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by TFIR
This is an article on last night's game from the Twins' perspective (from The Athletic)
Twins squander multiple leads in frustrating loss to Guardians
Jun 22, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Sonny Gray (54) delivers a pitch against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports
By Dan Hayes
The margin for error for a Twins victory Wednesday night was minuscule. Playing short-handed after chasing a win the night before and failing, the Twins needed to outhit their opponents and play a cleaner game than the Cleveland Guardians to even the series.
This was not that.
Limited in the bullpen and also without center fielder Byron Buxton, the Twins didn’t execute the way they have over the previous 2 1/2 months. Defenders gave away an extra 90 feet multiple times. Pitchers didn’t execute pitches. Starter Sonny Gray lasted only four innings.
All of it added up to a disheartening 11-10 loss to Cleveland at Target Field, one in which the Twins blew multiple leads of three or more runs. Now a game behind the Guardians in the American League Central standings, the Twins must win Thursday to avoid being swept at home by a Cleveland squad that has won 15 of its last 19 games.
“There’s no one in our clubhouse that’s not pissed off right now,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “That’s fine. I mean, we should be a little pissed off based on the way we’ve played over the last couple of days and just the inability to get the job done.”
The Twins have discovered several ways to drop winnable games in the first two of eight meetings with Cleveland between now and next Thursday. In Tuesday’s one-run loss in extra innings, reliever Emilio Pagán yielded a game-tying home run in the eighth inning. Two innings later, the middle of the Twins’ order failed to capitalize and end the game despite batting with two men on base and no outs.
The Twins were in position to win Tuesday after two sterling innings by rookie reliever Jhoan Duran after Pagán had surrendered the lead. But when they didn’t win, the Twins lost their series advantage as Duran was off-limits Wednesday and reliever Griffin Jax was only to be used in the case of an emergency after throwing 27 pitches Tuesday, too.
Still, the Twins had reason to be hopeful as Gray was pitching. Things looked even more promising when Carlos Correa blasted a pair of solo homers early and Max Kepler added another. By the end of the fourth inning, the Twins were ahead 5-1.
But Gray didn’t make it out of the fifth inning.
He surrendered a solo homer to Austin Hedges and consecutive singles to Myles Straw and Steven Kwan, the second of which was misplayed in center by Nick Gordon and allowed Kwan to advance to second. One play later, Gray missed his split-second window to perhaps outrace the speedy Amed Rosario to first base on his infield single to no man’s land.
Just like that, Gray was out of the game.
“When we came out and were jumping on their starter and I don’t get us through the fifth, especially after the game (Tuesday) … it kind of put us in a little bit of a tough spot there,” Gray said.
The Twins defense did its pitchers no favors, either.
A strong unit most of the season that has repeatedly stolen outs for Twins pitchers instead allowed Cleveland to take an extra base far too often.
Caleb Thielbar came on for Gray and immediately balked a run home to reduce the Twins’ lead to 5-4. With the Twins ahead by three runs in the ninth, José Ramírez ripped a single under the glove of first baseman Alex Kirilloff to set up the go-ahead rally. And, after Cleveland cut the lead to two on Josh Naylor’s double, outfielder Trevor Larnach overthrew the cutoff man on Oscar Gonzalez’s game-tying bloop single to left, which allowed Gonzalez to advance into scoring position.
Following a nicely executed sac bunt, Cleveland completed a stunning, four-run rally on Owen Miller’s sac fly.
“We certainly didn’t play clean baseball,” Baldelli said. “We didn’t make all the plays (Wednesday). … When you added it all up, we didn’t get the job done. We have to play better baseball. I think there were a few things that we could look at and focus on and do better next time around.”
The bullpen also falls under that billing.
With Duran unavailable and Jax limited to emergency use, the Twins had to rely on lower-leverage pitchers while asking for two innings from Pagán. Jharel Cotton took over with the Twins ahead by two runs in the seventh and left down one after he surrendered a solo homer to Rosario and a two-run shot to Gonzalez.
The Twins somehow pulled back ahead with four runs in the bottom of the seventh on a game-tying single by Kirilloff and a three-run home run by Gio Urshela. A night after he gave up a game-tying homer, Pagán produced a clean eighth inning and asked to return in the ninth. But he lasted only three batters before Jax attempted to close out the Guardians.
“Sometimes this game is brutal,” Pagán said. “I roll two groundballs, not hit very hard, we’ve got one of the best defenses in baseball, and they somehow both find their way through the holes.
“We’re confident in our ability. If this kinda felt like a fluke of a start to a season, then maybe it would be deflating, like, ‘Oh, our luck’s running out.’ But that’s not the feeling that we have at all. We know we’re a good team.”
The Twins can be a good team if they’re firing on all cylinders, playing clean baseball.
Right now, they’re not.
Wednesday’s loss dropped the Twins to 8-11 in June. Playing without Buxton, who wore a heavy wrap on his right knee after the game, and second baseman Jorge Polanco, who is on the injured list with a bad back, the Twins are not nearly as strong defensively as they can be. The team’s bullpen also is in immediate need of another trustworthy high-leverage option.
Still, players in the clubhouse remain confident they can turn it around.
“It would just be nice to get back on a little bit of a roll and play good baseball and put it all back together,” Gray said. “Pitching, offense, defense is collectively played — complete games as a unit, you see it. We’ll do one thing good or another thing good or another thing good. But just being able to bring it all back together — there’s a lot of baseball to be played.”
"I've suffered a great many tragedies in my life....most of them never happened". Mark Twain
