Latest / Twin Cities Territory / The Twins' 1-9 tailspin, and Connor Prielipp's second start

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The Twins' 1-9 tailspin, and Connor Prielipp's second start · Twin Cities Territory

0:08
Speaker 1: All right, hello, and welcome back to Twins Cities Territory,
0:13
Speaker 1: our Minnesota Twins podcast here on the Foul Territory Network.
0:18
Speaker 1: I am Zach Pierce, editor at The Athletic, joined as
0:21
Speaker 1: owait I always do the Wrong Way, Joined as always
0:23
Speaker 1: by Dan Hayes, our Athletic Minnesota Twins beat writer, and
0:27
Speaker 1: Tyler Duffy, who can point anywhere and find somebody. Obviously
0:32
Speaker 1: longtime Major leaguer and former Minnesota Twin.
0:38
Speaker 2: A week ago.
0:39
Speaker 1: Dan, by the way, I should say it's Monday, April
0:42
Speaker 1: twenty seventh. Actually it's Sunday night right now, but when
0:46
Speaker 1: you're watching this, it'll be Monday.
0:49
Speaker 3: It's been a rough stretch for the Twins.
0:51
Speaker 1: Let's just get that out there.
0:53
Speaker 2: Dan.
0:53
Speaker 1: I think last week, if I'm not mistaken, you were
0:57
Speaker 1: in the process of trying to print up four point
1:02
Speaker 1: three percenters t shirts.
1:05
Speaker 2: Yes, I was buying World Series tickets. Sack is that
1:09
Speaker 2: is that off?
1:10
Speaker 1: Is on hold? Are we still doing it?
1:11
Speaker 2: Like?
1:11
Speaker 1: What's what's the deal?
1:12
Speaker 2: And I saw I got to find a different printing company.
1:16
Speaker 2: But I still want to do this. We should definitely
1:19
Speaker 2: do this. But the World Series tickets, I have put
1:22
Speaker 2: those on hold.
1:22
Speaker 1: I would.
1:23
Speaker 2: I would probably I didn't deposit. They were they wanted
1:26
Speaker 2: a little bit of a deposit, and I was like,
1:27
Speaker 2: you know what, let me hang in just for a
1:29
Speaker 2: minute here. But certainly a lot has changed in a week,
1:33
Speaker 2: without questioning.
1:34
Speaker 1: A lot has changed in a week. If so, we
1:37
Speaker 1: we we were not able to put out a show
1:39
Speaker 1: on Friday. Apologies to our many loyal listeners. We just
1:43
Speaker 1: had some scheduling conflicts. But really not much has changed
1:48
Speaker 1: since then. It's been a lot of losing and more
1:50
Speaker 1: losing for the Twins, who are now one to nine
1:53
Speaker 1: in their last ten games. It feels like yesterday we
1:56
Speaker 1: were talking about this amazing stretch of baseball eight when
2:00
Speaker 1: in nine games and they were leading the American League
2:03
Speaker 1: and can this keep up? And all these all these
2:06
Speaker 1: questions that we had, and now the team has certainly
2:09
Speaker 1: regret regressed back to what everyone thought they would be.
2:13
Speaker 1: I guess at the beginning of the season, if I,
2:16
Speaker 1: if I was more of production savvy, I would queue
2:18
Speaker 1: up the audio of Dennis Green saying they are we
2:22
Speaker 1: thought they were. But the Twins started the season three
2:26
Speaker 1: and six, then reeled off eight wins and nine games,
2:29
Speaker 1: now nine losses, in ten games after getting swept in
2:32
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay. They never led the entire series. This is
2:35
Speaker 1: after losing the last two of three to the Mets,
2:39
Speaker 1: which we also haven't talked about yet because we haven't.
2:41
Speaker 1: We weren't here on Friday the last time I last.
2:45
Speaker 2: Time we were here.
2:46
Speaker 1: Uh it was after they beat the Mets that first
2:48
Speaker 1: game and that come from and I had called it
2:50
Speaker 1: their best win of the year, and it was like, Wow,
2:52
Speaker 1: this team gritty and tough and just again added to
2:55
Speaker 1: the it's a long season file, like stuff's gonna happen.
2:58
Speaker 1: There's gonna be highs and lows, for sure, but Dan
3:02
Speaker 1: certainly about as disheartening a stretch as we could have imagined.
3:08
Speaker 1: After that, that that hot streak that they were on
3:10
Speaker 1: in the middle of this early part of the season.
3:14
Speaker 2: Bad offense, bad starting pitching. It has been a weird
3:19
Speaker 2: run here. Without question, they are tied with Philadelphia. Who is.
3:27
Speaker 3: There?
3:28
Speaker 1: He is, all right, we lost Tyler, technical difficulties. He'll
3:32
Speaker 1: come back.
3:33
Speaker 2: I mean, you know we can do this without but no,
3:36
Speaker 2: like they basically they're tied with Philadelphia for the worst
3:40
Speaker 2: record over the last ten and Philadelphia is looking at
3:42
Speaker 2: firing its manager right now. Boston just hired its manager.
3:46
Speaker 2: Philadelphia is right there thinking about it. And it definitely
3:51
Speaker 2: has not been a good run. Like the starting pitching
3:54
Speaker 2: had been so good. This last time through was was rough.
3:57
Speaker 2: I know, we'll talk that a little bit more and
3:59
Speaker 2: get into it. Oh you know what, Tyler Duvey got Rod.
4:05
Speaker 3: There we go.
4:07
Speaker 2: And no he's back. Then, Okay, all right, fixed it?
4:11
Speaker 1: You take you take one day off, you take one
4:14
Speaker 1: day off, and.
4:17
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean you just look, it's funny how
4:21
Speaker 2: baseball is that way, and it just changes that quickly
4:25
Speaker 2: because they were there were very good vibes after those
4:29
Speaker 2: first couple of games against Boston. They lose that finale
4:32
Speaker 2: against Boston and it's just been all ugly since, and
4:37
Speaker 2: there's been a lot of there was some competitive baseball.
4:39
Speaker 2: The last story I wrote for The Athletic was essentially,
4:43
Speaker 2: can they will they ever convert these these the fight
4:48
Speaker 2: and the rally into more than silver linings and turn
4:51
Speaker 2: them into victories, Because that was after that ten to
4:53
Speaker 2: eight loss in New York where they came back and
4:55
Speaker 2: Ryan Jeffers hit the game time Grand Slam. We were
4:57
Speaker 2: all kind of in awe of like, oh man, they
5:00
Speaker 2: dead in the water and here there are back in it.
5:02
Speaker 2: And then they go to Tampa Bay and they just
5:03
Speaker 2: showed none of that whatsoever. It was just a really
5:07
Speaker 2: rough series and Tampa Bay out pitched them and definitely
5:13
Speaker 2: had more clutch hitting.
5:16
Speaker 1: Tyler, having played on many teams in your career, I'm
5:21
Speaker 1: sure you've dealt with like, hey, we had a great
5:23
Speaker 1: week and then we had a crappy week.
5:27
Speaker 2: Is it is it.
5:28
Speaker 1: Comical listening to us overreact to this or is this
5:31
Speaker 1: sort of what happens internally too inside the Clayffs.
5:35
Speaker 3: It definitely like it changes.
5:37
Speaker 4: Like sometimes it is like, you know, exterior, it's like
5:41
Speaker 4: what is going on?
5:42
Speaker 3: And like indoors it's like.
5:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, half the guys have been like you know, under
5:45
Speaker 4: the weather with the flu and just nobody knows or
5:48
Speaker 4: you know what, like literally crazy stuff. Dan and Dan
5:51
Speaker 4: could probably see it at times like you know, these
5:53
Speaker 4: guys are just underweather whatever it is, but it I
5:57
Speaker 4: don't know. It was just kind of like it seemed
5:59
Speaker 4: like every team's game plan against the starters for this
6:02
Speaker 4: time through just kind of they hit the nail on
6:04
Speaker 4: the head.
6:05
Speaker 2: You know.
6:05
Speaker 4: It was just like a game planning almost where they
6:08
Speaker 4: just got out chest for a couple series, and you know,
6:13
Speaker 4: it's especially going to like Tampa. I've talked about energy
6:16
Speaker 4: when you go to certain places, you know, New York
6:18
Speaker 4: and Toronto. Tampa has always been kind of one of
6:21
Speaker 4: those opposites where it's like you go in there and
6:22
Speaker 4: it's you're in a bubble. You know, you're kind of
6:25
Speaker 4: cut off from the world. There's no windows. You're just
6:27
Speaker 4: like in this stale room with you know, you're in Florida.
6:31
Speaker 4: So the crowd is what the crowd is, and it's
6:34
Speaker 4: just a different environment. And sometimes those series, you wake
6:36
Speaker 4: up you're like, we just lose three games or you know,
6:39
Speaker 4: like I've I remember coming into a game late one
6:41
Speaker 4: time there and was literally like, oh me, like kind
6:45
Speaker 4: of just.
6:46
Speaker 3: Out of it, you know.
6:47
Speaker 4: And sometimes it's a big reality check. We kind of
6:50
Speaker 4: said that last before they went on the road, and
6:53
Speaker 4: you know, I think this is a bigger one. You know,
6:55
Speaker 4: kind of across the board wasn't great.
6:57
Speaker 2: You know.
6:58
Speaker 4: The only time we're talking, the only time they scored
7:00
Speaker 4: more than you know, six runs, I think.
7:02
Speaker 3: Was when they lost ten to eight.
7:04
Speaker 4: You know, and so when you're combining giving up runs
7:08
Speaker 4: with when you actually score, and then you don't score
7:10
Speaker 4: any in between. It's it's gonna be tough to win
7:12
Speaker 4: ball games and you know, hopefully getting home, sleep in
7:16
Speaker 4: your own bed, get a little reset, you know, do
7:18
Speaker 4: some magic overnight.
7:20
Speaker 1: Is it is it harder to play in some ways,
7:24
Speaker 1: at least at a place like Tampa where there's just
7:26
Speaker 1: no atmosphere whatsoever.
7:28
Speaker 4: It's it's hard to get going sometimes, Like like when
7:32
Speaker 4: I say the crowd is a crowd, it's a lot
7:33
Speaker 4: of the older generation, and you know there it's it's tough.
7:39
Speaker 4: You know, they got DJ Kitty going. It's entertaining at
7:42
Speaker 4: least I guess at times, but you know, it's a yeah.
7:46
Speaker 4: Sometimes you know you can hear people just conversations, you
7:49
Speaker 4: know in the crowd, and like stuff kind of echoes
7:51
Speaker 4: because of the roof, and it's just like, oh man.
7:55
Speaker 4: And then when it goes bad, like you're getting rocked
7:56
Speaker 4: a little bit, you know, sitting in the bullpen, a
7:58
Speaker 4: guy it's ball hard, Like it's like you know, somebody
8:01
Speaker 4: hit a ball hard, and it's just a you can
8:04
Speaker 4: snowball pretty quick in there because there's not a lot
8:06
Speaker 4: of positive energy going on unless it's coming from your
8:09
Speaker 4: own dugout and you know, obviously.
8:12
Speaker 3: This weekend, I can't imagine there's too much excitement.
8:15
Speaker 2: Yeah they Hey, great press box though, great press box,
8:20
Speaker 2: very underrated, one of the best press boxes. Hey, you
8:22
Speaker 2: know why because the game is played every time there.
8:25
Speaker 2: We're going home to forty one in rain on Monday
8:29
Speaker 2: night and seventy two and uh and no moisture in
8:34
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay even when there's like hurricane kind of stuff
8:37
Speaker 2: going on outside.
8:39
Speaker 3: Great, then no, it's wicked.
8:40
Speaker 4: When it's when it's a storm and you're in that place,
8:42
Speaker 4: it's kind of scary because like all of a sudden,
8:44
Speaker 4: you hear the crack of lightning.
8:46
Speaker 3: You're like, oh yeah, it's it's raining.
8:48
Speaker 4: Outside, and it's like a full blown monsoon going on,
8:50
Speaker 4: and you have no idea it's you are literally shut
8:52
Speaker 4: off from the world.
8:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, I just heard a cat.
8:57
Speaker 1: Yah. No, we have a lot to get to. Five
9:04
Speaker 1: losses since we last spoke to you on Wednesday of
9:07
Speaker 1: last week. Also, Connor Prelip will be making his second
9:11
Speaker 1: sorry we didn't even talk about his first one because
9:13
Speaker 1: we didn't do the Friday show. So a lot to
9:16
Speaker 1: get to in just a minute after this word from
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10:26
Speaker 1: All right, we're back. We were also talking ahead of
10:30
Speaker 1: the show about like you mentioned, a little bit of
10:33
Speaker 1: a tyler. The one time the Twins had a nice
10:37
Speaker 1: night at the plate, at least in terms of run scored,
10:39
Speaker 1: was also their worst pitching performance. In terms of run scored,
10:44
Speaker 1: there were not a lot of They're not losing every
10:46
Speaker 1: game eleven to one here, there's some there's some close ones,
10:50
Speaker 1: but it just dan It seemed like everything just didn't
10:55
Speaker 1: quite click right. Starting pitching was a little bit off.
10:57
Speaker 1: Hitting wasn't up to the par that had been in
10:59
Speaker 1: their in the winning streak, and it adds up to
11:01
Speaker 1: this just snake bitten stretch of one and nine.
11:06
Speaker 2: So when they were eleven and seven, the offense was
11:11
Speaker 2: carrying them at times and the starting pitching was carrying
11:15
Speaker 2: them at times. We saw that throughout that even with
11:18
Speaker 2: this terrible ten game stretch and the offense has been
11:20
Speaker 2: pretty terrible, they've scored thirty four runs in the one
11:23
Speaker 2: and nine stretch two thirteen average three zero one on
11:26
Speaker 2: base three twenty nine slug that's a six thirty ohps
11:30
Speaker 2: for kids at home. That's courtesy of San Diego State Mats.
11:32
Speaker 2: Right there, scoring three point four runs a game right now,
11:37
Speaker 2: and then the starting pitching the last time through had
11:41
Speaker 2: a eight no, I'm sorry, six thirty one era twenty
11:45
Speaker 2: five and two thirds eighteen inning or twenty five and
11:48
Speaker 2: two thirds eighteen in runs. Those two things were probably
11:52
Speaker 2: masking a lot of issues we saw, Like we just
11:54
Speaker 2: saw things that were cropping up. The defense being where
11:58
Speaker 2: it is, the bullpen, you know, just being hit and
12:03
Speaker 2: miss at times. And they were really good. They were
12:07
Speaker 2: excelling because they got good offense, they got good starting pitching.
12:10
Speaker 2: Neither of those things was present so far in this
12:13
Speaker 2: like one and nine stretch. And here we are, and
12:17
Speaker 2: look it's the other side of the coin. This is
12:19
Speaker 2: the Twins were not eleven and seven good. They I
12:23
Speaker 2: mean they played it, but I mean they probably project
12:26
Speaker 2: a seventy seven seventy eight win team at their peak.
12:29
Speaker 2: So them playing eleven and seven ball was amazing. They're
12:33
Speaker 2: not one in nine bad, but they played it. And
12:36
Speaker 2: here they are, and so you have these extreme stretches
12:41
Speaker 2: like this. They got to find something to get back
12:43
Speaker 2: to the in between and play some five and four
12:46
Speaker 2: ball or four and five something more in line with
12:48
Speaker 2: what they're gonna do. And you know that time through
12:51
Speaker 2: the rotation, Connor Preelip was four in inns, two earned runs.
12:56
Speaker 2: Joe Ryan was five inns, four and runs, but he
12:58
Speaker 2: gave up seven runs and it was just a miserable
13:01
Speaker 2: start for him. TOADJ. Bradley gave up six runs in
13:05
Speaker 2: six and the third and he looked nothing like what
13:07
Speaker 2: we've seen so far. I think as the ARA went
13:09
Speaker 2: up from like one six to three to two nine,
13:13
Speaker 2: Bailey over was good, gave up just the home run,
13:16
Speaker 2: but six innings and two runs, and then Simeon Woods
13:19
Speaker 2: Richardson four and a third, four earned runs, and he's
13:22
Speaker 2: had a rough stretch his last four times out. Over
13:25
Speaker 2: those four starts, eighteen and third innings, eighteen earned runs,
13:30
Speaker 2: not I think a ten walks nine strikeout ratio in
13:35
Speaker 2: that span. This team is going to do as well
13:39
Speaker 2: as it's starting pitching and its offense to carry them.
13:43
Speaker 2: And this has just been a really like weird stretch
13:47
Speaker 2: that were very the hitting with runners in scoring position,
13:50
Speaker 2: there were two for twenty over the weekend, but you
13:54
Speaker 2: look at Sunday's game and there were like five innings
13:57
Speaker 2: where they two to three, like they just didn't have chance.
14:00
Speaker 2: They didn't give themselves chances to put pressure on guys.
14:04
Speaker 2: And maybe that was Saturday's game, It doesn't matter. It
14:06
Speaker 2: was the same way it played out all weekend. They
14:09
Speaker 2: just didn't you know Friday, I know, they had a
14:11
Speaker 2: couple opportunities and they couldn't take advantage of them, and
14:14
Speaker 2: Tampa did. But Tampa just really truly outpitched them. And
14:19
Speaker 2: Tampa hit a bunch of home runs this series, and
14:21
Speaker 2: it's not a good combination for the Twins.
14:25
Speaker 1: Tyler basically feels like a complete inversion of the things
14:29
Speaker 1: that were going so well or two for twenty for
14:33
Speaker 1: runners in the scoring position, starters not having great games obviously,
14:38
Speaker 1: Joe Ryan and Taj, Bradley and Bailey over they at
14:40
Speaker 1: some point, everyone has a bad game, as ask Kerk
14:44
Speaker 1: Schoogl about that or Garrett Crochet. But but like you know,
14:50
Speaker 1: I guess I'm curious when it swings bad like kind
14:56
Speaker 1: of you know, what tricks of the trade do you
14:58
Speaker 1: have to kind of yourself like.
15:02
Speaker 4: Like you got to hope for you know, Taj, for example,
15:06
Speaker 4: it was just a the anomaly outing. It was just
15:10
Speaker 4: like they were on his pitch and they squared it up,
15:13
Speaker 4: you know, tipped your cap kind of game.
15:16
Speaker 3: If that's the case, switch.
15:18
Speaker 4: Weirdly enough, now with all the stat numbers and how
15:21
Speaker 4: everything's so geared towards that that it is a weird
15:24
Speaker 4: security blanket.
15:26
Speaker 3: Like when an outing like.
15:27
Speaker 4: That happens, you can still go back to your numbers
15:30
Speaker 4: and be like, well, you know what, it was actually
15:32
Speaker 4: pretty good. It just they hit the ball hard in
15:35
Speaker 4: the air four times, you know, and you know, to
15:38
Speaker 4: quote Michael Pineda on the other end of that coin,
15:41
Speaker 4: if there's one time he's.
15:42
Speaker 6: Like, oh, you know, it made a good pitch, it's like, well,
15:44
Speaker 6: if they hit it over the fence, it wasn't a
15:46
Speaker 6: good pitch. I don't care what it was, you know,
15:48
Speaker 6: And so there's some of that to that, however, for mentals,
15:52
Speaker 6: you know, and going to the next outing.
15:54
Speaker 3: You know, if your stuff was good, you felt good,
15:56
Speaker 3: you flush.
15:57
Speaker 4: It, you know, and you know, other guys it's like
16:00
Speaker 4: maybe that they couldn't get comfortable on them mount that
16:02
Speaker 4: night for whatever reason. You know, there's there's so many
16:05
Speaker 4: things that go into that outing and what made it
16:08
Speaker 4: be what it ended up being, and you just hope,
16:11
Speaker 4: you know, over you know, he seems to be settling
16:13
Speaker 4: in with what he's doing, and he's you know, he's
16:16
Speaker 4: cutting and sinking and moving the ball. He's still affected
16:18
Speaker 4: with his heater because he's you know, seven feet tall.
16:21
Speaker 4: You know it's guys are going to be themselves and
16:24
Speaker 4: you just look at this one. You go to the numbers,
16:26
Speaker 4: you go to your bullpen, and you just go, okay,
16:28
Speaker 4: get the work in, flush it, you know, and just
16:31
Speaker 4: hope it doesn't happen two or three times in a row.
16:34
Speaker 2: You know.
16:34
Speaker 3: When that happens, that's when you start.
16:36
Speaker 4: To all right, coach, like what do we got mechanics
16:39
Speaker 4: or you know, what do we got here? Do I
16:41
Speaker 4: need a new pitch? You know, like it's and it's
16:43
Speaker 4: it's snowballs, fast man, you can get you can get
16:45
Speaker 4: down the rabbit hole and get in trouble quick. But
16:49
Speaker 4: you know, I think it's just you know, tip your
16:51
Speaker 4: cap to some of those guys hitting those homers and
16:53
Speaker 4: then move on to the excellent and you know, after
16:56
Speaker 4: after the next series, you know, then you just flush
16:59
Speaker 4: it and go That's why you do.
17:02
Speaker 1: That story of Pineda takes takes me back to twelve
17:09
Speaker 1: thirteen year old house league baseball. There was this kid,
17:13
Speaker 1: this kid who was lefty. He just like he had
17:15
Speaker 1: garbage stuff, but I could not hit him for some reason,
17:18
Speaker 1: and he kept striking me out and I would and
17:20
Speaker 1: I like it was frustrated, like he it's not even
17:22
Speaker 1: a good pitch. And my coach is like, well, you
17:25
Speaker 1: couldn't hit it, so I guess it was a good pitch,
17:28
Speaker 1: Like what do you what do you say to that?
17:30
Speaker 4: So yes, the guys come back to the dugout and like, oh,
17:34
Speaker 4: this guy stinks, and it's like, yeah.
17:36
Speaker 1: Did you just punch out right right right right? The
17:42
Speaker 1: Twins in this in this one and nine stretch. Well,
17:47
Speaker 1: the latest stats I have don't include today's game, but
17:51
Speaker 1: before today's game, twenty third in e RA over that
17:54
Speaker 1: stretch and twenty seventh in batting average, which is just
17:58
Speaker 1: one of many. Yeah, one of my stat stand But
18:00
Speaker 1: the offense has been has been a big problem.
18:03
Speaker 2: It has Just looking at the season, OPS is right, now,
18:08
Speaker 2: get two guys above eight hundred and the closest, the
18:11
Speaker 2: third closest is Tristan Gray hitting seven with the seven
18:15
Speaker 2: ninety five OPS. You just look at the guys, the
18:18
Speaker 2: core guys that they think can do this for them,
18:22
Speaker 2: and you know you've got lu Keishaw five eighteen OPS.
18:25
Speaker 2: Matt Wallner, five ad ops, Cody Clemens, who's got fifty
18:28
Speaker 2: seven plate or fifty seven bats, five eighty two ops.
18:33
Speaker 2: Kartine's under six hundred also, and you know then you
18:36
Speaker 2: got Buston and Royce Lewis and Josh Bell at all
18:39
Speaker 2: in that like seven oh one to seven sixteen. These
18:42
Speaker 2: are not numbers that they need higher production. These are
18:45
Speaker 2: guys that are counting on to do more and just
18:48
Speaker 2: have not done it so far. Consistently, We've seen Buckston
18:52
Speaker 2: like get hot, like all five of his home runs
18:55
Speaker 2: have been in the last like thirteen days, so clearly
18:58
Speaker 2: he's doing something. But it's not he doesn't have a
19:00
Speaker 2: hit with runners in scoring position this year. It's like,
19:02
Speaker 2: oh for fourteen or oh for fifteen at this point,
19:05
Speaker 2: which is a crazy stat because that's a guy that's
19:07
Speaker 2: been a run producer in the past, and I know
19:10
Speaker 2: that goes in cycles like that just works that way
19:13
Speaker 2: in this sport. You know, we talked a lot of
19:15
Speaker 2: how brooks Lee wasn't performing early on. Brooks Ley's been
19:18
Speaker 2: their hottest guy lately and he, you know, keeps doing.
19:21
Speaker 2: He had the solo he had the two home run
19:23
Speaker 2: or the two run home run on Sunday, But like
19:25
Speaker 2: the solo production for the entire team, he's been consistent
19:30
Speaker 2: in there, and like just you just haven't got your
19:35
Speaker 2: guys towards the top going where they're getting on base
19:39
Speaker 2: and setting up the other guys, and then the guys
19:42
Speaker 2: in the middle just aren't getting it done right now either,
19:44
Speaker 2: Like sometimes offenses seem to go in funks collectively, like
19:48
Speaker 2: that they have faced good pitching in this run Cincinnati.
19:52
Speaker 2: That bullpen was electric and the starting pitching did enough there.
19:57
Speaker 2: Then you run into Mets. The Mets had some good
19:59
Speaker 2: pitching that they try read them, you know, the one
20:01
Speaker 2: it's ironic, the one guy they got, the one guy
20:03
Speaker 2: they they've beaten. This is Nolan MacLean and even though
20:07
Speaker 2: he got the no decision, but they've won that game.
20:10
Speaker 2: Tampa threw some good pictures, but you know, you look
20:12
Speaker 2: at that outfield production, it's not quite nearly what they
20:16
Speaker 2: needed to be. But you know, I don't expect Luke
20:20
Speaker 2: he shaller of five eighteen ops at the end of
20:22
Speaker 2: the season. I think Byron Bucks won't be closer to
20:24
Speaker 2: nine hundred and seven to sixteen. Those two guys can
20:27
Speaker 2: and we we've talked about it multiple times. Those guys
20:30
Speaker 2: can change the fortunes of lineup. But also you do
20:33
Speaker 2: need other guys to just step up and carry you.
20:36
Speaker 2: And we saw Royce Lewis hit a home run Friday.
20:39
Speaker 2: We saw him have a driving in a run with
20:41
Speaker 2: the single on Saturday, the only runs i think in
20:45
Speaker 2: both cases. But he like he needs to take over
20:50
Speaker 2: a couple of games. They need him to step up
20:52
Speaker 2: and be a middle of the order run producer. They
20:54
Speaker 2: need Matt Walner to do that. They need, you know,
20:57
Speaker 2: consistency just from other guys. Josh Bell was so good
21:00
Speaker 2: early on. Josh Belts had a little bit of a
21:02
Speaker 2: rut lately. And when when guys who carried you earlier
21:07
Speaker 2: go into ruts, you need other guys to step up.
21:09
Speaker 2: And it just doesn't seem like they've had collective long
21:13
Speaker 2: stretches where you know, four or five six guys. It's
21:17
Speaker 2: been like two guys sustained for a couple of days
21:19
Speaker 2: and then two other guys step up. They need more.
21:22
Speaker 2: This is a group that does not have, you know,
21:26
Speaker 2: a ton of thump throughout that line. This is a
21:29
Speaker 2: group that's going to rely on the collective and it's
21:31
Speaker 2: kind of gone into a funk over these ten days.
21:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, Matt Wallner, excuse me, Matt Walner, a big drop
21:39
Speaker 1: off from his production from a couple of years ago,
21:42
Speaker 1: striking out a lot. At what point, Dan, like, again,
21:49
Speaker 1: don't want to fall into overreaction territorm, And at what point
21:53
Speaker 1: are we looking at Emmanuel Rodriguez or other help from
21:57
Speaker 1: Triple A to just try something, to try to mix
21:59
Speaker 1: things up.
22:00
Speaker 2: I think that's the kind of stuff that teams probably
22:02
Speaker 2: look at at the six to eight week mark somewhere
22:06
Speaker 2: run there end of late May, if you see guys struggling.
22:10
Speaker 2: I do think that the Twins recognize that there's been
22:15
Speaker 2: a lot of crappy weather that their guys are hitting
22:17
Speaker 2: in now. Fortunately they played three days in beautiful Tampa Bay.
22:21
Speaker 2: But I think they give a yeah, I think they
22:24
Speaker 2: give a little bit of a caveat for what I mean,
22:28
Speaker 2: Tomorrow night's going to be forty one degree or I'm sorry,
22:31
Speaker 2: since this is publishing Monday, tonight's going to be forty
22:34
Speaker 2: one degrees in rain, and that sounds awesome to hit in, right, Like,
22:39
Speaker 2: if you're six foot like Walner or six five six,
22:42
Speaker 2: whatever it is, that's there's a lot of body parts
22:45
Speaker 2: get moving. So I look, I get that they will
22:51
Speaker 2: give a little bit of a little bit of, you know,
22:54
Speaker 2: space for April struggles because historically baseball hitters just don't
22:58
Speaker 2: hit in April the way they do the rest of
23:00
Speaker 2: the season. We see ops just across the league go
23:03
Speaker 2: up month by month. But yeah, I mean, of course
23:07
Speaker 2: you want to think about those possibilities because those are
23:10
Speaker 2: new toys down there at TRIPLEA. Whether it's Emmanuel Rodriguez
23:14
Speaker 2: or Walker Jenkins or Kaylin Culpepper, all those guys are
23:17
Speaker 2: definitely talented guys, but they're unproven and Walder does have
23:22
Speaker 2: a track record and you have to give him a
23:24
Speaker 2: chance to show that. I mean, look, he was one
23:26
Speaker 2: of their better hitters last year. I know he didn't
23:28
Speaker 2: hit with runners in scoring position, but he did have
23:30
Speaker 2: twenty two home runs. His OPS and his OPS plus
23:33
Speaker 2: were very good. He was streaky. I mean, he is
23:37
Speaker 2: a streaky guy. That's just who he is. But his
23:39
Speaker 2: overall body of work suggests there's a lot to come
23:43
Speaker 2: from him. And he's done this before where he strikes
23:45
Speaker 2: out at a high rate. It's thirty seven strikeouts and
23:48
Speaker 2: eighty nine play in eighty nine at bats, right now.
23:51
Speaker 2: That is a little bit high. That's higher than normal,
23:55
Speaker 2: but also it's something that they know he can do.
23:58
Speaker 2: And he also has come out of these before, so
24:01
Speaker 2: you know. But you've got to get a couple of
24:03
Speaker 2: these guys to come out of this and get on
24:04
Speaker 2: base and just put pressure on the opposing pictures and
24:07
Speaker 2: not have them walk back to the dugout after a one, two,
24:10
Speaker 2: three as many times as we've seen.
24:14
Speaker 3: Can't change the past.
24:16
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the future starting with Monday night's game
24:20
Speaker 1: against the Mariners. Connor Prelips second start. We'll get to
24:23
Speaker 1: that and more right after this word from our.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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25:34
Speaker 1: All right, we're back. Twins are back home this week,
25:41
Speaker 1: just in time for the forty degree weather again. It
25:43
Speaker 1: hasn't been super warm the last couple of days, but
25:46
Speaker 1: it's been better than that, that's for sure. Seattle for
25:50
Speaker 1: three games starting Monday through Wednesday, and then Toronto, the
25:55
Speaker 1: return favor after the road series earlier this year. A
25:58
Speaker 1: four gamer Thursday through Sunday at target Field and Monday
26:04
Speaker 1: night Connor Prelip will make his second major league start.
26:10
Speaker 1: He was pretty impressive in his debut Dan against the
26:13
Speaker 1: Mets last week ended up a loss for the Twins,
26:16
Speaker 1: but certainly not Prilyp's fault.
26:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, he and Kendrew Rojas came in and that was
26:21
Speaker 2: a cool game. That was a little bit. The Mets
26:24
Speaker 2: are in the middle of this twelve game losing streak,
26:26
Speaker 2: and you know, multiple National reporters were asking me about, Wow,
26:29
Speaker 2: the Twins have two left handers that throw ninety seven
26:32
Speaker 2: or better, and that was that was definitely something that
26:36
Speaker 2: you major league debuts for both guys really good gas,
26:43
Speaker 2: you know, like different pitchers, but both have really good
26:46
Speaker 2: secondary stuff. Prelip really did a good job, I thought
26:51
Speaker 2: on the composure part because he had multiple times where
26:54
Speaker 2: actually both guys did, but it could have gotten away.
26:57
Speaker 2: Pre Lip admitted it got loud. He gave up the
26:59
Speaker 2: run the first on basically I think it was a
27:02
Speaker 2: double past third base, and then in just a sea
27:05
Speaker 2: and I single. But it got really loud, and you know,
27:10
Speaker 2: you're facing one Soto all of a sudden, and you're
27:13
Speaker 2: pitching in a place with three or four decks when
27:16
Speaker 2: you've never pitched in something more than two decks at
27:19
Speaker 2: the minor leagues, and I thought he did a good
27:22
Speaker 2: job of getting through that no walks, even though he
27:24
Speaker 2: did not have a good fastball command. And I guess
27:28
Speaker 2: you know, there's not a lot of tape on him,
27:29
Speaker 2: Like this is a guy that has one hundred and
27:31
Speaker 2: thirty two and a third pro innings total, including the
27:36
Speaker 2: four innings that he threw that night. So but he's
27:41
Speaker 2: a big curveball guy. I sorry, he's a big change
27:44
Speaker 2: up guy. He's a big slider guy. I think he
27:47
Speaker 2: threw maybe forty percent sliders in that game. It was Yeah,
27:53
Speaker 2: he leans on that. You wonder how deep he'll pitch
27:56
Speaker 2: into games. That's seems like a lot of stress on
28:01
Speaker 2: the arm. And he's guys had to Tommy John surgeries already.
28:04
Speaker 2: But he definitely has the stuff and he looked the
28:07
Speaker 2: part and that was exciting to see, and so was
28:10
Speaker 2: Kendrick Rojas. Rojas had more command issues than than Preli did,
28:15
Speaker 2: but he worked around it, put five guys on and
28:19
Speaker 2: gave up no runs over the two innings. So that
28:21
Speaker 2: was cool to see both those guys, and the follow
28:24
Speaker 2: up should be nice to see on Monday too.
28:28
Speaker 1: Tyler, what were your impressions of a prelip Stadia.
28:32
Speaker 4: Pre lip especially I think I texted y'all during it
28:35
Speaker 4: gave me a fully like the whole story, you know,
28:39
Speaker 4: with the Tommy Johns and everything, and then watching him
28:41
Speaker 4: throw a baseball, it reminded me a lot of cool Reagan's,
28:45
Speaker 4: you know, he was one. I think Texas had him.
28:47
Speaker 4: He was hurt things like that, and he got up
28:49
Speaker 4: and it's just when you've got a smooth our action
28:53
Speaker 4: like that and it comes out like it does it
28:55
Speaker 4: just it gets on guys a little differently. His slider,
28:59
Speaker 4: I think it is at against Lindor and like Thirk,
29:02
Speaker 4: he just got him to swing. He missed three times
29:04
Speaker 4: at it, and the same at bat, but it was
29:06
Speaker 4: just like it was almost like there's no way I'm
29:08
Speaker 4: going to get it again, and he just kept going
29:10
Speaker 4: to it. And that tells you like when you got
29:12
Speaker 4: a good pitch, it's good, you know, and you know
29:15
Speaker 4: you obviously sometimes you fall in love with that. But
29:17
Speaker 4: he's got electric everything kind of and it's there's a
29:21
Speaker 4: place in my mind where he could stay, you know,
29:25
Speaker 4: if he can settle in and kind of keep his
29:27
Speaker 4: feet under him and you know, obviously injury stuff. I
29:31
Speaker 4: don't know what kind of endings he's even allowed to
29:33
Speaker 4: throw this year. That's always a big question with guys
29:35
Speaker 4: like him. It's like it's unfortunate for them, but it's
29:37
Speaker 4: the way it is, Like they can't throw him out
29:40
Speaker 4: there for thirty starts this year.
29:42
Speaker 3: It just simply can't happen.
29:43
Speaker 4: So how they manage his workload, like if he gets
29:46
Speaker 4: pulled in the fourth inning a bunch or you know,
29:49
Speaker 4: however they throttle him will be interesting to see. But
29:52
Speaker 4: you know, both of those guys that were the stuff
29:55
Speaker 4: is there. The composure was there at times, you know,
29:58
Speaker 4: and it's like Dan said, you pitching against the Mets
30:01
Speaker 4: and the brightest lights you've ever been under with one
30:04
Speaker 4: Soto breathing. Actually, you know, it's like okay, like this
30:07
Speaker 4: is different, you know, And so you know it's good
30:10
Speaker 4: to see those guys get in there and get their
30:11
Speaker 4: feet wet.
30:12
Speaker 3: And have respectable addicts. Like that's all you can ask for.
30:15
Speaker 3: You know, he gave a team a chance and survived
30:17
Speaker 3: to see another day.
30:19
Speaker 2: Fifty sliders, by the way, fifty one, I know, it's
30:23
Speaker 2: a lot, that's pretty high. That's crazy.
30:27
Speaker 3: They kept swaying they did.
30:29
Speaker 2: It's effective pitch.
30:33
Speaker 4: Uh.
30:33
Speaker 1: The American League is still a huge log jam. After
30:39
Speaker 1: twenty seven eight games grabs up for grabs, it's just
30:44
Speaker 1: seven and a half games separating first place New York
30:49
Speaker 1: Yankees if you've heard of them, from the last place
30:53
Speaker 1: Houston Astros both playoff Nemesis Nemeses Nemesi.
30:59
Speaker 2: Hey, you're the smart out here, I should know that.
31:03
Speaker 1: But anyway, the Twins have obviously they've tumbled out of
31:07
Speaker 1: first place with this losing streak twelve and sixteen now
31:11
Speaker 1: in the season, two and a half games behind both
31:13
Speaker 1: Detroit and Cleveland, who are tied for first and the Central.
31:17
Speaker 1: So it's still way too early to call, but the
31:22
Speaker 1: Twins have obviously shown plenty of reasons to kind of
31:25
Speaker 1: revert back, to get out of this dreamland of thinking
31:29
Speaker 1: that they're going to be a playoff team but still
31:32
Speaker 1: not over and dan like as they come home now
31:34
Speaker 1: for a seven game series Toronto, visiting a team that
31:38
Speaker 1: they just won a series from on the road, Seattle,
31:41
Speaker 1: obviously a team with a lot of talent, but also
31:44
Speaker 1: right around the five hundred mark as most AL teams
31:47
Speaker 1: are this year. I mean, what does success look like
31:52
Speaker 1: this week beyond just getting getting a win to get
31:55
Speaker 1: off the schneid.
31:57
Speaker 2: Winning a series or two. I mean, look the Twins
31:59
Speaker 2: that play, they're seven and six at home, they're five
32:02
Speaker 2: and ten on the road, so you know, take advantage
32:04
Speaker 2: of the home cook and get back like they've played
32:07
Speaker 2: better here. And that was a tough run because one
32:11
Speaker 2: Soda did come back and make a total difference in
32:14
Speaker 2: that series. You know, somebody said, oh, yeah, the Twins
32:18
Speaker 2: lost a series. They win the first game against the Mets,
32:20
Speaker 2: but then they lost a serious the Mets, who had
32:22
Speaker 2: lost twelve in a row. So the Twins then are
32:25
Speaker 2: worse than the Mets. I was like, well, one Sodo
32:27
Speaker 2: did come back, and he is getting seven hundred and
32:30
Speaker 2: sixty five million dollars. He is the highest paid player
32:34
Speaker 2: in baseball history. He might not be Aaron Judge as
32:37
Speaker 2: far as the stat line goes, but he is being
32:40
Speaker 2: paid like Aaron Judge. So when he comes in, that
32:42
Speaker 2: lineup gets a little better as he is. And you
32:46
Speaker 2: saw even Joe Ryan struggle with it. You saw the
32:49
Speaker 2: young guys struggle with him. And then you go to
32:53
Speaker 2: Tampa who just outpitched you and out you know, played
32:55
Speaker 2: you for three days, so just figure out a way
32:58
Speaker 2: to get one, because one in nine is pretty rough,
33:00
Speaker 2: and especially given it started the way it did with
33:02
Speaker 2: those three games against Cincinnati that were all very winnable
33:07
Speaker 2: and they gave them away on the two of those occasions.
33:11
Speaker 2: It's been a tough stretch. You just need some good feelings,
33:14
Speaker 2: some good vibes to go your way.
33:17
Speaker 1: The Mets did then go on to get swept by
33:20
Speaker 1: the Rockies this weekend. So fifteen losses in seventeen games
33:27
Speaker 1: now despite one so being back but the Rockies, that's right,
33:33
Speaker 1: that's right, So Seattle Monday night and Tuesday night. We
33:39
Speaker 1: should be back with you on Wednesday. The series finale
33:42
Speaker 1: is an afternoon game that day. We'll figure out what
33:46
Speaker 1: our timing will be for that episode, but the Twins
33:49
Speaker 1: will try to get back in the win column after
33:52
Speaker 1: this this horrible stretch five straight losses and nine out
33:56
Speaker 1: of ten, and we'll see you again later this week
34:00
Speaker 1: on Twin City's territory. Thanks for listening. If you like
34:02
Speaker 1: what you hear, please hit that subscribe button and please
34:05
Speaker 1: anytime send us some feedback in the comments. We'd love
34:08
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Thanks for listening, and we will
34:10
Speaker 1: catch you later this week.
34:35
Speaker 3: We'll hap them