CLEVELAND — At the start of the season, the Minnesota Twins hoped they’d built a bullpen that would be a strength of the 2024 club, one deep enough to help overcome the hurdles created by a starting rotation facing serious questions.
They signed several helpful veterans and traded for others, believing they’d done a nice job adding around a strong foundation. The arms collected looked promising on paper, too. FanGraphs projected the Twins to have one of the top bullpens in baseball.
But the same type of volatility that’s wrecked countless other teams’ plans throughout baseball history has the Twins in a precarious position now, thin on reliable options as their season crashes down around them.
Faced with protecting a tight lead late in another critical game and short on options, the Twins turned to Ronny Henriquez, who’s had a successful September, including pitching a big inning in Tuesday’s win. But Henriquez struggled in a bigger spot Wednesday, surrendering three runs, and The Cleveland Guardians rallied to walk off the Twins 5-4 in 10 innings at Progressive Field.
Carlos Correa finished with three hits and drove in all four runs and Bailey Ober struck out a career-high 12 batters over seven innings for the Twins, who also blew a late lead Monday against Cleveland. Combined with the Detroit Tigers’ 4-2 victory in Kansas City on Wednesday, The loss cut the Twins’ lead for the third spot in the American League wild-card race down to half a game.
“We’re in position to win a lot of these games,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’ve had leads in the eighth inning, ninth inning and now the 10th inning (in this series) that we expect to have and hold and win the games. That’s not a bad formula. The formula is get a lead late and then finish the games. We’ve just been challenged to finish the games and play complete ballgames.”
Bullpen Issues
Many of the relief pitchers the Twins acquired last offseason to help navigate the late innings are long gone as the team falters down the stretch.
Injuries are sidelining 2023 fireman Brock Stewart, potential setup man Justin Topa and talented lefty Kody Funderburk. Underperformance led to the club dismissing Josh Staumont, Jay Jackson and Steven Okert.
The Twins also released the only pitcher they added at a disappointing trade deadline, Trevor Richards, after he lost command of his trusted changeup, walked 11 batters and threw seven wild pitches in 13 innings.
The bullpen’s construction has been further hampered by a need for pitchers who provide length. The team’s starting rotation features three inconsistent rookie pitchers who have struggled to work deep into games. The need for relievers who can throw multiple innings led to the team choosing options like Michael Tonkin, Scott Blewett and Louie Varland over Jorge Alcala, a previous late-innings option who’d struggled for nearly two months. Alcala was optioned to Triple A following Monday’s late-innings meltdown.
Workload and Options
Throw in an offense struggling to put away opponents, and there’s been a heavy workload for some of the team’s top relief options: Griffin Jax, Cole Sands and Jhoan Duran.
Wednesday, the Twins didn’t have Jax or Sands available in the 10th inning to protect a 4-2 lead they’d taken on Correa’s two-run single to center in the top half.
Duran, who threw 30 pitches and recorded four outs in Tuesday’s victory, extended the game to extra innings with a perfect ninth. Varland also was unavailable after he pitched a scoreless eighth inning in relief of an outstanding Ober.
Aside from an inconsistent Caleb Thielbar, Baldelli was left with a group of pitchers who have never been tasked with closing out games. He opted for Henriquez, who’d been successful in four high-leverage appearances earlier in the month, including pitching a scoreless seventh inning Tuesday.
“Whoever we brought in was going to get some pinch hitters, some matchups on the other side of the plate, and Ronny has a mix that he can throw to those guys,” Baldelli said. “That’s how we landed on him. There’s a few options down there that we could have chosen, but Ronny’s a guy that has stepped into a couple of big spots for us and done a good job. So it was another time for him.”
Though Henriquez insisted he was prepared for the spot, he struggled from the outset. Cleveland’s Kyle Manzardo started the 10th inning with an RBI single to center on a 2-2 fastball from Henriquez. The righty then walked Andrés Giménez on four pitches, only one of which was close. Pinch hitter Will Brennan then tied the score with a single on a 1-2 changeup.
With runners on the corners and no outs, Henriquez struck out Bo Naylor. Baldelli then turned to Tonkin, who surrendered the game-winning single to Brayan Rocchio.
“I did everything that I needed to normally to come into the game,” Henriquez said through an interpreter. “I was totally normal. … My pitches were not in the locations I wanted.”
A Month of Meltdowns
Now 10-19 since Aug. 17, the Twins find themselves in an undesirable location after a series of bullpen meltdowns.
A month ago, the Twins were riding high at 70-53, holding a 10 1/2-game lead over Detroit, which was four games under .500. Now, the Twins head into Thursday’s series finale with Cleveland a sliver in front of the Tigers, who are idle before opening a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.
First, there was Alcala’s five-run blowup at Texas on Aug. 18. Okert blew an eighth-inning lead in San Diego two days after that in a game started by Ober.
Edouard Julien misplayed two balls on Aug. 25, which led to a blown save and a loss for Duran. The Twins suffered another devastating loss Sept. 7 when Duran and Jax blew a two-run lead in Kansas City after another Ober gem.
Then Monday, Jax, who’s in the middle of a breakout season, took the loss after yielding a go-ahead, two-run homer an inning after he helped the Twins escape an inherited bases-loaded jam.
“We’ve just got to put it behind us,” Ober said. “I know it’s happened a few times now, but we can’t dwell on what’s going on. We have to move on and get ready and play like tomorrow is our last day. Go out there and try to get our job done. … We know what’s going on and where we’re at and what’s at stake. It’s nothing new. We’ve just gotta go out there and it’s up to us to execute.”
Ober Shines Despite Outcome
Aside from two pitches to Josh Naylor, Ober executed at a high level Wednesday.
Relying heavily on his changeup, Ober dominated Cleveland’s offense with quick, efficient innings. He set down the side in order in the first, third and sixth innings. After surrendering tying homers to Naylor in the second and seventh innings, Ober responded with three quick outs.
Ober allowed two earned runs and four hits, walking none in a 101-pitch showing.
Correa’s performance was equally outstanding. He put the Twins ahead by a run in the first inning with an RBI fielder’s choice and fought off a Tanner Bibbee pitch far inside to single in a run in the fifth. But his best at-bat came in the 10th when he ripped a 1-2 slider with the bases loaded into center for a two-run single.
Correa, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games, finished 3-for-4.
“We’re all doing our best,” Correa said. “Nobody here is trying to throw games away. It’s the nature of the sport, you know? Tough times come and you’ve got to know how to come out of those and come back the next day and forget about it and try and go out there and win a game.”
(Photo of Michael Tonkin: David Richard / Imagn Images)
