Twins 2021

3 in a row! Maybe.

Umy wrote:

Please, can we be done with him? 5 batters over what? 20-25 mins of time.?!?!?

At one point Dickie Bremer said “its been 38 minutes since a ball has been put in play”.

I was busy grilling in the rain. Was far more enjoyable than watching Colome struggle. It has the potential to be a long season but probably fish more instead of setting my schedule around the Twins games so there’s a plus ( I guess….)

From Hayes in the Athletic today.

CLEVELAND — What was meant to be a lower-leverage spot for Alexander Colomé to rebuild his confidence on Tuesday night quickly turned into a high-leverage outing.

Shortly after that, it devolved into a disaster after which Rocco Baldelli addressed his team.

Hours after Baldelli noted Colomé would pitch in different roles, the Twins inserted their embattled closer into the eighth inning with his team trailing by one run. Six batters later, Cleveland had all the insurance it needed to hold off the Twins, 7-4, at Progressive Field. After taking the loss in Monday’s contest, Colomé walked three more batters, hit another and allowed two runs while recording only two outs on Tuesday. Coupled with another tough outing from starter Kenta Maeda and an offense that just isn’t getting it done, the Twins lost for the 13th time in 15 games and dropped to a staggering 7-15 overall. Losers of five straight series, the Twins will attempt to avoid a series sweep on Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s been about as tough a stretch as I’ve ever seen in professional baseball,” Baldelli said. “The way we’ve played these games, we’ve had our guts ripped out over and over again.”

Things got painful in a hurry after Colomé took over in the eighth inning with the Twins trailing 5-4. Pitching with his team trailing for only the second time since the start of the 2020 season, Colomé quickly continued his disastrous beginning to the season. Though he was gifted a called third strike on a 3-2 pitch off the plate to Franmil Reyes, Colomé couldn’t build any momentum. He hit Josh Naylor with a pitch and walked Jake Bauers. Though he struck out Roberto Pérez, Colomé issued consecutive walks to Andrés Giménez and César Hernández to push across a run. Colomé then departed but Cleveland added one more run when Jorge Alcala hit Jordan Luplow with a pitch.

As he also stated after Colomé surrendered a walk-off homer to Luplow on Monday, Baldelli is going to continue to use Colomé.

“We’re going to see Alex continue to pitch in the types of situations like we saw (Tuesday),” Baldelli said. “We have to build him back up. We’re going to get him in some spots where there’s some lower-leverage games, earlier in the game, and let him pitch. I think that’s a big part of the answer there, and that’s how you build back confidence.”

Several hours before the game, Colomé took part in an encouraging bullpen session with pitching coach Wes Johnson. Seeking Johnson out in the clubhouse, Colomé had a list of items he wanted to work on, including improved location of his cut-fastball. Johnson said he spent much of the session trying to boost Colomé’s morale and wanted to get the pitcher back into a game sooner than later.

“The message is real clear,” Johnson said. “‘You’re really good. You’re Alex Colomé. You’re here to get good hitters out. You’re going to get good hitters out.’ He’s just going through a rough patch. It’s always tough when you’re not playing well and the guy goes through a rough patch on top of that. He’s fine. He’s going to be fine. He’s going to be hyped to get back out there.”

Colomé is hardly the only member of the Twins in the midst of a rough patch.

Maeda struggled with the long ball again and blew an early two-run lead. The 2020 American League Cy Young runner-up, Maeda didn’t get a fastball far enough in to José Ramírez in the first inning and the slugger belted it for a solo homer to reduce the Twins lead to 2-1. An inning later, Reyes belted a first-pitch, offspeed pitch for a game-tying home run.

Maeda yielded another run in the third inning as Hernández and Ramírez each doubled to put Cleveland in front 3-2. Maeda did settle in at that point, retiring eight of the next 10 batters he faced, which allowed the Twins to rally and tie the score. But before Maeda could get through the sixth, Reyes ripped a two-out fastball for his second round-tripper of the night and Naylor followed with a double, ending Maeda’s evening. Naylor would come around to score when Bauers connected on a double off reliever Caleb Thielbar. Maeda, who has yielded six homers over his past two starts, now has a 6.56 ERA.

“The home runs that I gave up were regretful, especially because with two strikes, I was debating to go with one pitch or the other and had I thrown the other pitch, the result might have changed,” Maeda said through an interpreter. “Same goes for the second home run. That inside pitch, I think I saw (Reyes’) back leg slide over so I think he was waiting for it and I just happened to throw it down there. Again, I had another pitch in my mind that I could have thrown but it was just a bad pitch selection.

“I think overall I threw it better than my last outing. It’s just that it’s tough to end the game like this in a situation that we’re in.”

The Twins grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Nelson Cruz tripled in Byron Buxton with two outs and Alex Kirilloff singled the slugger in. But aside from a fourth-inning in which the Twins tied it on a Willians Astudillo RBI single, Cleveland starter Adam Civale was in control. He had four one-two-three innings and retired 13 in a row before Buxton homered to get the Twins within a run in the eighth.

But that was as close as the Twins would get as they added another gut-punch loss to the ledger.

“(Rocco) addressed the tough situation we’re in as a team,” Maeda said. “He just told us to keep our heads up and just give everything we’ve got. … We all want to win. I want to win. We want to win as a team.

“No frustrations, but it’s hard when things aren’t rolling the way it should or the way I expect, especially (Tuesday) because I feel like we had a chance to win if we kept grinding.”

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To bad the Twins don’t have someplace close, like say St. Paul where they could try and straighten Colome out instead of him throwing batting practice in the majors.

Bats starting out really hot today. Wonder if they can stay hot after the 3rd inning. That’s been the issue. Maybe Colome will finally get that low leverage outing they’ve been talking about today.

Twins up 4-0 in 1st inning. Time to put in Colome for a less pressure situation.

Only place Colome should be is in a Uber going from Cleveland to Anchorage.

They’re looking good today! Man Garver is tough to watch this year

Edit: Eating Crow. Proceeds to mash a HR.
Edit x2: Man crow tastes good. Mashed another HR.

AnotherFisherman wrote:

They’re looking good today! Man Garver is tough to watch this year

Edit: Eating Crow. Proceeds to mash a HR.
Edit x2: Man crow tastes good. Mashed another HR.

HAHAHA. You weren’t wrong. Sure hope this wakes them up a little. Happ is our losing streak buster. For our 4/5 starter he’s giving us a ton of value right now. He might not have great stuff but he’s about the only pitcher on our staff that actually understands how to pitch. Hope he’s trying to help the younger guys figure that out.

What impresses me is the way Buxton can miss time (he is always missing time) and still continues to hit. 5-5 again today. I think the kid has turned the corner as far as understanding the hitting portion of the game. Now, if he can figure out a way to stay on the field.

He has the potential to be a all time Twin great.

He certainly has figured his timing out. I heard him in an interview a week ago say with the way his swing is right now he can sit back on off speed pitches (which are many of what his HR’s are coming on), but still has quick enough hands to catch up to a fastball when he gets one. That’s a hitter that you can’t get out.

Pretty darn impressive currently.

It was fun listening to them yesterday out in the boat. although I was expecting things to go south at any time!!

Byron Buxton – the perfect example the best “ability” in professional sports is “availability”.

Unfortunately, he is likely figuring it out just when the Twins will have to get rid of him because the cannot afford him. On a 1 year prove it deal, he is proving it now, so will likely get that greater the $10M/yr offer from someone.

They have plenty of room to sign him. Many guys on roster with 1-2 year deals that they can part with.

I hate seeing Buxton hurt all the time as much as anybody. But, my gosh can that kid play defense.

That looks like the Twinks team we know & love.

Kirilloff baby!!!! and OMG is buxton a beast! its fun to see a 5 tool player realize his potential

Only took Bux 8 years to take professional at bats and it looks like something finally clicked up there for him? Still April tho so there’s plenty of time to regress. Obviously he will not stay at the pace he is on but he is seeing the ball really well!

Shoemaker is getting beat around again today.

I’m also beginning to think all the drivel in the TV booth these past years wasn’t all Blyleven’s fault.

Dutchboy wrote:

Shoemaker is getting beat around again today.

I’m also beginning to think all the drivel in the TV booth these past years wasn’t all Blyleven’s fault.

not sure what they were thinking signing a former horse jockey??????

Anybody watching the Twins lately? The ball sounds different when it’s hit. I don’t know if it’s the microphone or what. Seems to have a mushy sound more than a crack when a ball is well hit. Kiriloffs homeruns last night and today sounded that way to me.

they changed the ball since pitchers complained the balls were juiced last year.

Just got home from the game, we left after the 6th inning. Of course today had to be the opposite of last night… Oh well, this was only my second time at target field and man is it a nice place! We had perfect weather for it too- sat under the balcony in the sky deck.

Seems Mr. Kiriloff can hit a bit. Hopefully he can continue after the pitchers adjust to him.

Man it’s fun watching a kid figure out the big league pitching after having to work at it for a week. Really a positive having him in the lineup. He will have to make a few more adjustments once pitchers catch on to his trends but the kid can hit the ball anywhere so I think he’s going to be staying around awhile.

I’m ready for the Shoemaker experience to be over. We can get better results out of Dobnak (as much as I hate to say it) in the 5th spot.

Nice to see the bats wake up a little over the past week. Defense is still awful scary.

Looks like we will kill the bullpen again tonight.

Rocco trying to lose the game again. Brings in the absolute worst arms….Must be saving Colome for the ninth.

Holy SH&*

5-0 completely in control. I turn over to rasslin and it ends up 6-5.
Gonna be a long season if they don’t get this pitching squared up.

I wonder what Sano is thinking watching Kiriloff ripping it up?