Tom Froemming

Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) 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: https://twitter.com/cjzer0/status/884134419489050625 I think Gibson said it perfectly: Wow. The Twins Twitter account provided the grab in GIF form, so you can watch it on a loop: https://twitter.com/Twins/status/884134591828807681 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.

Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) 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. https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/883762508447797250 Zack Granite made his major league debut, and is maybe the first player in baseball history to receive a standing ovation after hitting a pop out. The Twins 14th-round pick in 2013, Granite pinch hit in the eighth inning and worked an 11-pitch at bat. Twins fans didn’t have much to cheer about Saturday, but that was a pretty cool moment to see Target Field acknowledge Granite's effort. It was great to see Mejia pitch into the seventh inning for the second-straight start. He gave up four runs, but it was only on five hits, so it’s not like Baltimore beat him up today. The home run he served up to Jonathan Schoop in the fourth inning was impressive, however, as the ball left the bat at 113.5 mph and traveled 462 feet, per Baseball Savant. https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/883765786027978752 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: 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

Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) 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. https://twitter.com/BaseballByTom/status/883524941555134467 Big Kennys would come around to score the go-ahead run on a Gimenez single. Two insurance runs were later added in the eighth inning. Byron Buxton managed to score from first base on a ground ball that was hit to the shortstop. https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/883536109610954752 Brandon Kintzler, who was added to the All-Star team earlier in the day, recorded his 24th save of the season. Hildenberger threw 2.1 innings followed by an inning each by Pressly, Belisle, Rogers and Kintzler. They did not surrender a run and only yielded five hits while not issuing a single walk. What a performance it was by the bullpen. Jorge’s Target Field debut didn’t last long. He lasted just 2.2 innings before getting the hook. Jorge is only 23-years-old. He’s made 25 starts at Double A, and hasn’t appeared at Triple A yet. These are important things to keep in mind when trying to evaluate his performance. Jorge gave up six runs on seven hits (three of them homers) and a walk. His ERA jumped to 10.57. Jorge was sent back to Chattanooga at the conclusion of the contest, with Zack Granite being called up from Rochester as his replacement. With the break looming, the Twins won’t need a fifth starter for awhile. Granite, who will be making his major league debut, was hitting .360/.412/.492 (.904 OPS) for the Red Wings. And that wasn’t the only big transaction. The next time the Twins do need a fifth starter, it’s possible big Bartolo Colon will fill that role. The Twins signed the 44-year-old to a minor league deal. He’s heading to Rochester for now. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/883535826059051008 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: 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.

Find out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Friday. TRANSACTIONS Joe Mauer was placed on the DL with an ailing back, leading to Kennys Vargas being called back up from Rochester. Surprisingly, that was the least interesting of the team’s three big transactions on the night. During the Twins game it was announced the team has signed 44-year-old Bartolo Colon to a minor league deal. He’s on his way to Rochester. Last, but certainly not least, was the huge news that Zack Granite was being called up to make his major league debut. With the All-Star break upcoming, the Twins have no need to carry a fifth starter. So Felix Jorge, who started for the Twins Friday night, is being sent back down to Chattanooga to make room for Granite. UPDATE: Edgar Corcino is also getting a promotion up to Rochester. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 9, Syracuse 3 Box Score Mitch Garver led off the third inning with a single that sparked an offensive outburst. That frame was highlighted by a Niko Goodrum three-run homer … which was immediately followed by a Garver home run. It was an eight-run inning for the Red Wings. Garver, who was playing left field tonight, is now hitting .284/.390/.505 (.895 OPS). He’s been even more impressive against southpaws, posting a .327/.450/.551 line (1.001 OPS). Joining Garver and Goodrum with two hits on the night were Tommy Field, Bengie Gonzalez and Engelb Vielma. David Hurlbut pitched very well with the lead. He gave up two runs over six innings on seven hits and two walks to go with three strikeouts. The lefty lowered his ERA to 3.44 on the season. Alan Busenitz pitched a scoreless inning and was followed by John Curtiss, who gave up a run over two innings of work. Here are the homers from Goodrum and Garver: https://twitter.com/MorrieSilver8/status/883716274496450561 https://twitter.com/MorrieSilver8/status/883713921928093696 CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 6, Tennessee 1 Box Score At this time last season, Andy Wilkins was playing with the Milwaukee Brewers. Tonight, he had a huge game for the Lookouts, hitting a three-run homer to go with a pair of doubles. Edgar Corcino has had an excellent season, earning a mid-season All-Star nod, but he hasn’t been a big source of power. Well, the Puerto Rican right fielder popped his second homer of the year, a two-run shot, and was 2-for-4, pushing his average to .299. Jonathan Rodriguez also had two hits for the Lookouts. Nick Gordon was not in the lineup for Chattanooga. Randy LeBlanc held the Smokies to one run on three hits and a walk over six innings. He struck out four batters. Randy Rosario threw two scoreless innings. At this time last season, Paul Clemens was playing with the San Diego Padres. Tonight he pitched a scoreless ninth inning of a 6-1 game for the Lookouts. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 6, Palm Beach 5 Box Score Fort Myers was leading 3-1 before Williams Ramirez gave up four runs in the top of the fifth. It appeared he may have blown the game for the Miracle … for about 10 minutes. Fort Myers stormed back with three runs in the bottom of the inning, putting them up 6-5 for good. Sean Miller and Jermaine Palacios opened the bottom of the fifth with consecutive walks, but the next two batters were retired. With two outs, Palacios stole second and Miller scored on a throwing error. Brandon Lopez plated Palacios with a double, then Kevin Garcia drove in Lopez with a single. Mitchell Kranson hit his first home run with Fort Myers, a two-run shot in the first inning. Miracle starter Brady Anderson gave up one run over four innings. Michael Theofanopoulos picked up his fourth win after tossing two scoreless innings. Alex Muren threw a scoreless eighth and Tom Hackimer registered his second save by pitching a perfect ninth with two strikeouts. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Peoria 2 Box Score Shortstop Gorge Munoz hit a two-out, two-run double in a big fourth inning for the Kernels. That gave Clark Beeker a 5-1 lead, not that he needed that kind of cushion. The Davidson product put together his seventh start in which he went at least five innings and gave up one or no runs. Beeker improved his record to 8-2 after surrendering one run over six innings. He gave up just three hits and a walk. Alex Robinson earned his second save by pitching 1.1 perfect innings with three strikeouts. Aaron Whitefield and Lewin Diaz each had two hits. Munoz also drew a walk and stole a base in this game. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 5, Johnson City 0 Box Score Charlie Barnes, the Twins fourth-round pick this year out of Clemson, was excellent. He threw five one-hit innings, striking out seven batters while issuing one walk. He was pulled after 65 pitches, 45 of which were strikes. The crazy thing is that he wasn’t even the most dominant E-Town pitcher Friday night. After Juan Gamez threw two scoreless innings, Jovani Moran came on for the Twins. Here’s how the 20-year-old Puerto Rican lefty’s two innings went: BB, K, K, K, K, K, K. Moran now has 16 strikeouts in 8.2 innings this season. Filthy. Jose Miranda drove in three runs, Mark Contreras had a pair of hits and Brent Rooker had the team’s only extra-base hit, a double. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Red Sox 10, GCL Twins 5 Box Score Hunter Green finally signed with the Reds today. Meanwhile, Royce Lewis went 2-for-4 with two doubles and a walk in what was his ninth professional game. The Twins No. 1 pick has gotten off to a great start, hitting .324/.419/.58 (.986 OPS). Akil Baddoo drew four walks (!) and scored twice. Catcher Jhon Alvarez was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. Twins starter Petru Balan struggled, giving up four runs over 1.2 innings, and the bullpen didn't do much better, though Zach Featherstone finished things off with a scoreless inning. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Jovani Moran, Elizabethton (2 IP, 0 hits, 6 Ks) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Andy Wilkins, Chattanooga (3-for-4, HR, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, 2 runs) SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Syracuse, 6:05 pm CT, Aaron Slegers (4.08 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) Chattanooga va. Tennessee, 6:15 pm CT, TBA Fort Myers vs. Palm Beach, 5:05 pm CT, Cody Stashak (3.84 ERA, 1.12 WHIP) Cedar Rapids vs. Peoria, 6:35 pm CT, Griffin Jax (0.00 ERA, 0.57 WHIP) Elizabethton vs. Johnson City, 5:00 pm CT, Bryan Sammons (1.59 ERA, 0.88 WHIP) GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox, 9:00 am CT, TBA Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Friday's games.

Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays Per WPA (via Fangraphs) Santana was brilliant, but the most pivotal throw of the game came from Castro. With runners at the corners and two outs in the sixth inning, Calhoun took off for second base. Castro threw down to second, but when Brian Dozier saw Cameron Maybin break toward the plate, he came in to cut the ball off. Unfortunately, his return throw back to the plate was too late. Castro’s throw would have easily beat Calhoun, but he had put on the brakes and was going to try to get into a run-down in order to buy Maybin time. It was a quick calculation Dozier had to make, but basically as soon as that ball left Castro’s hand the Angels were going to have the lead one way or another. The decision to throw down to second base at all in that situation was inexcusable. https://twitter.com/FoxSportsWest/status/882777421199548416 Paul Molitor didn’t make a single managerial move in this game. The bottom of the ninth inning started with Castro and his .316 OBP and Byron Buxton, who’s even worse at .279 OBP. Sure is a good thing the Twins have nine relief pitchers on the roster right now (not an exaggeration). It’s not like they could use a pinch hitter off the bench, especially given that Joe Mauer was unavailable due to a bad back. To be fair to Buxton, he had an encouraging night. He was 2-for-4 and did not strike out. In the bottom of the second, he hit an infield single, stole second base and scored on a Brian Dozier double. Another plus offensively was Eddie Rosario, who had another two hits tonight. Also, Max Kepler made a fine diving catch. Parker Bridwell pitched way too good for a guy who nobody had ever heard of. He threw six scoreless innings, holding the Twins to four hits while walking three. Bridwell also somehow managed to strike out Miguel Sano three times. The Angels were small balling all night. They attempted a suicide squeeze in the top of the second. There were two outs, so do you even call that a suicide squeeze, or is that just a plain suicide? It didn’t work, but it sure was close. Santana gave up seven hits, walked two batters and tallied five strikeouts. He threw a season-high 117 pitches, 80 of which were strikes. The 2016 Twins limited opponents to two or fewer runs on 28 occasions. They’ve now accomplished that feat 27 times already this season. Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/882805883050147840 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Thursday Twins (Jose Berrios, 3.44 ERA) vs. Baltimore (Dylan Bundy, 4.02 ERA), 7:10 pm CT Bundy, the No. 4 pick of the 2011 draft, got off to a great start this season but has faded of late. In six starts since the start of June, he has a 6.61 ERA and opposing hitters have tagged him to the tune of a .950 OPS. Baltimore was 15-27 on the road entering today’s games. Berrios has had some hiccups in his past two starts, giving up nine runs over 11.1 innings. In a May 24 start at Baltimore, Berrios gave up homers to J.J. Hardy (who’s currently on the DL), Chris Davis (also on the DL) and Jonathan Schoop. Jose has basically split his time between catchers, but his numbers are dramatically better with Jason Castro. In 34.1 innings with Castro, Berrios has a 2.36 ERA, .463 OPS and hasn’t give up a homer. In 31 innings with Chris Gimenez, his ERA is up to 4.65, opponents are boasting an .809 OPS and he’s surrendered eight home runs.

Win Expectancy & Top 5 Plays (via Fangraphs) Big days at the plate from Buxton have been few and far between, but he provided some Independance Day fireworks. He started things off by making a patented Buxton outstanding catch on the very first play of the game. In the fifth inning, he singled, stole second (his 15th steal) and came around to score on a Robbie Grossman double. He clubbed his fifth homer of the season in his next at bat and added another single in the eighth inning. Gibson has suddenly become, dare I say it, reliable. Gibby now has a 3.91 ERA over his last eight starts. In his longest start of the season, Gibson held the Angels to two runs on five hits over 6.2 innings. He struck out four batters and walked Ben Revere, one of the most difficult hitters to walk in baseball, twice. Kintzler got the save, but things got a little too interesting in the ninth inning. The inning started with a single and a walk. Kintzler induced a groundball, but Ehire Adrianza threw the ball away on the double play attempt. Luckily Kintzler coaxed another grounder out of the next batter and Miguel Sano, Eduardo Escobar and Joe Mauer combined to complete a game-ending twin killing. Here's Buxton's game-opening catch: And here’s his homer: https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/882336318004629504 Postgame With Buxton https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/882357486262431744 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Wednesday Twins (Ervin Santana, 3.07 ERA) vs. Angels (Parker Bridwell, 3.95 ERA), 7:10 pm CT Bridwell, a right-hander, will be making his fifth start of the season for Anaheim. His ERA looks solid, but his FIP is 6.44. He’s averaging 10.9 H/9 while only getting 4.6 K/9. The 25-year-old is coming off a start in which he gave up five runs over six innings against Seattle. Santana has looked like anything but an All-Star of late, as he registered a 6.03 ERA in June. His usage of his changeup dropped significantly that month. He deployed that pitch 13.5 percent of the time in April, 15.9 percent of the time in May and just 8.7 percent last month. AL Central Standings Cleveland 44-38 Twins 43-40 (-1.5) Kansas City 43-40 (-1.5) Chicago 37-45 (-7) Detroit 37-46 (-7.5)