Minnesota Twins Recap vs Rangers – May 4th, 2021

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Robb

The Minnesota Twins hope the 4th is with them, today, so they can extend their winning streak to 3 games against the Texas Rangers and former Twins starter RHP Kyle Gibson

Some #Twinsactions today:

The #MNTwins have placed UTIL Luis Arraez on the 7-Day IL with concussion-like symptoms & recalled INF Nick Gordon from Triple-A St. Paul!

Here are the lineups for tonight’s Game 2 (of 4) with LHP J.A. Happ pitching against former Minnesota Twins RHP Kyle Gibson!

Minnesota Twins Lineup:

Texas Rangers Lineup:

1B/OF or OF/1B Alex Kirilloff was scratched due to wrist soreness so Jake Cave started in LF & Willians #LaTortuga🐢 Astudillo started at 1B.

AND….#HappyMiLBOpeningDay, TwinsTakers!!!

The Future looks bright so…maybe you should wear 😎 !!!

It’s an exciting day for The Future Of Baseball!

Follow the #MNTwins affiliates on Twitter & Instagram:
AAA 
@StPaulSaints

AA
@WindSurgeICT

High-A
@CRKernels

Low-A
@MightyMussels 

The Mighty Mussels got a leadoff HR to open the season off the bat of 2018 9th-round pick, OF Willy Joe Garry, Jr. & still lead 1-0 in the top of the 4th.

Keoni Cavaco also 1B’d and Yunior Severino & Edouard Julien have walked.

Minnesota Twins 2018 10th-round pick RHP Regi Grace made the start & he’s through 3 innings. He’s allowed 2 hits & 1 walk and struck out 2!

The Saints, Wind Surge & Kernels games began at 6:35pm.

The #Saints had LHP Andrew Albers starting

#WindSurge’s starter was still TBD

&

the #Kernels had LHP Kody Funderburke starting

Follow along at the Minor League Baseball site HERE!

We’ll do our best to post about the Minor League results on a nightly basis.

Recap

Rangers shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa was hit by a pitch on the top of his left (lead) foot to start the game. He advanced to 2nd on a groundout then scored on an Adolis Garcia RBI-singled to put the Rangers up 1-0 in the 1st inning. Rangers 1-0

In the bottom of the 1st, Max Kepler grounded out to 3rd but Josh Donaldson walked and Byron Buxton hit his 9th Home Run of the season to change a 1-run deficit to a 1-run lead and it was smoked like most of Byron’s HRs have been this season. It had an exit velocity of 106mph and traveled 433 feet on a launch angle of 24º as Byron tries to stay hot in the month of May. Twins 2-1

Texas Rangers starter Kyle Gibson set down 9 straight Twins before Mitch Garver hit a nice opposite-field single down the right-field line but Jake Cave lined out to center to end the 4th inning. 

The one & only Willians “La Tortuga” Astudillo led off the bottom of the 5th inning with his 3rd HR of the season as Kyle Gibson hung a slider and it hung in the air until it hit the seats. Twins 3-1

Twins starters J.A. Happ allowed a hit in each of the 2nd  & 3rd innings but worked around them and set down 9 in a row before Adolis Garcia singled with 1 out in the top of the 6th on Happ’s 101st pitch so Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli went to his bullpen & RHP Hansel Robles to face left-handed slugger Joey Gallo.

Robles was trying to hit the edges and got Gallo to ground out softly to 1st but he walked Willie Calhoun on 4 pitches and was visibly upset with some of the calls so Minnesota Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson took a Mound Visit to talk to his reliever. Minnesota Twins broadcaster Justin Morneau said Wes* had gone out to talk to starter José Berríos and told him his stuff was too good to be trying to hit the edges of the strike zone & he should attack the zone instead. Robles threw the next three pitches at 97, 96 & 98mph to strike out Charlie Culberson & end the top of the 6th with the Twins still leading 3-1.

Gibson set down the next 12 batters after the Astudillo HR to get his team through the 8th.

Robles came out for the 7th and set ‘em down 1-2-3 on a lineout to center field courtesy of another Great diving catch from Byron Buxton, a flyout to right field and a groundout to 2nd. RHP Tyler Duffey took over to start the 8th and he got a groundout to 2nd then gave up a ground-rule double down the left field line but struck out Adolis Garcia swinging for the 2nd out before Rocco went to LHP Taylor Rogers who threw 5 straight sliders to Joey Gallo to strike him out swinging.

Rogers then came out for the 9th looking for the 4-out save and gave up a solo HR to Willie Calhoun over the right center field wall to cut the lead in half. Charlie Culberson then hit a grounder to 3rd that went off of Josh Donaldson’s glove so he reaches on the error. Andy Ibanez pinch-hit for David Dahl & he singled through the left side. Jose Trevino pinch-hit for Josh Heim & set down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to 2nd & 3rd. Isiah Kiner-Falefa then hit a bloop to short left center field that Andrelton Simmons made a great catch on but Culberson tagged up and tied the game at 3.

The Twins then went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th on a Buxton flyout, a Cruz strikeout and a Polanco strikeout in an 8-pitch at-bat.

On to the 10th and the very popular extra-inning rules. LHP Brandon Waddell was brought in to pitch and he got a lineout to left center field the he threw 2 straight sliders to Adolis Garcia and may have hung the 2nd one so it ended up in the seats to put the Rangers up 5-3. Joey Gallo then doubled off the right center field wall and advanced to 3rd on a groundout to 1st then scored on an RBI-double off the bat of Charlie Culberson to make it 6-3 and that was it for Waddell.

RHP Jorge Alcala came in and struck out Eli White on 6 pitches to end the top of the 10th.

The Rangers brought in closer RHP Ian Kennedy and he gave up a line-drive single to Mitch Garver on the 1st pitch. Polanco, who started the inning at 2nd, advanced to 3rd. Jake Cave struck out swinging and Willians Astudillo grounded into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.

FINAL SCORE

Texas Rangers 6, Minnesota Twins 3
W-Rodriguez (1-1) L-Waddell (0-1) S-Kennedy (8)

Home Runs:
MN: Byron Buxton (9), Astudillo (3)
TEX: Willie Calhoun (3), Adolis Garcia (7)

Doubles:
MN: None
TEX: Dahl (4), Lowe 5) Gallo (3) Culberson (6)

Pitching:
MN:
Happ: 5.1IP 4H 1R/ER 1BB 3K
Robles: 1.2IP 1BB 1K
Duffey: 0.2IP 1H 1K
Rogers: 1.1IP 2H 2R 1ER 1K 1HR (BS-2)
Waddell: 0.2IP 3H 3R 2ER 1HR (L)
Alcala: 0.1IP 1K

TEX:
Gibson: 8IP 3H 3R/ER 2BB 8K 2HR
Rodríguez: 1IP 2K 1 Win
Kennedy: 1IP 1H 1K 1 Save

Game Notes

*Willians Astudillo is just entertaining. He’s kind of like former Twin Eduardo Escobar as you can easily tell how much they love the game and how much fun they are to be around. La Tortuga makes weird faces and weird plays like when he pulls off his hat to track down fly balls. We can only assume that comes from being a catcher.

**I call this the Wes Effect. Wes Johnson is in his 3rd year as the Minnesota Twins pitching coach and he’s done a pretty good job as we’ve seen revivals from pitchers like RHP Tyler Duffey, RHP Matt Wisler & starters RHPs Michael Pineda, Jake Odorizzi & José Berríos. Should we also put RHP Kenta Maeda in here. How many others? He has a knack for getting more velocity out of pitchers and tweaking their pitch mixes to get the best out of them. We can’t say everyone has felt the positive “effect” on every pitcher but I think the best might be yet to come because the Twins should have pitching prospects coming in both the rotation and the bullpen somewhat soon.

After tonight’s result, there will be a lot of people calling for some changes quickly but I think the bullpen’s struggles is somewhat of a domino effect of RHP Alex Colomé starting the season terribly and having to move down the bullpen order to get some confidence back. Is it the talent of the pitchers or their command that’s causing these struggles? I think it’s the command and the pressure and the losing causing them to tighten up and try too hard &/or having to be too precise when they’re pitching.

It’s very interesting how they don’t seem to want to give RHP Jorge Alcala into more stressful situations. Wouldn’t he be a better option in the 10th than LHP Brandon Waddell?

Well, here’s your answer:

So…there’s your reason.

***Jake Cave is on a lot of fans minds in the Minnesota Twins first month of the season. It’s kind of sad because he’s on this roster in the role of 4th outfielder and he’s been thrown into an almost every day playing role but he’s also being moved around to different positions on the field. That’s probably not what his role is supposed to be. A 4th outfielder wouldn’t really be playing this much. He’s started 18 of the 27 games he’s played in for the first 28 games of the season. That’s not how often a usual 4th outfielder would play.

****The offense has not been good in late-inning clutch situations when the Minnesota Twins are trailing in games. 

Comebacks haven’t been easy for the Twins as they don’t seem to get many clutch hits

The Bottom Lines

It’s difficult to win Major League Baseball games when your team is playing well but it’s extremely difficult to win games when your team is only playing well part of the time and on only one side of the ball or one part of your team. I believe we all know this 2021 Minnesota Twins team will still get out of this bad stretch and be a great team when it is all said and done. It looked like they were maybe out of it but there were still bad things happening.

Hopefully, getting right back out there tomorrow will be good for them.

Thank You for reading our TwinsTakes! We’d love to hear your TwinsTakes! 

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Minnesota Twins Recap at Cleveland – April 28th, 2021

Posted on April 29, 2021 by Robb

The Minnesota Twins have lost 13 of their last 15 games after yesterday’s loss & even though it was just the 22nd game of a 162-game season, that’s a really tough stretch so manager Rocco Baldelli addressed his team following the loss:

Rocco talked about the bad stretch in the last 15 games for Minnesota

These Minnesota Twins want to win so this tough stretch has to be hard on them. It’s hard on the fans but, in my opinion, it shouldn’t really affect your life very much

Minnesota Twins Lineup:

Cleveland Lineup:

Rocco put Byron Buxton in the leadoff spot today to maybe get something going as quickly as possible and take advantage of Buxton’s incredible start to the 2021 season. Jorge Polanco was hitting cleanup followed by Mitch Garver then Brent Rooker, Willians Astudillo & Andrelton Simmons before rookie OF Alex Kirilloff hitting 9th as they were set to face Cleveland LHP Logan Allen, who has been hit hard so far this season.

The Twins were looking to get back to being a powerful team against left-handed pitchers like they were when they were the Bomba Squad in 2019 so let’s see how they did…

Recap

Byron Buxton made an impact as the leadoff hitter on the 2nd pitch of the game as he hit a 94mph inside fastball out to right field to put the Minnesota Twins up 1-0 and put a jolt of energy into his team right away. It was his 8th HR of the season as he continues to look like an MVP candidate and a player who can lead this team to bigger & better things*.

Josh Donaldson followed with his 2nd HR of the season to left center field. Nelson Cruz then walked and Jorge Polanco cleaned the bases by hitting his 1st HR of the season to left field and, Just Like That, it was 4-0 but…there was a full 9 innings to go on the mound and at the plate in this game and we’re all well aware of that and how they’ve lost in the last week and in the last 15 games.

So…maybe it’s a good thing the last Twins pitcher to win a game was on the mound today in LHP J.A. Happ and that win featured the best start of the 2021 season for a Minnesota Twins pitcher as he pitched 7.1 innings of no-hit baseball but allowed that first hit & was pulled but the Twins won 2-0 so…how would he start today’s game?

He got a groundout & a flyout to begin the bottom of the 1st then gave up a hard-hit linedrive single to José Ramírez but struck out DH Franmil Reyes to end the 1st which is a good sign since Reyes is one of the hottest hitters in the league right now.

In the top of 2, the Minnesota Twins loaded the bases on an Alex Kirilloff single, a Byron Buxton double & a Josh Donaldson walk. That brought up the BoomStick himself and he came within a foot of hitting a Grand Slam but had to settle for a 2-run single to increase the lead to 6-0.

Happ allowed a Rosario HR** (2) in the bottom of the 2nd to get Cleveland on the board but the Twins responded in the top of the 3rd when Willians “La Tortuga” Astudillo hit his 2nd HR of the season out to left field to make it 7-1.

Happ set down the next 8 Cleveland batters, going 1-2-3 in the 3rd & the 4th, until Amed Rosario came back up to the plate and doubled (2) to right field to lead off the bottom of the 5th. He then advanced to 3rd and scored on 2 groundouts. The rest of the way, the crafty lefty allowed just a walk in the 6th and a leadoff single (to Eddie Rosario) in the 7th for another fantastic start that included striking out Franmil Reyes twice and pretty much shutting down the top of the Cleveland order (1-for-11 with a single & a walk with 2 strikeouts).

In the top of the 5th, Mitch Garver came back up to the plate after striking out in his first 2 at-bats when he was hitting .143/.186/.304 8-for-56 with 3 doubles & 2 HRs with 3 walks & 27 strikeouts but maybe, just maybe, hitting is contagious and after seeing his teammates start to flourish with the bat, he forgot about those numbers and said, screw it, it’s time to start delivering the GarvSauce like I did in 2019*** so he crushed a ball off the facing of the Miller Lite stand in left field and YouTube analyst Jim Thome said he’d never seen anyone hit a ball that far in that part of Progressive Field before.

Minnesota Twins RHP Randy Dobnak replaced Happ to begin the 8th and he set ‘em down 1-2-3 with a strikeout. He came back out for the 9th and allowed a leadoff single to Jake Bauers then struck out Franmil Reyes with a nasty changeup then did the same thing to Eddie Rosario before getting the other Rosario to ground out to 3rd to end the game.

Minnesota Twins 10, Cleveland Baseball 2 | Final

W-Happ (2-0) L-Allen (1-4)

HR:
MN: 6: Buxton (8) Donaldson (2) Polanco (1) Astudillo (2) & Garver 2 (3,4)
CLE: 1: A. Rosario (2)

2B:
MN: Buxton 2 (7,8); CLE: Rosario, A. (2)

Pitching:

MN:
Happ: 7IP 4H 2R/ER 1BB 3K 1HR 1 WIN
Dobnak: 2IP 1H 3K

CLE:
Allen: 1.1IP 5H 6R/ER 1BB 1K 3HR 1 Loss
Stephan: 1.2IP 2H 1R/ER 1BB 2K 1HR
Hentges****: 3IP 5H 3R 2ER 0BB 2K 2HR
Wittgren: 1IP 1K
Maton: 1IP 1H
Nelson, K.: 1IP 1K

Buxton: 5-for-5: 3B shy of a cycle (HR, 2B (2)) & a SB (2)
Cruz: 2-for-4: 2 RBI, BB, R

Game Notes

*We can only hope Byron Buxton can stay healthy for the majority of the season. He’s already dealt with some dental issues & patella tendinitis. The majority of Twins Territory just assume he’ll get hurt because he’s never had a full season and that’s all due to injuries but part of that is learning how to play so he can stay healthy and the Twins staff has been working with him on that so…maybe this is the year.

**That’s an Amed Rosario HR as Cleveland has two Rosarios on their roster. The Twins did alright against their former left fielder as Eddie was only 3-for-12 with a double, a run & 1 RBI while striking out 3 times. He’s now hitting just .221/.261/.349 (AVG/OBP/SLG) on the season with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 2 HRs, 13 RBI & 10 runs scored with 5 stolen bases (5-for-5) & he’s walked just 5 times while striking out 19 times in 23 games this season. In contrast, Twins left fielders are hitting .151/.186/.186 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with 3 doubles, 7 RBIs with 2 walks & 33 strikeouts which is last in the American League according to MLB Stats:

Twins stats in Left Field so far this season

***This game reminded a lot of people of The Bomba Squad of the 2019 season where the Minnesota Twins hit more HRs (307) in a single season than any team in the history of the game. Some people are apparently not fond of that Bomba Squad name for some reason. Why would you be against a team that can hit more home runs than any other team thus having the ability to change the game with one swing with the majority of their lineup?

****LHP Sam Hentges (from Moundsview, MN) came into the game in the 4th inning. He allowed a 1st pitch single to Byron Buxton then got a double play off the bat of Josh Donaldson but allowed another single to Nelson Cruz then struck out Polanco to end the top of the 4th. Garver then hit his 1st HR of the game off a 1-0 pitch but Hentges then set down the next 4 batters including a strikeout of Alex Kirilloff before Buxton got another single, this one an infield single, then stole 2nd base but Hentges got out of it by inducing a popout & a groundout to finish the 6th. He was out there to begin the 7th when Jorge Polanco reached on a fielding error then allowed another HR to Mitch Garver before getting pulled after throwing 53 pitches & 30 strikes.

It had to be fun to face his hometown team. There’s another Sam Hentges who plays hockey for the St. Cloud State Huskies and he was drafted by the Minnesota Wild. Sam baseball is 6’6 & 245lbs while the Sam hockey is just 6’0 & 190lbs. Hockey Sam could very likely play for the Wild one day as he just finished his sophomore season scoring 24 points on 7 goals & 17 assists in 28 games for the St. Cloud State Huskies.

The Bottom Paragraph

It literally (& figuratively) comes down to this. It’s obviously nice to see the Minnesota Twins win a game and win it in the way they did today but the big question is where do they go from here? Is this a turning point for the 2021 Minnesota Twins?

It certainly was their most convincing win from both sides of the ball but can a team just pivot from losing 13 of 15 games then go on a tear? Well…look at the Oakland Athletics. They started their season going 0-6 & 1-7 then they won their next 13 games in a row including wins 9, 10 & 11 of that streak against the Minnesota Twins and we saw the difference between a winning team & a losing team in that series where the A’s were getting the breaks and the Twins were not. That 13-12 walk-off win on an error illustrates that pretty well.

You could also look at the Boston Red Sox who started their season losing 3 straight at home against the Baltimore Orioles then they won their next 9 before the Twins snapped that with the Max Kepler walk-off bloop single but…

Only time will tell for the Twins. They’ll get Thursday off before starting a 7-game homestand on Friday against the league-leading 15-8 Kansas City Royals for 3 games then face the Texas Rangers for 4 games.

Thank You for reading our TwinsTakes! We’d love to hear your TwinsTakes! 

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Minnesota Twins Recap at Cleveland – April 27th, 2021

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Robb

When will this bad stretch end for the Minnesota Twins? Is it today?

The Minnesota Twins lost another tough game yesterday and they actually took a 1-run lead in the top of the 8th off a Luis Arraez RBI-single but they couldn’t hold that lead as a hanging curveball was sent out of the park to tie it up and, unfortunately, RHP Alex Colomé got another loss when his 2nd pitch was sent out to left field for another walk-off win against the Twins.

They have their ace or, at least, their 2020 ace in RHP Kenta Maeda on the mound. He should be a pitcher the Twins can count on to end losing streaks and start losing streaks but he’s not been his normal self so far this season so it’s hard to know what to expect from him.

We trust that any Twins player —or any professional athlete for that matter— does everything in their power to figure out what’s causing them to struggle whether that be mechanics, a mental thing, an injury or just plain not getting anything out of a good swing or play. Sometimes, they just have to keep doing what they’re doing, especially in baseball because in the game of baseball, you could be hitting the ball great but it keeps being an at-’em ball. Remember, a good hitter gets a hit 3 out of 10 at-bats. How many other sports or jobs would that mean success in?

So…we’ll see if Kenta Maeda can get this team a win and start to get them over this huge losing hump today.

Minnesota Twins Lineup:

Cleveland Lineup:

The Minnesota Twins got on the board first when Nelson Cruz hit a ball just fair off the right field wall & it bounced past right field Josh Naylor & Nelson put it on Cruz control for a stand-up triple. Byron Buxton hit an infield single before Cruz so he scored on the play and the Twins led 1-0. Alex Kirilloff came up to the plate next and he knocked Cruz in with an RBI-single off the left field wall. It would’ve been a double but he slid off the bag and Eddie The Gun Rosario had the ball there in time to end the inning.

So… the game started well for Minnesota & on came Kenta Maeda. He got a strikeout and a groundout to start the bottom of the 1st but left a pitch over the plate and José Ramírez put it in the seats. Eddie Rosario grounded out to first to end the 1st inning with the Twins still ahead 2-1 but that didn’t last long after the Twins got only a Jake Cave 1-out single in the top of the 2nd, Cleveland DH Franmil Reyes got a hanging slider and he put that one in the seats to tie the game at 2. It was another mistake pitch from Maeda.

In the bottom of the 3rd with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd, José Ramírez hit a pop fly down the left field line and Alex Kirilloff took a longer route than he probably needed or wanted to but he still got to it but it went off the heel of his glove and dropped so the run scored and the Twins trailed by 1 at 3-2.

Nelson Cruz led off the top of the 4th with an infield single and he advanced to second on a throwing error from shortstop Andrés Giménez. Kirilloff struck out swinging but Willians Astudillo hit what looked like a double to right center field to score Cruz from 2nd and tie the game at 3. Willians thought that would be a double so he turned hard towards 2nd but stopped to go back. He didn’t pay attention to the ball that was overthrown and who knows if he would’ve been able to advance because the TV feed didn’t really show a good angle to tell but it did show 1st base coach Tommy Watkins pointing to the ball as Astudillo was returning to 1st.

Jake Cave doubled in the next at-bat so Astudillo would’ve scored to give the Twins a lead but, again, we don’t know if he would’ve been able to get to 2nd on that play.

The next batter, Mitch Garver, hit into a fielder’s choice & 3B José Ramírez chose to go home to get Astudillo for the 2nd out. Andrelton Simmons then grounded out to short to end the top of the 4th.

 Maeda had set down 6 straight but with 2 out in the bottom of the 6th, he tried to throw a fastball inside to Cleveland DH Franmil Reyes but he was ready for it and hit his 2nd HR of the day & his 7th of the season to put Cleveland up 4-3.

RF Josh Naylor followed with a double to center field and Rocco decided that was it for Maeda so he brought in LHP Caleb Thielbar to face Jake Bauers and he hit the first pitch to right field for an RBI-double to double the Cleveland lead to 5-3.

Thielbar stayed in for the first 2 outs of the 7th before being replaced by RHP Cody Stashak who walked 2 batters before getting Eddie Rosario to pop out to the catcher.

In the top of the 8th, with 2 outs, Cleveland RHP Aaron Civale left a pitch up to Byron Buxton and he cut the lead in half with his 7th HR of the season.

Rocco said before the game that he was going to start giving reliever RHP Alex Colomé some lower leverage situations to try to get his confidence back so he brought him in for the 8th to face the middle of the Cleveland lineup.

He struck out Franmil Reyes on a friendly called strike then he hit Josh Naylor up high with a pitch, walked Jake Bauers, got Roberto Perez to strike out swinging then walked Andrés Giménez to load the bases then walked Cesar Hernandez to walk in a run. He was replaced by RHP Jorge Alcala and he hit Jordan Luplow to force in another run before striking out José Ramírez to end the 8th.

Alex Kirilloff led off the top of the 9th and hit a screaming (101mph) liner but it was caught in right field. Astudillo popped up to 1st and Jake Cave struck out swinging to end the game.

Minnesota Twins 4, Cleveland Indians 7 | Final

W-Civale (4-0) L-Maeda (1-2) S-Karinchak (2)

The Bottom Paragraph

So…the losing continues and it feels like it will never end but it will end and it could end as soon as tomorrow afternoon when the last Twins pitcher to win a game, LHP J.A. Happ, is on the mound at 12:10pm on YouTube and he’ll pitch against LHP Logan Allen!

Thank You for reading our TwinsTakes! We’d love to hear your TwinsTakes! 

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Minnesota Twins Recap at Cleveland – April 26th, 2021

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Robb
The Minnesota Twins go on the road to see if they can solve their struggles!

The Minnesota Twins have lost 11 of 13 and currently have the 2nd worst record in the whole league at 7-13 which, of course, means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of a 162-game baseball season. They’re 6.5 games back of the 1st place Kansas City Royals (14-7), 4.5 games back of 2nd place Chicago White Sox (12-9) & 2 games back of Cleveland, their opponent tonight & for the next 3 games.

After yesterday’s 2nd straight 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli spoke about getting going & getting into a normal baseball routine:

Rocco and the Twins aren’t making any excuses. They’re just thinking getting into a regular, back-to-normal routine will help them get out of this slump.

One Twinsaction was made that might help, too, as the Minnesota Twins activated SS Andrelton Simmons from the COVID Injured List (IL) and optioned SS Nick Gordon to the Alternate Training Site. 

It’s sad for Nick Gordon because he didn’t get to make his MLB Debut but he did get to spend time with the big club and see how they do things and being called up shows the Twins recognized the work he’s putting in and that he’s close to making that debut soon.

Here’s how the teams lineup for Game 1 of 3 tonight:

How about this for irony? The Twins put OF/1B Alex Kirilloff at 4th in the lineup to give their top prospect a greater chance at success but then look at who is hitting 4th for Cleveland and it’s the guy Alex Kirilloff has or will replace in former Twin OF Eddie Rosario. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Eddie Rosario says he has “definitely no hard feelings” towards the Twins and he’ll remain forever grateful to the organization and the fans. Says he took it as a challenge when he was non-tendered.

Courtesy of Do-Hyoung Park’s Twitter

RHP José Berríos (2-2, 3.00 ERA, 0.95 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched)) will take the mound to try to be the stopper of this losing slump & hopefully the start of a winning streak and back to Twins winning & he’ll be opposed by RHP Zach Plesac (1-3, 6.75 ERA, 1.34 WHIP)

Minnesota Twins Lineup:

Cleveland Lineup:

Minnesota Twins RF Brent Rooker’s 2020 season ended when he was hit by a pitch that fractured his right forearm. That pitch was thrown by RHP Zach Plesac. In the top of the 2nd inning, Rooker came to the plate to face Plesac for the first time since that injury and it’s not hard to believe he was looking to do something against Mr. Plesac. Well, on the very first pitch, Plesac threw a 94mph fastball right down the pipe and 5 seconds later, that ball left the park for Rooker’s 1st HR of the season and that had to feel good.

That HR put the Twins up 1-0.

In the top of the 4th, Minnesota Twins Top Prospect OF Alex Kirilloff got his first Major League Hit*, a double to left center field. It’s nice to see the kid finally get rewarded on another good swing. Hard to imagine Alex Kirilloff not having a nice, long Major League career filled with A LOT of Hits that will include A LOT of doubles & A LOT of Home Runs! This double (also a first) put Nelson Cruz into scoring position.
*It’s technically his 2nd 1st Major League Hit but his 1st 1st Major League Hit was in the Postseason so it isn’t recognized as his first Major League Hit. He’s the 1st player to get his first Major League Hit in the postseason. We assume he’s also the first player to have 2 first Major League Hits, a first first & a second first!

Jorge Polanco hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 4th to score Nelson Cruz from 3rd as they ran on Eddie Rosario but beat the throw home to make it 2-0 but Eddie would get them back with an RBI-double in the bottom of the 6th to get Cleveland within 1 and the very next batter, Franmil Reyes, would tie the game at 2 with an RBI-single.

In the top of the 8th, Jake Cave led off the inning with an infield single and 3 batters later, Luis Arraez hit a 2-out RBI-single to score Cave from 2nd (advanced on an Adrelton Simmons groundout to short) to take a 3-2 lead.

Twins RHP Tyler Duffey took over in the 8th inning. He got Jordan Luplow to ground out to 2nd then started out 3-0 against 3-time Silver Slugger 3B José Ramírez. He got a called strike then got him to swing at an outside fastball to get the count back to full but he hung a curveball that went into the seats just inside the right-field foul pole to tie the game. Another mistake pitch costs the Twins as it seems there are very few Twins relief pitchers who have good command so far this season, LHP Taylor Rogers & RHP Hansel Robles come to mind with maybe RHP Jorge Alcala among that group, too.

The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 9th on a groundout & two swinging strikeouts and LHP Taylor Rogers took over in the bottom of the 9th. He allowed a leadoff single then got a swinging strikeout then Andrés Giménez doubled to left field but defensive replacement Tzu-Wei Lin got to it and got the ball in quick enough to keep the runner at 3rd. The next batter grounded into a fielder’s choice to 3rd and Josh Donaldson threw Josh Naylor out at home then Rogers got Cesar Hernandez to ground out to short to end the 9th and send the game into extra innings.

The Twins had Willians Astudillo, who replaced Brent Rooker & took over at 1st base (Kirilloff moved from 1st to RF), at 2nd base to start extra innings. Jake Cave grounded out to short to begin the inning but Astudillo advance to 3rd. Andrelton Simons then struck out swinging & Ryan Jeffers grounded out to short to end the top of the 10th.

In came RHP Alex Colomé who had seemed to do nothing but struggle even though he does have 2 saves on the season. He only threw 2 pitches and the 2nd pitch left the yard for a walk-off HR off the bat of Jordan Luplow and the tough stretch for the Twins continues.

Game Notes

For the Twins or any team going through a tough stretch, you have to take the positives and move on to the next game. In this game, they took a lead in the 8th but their margin of error is so small, and losing makes players tense up and maybe try to be too fine that they maybe make more mistakes because of it. Nobody is perfect and you can’t be perfect. You just try to be as good as you can be every time you play. Being tense and worried about bad things happening is not how you should play the game. You have to get back to having confidence in your abilities to have success.

Will this bad stretch end easily? Not likely. The Minnesota Twins will have to battle out of this and get one or several big plays from at least one guy.

Byron Buxton appeared to have done that when he hit the 2-run HR in the top of the 10th in Oakland but they couldn’t hold the lead due to walks and 2 errors.

The battle never ends no matter if you win or lose.

Forget about it and get ’em tomorrow, fellas!

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Minnesota Twins – Losing Is A Disease

Posted on April 22, 2021 by Robb
The Minnesota Twins Should Trust in What They Are Doing

How do the Minnesota Twins Get Back to Winning? The Minnesota Twins are 1-9 in their last 10 games. It’s not difficult to see they’re in a losing funk right now. When you’re losing & have been losing, you find ways to keep losing because you’ve lost confidence in yourself.

The Psychology of Losing

It’s amazing what losing (& winning) does to any player & team. We’ve all seen it before. When a team is on a losing streak or a player is struggling, their confidence is low so maybe their technique gets bad & they do things differently than they normally would. They start to not trust their own ability and also their teammate’s ability. The result is they make unusual mistakes & if something goes bad they get a “here we go, again” feeling instead of just forgetting about it and getting back to playing the way they know they can.

This is why players, teams and maybe everyone needs coaches or mentors.

They’ll reestablish the confidence in yourself and your game to get you back to playing/doing whatever you do how you’re meant to do it.

We’ve all probably had bad managers or friends or just acquaintances that brought you down or said something like, “don’t screw this up!” I got a promotion & my manager at the time said, “If you screw this up, you’re done.” Well, that was inspiring, especially since I had never done that job before. Luckily, I already knew the guy was a jerk so it didn’t phase me one bit & I excelled at that job.

I’ve also always been fascinated at how professional teams handle their players & develop them into what they can be & maybe even past what they thought they could be. Usually, that’s with brutal honesty like, “Hey, you were terrible tonight!” but that’s not the end of it. They don’t just destroy the player & walk away. They take them into a video session & show them what they did bad or wrong and then tell them what to do differently so they don’t make the same mistake again.

It’s basically the difference between fans & coaches. Fans say, “They’re terrible & I’m done with them,” “Bench them” or “Send them down to the minors.” It’s one reason it’s difficult to follow sports & be a fan of any team.

It’s hard to believe any good coach ever told a player they were the reason they lost the game. Teams lose games. Players try to play their best every time and make physical & mental mistakes every now & then.

Yesterday, the Minnesota Twins should’ve won a baseball game they scored 12 runs in but they’re a losing team right now so…physical mistakes were made and they lost on a walkoff error on a routine play that is probably made 99% of the time regardless of who’s in position to make that play. There were actually 2 plays like that.

2nd Guessing is the Easiest Job in the World

There is no easier job in the world than to make decisions after you know what happened. That’s why that job doesn’t exist. Think of every mistake or wrong decision you ever made and see if you’d do it the exact same way again.

Minnesota Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli made what a lot of people are calling questionable decisions in yesterday’s game:

  • He pinch-ran for 3B Josh Donaldson with INF Travis Blankenhorn to begin the 10th inning, taking out his great defensive 3rd baseman
  • He had RHP Alex Colomé pitch the 10th when he had RHP Jorge Alcala (although he did pitch the day before) & LHP Devin Smeltzer as other options in the bullpen
  • He put Luis Arraez at 3rd base & Travis Blankenhorn at 2nd base

Donaldson would’ve scored just like Blankenhorn on Byron Buxton’s 10th inning 2-run home run. Alex Colomé threw 49 pitches & 29 strikes in 2 innings. He threw 19 pitches in the 9th when he blew his 3rd save of the season to send the game into extra innings. He then got a flyout & a strikeout on 10 pitches to begin the bottom of the 10th. He walked the next batter on 5 pitches and walked the batter after that on 6 pitches to load the bases. He then got a ground ball to 2nd base but Travis Blankenhorn didn’t make the play so a run scored to make it a 1-run game. He then got another ground ball, this one to 3rd base off the bat of Ramón Laureano & he has some speed but Arraez fielded it and overthrew 1st base to allow Oakland to score 2 runs and walk-off and extend their winning streak to 11 games.

Rocco Baldelli Interview

After the game, Rocco Baldelli spoke about his decision to replace Josh Donaldson:

“In extra innings, if you don’t find a way to put a run on the board, you’re going to end up losing a lot of those games & doing everything possible to put that first run on the board is instrumental to find ways to win those games. There are going to be times where we’re going to be pinch-running for guys in those situations. We’ve done it in the past a fair amount & we’ll continue to do it. We have to get the guys that give us the best chance to score out there and that’s what we did and we pinch-ran for him and took him out of the game.”

“It’s been a helluva trip in not a good way. Today was a game where…we’re finding ways to not win games even games we should be winning. What we really saw today was something that we haven’t seen a ton from our group and I stand in the front of it and take responsibility for all of it. It was a very difficult day. Nothing came easy. Our guys continued to fight and continued to play hard. We got to the point in the last inning where we needed to make one of two routine plays, just routine ground balls, and we weren’t able to do it and I think it really comes down to that. It’s as simple as that. I think we played a game we should’ve won and we’re not winning those games right now.

There was no blame given, just facts about what happened. It’s easy to say well, he shouldn’t have pinch-ran for Josh Donaldson and Luis Arraez makes the play at 2nd if he puts Travis Blankenhorn at 3rd instead and Alex Colomé shouldn’t have been in there & Jorge Alcala and/or Devin Smeltzer should be able to be depended on to get one out.

If only Mr. Baldelli could see into the future so he could make a different decision. It’s not likely there was any hesitation to make the moves he made because he has confidence that every one of his players can make those plays the majority of the time. Errors will happen but a manager thinks from a positive standpoint so while this loss was disappointing, he knows what he has with the 2021 Minnesota Twins and he expects they will get out of this and start to play very good baseball very soon if not in the very next game.

There are 145 more baseball games to be played so the Minnesota Twins can & likely will get past this and become a better baseball team as soon as tomorrow when they start a 3-game homestand against the Pittsburgh Pirates with LHP J.A. Happ on the mound against RHP JT Brubaker at 7pm on Bally Sports North.

It’s their first night game at home so maybe they can get in a routine of normal baseball schedule, get some batting practice in and get back to winning.

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