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Twins lead the American League after two wins in Toronto · Twin Cities Territory

0:09
Speaker 1: All right, hello, and welcome back to Twin Cities Territory,
0:14
Speaker 1: our Minnesota Twins podcast on the Foul Territory Network. I
0:18
Speaker 1: am Zach Pierce, the athletics editor of Many Random Things.
0:23
Speaker 1: Dan Hayes is here as well, our athletics Minnesota Twins
0:27
Speaker 1: beat writer, and we're joined, of course again by Tyler Duffy,
0:30
Speaker 1: longtime Major leaguer and former Minnesota Twin. And guys, the
0:35
Speaker 1: Twins stay hot six wins in seven games after winning
0:39
Speaker 1: the final two in Toronto this weekend. Bouncing back after
0:43
Speaker 1: a tough loss on Friday, two straight series wins, they
0:47
Speaker 1: improved to nine and seven and as we are taping
0:49
Speaker 1: this currently on Sunday Night, Cleveland is down nine to
0:54
Speaker 1: one to Atlanta on the new Sunday Night Baseball on
0:58
Speaker 1: NBC's at the debut of Sunday Night Baseball Tonight.
1:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it is.
1:04
Speaker 3: I think so, and it means that everybody in the
1:06
Speaker 3: nation is hearing Jason Benetti's Dulcet Tones crosschair.
1:11
Speaker 1: Yes, if Cleveland loses that game. Fun fact, the Twins,
1:15
Speaker 1: after sixteen games will be tied for the best record
1:19
Speaker 1: in the American League. And I think technically on time
1:22
Speaker 1: Breakers would be number one. A little too early maybe
1:25
Speaker 1: to obsess over that, but anyway, a strong rebound guys
1:30
Speaker 1: from a tough game on Friday. They got up four
1:33
Speaker 1: nothing on Friday, then watched Toronto. Just tee off on
1:37
Speaker 1: Simon Woods Richardson in the bullpen and got ten runs,
1:40
Speaker 1: ten to four loss, But a strong couple of games
1:42
Speaker 1: in Toronto against the defending ALE champs. Obviously a injury
1:46
Speaker 1: depleted ale Champs, but still I think overall an impressive
1:50
Speaker 1: couple of games. Tyler.
1:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is big, like you mentioned, go in that
1:55
Speaker 4: first day and kind of hit all the speed bump
1:58
Speaker 4: and then come out of it with two to finish
2:00
Speaker 4: in a place where it's a hostile environment. You know,
2:03
Speaker 4: big crowd, big noise, a lot of guys, probably first experiences,
2:07
Speaker 4: you know, some of the younger guys in that stadium.
2:09
Speaker 4: Even and Even had a great debut and there and
2:13
Speaker 4: you know, guy came in and you know put online
2:16
Speaker 4: what he throws seventy or eighty pitches something like that.
2:18
Speaker 2: I mean, that's you know, all the way to close
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Speaker 2: the door.
2:21
Speaker 4: And yeah, it was a great series and in a
2:24
Speaker 4: good gut check series again, you know follow I said
2:26
Speaker 4: that before Detroit. I think this is another one, and
2:30
Speaker 4: everybody seems to kind of be settling in and the
2:32
Speaker 4: momentum is kind of building, and you know, things are
2:35
Speaker 4: kind of starting to click, and that's that's when baseball
2:37
Speaker 4: starts to get fun.
2:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, to go from four nothing up for nothing Friday,
2:43
Speaker 3: and after the game we found out Samywood Richardson had
2:46
Speaker 3: food poisoning courtesy of subway subway sandwich. That's five dollars
2:50
Speaker 3: foot long anyways, to find out that he had food poisoning.
2:55
Speaker 3: To see it go the way it did. After the game,
2:58
Speaker 3: you learned that Royce Lewis and Cody Lowson are going
3:01
Speaker 3: on the il Lewis with the Grade one LCL strain
3:06
Speaker 3: lateral not even trying to remember what all those are
3:09
Speaker 3: LCL strain, and then Lawson with the right forearms train.
3:15
Speaker 3: You know. I mean, that was a downer moment for
3:17
Speaker 3: a team that had come in with winning four in
3:19
Speaker 3: a row and to come back and then even on Saturday,
3:22
Speaker 3: Joe Ryan who had had some like he had not
3:26
Speaker 3: been his best so far this season. Joe Ryan's had
3:28
Speaker 3: some weird He had that weird game in Kansas City
3:31
Speaker 3: where he got the start and basically was unfortunately it
3:36
Speaker 3: was that weather game. Yeah, for him to come out
3:41
Speaker 3: and give up a two run homer on the second
3:43
Speaker 3: batter and then bounce back and throw seven, and you know,
3:48
Speaker 3: the offense really gave him some room to operate. And
3:51
Speaker 3: Joe Ryan then was on the field on on camera
3:55
Speaker 3: with the microphone on Sunday during the big rally against
3:57
Speaker 3: Max Schzer, which has gotta be so much fun for
4:01
Speaker 3: players that are like, I want to get in and out.
4:03
Speaker 3: I want like a two minute interview. Joe Ryan got
4:05
Speaker 3: like a twenty five minute interview today because that inning
4:09
Speaker 3: kept going and going and we had to get some
4:11
Speaker 3: real stats on that because Corey Corey provis was mentioning
4:14
Speaker 3: what the player woar is because it seems like Twins
4:17
Speaker 3: players have been on camera for some absurd rallies so far,
4:21
Speaker 3: which I think they're going to keep signing up for
4:23
Speaker 3: if that's the case, but like just a feel good
4:26
Speaker 3: series after Friday, because I mean, when Ryan Jeffers hit
4:30
Speaker 3: the home run on Friday, you know, my first thought
4:32
Speaker 3: is will the marquee, the Sex World marquee still be
4:36
Speaker 3: up when they would do the World Series parade in October,
4:39
Speaker 3: because I think that. You know, the Sex World Marque
4:42
Speaker 3: would be so great in those pictures just off Washington.
4:45
Speaker 3: It's out of business now, you know, it's gone. They're
4:48
Speaker 3: selling off stuff at auction. It's anyways. You think about
4:52
Speaker 3: like where they were Friday night early on, and it
4:56
Speaker 3: was great. They're up four and nothing, and that was
4:59
Speaker 3: that was a very rough loss. I mean, we just
5:01
Speaker 3: saw them. You know, Woods Richardson had been really good
5:05
Speaker 3: this season to give up five in that one inning
5:06
Speaker 3: and then the bullpen gave up five more and it's
5:08
Speaker 3: like here they go again. But that was a really
5:11
Speaker 3: good series victory for the Twins to come out of it.
5:14
Speaker 3: And you know, I mean the offense has been just
5:17
Speaker 3: amazing so far, which is shocking to say that when
5:21
Speaker 3: we know where they were last Saturday Sunday.
5:25
Speaker 1: At some point you have to stop calling it early
5:27
Speaker 1: in the season. But ten percent of the way through,
5:30
Speaker 1: maybe maybe he is not there yet, but still just
5:34
Speaker 1: remarkably packed. American League standings off the top. I'll just
5:37
Speaker 1: show this graphic to those watching on YouTube right now,
5:40
Speaker 1: but the AL standings top to bottom. Cleveland currently first place,
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Speaker 1: nine and six, but as I mentioned, losing handily in Atlanta,
5:49
Speaker 1: right now in the bottom of the eighth, if they
5:52
Speaker 1: lose that we're going to have what did I count?
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Speaker 1: Up eleven teams between nine and seven and seven and
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Speaker 1: nine in the AL and then two more at six
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Speaker 1: and nine and two and six and ten. It is
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Speaker 1: a let's just say, too early to call the race in.
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Speaker 3: The AL for sure.
6:10
Speaker 1: Scoreboard watching, scoreboard watching, man, I'm finding like this is
6:16
Speaker 1: obviously my second go around hosting a baseball podcast. Pucket
6:20
Speaker 1: will do a live rip, but it's hard not to
6:23
Speaker 1: overreact when you talk about baseball every couple of days.
6:27
Speaker 1: But still, Tyler, we mentioned this a little bit on
6:30
Speaker 1: Friday's show. I believe, but like, again, you know, a
6:35
Speaker 1: team that spent so much time hearing how they weren't
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Speaker 1: going to contend to come out and you know, injuries aside,
6:43
Speaker 1: a tough place to play in Toronto, and a fan
6:46
Speaker 1: base that's that's ready to cheer for another winner, and
6:48
Speaker 1: to come back and win those two games has got
6:50
Speaker 1: to be yet another big boost after last week.
6:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's huge, and like we were kind of talking
6:56
Speaker 4: about it, it seems like it's a little bit of
6:58
Speaker 4: everyone doing something right now, especially on the position player side.
7:01
Speaker 4: There's no one guy who's you know, going five for
7:04
Speaker 4: five every game. It's you know, a homer here. You know,
7:07
Speaker 4: Gray comes to mind hit. I think he hit two
7:09
Speaker 4: homers this weekend or one, uh, you know, Jeffers hitting his.
7:13
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's spread kind of evenly throughout the order.
7:16
Speaker 4: Nobody's like carrying the freight, you know, so to speak,
7:20
Speaker 4: you know, and it's that's what it's gonna have to be,
7:22
Speaker 4: you know. And and then as the season progresses, like
7:24
Speaker 4: I keep saying, there's gonna be guys that really settle
7:27
Speaker 4: in and be who they are. You know, Byron's going
7:29
Speaker 4: to beat him. You know, whoever falls into the lineup
7:31
Speaker 4: around him will be there. But it's it's momentum at
7:35
Speaker 4: this point. It's it's getting into the regular schedule, you know,
7:38
Speaker 4: playing the night games, the Thursday or Sunday day game.
7:41
Speaker 4: You know, you know what's coming down the tracks, and
7:43
Speaker 4: it's just go play ball. And you know, right now
7:47
Speaker 4: it looks like there's a pretty good formula in place,
7:50
Speaker 4: and you know, head home a play Boston and it's
7:53
Speaker 4: gonna be a it's home right home games.
7:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a six game stand again.
7:58
Speaker 4: Back game back home against Boston which would be a
8:01
Speaker 4: good series. They always draw fans, so hopefully that'll bring
8:03
Speaker 4: some people out into the house and give him the
8:05
Speaker 4: target field and you know, keep that momentum rolling. You know,
8:08
Speaker 4: it's fun when you start playing well and everyone kind
8:11
Speaker 4: of gets in a groove. You know, you look up
8:13
Speaker 4: in a couple of months ago buying you're in the
8:15
Speaker 4: first place.
8:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say that offense is sixth and runs,
8:21
Speaker 3: which is crazy. Atlanta moved ahead of them tonight with
8:24
Speaker 3: the or on Sunday night with the nine run outburst
8:27
Speaker 3: against Cleveland. But I don't think there was any world
8:31
Speaker 3: that anybody saw the Twins being even at one point
8:35
Speaker 3: top five or six in offense. You mentioned it. It's
8:39
Speaker 3: coming from everywhere. Tristin Gray today the three run homer.
8:42
Speaker 3: Sunday with the three run homer. Trevor Larnock with a
8:44
Speaker 3: three run homer on Saturday. Brooks league hit a pair
8:47
Speaker 3: of home runs. You know, just followed up his big
8:50
Speaker 3: hit Thursday with a great weekend in Toronto. He had
8:53
Speaker 3: the two run double on Sunday, he had a couple
8:56
Speaker 3: of home runs. Everywhere you look, it's been just somebody
9:00
Speaker 3: new stepping up. This is going to have to be
9:03
Speaker 3: a team that relies on the collective. That's just how
9:06
Speaker 3: they're gonna have to be. The thing is, the collective
9:08
Speaker 3: is talented, really when you look at it. Brooksley was
9:12
Speaker 3: a first rounder, Royce Lewis was a first rounder. Trevor
9:15
Speaker 3: Larnick was a first rounder. Ryan Jeffers was a second rounder.
9:18
Speaker 3: Matt Walner was a first rounder. Josh Bell I think
9:21
Speaker 3: was a first rounder.
9:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. Everywhere you look you have dudes that were drafted.
9:29
Speaker 3: There's a lot of unrealized talent on this roster. We've
9:32
Speaker 3: talked about this all year. It has to be realized.
9:34
Speaker 3: They're hoping that that's something that they can unlock this year.
9:38
Speaker 3: It's a good start sixteen games. It's ten percent Lowells
9:42
Speaker 3: will come. The fact that brooks Ley came back after
9:46
Speaker 3: his I think he was six for thirty one after
9:49
Speaker 3: the hit on Thursday, and he had four or five
9:52
Speaker 3: hits this weekend. That's a great weekend to follow up
9:55
Speaker 3: on and just get some more good vibes. He needed
9:57
Speaker 3: that desperately. And when you have him doing that in
10:00
Speaker 3: the eighth or ninth spot, and you know, you look
10:02
Speaker 3: around and Tristan Gray, I mean it just for the
10:06
Speaker 3: guy that made the last spot in the roster to
10:09
Speaker 3: have as many big moments as he's had. It's actually
10:12
Speaker 3: reminiscent of what Cody Clemens did last year with the
10:15
Speaker 3: Twins after they claimed him off waivers. It's a good,
10:18
Speaker 3: just good feel story kind of and you know, you know,
10:22
Speaker 3: the guys love those guys coming through in the way
10:24
Speaker 3: they do. And he's got something to talk about for
10:27
Speaker 3: the rest of his life. Hitting the three run tank
10:28
Speaker 3: off of Max Scherzer.
10:30
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely.
10:33
Speaker 1: Cody Clemens also a home run this weekend. Trevor Larnak,
10:37
Speaker 1: you may have mentioned this, Dan, I don't usually listen
10:39
Speaker 1: when you talk, so I wouldn't either, But had a
10:43
Speaker 1: big home run on Saturday off a lefty know less.
10:47
Speaker 1: So it just did feel like contributions came from absolutely
10:51
Speaker 1: everywhere this weekend. It wasn't all good. There was some
10:55
Speaker 1: there was some some not so good news. We'll get
10:58
Speaker 1: to that very shortly after word from our sponsor. All right,
11:04
Speaker 1: we're back, a J.
11:05
Speaker 2: Pierzinski.
11:06
Speaker 1: Look at that. That was a sweep table. So we
11:13
Speaker 1: are back. We mentioned before the break, not all good
11:16
Speaker 1: news this weekend. On Thursday against the Tigers, I believe
11:21
Speaker 1: is when Royce Lewis sustained right injury, so he did
11:24
Speaker 1: not play this weekend in Toronto. Turns out a knee
11:27
Speaker 1: sprain Grade one, which is the good grade. Dan correct, Okay, yes,
11:32
Speaker 1: he's confused about that.
11:34
Speaker 3: I know. It's like when MRIs are negative, you're like, oh,
11:38
Speaker 3: it's the word. Oh no, no, that's actually great. A
11:42
Speaker 3: grade one is the best one. So the twins are
11:44
Speaker 3: feeling good about that part. We'll see what Rustlers has
11:49
Speaker 3: an extensive injury history, and I think the stat is
11:53
Speaker 3: that it's sixty six percent of all games that he
11:55
Speaker 3: has been eligible for he has missed over the course
11:58
Speaker 3: from his career. So the comments section, of course, would
12:01
Speaker 3: be pretty negative and like, hey, this guy's this is
12:04
Speaker 3: what his part of the course basically. I think part
12:09
Speaker 3: of it was being on the turf for three days.
12:11
Speaker 3: You fly, and and you guys know, when you fly,
12:15
Speaker 3: if you're like you don't feel great afterwards immediately, that's
12:19
Speaker 3: not dealing with a knee injury, that kind of thing.
12:22
Speaker 3: He woke up feeling sore on Friday because we saw
12:25
Speaker 3: Royce Lewis leg out the unfield single after the injury
12:28
Speaker 3: and then go first to third on brooks Lee's game
12:30
Speaker 3: winning hit on Thursday, So clearly in the moment through
12:34
Speaker 3: the adrenaline carried him through it. But he woke up
12:37
Speaker 3: feeling sore on Friday. They sent him to an MRI.
12:40
Speaker 3: It is a blow because this is a guy that
12:42
Speaker 3: his ops plus right now is one thirty nine. The
12:44
Speaker 3: baseline for that. If you're average major leaguer, it's one hundred.
12:48
Speaker 3: If you're a Hall of Famer, you're like one thirty.
12:50
Speaker 3: This season because the walks, you know, the power has
12:53
Speaker 3: been there. We've seen you know, two doubles, two homers,
12:56
Speaker 3: but eight walks, which is Royce Lewis is his is
13:00
Speaker 3: triple what it was last year. It's two and a
13:03
Speaker 3: half times for his career. We're seeing a different guy
13:05
Speaker 3: in the eighth spot. It's helped the team out, you know,
13:08
Speaker 3: immensely back there. So this is a blow for sure,
13:12
Speaker 3: and we'll see how long it is. You know, I'm guessing,
13:16
Speaker 3: you know, Royce Lewis told the reporters there in Toronto
13:18
Speaker 3: that he expects me back at the ten days. I'd
13:21
Speaker 3: be shocked if it was ten days. And that's not
13:23
Speaker 3: doubting Royce. It's just thinking about the caution that teams
13:26
Speaker 3: put into things, so it wouldn't shock me if it
13:28
Speaker 3: was a two week injury something around that line. That line,
13:32
Speaker 3: maybe he's back on the field in ten days. He
13:34
Speaker 3: did say on Saturday he felt much better than he
13:37
Speaker 3: did on Friday. But I mean, it's it's certainly something
13:42
Speaker 3: where now you have a couple of guys who are
13:45
Speaker 3: more glove first guys filling in for him. You know, Kriidler,
13:50
Speaker 3: his career batting stats aren't great. Tristan Gray has been awesome,
13:54
Speaker 3: but he's never really you know, his his resume is
13:56
Speaker 3: not long. So it's certainly something to keep an eye on.
14:00
Speaker 3: But right now they were able to ride the momentum
14:02
Speaker 3: and like you guys, you know, the hits coming from everywhere.
14:05
Speaker 3: They've been able to mask it so far. But this
14:07
Speaker 3: is a big bat that they absolutely need back in
14:10
Speaker 3: the lineup.
14:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think too.
14:13
Speaker 4: Like to your point too, he's had so much done
14:16
Speaker 4: in the past, that's when it could have just been
14:18
Speaker 4: a little something. Just wasn't happy with that swing plane
14:21
Speaker 4: in the cold weather, things like that, and like shaking
14:24
Speaker 4: some rust off, so to speak. You know, so hopefully
14:26
Speaker 4: to that point it is, you know, it's the mildest
14:28
Speaker 4: of mild and it's just hey, let's go run some sprints,
14:32
Speaker 4: you know inside, you know, get back home especially, get
14:35
Speaker 4: into you know, the home facility and do all your
14:37
Speaker 4: stuff there. It's you know, that'll be a quick turnaround hopefully.
14:40
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's fun. You know, that's where it's the
14:43
Speaker 4: next man of mentality.
14:44
Speaker 2: Has to happen.
14:45
Speaker 4: And you'd rather forget who you got now than when
14:48
Speaker 4: you really need it down the stretch and you know,
14:50
Speaker 4: get these guys at bats that maybe they wouldn't get otherwise.
14:52
Speaker 4: You know that that stuff plays out down the road huge.
14:57
Speaker 1: Tyther Fans tend to get very frustrat with players with
15:01
Speaker 1: repeated injury risks. No, right, yeah, I know, and like
15:06
Speaker 1: some of it is just it's just like it's a
15:09
Speaker 1: bummer and it's frustrating. Some of it is people are
15:11
Speaker 1: being you know, jerks about it. But like in the clubhouse,
15:15
Speaker 1: you know, how do you like keep those guys' spirits up.
15:19
Speaker 1: Obviously they're not they're not dogging it, they're not faking it,
15:22
Speaker 1: and right, and like how do you kind of just
15:24
Speaker 1: just sort of like stay the course when when once
15:26
Speaker 1: key players like that are having troubles staying on the field.
15:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough.
15:30
Speaker 4: You know, it's definitely it's good to keep guys around.
15:35
Speaker 4: You know, I'm not going to name names because then
15:37
Speaker 4: it's going to be like, you know, it just brings
15:39
Speaker 4: up old things. But you know it is if there's
15:42
Speaker 4: a veteran, you know, who's got a presence, who needs
15:44
Speaker 4: to be around, like they're there every day no matter what.
15:48
Speaker 4: Sometimes you feel bad for that. Like there's a younger
15:50
Speaker 4: guy who gets hurt and say it's like a more
15:53
Speaker 4: season ish ending. They like get banished to Fort Myers,
15:57
Speaker 4: you know, and it's just like they die basically, and
15:59
Speaker 4: it's like and like, you know, how's how's he doing?
16:02
Speaker 4: You know, you check in and it's like guys come
16:04
Speaker 4: out of there a new player. Sometimes you just like
16:06
Speaker 4: it wears on you. So it's it's definitely it goes
16:09
Speaker 4: both ways. Like those guys become valuable because they're on
16:12
Speaker 4: the bench, you know, during the games or in between games,
16:15
Speaker 4: they can go you know, fire through stats or game
16:18
Speaker 4: planning stuff. They become almost another coach at times, and
16:21
Speaker 4: it's it's however you want to attack it. You know,
16:24
Speaker 4: most guys want to be a part of the team
16:26
Speaker 4: and that's why they're there, is to play, and when
16:28
Speaker 4: they can't, like, yeah, you're depressed, it sucks. But at
16:31
Speaker 4: the same time, it opens a door for an opportunity
16:34
Speaker 4: to like do deep dives into things you wouldn't do otherwise.
16:38
Speaker 4: You know, a guy like Royce, like he's probably working
16:40
Speaker 4: on something in the meantime. He can probably if he's
16:42
Speaker 4: feeling something in a swing, Well, now he's got free
16:44
Speaker 4: ten days to like kind of groove a pattern, you know,
16:46
Speaker 4: maybe something he needed to or wanted to work on,
16:49
Speaker 4: or something he saw in video, and so it presents
16:52
Speaker 4: itself as an opportunity. I think that's the way most
16:55
Speaker 4: guys have to approach it is.
16:56
Speaker 2: It's it's a little bit of a reset at the
16:59
Speaker 2: middle of this season.
17:00
Speaker 4: And unfortunately, you know, to dance point, he's has great
17:03
Speaker 4: numbers so far, he's doing a great job and where
17:05
Speaker 4: he's been in the order. So hopefully he can come
17:08
Speaker 4: out of that and just hit the ground running and
17:10
Speaker 4: you know, provide that little spark whenever he comes off.
17:15
Speaker 3: But at least like Zach as you were saying, Twins
17:17
Speaker 3: fans have a level head about this. We don't we
17:20
Speaker 3: don't mention bilateral leg weakness twenty years later. Ever, No,
17:24
Speaker 3: and there's no comparisons to Byron Buckson's early career, nothing
17:31
Speaker 3: like you don't hear Peepe. So that's that's pretty good.
17:33
Speaker 2: All good, never good. I didn't say any names for
17:40
Speaker 2: the record.
17:41
Speaker 1: I put you on the spot a little bit there,
17:43
Speaker 1: but you did, you did a nice job. Uh. Sunday's
17:47
Speaker 1: game was sort of highlighted by the Twins. I think
17:50
Speaker 1: just teeing off on Max sure is early, getting that
17:53
Speaker 1: big lead and kind of coasting in the victory. But uh,
17:57
Speaker 1: the other highlight for sure for the Twins, Taj Bread
18:00
Speaker 1: another great game, showing ace stuff early on three and
18:04
Speaker 1: zero now a one point two.
18:07
Speaker 3: Five e r A Now, yeah that sounds correct.
18:10
Speaker 1: Five innings pitched, five hits. Maybe wasn't the sharpest game today,
18:15
Speaker 1: seven strikeout, four walks, walks, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but uh,
18:20
Speaker 1: you know, nice to be staked in an eight run
18:22
Speaker 1: lead after two and a half inches and uh, and Tyler,
18:25
Speaker 1: what'd you see from Taj today?
18:27
Speaker 4: It was I said before we started, it was a
18:30
Speaker 4: you know, the gutsy performance as they say, is you know,
18:33
Speaker 4: the team put up a bunch of runs.
18:35
Speaker 2: You were going to win the game.
18:37
Speaker 4: But for him, it became I have to get through
18:40
Speaker 4: five innings somehow. You know, I look up because I
18:43
Speaker 4: think I flipped to it at once, and he was
18:45
Speaker 4: at like seventy five pitches in the third or maybe
18:48
Speaker 4: top of the fourth.
18:49
Speaker 2: I was like, and I would.
18:50
Speaker 4: Say, this, this is one of those days where you
18:52
Speaker 4: get done after five and you feel like you threw
18:54
Speaker 4: twelve innings. You know he's gonna be sore tomorrow, all
18:57
Speaker 4: that good stuff. But at the same time, that's you know,
19:00
Speaker 4: if you want to make your thirty two starts or
19:02
Speaker 4: whatever it is. You know, the sand that I heard
19:04
Speaker 4: coming up was you're gonna have ten good ones, You're
19:06
Speaker 4: gonna have ten not good ones, and then there's those
19:09
Speaker 4: ten in the middle And today was at one in
19:11
Speaker 4: the middle ground where it's yours to take if you
19:13
Speaker 4: want it bad enough. And you know, he got it
19:16
Speaker 4: out those five and got it to the bullpen, and
19:19
Speaker 4: you know they they finished the game off, and you
19:22
Speaker 4: know that that was one. It's been relatively smooth sailing.
19:25
Speaker 4: I won't say it's been easy. You know, it's you're
19:27
Speaker 4: pitching a big leaders facing good teams. But today, here
19:30
Speaker 4: and every every bit of that win.
19:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, Tyler, you were mentioning that that website you saw
19:37
Speaker 3: the pitcher Litts and his stuff was graded at C
19:42
Speaker 3: plus and where's his locations were f right correct?
19:45
Speaker 1: Yeah?
19:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, you could see it, like it's just one of
19:49
Speaker 3: those Twitter websites that evaluates, and like you could see
19:54
Speaker 3: how much he was fighting that game and those last
19:56
Speaker 3: two strikeouts. I mean, like the guy I would have
20:00
Speaker 3: been not surprised if he did a cartwheel come off
20:03
Speaker 3: the Like you're at one hundred and six pitches, you
20:06
Speaker 3: know this is your last batter, and you know that
20:09
Speaker 3: Taylor Rodgers is coming in to get your win.
20:13
Speaker 2: If one guy.
20:16
Speaker 3: And you get the win, and like in arbitration, that's
20:19
Speaker 3: going to be in a huge deal. But like for him,
20:22
Speaker 3: yeah yeah it is. And to get those two outs
20:26
Speaker 3: and get the five innings and qualify for the victory,
20:28
Speaker 3: he absolutely earned every bit of that victory just because
20:32
Speaker 3: he was fighting it so hard. And like this is
20:35
Speaker 3: again what we're we've we've talked about and you can
20:39
Speaker 3: just tell when he stayed back from the WBC he
20:42
Speaker 3: was supposed to pitch for Team Mexico, he said, I
20:44
Speaker 3: want to work on things. I want to be in
20:46
Speaker 3: this clubhouse. I just want to be here and prepare
20:49
Speaker 3: for the season. And that was it he did. You know,
20:52
Speaker 3: he could have gone to pitch for the WBC and
20:55
Speaker 3: gotten a really cool experience, but he stayed back and
20:59
Speaker 3: you respect that, and then you see what he's done
21:02
Speaker 3: these two months since that point. It's it's been really impressive,
21:06
Speaker 3: just because like the guy clearly cares and and knows that,
21:13
Speaker 3: like he said, in the past, he's been stubborn. He's
21:15
Speaker 3: trying to get over being stubborn. He's trying to learn
21:18
Speaker 3: and move on. Day like today just illustrates how you
21:20
Speaker 3: can do that and just figure out how to survive. Because,
21:23
Speaker 3: by the way, when his stuff is c plus when
21:26
Speaker 3: his locations are f he still has amazing stuff. Like
21:30
Speaker 3: this is a guy that's uber talented and like he's
21:34
Speaker 3: in a key position. He recognizes it. And right now
21:37
Speaker 3: the twins are four to oh when he starts. That's
21:39
Speaker 3: a that's a nice place to be.
21:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, Tyler, do you have any hot takes on like
21:46
Speaker 1: the how we determine who gets the win.
21:58
Speaker 4: When we have those like bullpen is and then like
22:01
Speaker 4: you know, everyone kind of chip away their pieces and
22:03
Speaker 4: like the random guy would get the win sometimes and
22:05
Speaker 4: it's like, how, like who do we call to fix
22:08
Speaker 4: that one? Like there is some I would love to
22:10
Speaker 4: know the process for that. But yeah, the old, the
22:14
Speaker 4: the five. This was not a five and dive, I'll
22:16
Speaker 4: put it that way. You know that that used to
22:17
Speaker 4: be frowned upon to go five and you know, all right,
22:20
Speaker 4: see you guys in four days or whatever. But this
22:22
Speaker 4: was one like the bullpen was out there. The bullpen
22:24
Speaker 4: was up in the second, probably because they're like all right,
22:26
Speaker 4: here goes to pitches and you know, fast forward. He
22:29
Speaker 4: gets through five like they're they're great, and you could see,
22:32
Speaker 4: you know, watching the game today, you can tell like
22:35
Speaker 4: to Dan's point, there was that like sigh of relief
22:38
Speaker 4: almost like he knew he got to that last out
22:41
Speaker 4: and was like I got there, Like he could feel it.
22:44
Speaker 4: You know, it was like thank god, you know, now
22:46
Speaker 4: I'm going to go home and you know, try and
22:48
Speaker 4: try and rest up. But but yeah, like you said,
22:50
Speaker 4: he earned every bit of that one, and you know
22:52
Speaker 4: that's one down the stretch, you know, to come September,
22:55
Speaker 4: that'll be a game we can point to where like hey,
22:57
Speaker 4: like that's where you know this this process for him developed.
23:01
Speaker 4: You know that that grinding out at an inning or
23:03
Speaker 4: in a bat or whatever it may be. You know,
23:05
Speaker 4: that's just part of the learning curve. Man, he's you know,
23:08
Speaker 4: he's settling in to become a pretty important guy.
23:13
Speaker 1: Well then after Taj came out after the fifth, UH,
23:17
Speaker 1: another fun.
23:18
Speaker 2: Moment in the game.
23:19
Speaker 1: The the replacement pitcher was Andrew Morris making his major
23:23
Speaker 1: league debut, and his parents were in this. This is
23:27
Speaker 1: always just a great thing. It happens, you know, dozens
23:30
Speaker 1: of times a year across the league. But mom and
23:33
Speaker 1: dad were in the stands. That's that's mom. If you're
23:35
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube, there on the right side of the screen,
23:38
Speaker 1: pumping your vet. It's a video. I don't think I
23:41
Speaker 1: can show the video, so I didn't. I didn't mess
23:43
Speaker 1: around with it. But she at one point during the
23:46
Speaker 1: video she mouths, that's my boy as he's coming out
23:50
Speaker 1: to the to the mount, which was just super cool.
23:53
Speaker 1: And he quitted himself very well. The Twins asked three
23:56
Speaker 1: innings out of him. Uh got the hold, hits just
24:01
Speaker 1: one run allowed, two strikeouts. Was very pumped up after
24:04
Speaker 1: his first major league strikeout. Just always always the cool
24:07
Speaker 1: thing to see and in a bullpen where there are
24:10
Speaker 1: questions abound. There's probably gonna be more scenes like that
24:13
Speaker 1: this year. But Tyler like I, I'm sure you remember
24:18
Speaker 1: your moment sleeping out for the first time, and I
24:21
Speaker 1: think that, oh really.
24:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's you know, mine went a little
24:29
Speaker 4: bit differently. Its grand Slam and a two run homer
24:32
Speaker 4: and two innings later and I was out of there.
24:34
Speaker 4: So I got called up to face the twenty fifteen
24:37
Speaker 4: Blue Jays murderers. Row Oh wow, Bautista clipped me for
24:42
Speaker 4: I throw them a three one change up hit it
24:44
Speaker 4: for a Grand Slam, and then Donaldson got me the
24:46
Speaker 4: next inning and then man, of course, so I get
24:50
Speaker 4: done and like it's Molly Tory, like Joe, it's like
24:53
Speaker 4: a Sunday day game. I think I think it was
24:55
Speaker 4: a Sunday And so everybody, you know, all the vets
24:58
Speaker 4: are in the dugout and I get to and they're like, yeah,
25:00
Speaker 4: we could, we had all your pitches from the dugout
25:02
Speaker 4: and they're telling.
25:02
Speaker 5: Me after I'm like, what He'll say something else out there,
25:05
Speaker 5: you know kind of thing. But it was one that
25:07
Speaker 5: you know, it was it was an unforgettable experience. You know,
25:12
Speaker 5: watching a guy do it there.
25:13
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's it's such a cool place, like
25:16
Speaker 4: I know, Dan, you've been, I don't know, Zach if
25:18
Speaker 4: you've been to Toronto for a game. It's just such
25:20
Speaker 4: a cool environment, like you know, great stadium and you know,
25:24
Speaker 4: things like that, and you know to go out there
25:26
Speaker 4: and get the whole your first chance, you know, get
25:28
Speaker 4: the good punch out, you know all all the thing,
25:30
Speaker 4: and your parents are there, you know there. It's just uh,
25:33
Speaker 4: it's something that none of them will ever forget. And
25:35
Speaker 4: obviously a great TV moment there with mom. You know,
25:38
Speaker 4: you know that's my voice he's running out on the field.
25:40
Speaker 4: That's that's pretty sweet.
25:43
Speaker 3: That place, I would say generates the noise of Dodger Stadium,
25:50
Speaker 3: of Yankee Stadium, of Fenway, of Wrigley. Really, there's like
25:55
Speaker 3: five or six places that get that loud, and and
25:58
Speaker 3: Toronto is one of once. It gets deafening, like you
26:02
Speaker 3: can hear it when their crowd gets going. If a
26:04
Speaker 3: little rally starts, it's like they go from you know,
26:08
Speaker 3: a one volume to a seven instantly with a base hit,
26:12
Speaker 3: and they can they can turn a game around real fast.
26:15
Speaker 3: There aren't a lot of places in baseball they're like that.
26:18
Speaker 3: Like Dodger Stadium is a learning experience. You go there
26:21
Speaker 3: and those those speakers in center field are booming and
26:24
Speaker 3: it's just yeah. And I remember, like I've talked to
26:30
Speaker 3: so many I covered the padres for the first part
26:32
Speaker 3: of my career, and I would talk to relievers. Luke
26:34
Speaker 3: Gregorson was just on a total tear going into Dodger
26:38
Speaker 3: Stadium and I was like, so are you ready for
26:40
Speaker 3: this place? He's like whatever, and then he got just
26:43
Speaker 3: destroyed in his first game. I'm like, yep, that's Dodger Stadium,
26:46
Speaker 3: and Colorado can be that in a different way, but
26:48
Speaker 3: like there's there's just a few parks that just are
26:51
Speaker 3: so different. It's a great atmosphere. When we were there
26:55
Speaker 3: in August. You know, they were in full Toronto glory
26:59
Speaker 3: at the time, and like Jay's fans are going to
27:03
Speaker 3: be out early, especially, I know they're beat up, and
27:05
Speaker 3: this is a great time for the Twins to catch.
27:08
Speaker 3: You know, this team, there's like three or four starters
27:10
Speaker 3: on the il. They lost Kirk the other day with
27:15
Speaker 3: a fractured I think they lost Springer with a fractured tow.
27:19
Speaker 3: Like that's a beat up team right now, but the
27:22
Speaker 3: fans are still there and the supports there, and you know,
27:25
Speaker 3: that was a cool moment for Andrew Morse. The shocking
27:28
Speaker 3: fact and I did not know this myself until I
27:31
Speaker 3: heard the broadcast, but he apparently graduated high school when
27:34
Speaker 3: he was sixteen years old. So this is something I
27:37
Speaker 3: will have to follow up on. I had no idea
27:39
Speaker 3: that's that is way too young. I was twenty one
27:42
Speaker 3: when I graduated high school. It was you know, it
27:45
Speaker 3: was as a very nice short ceremony. I was the
27:48
Speaker 3: only one. But like the fact that this guy is
27:51
Speaker 3: like out there, and I agree with you guys, the
27:53
Speaker 3: family moments are really cool like that, And and this
27:56
Speaker 3: is a guy that was I think Aaron Gleaman had
27:58
Speaker 3: him as the number eleven Twins prospect. It's a guy
28:01
Speaker 3: that can have a shot and give length in this bullpen.
28:05
Speaker 3: But who knows, maybe they'll ask him to do some
28:07
Speaker 3: some shorter stuff later that. You know, with the rookies,
28:10
Speaker 3: with the guys with the fresh arms, they're going to
28:12
Speaker 3: ask a lot of them, especially early on. So but
28:18
Speaker 3: but definitely a good place to come up and get
28:21
Speaker 3: that one out of the way. And you know, in
28:22
Speaker 3: a nice win.
28:25
Speaker 1: It is a final in Atlanta, thirteen to one. The
28:29
Speaker 1: Braves have beat Cleveland. So the Twins are again, I believe,
28:34
Speaker 1: officially leading the American League. Don't celebrate just yet. Long season.
28:40
Speaker 3: Stop the count, stop the count.
28:42
Speaker 1: However, the hope of meter might have just ticked up
28:45
Speaker 1: a couple more percentage points. The Twins now come home Boston,
28:50
Speaker 1: and a little too long for that graphic there on
28:55
Speaker 1: the YouTube. That's right, Boston.
28:57
Speaker 2: The Reds.
28:58
Speaker 1: The Red Sox had horrible start, have been better lately.
29:02
Speaker 3: I think, Yeah, took two or three in Saint Louis
29:05
Speaker 3: over the weekend.
29:06
Speaker 1: Since not be pretty strong too, so a couple of
29:08
Speaker 1: good teams. The temperatures will not be an excuse for
29:11
Speaker 1: the fans this week, at least not until the weekend.
29:14
Speaker 1: We have seventies and sixties all weeks. Maybe some rain,
29:17
Speaker 1: but should be interesting to see because, as you mentioned, Tyler,
29:19
Speaker 1: Boston always a good draw here anywhere, right, but here
29:24
Speaker 1: as well, Tyler, as they come home with this this
29:29
Speaker 1: momentum in their favor, like when when things are going
29:33
Speaker 1: Obviously it's a long season, there's gonna be some down periods.
29:36
Speaker 1: It's going to happen. But when things are up, what
29:39
Speaker 1: do you what do you? How do you keep it going?
29:41
Speaker 1: How do you try to keep it going in the clubhouse?
29:42
Speaker 2: I think it just allows you to be free. You know,
29:46
Speaker 2: you're not as worried about whatever may be happening around you,
29:50
Speaker 2: you know.
29:50
Speaker 4: And what it is to to when we're talking about
29:53
Speaker 4: everyone's kind of contributing a little bit that spreads out
29:57
Speaker 4: that you know, worry. You know, it's like, all right,
30:00
Speaker 4: somebody else has got me even if I don't get
30:01
Speaker 4: it done. And that's the that's the team aspect of
30:05
Speaker 4: the game.
30:06
Speaker 2: You know.
30:06
Speaker 4: It's weirdly, I've said this before to people. It's it's
30:10
Speaker 4: a very individual game because it's you doing everything yourself,
30:14
Speaker 4: but it all accumulates into the team.
30:16
Speaker 2: Effort, you know, and the goal.
30:18
Speaker 4: And so that point it's like, you know, all right,
30:20
Speaker 4: I didn't get it done this time, but you know,
30:22
Speaker 4: Clemen's got it done the.
30:23
Speaker 2: Day or Gray died or Lewis or Buck or keyshold.
30:26
Speaker 4: Now it's everybody's kind of chipping away here and there,
30:30
Speaker 4: you know, and you build on that and it's a
30:32
Speaker 4: it's a trust that ends up happening, you know, it's
30:35
Speaker 4: it's not a what if, it's just who and so
30:39
Speaker 4: it makes it great. It's it's where that camaraderie really
30:42
Speaker 4: starts to build, you know, and there's this team.
30:44
Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of new faces.
30:46
Speaker 4: You know, a lot of young guys trying to settle
30:48
Speaker 4: into who they're going to be and things like that,
30:49
Speaker 4: and that's when it really starts to happen in jails
30:52
Speaker 4: and you know, guys start to have some fun and
30:54
Speaker 4: you know, get into some more fun away from the field.
30:57
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's that family dynamic starts and you know, it's.
31:01
Speaker 2: Like I keep coming back to it.
31:02
Speaker 4: It's you start playing baseball, you start winning a lot
31:04
Speaker 4: of games and you look up in the seasons over
31:06
Speaker 4: already and you're like, man, like we could keep going.
31:10
Speaker 3: You know.
31:10
Speaker 2: So they're they're in a good spot right now. I
31:12
Speaker 2: know the vibes are good.
31:13
Speaker 4: I know Shelty's got the boys riled up. You know,
31:15
Speaker 4: he'll be in there checking everybody's attempt tomorrow before they
31:18
Speaker 4: start to an arm Tomorrow night's game, and you know,
31:21
Speaker 4: we gotta got a tough couple of days. I think
31:23
Speaker 4: with Crochet and Sunny Gray, I think for the first two.
31:26
Speaker 4: I don't know the third, but you know, some more
31:29
Speaker 4: book good baseball.
31:30
Speaker 3: Another left hander, another left hand. They are just facing
31:34
Speaker 3: every possible left hander. By the way, let's just give
31:38
Speaker 3: Trevor Larnak his flowers, because look, everybody, like everybody in
31:43
Speaker 3: the Twin Cities wondering me included. And it wasn't anything
31:47
Speaker 3: against Trevor larna He has had a career like his
31:50
Speaker 3: OPS plus first career is like one O one, one
31:53
Speaker 3: O two. So he's basically been a league average hitter
31:57
Speaker 3: his entire career. So it's not like we're talking about
32:00
Speaker 3: a guy that just disappeared at the plate. But they
32:02
Speaker 3: gave him four point seventy five million dollars in arbitration
32:05
Speaker 3: in November, and every single person in the Twin Cities
32:10
Speaker 3: I wonder why they brought him back because they have
32:12
Speaker 3: this glut of left handed outfield hitting guys. He's made it.
32:18
Speaker 3: You know, he's been very good early on. He's been
32:21
Speaker 3: a consistent a bat. He's an eight fifty six OPS,
32:24
Speaker 3: seven walks, five strikeouts. That home run on Saturday put
32:28
Speaker 3: the game away. It was four to two time, and
32:31
Speaker 3: I loved like the reaction from him because it's one
32:33
Speaker 3: of those home runs. And I'm sure that Tyler you
32:36
Speaker 3: in the middle there as a pitcher, probably didn't love
32:40
Speaker 3: the reaction. But i mean, like when you hit it
32:42
Speaker 3: like that, you get to enjoy it because and I'm
32:45
Speaker 3: all for the both sides should be enjoying their wins.
32:48
Speaker 3: If you get a big strikeout, like really, Toads Bradley
32:50
Speaker 3: should have done a double flip, like maybe a couple
32:53
Speaker 3: like after the strikeout.
32:54
Speaker 2: Today, cartwheel off.
32:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, celebrate your moment. It's a hard sport. And
33:01
Speaker 3: for Trevor Larnock, that was a cool moment. Like this
33:05
Speaker 3: is a guy that probably wondered himself because I talked
33:08
Speaker 3: to him in September about it, Like, hey, look look
33:11
Speaker 3: at the picture. Walker Jenkins is coming, a man, Rodriguez
33:14
Speaker 3: is coming, Matt Waller's here, James Outman's here. There's so
33:17
Speaker 3: many lefties. It really was kind of befuddling early on
33:22
Speaker 3: why they brought him back, especially four point seventy five
33:25
Speaker 3: million dollars is not a huge amount in the major leagues,
33:28
Speaker 3: but on a Twins team with one hundred and five
33:30
Speaker 3: million dollar payroll, like they could have allegated that reallocated
33:34
Speaker 3: those resources elsewhere and it was like, why did they
33:37
Speaker 3: do this because there's other guys. Well, Trevor Larnick is
33:40
Speaker 3: shown again he's a professional at bat. He takes it serious.
33:45
Speaker 3: He even showed off some wheels this weekend, and you
33:48
Speaker 3: know that he's on board with it, like the work
33:51
Speaker 3: he put in. So it's cool to see him have
33:54
Speaker 3: this start because so many people doubted it for sure.
33:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, I quick like, I think he's one. I wouldn't
34:00
Speaker 4: be shocked though. He hits the ball so hard, Like
34:03
Speaker 4: I think he's one of those good guys when he
34:05
Speaker 4: touches it like it goes and that's hard to find.
34:08
Speaker 2: You can't teach that.
34:09
Speaker 4: Like he's a guy, he's got some tools. He's rangy,
34:11
Speaker 4: like he's a I mean, he's a big dude. You're
34:13
Speaker 4: around it, like he's got some things you can't teach
34:16
Speaker 4: and you know that sometimes you got a bet on
34:18
Speaker 4: those guys.
34:19
Speaker 3: Man.
34:19
Speaker 4: It's I mean, he clipped me, I think the last
34:21
Speaker 4: on my face on my he was on rehab, I think,
34:23
Speaker 4: and I tried to dump one and he got me.
34:25
Speaker 4: So I'm like, yeah, he's still got that. Tickets sell, Yeah,
34:28
Speaker 4: I love trap. He's Yeah, he's he's a good ballplayer.
34:33
Speaker 5: Uh.
34:33
Speaker 1: In addition to facing Garrett Croshet and Sonny Gray, obviously,
34:38
Speaker 1: Joe Ryan and TODJ. Bradley will miss this series for
34:40
Speaker 1: the Twins because they just pitched in uh Toronto. So
34:44
Speaker 1: interesting matchup situation there. We'll see how that goes. We
34:47
Speaker 1: will be back with you middle of this week, probably Wednesday, UH,
34:52
Speaker 1: and we'll see you then. Until then, thank you for
34:55
Speaker 1: listening as o ways, and if you likely you hear,
34:56
Speaker 1: please subscribe, follow us and we would love to hear
34:59
Speaker 1: your feedback is as well. Leave a comment, ask some questions.
35:03
Speaker 3: If you guys have questions, especially for Tyler, we would
35:07
Speaker 3: love you to throw some questions in the comments.
35:10
Speaker 1: Normally do that at some point.
35:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, we should do a mail bag. That's right, and
35:16
Speaker 3: I will have my dad use four or five fake
35:19
Speaker 3: accounts to ask questions and it'll be awkward.
35:23
Speaker 1: So if you if you have tickets in one of
35:25
Speaker 1: those seats at Target Field that's right below the press box,
35:27
Speaker 1: please heckle Dan. He loves that you literally you literally
35:31
Speaker 1: you're right there.
35:32
Speaker 2: Please.
35:32
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, we might use it on the podcast. We'll see,
35:35
Speaker 1: but thanks again everybody for listening, and we will catch
35:40
Speaker 1: you next time on Twin Cities Territory. But bye, I
36:00
Speaker 1: would all alone an