Tom Froemming

Twins 6, Mariners 2 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) This one was a bit uneventful after the first inning, not that we’re going to complain. Thanks in large part to Gimenez’s three-run homer, the Twins jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first frame. Berrios settled in and ended up throwing a career-high 108 pitches. Jose eclipsed 95 mph on seven occasions, one of those coming on his 105th pitch of the game. It didn’t seem like Berrios had his best command today, but he made up for that in aggressiveness, which is exactly what you want to see out of your starter when he’s spotted a big lead early. He walked just one batter. Here are all the pitches he threw after falling behind 1-0 in the count: There was a bit of a scary moment when Byron Buxton flew into the center field wall attempting to catch a ball. He bounced right back up and finished the game. https://twitter.com/RealClearSports/status/875436827146104832 Eduardo Escobar racked up another three hits, including a homer. He’s so hot right now there’s just no way Paul Molitor is going to put him back on the bench anytime soon. Escobar is now hitting .295 with an .823 OPS. Seattle left Minnesota thinking Escobar, Gimenez and Eddie Rosario should probably all participate in the Home Run Derby. Here’s a look at Gimenez’s second homer, which he had to talk into staying fair (see postgame interview below): https://twitter.com/DingerTracker/status/875416311135969280 Postgame With Gimenez Postgame With Molitor Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Friday Twins (Nik Turley, 9.00 ERA) vs. Cleveland (Carlos Carrasco, 3.36 ERA), 7:10 pm CT Turley gets another shot after giving up four runs over four innings in his major league debut. Carrasco has been struggling a bit against lefties this year, giving up a .427 slugging percentage (.309 vs. RHB). Brian Dozier is only 4-for-21 off Carrasco, but three of those hits have been homers. Joe Mauer is an even .500 off him (11-for-22) with a home run and four doubles. Combined, the Twins have a .917 OPS in 101 plate appearances against Carrasco AL Central Standings Twins 34-29 Cleveland 32-31 (-2) Detroit 30-34 (-4.5) Kansas City 30-34 (-4.5) Chicago 29-36 (-6) It was announced that Adam Wilk will start one of the games of Saturday’s doubleheader. He’ll need to be added back onto the 40-man roster.

Mariners 6, Twins 4 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Santana continued to follow a bit of a disturbing trend, following up a spectacular start with a clunker. He gave up five runs on nine hits over five innings. What was maybe the weirdest thing was he got into an exchange with Mike Zunino after hitting him with a pitch that resulted in both benches being warned. Here are Santana’s game scores by start since the beginning of May: 70, 39, 72, 44, 87, 65, 19, 83, 28 (which was Wednesday night). The takeaway? You may wanna consider buying tickets for Ervin’s next start. The Mariners jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the middle of the third, but Eduardo Escobar and Buxton gave the Twins new life by socking solo homers in the fifth. Miguel Sano slugged a two-run shot the next inning. This was the first time in Buxton’s career he reached base safely four times. He hit a double, the home run, drew a walk and singled in the ninth inning to put two runners on with just one out. He also swiped a pair of bases. Afterward, he said “this one was for Nick Nelson.” OK, that’s not true, but Nick did write an Ode To Byron Buxton that you should read. https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/875171285172617217 The pen was solid, as Buddy Boshers gave up an unearned run followed by a scoreless inning from Matt Belisle and a pair of clean innings from Taylor Rogers. Seattle’s Ben Gamel, and his glorious hair, made a miraculous catch in which he violently crashed into the wall. https://twitter.com/MLB/status/875196755196903424 Postgame With Santana Postgame With Molitor Thursday Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.84 ERA) vs. Seattle (Ariel Miranda, 3.67 ERA), 12:10 pm CT Berrios has been an incredible stabilizing force for the Twins rotation since being called back up in mid-May. He’s gone at least five innings in all six of his starts, and he has yet to allow more than four runs in a start. The Twins are 5-1 in games he takes the hill. Miranda, a lefty, has been dynamite at home (2.14 ERA in six starts) but has struggled away from Safeco, posting a 5.68 ERA over seven starts. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings Twins 33-29 Cleveland 31-31 (-2) Detroit 30-34 (-4) Kansas City 30-34 (-4) Chicago 28-35 (-5.5) Be sure to check out all the action from down on the farm on Wednesday in the Minor League Report.

Twins 20, Mariners 7 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) Eduardo Escobar led the team’s march into the record books with a five-hit game. Kennys Vargas, Jason Castro and Rosario each had four hits. The Twins tallied seven runs in both the third and seventh innings. Run differential fixed. And Miguel Sano wasn’t even in the lineup. For Rosario, it was the first multi-homer game of his career. That alone is impressive, but what was especially peculiar about his night is he saw just nine total pitches. That’s not odd for the ultra-aggressive Rosie, but I wonder how many times a guy has hit three homers while seeing less than 10 pitches in game. Kyle Gibson was bad, giving up six runs on 12 hits and a whole lot of loud contact, but in a game like this, the fact that he was able to go six innings was a big plus. Am I trying to polish a turd? Yeah, I guess. But the bullpen really needed that, seeing as the team is going to play six games over the next five days. Postgame With Rosario https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA4gAfxhF9E Postgame With Molitor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLwXtS_076Q Wednesday Twins (Ervin Santana, 2.20 ERA) vs. Seattle (San Gaviglio, 2.79 ERA), 7:10 pm CT Santana has really struggled against Robinson Cano over his career, having given up six home runs over 51 plate appearances to his countryman. Altogether, current Mariners have a .918 OPS in 166 plate appearances against Ervin. Gaviglio is a 27-year-old rookie right hander who is making his sixth start of the season. Among 346 pitchers who’ve thrown at least 20 innings this year, Gaviglio ranks 54th with a 52.9 percent groundball rate (top 15 percentile). Bullpen Usage Report Here's a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: This is a new feature today. I figured since the bullpen has become such a story line this season I’d work something in that may provide insight into who may be available the next night. If you have any ideas for information you’d like to see in these daily recaps, I’d love to hear them. Either leave a comment on here or send me a personal message. I can’t make any promises that they’ll be implemented, time is a factor in putting these together, but I will definitely see what I can do. And, as long as we’re straying from the script, I’d just like to give a big thank you to all who have been reading these. The positive response has been overwhelming. AL Central Standings Twins 33-28 Cleveland 31-30 (-2) Detroit 30-33 (-4) Kansas City 28-34 (-5.5) *game in progress when article published Chicago 28-35 (-6) Make sure to check out the MLB Draft Day 2 review to learn about the eight players the Twins drafted on Tuesday.

Mariners 14, Twins 3 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) This one got out of hand in a hurry, as you can see from the sad, sad win expectancy graph. Mejia just didn’t have it today, and was forced to stay in a while in an effort to help protect the bullpen. From the below map via Baseball Savant, it looks like Adalberto struggled with command. Lots of balls too far off the corners and lots of others right down the pipe. The bullpen was bad, again. Chris Gimenez had to pitch, again. Alex Wimmers gave up a run on three hits and two walks over 1.1 innings. He was optioned out after the game. It’s possible Ryan Pressly will be on the way back (0 ER, 7 K in 4 IP at AAA), but no official announcement has been made, so who knows. Breslow gave up a pair of homers. Sigh. UPDATE: https://twitter.com/DWolfsonKSTP/status/874485322117251072 But, Buddy Boshers deserves a special mention as a silver lining. He pitched a pair of scoreless innings and has his ERA down to 1.64. The team could desperately use another relief arm it could depend on, maybe Buddy’s the guy. To be fair, the bats didn’t exactly have a stellar day against Yovanni Gallardo (6 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5K), either. Brian Dozier went 3-for-4 with a double. Joe Mauer hit a nice two-run double. I suppose another positive is that Jorge Polanco returned from bereavement to pinch hit for Mauer late in the game. He stayed in at shortstop, forcing Ehire Adrianza over to play first base, a position he’s played once in his entire professional career. Of course Gimenez was going to end up pitching in this one. He gave up a pair of runs in the ninth. This was his fifth appearance on the mound this season. He’s only caught 19 games, played first in three others and got an inning in at third once. I think it’s time we call him a two-way player. Who needs Hunter Greene or Brendan McKay? https://twitter.com/theaceofspaeder/status/874470531461808128 Tuesday Twins (Kyle Gibson, 6.52 ERA) vs. Mariners (Christian Bergman, 4.03 ERA) Gibson is coming off his best start of the season against these Mariners. He featured his curveball much more than usual and it’ll be interesting to see if he leans on that pitch again. He actually has a 2.65 ERA over his last three starts. The Twins beat Bergman his last time out. The right-hander has also been pitching well of late, posting a 1.50 ERA over his last three outings. AL Central Standings Twins 32-28 Cleveland 31-29 (-1) Detroit 30-32 (-3) Kansas City 28-34 (-5) Chicago 27-35 (-6) Click here for today’s minor league report. While you’re at it, check out the Twins Daily draft day thread, read up on top pick Royce Lewis and get yourself familiar with other new draftees Brent Rooker and Landon Leach.

Giants 13, Twins 8 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) It would probably be an appropriate time to write a eulogy for Matt Belise’s pitching career, but nobody would take any joy in that. It’s been a good run, he’s been a big leaguer for 14 years, but after getting rocked for four runs in 0.2 innings, his ERA is all the way up to 8.59. With his reputation, I’m sure he’ll have no trouble staying in the game as some type of a coach if he so chooses. No roster moves have been announced, but you have to figure it’s only a matter of time now. What's gone wrong for Belisle? Well along with an increase in walks (BB percent is up from 3.8 in 2016 to 13.6 this year), he's giving up more hard contact and more fly balls. That's a recipe for disaster. Info below via Fangraphs: Craig Breslow, one-upped Belisle by giving up five runs in the eighth. He had been pitching fairly well prior to tonight’s meltdown, but almost exclusively in low-leverage situations. Both Belisle and Breslow were added over the offseason in large part to add leadership to the bullpen. We'll see just how much the team values that leadership based on how much longer they stick around. The big intrigue leading into this one surrounded Nik Turley making his major league debut. Things got off to a rough start, as the 27-year-old lefty gave up a pair of runs in the first inning. His teammates picked him up by tying the game in the bottom of the first. Turley settled in some after that, but he only pitched four innings, giving up four runs on eight hits. He had four strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Brooks Baseball had Turley maxing out at 95 mph, and he managed to get eight swinging strikes on 73 pitches (10.95 percent whiff rate). It wasn’t a great start by any means, but he probably won’t be taking the next flight to Rochester, either. Lord knows Turley’s traveled enough this season. Here’s a look at all the transactions he’s been involved in so far this season, via MiLB.com: Eduardo Escobar had a big night, going 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI. Byron Buxton had two hits, one of them a home run, and also made a four-star catch, according to Statcast. https://twitter.com/_dadler/status/874001464561106949 Here’s the catch, via FSN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/874000159868207104 Today Twins (Adalberto Mejia, 4.18 ERA) vs. Seattle (Yovani Gallardo, 6.26 ERA), 7:10 pm CT This will be a rematch from Wednesday, which the Mariners won on a walk-off homer. Seattle scored three runs off Mejia over his five innings pitched, but only managed a pair of hits (both home runs) off the lefty in that contest. Gallardo went seven innings in that game, giving up five runs. He’s pitched well at Target Field over his career, logging a 3.65 ERA over four starts. AL Central Standings Twins 32-27 Cleveland 31-29 (-1.5) Detroit 30-32 (-3.5) Kansas City 28-34 (-5.5) Chicago 26-35 (-7.0) From Yesterday’s Game Unfortunately, some of the really cool, fun stuff I like to look at isn’t always available right when I write these up. Here’s Kennys Vargas’ monster homer at AT&T Park from Saturday with a Target Field overlay vis ESPN's Home Run Tracker:

RED WINGS REPORT Syracuse 8, Rochester 6 Box Score Wings starter Yohan Pino got lit up in this one. Over 1.2 innings, he gave up five runs on eight hits, three of them homers. Rochester battled back to make this one interesting, but fell short. Mitch Garver connected for his fifth home run of the season, a solo shot, and drew a pair of walks. Matt Hague was 3-for-5 with two RBI. Zack Granite had a multi-hit game streak snapped, but had a nice game, going 1-for-2 with three walks. D.J. Baxendale saw his ERA jump to 3.99 after giving up three runs over 3.1 innings out of the bullpen. Kam Mickolio was perfect over the final four innings. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 6, Montgomery 3 Box Score Stephen Gonsalves needed 96 pitches to get through five innings, but he battled his way through to put his team in position to win. It doesn’t hurt that he was backed up by a spectacular bullpen. Gonsalves struck out six and gave up three runs on five hits and walked a pair of batters. Nick Anderson threw two perfect innings, notching a couple of strikeouts. John Curtiss came on in the eighth with the Lookouts up one. His untainted 0.00 ERA appeared to be in jeapordy as he gave up a leadoff double. Curtiss induced a foul pop out and struck out the next two batters to protect the lead. Chattanooga added two runs in the top of the ninth to give Curtiss some wiggle room in the bottom of the inning. He wouldn’t need it, of course, as he retired the Biscuits 1-2-3 for his 12th save of the season. Ryan Strausborger hit his first home run for the Lookouts, a go-ahead two-run bomb in the third. T.J. White was 2-for-4 with a double and drove in three runs. Nick Gordon, LaMonte Wade and Travis Harrison each walked twice, as Chattanooga drew nine free passes. This was a huge game for Chattanooga, which entered the day tied with Montgomery in the standings. The Lookouts now trail the first-place Tennessee Smokies by just a half game. The first half ends June 18. And it sounds like they’re getting some reinforcements. Randy Rosario is being sent back down from the Twins. And then there’s this from Dereck Rodriguez’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/DereckrodRF3/status/873709716043689988 MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 5, Tampa 1 Box Score Nelson Molina socked a first-inning grand slam and Lachlan Wells pitched into the seventh inning to pick up the victory. The homer was Molina’s third of the season, which may not sound like much, but he only went deep twice last season in Cedar Rapids. Wells had been scuffling a bit, posting a 7.07 ERA over his previous three starts. He went 6.2 innings, and gave up one run on five hits. He had six strikeouts and did not walk a batter. The Molina slam was especially key because the Miracle only managed three other hits on the night, though they walked seven times. Alex Perez was 2-for-4 with a double, a run and an RBI. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Burlington 3 Box Score Jaylin Davis, the Midwest League home run leader, smashed his 12th tater of the season. He also hit a double and made this sensational catch: https://twitter.com/MiaOBrienCBS2/status/873720223261765636 Coming off a rocky start in which he gave up six runs, Eduardo Del Rosario bounced back to hold the Bees to two runs over six innings to pick up the win. He struck out four batters and walked one. Caleb Hamilton hit his fifth home run of the year to give the Kernels the lead in the sixth inning, immediately followed by Davis’ dinger. Ariel Montesino was 3-for-4 and Hank Morrison had a pair of hits. Out of the bullpen, Ryan Mason, Alex Robinson and Hector Lujan each pitched a scoreless inning. The win secured Cedar Rapids’ two-game lead in the Midwest League Western Division. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – John Curtiss (2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, save) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jaylin Davis (2-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Syracuse, 12:35 pm CT, Matt Tracy (appears he’ll be promoted, he’s listed as the starter in the bottom of this Syracuse game story) Chattanooga at Montgomery, 5:35 pm CT, TBD Fort Myers OFF Cedar Rapids vs. Burlington, 2:05 pm CT, Max Cordy Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday's games.

Twins 3, Giants 2 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) In Berrios’ turbulent 2016 season with the Twins not much went right, but one thing he struggled with in particular was getting the third out. It seemed he could never stop the bleeding. He gave up an .840 OPS with no outs, .817 OPS with one out and that ballooned to a 1.132 OPS with two down. Berrios has been better all around this year, but the dropoff in two-out OPS has been dramatic. With no outs, opponents have had a .638 OPS, with one out a .604 OPS and with two outs opposing batters had just a .398 OPS entering today’s game. Jose was not very efficient today, but he finished off innings. The Giants loaded the bases with one out in the third inning, but The Machine was not about to crack. He struck out Brandon Crawford. He struck out Hunter Pence. Inning over. Here is some info on those two at-bats: Berrios ran into trouble again in the fifth. Eduardo Nunez led off the inning with a walk, followed by a Brandon Belt single. Nunez scored on a Posey groundout. With Belt at second and one out, it was deja vu all over again. Instead of unravelling and giving up a big inning, Berrios struck out Crawford, struck out Pence. Inning over. Berrios had eight strikeouts over 5.1 innings. He gave up two runs on six hits and three walks, throwing 97 pitches in the process. Kennys Vargas got the Twins on the board in the fourth inning by slugging the third-longest home run of the season. Here’s the data from MLBBarrelAlert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLBBarrelAlert/status/873648308635480065 Here’s the highlight via Statcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/statcast/status/873652831408062465 Brian Dozier hammered a two-run shot the next inning to put the Twins up. The heatmap below via Baseball Savant shows how Dozier has been pitched so far in 2017. No surprise, teams are staying down and away. Whether they intended to or not, Giants pitchers gave Dozer a few pullable pitches on the inner half of the plate. He made sure they paid for it. Tyler Duffey got the last two outs of the sixth, and pitched the seventh. Matt Belisle handled the eighth and Brandon Kintzler picked up his 17th save. The bullpen threw 3.2 perfect innings. Also, Chris Gimenez stole a base. Postgame With Molitor Today Twins (Nik Turley) at San Francisco (Matt Cain, 4.87 ERA), 3:05 pm CT Turley, who grew up in California, will be making his major league debut. He had a combined 2.05 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 14.4 K/9 between Rochester and Chattanooga this season. Lee Roth of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle wrote a great profile of Turley, highlighting his last start in which he dominated the Yankees Triple A team. Cain has been very good at home this season, posting a 1.82 ERA in six starts (8.40 road ERA). AL Central Standings Twins 32-26 Cleveland 30-28 (-2.0)* Detroit 29-31 (-4.0)* Kansas City 27-34 (-5.0) Chicago 25-34 (-6.0)* *Saturday games still in progress at the time of publishing this article.

Twins 4, Giants 0 Box Score Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs) You don’t make it through a complete game on just 91 pitches by dilly-dallying around. As one would expect, Santana was very aggressive on the first pitch. Image above via Brooks Baseball The pitching performance was great to see, but it was a shocker to see Erv also contribute the biggest hit of the evening. Here’s a link to the highlight at MLB.com. Image above via Yahoo Sports I guess Erv decided he'd be aggressive on the first pitch at the plate, too. Robbie Grossman was 3-for-4 with a double. Brian Dozier went 2-for-4 with a walk and drove in a run. Recent rumors have the Twins taking Brendan McKay with the No. 1 overall pick in Monday’s draft. He’s been a great two-way player at Louisville … maybe the Twins are onto something here. Santana can be the new SP/DH and Chris Gimenez can be the catcher/closer. McKay would fit right in. Plus, you don’t have to worry about how many pitchers you have in the bullpen if everybody plays both ways. Just sayin'. Some big news broke at the conclusion of this one. Nik Turley, a former indy ball pitcher who has been a strikeout machine this season, will be called up to make his major league debut Sunday. The 27-year-old lefty is coming off a performance in which he struck out 15 batters, 14 on swinging strikes, in six innings. Postgame With Santana Postgame With Molitor Today Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.76 ERA) at San Francisco (Jeff Samardzija, 4.29 ERA), 3:05 pm CT Getting the third out was seemingly impossible for Berrios at points last season, as opposing hitters had a 1.132 OPS off him with two down. This season? Totally different story. He has limited opponents to a .121/.216/.182 (.398 OPS) line. In just nine plate appearances, Eddie Rosario has homered off The Shark twice. AL Central Standings Twins 31-26 Cleveland 30-28 (-1.5) Detroit 29-31 (-2.5) Kansas City 26-34 (-6.5) Chicago 25-34 (-6.0) Check out the minor league report from Friday night’s action.