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Against an opposing pitcher who\u2019s been one of the best in the AL the last several years, you need your starter to be really sharp \u2014 Taj Bradley<\/a> was doing kinda OK until he wasn\u2019t \u2014 and you need your hitters to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. These Twins were terrible at the latter last year, and are running out mostly the same lineup now. What else would you expect to happen?<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Inning-by-inning notes:<\/p>\n 1: If you missed the intro<\/a>, Drew Rasmussen<\/a> is a darn good pitcher. His sinker\/4-seam\/cutter mix means three pitches in the 90s that can go in or out and they\u2019re all thrown hard. Byron Buxton<\/a> strikes out and two other guys hit nubbers. The onus is gonna be on Taj Bradley to throw a heckuva game.<\/p>\n Aren\u2019t too many ballparks where a ball hit 450 feet ain\u2019t a home run. Maybe the old Polo Grounds? (Looks it up.) Yep, the centerfield wall was 483 feet from home plate. This ain\u2019t the Polo Grounds, though. Nice swat, Junior Caminero<\/a>. Rays 1-0<\/p>\n 2: Groundout, flyout, groundout. Drew Rasmussen\u2019s career BAbip is .262. Normally, when a pitcher\u2019s BAbip is much lower than around .300, that\u2019s taken as an indicator that they\u2019re getting lucky and are likely to come down to Earth sooner or later. So was Mariano Rivera\u2019s .265 BAbip a fluke? It certainly wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Three outs on nine pitches is much better than 450-foot dongs.<\/p>\n 3: Well, that\u2019s one way to get on base; Matt Wallner<\/a> walks. (Rasmussen doesn\u2019t walk a lot of guys, either.) Followed by K, \ua4d8, groundout. Sigh.<\/p>\n Unlucky start; Nick Fortes<\/a> squeezes one right down the left-field line and it gets by 3B Royce Lewis<\/a> for a double. Then the Rays do something I can\u2019t remember the Twins doing in years; they have the #9 hitter lay down a perfect sac bunt to move the runner to third. A grounder on a contact play gets Fortes in.<\/p>\n Radio actually has an interesting factoid; that RBI grounder was by Chandler Simpson<\/a>, who has never hit a home run over the fence; he had three inside-the-park home runs in the minors. He hit one off Twins pitcher Dan Altavilla<\/a> in Spring Training this year, but I guess that doesn\u2019t count. Devil Rays 2-0<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 4: Hey now \u2014 a single by Trevor Larnach<\/a> and a first pitch double by Austin Martin<\/a> puts two guys in scoring position. Victor Caratini<\/a> strikes out and I have a terrible feeling about this. Kody Clemens<\/a> strikes out and Royce Lewis bloops one into \u201cno-man\u2019s land\u201d that Ben Williamson<\/a>, who is a human man, catches.<\/p>\n It\u2019s innings like this that make me physically angry with the Twins. Like my tummy hurts. I hope the team hotel has bedbugs. OK, not that. But I\u2019m still angry.<\/p>\n Jonathan Aranda<\/a> hits another dinger<\/a> off Bradley, the second long ball Bradley\u2019s given up this year. Notably, both homers were on balls outside of the strike zone.<\/p>\n Also not in the strike zone were the four straight balls Bradley threw to Cedric Mullins<\/a> (after a single by Jonny DeLuca<\/a>), so this inning\/game are within range of getting out of hand. Smart running by DeLuca; he tags and reaches third on a foul flyout just beyond first base. Fortunately Bradley induces the groundout; still, 3-0 seems like more than these Twins can manage tonight.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 5: FINALLY! Brooks Lee<\/a> has a nice AB and it ends with a bang<\/a>. He fouled off or took several close pitches after falling behind 0-2. The Pride of Missouri City, TX, Tristan Gray<\/a>, singles. Nothing comes of it.<\/p>\n A seven-pitch inning for Taj. He really is pitching pretty well (minus that walk last inning); too bad the Twins left their good bats in Minnesota. Tampa Bay<\/a> 3-1<\/p>\n 6: Klobberin\u2019 Kody Klemens has a two-out hit. Do you think it matters? Do you think anything the Twins will try to do matters? Now, tomorrow, or ever again? It doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Aranda does it again<\/a>. Same location; off the plate inside. Then Yandy D\u00edaz<\/a> singles. With two outs, Ben Williamson walks. Royce Lewis saves a double<\/a> that probably would have scored both runners BUT NOTHING MATTERS DO NOT BOTHER CARING<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 7: Kris Atteberry mentions that new RP Cole Sulser<\/a> went to Dartmouth and this fills my heart with hate. Not for Sulser. Brooks Lee has a one-out single. It doesn\u2019t matter. Byron Buxton hits a long fly. Atteberry is excited. I know not to be.<\/p>\n Huh. With one out and the Rays coming around for the fourth time, pitching coach Pete Maki walks out from the dugout and\u2026 is ejected. I dunno why. Doesn\u2019t he know that it doesn\u2019t matter?<\/p>\n Caminero hits another homer<\/a>. So what. That one wasn\u2019t off the plate, by the way, it was dead center. In comes Anthony Banda<\/a>, a relief pitcher who currently sucks at relief pitching. He is fine. St. Petersburg Devil Rays 6-1<\/p>\n 8: Trevor Martin replaces Cole Sulser. It doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Eric Orze<\/a> comes in for the team that will lose. He was traded by Tampa to Minnesota this offseason for a pitcher named Jacob Kisting. He currently has a 1.80 ERA in high-A. Good for him.<\/p>\n 9: Royce Lewis improves his OPS from .726 to .771 with a dinger<\/a>. Good for him. Wallner singles and Lee doubles. It doesn\u2019t matter. Bryan Baker<\/a> in to pitch for the Rays. The shame of Missouri City, TX, Tristan Gray, can\u2019t hit it far enough for the runners to advance and Buxton strikes out on nine pitches and Larnach grounds out I told you it didn\u2019t matter. Twins lose<\/p>\n Studs of the game: Lee and Lewis both having dingers and nice fielding plays<\/a>. Duds: hoo boy. That last Bradley homer was bad. Caratini, Clemens, Gray and Wallner for failing to do ANYTHING with RISP and less than two outs.<\/p>\n COTG goes to nagurskiinnortheast for cussing at<\/a> the Twins\u2019 hitters and Zach for sharing<\/a> a typically wonderful family photo. Thanks to everybody who participated in a GT for a game that was genuinely pretty boring right from the start.<\/p>\n Tomorrow\u2019s game is at 3:10, featuring Shane (not Rue) McClanahan<\/a> against our own Bailey Ober<\/a>. Catch y\u2019all next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Against an opposing pitcher who\u2019s been one of the best in the AL the last several years, you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[8934,4992,760,5,4806,1391,13151,2223,77,457,7882,11827,1999,7883,86314,307,1398,4682,461,1251,11843,60,4,2145,297,408,763,2550,68,2551,2549,3477,30756,3614,3348],"class_list":["post-682339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-anthony-banda","tag-austin-martin","tag-bailey-ober","tag-baseball","tag-ben-williamson","tag-brooks-lee","tag-bryan-baker","tag-byron-buxton","tag-cedric-mullins","tag-chandler-simpson","tag-cole-sulser","tag-dan-altavilla","tag-drew-rasmussen","tag-eric-orze","tag-fortunately-bradley","tag-jonathan-aranda","tag-jonny-deluca","tag-junior-caminero","tag-kody-clemens","tag-matt-wallner","tag-mcclanahan","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-nick-fortes","tag-rays","tag-royce-lewis","tag-taj-bradley","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-trevor-larnach","tag-tristan-gray","tag-victor-caratini","tag-yandy-diaz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}