***Official 2022 Minnesota Twins season thread***

[Eckstein197]

Nice to see Kirilloff with an extra base hit last night. Would be huge if he can mash in the majors

One last game in Arizona before Cleveland, Bundy saved the bullpen last night

Still surprised they went Cotton with a 10 run lead and not Duffey

[Hollywood42]

Squad has been way too on or off lately, no in between. Really needed to have a better stretch against Detroit/KC a few weeks ago. The Jays/Yankees/Tampa gauntlet was actually ok coming away with 2 series wins out of 3, and continued that with a series win against Seattle, but then dropped what should have been a gimme series against the Dbacks

Now with 8 of our next 11 games against Cleveland, we can really set the tone for the division. Only 1 game up on them right now, though somehow we have 6 more games played still. We have Ryan and Gray slated to each get starts in the first series, so they'll line up for starts in the second, too. Need them to be on. Looks like we'll only run into 1 game of Bieber in these 8 which is a blessing, but still really need the bats to step up, the rest of Cleveland's pitchers are never slouches

I'm looking at Correa and Buxton to really step up for us. Correa's not quite cold, but he's been fairly quiet over the past week. Bux has mimicked the rest of the team in being off or on, seems like he's either everywhere doing everything, or silent. These are the team leaders that need to step up and take charge here

Would also love to see Kirilloff and/or Larnach step up with some big series too. Would be big growing moments for either of them and we're going to need them to start producing consistently

[Chris Lyle]

Here's looking for a fun match up in an early battle for 1st place, which I will be honest I never really saw coming. Looks like at least in these first 3 pitching matchups favor you guys a little bit

Game 1 Civale versus Ryan
Game 2 McKenzie versus Gray
Game 3 Plesac versus Smeltzer

Who knows what Civale will give coming back off the DL and obviously he was a mess before the DL stint. McKenzie has been awesome as of late but you never know sometimes and it will depend on which Plesac shows up. But our team has been pretty scrappy so who knows. It's going to be fun for sure.

By the way Hollywood, most of the 6 extra games is due to a lot of make up games coming later in the summer for us.

[troesports]

Hopefully they can get to Civale early and make the Guardians use some bullpen arms tonight. Big two weeks of baseball coming up for the Twins.

[Eckstein197]

Hollywood, Joe Ryan pitching tonight means that he won’t pitch in the second guardians series. He likely gets the series finale versus Colorado

[Eckstein197]

Excited for this upcoming stretch versus the guardians. Twins can set a big tone especially with the first 3 in Minnesota. I agree team has been very hot and cold, seems like they play either up or down to their competition. So hopefully that means they’ll play up cuz the guardians have been good/this is a big series for the division

I think the twins take 2 of 3, I think we win today and tomorrow but drop the series finale. Pretty good pitching advantage today, a small but still there pitching advantage tomorrow and then Thursday is pretty even I’d say

The next 10 days are going to be massive for the division. 8 games between twins and guardians is a lot, and if they eat each other and go something like 4-4, that would allow the white Sox a window to eat up some of that backlog. White Sox have blue Jays, Orioles, angels during this current stretch.

I think come July 1st, Twins are up 4 games on the guardians. I think they gain a game in the 3 game series, gain a game over the weekend series with the twins playing Colorado and guardians playing Boston, and then the twins winning the 5 game series 3 games to 2

[Eckstein197]

Kirilloff just pumped some massive life back into this game and crowd. Massive hit there

[Hollywood42]

All Raez!!!!

[EBCollectibles]

Originally Posted by Eckstein197

Kirilloff just pumped some massive life back into this game and crowd. Massive hit there

CHOKE JOB!!!

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

All Raez!!!!

Great game tonight. Still can't believe that Guardians pitched to Arraez. Glad Franamil and Co bailed the team out. If these games are going to be this entertaining it's going to be a lot of fun. Glad to see Civale back and looking pretty good.

[Eckstein197]

Originally Posted by Chris Lyle

Great game tonight. Still can't believe that Guardians pitched to Arraez. Glad Franamil and Co bailed the team out. If these games are going to be this entertaining it's going to be a lot of fun. Glad to see Civale back and looking pretty good.

If the next 7 games in 9 days are anything like last night, both team's fanbases are gonna need heart meds

[CollectKep26]

Originally Posted by EBCollectibles

CHOKE JOB!!!

LOL...life must be sad for you. That's all.

[CollectKep26]

Originally Posted by Eckstein197

If the next 7 games in 9 days are anything like last night, both team's fanbases are gonna need heart meds

Twins blew this one. No other way to slice it. Frustrating to say the least.

[Eckstein197]

Originally Posted by CollectKep26

Twins blew this one. No other way to slice it. Frustrating to say the least.

Definitely. Pagan shouldn’t have thrown that slider 3-2 to Franmil and when you’ve got an opportunity in extras to win it, you’ve got to. I’m not a guy to bunt but man someone should have bunted

[CollectKep26]

Originally Posted by Eckstein197

Definitely. Pagan shouldn’t have thrown that slider 3-2 to Franmil and when you’ve got an opportunity in extras to win it, you’ve got to. I’m not a guy to bunt but man someone should have bunted

Yup, when Duran got out of the jam in the 10th, I felt really good about their chances. Buxton walking to leadoff the 10th was actually a bad thing IMO. But between the middle of the Twins lineup being a blackhole, Rocco essentially killing the back end of the lineup in the 9th...I still don't understand Garlick for Kirilloff at all...and inability to move runners over in extras, among other things. Just blown chance after blown chance.

[troesports]

Garlick gave the Twins a better chance to win the game in the 9th than Kirilloff did, given who the Guardians had on the mound. The inability to produce in the 10th was brutal, and I agree that Buxton walking was not a good thing. We needed to have a ball put in play during that AB to move Arraez over.

Garlick vs. LHP (career): 130 AB, .277/.329/.623, 21 XBH, 33.1 K%
Kirilloff vs. LHP (career): 80 AB, .250/.286/.413, 7 XBH, 23.8 K%

Hentges vs. RHB (career): 265 AB, .313/.378/.506, 29 XBH, 25.3 K%
Hentges vs. LHB (career): 97 AB, .217/.274/.278, 4 XBH, 28.9 K%

[CollectKep26]

Originally Posted by troesports

Garlick gave the Twins a better chance to win the game in the 9th than Kirilloff did, given who the Guardians had on the mound. The inability to produce in the 10th was brutal, and I agree that Buxton walking was not a good thing. We needed to have a ball put in play during that AB to move Arraez over.

Garlick vs. LHP (career): 130 AB, .277/.329/.623, 21 XBH, 33.1 K%
Kirilloff vs. LHP (career): 80 AB, .250/.286/.413, 7 XBH, 23.8 K%

Hentges vs. RHB (career): 265 AB, .313/.378/.506, 29 XBH, 25.3 K%
Hentges vs. LHB (career): 97 AB, .217/.274/.278, 4 XBH, 28.9 K%

I understand the splits, but you're ignoring that Larnach was hitting behind Kirilloff and you just significantly weakened your lineup if you don't end it in the 9th. IMO you let Kirilloff hit, PH Garlick for Larnach, and save Miranda. The best numbers vs. LHP out of those 4 are Garlick and Kirilloff. Not to mention the downgrade defensively at 1B from Kirilloff to Miranda. I sure would have rather had Kirilloff up in the 11th with a runner on 2nd than Gordon...

[Eckstein197]

I don’t mind bringing Garlick in there obviously because he mashes lefties but I would have much rather have had Garlick pinch hit for Larnach and Kirilloff gotten to bat versus the lefty. Yes I know matchup wise it didn’t make sense but Kirilloff was mashing and I’d rather ride the hot hand. That is one problem with Rocco’s managerial style, when it comes to batters that can platoon, he doesn’t just ride the hot hand

[Eckstein197]

Honestly part of me felt the game was lost when Jeffers singled at the bottom of the 9th. Really wanted Arraez to lead off the 10th

[troesports]

That's certainly fair. Rocco was definitely going to PH for one of them, and I can see the argument for holding off on Kirilloff and doing it for Larnach instead.

Eckstein197 - I agree with wanting Arraez to lead off the 10th. He would've at least put the ball in play and gotten the runner over to 3rd with one out.

[Athey49]

Another nail biter, Gio coming up big!

[Eckstein197]

This team actually has some fight, I’m a little surprised

Not confident about this bullpen over the next 2 innings

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by Athey49

Another nail biter, Gio coming up big!

Gio always burns us at least once any time we play him

[EBCollectibles]

Another choke job!! Someone from the stands come do the Heimlich Maneuver!! A slow miserable death is happening right in front of our eyes. How is the Taylor Rogers trade looking now boys? Sign Joe Nathan.

[CC_123]

Rocco needs to go. His constant mismanaging of close games is getting so old. Pagan blew yesterday's lead, so let's leave him in for a 2nd inning instead of going to your closer and best bullpen arm to just shut it down. Just absolutely awful. He tends to cost the team several wins every year with his mismanagement.

Also, the front office better make some trades for arms soon or we will finish 3rd in the worst division in baseball