What is the story about?
Twins
4, Rangers 2
- The Rangers did not get back to .500 on Monday.
- It was one of those games.
- A winnable game.
- That was not won.
- Particularly frustrating, as MacKenzie Gore pitched well, but had the misfortune of allowing the most momentum-shifting play in baseball in the first inning, an inning where he allowed half of the six baserunners he gave up in the game.
- Rangers hitters made some good contact, had some hard hit balls that were caught, and ended up with just five hits.
- When Joc Pederson hit the two run homer in the third to get the game back to 3-2, I thought, okay, things are headed in the right direction, the Rangers are going to come back.
- The Rangers did not, in fact, come back.
- The three run homer Josh Bell hit off of Gore in the first ended up being all the runs the Twins would need.
- Gore, as I said, pitched well. You may wish to differ, saying that he gave up four runs, including two homers, and that is not pitching well. I get that.
- But you allow just six baserunners, you strike out 10 batters in seven innings while walking two, you throw 70 strikes out of 102 pitches and get 17 swinging strikes…
- That’s pretty good.
- Its a reminder of how fine the margins in this game can be, how slight the difference between a win and a loss.
- Gore, incidentally, got 11 swings and misses on his fastball. That’s a lot.
- I decided to go look it up, and that’s tied for the 16th most swings and misses on a fastball (the four seam variety, to be clear — two seam fastballs are sinkers, and cut fastballs are cutters) by a pitcher in a game this season.
- The top five are all Jacob Misiorowski games, ranging from 14 to 20 whiffs.
- Four pitchers have 13 whiffs on their fastball in a game this year — Justin Wrobleski, Cam Schlittler, and Kyle Harrison (twice).
- The six pitchers with 12 whiff fastball games are Jacob deGrom, Cole Ragans, Matthew Boy,d Schlittler, and Harrison (twice).
- It was the 10th time that a pitcher has gotten 11 whiffs on their fastball in a game.
- I’ve mentioned before that there’s a Derek Holland quality to MacKenzie Gore. There are instances where you watch him and think, he’s a legitimate TORP. And there’s instances where you watch him and think, he shouldn’t be in a major league rotation.
- Let’s just hope Gore isn’t a hockey fan.
- Joe Ross made his Rangers debut, with a scoreless, five pitch ninth inning, after Peyton Gray pitched the eighth.
- That means that the Rangers have had both Ross brothers, Joe and Tyson, play in the majors for them.
- I should go and see what other pairs of brothers have played for the Rangers.
- MacKenzie Gore’s fastball topped out at 97.4 mph, averaging 95.9 mph. Peyton Gray touched 94.6 mph with his fastball. Joe Ross threw a fastball at 96.7 mph.
- Jake Burger had a 104.9 mph single. Joc Pederson’s homer was 104.3 mph. Brandon Nimmo had a 103.9 mph fly out. Alejandro Osuna had a 103.2 mph GIDP. Elias Diaz had a single that was 101.2 mph.
- Let us resume again the trek to .500.
