Brewers 17, Twins 6: Evisceration – Twins

Box Score
Joe Ryan: 5 ⅓ IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
Home Runs: Matt Wallner (6)
Bottom 3 WPA: Justin Topa (-.081), Carlos Correa (-.060), Harrison Bader (.051)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Fresh off an impotent Reds series only saved by a third-game offensive explosion, the Twins look to be wandering in the desert. That extended winning streak earlier in the season is about as old as the Magna Carta; recent play revealed the same mucky inconsistency that has plagued the team since the pandemic. With a red-hot Brewers team in town, and their young fireballer Jacob Misiorowski on the mound, Minnesota possessed the chance to secure a potentially fortune-altering win.

Joe Ryan started, which means we had front-row seats to observe The Experience in action. Words fail to capture the full essence of The Experience—it must be observed to be fully understood—but here’s a quick selection of Ryan’s mound antics:

He continuously pitched unphased by the pitch clock and its consequences, often letting the timer tick close to 0 before snapping into his windup.

He walked away from the mound before a check-swing appeal was made to the first base umpire. (The batter was called out.)

He coiled himself into a crouch when a first-pitch curve fell too high in the zone. (It was just a called strike.)

He pulled a sweeper and dropped an f-bomb loud enough for the broadcast to clearly pick up.

And all of that came just in the third inning. There is no one like him and there will never be anyone like him again. 

Ryan’s actual production betrayed his entertainment. In fact, he capitulated. The righty walked three, and while he struck out seven, Milwaukee pounced on their opportunities, pushing across a fourth-inning run off a Jackson Chourio walk, before Chourio doubled in a score in the sixth and eventually touched home himself after Ryan had left the game. 

Oh, and that Misiorowski fellow from before? You may want to memorize how to spell his last name: he is nasty beyond belief. The heater routinely hit 100+. The slider sat at 94.7. The slider. He cut through the Twins’ lineup with the ease of prime Nolan Ryan.

The best strategy for attacking Misiorowski proved to be forcing him to sit for about 30 minutes in the seventh as Justin Topa and Joey Wentz both failed to produce any sense of relief in their pitching. Coming out of that break, Misiorowski lost his no-hitter by walking Byron Buxton on four pitches, then allowed his first major-league hit (in the second start of his career) off a Matt Wallner sky-scraping two-run shot. This game does occasionally have a sense of humor, you know. 

Milwaukee immediately responded by striking Wentz for four more runs in the eighth. Then Jonah Bride pitched to add levity to the situation. No one laughed. He allowed five runs and struck out Eric Haase. Ok, that one was pretty funny. 

The Brewers countered with their own position player pitcher, a much giddier Jake Bauers. Something vaguely resembling baseball occurred, and the game finally reached its inevitable conclusion.

Notes:

Attendance for the game was 28,011, but it felt like most of them were down the third base line behind the Brewers’ dugout. They also seemed to enjoy their trip to Target Field. 

They cynical ninth inning did have one benefit: Brooks Lee singled versus Bauers to extend his hit streak to 19 games. 

Post-Game Interview:

What’s Next?
The Twins and Brewers play again on Saturday with first pitch coming at 1:10 PM. Simeon Woods Richardson will start opposite Joe Quintana. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet