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Last night’s game featured the Twins using 6 of their relief pitchers in a nearly 5 hour matchup with the Rays that lasted 13 innings. None of those relievers was All-Star closer Glen Perkins, despite the game being close nearly the entire time. The Rays have now won 8 in a row against the Twins, who continue their losing streak with 4 losses in a row, and 15 of the past 19 games. That seems to be more than just a rough patch, though if you ask Gardy, it’s more about the pitching and offense just not "clicking" at the same time. Tomato, tomato, I suppose.
To his benefit, Kevin Correia did what he could to keep the Twins in the game, but it, again, was not his best effort. He went 5.1 innings, gave up 5 hits and 3 earned runs, walked 5 (another season high – someone should tell him he’s not trying to beat those highs), but did strike out 6. The Twins bullpen came in and was actually really effective for 6 innings, as Jared Burton, Caleb Thielbar, Casey Fien, Anthony Swarzak, and Brian Duensing all combined for scoreless innings (only 2 walks and 9 strikeouts!). Ryan Pressly unfortunately took the loss in the 13th inning, as he gave up a walkoff single to Ben Zobrist.
It’s not as though the Twins offense didn’t have a chance to win the game without help from the bullpen. The offense was a pretty pitiful 1-for-9 with RISP and left 9 men on base throughout the game. They had quality chances in the 9th, 11th, and even 13th innings to end the game, but couldn’t capitalize on any opportunities. There were more strikeouts in this game than the Twins have had in any game since the 1960s – a combined 35 strikeouts for both teams (Minnesota, of course, had more with 19 – the Rays had 16). Pedro Florimon did hit his 4th homer of the year in the 3rd inning off Jeremy Hellickson, but other than that, the offense was relatively quiet for the evening. There were doubles hit by Aaron Hicks and Ryan Doumit, but again, not a lot of capitalizing on scoring opportunities.
Overall, the game at Tropicana Field was a pretty big letdown for Minnesota. In a spot where they could have ended a losing streak, and a pretty big rough patch, they again went down despite the numerous opportunities they had. The managing was questionable, though the bullpen was able to hold its own, which is a great sign for future games. For last night’s game, however, it was just another disappointing loss for the home team.
ROLL CALL!
| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | kenzertz | 166 |
| 2 | twinscrazy_german | 77 |
| 3 | myjah | 73 |
| 4 | WestRiverTwinsFan | 65 |
| 5 | Devereaux | 42 |
| 6 | less cowbell, more 'neau | 42 |
| 7 | montanatwinsfan | 27 |
| 8 | jere.johnson.37 | 23 |
| 9 | ColossusOfRhode | 11 |
| 10 | TwiMs | 10 |
Clearly tonight was the "kenzertz show". Fancy.
Win Expectancy Graph
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-07-10&team=Rays&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2013-07-10&team=Rays&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>
Coming Up...
The Twins look to not get swept by the Rays today again at Tropicana at 11:10 am CST. Pitching matchup looks to be Mike Pelfrey for the Twins and Matt Moore for the Rays. Make sure to stop back to TT for all your baseball needs!