Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Thomas Hatch: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K (81 Pitches, 46 Strikes, 56.8%)
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (6), Byron Buxton (25), Brooks Lee (12)
Top 3 WPA: Lee (.182), Buxton (.157), Lewis (.127)
Win Probability Chart (Via FanGraphs):
Well, things have certainly taken a turn over the past week. A week ago, the Twins were playing inspired baseball (relative to how much talent was left on the roster). Fast-forward to today, and the team had lost five of the past six games, while their charming ownership group decided to pull the team off the market and sell an undisclosed amount of equity in the franchise in exchange for paying off the Pohlad’s substantial debt. Fans who were heartened that, at least, the Pohlads would no longer be in charge after this dismal season were left looking for new coping strategies.
I’m sure that can’t feel great for the players, either. Nobody wants to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates 2.0. They lost the first three games of a four-game set against the Detroit Tigers, from whom they took a road series a week and a half ago. And if they could have lost four out of those three, they would have.
Today, all the Twins had to throw at the Tigers was fungible waiver claim and swingman Thomas Hatch. Hatch has shown some gumption, to his credit, but his low-90s sinker-cutter combo can only survive for so long—or so it would seem. He looked good at the start, including an impressive strikeout of Barry Kerry Carpenter on a biting cutter, and catching Spencer Torkelson looking on a nice two-seamer to end the first. The second inning began with a walk and a single, before Javier Báez rapped into an easy double play and Trey Sweeney eventually flied out to end the threat.
Royce Lewis hit his first home run at Target Field this year in the bottom of the inning, teeing off against old friend Chris Paddack, who is just trying to give the Tigers innings at this point.
Paddack would work his way out of that inning, but in his Jekyll-and-Hyde season, he would prove to be the latter this afternoon. Hatch allowed a ringing double to Colt Keith in the third, and after Carpenter singled him home, one had thoughts that perhaps another jaunt through Detroit’s order would not come without a lot of pain for the veteran journeyman. But Hatch wriggled out of it again, walking Torkelson but retiring Riley Greene and the hot-hitting Wenceel Pérez to end the frame.
It proved to be Paddack who couldn’t handle the Twins the second time through. Byron Buxton greeted him with a second-deck home run to left field, and Trevor Larnach scorched a double into the right-center field gap. Luke Keaschall got a bloop single and, after an out, Ryan Jeffers also contributed a jam-shot single. Lewis worked a long at-bat, coming back from 0-2 to draw a walk, loading the bases for Brooks Lee. Lee got ahead in the count 2-0 and then looked foolish drawing a sword against a Paddack cutter. Glen Perkins, on the broadcast, thought this indicated that Lee was cheating to the fastball. As is typical of Paddack, he was bullheaded and threw a four-seamer up and in on Lee that the shortstop demolished to the right-field overhang, giving the Twins their first grand slam of the year, and a 7-1 lead.
Hatch seemed to appreciate the rest, and set down the Tigers quickly in the fourth. Buxton recorded his third hit in the Twins half of the inning, stole second, and scored on an attempted double play relay, giving the Twins ownership another reminder that they don’t deserve his loyalty.
Hatch worked an even quicker fifth inning, and has now looked pretty great in two of his three appearances for the Twins thus far. Paddack finished his outing with five and two-thirds innings and allowed eight earned runs. If Enrique Jimenez so much as makes the majors, getting him for two months of Paddack and Randy Dobnak‘s salary is a legitimately great value trade.
Michael Tonkin and Cole Sands lived up to their new roles, striking out the side in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. The rest was cruise control.
Stray Observations:
-Lee has an outside shot at 20 homers this year after hitting his 12th today in 360 at-bats. His defensive miscues and sometimes lifeless at-bats have been pretty annoying, but contributing 15-18 home runs despite that would be one silver lining. Power was his biggest question mark as he rose through the minor leagues, and with his defense looking decent at shortstop, we might look back at his 2025 season as a harbinger for the kind of success that was once projected of him.
–James Outman did a lot of swinging early in counts. His third time facing Paddack, he did launch a triple off the outstretched glove of Pérez in right. I don’t think there is a more favorable matchup than a lefty facing Paddack for a third time when he isn’t on his game.
-Making his Twins debut was Génesis Cabrera, once a top prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals, who has bounced around since then with control issues capping his upside. The lefty reliever hit 97 MPH and recorded a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
What’s Next: The Twins welcome the Sacramento A’s to Target Field beginning Tuesday, with Joe Ryan (12-5, 2.75 ERA) taking on Jacob Lopez (6-6, 3.30 ERA). The A’s are one of the few teams behind the Twins in the American League standings, so this may become a battle of 2026 draft position. It is a pretty good pitching matchup, though, with Ryan having one of the better starting pitcher seasons in the Target Field era, and Lopez working his way into the rookie of the year mix, not allowing a single run over his past four starts while striking out 28.
Postgame Interviews:
Coming soon
Bullpen Usage Chart:
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN
TOT
Hatch
0
0
0
0
81
81
Ureña
0
0
76
0
0
76
Topa
26
0
0
27
0
53
Kriske
0
11
0
29
0
40
Tonkin
0
9
0
15
16
40
Sands
0
25
0
0
14
39
Ramírez
0
11
8
0
16
35
Funderburk
6
13
0
10
0
29
Cabrera
0
0
0
0
9
9