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[Minnesota Twins]

Twins 4, Rays 3: Leadoff walkoff blastoff for Harrison Bader

I assume this WASN’T the scene after the walkoff. | Photo by Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images

It’s his second of the game! And it gives the Twins a much-needed home win.

On a nasty-hot-and-humid day, Rays starter Zack Littell was juuuuust a bit better than Twins one Chris Paddack. But Harrison Bader opted to channel his inner Harmon. Inning-by-inning notes:

1: Sad news from the radio. We used to have infrequent “Hosken Powell Memorial Link Dumps” around here, Stu’s silly name for articles that contained lotsa links and short descriptions of what they linked to. The joke was there was nothing wrong with Hosken Powell, he wasn’t a Twin for very long, and he has a neat name.

He died last week, in his hometown of Pensacola, FL, at age 70. Here’s a decent obituary by Kevin Glew, whose website focuses on Canadians in baseball and baseball in Canada (Powell played two seasons in Toronto). It looks like it’s a pretty interesting website overall, so check it out if you like.

Nagurskiinnortheast shared that Powell and fellow Twin Willie Norwood were “supposed to make fans feel better about losing” Larry Hisle, Lyman Bostock, and Rod Carew, which was “a lot to ask of those guys. RIP Hosken.”

2: There is a Rays player named Jake Mangum. There was also a baseball player named Leo Mangum, who pitched in 85 games in seven seasons, mostly in relief. He had a baseball card:

From Wiki at this link, public domain.

So, that’s the ManGum gum card.

BH-Baseball informs us that the Twins traded Hosken Powell to Toronto for Greg “Boomer” Wells. Wells played in 15 games for the Twins, and 1148 games in the JPL. With an OPS of .927 and 277 home runs. Wow.

As you’d guess, nothing of any interest is happening in this baseball game, and probably nothing of interest WILL happen. If we’re lucky. If we’re unlucky, a Twins player will lose their femur or something.

3: Paddack is sailing right along, perfect through three! Which is good because the Twins are never gonna score again, guilty bats got no hits in ‘em.

Kinda almost? With two outs, Willi Castro walks, and Trevor Larnach singles him to third. Then the Twins, who aren’t reeking of desperation at ALL, try a tricky double steal — Larnach goes, and as catcher Danny Jansen makes the throw, Castro dashes for home. Larnach is called out.

As Dan Gladden points out on radio, Larnach screwed this up. He had a super-low chance of getting the stolen base. The plan was for him to INTENTIONALLY get caught in a rundown, or even pull up short of second and let himself get tagged out. AFTER Castro had scored. The second Jansen threw the ball, Larnach should have stopped running. But muscle memory told him to slide, so he slid.

See! I kid Gladden sometimes (‘cuz he sometimes says very goofy things), but I’ll credit him where credit is due. That was actually useful information, Mr. Dazzle Man.

4: No more perfecto. Two two-out hits finish that off. But Paddack gets out of it. He’s at 57 pitches now, so I’m not sure when his arm turns into a pumpkin.

I still miss Do-Hyoung Park on the mlb.com Twins beat. No offense to Matthew Leach, but has he ever been on Jeopardy? Park has. (He lost, but it was close.) Anyways, Leach’s newsletters usually have some music picks, frequently ones I also enjoy. But this week he was WRONG.

He listed some tunes from 2005, and included “Black Tambourine.” No. Just no, Matthew. That is not the song you pick from Guero. This is.

I also would have accepted “E-Pro,” or probably any song except “Black Tambourine.”

5: One of those Weird Baseball moments. Mangum (who does NOT have a gum card, unlike Leo — Topps stopped putting gum in card packs in 1992) swings at a pitch, kinda tips it off his arm and it rolls in front of the plate. He starts running, as the ump missed it — but Paddack saw it immediately and pointed it out. They correct the call — it’s a foul ball.

Finally a touchdown point goal! Harrison “Ford Darth” Bader with the solo shot. Into the Treasure Island Field Deck, which means Treasure Island will donate $2500 to the Twins’ Community Fund, so that’s a good thing.

6: THAT didn’t last long. Josh Lowe singled and Yandy Díaz doubled him in. Pumpkin time for Paddack, or whichever fall gourd you prefer. I suppose I’d probably take butternut squash myself. Danny “Electric Charge” Coulombe comes in and gives up the winning run to Junior Caminero. I guess the game’s not over yet, but do YOU expect the Twins to manage more than one run? Me neither. Devil Rays 2-1

7: Tough start to the relief outing for Brock Stewart, a hit, SB, and walk — you’ll remember that, two days ago, he was saved from blowing the lead because a ball hit the umpire. He’s almost saved here when Danny Jansen can’t get a bunt down and pops out instead. Then the Rays try a double steal and Jeffers nails the lead runner at third. Doesn’t matter — Josh Lowe’s second hit provides the RBI. Cole “Alberta Tar” Sands cleans things up.

Edwin Uceta, whose mlb.com player page displays some very stylish ear wear, is the reliever for Tampa and Matt Wallner leads him off with a single. Royce Lewis Ks, and Ty France celebrates Bastille Day a little early with a single of his own. Bader Ks. Then Buxton’s up and OH MY GOSH THE TWINS MAKE A SCORING! Buxton doubles. France has to hold up at first because he’s not very fast.

Garrett J. Cleavinger plunks Castro. And then... RBI plunk! Scoring the Homer Simpson way! Fortunately Brooks Lee was NOT hit in the head, as Homer was. Carlos Correa... check-swing strikes out, which is like kinda the lousiest way to strike out. But... this baby is all tied up 3-3

8: A solid outing for Louis Varland, who I guess has said if you’re not out on the water, you’re not a real Minnesotan. As in fishing, he means. Lake stuff. Well, I don’t fish. And Louis Varland’s only been a Minnesotan four years longer than I have.

Another baserunning blunder, this one by pinchrunner DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (He came in for Ryan Jeffers after a leadoff walk. Keirsey stole second, and failed to tag up on a loooong fly to center. He shoulda gotten to third there. Didn’t matter, as Ty France struck out anyways, but it’s what they call a “teachable moment” for the youngling.

9: A leadoff murder, as Harrison Bader kills a fan with his bare hand (just the one hand) and eats the brain (with the other hand). Not really. Would you accept a walkoff home run, instead? Twins win!

Studs of the game: Bader (duh). I guess we’ll give one to Brooks for getting his RBI the painful way. Duds: Tampa Bay’s replay challenge calls (two of ‘em, both failed, adding more minutes to a game on a very hot day). The win puts the Twins 4.0 GB in the wildcard chase and ∞.5 behind the Tigers.

Comments of the game go to sandwiches for “GO TWINS GO” because it was his first comment of the GT and immediately after it was posted, the Twins went. norff for “I think whats been so irritating about this particular stretch of sucking is that it’s so mundane. Substandard hittting. Starting pitching not giving a chance. There’s nothing interesting about how theyre losing, they just roll over and die” because that’s what it felt like for most of this game.

And to Matt M for knowing his Bible far better than most of those who thump it.

Tomorrow’s game will be at 1:10, and the Twins haven’t named a starter yet, following Bailey Ober’s going on the IL. The Rays are starting something called a Taj Bradley.

Some morons in my neighborhood are setting fireworks off already. Don’t blow your fingers off, folks. I’m not a huge fireworks fan myself, having seen enough shows for a lifetime. But I get why people like them, and have for 1000 years!

My favorite-ever fireworks show, though, came in San Diego in 2012, when a computer glitch turned a planned 15-minute show into a 15-second one.

I’d have liked to see THAT.

Be safe out there, friends.

Source: https://www.twinkietown.com/2025/7/...off-blastoff-for-harrison-bader-two-home-runs

 

[Minnesota Twins]

Twins 6, Rays 5: Revenge of the Squeeze

Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Somehow, piranhaball returned.

The Twins clutched their way to a 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, after finding themselves in a 5-1 hole as later as the home sixth. This one took contributions from everybody, including a pair of unexpected strategic deployments that helped ice the game in favor of Minnesota.

Since Rocco broke this one down bullpen-style, I’ll go arm-by-arm to take you through this one.

Cole Sands​

Despite a brief delay that pushed back the start time, the Twins were able to execute their intended gameplan for Saturday’s contest. Cole Sands got the ball to kick things off, with the intention of tossing an inning to help set up the rest of the squad. He met the assignment swimmingly, retiring all three of his batters and earning two Ks to make sure things were squared away.

Danny Coulombe​

The second inning was Danny’s, serving today as something of a second opener to help ensure that Travis Adams — making his major-league debut — would be able to start his afternoon facing the bottom of the order. Coulombe would start his own outing with a strikeout, then grab two more quick red dots to move things along.

The Twins would get their first run of the day in the home second. Singles from Carlos Correa and Ryan Jeffers precipitated a walk to Matt Wallner, bringing up Royce Lewis in one of his signature bases-loaded plate appearances. Rays starter Taj Bradley surely had a chance at some out, somewhere — but a small hesitation is all it takes in this game, and after he made one, Lewis had an RBI single.

Travis Adams​

That was all the Twins would get in the third, so it was onto Travis Adams to get the bulk innings covered today. Adams got Taylor Walls to ground out in his first-ever big-league plate appearance, but it was a grind from there. In the third inning, Danny Jansen doubled home Chandler Simpson to tie the game. Two more doubles in the fourth — these from Jonathan Aranda and Josh Lowe — would eventually pull Tampa Bay ahead, 2-1.

Then, two more in the fifth; Simpson bunted his way aboard, moved to third on a Jansen single, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Yandy Diaz. It would be the first of two RBI sac flies in the inning; after Brandon Lowe moved the runners up with a single, Jansen scored on another flyout, this time from Junior Caminero. These wound up key outs, RBIs aside, as Adams did his best to limit the damage while failing to strike out a Tampa Bay hitter until the sixth.

It was in the aforementioned sixth (literally, I just mentioned it) that yet another sacrifice fly — this time rom Simpson, scoring Magnum — made it a 5-1 Rays lead but simultaneously ended the inning and the outing for Adams.

So, work to do for Minnesota, now watching as the Rays had pecked their way to a four-run lead in the middle innings. Still riding the high of yesterday’s victory, the Twins decided that they weren’t going to roll over and watch this one slip away — instead opting to get all four runs back in the home sixth.

It started with singles from Carlos Correa and Ryan Jeffers, though these were bookended by a pair of outs; as such, still down 5-1, Minnesota brought Royce Lewis to the plate with two already gone in the inning, and the Tampa Bay lead still at four. But Royce would crack a single to center, plating Correa and bringing the tying run up to the plate.

Because he’s apparently the most randomly clutch power hitter of all time, the tying run in question was Kody Clemens, and one swing later, this game was even.

Griffin Jax​

Not quite in the driver’s seat, the gameplan had altered itself with things knotted up at 5. Where we might have seen a Joey Wentz-type outing for the rest of this one, a tie ballgame meant Griffin Jax got the assignment instead. He’d walk his first man, but induce a double play and a flyout to calmly end any threat the Rays were considering building.

Jhoan Duran​

Facing the 3-4-5 hitters in the top of the eighth, Duran was tabbed for an early entrance to help keep that win probability metric on the up-and-up. The eighth was not without drama; two quick outs preceded a double and subsequent intentional walk of Josh Lowe, then was capped with a called K on Taylor Walls to shut the Rays down again.

Then came the aggression on the part of manager Rocco Baldelli, seeking his 500th victory as skipper of the Twins. Duran, not having been called upon for a second inning all year, was summoned back out for the top of the ninth with a looming All-Star Break and an all-important comeback win opportunity sitting in front of the team.

His ninth was equally stressful — probably more so, considering Jansen’s one-out single, steal of second, and advance to third on an airmail from Ryan Jeffers meant that the Rays had the go-ahead run standing on third with two outs left on the ledger. But Duran blew Diaz away with cheese above the zone after a great battle, and earned himself a pop fly off Caminero’s bat and into Harrison Bader’s glove to escape the danger.

Served up another opportunity to embarrass the Tampa Bay bullpen, the Twins got creative in their walk-off ninth. Byron Buxton drew a dangerous walk to begin the inning, and before a steal of second could even be contemplated, Willi Castro had already pushed him to third with a ground-ball single through the right side.

With men at the corners and nobody out, options were limitless for today’s hero Brooks Lee. With ever the flair for the dramatic, Lee pushed a squeeze bunt down the first-base line and ended the ballgame.

So, make it seven walk-off winners for a Twins team that climbs to 43-46, still three solid games under the .500 mark, but with opportunity to sweep a Rays squad tomorrow and work their way back to respectability ahead of an All-Star Break which hopes — hopes — to lead into a healthier second-half squad. There’s still a week to go before the team earns some much-deserved rest, but every win and every chance to pick up the vibe counts when you’re still 3.5 games out of the final playoff spot in early July.

Rocco’s boys are taking it one game at a time until then — and this one, in particular, was a fun day at the ballpark.

COURTESY: Baseball Savant

STUDS:

PH/DH Brooks Lee (1-for-2, RBI)

SS Carlos Correa (2-for-4, 2 R)

C Ryan Jeffers (3-for-4, R)

3B Royce Lewis (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI)

1B/2B Kody Clemens (1-for-4, R, 3 RBI, HR)

SP Cole Sands (IP, 2 K)

RP Jhoan Duran (2 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 K)

DUDS:

NO DUDS! TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN!

Source: https://www.twinkietown.com/2025/7/5/24462197/twins-6-rays-5-revenge-of-the-squeeze

 

[Minnesota Twins]

Game 90: Rays at Twins

Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images

We’re talking about bunting on a holiday weekend!

First Pitch: 1:10 PM CT​

TV: Twins.TV​

Radio: TIBN​

Know Thine Enemy: D-Rays Bay​

Because this is Independence Day weekend and most folks will either be squeezing in one last cookout, piling into the car for the long drive home, or tending to fireworks-induced bodily mishaps instead of intensely involved in Twinkie Town game threads, I’m going to take the opportunity to muse on one of my favorite baseball topics: bunting.

I fully admit that analytical data-crunching has “proven bunting wrong”, so to speak. In all but the most outlier scenarios (more on this later—hahaha), it is not advisable to give up an out to either score one run or move runner(s) up a station.

Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images
As Chili Davis said to Kirby Puckett in Game Six of the 1991 World Series: “Bunt? My (bleep)!”

But when I see runners on 1st & 2nd and anyone-but-the-big-slugger at the dish, there’s a little radar blip that goes off in my head saying “I’d bunt them over here”. It would 100% be what gets me fired if my Little Big League managerial dream scenario ever pans out.

So, instead of trying to justify bunting, I looked at it throughout the history of the Minnesota Twins organization—finding three distinct “bunt eras”, if you will...

1961-1980: 76 sac bunts (average-per-Twins-season)​

• High: 142 in 1979. Led by Rob Wilfong (25—league leading), John Castino (22), Roy Smalley (15), Bombo Rivera (13), & Bob Randall (13)

Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images
Bombo!

• Low: 34 in 1973. Led by Jerry Terrell (10)

Skipping over the 1981 strike-addled season...

1982-2017 (minus ‘94/’95 strike seasons): 34 sac bunts per year​

• High: 52 in 2008. Led by Alexi Casilla (13—league leading), Denard Span (8), Brendan Harris (7), & Adam Everett (6)
• Low: 18 in 1998. Led by Otis Nixon (4)

Odie!

2018-2024 (minus ‘20 pandemic season): 11 sac bunts per year​

• High: 19 in 2018. Led by Ehire Adrianza (4) & Jorge Polanco (3)
• Low: 7 in 2021. Led by Andrelton Simmons (3)

This brings us to 2025, where until Saturday afternoon YOUR Minnesota Twins had produced exactly two sac bunts—one from ‘25 legend Kody Clemens and another a squeeze play (OMG!) from exactly who you would expect...

Photo by Steven King/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Of course it’s Willi!

Clearly the art, skill, and usage of bunting has gone the way of the dinosaurs or bi-partisan politics. Probably for good reason from a win-expectancy mindset.

Of course, the sport of baseball always surprises you. For example: pre-writing a “bunting is cool but probably out-dated” piece and then this happens the day before it publishes...

I’m not complaining, though—between yesterday and the infamous walk-off walk of 2022, I love seeing old-school baseball thumb its nose at the probabilities now and again.

With Joe Ryan on the mound and looking for the sweep this Fourth of July weekend-ender, it could be another small-ball race to a few runs for the victory!

Source: https://www.twinkietown.com/2025/7/...y-weekend-bunting-rob-wilfong-brooks-lee-bunt