It was about as rough of a first inning as possible for rookie Connor Prielipp. Second baseman Cole Young doubled on Prielipp’s first pitch of the game, and then he walked the next two Mariners on nine total pitches to load the bases with no outs. Julio Rodriguez then singled on the first pitch HE saw and it was 1-0 Seattle before Prielipp even worked up a sweat. He walked in one more run a few batters later, but the young lefty struckout the side in the midst of all this chaos to limit the damage.
Seattle got one more in the second inning thanks to a solo homer by Randy Arozarena to make it 3-0, but from there, Prielipp was completely locked in. It took him 55 pitches to get through the first two innings, and then 33 to finish the next 3.1 frames. That’s the exact kind of development you want to see from a rookie starting pitcher and why so many people within the Twins are high on his long term outlook. The Mariners did mount another threat in the fifth inning with two men on and one out, but Prielipp successfully worked his way out of that jam and got Josh Naylor to start the sixth for a cherry on top.
On the other half of the game, the Twins had yet another slow start against an opposing starter. If it feels like Minnesota has been playing from behind often you’d be correct. Setting aside the three and four error slop-filled games last week, the Twins have scored just eight total runs in first five innings of games since the All-Star Break. They’ve taken the first lead in just two of those games as well. It was more of the same against Logan Gilbert and Seattle today.
The Twins had just one hit and baserunner through the first four innings before a Luke Keaschall solo shot got rid of the goose egg on the scoreboard. Trevor Larnach added a bomb of his own in the sixth, and then the Twins played some good small following a Brooks Lee leadoff double and finally worked their way to a 3-3 tie. Minnesota then had a great opportunity to take the lead in the eighth with two runners in scoring position and one out, but Kody Clemens and Royce Lewis struck out to end the threat.
Then, a weird ninth inning happened. With Andrew Morris in to try to send things to extras, Arozarena led things off of with a sharp double and advanced to third on a fly ball. Morris then intentionally walked Julio Rodriguez to put runners on the corners with one out. The Twins brought the infield in for Cal Raleigh, hoping to either get the runner at home or set up a quick double play, and they got exactly what they needed with a hard ground ball hit directly to Royce Lewis at first. Lewis, still fairly new to the position, went to step on first base, but seemed to realize the problem with that mid-play, as you can see below.
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A double play where the out at second base is made first would have ended the inning and sent things to extras, regardless of what happened with the runner at third base. However, since Royce stepped on first before getting the out at second, Rodriguez was no longer a force out, meaning all he had to do was get into a rundown and the M’s would go home as victors. Lewis pretty much took the one option that would have led to a Twins loss right then. An immediate throw home likely would have nabbed Arozarena at the plate, and an immediate throw to second would have likely been a double play.
Despite how good he’s looked at the position, Lewis is still very new to first base overall and when a ball is hit at you that hard in a high leverage spot, instinct just takes over. In any other scenario, it actually would have been quite a good play from Lewis, but for now it’s a tough loss that probably says more about the Twins’ lack of offense recently than anything about Royce’s defensive abilities.
The Twins still have a great chance to win a series against a playoff contender tomorrow in a fun matchup between Taj Bradley and George Kirby. On to the next one!
STUDS
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Connor Prielipp after the 2nd inning: 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K on 33 pitches
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AJ Minter in his Twins debut: one pitch, one out
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Keaschall, Larnach: solo homer each
DUDS
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Connor Prielipp in the first two innings: 2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 3 K on 55 pitches
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Royce Lewis: game-losing misplay
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