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Twins hit a new season worst, and Kody Clemens’ FT interview · Twin Cities Territory

0:01
Speaker 1: The Twins fall to a season low eight games under
0:04
Speaker 1: five hundred after a ten to four loss to the Tigers.
0:07
Speaker 1: Taj Bradley's struggles continue, Byron Buxton, struggles with runners on
0:11
Speaker 1: base continue even though he keeps smoking home runs. And
0:13
Speaker 1: we have updates on injured pitchers and more today on
0:16
Speaker 1: Twins City's Territory Your Minnesota Twins podcast here on the
0:20
Speaker 1: Fouled Territory Network. Oh wait, I forgot.
0:23
Speaker 2: Whatever the hell that is?
0:24
Speaker 1: All right? Last time? I'm not using it anymore.
0:28
Speaker 3: That's it.
0:28
Speaker 1: I promise, I promise, I promise only one game since
0:31
Speaker 1: we talked to you last. Zach Pierce and Dan Hayes
0:34
Speaker 1: of the Athletic joined by Tyler Duffy back with us
0:37
Speaker 1: today on this Wednesday. The series opener to Detroit was
0:40
Speaker 1: a bit of a home run derby Guy's Twins went
0:44
Speaker 1: back and forth over the first five innings, kind of
0:46
Speaker 1: an exciting first half of the game, and then from
0:48
Speaker 1: there it was all Tigers in at ten to four win.
0:50
Speaker 1: Twins are now thirty and thirty eight Dan, a season worst,
0:54
Speaker 1: as I said, eight games under five hundred, and things
0:57
Speaker 1: starting to feel like they're slipping away even for US.
1:00
Speaker 1: Four point three percenters. It seemed like the mood in
1:03
Speaker 1: the clubhouse maybe not super great last night.
1:05
Speaker 4: Dan, Yeah, sitting around for an hour and fifty one
1:09
Speaker 4: mints for rain delay before the game. You're just like,
1:14
Speaker 4: I'm guessing that you wait all that time and you
1:18
Speaker 4: play and then you play like that. It can't be easy,
1:22
Speaker 4: and it's how it's been. Look, they played some close
1:25
Speaker 4: games against Kansas City over the weekend, but the Twins
1:29
Speaker 4: now have lost four or five against Detroit and Kansas City,
1:31
Speaker 4: two teams that they expected to kind of take care
1:35
Speaker 4: of themselves against and hoped to play really well against.
1:38
Speaker 4: And they've had some winnable games slip away. But last night,
1:41
Speaker 4: you know, early on they gave away multiple leads. Taj
1:44
Speaker 4: Bradley was just no command whatsoever. He afterwards was at
1:50
Speaker 4: a loss for awards. We can get in that in
1:52
Speaker 4: a minute, but you know, his command was his splitters
1:56
Speaker 4: and his curve balls were just jumping balls, were going
1:59
Speaker 4: to the backstop. It was. It was a surreal performance,
2:02
Speaker 4: and you know, it's one of those games where afterwards
2:06
Speaker 4: you could tell guys are just feeling it. That was
2:09
Speaker 4: their first game back after the break after the seventeen
2:12
Speaker 4: in a row, and there was you know, the home
2:15
Speaker 4: runs were good, but there were just so many little
2:18
Speaker 4: mistakes across the way. Every facet of the game was
2:22
Speaker 4: touched with the mistake and you could tell that, you know,
2:26
Speaker 4: maybe that reality setting in. I think they'd like to
2:29
Speaker 4: keep fighting and stay alive. But eight games under five
2:33
Speaker 4: hundred and they're struggling to find you know, they're footing
2:37
Speaker 4: right now. And Taj Bradley was such a big part
2:39
Speaker 4: of that footing early on, going four and two in
2:43
Speaker 4: those first you know, seven starts and fifty two strikeouts
2:47
Speaker 4: and forty seven innings. And now he has had, you know,
2:50
Speaker 4: three bad ones in a row after coming back. This
2:53
Speaker 4: is his fourth start since he returned from the peck
2:55
Speaker 4: muscle strain. And the first one was was decent and
3:00
Speaker 4: you know, pitch count ran high, but look good in Boston.
3:03
Speaker 4: But he's struggled the last three times and you could
3:06
Speaker 4: tell they they're they're just kind of searching for it
3:08
Speaker 4: right now.
3:11
Speaker 1: Tyler, At what point in a in a season like this,
3:14
Speaker 1: does the I don't know, the hop a meter to
3:19
Speaker 1: use it trademarked to switch and flip off. Are you
3:24
Speaker 1: still looking at it as a lot of seasons at
3:26
Speaker 1: this point, or are you starting to believe the doubt.
3:30
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know if it's believing the doubt.
3:33
Speaker 2: It's just the you know, we are who we thought
3:37
Speaker 2: we were kind of thing.
3:39
Speaker 4: You know.
3:39
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, you're not in a locker room
3:41
Speaker 2: full of all stars, You're not. You got you got
3:44
Speaker 2: Buck And then you know the now kind of the
3:47
Speaker 2: conveyor belt, the merry ground of guys who have been
3:49
Speaker 2: kind of subbed in and out, you know, to that point,
3:52
Speaker 2: even Royce has been up and down, you know, and
3:54
Speaker 2: quite pretty quick timing, and it's just there's a lot
3:57
Speaker 2: of turnover, you know, between the injury. I think Jeffer's
4:00
Speaker 2: getting hurt was a big kind of you know, solid
4:05
Speaker 2: sturdy piece that they were standing on and him being gone,
4:09
Speaker 2: and then you know you got pictures hurt here and there,
4:12
Speaker 2: things like that. It's it's like kind of the stuff
4:14
Speaker 2: that you're building a foundation to like kind of sustain
4:16
Speaker 2: a little bit, they're kind of started to fall off.
4:19
Speaker 2: And you know, you've had some guys like Arcia come
4:23
Speaker 2: up and do well at times, and you know Royce,
4:25
Speaker 2: you're hoping he can catch whatever fire he found in
4:28
Speaker 2: Saint Paul. But you know, after you sit around for
4:32
Speaker 2: an hour and fifty in a rainy Detroit and then
4:37
Speaker 2: get beat like that, you know it is it's a
4:39
Speaker 2: gut punch and it's one you just it's an indivision.
4:43
Speaker 2: They're not going away. You're going to see him again.
4:46
Speaker 2: You have to hope some of those guys like Dan mentioned,
4:48
Speaker 2: like Mick will come back healthy, all guns blazing. But
4:52
Speaker 2: you know when when it's kind of nothing is going right,
4:56
Speaker 2: you know, and it's a little bit of everything it is,
4:57
Speaker 2: it's a hard spot to get out of, and it
5:00
Speaker 2: takes it takes a little streak or you know, a
5:02
Speaker 2: blowout game. You got to beat somebody bad to really
5:06
Speaker 2: change that. And they need they need something like that.
5:09
Speaker 2: They need a boost for sure. You know they had
5:11
Speaker 2: one day off after the seventeen and then sit around
5:14
Speaker 2: all day and lose like that. It's it's it's never
5:16
Speaker 2: a good good feel in doing that.
5:20
Speaker 1: Dan, you mentioned Taj Bradley, Uh, it was his third
5:23
Speaker 1: straight rough start. He allowed five in runs and seven
5:28
Speaker 1: hits and four and third innings. It's a third straight
5:30
Speaker 1: timeout with four or more allowed and fewer than five
5:33
Speaker 1: innings pitched. The first nine starts of the year, he
5:36
Speaker 1: had eight times allowed two or fewer runs and went
5:40
Speaker 1: at least five innings I think in all but one
5:41
Speaker 1: of those games. Anyway, certainly it's it's been a sign
5:45
Speaker 1: of concern. The Twins went from having this amazing strength
5:49
Speaker 1: at the front end of their their pitching staff and
5:51
Speaker 1: now basically everybody has dealt with injuries and it seems
5:54
Speaker 1: like Taj is struggling to reacclimate here.
5:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's definitely not in the rhythm that he was
6:00
Speaker 4: before and the staff itself over the last fifteen which
6:06
Speaker 4: is right, they swept Boston their twenty six and twenty
6:10
Speaker 4: seven there, you know, seasons kind of looking a little
6:12
Speaker 4: bit promising, and since that point, Twins are four and
6:16
Speaker 4: eleven pitching staff with the six forty nine ear ra
6:20
Speaker 4: but Tage last night, I mean, it was just so
6:22
Speaker 4: uncharacteristic for him. Curveballs were flying, you know, they were
6:27
Speaker 4: landing well above the glove, and splitters were diving well
6:33
Speaker 4: below the zone or missing up or you know, fastballs
6:37
Speaker 4: were missing. Everything was all over the place and it
6:40
Speaker 4: was it was strange, and I did ask Derek Shelton,
6:44
Speaker 4: I just don't think Taj wanted to make an excuse
6:46
Speaker 4: for the grip, but I mean, like it was I
6:48
Speaker 4: got there a little late yesterday because of the weather stuff,
6:50
Speaker 4: and he like being in a dugout about an hour
6:54
Speaker 4: and a half before the scheduled game time. It was
6:56
Speaker 4: miserable just sitting there. And I don't know what that's
6:59
Speaker 4: like to play in that or grip a baseball on it.
7:02
Speaker 4: But you know, Tosh said nothing about it, but Derek
7:04
Speaker 4: Shelton thought with the way things were going command wise,
7:07
Speaker 4: that it had to be the case. We asked Bradley afterwards,
7:10
Speaker 4: and and he was kind of one, I like, it's
7:14
Speaker 4: such a long night. He like was just sort of
7:17
Speaker 4: out of it, and and like we asked him and
7:19
Speaker 4: he said he didn't really have the words. Here's his quote.
7:22
Speaker 4: He said, it's a bit confusing. I don't know what
7:24
Speaker 4: questions to ask myself, or don't know what physical or
7:27
Speaker 4: mental cues I need to work on to have long
7:30
Speaker 4: starts like I did before and go deeper into games. Tonight,
7:33
Speaker 4: I'll just take a step back, take a breath, exhale.
7:37
Speaker 4: I feel like I've been doing a lot of inhaling
7:39
Speaker 4: and forgetting to exhale, you know, it was very honest,
7:44
Speaker 4: and you know he didn't he was clearing a spot
7:47
Speaker 4: where he really didn't, you know, know what to say,
7:49
Speaker 4: and like, I think he said it all just with
7:51
Speaker 4: that And it's a good sign because I think he's
7:57
Speaker 4: a guy that, you know, he can figure it out.
7:59
Speaker 4: He's really sharp. He got to that place earlier. But
8:04
Speaker 4: they're gonna have to go back to lab essentially and
8:06
Speaker 4: figure out what that what's going on him and Pete
8:09
Speaker 4: Mackie and and the pitching group because clearly he's just
8:13
Speaker 4: a little bit off and flustered by it. And uh,
8:15
Speaker 4: you know they need him, They absolutely need him. He
8:18
Speaker 4: was so dominant early it looked like, man, you have
8:21
Speaker 4: Joe Ryan, you have Pablo, you have or you have
8:23
Speaker 4: Joe Ryan, you have TODJ. Bradley, get a solid Bailey over,
8:27
Speaker 4: you had mick Abel and then we saw Connor Preelip
8:30
Speaker 4: come up since mick Abel went down, and it's like, man,
8:33
Speaker 4: there's the makings of a really good pitching staff here,
8:36
Speaker 4: but right now it's not there.
8:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
8:41
Speaker 1: Sorry, com me off guard there, Tyler. You were smirking
8:43
Speaker 1: a little bit in the in the the grip section
8:46
Speaker 1: of the discussion.
8:47
Speaker 3: Do you buy into that Yeah, Uh well, it's we
8:52
Speaker 3: talked about it off air, you know, the whole sweaty
8:55
Speaker 3: balls situation at the Empire's bag at times.
8:58
Speaker 2: But you know, when it's when it's humid and uh
9:01
Speaker 2: you know, rainy and things like that, it's it's a
9:04
Speaker 2: real thing, you know, not having a grip. And like
9:07
Speaker 2: Dan said, you maybe doesn't want to make any excuse
9:10
Speaker 2: and it maybe it's a it's a physical thing that
9:13
Speaker 2: he's feeling or not. But you know, I'll give him
9:16
Speaker 2: some credit. Like there's times when I've been in games,
9:19
Speaker 2: shoot the other day here where you grab a baseball
9:21
Speaker 2: and you're like, I'm not entirely sure where this is
9:24
Speaker 2: going to land.
9:26
Speaker 5: You know.
9:26
Speaker 2: It compared to like trying to pick up you know,
9:29
Speaker 2: a kid's toy or out of a bathtub or something
9:31
Speaker 2: where you grab it with your hand and it just
9:33
Speaker 2: goes flying, you know, the old bar soap. That baseball
9:36
Speaker 2: feels like that sometimes, and it's a it's a helpless feeling.
9:39
Speaker 2: You know, you're out there trying to throw a fastball
9:41
Speaker 2: for a strike and you don't know if it's going
9:42
Speaker 2: to hit a guy in the head or balance and
9:45
Speaker 2: a guy like him, you know, he's he's room back
9:47
Speaker 2: throwing ninety seven ninety eight. You know pretty sure he
9:50
Speaker 2: threw a splitter that I saw to the backstop and
9:53
Speaker 2: my mind immediately just went to he can't grip the baseball.
9:56
Speaker 2: It wasn't mechanics, it's not anything like when you throw
9:58
Speaker 2: a splitter that high like that's and then something you're
10:02
Speaker 2: not in control of, and you know, and it's tough.
10:06
Speaker 2: You know, he was hurt, had his time off, he
10:08
Speaker 2: was on an absolute role and all he wants is
10:12
Speaker 2: to feel that sharpness again. And he's trying to make
10:15
Speaker 2: it happen. And that's the tough part is he's doing
10:18
Speaker 2: everything he can to make it be taj that started
10:22
Speaker 2: the year. But at the same time, you just got
10:24
Speaker 2: to kind of roll with it. You know, this is
10:25
Speaker 2: that speed bump of the of the starting you know, calendar.
10:30
Speaker 2: He's had his role, he's going through it a little bit.
10:33
Speaker 2: He's going to work on some things, I'm sure, hopefully
10:36
Speaker 2: to shake this one off and allow himself some grace
10:39
Speaker 2: and realize, like, hey, like it's a long season. He's
10:42
Speaker 2: still got fifteen or twenty starts. I don't know how
10:44
Speaker 2: much you know, seasons left exactly but it's got a
10:47
Speaker 2: lot of time to recover, and you know, it's just
10:50
Speaker 2: he needs to allow himself a minute to like get
10:52
Speaker 2: through it. But yeah, it's a it's a tough spot
10:55
Speaker 2: to be, you know, and he wants to be the guy.
10:57
Speaker 2: He was the guy that we were leaning on for
10:58
Speaker 2: a minute there, and that's who he wants to be.
11:01
Speaker 2: And it's a tough spot. But you know, I think
11:03
Speaker 2: they'll get him right and he'll be just fine. It's
11:05
Speaker 2: still ninety seven, it's still nasty, it's still fun to
11:09
Speaker 2: watch throw baseball. It's just you know, raining it in
11:11
Speaker 2: a little bit and you know, get his feedback under him.
11:15
Speaker 4: Well.
11:15
Speaker 1: Taj was the focus of Dan's story on The Athletic
11:18
Speaker 1: last night. You can read that right now on The
11:21
Speaker 1: Athletic dot com. If you like what you hear, please
11:24
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Speaker 1: five hundred subscribers. On YouTube, you can if you're watching there,
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Speaker 1: join us. We have episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,
11:38
Speaker 1: typically during the week as the season rolls on, might
11:41
Speaker 1: be an eventful trade deadline, a lot of good stuff
11:43
Speaker 1: coming up, we will take a quick break and be
11:45
Speaker 1: right back.
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12:50
Speaker 1: All right, we're back. We have a special treat for
12:53
Speaker 1: you today if you missed it the other day on
12:56
Speaker 1: Foul Territory, the Mothership program here on the network. Cody Clemens,
13:00
Speaker 1: one of the bright spots for the Twins right now,
13:02
Speaker 1: who's been on a hitting tear. Actually, we didn't even
13:04
Speaker 1: talk about this. Yeeddie homered Tuesday night, which makes the
13:08
Speaker 1: six for seven and Daily Dinger's look at that, guys,
13:11
Speaker 1: even without Tyler, we got it done. We were supposed
13:14
Speaker 1: to text Tyler and get his pick just to help
13:17
Speaker 1: hedge our bets, but we didn't do that. Anyway, the
13:21
Speaker 1: good people at FT have allowed us to show you
13:23
Speaker 1: the interview, so we're gonna play that for you. He
13:25
Speaker 1: talks a lot about Byron Buxton, what it's like playing
13:28
Speaker 1: with him and dealing with rumors of him getting traded
13:31
Speaker 1: at the deadline.
13:31
Speaker 6: Hope you enjoy talking about one of the other teammates
13:35
Speaker 6: you mentioned earlier, Byron Buxton. Obviously trade deadline comes up.
13:39
Speaker 6: Obviously last year he said he doesn't want to play
13:42
Speaker 6: anywhere else but Minnesota. Can you talk about how he
13:45
Speaker 6: speaks about staying in Minnesota or just like when you
13:49
Speaker 6: come to a new team, like this and like he's
13:51
Speaker 6: clearly the leader of the team. How he talks about
13:54
Speaker 6: the city of Minnesota.
13:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, buck is a man of few words.
13:59
Speaker 5: He really doesn't doesn't talk that much unless you talk
14:01
Speaker 5: to him. But he leads by example and does his
14:05
Speaker 5: work every day. To be honest with you, I've never
14:08
Speaker 5: heard him talk about any type of like preference on
14:12
Speaker 5: the trade deadline or like how much he loves Minnesota
14:16
Speaker 5: and stuff like that, other than the clips from the
14:19
Speaker 5: All Star Game and the stuff I see on social
14:21
Speaker 5: media of when he talks about her when he.
14:23
Speaker 2: Gets asked about it.
14:26
Speaker 5: But I don't know, I mean, I see it's he
14:27
Speaker 5: seems like he's an extremely loyal person and he always
14:31
Speaker 5: from what I've heard is you know, Minnesota had his back,
14:35
Speaker 5: his back when he had his injuries, and you know
14:38
Speaker 5: he really appreciated that through his career whatnot. So I
14:43
Speaker 5: don't know, he see it seems like, you know, he
14:45
Speaker 5: loves it here and he wants to stay.
14:49
Speaker 8: Cody with Buckston And you can you imagine being on
14:55
Speaker 8: a team for one time in your career, now that
14:58
Speaker 8: you've been on different teams and different organizations like Byron
15:02
Speaker 8: to have the power to say, you know what, guys,
15:04
Speaker 8: you're talking about me being traded, but I'm just going
15:07
Speaker 8: to stay here because I really like it. Can you
15:09
Speaker 8: imagine even your father played for a bunch of teams, right,
15:11
Speaker 8: I played for a bunch of teams. I was never
15:13
Speaker 8: given that opportunity. How cool is that that Buxton has
15:16
Speaker 8: that power to see, no, I'm staying no matter what
15:19
Speaker 8: y'ls see.
15:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's amazing. I mean he pretty much.
15:24
Speaker 5: I mean he bleeds Minnesota twins. I swear like his
15:28
Speaker 5: family's comfortable here. I think that's a big part of
15:30
Speaker 5: it as well. And I think it's pretty special for
15:34
Speaker 5: a guy to be with one single team for ten
15:37
Speaker 5: plus years. You don't ever really see that anymore. But
15:42
Speaker 5: I don't know to my dad, Like you mentioned, my
15:44
Speaker 5: dad like his whole plan when he got to the
15:48
Speaker 5: big leagues and everything. He was wanting to put his
15:50
Speaker 5: family in a good spot. And for the first few
15:52
Speaker 5: years it was about making money and all that, and
15:54
Speaker 5: then as soon as he started building his career, he
15:57
Speaker 5: was like, I want to win, and so that was
16:00
Speaker 5: kind of his mentality over the course of his career.
16:04
Speaker 5: But I mean, I think Buck has you know, I
16:07
Speaker 5: think he believes in the Minnesota Twins organization. He talks
16:10
Speaker 5: about it and I mean, I don't know, We've had
16:13
Speaker 5: some crazy games this year. We're hitting the ball well,
16:16
Speaker 5: I mean, the pitching's coming around, and you know, we're
16:20
Speaker 5: just trying to keep continuing, trying to win win series.
16:23
Speaker 2: All Right.
16:24
Speaker 1: That was the Foul Territory interview with Cody Clemens. A
16:26
Speaker 1: lot of good stuff in there, Dan, what were your
16:28
Speaker 1: takeaways from that?
16:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, the part where Cody said, you know Byron, like,
16:34
Speaker 4: it's not like he's walking around the room parading saying
16:37
Speaker 4: I love Minnesota. I'm gonna stay here. It's calculated with Byron,
16:41
Speaker 4: and I love it, Like I love how he does
16:42
Speaker 4: it because you know, last year at the trade deadline,
16:46
Speaker 4: with the trade deadline approaching, he knew he was gonna
16:48
Speaker 4: get that question. So what did he do. He went
16:49
Speaker 4: to the All Star Game and use his session, his
16:52
Speaker 4: media session to say I love Minnesota. Like it's it's
16:56
Speaker 4: directed at key points. He's not gonna say it every day.
17:00
Speaker 4: Byron doesn't want to talk about this crap every day,
17:03
Speaker 4: you know, and like he wants to talk about it
17:06
Speaker 4: when it's important, like right after the trade deadline and
17:09
Speaker 4: needing to reiterate that he was happy in Minnesota and
17:11
Speaker 4: that at the end of the season then when he
17:13
Speaker 4: got to spring training. So doesn't shock me to hear
17:16
Speaker 4: Cody say that Byron doesn't, you know, openly talk about
17:19
Speaker 4: that stuff in the clubhouse. I don't think anybody would,
17:22
Speaker 4: but interesting stuff nonetheless, And and you can tell everybody
17:26
Speaker 4: loves Barron Bucks in the clubhouse. Just a leader and
17:30
Speaker 4: an energetic guy who everyone kind of follows.
17:33
Speaker 1: Suit for sure, where's the trade a meter at on Buckston?
17:37
Speaker 1: Do we need to bring that back? We are we
17:39
Speaker 1: still confident that he's staying Dan.
17:42
Speaker 4: I mean I think so, but I you know, you
17:45
Speaker 4: never you never know, like what I wonder what happens
17:49
Speaker 4: in a little less than two months if they have
17:51
Speaker 4: to trade Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers and you know,
17:55
Speaker 4: you just keep this going. That would not I think that.
17:59
Speaker 4: I I don't think anyone wants to think about that
18:02
Speaker 4: right now. They'll get to that bridge when they cross it, basically,
18:05
Speaker 4: and that's like fifty something days until the trade deadline,
18:10
Speaker 4: so they're hoping to right the ship and we'll see.
18:14
Speaker 4: It's one of those it's that elephant in the room
18:18
Speaker 4: right now, especially as the team keeps playing worse well.
18:22
Speaker 1: He hit his eighteenth home run of the night last
18:25
Speaker 1: night in the first pitch.
18:26
Speaker 4: He's seventeen nineteen, so it was nineteen for vacation. That
18:29
Speaker 4: was nineteen.
18:30
Speaker 1: I missed one.
18:30
Speaker 4: And it was his six leadoff home run?
18:34
Speaker 1: Six leadoff home run? How many have been on the
18:36
Speaker 1: first pitch? Quite a few anyway. Yeah, the home runs
18:42
Speaker 1: the bat is unquestionably good, but there's been one area
18:46
Speaker 1: that his struggles have been notable, and that's with runners
18:49
Speaker 1: on and runners in scoring position. I believe he's one
18:52
Speaker 1: twenty five for the season now with runners in scoring position,
18:56
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing a whole heap of those nineteen homes
19:00
Speaker 1: have been solo shots. But It's hard to criticize Buxton
19:03
Speaker 1: for anything, but that's been a definite noticeable rough spot
19:07
Speaker 1: for him.
19:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, he hit the home run and gave them the
19:11
Speaker 4: one nothing lead, and by the way back in the
19:13
Speaker 4: center field last night, that was a good sign and
19:15
Speaker 4: nice catchup, good catches, and I think that's that'll help him.
19:20
Speaker 4: But you know, he's been centerfield enough this year where
19:22
Speaker 4: he's had the distraction already, but definitely runners in scoring
19:26
Speaker 4: position has been a thing for him this year, where
19:28
Speaker 4: last year he had a nine eighty six OPS. Right
19:32
Speaker 4: now he is a four to seventy five OPS, when
19:33
Speaker 4: it was five for forty six RBIs. And last night
19:38
Speaker 4: he came up with the bases loaded, struck out after
19:41
Speaker 4: I think Tristan Grad struck out in front of him,
19:44
Speaker 4: and then came up with two to one later and
19:46
Speaker 4: struck out again, and Tristan Grade struck out there too,
19:50
Speaker 4: and twins as a team last night we're one for
19:52
Speaker 4: seven with runs in scoring position and stranded eleven. But yeah,
19:57
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's certainly an area, and I've talked
20:00
Speaker 4: to Byron and he knows it. I mean, we talked
20:02
Speaker 4: about it in Washington a month ago and he knows
20:03
Speaker 4: it's a thing. He's The way he thought about it
20:08
Speaker 4: then was, look, I'm doing all these other things I
20:11
Speaker 4: want to do right now, so this is one area
20:13
Speaker 4: that I'm struggling at and it's one area to improve.
20:16
Speaker 4: So he looked at it as something that was fixable.
20:21
Speaker 4: A month later, like it's still a thing, and you know,
20:24
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know it. Definitely they could use
20:29
Speaker 4: him being better, there's no question. But when we talk
20:32
Speaker 4: about the team's problems. You know, I don't think offense
20:36
Speaker 4: really has been the source of their struggles very often,
20:40
Speaker 4: so it is something to fix. It is something that's
20:42
Speaker 4: notable just because he's so good. And he's got a
20:45
Speaker 4: seven thirty four career ops with runners in scoring position,
20:48
Speaker 4: which is pretty solid. It's okay, it's not amazing, but again,
20:52
Speaker 4: he's had some really great years. He's just in the
20:54
Speaker 4: middle of a tough one. That way, there's lots of
20:57
Speaker 4: at bats to come, I would imagine, and still plenty
21:00
Speaker 4: of time to fix it, and that's an area they
21:02
Speaker 4: could use him fixing it. They you know, an extra
21:06
Speaker 4: spark because they scored four runs last night, all were
21:09
Speaker 4: on solo home runs. They clearly could have slugged their
21:14
Speaker 4: way back into that game themselves and taking advantage of
21:18
Speaker 4: a few spots. And you know, Tiger's we were talking
21:21
Speaker 4: about the grip. Tiger's pitchers hit three batters, so they
21:24
Speaker 4: were having some issues with it too. And you know,
21:27
Speaker 4: the one thing I think aj Hinch did a really
21:30
Speaker 4: good job of was he pulled his relievers after three
21:33
Speaker 4: batters multiple times last night when he saw signs of trouble.
21:37
Speaker 4: And I don't know if that's switching it up constantly
21:39
Speaker 4: just changed the dynamic, but it was effective enough to
21:44
Speaker 4: get them through and to keep twins hitters struggling with
21:47
Speaker 4: runners in scoring position.
21:49
Speaker 1: Tyler when in otherwise hot hitter is not doing so
21:54
Speaker 1: well situationally like this is it? Is it a difference
21:58
Speaker 1: in how you're being pitched? Is a Sometimes it's in
22:00
Speaker 1: your head or just weird things happen a little everything.
22:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's definitely bits of everything. You know,
22:08
Speaker 2: you catch a guy on a good day, bad day,
22:10
Speaker 2: and you're just out because their stuff beats you whatever.
22:13
Speaker 2: But I've said this all season and especially now more
22:16
Speaker 2: so than ever, he's the guy in that lineup that's
22:19
Speaker 2: circled so they're meeting that they're having before every series
22:23
Speaker 2: or every game for that matter. For a starter, his
22:26
Speaker 2: video is running or his heat maps are there, and
22:29
Speaker 2: it's like, throw this pitch here, no matter what, and
22:32
Speaker 2: they're executing because it's the guy you got to focus
22:35
Speaker 2: on the most. You know, he catches those guys early.
22:39
Speaker 2: You know, comp it to like Springer. You know, you
22:42
Speaker 2: got to throw a strike to start the game, and
22:45
Speaker 2: if you throw in the wrong spot, they're going to
22:46
Speaker 2: clip you and when the guys are on base things
22:50
Speaker 2: like that. Later in the game, you know, there's you're
22:52
Speaker 2: he's been in swing mode or he's done whatever he's
22:55
Speaker 2: done for that day, and now in the moment, it's
22:56
Speaker 2: like everybody wants to do better whatever. So you're trying
22:59
Speaker 2: to make a good swing and things like that, but
23:01
Speaker 2: you're also a little more inclined to swing at something
23:04
Speaker 2: that maybe isn't a strike, or maybe swinging a pitch
23:07
Speaker 2: that you wouldn't necessarily hit well, things like that, and
23:10
Speaker 2: it's just it's that's the result of that. I think
23:13
Speaker 2: mostly it's just guys are He's the matchup they're worried about,
23:17
Speaker 2: and you know they're executing more often than they're not
23:20
Speaker 2: in those moments. You know, it's his protection was Jeffers
23:23
Speaker 2: for a while. You know, guys have moved around him
23:26
Speaker 2: and things like that. But you know, it's tough to
23:29
Speaker 2: be that guy and not have you know, some surrounding
23:33
Speaker 2: actors that are equal you know, uh, what's the right
23:37
Speaker 2: word here, threat so to say it's you know, so
23:40
Speaker 2: it's just a it's a tough tough spot for him,
23:43
Speaker 2: but we can't shy away. The guys hit almost twenty
23:46
Speaker 2: homers already. You know without him, you know, he started
23:49
Speaker 2: so many games off like that. It's a huge lift
23:51
Speaker 2: for the team. And you know he's doing his job.
23:53
Speaker 2: You know, he's a leadoff hitter. You know you're yes,
23:56
Speaker 2: he's coming up with runners on base, but at the
23:57
Speaker 2: same time, he's leadoff games with home runs. And that's
24:00
Speaker 2: all you can really ask for. You know, if we're
24:03
Speaker 2: nitpicking because we're not winning, and that's when it gets tough.
24:06
Speaker 2: You know, it is what it is. But you know,
24:09
Speaker 2: Patty driven in two more runs yesterday. It wouldn't have
24:11
Speaker 2: changed anything.
24:11
Speaker 1: Ultimately, take a quick break. We'll be back with some
24:15
Speaker 1: updates on some injured pitchers and a quick look ahead
24:18
Speaker 1: of the rest of this series in Detroit.
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25:25
Speaker 1: Back here on Twin City's territory Dan the Twins, we
25:29
Speaker 1: talked about it every show. The beat up starting rotation
25:33
Speaker 1: got some news on at least a couple of those
25:35
Speaker 1: names in recent I guess last night this stuff came out.
25:39
Speaker 1: What's going on with Mickabel and Kendri Rojas.
25:42
Speaker 4: Mckabel will start tonight just down the road in Toledo.
25:47
Speaker 4: He flew with the team to Detroit and then got
25:51
Speaker 4: put into an Uber and sent to Toledo. So he'll throw
25:55
Speaker 4: three in names, fifty pitches.
25:57
Speaker 1: Uber Black Joey, you know, maybe.
26:01
Speaker 4: Maybe a van, just a van with blacked out windows.
26:05
Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't know what. Yeah, and then
26:11
Speaker 4: kender Rojas two. I think it's two innings, but it's
26:15
Speaker 4: twenty five pitches for a bullpen for him scheduled. I
26:18
Speaker 4: believe at home today. He did not make the trip.
26:21
Speaker 4: But Kender Rojas probably only needs to get to the
26:24
Speaker 4: forty five to sixty pitch range. That's where he was
26:28
Speaker 4: before his injury. Mick Abel, there's a little bit more
26:31
Speaker 4: of a build up, but with the way things are
26:33
Speaker 4: with this team, I don't know if you know, once
26:36
Speaker 4: he reached the four inning or five inning threshold, whether
26:40
Speaker 4: or not they'd consider bringing him back if he shows
26:42
Speaker 4: some good signs in these next couple of rehab starts.
26:46
Speaker 4: Because you know, right now they're throwing a bullpen game tonight,
26:49
Speaker 4: it will be Mike Paradis starting a bullpen game for
26:52
Speaker 4: the Twins. And you know, even though Paradis would throw
26:56
Speaker 4: and be probably available to come in at a different
26:58
Speaker 4: point here in the next couple of days, is just
27:01
Speaker 4: like a regular bullpen guy. It wouldn't shock me if
27:05
Speaker 4: Abel was back, you know, in two or three like again,
27:08
Speaker 4: he has to show good starts, he has to show health.
27:10
Speaker 4: But I wouldn't think they would be afraid of having
27:13
Speaker 4: a fifth guy in there, even if he was a
27:16
Speaker 4: foreign in max starter at this point. The other other
27:19
Speaker 4: news was that Cole Sans was returned on his rehab,
27:23
Speaker 4: which means his rehabit is being paused. He had thrown
27:27
Speaker 4: one game at TRIPA A Charlotte and wasn't recovering the
27:31
Speaker 4: way he or the Twins would like, so they've paused
27:35
Speaker 4: that rehab assignment and he's basically back to being treated
27:38
Speaker 4: and see what the next steps are. There's also Alan
27:44
Speaker 4: Rodin began a minor league rehab last night. He's probably
27:48
Speaker 4: still two two and a half weeks away, but he
27:51
Speaker 4: went two for five playing for four the fort minors
27:55
Speaker 4: mighty muscles, so quite a bit on the injury front.
27:59
Speaker 4: Still check in on Bailey over and find out because
28:02
Speaker 4: he's probably around ten days into his shutdown right now.
28:05
Speaker 4: I'll get you some more on that later this week,
28:07
Speaker 4: but that's I think sufficient for now, and I'm probably
28:10
Speaker 4: encouraging for the.
28:11
Speaker 1: Twins returned on the rehab. It doesn't sound good. Tyler
28:16
Speaker 1: Grimace there, you're not a doctor. I know, but it
28:19
Speaker 1: doesn't sound good.
28:19
Speaker 2: No, But yeah, when you go out to pitch and
28:22
Speaker 2: then you promptly return on another flight or I should
28:26
Speaker 2: say drive or wherever he was at, it's typically not
28:29
Speaker 2: a good sign because that means the staff on hand
28:33
Speaker 2: couldn't handle what you're dealing. So you know, hopefully it's
28:38
Speaker 2: a hiccup. But yeah, that there were sounds good.
28:42
Speaker 1: The Twins have two more games in Detroit Wednesday night.
28:46
Speaker 1: As Dan mentioned Mike Paradis, whose middle name, by the
28:49
Speaker 1: way is Exodus. That's sweet. He will take on Framber
28:53
Speaker 1: Valdez and then Thursday afternoon is Zebbie Matthews and Kyder Montero.
28:59
Speaker 1: And you can see the Obviously, Parades and Matthews are
29:02
Speaker 1: not part of the starting pitching plan when the season began,
29:05
Speaker 1: as these injuries have mounted up. But bullpen game expected Wednesday.
29:10
Speaker 1: Parade is just the first, first one on the hill,
29:12
Speaker 1: and then they're back in at Target Field on Friday
29:16
Speaker 1: for a three game series with Saint Louis and we'll
29:18
Speaker 1: be back to preview that. But Dan, this is four
29:21
Speaker 1: straight losses, sorry, three straight losses for the Twins, five
29:24
Speaker 1: out of six. They are now closer to last place
29:27
Speaker 1: in the Central than they are in first, and if
29:29
Speaker 1: they lose both of these next two games, they could
29:31
Speaker 1: be there by the end of this week. It feels
29:35
Speaker 1: every game carries a little bit more significance for a
29:37
Speaker 1: team still trying to be feisty in the playoff race.
29:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, get busy winning or you know, like they've got
29:45
Speaker 4: two against Detroit here, Saint Louis comes in after, then
29:49
Speaker 4: they go to Texas, then they go to Arizona, then
29:51
Speaker 4: the Dodgers come in, so and even the Rockies are
29:54
Speaker 4: going well, so they have a tough stretch in the
29:58
Speaker 4: schedule coming up. So it's kind of it's get going time, without.
30:02
Speaker 1: Question, get going time. Well said once again, if you
30:09
Speaker 1: like what you hear, please toss us a like, a
30:11
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30:13
Speaker 1: watching there on YouTube, there is a QR code to
30:15
Speaker 1: make it real easy to sign up and follow the
30:17
Speaker 1: show every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the season. Should
30:22
Speaker 1: be a very interesting next month plus, maybe not in
30:26
Speaker 1: ways that Twins fans really care to hear, but we
30:29
Speaker 1: will be here to document all of it as the
30:31
Speaker 1: trade deadline gets closer. Twins are thirty and thirty eight,
30:34
Speaker 1: two more games in Detroit. We'll be back with you
30:36
Speaker 1: on Friday. Thanks very much everybody for listening to Twins
30:39
Speaker 1: City's territory, and we will see you next time. Bye bye,