Well, that wasn’t worth staying up for, was it? The Twins walked the leadoff hitter four times, you’re not gonna win too many games that way. Inning-by-inning notes:
1: Taj Bradley decides that walking the very-fast Steven Kwan is a good idea. Hey, it works out; flyout, strikeout, and forcing Jo Adell into Chasing Pavements Baseballs.
The Twins are all like “are we still playing” “um I guess I’m up to bat” “I wonder what leftovers I want tonight maybe the pizza maybe the fries, except leftover fries are soggy
unless you crisp them up in the oven, so probably pizza then, I can eat that cold” “oops I struck out”
2: Since a leadoff walk worked well last time, Taj does it again. To Travis Bazzana. The name Travis always sucks unless you’re an unhinged taxi driver, but Bazzana is cool. It works again, flyout flyout popout.
Hey points hey! Kody Clemens with the single and Royce Lewis with the RBI double. (Matt says RBI stands for “Royce batted in.”)
Boy it would be nice to see him get back to something like he used to be next year. He won’t, because we can’t gave nice things. Like hits with runners in scoring position; Twins 1-0
3: Three for three, Taj! Five-pitch walk to Brayan Rocchio. When I hear the name on the radio my ears perk up; any relation to the late, enjoyable columnist Mike Rokyo? No such luck. Because walking every leadoff batter isn’t challenging enough, Taj does it again with one out. Is he working on a knuckleball or something? (He is not.) Eh, it’s Water Under The Bridge as Taj gets Adell to ground out to end the inning.
Walker Jenkins is young and can develop, and he’s a good fielder. Right now him reaching the Mendoza Line would be a gift from heaven. (He strikes out here). Parker Messick accidentally ON PURPOSE plunks Kaelen Culpepper (no, it wasn’t on purpose); nothing comes of it.
4: Sigh; Taj will not walk the leadoff hitter in all nine innings. The good news is it’s because Bazzana get a single instead, so the degree of difficulty fun is still with us. Hey, DP time! 4 unassisted. Lewis catches the liner and steps on the bag.
Hey we can get a walk, too! Josh Bell leads off with one. Nothing comes of it. THE TWINS WANNA EAT THEIR COLD PIZZA DAMMIT
5: Hey Taj can have a 1-2-3 inning! Nobody tell him or he’ll make it a habit.
This time it’s Austin Martin with the leadoff bunt. Because Walker Jenkins is currently hitting like a pitcher, the Twins do the smart thing and have him bunt… oh wait, nobody knows how to do that anymore so he uselessly flies out instead. Doesn’t matter, neither of the following two guys get hits anyways.
6: Another 1-2-3! That knuckleball must be working now. A nice catch by Austin Martin helped matters.
Ryan Jeffers gets the leadoff single; there’s a fielder’s choice, and then LHP Tim Herrin comes in. Clemens singles off him. Pop out for Lewis; strikeout for Brooks Lee.
7: Bazzana with the leadoff single off thrilling new acquisition A.J. Minter. Minter then thrills us more by giving up a long dong to Angel Martínez. Yay trade deadline yay, obviously ownership CARES now.
Eric Sabrowski in to pitch; he plunks Austin Martin. THIS TIME Jenkins bunts; badly, but it gets Martin to second. Luke Keascchall flies out; slider specialist Hunter Gaddis comes in. Culpepper ties this baby up! Nobody else wants to contribute, so tied 2-2
8: Minter gets the first guy, then Shelton’s Magical Arm Barn brings in Jeff Hoffman, just back from Ishtar. Clemens make a nice play to snag the grounder by Ramírez, and Lewis a nice dig out of the dirt to take the throw. Boy, hings aren’t Easy On Me for Addell; it’s his third strikeout.
Gaddis keeps throwing that slider and it keeps working. It’s gonna be hard to win a bullpen battle with these guys.
9: Yoendrys Gómez for the Twins. Walks the leadoff guy (AGAIN!) David Fry’s another guy who can’t bunt worth s**t; he tries and pops it to Gómez. But then Angel Martínez doubles; it’s second and third with one out. Gómez walks some pinch-hitter I never heard of. Then Gómez throws a wild pitch and everybody moves up a base. Then… ballgame.
Rocchio clears the pitches with a double. Mike Rokyo would never have done that to us.
Some Twins come to the plate but it’s purely Frozen Pizza Time. Twins lose.
With the loss, the Twins are now 5.5 games out of the last wildcard spot, chasing four teams. It was right for the team to announce that Byron Buxton is gonna have hip surgery next week; this season’s cooked.
Studs: Taj (kinda): 6.0 IP, 1 H, 4 BB, 0 R. Duds: Minter, Gómez, front office and ownership.
COTG go to Zach with Attenborough photo, Name-Game with a sound assessment, Matt for rewriting some lyrics, and nagurskiinnortheast with a story about Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Thanks to everybody who joined in on a nice end-of-summer night.
Tomorrow’s game is at 3:10; it’ll be our own Connor Prielipp against TBD (bullpen day). Expect long man Slade Cecconi to take a few innings.
Catch y’all next time!
