Latest / Twin Cities Territory / Twins maintain first place with series win over Boston

Transcript

Twins maintain first place with series win over Boston · Twin Cities Territory

0:09
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'm Zach Pierce, editor at The Athletic, who finally remembers
0:23
Speaker 1: being eight years old watching the nineteen ninety one World
0:26
Speaker 1: Series team a full thirty five years ago now, but
0:29
Speaker 1: who's counting. Joined as always by Dan Hayes, our Minnesota
0:33
Speaker 1: Twins Athletic beat writer, who is actually on duty in
0:37
Speaker 1: the press box as we speak at Target Field, and
0:40
Speaker 1: Tyler Duffy, longtime Major leaguer and former Minnesota Twin. We
0:45
Speaker 1: are coming to you Wednesday, April fifteenth, shortly after the
0:48
Speaker 1: Twins wrapped up their series against the Boston Red Sox
0:52
Speaker 1: with the inevitable loss that we knew was going to
0:55
Speaker 1: come at some point. They couldn't win every game the
0:57
Speaker 1: rest of the way, but they take two out of
1:00
Speaker 1: three from Boston. It's still eight wins and ten games.
1:04
Speaker 1: The first two games we will get to in a
1:06
Speaker 1: little bit, but while it's fresh in our mind, well,
1:08
Speaker 1: we'll start with the new The new game Wednesday's loss,
1:11
Speaker 1: a nine to five loss at the hands of Boston.
1:14
Speaker 1: Twins scored the first run Boston got the next nine
1:17
Speaker 1: twins made it look a little less blowout e in
1:19
Speaker 1: the ninth with the four run rally, but all in all,
1:22
Speaker 1: Wednesday was a game where pretty much everything people feared
1:26
Speaker 1: going wrong for this team did. There was there was.
1:28
Speaker 1: It was a rough start from Simmon Woods Richardson I
1:31
Speaker 1: think only three hits before that that ninth inning rally,
1:35
Speaker 1: and some shaky defense as well. Dan, what were your
1:38
Speaker 1: takeaways from from the finale today?
1:41
Speaker 2: If there were cheerleaders at the game, they would have
1:44
Speaker 2: done the U G L y U ink and no alibi.
1:48
Speaker 2: That was one of those games. Yeah, Look, they played
1:53
Speaker 2: so clean for a while and we've talked about regression
1:56
Speaker 2: being a possibility infield defense is definitely a team one
2:00
Speaker 2: weaknesses for this team and its surfaced today and we
2:05
Speaker 2: saw balls sneak through and that's been challenging for pitchers.
2:08
Speaker 2: There have been a lot of eighty eight mile an
2:11
Speaker 2: hour ground balls to find holes and you know, that's
2:14
Speaker 2: it's just it's a weird thing that's happened. It happens always,
2:18
Speaker 2: but it led to a rally and then you know
2:20
Speaker 2: lu keishel ground ball to him. Tried to do too
2:24
Speaker 2: much dropped it and then tried to do too much again,
2:28
Speaker 2: threw it away and led to two runs scoring. And
2:33
Speaker 2: it's one of those games you just know that they're
2:35
Speaker 2: going to be sloppy occasionally. This is baseball. There's one
2:38
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty two of them. This is they're fifteenth
2:40
Speaker 2: in a row, and they're fifteenth in a row, only
2:44
Speaker 2: you know, nineteen games into the season, so we're still
2:47
Speaker 2: building up and doing all that stuff, and so it
2:51
Speaker 2: doesn't shock me there were sloppy. It is a little
2:54
Speaker 2: surprising given how crisp and clean they had been before.
2:58
Speaker 2: You know, when you have the starting pitching they've going,
3:01
Speaker 2: especially early in the week, man, those games are Those
3:04
Speaker 2: games are clean. And I see a Twins a fan
3:11
Speaker 2: who anyways, when you have been so clean and then
3:17
Speaker 2: for a game like this to come along, was you know,
3:21
Speaker 2: not surprising. They're due in a sense, and yeah, here
3:26
Speaker 2: they are. But they're off tomorrow, they have the Thursday off,
3:29
Speaker 2: they get back at a Friday, and they don't feel
3:32
Speaker 2: you know, they're in a great spot. Cleveland lost again today,
3:34
Speaker 2: so they're still in first place. By a game. You
3:38
Speaker 2: wake up on Friday and you're in first place. That's
3:40
Speaker 2: a good place to wake up.
3:42
Speaker 1: In. In Tyler's defense, we are doing this, of course
3:47
Speaker 1: in late afternoon. Oh still there, all right, and he
3:52
Speaker 1: and I have both picked up our kids from school,
3:54
Speaker 1: so this is very possible on my end as well.
3:56
Speaker 1: But we'll well, Tyler will be back with shortly. Yes, Dan,
4:01
Speaker 1: still a first place team, eleven and eight, still a start.
4:05
Speaker 1: Still eight wins in ten games, still a fantastic start. Yeah,
4:08
Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna, We're gonna try to get Tyler's
4:10
Speaker 1: take on how it feels in the clubhouse after you, Yes,
4:16
Speaker 1: after you you've been rolling like that and then you
4:18
Speaker 1: get kind of slapped around a bit. How it goes
4:21
Speaker 1: over in the clubhouse.
4:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you.
4:23
Speaker 4: Know, at the end of the day, like today was
4:25
Speaker 4: a bad one. It was a long stretch of games,
4:27
Speaker 4: you know, like you said, fifteen straight or seventeen I
4:29
Speaker 4: think was a I can't remember exactly the number, but
4:32
Speaker 4: you just won three series in a row against three
4:35
Speaker 4: teams that are playing to be really good towards the
4:36
Speaker 4: end of the year. And you know, yeah, today was rough.
4:40
Speaker 4: You know, got keishole. He's a young guy trying to
4:43
Speaker 4: do more than he needed to do. You know, Chelte's
4:46
Speaker 4: probably already talked to him as soon as he came
4:48
Speaker 4: out of that game, like, hey, look, some mistakes happen.
4:51
Speaker 3: Let it happen.
4:52
Speaker 4: Don't double down and make it worse in those situations.
4:55
Speaker 4: And fast forward just September when something similar happens. Now
4:59
Speaker 4: he he's going to have that awareness to say, okay,
5:01
Speaker 4: slow down a little bit, you know, take a deep
5:03
Speaker 4: breath here, you know, save one run instead of giving
5:07
Speaker 4: up three, and you live to fight another play.
5:09
Speaker 3: And that's you know, for.
5:11
Speaker 4: That play in particular, that was the only one today
5:13
Speaker 4: that was just really like, can't happen. You know, it's
5:17
Speaker 4: a great fifteen games. You know, everybody's contributing. The guys
5:21
Speaker 4: are getting hot. You know, Martin hitting the homer today
5:23
Speaker 4: is good, you know, the late homer to make it interesting.
5:27
Speaker 4: You know, there's there's still that fight. There's still guys
5:29
Speaker 4: that want to do damage at all points of the game,
5:32
Speaker 4: and they're making guys work, and over.
5:34
Speaker 3: The course of the year that wears.
5:36
Speaker 4: You know, it's a guy having to get up in
5:38
Speaker 4: a bullpen a night before he's going to pitch the
5:40
Speaker 4: next day. You know, little stuff like that adds up
5:43
Speaker 4: for a closer or a situational guy.
5:46
Speaker 3: You get to see him on extra time things like that.
5:48
Speaker 4: It's it's taxing for a bullpen over the course of
5:50
Speaker 4: a year, and you know, little stuff like that adds
5:53
Speaker 4: up for a team like the Twins, who are going
5:55
Speaker 4: to have to get all these wins in all these
5:58
Speaker 4: different ways, and you know, between winning challenges and playing
6:02
Speaker 4: solid defense and things like that, Like it's it's easy
6:05
Speaker 4: to see where they can maintain some of this and
6:07
Speaker 4: you know, hopefully the regression isn't huge and you know,
6:10
Speaker 4: look up next week and win a few more games.
6:14
Speaker 1: Starting pitching has been such a solid note for this
6:17
Speaker 1: team this year. That hasn't extended towards Richardson so far.
6:21
Speaker 1: Five innings pitch today, ten hits, seven runs allowed, six
6:24
Speaker 1: of them earned because of the defensive miscues six point
6:28
Speaker 1: one er. Now Dan any concerned there from the Twins
6:32
Speaker 1: about about his slow start.
6:34
Speaker 2: No, they were pretty excited actually about the way he
6:37
Speaker 2: was throwing. The velocity was good today. I think they
6:40
Speaker 2: looked at it as like there were there just were
6:43
Speaker 2: balls of found holes early against him, and all of
6:46
Speaker 2: a sudden the bases are loaded. We saw him get
6:48
Speaker 2: into two jams early on and the first time threw
6:52
Speaker 2: a nice ground ball right to Brooksley, throw home, get
6:55
Speaker 2: the out. Like he made his pitches, he executed. The
6:59
Speaker 2: other in Toronto, he had the food poisoning incident, so
7:02
Speaker 2: he was thrown four scoreless and then you know, it
7:05
Speaker 2: all hit and he gave up five. I think they
7:08
Speaker 2: really like the kind of picture that he is. I
7:10
Speaker 2: think he is consistent, he throws strikes. He's not like
7:15
Speaker 2: stuff wise. He's got the fourth best stuff on the
7:18
Speaker 2: starting staff, and he makes his living by being consistent
7:23
Speaker 2: and pitching deep into games. We haven't seen that here.
7:27
Speaker 2: He goes in little runs like this, and the way
7:31
Speaker 2: he finished last year was outstanding, So I think, you know,
7:35
Speaker 2: you give him a chance to keep figuring it out.
7:39
Speaker 2: He's a young guy. He's been showed them a lot
7:41
Speaker 2: over the two full seasons that he's been up here,
7:43
Speaker 2: and they really like what he provides. So I think
7:47
Speaker 2: there's more concern, or not more concerned. There's like I
7:51
Speaker 2: think they believe there's more consistency in there from him.
7:55
Speaker 2: That's that's going to surface soon.
7:58
Speaker 3: Tyler.
7:59
Speaker 1: You mentioned that they're hitting home runs Austin Martin, as
8:01
Speaker 1: you said today and then also Ryan Kreidler in the
8:04
Speaker 1: ninth inning, the three run shot. But you texted us
8:08
Speaker 1: immediately after that and said, rally killer. Why why do
8:11
Speaker 1: you hate the ninth inning home run?
8:14
Speaker 4: It's one of And it's so hard to make the argument,
8:16
Speaker 4: like I get both sides, you know, home runs or
8:19
Speaker 4: crushing blows, whatever, but having traffic on base, like having
8:23
Speaker 4: it out on second base, breathing down your neck, you know,
8:26
Speaker 4: you're worried about if they're relaying location, you know, stealing
8:30
Speaker 4: a base, whatever it may be. It just adds that
8:33
Speaker 4: little bit of what if in the back of that
8:35
Speaker 4: picture's mind when they're on the mound, and it keeps
8:38
Speaker 4: that momentum going.
8:39
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes it's weirdly a reset. You give up.
8:42
Speaker 3: All that goes to the third deck.
8:44
Speaker 4: You kind of don't care anymore, and you might even
8:47
Speaker 4: get a little tick up because you're pissed off. You know,
8:49
Speaker 4: it's you get a little extra and especially in that moment,
8:52
Speaker 4: like there's a chance, you know, string a couple more together,
8:55
Speaker 4: like they got to bring in Chapman or somebody like
8:57
Speaker 4: pretty quickly, you know, And so like what I was
9:00
Speaker 4: mentioned earlier, that's that adds up over the course of
9:03
Speaker 4: a year. And it also puts that wood if into
9:05
Speaker 4: those guys' minds when they come into those blowouts where
9:07
Speaker 4: it's like, hey, these guys aren't stepping off the throttle,
9:10
Speaker 4: like they're still coming for you, and you know, just
9:13
Speaker 4: having that little traffic sometimes it even in a game
9:15
Speaker 4: where it doesn't matter. Sometimes it's almost harder to get
9:18
Speaker 4: out of those situations and it can spiral quickly and
9:21
Speaker 4: you know, like right there they put up I think
9:22
Speaker 4: a four spot in the ninth, so it's, uh, you know,
9:25
Speaker 4: it's one of those things you just put that in
9:27
Speaker 4: the back pocket and know as a team for that matter,
9:30
Speaker 4: as the Twins, like we can do this at any
9:32
Speaker 4: point and put up a crooked number and be right
9:34
Speaker 4: back in the ballgame. And that's huge considering the rotation,
9:37
Speaker 4: how well they've been throwing. You know, obviously there's gonna
9:40
Speaker 4: be hiccups here and there, but you know, you're always
9:42
Speaker 4: in striking distance and that's all you can ask for.
9:46
Speaker 1: Nine to five the final again on Wednesday afternoon, Twins
9:51
Speaker 1: and the series with a loss against Boston, we will
9:54
Speaker 1: get to the good stuff. There's plenty of it from
9:55
Speaker 1: the first two games, right after this word from our sponsor.
10:01
Speaker 3: Kratz.
10:02
Speaker 5: The world has a cord problem, wires everywhere. It's twenty
10:06
Speaker 5: twenty six and it is time to get a ridgewallet.
10:10
Speaker 6: Five and one. It's not a wallet, it's a charger.
10:14
Speaker 6: Look at this thing. It sticks to your phone. You
10:16
Speaker 6: push the button, it charges your phone while you can
10:19
Speaker 6: charge two different items at the same time. Oh and
10:22
Speaker 6: don't forget while it's charging. You got a little a
10:26
Speaker 6: little lean to John that'll help it sit right there.
10:30
Speaker 3: Appreciate your ridgewallet.
10:31
Speaker 5: This is so nice, which is great for me. If
10:33
Speaker 5: I'm at the airport, I'm watching a game, I can
10:35
Speaker 5: charge five devices and then I can just watch something
10:38
Speaker 5: on the phone. Of course, they still have the wallets
10:40
Speaker 5: that are money too, and we know the code. It's
10:42
Speaker 5: nice and simple. It's foul foul. One thing to pack.
10:46
Speaker 5: Five ways to power. You can find Ridge's power bank
10:49
Speaker 5: at best Buy or our listeners can get ten percent
10:51
Speaker 5: off at Ridge dot com by using code foul at checkout.
10:54
Speaker 5: Head to Ridge dot com use code foul and you're
10:56
Speaker 5: all set. After your purchase, they'll ask you where you
10:58
Speaker 5: heard about them. Please support ft U tell him we sent.
11:01
Speaker 1: You all right, we're back No A. J. Pierzinski that time.
11:07
Speaker 1: But that's all right, all right, enough about that loss. Today,
11:11
Speaker 1: Monday and Tuesday, the Twins two more impressive wins, thirteen
11:16
Speaker 1: to six after tearing up Garrett Crochet on Monday night,
11:21
Speaker 1: and then Tuesday the six to zero win over Sunny
11:23
Speaker 1: Gray the Red Sox top two pitchers, Is that right?
11:26
Speaker 1: And then those two Yeah.
11:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. And let's just say Alex core was
11:32
Speaker 2: impressed with the Twins. That was. That was very much.
11:35
Speaker 2: I went over there a couple of times in a
11:36
Speaker 2: row to hear him talk about what they did, and
11:40
Speaker 2: they left an impression on him for sure.
11:44
Speaker 1: And probably one of the nicest signs for the Twins
11:47
Speaker 1: Tyler coming out of those games was that Byron Buxton
11:50
Speaker 1: is heating up.
11:52
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, him getting hot. Like I've said it all along,
11:55
Speaker 4: you know, he's gonna be who he is. You know,
11:57
Speaker 4: he's gonna land somewhere around two eighty. He's gonna hit
12:00
Speaker 4: his thirty. I think you can kind of bet on
12:03
Speaker 4: that one. You know, it's the guys filling in around,
12:06
Speaker 4: and you know, everyone's hitting the ball.
12:08
Speaker 3: Hard, I mean, you know, and the guys that aren't
12:10
Speaker 3: are working walks.
12:11
Speaker 4: You know, watching Sunny's game yesterday, you know he's a
12:14
Speaker 4: guy who can't attack his own but he's working on
12:17
Speaker 4: you swinging off the plate and they were making him
12:20
Speaker 4: come over the plate. And that's you know, they've had
12:21
Speaker 4: great plans. I think that's what you can could attribute
12:24
Speaker 4: a lot of that to is you know the hitting staff.
12:27
Speaker 4: You know, there's so many guys now, you know, between
12:29
Speaker 4: Crochet and Sonny, they had pretty clear plans and it
12:33
Speaker 4: seems to be executed really well. You know, when you
12:36
Speaker 4: put up that many runs off of two quality starter,
12:39
Speaker 4: especially Crochet, you know, the top ten guy in the league,
12:43
Speaker 4: you know, it's it speaks. And you know, like Dan said,
12:47
Speaker 4: you know, Korra opened his eyes a little bit, and
12:49
Speaker 4: I'm sure it opens some other team's eyes. And you know,
12:52
Speaker 4: I've heard a lot about the lefty issues, but you know,
12:55
Speaker 4: obviously today we had the hiccup, but seems to be
12:59
Speaker 4: they're working their way up that, you know, the lefty problem.
13:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, buston go ahead in Sorry.
13:09
Speaker 2: I was say a week ago on Monday when they
13:11
Speaker 2: were facing School, they had five thirty t ops against
13:14
Speaker 2: left handed pitching at that time. Since then, they've with
13:18
Speaker 2: the exception of today destroyed Lefties. They did it to school,
13:21
Speaker 2: they did it to Fromberg, they did it to Crochet.
13:25
Speaker 2: Cora Kora went on and on about that plan and
13:28
Speaker 2: how committed they were to their plan and how it
13:31
Speaker 2: was clear they had an idea of what they wanted
13:33
Speaker 2: to do against Crochet and they covered every bit of
13:36
Speaker 2: the plate that they wanted to and what that did
13:39
Speaker 2: and it was just consistent. And we asked Shelty Derek
13:43
Speaker 2: Shelton about that and he said that, you know, the
13:46
Speaker 2: guys are just really bought in and there's good communication
13:50
Speaker 2: from the coaching staff. Keith Beauregard's a new hitting coach.
13:54
Speaker 2: He really has the guys working together, and you know,
14:00
Speaker 2: they were talking about how hard that is to keep
14:02
Speaker 2: guys just locked into a plan because it's such an
14:06
Speaker 2: individual sport and your result oriented and that you know,
14:11
Speaker 2: you get up there and you know the plan and
14:13
Speaker 2: it doesn't really maybe align with how you attack, and
14:16
Speaker 2: it can be very easy to just get away from that.
14:19
Speaker 2: And despite that, the Twins stuck to it, and you know,
14:23
Speaker 2: I think that's been a primary driver for their success,
14:26
Speaker 2: is having a good set plan, good communication about the plan.
14:30
Speaker 2: But then the guys are not abandoning it. And you know,
14:35
Speaker 2: we've seen it. The Twins going into Wednesday's game had
14:38
Speaker 2: scored sixty runs in their last nine games, almost seven
14:41
Speaker 2: a game, and they still got you know, four or
14:45
Speaker 2: five in the loss. So the offense has been much
14:49
Speaker 2: better than I think we gave it credit for. And
14:51
Speaker 2: I think this is sort of a reason for it.
14:55
Speaker 1: Buxton was hitting one eighty two coming into the series
14:58
Speaker 1: and it was kind of flying under the radar a bit,
15:01
Speaker 1: maybe because the team was doing so well that having
15:05
Speaker 1: him struggling makes it even more impressive. Perhaps the start,
15:09
Speaker 1: But six for ten in the first two games of
15:12
Speaker 1: this series with three home runs raise that average sixty
15:16
Speaker 1: points in the small sample size. Tyler, how like for
15:19
Speaker 1: a team, especially a team full of younger players, Like,
15:22
Speaker 1: how is how big of a tone shift is it
15:24
Speaker 1: to see a star player start to deliver like that?
15:28
Speaker 4: That's huge, especially I think he had a leadoff homer
15:32
Speaker 4: and like it was lead off, right, I think it
15:34
Speaker 4: was he uh yeah. And so anytime a guy does that,
15:38
Speaker 4: especially like him, you know, watching the broadcast they were
15:41
Speaker 4: talking about it, it's like when he does stuff, it's
15:44
Speaker 4: you can't help but feel that excitement around it, and
15:47
Speaker 4: like you know that he's so emphatic, you know, with
15:50
Speaker 4: the celebrations sometimes and like you can tell he's really
15:53
Speaker 4: enjoying it. And like I think the guys around him
15:56
Speaker 4: it's a breath of fresh air for them too. It's like, man,
15:58
Speaker 4: there's like there's iron like doing what he does. And
16:01
Speaker 4: it's like it's it's a it's a weight lift off
16:04
Speaker 4: everybody at the end of the day, like it's it's
16:06
Speaker 4: everybody's all start of the lineup and you pick the team.
16:08
Speaker 4: They have one guy that you're kind of circling and
16:11
Speaker 4: he's him, and you know, when he gets hot, it
16:15
Speaker 4: makes it easier for everyone else to breathe. And to
16:19
Speaker 4: your point, you know, he wasn't necessarily doing that and
16:23
Speaker 4: we're still putting up runs. So now he gets hot
16:26
Speaker 4: on top of it all, it's just that that snowball
16:28
Speaker 4: effect and it's going to keep building. And you know
16:31
Speaker 4: the problem with him is, you know, as an opposing
16:33
Speaker 4: guy thinking about him in a lineup, it's like he
16:36
Speaker 4: hits it on the ground, Okay, he's safe. Now he's
16:38
Speaker 4: going to steal or if you miss one over the place,
16:40
Speaker 4: he's going to hit a home run. You know, there's
16:42
Speaker 4: there's no safe route to getting him out necessarily. And
16:46
Speaker 4: you know, and then you got guys in the lineup.
16:48
Speaker 4: You know, I think it's lead, had the twelve or
16:50
Speaker 4: fourteen pitch at bat, you know, stuff like that, it
16:52
Speaker 4: starts to add up. You know, I keep saying that
16:54
Speaker 4: it's little things for a team like this that you know,
16:57
Speaker 4: they team shows.
16:58
Speaker 3: Up for a series and it's not a cakewalk.
17:00
Speaker 4: And you know, you put up enough runs the starters,
17:03
Speaker 4: a lot of tribute, tribute, a lot of success.
17:05
Speaker 3: To the starters.
17:06
Speaker 4: They're you know, with then all these runs being scored
17:08
Speaker 4: in rallies, you know they're doing their job. You know,
17:11
Speaker 4: it's sometimes hard to sit for twenty thirty minutes while
17:14
Speaker 4: a team put up six runs and go back out
17:17
Speaker 4: and do your job. And you know, we've had that done.
17:19
Speaker 4: And so it's everything seems to be going in the
17:23
Speaker 4: right direction. And you know, now it's just maintaining this
17:25
Speaker 4: pace and you know, let the hiccups be short and
17:28
Speaker 4: the wins keep coming.
17:31
Speaker 2: Buckston had some really interesting things to say. One, he
17:36
Speaker 2: only got nine at bats in that World Baseball Classic,
17:38
Speaker 2: and yeah, he was expecting to play consistently and that
17:42
Speaker 2: was over three weeks. Essentially he was gone and he
17:44
Speaker 2: got nine at bats. So he admitted maybe, uh, Tuesday night,
17:49
Speaker 2: that that got him a little bit, and he was
17:51
Speaker 2: trying to rush and trying to force his way into
17:54
Speaker 2: things and you just can't do that in baseball. He
17:56
Speaker 2: knew it was gonna take a little while to get going.
17:59
Speaker 2: He hit a four fifteen ops after nine games and
18:03
Speaker 2: we you know, we've started to see him settle in
18:06
Speaker 2: and you know, Sonny Gray mentioned it. It wasn't the
18:09
Speaker 2: home run off Sunny Gray because Sonny was happy with
18:11
Speaker 2: the curveball. First pitch curveball. You know, it was over
18:15
Speaker 2: the plate. He was gonna get a get a strike.
18:17
Speaker 2: Buck hit it. It was the next one off the
18:20
Speaker 2: rookie Anderson. I think it was a two oh slider.
18:26
Speaker 2: It was basically three balls below the zone and Buxton
18:30
Speaker 2: made it look very easy. And that's the kind of
18:33
Speaker 2: stuff he can do. I mean, you look at that
18:35
Speaker 2: game in general, and that's an idea of what he
18:37
Speaker 2: can do. He gets the leadoff single against Sonny in
18:40
Speaker 2: the first inning, there's a bock that gets him to
18:43
Speaker 2: second base. Keishall bloops that ball and Buck got had
18:47
Speaker 2: to wait to see if it landed, got a late
18:49
Speaker 2: start and there was a really aggressive send by Ramon Borego,
18:53
Speaker 2: and uh the throw was cut and the throw the
18:57
Speaker 2: cut throw of the plate, he slid in just above it.
19:00
Speaker 2: There was a challenge replay. They would call him out initially,
19:03
Speaker 2: but Joey Casey team MVP with the proper challenge call
19:07
Speaker 2: there and Buckston was clearly safe, like you could see
19:09
Speaker 2: it from the eye. That bucks him safe. But I
19:11
Speaker 2: think we saw a little bit of everything he can
19:13
Speaker 2: do in that game. And you know, just the night
19:16
Speaker 2: before when he had set the target Field home run record,
19:19
Speaker 2: hit that eighty fifth career home run at target Field,
19:21
Speaker 2: which is, by the way, a really low number for
19:24
Speaker 2: a home ballpark.
19:25
Speaker 3: But yeah, I looked that one up.
19:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, he surpassed Max Kepler. And you know, when we
19:32
Speaker 2: asked him about he said, you know what, it is meaningful.
19:35
Speaker 2: Like at first he was gonna kind of dismiss anything, like, no,
19:37
Speaker 2: actually it is meaningful. And the guy's celebrated him for it.
19:40
Speaker 2: But he's like, but I'm not done yet. And what's
19:42
Speaker 2: he do The next night? He goes out and extends
19:44
Speaker 2: it by two. And you know, I think if he
19:47
Speaker 2: goes the way he goes day go, and you know,
19:50
Speaker 2: I don't expect him to hit three point fifty over
19:54
Speaker 2: every ten game stretch, but he will get on base.
19:57
Speaker 2: He will do a lot of things, and they will
19:58
Speaker 2: be better for it. We saw that this this stretch here.
20:03
Speaker 1: It's a relatively new ballpark. Guys like it's gonna you know,
20:07
Speaker 1: it takes takes time to get those records.
20:08
Speaker 4: Upring made that reference yesterday, uh, last week or whenever
20:18
Speaker 4: it was.
20:19
Speaker 1: We were bracing for Trek Scoubel to own the Twins
20:23
Speaker 1: because they can't hit left handed pitching. And then the
20:25
Speaker 1: Twins won that game and then kind of felt like
20:28
Speaker 1: it was bringing that narrative back for Garrett Crochet on
20:32
Speaker 1: Monday and definitely the most unbelievable game of the year.
20:37
Speaker 1: What happened that night? Crochet, who's no stranger to the Twins.
20:41
Speaker 1: He used to be a reliever for the White Sox
20:43
Speaker 1: before his conversion to starting pitching and then trading getting
20:47
Speaker 1: traded to trade to Boston, Is that right?
20:50
Speaker 6: Yeah?
20:51
Speaker 3: Traded?
20:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, only lasted an inning and two thirds, gave up
20:56
Speaker 1: nine hits, eleven runs, ten of em earned. The Twins
21:00
Speaker 1: just had his number in every way, Dan, like, what
21:03
Speaker 1: in the world happened? Yeah, first it was paper cuts.
21:07
Speaker 2: We saw the two doubles in that first inning, which
21:10
Speaker 2: I'm gonna guess Tyler, you've had those where it's like
21:13
Speaker 2: Austin Martin grounds one right over the bag, Luke Kishel
21:17
Speaker 2: falls grounding one right over the bag. Ryan Jeffers pulls
21:21
Speaker 2: one down the line. It's a blooper though, Like these
21:25
Speaker 2: weren't hard hit balls, but they were perfectly placed balls,
21:29
Speaker 2: and it's the kind of get teams going. And then
21:33
Speaker 2: you had that weird play where Trevor Story tried to
21:35
Speaker 2: smother the Brooks League grounder and all of a sudden
21:37
Speaker 2: it's four nothing, and you know, the next inning h's ten.
21:43
Speaker 2: And I remember I tweeted something when Kreidler hit the
21:46
Speaker 2: home run to make it eleven, and it was like,
21:48
Speaker 2: are we hallucinating right now?
21:49
Speaker 7: Because this is Garrett Crochet, this is a two time
21:52
Speaker 7: All Star, this is a really good pitcher, and the
21:55
Speaker 7: Twins are getting the good pitching again the same It
21:58
Speaker 7: was the same feeling on on Wednesday today when Austin
22:01
Speaker 7: Martin hit that first thing home run, It's like, this
22:04
Speaker 7: isn't for real.
22:04
Speaker 2: This just feels so strange. But they've just put together
22:10
Speaker 2: good plans and I think they're one. They've been exceptionally
22:14
Speaker 2: good with the bases loaded, which is something that Twins
22:16
Speaker 2: have not been in the past. They've really struggled in
22:19
Speaker 2: those situations in the past, and this year they're so
22:22
Speaker 2: much better. But it just seems like guys are continually
22:27
Speaker 2: putting pressure and when pictures make mistakes. We saw it
22:30
Speaker 2: the crochet walk three hit one. He worked really hard.
22:34
Speaker 2: The Twins made him work really hard the entire way,
22:37
Speaker 2: and eventually, when you're on your thirtieth pitch the inning,
22:41
Speaker 2: you're gonna throw one with a couple of miles of
22:43
Speaker 2: hour less velocity, it's gonna be a mistake location and
22:46
Speaker 2: the Twins are punishing it. Victor Karatiti like that was
22:49
Speaker 2: a couple of miles down and that ball ended up
22:52
Speaker 2: off the facing of the second deck, and I mean
22:55
Speaker 2: it was a great piece of hitting, and that whole
22:57
Speaker 2: inning was great pieces of inning, or that whole in
23:00
Speaker 2: it was great pieces of hitting. They definitely have just
23:04
Speaker 2: found a way to work together, and I think that
23:06
Speaker 2: is really driving them. Buston said, we have each other's
23:09
Speaker 2: backs and we know that everybody in this room, you know,
23:13
Speaker 2: looks out for each other. He said, we're chill and
23:16
Speaker 2: it was great. I was like, we're chilling. We love
23:18
Speaker 2: to play baseball. I was like, Byron, that's a that's
23:22
Speaker 2: a great billboard. We're chilling. We love to play baseball.
23:25
Speaker 2: They're they're fun. Yeah, they're they're they're fun, and uh,
23:32
Speaker 2: it's not fun for opposing pictures.
23:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean to that point.
23:37
Speaker 4: Uh, Park was talking about it after Schoolls and it
23:40
Speaker 4: was like he just looked shell shocked on the bench
23:42
Speaker 4: and it was just like he almost couldn't.
23:44
Speaker 3: It looked like he couldn't comprehend what just happened. And
23:46
Speaker 3: when you're doing that to guys, you're doing something right,
23:49
Speaker 3: you know.
23:49
Speaker 4: That's that's one where you just you start to trust
23:52
Speaker 4: in your coaches and the plan, like you said, and
23:54
Speaker 4: once everybody's on board, it's fun.
23:58
Speaker 1: The Uh somebody asked me on X the other day
24:02
Speaker 1: if I thought the Twins could keep this up based
24:05
Speaker 1: on underlying metrics, and very difficult question to answer after
24:10
Speaker 1: nineteen or whatever games it was at that point. But
24:13
Speaker 1: the one thing that jumps out you kind of alluded
24:15
Speaker 1: to it, Dan, is they've been crushing the ball with
24:17
Speaker 1: runners on base and hitting like fifty sixty points.
24:21
Speaker 3: Higher than their overall average.
24:22
Speaker 1: So that's why they're scoring runs, and it's why they're
24:26
Speaker 1: giving their bullpens. Their bullpen four or five six run
24:29
Speaker 1: leets pretty much every every night out, which certainly helps
24:32
Speaker 1: when you have a bullpen that is unsettled, is shaky.
24:36
Speaker 1: To be able to pitch in a little less high
24:38
Speaker 1: leverage environment, I imagine I shouldn't be the one saying this,
24:42
Speaker 1: but I imagine that helps Tyler not to be coming
24:44
Speaker 1: into a you know, bases loaded jam every time.
24:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's huge.
24:49
Speaker 4: It's sometimes you know, I think Chapman through last night
24:52
Speaker 4: an inning. You know, it almost you get to the
24:55
Speaker 4: point where it's like, hey, we gonna need guys to
24:57
Speaker 4: get to work to get into games. And it's a
24:59
Speaker 4: great to have. There is you know, there's the few
25:03
Speaker 4: and far between that can just sit for a week
25:06
Speaker 4: and show up and just be nails. But yeah, I mean,
25:10
Speaker 4: anytime you can blow guys out, it's it's great. But
25:13
Speaker 4: you know, there's definitely a sweet spot there to you know,
25:16
Speaker 4: get in some games with a little bit of stress
25:18
Speaker 4: without having to worry about a one run lead over
25:20
Speaker 4: and over again. You know, win in some games big
25:22
Speaker 4: and you know it's going out and having an effortless,
25:25
Speaker 4: clean inning. You know, there's a lot of mental boost
25:29
Speaker 4: that you get in confidence from that that that goes
25:31
Speaker 4: a long way, and you know, I think that's it's
25:33
Speaker 4: both sides of the vault. You know that the hitters
25:36
Speaker 4: they know they're going to score.
25:37
Speaker 3: They're not worried about, you know, one at bad as
25:39
Speaker 3: much as they would be.
25:41
Speaker 4: You know, things tend to happen when you're in that
25:42
Speaker 4: good headspace, and even when it's not going so well,
25:46
Speaker 4: as long as you stay there, you know, things tend
25:49
Speaker 4: to work out for you.
25:49
Speaker 3: It's it's it's a long season with a lot of
25:52
Speaker 3: ups and downs. You just got to try to maintain.
25:56
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about Joe Ryan and Tosh Bradley
26:00
Speaker 1: just being anchors at the front of this rotation. Mick
26:04
Speaker 1: Abel raised his hand on Tuesday night to be part
26:07
Speaker 1: of that conversation. With just an absolutely lights out start
26:11
Speaker 1: in a six nothing Twins win. He went seven innings,
26:14
Speaker 1: no runs, four hits, no walks, ten strikeouts. Obviously the
26:20
Speaker 1: Twins have to be psyched about that Dan, but especially
26:23
Speaker 1: with Pablo Lopez.
26:24
Speaker 3: Being out for the year.
26:25
Speaker 1: If that nick Able becomes the norm, the Twins are
26:29
Speaker 1: going to have three really tough pitchers at the top
26:31
Speaker 1: of that rotation.
26:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this was the second out in a row
26:35
Speaker 2: with crisp conditions compared to those first two games. And
26:40
Speaker 2: you saw what he did against Detroit last Thursday. He
26:42
Speaker 2: didn't get the win because I think Garrett Acton came
26:45
Speaker 2: in and gave up a run, but then brooks Ley
26:47
Speaker 2: singled and walked him off or whatever. Able's thirteen straight
26:52
Speaker 2: score thoss innings and over that time he's got sixteen strikeouts.
26:55
Speaker 2: And we've seen the VLO back where it was in
26:58
Speaker 2: spring training. Up in the ninety five ninety six range.
27:01
Speaker 2: Spring training, he was electric. He was like twenty three
27:03
Speaker 2: strikeouts three walks in his first four or five appearances.
27:08
Speaker 2: This has been more in line with that, and you
27:10
Speaker 2: saw it. He can work off that fastball, but he
27:12
Speaker 2: has a six pitch mix. He really credited his change
27:16
Speaker 2: up for being very key for him, and he's trying
27:18
Speaker 2: to work and find that and he had some success
27:20
Speaker 2: with it the other night. I think he is definitely
27:24
Speaker 2: a guy that has the talent and if he's looking
27:29
Speaker 2: like this twenty times thirty. That trade. You know, everybody's
27:35
Speaker 2: waiting to see EDWARDO. Tay, who's at four or at
27:39
Speaker 2: a Cedar Rapids right now, and I think he's got
27:42
Speaker 2: to be one of the top five youngest players in
27:45
Speaker 2: the Midwest League. You're waiting for t That's the main
27:49
Speaker 2: guy you got for Joan Duran in that Philly trade.
27:53
Speaker 2: Mick Abel, the Twins really liked, but the Phillies had
27:57
Speaker 2: some better pitching prospects the time, Andrew Painters higher prospect,
28:01
Speaker 2: and Twins were willing to take able. He's close and ready,
28:04
Speaker 2: and you know when he got here last year he
28:07
Speaker 2: was still kind of working on stuff. You could tell
28:10
Speaker 2: how much he honed his off speed command in this
28:12
Speaker 2: offseason and he has looked great so far. And he
28:16
Speaker 2: has the ability to make this trade look very good
28:19
Speaker 2: soon and before the main piece gets here. And that
28:22
Speaker 2: would be a very good place for the Twins to be,
28:25
Speaker 2: just because you know, if you if you get the
28:27
Speaker 2: first prospect coming through and hitting, and then the second
28:30
Speaker 2: guy is as dynamite as they think he is, and
28:32
Speaker 2: they think that Tait is a middle of the order bat,
28:34
Speaker 2: and they're they're hoping it's a middle order bat as
28:36
Speaker 2: a catcher, but even if it's not a catcher, it
28:39
Speaker 2: will play as a middle of the order bat. But
28:42
Speaker 2: you get those two pieces. As tough it is to
28:45
Speaker 2: see Deron and that awesome entrance in Philadelphia, you know
28:51
Speaker 2: it's it's gonna be okay, long run because you got
28:54
Speaker 2: a lot of value back for him.
28:59
Speaker 1: Twins are eleven and eight. First place still Cleveland loss today, Dan,
29:04
Speaker 1: I didn't see that?
29:05
Speaker 2: Is that right? They did? They lost five to three.
29:07
Speaker 1: Saint Louis solo possession of first for another day. They're
29:12
Speaker 1: off on Thursday, and then it is the Cincinnati Reds
29:16
Speaker 1: at Target Field over the weekend Friday Sunday. We will
29:20
Speaker 1: be back with you on Friday. I believe. The one
29:24
Speaker 1: problem is that there's not a game between now and then,
29:27
Speaker 1: so it's a great time for us to mess around
29:31
Speaker 1: a little bit. We're gonna have a We're gonna have
29:33
Speaker 1: name that twin the debut. I've been promising it for
29:35
Speaker 1: a week. It's gonna happen. And also, we would love
29:39
Speaker 1: to hear your questions, so please leave us a comment.
29:43
Speaker 1: If you're watching this on YouTube, if you're listening, you
29:46
Speaker 1: can find us on X at Twin City Show. You can,
29:50
Speaker 1: you can? I don't know email Dan maybe if you
29:53
Speaker 1: can figure out his email address. It's not hard if
29:56
Speaker 1: you kind of think about it for a second. I'll
29:59
Speaker 1: leave it at that, but no, head over to our
30:02
Speaker 1: YouTube or X leave us a question. We'd love to
30:04
Speaker 1: hear what you want to know about this team start
30:07
Speaker 1: and what's going to come next for them, and we
30:10
Speaker 1: will catch you later this week before the series with Cincinnati.
30:14
Speaker 1: Thanks everybody for listening. If you like what you hear,
30:16
Speaker 1: please subscribe, follow us on X and we'd love to
30:19
Speaker 1: hear your feedback as well as your questions.
30:21
Speaker 3: Have a great day.
30:22
Speaker 1: We'll see you in a couple of days.