The Minnesota Twins added another chapter to their late-season meltdown as they lost to the Kansas City Royals 4-2 on Saturday night. But while the loss stung, it was amplified by manager Rocco Baldelli’s decision to pull starter Bailey Ober after seven strong innings. Ober was a force against the Royals allowing just one hit and seven strikeouts over seven innings. At one point, Ober retired 15 straight batters and had just 83 pitches with 12 swings-and-misses, according to Baseball Savant, but Baldelli elected to go to Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning.
Related: Twins bullpen, fielding throws away lead against Royals in 4-2 loss While Duran struck out Michael Massey for the first out of the inning, he gave up a single to Freddy Fermin before he hit Robbie Grossman with a pitch. Duran’s night ended when he allowed an RBI single to Kyle Isbel but Griffin Jax couldn’t stop the bleeding, allowing an infield single to Tommy Pham before a throwing error by Brooks Lee allowed pinch-runner Darion Blanco to score and tie the game at 2-2. Another RBI single by Bobby Witt Jr. followed before Salvador Perez lined out to center and M.J. Melendez drove in another run before Witt was thrown out at home to end the inning. When the Twins went down in order in the ninth inning, Minnesota had lost 13 of their past 19 games but Baldelli was defensive in his decision to pull to the bullpen. “We have a two-run lead in the eighth inning with our best guys who are rested and ready to go,” Baldelli said. “I feel good about that. I go out there very confidently bringing in Duran and then hopefully [Griffin] Jax into the game.”
While Baldelli went to his two most trusted relievers, some could argue it was still flawed logic. Baldelli turned to Duran in the eighth inning due to matchups but the right-hander has been significantly worse in the eighth inning with a 9.35 ERA and a .303/.395/.546 batter’s line compared to a 2.12 ERA with a .190/.261/.289 batter’s line in the ninth inning. There’s also something to be said about going to the bullpen in general, which has struggled over the Twins’ most recent slump. With Ober cruising, it may have made more sense to give him one more inning before going to Duran, which would have saved Jax from pitching for the second time in the past three games. This led to frustration boiling over from Twins fans on social media.
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