{"id":712625,"date":"2026-05-30T09:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/712625\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T09:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:09:21","slug":"twins-5-pirates-6-bullpen-carries-that-weight-fails-in-the-ninth-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/712625\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins 5, Pirates 6: Bullpen Carries That Weight, Fails in the Ninth – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBox Score<\/a>
Taj Bradley<\/a>: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Home Runs: Kody Clemens<\/a> (6), Trevor Larnach<\/a> (3)
Bottom 3 WPA:\u00a0Taylor Rogers<\/a> (-.790), Taj Bradley (-.180), Byron Buxton<\/a> (-.160)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"FanGraphs-GameGraphs-MIN-PIT-2026-05-29.png\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAh, welcome back, Apple TV. How we all missed signing up for a free trail with a new email, or prodding a friend or family member for their log in. What a wonderful present the captains of industry have created for us.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTaj Bradley earned the start for Minnesota, as Jared Jones<\/a>\u2014in his first major league outing since 2024\u2014took the mound for Pittsburgh. That\u2019s two power pitchers on the mound; owners of the kind of regal stuff that so dominates today’s game. Either hurler is capable of unleashing diesel, owning hitters with raw velocity and jet-fueled breaking balls, corkscrewing batters too antsy for their heat. They could turn any band of batsmen on the run back to the dugout. Naturally, they were both hammered early.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tJared Jones looked like Nolan Ryan<\/a>\u2019s lost grandson in his first two batters, before Kody Clemens stepped to the plate and swatted one of his lethal fastballs for a solo homer. \u201cHit this,\u201d said Jones. \u201cI Will,\u201d said Clemens.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe early support didn\u2019t aid in Bradley\u2019s mound endeavors. Runners appeared here, there, and everywhere in the first, as walks begat hits, which begat runs (though not without some poor defense from the corner infield spots; both Brooks Lee<\/a> and Josh Bell<\/a> aided in abetting runs to their counterparts). Suddenly, the Pirates claimed three runs, Bradley had thrown 30 pitches, and the only help he received was in a confirmed strike three call on Endy Rodriguez<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Pittsburgh\u2019s lead said hello, Minnesota\u2019s offense quickly bade it goodbye: they loaded the bases in the second, and tied the game when Tristan Gray<\/a> found a lovely gap in the infield that scored two.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMaybe we\u2019re amazed at this game\u2019s pace; maybe we were soon to be amazed at what was a mammoth match-altering blast by Trevor Larnach. He saw one of Jones\u2019 signature fastballs and smoothly stroked the offering deep into the Pittsburgh night, perhaps flirting with the Allegheny River in the process (neither Kris Atteberry or Glen Perkins<\/a> could parse whether the ball landed in water, or whether it was an ordinary stands-clearing shot.) In any case, his silver hammer returned the lead to Minnesota.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOneil Cruz<\/a> immediately refused to let Larnach\u2019s blast be; indeed, he sent one 450 feet out right, almost certainly entertaining the aquatic life in the 325-mile tributary of the Ohio river with red-stitched leather.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tEditor’s Note: A couple of innings later, the Pirates media relations staff announced that the two home runs both ended up in the river. Larnach’s got there. Cruz’s homer was the seventh home run to land in the river. He had hit two of the seven while Twins Josh Bell is the only other with two homers landing in the river.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of this occurred in just three innings, mind you. If Apple was paying for efficiency, they must have been pleased with their investment.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe early excitement gave way to a long and winding road: the Twins and Pirates settled into a typical baseball stalemate, perhaps occasionally trading baserunners and mild excitement, but never ultimately impacting the score. The fourth became the fifth, which became the sixth, which became the seventh. The \u201cBradley and Jones\u201d of before turned into afterthoughts. Did Clemens homer in the first? Only a historian could answer that.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe eighth appeared to change matters. Cruz walked, and Konnor Griffin<\/a> reached on a \u201cfielder\u2019s choice,\u201d with an error unfairly charged to Tristan Gray (the real culprit was Luke Keaschall<\/a>, whom the scorer must assume has the range of a caterpillar.) In any case, reliever Cody Laweryson<\/a> was now in real trouble\u2014runners stood on the corners with no one out. He blew a fastball by Rodriguez for the first out. Then Jake Magnum grounded one to Clemens, now at first, who didn\u2019t make the same mistake Bell once suffered: he easily threw the runner out at home. Jared Triolo<\/a> flew out to get the Twins back to their unthreatened lead.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe eighth apparently was a portend of things to come, as Taylor Rogers entered to save the game for Minnesota. A well-placed single placed a man on base, and an inside sinker never reached the front door; rather, Bryan Reynolds<\/a> crushed the pitch for a walk-off two run-homer. It was only waiting for its moment to arise, apparently.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNotes:\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPost-Game Interview:\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s Next?
The Twins and Pirates continue their Central Switch-Up matchup with a 3:05 PM matinee on Saturday. Bailey Ober<\/a> is scheduled to start opposite Mitch Keller<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBullpen Usage Spreadsheet\n<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSUN<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tMON<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTUE<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWED<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTHU<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tFRI<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTOT<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWoods Richardson<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t35<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t67<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t102<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tG\u00f3mez<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t22<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t18<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t17<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t14<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t71<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tOrze<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t10<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t29<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t23<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t62<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBanda<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t10<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t10<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t14<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t18<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t49<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tRogers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t13<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t16<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t7<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t12<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t48<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tMorris<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t8<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t29<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t37<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tLaweryson<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t16<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t16<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tFunderburk<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Box ScoreTaj Bradley: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 KHome Runs: Kody Clemens (6), Trevor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,2223,3758,822,60,3190,4,763,6922,3477,30756,148],"class_list":["post-712625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-baseball","tag-byron-buxton","tag-game-recap","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-taj-bradley","tag-taylor-rogers","tag-trevor-larnach","tag-tristan-gray","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116662748491362675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712625","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=712625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}