{"id":273063,"date":"2023-06-13T08:41:07","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=273063"},"modified":"2023-06-13T08:43:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T13:43:15","slug":"twins-unfazed-by-tough-end-to-strong-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=273063","title":{"rendered":"Twins unfazed by tough end to strong series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Toronto – Reliever\u00a0Emilio Pag\u00e1n<\/a>\u00a0hung his head as calamity ensued all around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Twins right-hander tried to dance his way out of a big spot, but instead grooved a fastball to Cavan Biggio, and Rogers Centre exploded into cheers. The Blue Jays\u2019 first baseman celebrated as his three-run blast in the eighth inning served up a thrashing conclusion to the Twins’ 7-6 loss<\/a> that burned bright on both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were other missteps that led to Minnesota\u2019s collapse, though nothing stung more than Pag\u00e1n\u2019s slip-up. The Twins bullpen was pressed — Jhoan Duran and Brock Stewart were down — so, without other options, Pag\u00e1n was thrust into the fire as momentum roared in Toronto\u2019s favor. It didn\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI commanded the ball great pretty much the whole inning except for those three pitches,\u201d said Pag\u00e1n, who allowed two singles before the fateful homer. \u201cUnfortunately, that’s the way baseball works sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite how the game concluded, the Twins\u2019 demise Sunday wasn\u2019t an instant freefall. It was a slow burn that saw the club drain its own lead, one mistake at a time. Carlos Correa<\/a>, arguably the club\u2019s best defender, uncorked a wild throw in the fifth inning on an attempted double play off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., allowing a run to score in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One batter later, Matt Chapman crushed a two-run homer to reduce the Twins\u2019 lead to two. Just like that, things began to spiral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt great,\u201d said Twins starter Louie Varland<\/a>, who allowed four earned runs. \u201cI made one mistake [to Chapman]. Wish I would\u2019ve got that double play from [Correa] to [Alex Kirilloff], but, again, that\u2019s baseball. And it didn\u2019t work out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, a massive pitch timer<\/a> violation loomed large as Kirilloff was called for a batter\u2019s infraction in the sixth inning, resulting in an automatic strikeout. Per MLB\u2019s rules, the hitter must be in the box and attentive to the pitcher when the clock strikes eight seconds. Kirilloff was stunned after home plate umpire Brian Walsh announced the violation — the 25-year-old thought his head was up and facing the pitcher. Walsh disagreed, and the miscue stranded Michael A. Taylor at second and booted Minnesota out of a two-out opportunity to add key insurance runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Kirilloff] looked down for a split second,\u201d said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. \u201cBut he was looking at the pitcher also when the clock said eight, so I think it’s a bold call. I mean, I can’t agree with that, and I think the Blue Jays are walking off the field thinking they got away with something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that situation, there\u2019s no guarantee Kirilloff drives in a run, but from Baldelli\u2019s perspective, it was hard to accept his club losing a chance to score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s just really hard when the opportunities get taken away from you on a judgment call that rarely takes place,\u201d the Twins’ skipper said, \u201cbecause I don’t think it was that clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make no mistake, pitch timer discrepancies are not why the Twins lost this contest. Baldelli characterized the middle innings of this game as \u201cstale,\u201d a contrast to how hot things began. Minnesota\u2019s offense sparkled at the beginning of Sunday\u2019s game, romping Jays starter Kevin Gausman for six runs in 4 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto – Reliever\u00a0Emilio Pag\u00e1n\u00a0hung his head as calamity ensued all around him. The Twins right-hander tried to dance his way out of a big spot, but instead grooved a fastball to Cavan Biggio, and Rogers Centre exploded into cheers. The Blue Jays\u2019 first baseman celebrated as his three-run blast in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":272399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273063"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273066,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273063\/revisions\/273066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/272399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}