, who lowered his ERA with Fort Myers to 0.55. Poppen held the Mets to one run over 6.1 innings and racked up five strikeouts while walking just one batter. Zander Wiel hit a two-run homer, his eighth of the season, and the following players got two hits a piece: Sean Miller, Mitchell Kranson and Jaylin Davis. Kranson has had a nice first 20 games since being called up from Cedar Rapids, hitting .304/.360/.430 (.791 OPS). Tom Hackimer, who has a 0.96 ERA of his own, got the last two outs of the seventh. Alex Robinson gave up two runs over the final two innings, striking out three in the process. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 8, South Bend 4 Box Score The Kernels snapped a season-high five-game losing streak with a much-needed offensive explosion. Cedar Rapids had scored just four runs total in their previous six games, but they managed to tally two runs before even recording an out in this one. Aaron Whitefield led off the game with a walk and stole his 20th base of the season. Joe Cronin followed with a walk and Travis Blankenhorn delivered a two-run triple. Lewin Diaz plated Blankenhorn on a groundout. Diaz was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Amaurys Minier hit a three-run homer in the third inning, his second of the year with the Kernels Anthony Marzi had a three-run lead before even taking the mound. He improved to 3-0 on the season by holding the Cubs to two runs over six innings. Marzi, who the Twins signed out of the Atlantic League, now has a 1.37 ERA and 0.71 WHIP over his first three appearances in the organization. E-TWINS E-NOTES Greenville 8, Elizabethton 4 Box Score Brent Rooker hit his seventh home run of the season in just his 21st game played, but it was one of only four hits on the day for the Twins. Shortstop Jordan Gore delivered the other big knock, a three-run double. Edwar Colina gave up three runs over 4.1 innings, Rickey Ramirez was rocked for four runs in his 1.2 innings and Jared Finkel gave up a run over two innings. This was a big game in the landscape of the Appalachian League, as the loss dropped E-Town to a half-game back of Greenville in the West division. GCL TWINS TAKES Scheduled off day. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Sean Poppen, Fort Myers (6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Amaurys Minier, Cedar Rapids (1-for-4, HR, BB, 3 RBI, 1 R). MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Charlotte, 4:05 pm CT, David Hurlbut (3.44 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) Rochester “at” Charlotte (in Rochester), Game 2, Aaron Slegers (3.75 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) Chattanooga vs. Jacksonville, 10:15 am CT, Felix Jorge (3.14 ERA, 1.30 WHIP) Fort Myers vs. St. Lucie, 10:05 am CT, TBD Cedar Rapids at South Bend, 12:05 pm CT, Eduardo Del Rosario (4.48 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) Elizabethton at Greenville, 6:00 pm CT, Huascar Ynoa (5.06 ERA, 1.81 WHIP) GCL Twins vs. GCL Rays, 11:00 am CT, TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Sunday's games. Click here to view the article

Kyle Gibson against the Houston Astros looked like a nightmare matchup for the Twins on paper, but against all odds Gibby delivered what was honestly a pretty solid start. The Twins also slugged a pair of homers off Houston starter Mike Fiers, but a series of suboptimal defensive plays cost the Twins dearly in this one.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx716.png Download attachment: TopPlays716.png Gibson’s line of six innings pitched and four earned runs doesn’t look very impressive, but the biggest hit he gave up was on a ball that Byron Buxton catches in his sleep. With Buxton on the DL and Zack Granite on the bench, it was Eddie Rosario manning center field. It’s not like Eddie made an error, and to be fair he’s accustomed to judging balls off the bat in left field, but he did not take the best route to the ball on Nori Aoki’s big two-run double. The fastest way from Point A to Point B is a straight line, right? Well, Rosario’s first few steps were more straight toward right field than back to toward the wall, costing him an opportunity to possibly make the catch. Adrianza’s homer was his first as a Twin, and he was the only guy on the team with a multi-hit game. Mike Fiers racked up 11 strikeouts without issuing a single walk. The Twins managed to scratch across a run in the ninth of closer Ken Giles, but the comeback attempt fell short. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen716.png Monday Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Yankees (TBA), 7:10 pm CT The Yankees had a doubleheader Sunday in Boston, so this may be a good time to catch the Bronx Bombers. Those games were started by CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka. Luis Severino pitched Saturday. In five starts since getting destroyed by Seattle, Mejia has a 2.79 ERA over 29 innings. He’s pitched into the sixth inning three-straight starts. The big lefty has struggled at Target Field this season, posting a 5.62 home ERA vs. 2.31 on the road. Click here to view the article

His main issue has been a rising hard contact rate. That number has increased from 26.6% to 33.6% to 41.9% over the past three seasons. That is the sixth-worst hard contact rate among all relievers this year (Pressly is second at 45.6 and Breslow is fourth at 42.6, yay Twins!!!). Duffey's fastball averages 91 mph, so it's not like he's going to overpower hitters. His K:BB ratio is solid, 3.50, so it's all about contact management. He actually has had reverse platoon splits the last two years, which is really weird for a guy known for a great curve and a subpar changeup. For his career, RHB have an .899 OPS off him compared to just .694 for LHB. Looking at his zone profiles over at Brooks Baseball, it looks like RHBs are killing him anytime he pitches inside. My guess is that batters are just laying off most anything that looks like it's going to the outer half, basically eliminating that curve ball, and sitting on a fastballs on the inner half. Long story short: He's gotta find a better way to keep hitters off balance. This was really strange. My initial reaction was that somebody -- Castro or maybe Santana -- should've been shouting to Mauer to let the throw come through, but the play was basically right in front of him. He should have been able to tell there was going to be a close play. My guess is Mauer just lost awareness of where he was in the field and was under the impression he was closer to the mound. I think the runner would've been out, but thank goodness at the end of the day it didn't matter. That's most likely his end role, but it's pretty difficult to make a definitive judgement on a guy after 15 plate appearances, especially his first 15 PAs as a big leaguer. The five walks definitely stand out, but Ervin has pitched to a 3.08 ERA over his last four starts (26.1 IP). Again, I wouldn't put too much stock into Granite's first 15 plate appearances. While there have been plenty of complaints about his lack of good contact, at least he's putting the ball in play. He has yet to strikeout.

The Twins managed to pull out a win at Houston despite Ervin Santana not being at his sharpest. Brian Dozier hit another leadoff homer, but Eddie Rosario had the big hit of the night, getting a two-run double on a batted ball that would result in an out 86% of the time. Taylor Rogers got his league-leading 22nd hold to set up for Brandon Kintzler, who recorded his 25th save.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx715.png Download attachment: TopPlays715.png Rogers has quietly established himself as one of the best setup men in all of baseball, and he came up huge tonight for the Twins. Tyler Duffey was called upon to handle the seventh inning. He retired the first two batters he faced, but eventually loaded the bases. Just when it was starting to feel like another bullpen implosion, Paul Molitor turned to Rogers, who escaped the jam by getting right-handed hitter Yuli Gurriel to ground out to Dozier. Rogers staying in for the eighth and set the Astros down in order. Brian Dozier slugged a home run on the very first pitch of this game, hitting a leadoff homer for the second-straight night. If the first two games are any indication, we could see Dozier have another special second half. Santana walked five batters, but he limited the damage to two runs over his six innings of work. Combined with his Memorial Day start, Ervin has now surrendered just three earned runs over 13 innings pitched against the deadly Astros lineup this season. Houston left the bases loaded in the second, fourth and seventh innings. Santana got a lot of help from his defense as Joe Mauer made a couple of nice plays in his first game back from the DL and Miguel Sano made an outstanding, run-saving catch in the fourth inning. Postgame With Dozier Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen715.png Sunday Twins (Kyle Gibson) at Houston (Mike Fiers), 1:10 pm CT Fiers is on a nice roll, registering a 2.65 ERA while holding opponents to a .636 OPS over his last 10 starts. He gave up multiple homers in five of his first seven starts of the season, since then he’s only served up three long balls in 10 starts. Dozier has a pair of homers off Fiers. In 10 starts since being called back up from Rochester, Gibson has a 5.40 ERA, has given up 10 homers and has 35 strikeouts against 25 walks. It’s only a sample of 63 plate appearances, but current Houston hitters have combined to hit just .179/.254/.286 (.540 OPS) off Gibson. Click here to view the article

FYI, just updated this to include video of the Polanco error.

The 2016 version of Jose Berrios showed up, unfortunately, as the Twins were once again handed a lopsided loss at the hands of Houston. Brian Dozier got things started off great, clubbing a lead-off homer, but the Astros eventually built a 10-1 lead and cruised to victory.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx715.png Download attachment: TopPlays715.png If Twins fans were a little shell shocked heading into a series at Houston, you couldn't blame them. Not only are the Astros the best team in baseball, but they also destroyed the Twins in a sweep at Target Field earlier this year. Welp, things didn’t go much better at Houston. Berrios lasted just 1.2 innings, giving up seven runs, though only two were earned. Jorge Polanco made an error with one out in the second inning, which ended up being an eight-run frame for the Astros. Dozier had an excellent game, going 2-for-5 with four RBI, but he was one of very few bright spots for the Twins. Zack Granite got his first MLB hit, a double, and drew a walk. Phil Hughes gave up three runs over 1.1 innings, but the rest of the bullpen was solid. Ryan Pressly (1.0 IP), Buddy Boshers (1.2 IP), Trevor Hildenberger (1.1 IP) and Matt Belisle (1.0 IP) combined for five scoreless innings. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen715.png Saturday Twins (Ervin Santana) at Houston (Joe Musgrove), 6:10 pm CT Musgrove has been scuffling of late, giving up 18 runs over his last 15 innings pitched. His changeup, which he throws about 12 percent of the time, has been getting crushed of late. Opponents are slugging over 1.000 on that pitch since the start of June per Brooks Baseball. Ervin ended the first half on a high note, throwing a complete game in a 2-1 loss to the Angels. Santana pitched well against the Astros on Memorial Day, holding them to two runs (one earned) over 7.0 innings. The bullpen blew that game in spectacular fashion, giving up 14 runs over the final two frames. Carlos Correa is 5-for-7 with a home run and a double off Ervin over his career. Click here to view the article

If that's the case, expect the Twins to sign Pablo Sandoval, who was DFA'd this morning.

In regards to Gonsalves' options, I'm really not too concerned. You don't wanna go around burning up option years all willy-nilly, but it's difficult for me to see a scenario in which down the road we're bummed we can't send Gonsalves back down another time. If his option years are used this year, next year and in 2019, I think everything would be ok. Then again, he'll still only be 25 on opening day 2020, so who knows. If they want to be cautious/conservative, I can't blame them for that, but it's not the route I'd go.

Season totals between Cedar Rapids (22.1 IP) and Fort Myers (16.2 IP): 0.92 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 14.3 K/9. That K/9 is tied for eighth-best in all of minor league baseball right now. Oh by the way, Luke Bard also is at 14.3 K/9 on the season. And, not that any concrete conclusions can be made off 39 innings, but Vasquez actually has reverse platoon splits. But really, nobody is hitting him (.451 OPS for RHB, .467 OPS for LHB). In 154 plate appearances against the 6-6 lefty, opponents have just two extra-base hits, both doubles.

Bartolo Colon Day was delayed almost two hours and the 44-year-old was not exactly sharp once Rochester’s game got underway. But Stephen Gonsalves, who Colon may be competing with for a rotation spot, had nine strikeouts and no walks in his five-inning start. Chattanooga put together a rally in the bottom of the ninth to walk it off, 18-year-old Wander Javier hit a milestone homer, Tanner English helped lead the Miracle to a doubleheader sweep and there was a bit of a dustup down in the GCLFind out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Thursday. RED WINGS REPORT Lehigh Valley 6, Rochester 1 Box Score Bartolo Colon, making his first minor league appearance since 2009, had a bit of a rough first inning. He labored, throwing 23 pitches, and gave up a run on a couple of doubles. To be fair, one double was on a ball Mitch Garver, playing left field for just the 11th time, should’ve caught. He had the range to get to the fly ball, but alligator armed the catch attempt. It appeared he may have been bracing himself for a potential impact with the wall. Colon pitched a 1-2-3 second inning before giving up a solo homer to J.P. Crawford in the third. He then walked the first batter he faced, Dylan Cozens, in the fourth inning. A couple more defensive mistakes allowed Cozens to advance to third. Colon was credited with an error on a pickoff attempt, though I’m sure first baseman Matt Hague would admit he should have caught that ball. Also, J.R. Murphy had a passed ball. Colon then walked old friend Pedro Florimon (who nearly hit a homer off him earlier) and then gave up a two-run double. Ending on a high note, Big Sexy struck out the final two batters he faced before reaching his pitch count limit. Colon’s final line on the evening: 3.2 innings, four hits, four runs, two walks, five strikeouts. He threw 76 pitches, 50 for strikes. It was his first outing since June 28 and the game was delayed almost two hours, so you could understand if he was a bit rusty and/or thrown off his regular routine. But still, he did give up a lot of hard contact. D.J. Baxendale and Alan Busenitz each pitched 1.2 perfect innings with two strikeouts. John Curtiss gave up two runs in the ninth, the first runs he’s surrendered with the Red Wings. Garver was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Tommy Field hit a double, drew a walk and drove in the Wings’ only run of the game. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 5, Jacksonville 4 Box Score The Lookouts entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run. LaMonte Wade led off the inning with a single. After Jonathan Rodriguez struck out, Max Murphy drew a walk and T.J. White hit a game-tying double that scored Wade. After Travis Harrison was walked to load the bases, Alex Perez hit a ground ball to first base that managed to score Murphy from third to walk it off. Stephen Gonsalves struck out nine batters over five innings, giving up three runs (just one earned) on six hits. He didn’t walk a batter for the third time in 11 starts this season. Randy LeBlanc kept his team in the game, giving up an unearned run over three innings. Paul Clemens pitched a perfect ninth. The Lookouts are now 58-33 (.637). MIRACLE MATTERS Game 1: Fort Myers 4, Charlotte 3 (7 innings) Box Score The red-hot Miracle were trailing 3-1 heading into the sixth inning, but they rallied back to win it, picking up their seventh straight victory. Tanner English started that comeback rally with a single and Mitchell Kranson delivered the big blow, a two-run double. Lewis Thorpe struggled, giving up three runs on six hits over four innings. He walked three batters and had three strikeouts. Alex Robinson pitched a perfect fifth and stuck out the side in his FSL debut. Per the team’s Twitter account, he hit 98 mph. Keaton Steele pitched a scoreless sixth before Sam Clay came in and locked down his sixth save. Brandon Lopez was 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a run. Along with his big lead off hit in the sixth, English also drew two walks and stole a base. Game 2: Fort Myers 5, Charlote 3 (7 innings) Box Score Have yourself a day, Tanner English! This time the 2014 11th-round pick finished off a big inning, hitting a two-run triple to cap a big fourth inning. The Miracle scored all their runs in that frame, as Jaylin Davis also hit a two-run triple and Sean Miller had an RBI single. English also led off the game with a single and stole another base, giving him 15 steals with Fort Myers. He also swiped six bags during his time in Chattanooga, and is 21-for-24 in stolen base attempts this year. Brady Anderson went five innings, giving up three runs on six hits. He had a pair of strikeouts without giving up a walk. Andrew Vasquez pitched the final two innings, striking out five batters. The big lefty has now thrown 16.2 scoreless innings for the Miracle and has 29 strikeouts against just three walks. Make that eight straight wins for the Miracle. KERNELS NUGGETS West Michigan 3, Cedar Rapids 2 (10 innings) Box Score Gorge Munoz led off the sixth inning with a home run. The Kernels manufactured their second run of the inning without the luxury of a hit. Aaron Whitefield walked, advanced to third on an error and scored on a Lewin Diaz sac fly. Munoz made a pivotal error at shortstop in the bottom of the tenth, which was followed by a walk-off double. Evan Sanders made his second start for Cedar Rapids, holding the Whitecaps to one run over 4.2 innings. Tyler Beardsley surrendered another run over his three innings of work. Hector Lujan suffered the loss. He gave up three hits and struck out two over 1.2 innings. The Kernels were outhit 12-3. Trey Cabbage hit a double and Ben Rortvedt singled. E-TWINS E-NOTES Burlington 5, Elizabethton 4 Box Score Wander Javier hit his first home run in the United States, a two-run shot that came with two outs in the ninth inning. Andrew Bechtold, a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft, was 2-for-2 with two walks and an RBI. This year’s ninth-rounder, Mark Contreras, was 2-for-4 with a double and scored a couple of runs. Melvi Acosta gave up five runs over 4.1 innings, but his bullpen was outstanding. Jovani Moran threw 2.2 scoreless innings, giving the 2015 seventh rounder 11.1 shutout innings this season. Jared Finkel pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Orioles 9, GCL Twins 5 Box Score Left fielder Roni Tapia was the standout hitter for the Twins, going 2-for-4 with a couple of doubles, three RBI and a run scored. Second baseman Emmanuel Morel also had a pair of hits before he was ejected in the ninth inning after being hit by a pitch. There were a total of eight hit batsmen and a couple of ejections in this one. The benches cleared at one point. Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press was in attendance, and shared some of the aftermath on his YouTube channel. Mike also shared some video from a chat with GCL manager Ramon Borrego and Royce Lewis yesterday. Pedro Garcia started and gave up four runs on six hits over 4.2 innings pitched. He got three strikeouts, and while he didn’t walk a batter, he did hit two, threw two wild pitches and was called for a balk. Juan Mojica surrendered five runs in his 2.1 innings (he hit two guys and threw two wild pitches, as well). Jose Bermudez held the Orioles scoreless over the final two innings, but he also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Stephen Gonsalves, Chattanooga (5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 R, 0 BB, 9 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Tanner English, Fort Myers (3-for-6, triple, 2 BB, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2 SB) FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester at Lehigh Valley, 6:05 pm CT, Justin Haley (3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) Chattanooga vs. Jacksonville, 6:15 pm CT, Kohl Stewart (3.73 ERA, 1.51 WHIP) Fort Myers at Charlotte, 5:35 pm CT, David Fischer (3.72 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) Cedar Rapids at West Michigan, 6:00 pm CT, Clark Beeker (2.71 ERA, 1.01 WHIP) Elizabethton at Burlington, 6:00 pm CT, Charlie Barnes (2.53 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox, 11:00 am CT, TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Thursday's games. Click here to view the article

Love this! Dying to see Garver on the Twins. I think he can co-exist with Castro and Gimenez on the same roster, assuming they carry a four-man bench. Have any thoughts on David Hurlbut? His numbers a very similar to Slegers'.

The thing to keep in mind about Jose Quintana is these are his future salaries: 18: $8.85M 19: $10.5M 20: $11.5M A pitcher of his caliber at those prices is an incredible deal. Archer is also on a team-friendly deal. He's only owed $34M over the next four seasons. Stroman and Gray will be going through arbitration, so they have less cost certainty, though they'll probably still be relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things. Why would any of these teams trade these guys unless they were absolutely blown away? The White Sox should be shooting for the moon. What motivation do they have to get rid of Quintana?

Boy, I didn't know there would be so much debate over when it's appropriate to use the phrase "not too shabby." Dictionary.com gives the definition as quite good or highly acceptable. The league average OPS is .750, so I'd say .788 is not too shabby (especially for a 24-year-old), right?

Thank you! Fixed.

Kyle Gibson got clobbered for seven runs, posting his shortest start since returning from Rochester. The Twins will limp into the All-Star break having suffered two-straight losses, but what a first half it has been as a whole. The Twins are 45-43, just three games out of first place in the AL Central. Who saw that coming?Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx79.png Download attachment: TopPlays79.png Gibson gave up seven runs over just four innings. The Orioles got nine hits off him, drew two walks and struck out only once. We’ll get to more on him, but first you gotta see this catch Zack Granite made in his first Major League start: Gibby had an 8.20 ERA when he was sent to Rochester earlier this season. Upon his recall, he’s pitched much better, but still just barely good enough to hang on to a rotation spot. In his nine starts between returning from Rochester and today, Gibson had a 4.59 ERA and opponents were hitting .290/.362/.500 (.862 OPS) off him. It seems likely the Twins would rather not have to count on him every fifth day, but even with the addition of Bartolo Colon there aren’t tons of other options. Max Kepler had a double, a triple and drove in a run. He’ll coast into the break with a .266 average and .788 OPS. Not too shabby. Robbie Grossman also had a pair of hits and Kennys Vargas hit a double. Those were the only five hits the Twins got on the afternoon. The team managed to put up a four-spot in the second inning thanks in large part to Ubaldo Jimenez struggling to find the strike zone. He hit a batter and walked three more, including issuing a free pass to Brian Dozier with the bases loaded. Grossman singled, Kepler hit his double and all the sudden the Twins went from down 5-0 to trailing by just a run. It felt like another game in which the Twins were going to rally back against Baltimore, but a big four-run fifth inning from the Orioles put things back out of reach. Tyler Duffey surrendered two runs out of the bullpen. After getting off to a great start, Duffey has really struggled heading into the break. Over his last nine appearances, the Duff Man has given up 12 earned runs over 10.1 innings (10.45 ERA). Ryan Pressly threw two perfect innings with a couple of strikeouts. Trevor Hildenberger gave up the first two runs of his big league career and Phil Hughes pitched a perfect inning and picked up a couple of K's. Monday The Twins are off for the next four days for the All-Star break (hence the lack of the bullpen usage info today). I don't think there's any way to put a negative spin on the first half, as any Twins fan would've happily taken this before the season started, but it's worth noting that the team's run differential dropped to -60 after today's loss. With the July 31 trade deadline looming, it will be fascinating to see how Derek Falvey and Thad Levine approach their first deadline with the Twins. I’ve only been doing these recaps for a little over a month, but the positive response has been overwhelming. Thanks to Seth for letting me take a crack at these, and for filling in a few times. And, of course, thanks to all of you for reading and commenting. The funnest part about doing these has been knowing that when I finish my article, that’s just the beginning of the conversation. As always, if you have any reflections from this game -- or even the entire first half of the season -- please share them in the comments. Click here to view the article

Miguel Sano is a 24-year-old hitting .279/.372/.545 and is on pace to slug 39 homers this year. Tough to get too bent outta shape about a guy like that, but I do share some of the concerns of others. I don't care so much about the strikeouts as I do about how they're happening. If he was being overly selective, waiting for pitches to clobber, that would be one thing. But instead, he's swinging through a lot of pitches. His contact rate is just 63.2 percent, which is the third-worst in baseball. I'd be willing to bet that number improves drastically as he gets more and more experience. It's easy to forget how young and relatively inexperienced he is. Sano is actually younger than Zack Granite, and he was really zipped through the minors.

The Twins got an early lead thanks to Miguel Sano’s 21st home run of the season, but were unable to add anything else on the rest of the contest. Not that there weren’t opportunities, the team left 11 men on base. Adalberto Mejia went 6.2 innings but gave up four runs, including two on one of the most depressingly impressive homers you’ll ever see.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx78.png Download attachment: TopPlays78.png The Twins were 15-5 in games in which Sano homers coming into today and Baltimore starter Wade Miley had really been scuffling, posting a 11.69 ERA in his previous six starts. It felt like only a matter of time before the offense broke through, but it never happened. Miley gave up eight hits and walked three batters over his 5.2 innings of work, but all the Twins had to show for it was the lone run. That’s bad news, as Baltimore has a formidable back end of its bullpen. Sure enough, the Twins managed just one hit, struck out seven times and couldn’t draw a single walk over 3.1 innings against the O’s pen. Sano was 2-for-4 with that blast (see below) and a walk, but he also struck out two more times. He was already leading all of baseball in Ks, of which he now has 120 this season. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen78.png Sunday Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Baltimore (Ubaldo Jimenez), 1:10 pm CT Jimenez got bounced to the bullpen earlier this season, but has made four starts since returning to the rotation. Over that stretch he has a 6.45 ERA. Lefties are killing Jimenez this season, hitting .280/.373/.674 (1.047 OPS). He’s given up 19 homers this year, 14 to left-handed hitters. But, for whatever reason, Ubaldo has been really tough on the Twins over his career. In 69 career innings, Jimenez has a 3.13 ERA vs. Minnesota. His numbers at Target Field are even more impressive: 1.81 ERA, 1.23 WHIP over seven starts. Gibson’s season got off to a nightmare start, but he’ll have the opportunity to end the first half on a high note. Over his last four starts, Gibson has a 3.52 ERA. It hasn’t been pretty, but the Twins are 8-7 in games started by Gibby this season Click here to view the article

We should know better by now than to count out this Twins team. Felix Jorge gave up homers to the first two batters he faced and Baltimore built a 6-0 lead. But despite not having the luxury of hitting a home run themselves, the Twins rallied back to score nine unanswered runs to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. Heck, they may have even pulled this one all the way back out from the belly of defeat.Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Download attachment: WinEx77.png Download attachment: TopPlays77.png Trailing by six runs with just a few days to go until the All-Star break, you could understand if maybe the Twins were going to ease up the rest of the night. Instead, they put together maybe their finest inning of the entire season. The fourth frame opened up with Miguel Sano making a diving stop to his left and firing to first for the out. Trevor Hildenberger, who earned his first major league victory tonight, retired the next two batters on strikeouts. In the bottom of that inning, the Twins strung together four-straight singles followed by a Chris Gimenez hit by pitch with the bases loaded. What was remarkable about the inning was how the team grinded out at-bats. When they were down by six runs. In early July. Robbie Grossman, Sano, Kennys Vargas, Eddie Rosario and Chris Gimenez all worked a full count in that inning. Vargas and Rosario each had eight-pitch at bats. But even with all that work, at the end of the inning the Orioles were still leading 6-2. Manny Machado led off the top of the fifth with a single, but Hildenberger induced a 5-4-3 double play. Jorge Polanco made a fielding error on the next batter, but Hildy managed to get him a second chance and Polanco responded by cleanly fielding a Mark Trumbo grounder and throwing to first for the third out. The fourth inning may have been their finest, but the fifth was the most fun. Brian Dozier hit a leadoff triple, Grossman doubled, Sano reached on an error and Kepler singled. Then Vargas, who was just called back up to replace an injured Joe Mauer, delivered a game-tying double. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Pen77.png Saturday Twins (Adalberto Mejia) vs. Baltimore (Wade Miley), 1:10 pm CT Miley got rocked in his last start, as the Brewers lit him up for seven runs over 1.2 innings. Over his last six starts, Miley has an 11.69 ERA and hitters have compiled a .387/.468/.604 line (1.072 OPS). Over his last four starts, Mejia has a 2.01 ERA, but his WHIP is 1.39. He’s struggled to keep leadoff hitters off the bases this season, giving up a .443 OBP to the first batter of each inning. But he’s also been excellent at finishing off innings, as opponents have just a .552 OPS with two outs. He’s also been great with runners on, limiting opposing hitters to a .176/.258/.241 line (.499 OPS) with men on and a .173/.270/.231 line (.501 OPS) with runners in scoring position. Click here to view the article