The Minnesota Twins activated RHP Bailey Ober from the Injured List (IL) to make the start in Sunday’s series finale against the Kansas City Royals and they were looking for the sweep before heading home for 7 straight with the last 4 against these same Royals.So…they brought the brooms but were they able to use them?
Here’s a recap of Saturday’s game 2 victory!
Here’s how both teams lined up:
Minnesota Twins Lineup:
Kansas City Royals Lineup:
Game Recap
The Twins led off the game with back-to-back singles from 1B Luis Arraez & 2B Jorge Polanco. RF Max Kepler hit a ground ball down the 3rd baseline and Royals 3B Emmanual Rivera made a nice play to his right to get to the ball, tag 3rd base then quickly throw to 2nd to get both lead runners in a 5-6 double play. C Gary Sánchez then grounded out to 3rd to end the top of the 1st.
After missing 23 days and 21 games with 1 rehab start in AAA,* Bailey Ober needed 24 pitches (just 13 strikes) to get through the 1st inning but he only allowed a 6-pitch walk to Royals LF Andrew Benintendi. No hits and no runs despite a lot of pitches is alright and definitely something to build on, right?
*5IP 4H 5R 4ER 0BB 7K 1HR on 72 pitches (55 strikes – 15 Looking, 13 Swinging) in a 5-3 loss at the Columbus Clippers on May 15th.
Ober set down the Royals 1-2-3 in the 2nd then allowed a leadoff single to SS Nicky Lopez and back-to-back 1-out singles to 2B Whit Merrifield & LF Andrew Benintendi to get Kansas City on the board before he got RF Hunter Dozier to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the 3rd inning.
After the 1st inning, Royals starter RHP Brady Singer set down the next 7 batters in a row including 3 on swinging strikeouts before allowing a 1-out walk in the 4th but he got Twins C Gary Sánchez to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the 4th before setting the Twins down 1-2-3 in the 5th.
After allowing the run in the 3rd, Twins starter Bailey Ober set down the next 7 in a row (1 strikeout looking) before being pulled after 5 innings in what we can only assume was due to pitch count after making just 1 other start in the last 23 days.
Twins’ RHP Bailey Ober’s Final Pitching Line:
5IP 3H 1R/ER 1BB 4K – No Decision
(78 pitches – 48 strikes (10 looking, 12 swinging))
On to the 6th inning with the Twins having just 2 hits and 1 walk. The Twins loaded the bases with 1 out on a Gilberto Celestino walk, a Luis Arraez single and a Jorge Polanco walk. Max Kepler then hit a ground ball to 3rd to get a force out of Celestino at home and Gary Sánchez lined out to left field to end the threat.
Twins RHP Yennier Cano took over in the bottom of the 6th and he allowed a leadoff walk then a single to Benintendi and an RBI-double to Hunter Dozier down the 3rd baseline past Jose Miranda to double the Royals lead to 2-0. He got Royals DH MJ Melendez to ground out to 2nd and keep the runners at 2nd and 3rd but he walked the bases loaded then gave up a bases-clearing double to Royals 1B Carlos Santana and an RBI-single to CF Kyle Isbel before Twins manager Rocco Baldelli made a pitching change to just-called-up RHP Trevor Megill. Nicky Lopez reached on a fielder’s choice but Megill struck out C Sebastian Rivero swinging then got Merrifield to fly out to right field to end the inning but it was now 6-0 Royals with just 3 innings to go.
Brady Singer got out of trouble in the 6th so maybe the Twins were finally getting to him as he tried to get through the lineup for a 3rd time. Twins SS Nick Gordon hit a 2-out triple that just barely missed going out of the park. Jose Miranda then swung at the first pitch and grounded out to short to end the 7th.
RHP Trevor Megill came out to try to get the Twins through the 7th and he allowed a first pitch single to Andrew Benintendi which made him 7-for-11 with a double and 2 RBIs in the 3-game series against the Twins. Megill then set down the next 3 batters on a flyout, a swinging strikeout and a ground out to end the 7th.
Royals’ RHP Brady Singer’s Final Pitching Line:
7IP 4H 0R/ER 3BB 3K – No Decision
(95 pitches – 58 strikes (18 looking, 7 swinging))
The Royals went to their bullpen to begin the 8th inning as RHP Taylor Clarke took the mound with a 2.45 ERA and a 1.127 WHIP with 16 hits and no walks allowed over 14.2 innings. The Twins were likely pretty happy to see a different pitcher on the mound even though they had gotten to Brady Singer a little bit in the previous 2 innings. They hit back-to-back-to-back singles off the bats of Celestino, Arraez & Polanco to score their 1st run of the game. After a mound visit from KC’s pitching coach, Max Kepler hit a linedrive RBI-single to right to score Arraez and that was it for Clarke as the Royals made a pitching change to RHP Scott Barlow. He got Gary Sánchez to fly out to right field but Polanco tagged up to score and the Twins had cut the lead in half at 6-3. Trevor Larnach struck out swinging on 3 straight curveballs for the 2nd out. Kyle Garlick came to the plate with a runner on. The catcher moved inside and Barlow left the pitch over the plate and that ball flew out to left field with some Garlick on it as Kyle made it a 1-run ballgame with his 4th home run of the season.
The Twins then loaded the bases on a Nick Gordon single, a pinch-hit walk from Carlos Correa and a Celestino walk to bring up Luis Arraez with 2 outs who was already 2-for-3 on the day so the Royals made a pitching change to RHP Josh Staumont who, up until that point, had a 3.45 ERA, a 1.382 WHIP and was 1-0 with 3 saves, 2 blown saves and 2 holds and then this happened…
Pitches 3,4 & 6 were fouled off. Pitch 2 is probably a strike but… WOW! And How?
Somehow, Luis Arraez was called out to allow the Royals to escape that inning with their lead still intact. How that last pitch is called a strike is beyond belief? Oh, well. You have to keep playing. There was still another inning left.
The Twins made these defensive changes before the bottom of the 8th:
Gio Urshela replaced SS Nick Gordon, batting 7th and playing 3rd base and Carlos Correa stayed in the game at shortstop.
The Twins also brought in RHP Tyler Duffey to pitch the 7th. Duff got Santana to line out to left and Isbel to fly out to right for the first 2 outs. Nicky Lopez reached on a fielding error by Jorge Polanco and the Royals pinch-hit Ryan O’Hearn for their catcher even though their backup catcher was playing DH. O’Hearn grounded out to 2nd to end the 8th inning so it was up to Polanco, Kepler and Sánchez to tie the game in the top of the 9th.
KC moved Melendez from DH to catcher and Staumont took the 9th spot in the batting lineup so the Royals gave up their DH.*
*It seems weird to pinch-hit with nobody on base & O’Hearn had faced Duffey one other time and stuck out against him.
Staumont came out to pitch the 9th inning for KC and he allowed a leadoff walk to Jorge Polanco then Max Kepler doubled to right field and Polanco was held at 3rd since there were no outs. Gary Sánchez then tied the game on a sacrifice fly to short right center field. A wild pitch allowed Kepler to advance to 3rd but Trevor Larnanch struck out swinging for the 1st out, his 3rd strikeout of the game. Kyle Garlick came to the plate having just hit a big 2-run HR in his last at bat so he walked to bring Gio Urshela to the plate and, on a 1-1 pitch, Staumont had just thrown a curve for a strike. They decided to throw another curveball but he left it up and…
The Royals made a pitching change to RHP Collin Snider and he got Carlos Correa to ground out to first to end the top of the 9th so now, the Royals had to face Twins fireballer closer Jhoan Duran to try to avoid the broom 🧹! Good Luck!
The Royals had Whit Merrifield, Andrew Benintendi and Hunter Dozier coming to the plate. They had all faced Duran at least once before so they had an idea of what to expect. Benintendi had faced him twice and struck out both times, one looking and one swinging.
Merrifield struck out swinging on 3 pitches, 2 curveballs. Benintendi took a 1st-pitch fastball for a ball then swung & missed on 2 more fastballs but fouled off 4 straight (3 fastballs & 1 splitter), all of the fastballs were in the triple-digit miles per hour. The splitter was 98.5. He then took an outside curveball to make the count 2-2 but grounded out to 3rd for the 2nd out so it was up to Hunter Dozier who had flown out to left in his previous at-bat against Duran which came on Friday. He took a first pitch curveball for a strike away then swung through a curveball before taking a low & away curve and fouling off another curve. That triple-digit fastball had to be on his mind when a 5th curve was thrown low and away outside the zone but he couldn’t check his swing as the 1st base ump called it a strike to end the game for a amazing comeback win for the Twins!
Here’s the condensed game highlight package:
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Final Score
Minnesota Twins 7 | 6 Kansas City Royals
W-Duffey(2-2) L-Staumont(1-1) S-Duran(3)
Pitching
Starters
MN:
RHP Bailey Ober:
5IP 3H 1R/ER 1BB 4K – No Decision –
KC:
RHP Brady Singer:
7IP 4H 0R/ER 3BB 3K – No Decision
Bullpen
MN:
RHP Yennier Cano:
0.1IP 4H 5R/ER 2BB
RHP Trevor Megill:
1.2IP 1H 2K
RHP Tyler Duffey:
1IP – 2nd Win
RHP Jhoan Duran:
1IP H2K – 3rd Save
KC:
RHP Taylor Clarke:
0IP 4H 4R/ER
RHP Scott Barlow:
0.2IP 2H 1R/ER 2BB 1K 1HR – 4th Hold
RHP Josh Staumont:
1IP 2H 2R/ER 2BB 2k – 1st Loss
Hitting
Home Runs
MN:
Kyle Garlick(4)
KC:
None
Doubles
MN:
Max Kepler(6)
KC:
Hunter Dozier(8), Carlos Santana(5)
2-Out RBI
MN (Inning):
Kyle Garlick 2(8th), Gio Urshela(9th)
KC:
None
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Game Notes
*
Pitch & Lineup Counts
A lot of people/fans take a lot from pitch counts. Bailey Ober was pulled after 5 innings and just 78 pitches and 48 strikes. He threw 24 pitches in the 1st inning with just 13 of those being strikes but coming off the injured list likely meant the Twins had him on a pitch count. He threw 54 the rest of the way but 35 of those were strikes so he was throwing more strikes after the 1st inning. He had set down 7 in a row after he allowed the RBI-single in the 3rd inning. That almost guarantees he was on a pitch count, right?
Or why would they take him out while he was on a roll?
Twins’ RHP Bailey Ober’s Final Pitching Line:
5IP 3H 1R/ER 1BB 4K – No Decision
(78 pitches – 48 strikes (10 looking, 12 swinging))
Another seemingly league-wide belief with starting pitching in baseball over the last few years is that teams don’t want to make most of their pitchers face a lineup for a 3rd time. The hitters have seen them twice and the analytics say that 3rd time through a lineup is tough for middle to back of the rotation starters.
The top of the Royals lineup was 2-for-6 with 2 singles, a strikeout and a GIDP (Merrifield & Benintendi were both 1-for-2 & Dozier had the K & the GIDP) against Ober but it was still just a 1-run ballgame at that point, too.
It’s very easy to second guess what managers in respect to when they leave pitchers in and when they pull ‘em. Sometimes they’re leaving them in to see how they do and/or respond to adversity for future reference. They have to find out what they can get from all of their pitchers in these moments to help them make better decisions as the season goes along.
If you add in that Bailey Ober was coming off an injury and had only pitched once in the last 23 days, it’s easy to see why they pulled him after 5 innings. He left feeling good about his start as he gave up just 1 run on just 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4.
We’ll see how he does in his next start which will likely be Friday against the same Kansas City Royals.
**
Umpire Scorecards
Someone started @umpscorecards on Twitter back in August of 2020 to show how accurate or, probably more to the point, how inaccurate home plate umps can be with their strike zones.
They’re definitely interesting to look at. Here’s the Ump Scorecard for Jeremy Riggs’ for this game:
They have a website, too, so check out UmpScorecards.com!
P.S. – We get extremely upset about a lot of calls get wrong but they do get the majority of them right and it’s one of the toughest jobs in sports to call a pitch a ball or strike seconds after it’s thrown.
Are there ways for the homeplate umps to improve their calls?
Arguably, yes, for sure but the strike zone also changes with every batter and also every catcher because the ump has to try to find a way to see the ball and the plate. If you watch a low pitch, it’s hard to believe they can tell if that’s a ball or a strike.
It would be cool to see the view of pitches from their angle to give us a feel for how hard of a job it is to call balls & strikes.
One of the greatest things about the strike zone is when the hundreds of fans think they can tell when a pitch is a ball or a strike from hundreds or feet away. A baseball has a circumference of 9 to 9.25 inches and a diameter of 2.86 to 2.94 inches so… what are the chances you can tell when the almost 3-inch baseball has been thrown over the plate and in the strike zone from 400’+ away?
From the MLB glossary:
“Home plate is a 17-inch square of whitened rubber with two of the corners removed so that one edge is 17 inches long, two adjacent sides are 8 1/2 inches each and the remaining two sides are 12 inches each and set at an angle to make a point. The 17-inch side faces the pitcher’s plate, and the two 12-inch edges coincide with the first- and third-base lines. The back tip of home plate must be 127 feet, 3 and 3/8 inches away from second base.”
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Next Up
The Twins begin a 7-game homestand on Monday night beginning with a 3-game series vs the Detroit Tigers:
Monday, May 23rd
6:40 pm on Bally Sports North
RHP Chris Archer vs RHP Elvin Rodríguez
(0-1, 4.10 ERA, 1.42 WHIP*) (0-0, 13.50 ERA, 2.27 WHIP)
1st Major League Start
Tuesday, May 24th
6:40 pm on Bally Sports North
RHP Sonny Gray vs RHP Beau Brieske
(1-1, 3.48 ERA, 1.26 WHIP*) (0-3, 5.13 ERA, 1.33 WHIP)
Wednesday, May 25th
1:10 pm on Bally Sports North
RHP Dylan Bundy vs RHP Rony García
(3.2, 5.14 ERA, 1.32 WHIP*) (0-0, 2.57 ERA, 0.71 WHIP)
*ERA=Earned Run Average, WHIP=Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched
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