Twins (Matthews) vs Brewers (Drohan): 08/07/26, 6:40 PM

[BruisedCrew]

This is one of the most disheartening losses of the season.

I’m attributing part of it to playing 17 games in 17 days with a 6 man SP rotation. It was easy to see that Drohan had no command tonight when he was giving up walks, home runs, and near home runs. But they obviously feel like they can’t afford to be going to  the bullpen after 4 innings or less, or even when he gives up 5;straight hits the next inning. 

The Brewers can’t afford to be losing games when the opponent gifts them 5;runs with shoddy defense. 

[TURBO]

2 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

I assume he was going to pitch 2 innings and gave up 2 runs instead…still think he is a valuable pick up.

But that doesn't explain the using him 3 out of 4 days, something he has never done in his career.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Unusually poor outing for Drohan. What I thought it boiled down to was his FB was being hit very hard, much of his secondary stuff was missing badly, and the breaking stuff that didn't miss badly would've been located well if the count was 0-2 or 1-2. Problem is, he was seldom at 0-2 or 1-2 & the Twins could be choosy. They had the proverbial hitting shoes on.

Even so, if the ball Bauers hit w/the bases loaded isn't caught we might be looking at a different outcome. That kinda short-circuited the inning & we STILL scored a couple runs, so...............

I'll make a prediction: Luis Lara is going to get more & more comfortable at the plate, feel more & more like he belongs (even more than he does now), and this board is going to get pissed every time Mitchell and/or Frelick takes PT away from him. And for the most part I won't blame them. As for Mitchell, his hustle down the line on ground balls---not just today, either---that's the stuff of winners. OTOH, you gotta take 3-1 in that last AB.

[TURBO]

Cubs won :(

[wiguy94]

5 minutes ago, rickh150 said:

I assume he was going to pitch 2 innings and gave up 2 runs instead…still think he is a valuable pick up.

I do not think the plan was for him to go 2 innings today when pitching for the 3rd time in 4 days for the first time in his career.

[ClearWaterWI]

Cubs have the momentum and appear to be all in for the second half. Scary with only 4.5 games separating them from a team with very little situational hitting bonafides. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 minutes ago, BruisedCrew said:

 But they obviously feel like they can’t afford to be going to  the bullpen after 4 innings or less 

They did exactly that with Sproat. The difference then was they most likely already knew they were swapping him for a fresh arm after the game. Now, Stallings & Anderson can't come back for a while, and they wanted Wilson to go an inning or two, tie or go ahead & go to the 'late pen'. Worst case, Wilson goes three which is what happened. I wasn't nuts about Drohan coming out for the 5th either but I reluctantly get it.

[Jim French Stepstool]

14 minutes ago, TURBO said:

Exactly!

When we got him, I thought it was with the purpose of multiple inning relief duties.

Just another odd situation with a RP at the deadline.  Add that to the JoJo being hurt, and not being able to pitch until the end of the month, and it just doesn't make a lot of sense.

That's a pretty good point. It would move Patrick to more of a 7th-and-later guy unless needed otherwise, and he's done OK in that role when asked. Yeah, 3 out of 4 days for Senzatela can certainly be questioned.

[wibadgers23]

6 runs is about the most you're gonna squeeze out of this offense right now. They had plenty of time to mount a comeback but couldn't come up with the big hit. Very unusual for the pitching staff to have a dud like tonight.

[Uwbadgers442]

Well - looks like we will have to scoreboard watch 3 teams to the wire. Obviously cubs are priority for a chance at the bye, but Braves about to win 9 straight. 
 

top 4 teams are gonna remain as so, but the order is wide open. 

[Opening Day]

Drohan was off all night.  In the 2nd (41 pitches hrough 2), they should have planned on someone new in the 5th.  Then had Wilson warmed up but didn't him for the the 6th.  Im a Murphy fan, but this wasn't his best night managing pitchers.  It happens.  They lost a game starting their 5th starter. It is what it is.  They will be fine.  Go out and take the next 2 and win the series.