3 Twins that deserve blame after 6-4 loss to Astros in ALDS Game 1
Things did not go the way Minnesota wanted on Saturday afternoon.
![Division Series - Minnesota Twins v Houston Astros - Game One](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3976,h_2236,x_0,y_92/c_fill,w_752,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/GettyImages/mmsport/2/01hc683myv91kp16ankw.jpg)
After rolling through the AL Wild Card and to the team's first playoff win in 18 attempts, the Minnesota Twins hit some turbulance in Houston.
This was to be expected, as the Astros are defending World Series champions and built to destroy other team's dreams in the postseason. There's a reason Houston has only missed the playoffs once since 2015 and have won a pair of World Series in the last nine years -- they're really good.
Baltimore might be the No. 1 seed in the American League, but Houston is the real problem for everyone left standing.
Minnesota is the first line of defense against the Astros getting back to the World Series, and Game 1 did not go the way fans were hoping it might. The Twins were able to battle back from a 5-0 hole and show the type of fight that gives fans hope things can turn around, but mistakes all over the place ended up costing them in the opener.
The Twins played well against Toronto, but caught some lucky breaks that helped them sail to victory. They'll need those breaks and more against Houston, and the team got a heavy dose of how slim the margin for error will be in the ALDS.
3 Twins to blame after 1-0 loss to Astros in ALDS Game 1
Eduoard Julien
It was a brutal game for one of the Twins best young players. There's no nice way to put it -- Canadian or Minnesota -- Edouard Julien looked like a rookie in every sense on Saturday against the Astros.
Things didn't start off that bad, as he drew a leadoff walk against Justin Verlander and managed to double in his next at-bat. Everything went downhill from there, though, as Julien ruined his own luck with some bad baserunning that very same inning.
Royce Lewis hit into a fielder's choice, but it was Julien who got tagged out rather than Lewis. It seemed that Julien forgot how many outs there were, because he took off on contact from second base and right into Jeremy Pena who had fielded the ball.
Had Julien not run, Pena throws out Lewis at first instead of taking a runner in scoring position off the bases.
That’s a JV-level mistake by Edouard Julien. Wtf
— Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) October 7, 2023
In the fifth inning, things hit rock bottom for Julien. He was punked so hard on a 2-2 curveball from Verlander that he lost both his bat and his helmet while flamboyantly striking out.
Justin Verlander just dismembered Edouard Julienpic.twitter.com/hl4Sz1ndZq
— Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1) October 7, 2023
To be fair, Julien -- much like the Twins in general -- found a way to end things on a higher note than it otherwise seemed. He made a clutch defensive play in the eighth inning to save a run, something that almost outweighs his earlier mistakes given how his glove has always been the thing experts say might hold him back.
Fantastic snag from Edouard Julien for the Twins! 🆙⬆️ pic.twitter.com/SaczypQSe8
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 7, 2023
Bailey Ober
For the most part, Bailey Ober pitched mostly fine in Game 1, but his mistakes are absolutely massive. Ober only pitched three innings and faced 14 batters, and were it not for three bad pitches he might have been getting pats on the back rather than blamed for the loss.
Ober's three bad pitches were backbreakers. He gave up a home run to Jose Altuve on the very first pitch of the game and then had two pitches in the third inning combine for two more runs. Alex Bregman was hit with a slider that got too far inside which put him on first for Yordan Alvarez, who tattooed a changeup a few pitches later.
Three pitches, three runs.
Two of those pitches were almost identical and produced the exact same result twice. Ober gave Altuve a fastball high in the zone on the first-pitch home run. Two innings later he served up another pitch high in the zone, this time a changeup to Yordan Alvarez who launched it into the right field seats.
YORDAN GOES YARD pic.twitter.com/KFXrk21wXR
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 7, 2023
Home plate umpire Brian Knight called the first pitch of the Alvarez at-bat a ball, even though it seemed to be a strike that just snuck into the bottom of the zone. It seems likely that Ober overcorrected on his next pitch to go high, which resulted in the home run.
Ober's margin for error was razor thin, and if you take those three mistakes away his day isn't nearly as bad as it seemed. It's hard not to blame him, though, because the work Minnesota's offense did later in the game is painted in a totally different light -- a winning light -- if the mistakes don't happen.
Bad Umpiring
Complaining about the umpires is usually a cop out -- and maybe to a degree it still is here. Minnesota cost itself in plenty of other areas, but it seemed the team had some legitimate gripes with how home plate umpire Brian Knight was calling the game.
Minnesota was left guessing pretty much the entire game as to how Knight was going to call things, which imapcted the team's approach. It went beyond obviously questionable calls, of which there were plenty to choose from.
On two separate occasions, Knight called questions inside strikes that contributed to the Twins offense falling silent for most of the game. It wasn't that Twins hitters were being actively stiffled by Knight, but it proved to be a bad combo with how bad things were already going at the plate.
All the offense needed was a little push to go completely out of whack.
"if you want robot umps so bad you should disavow this!"
— flicky baseball playoffs (@FlickNickem) October 7, 2023
me: pic.twitter.com/fVXjmkja0p
Two innings in a row where Justin Verlander gets a called third strike on a pitch inside. Carlos Correa didn't like plate ump Brian Knight's call.#MNTwins offense is MIA, trailing 5-0.
— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) October 7, 2023
It also seemed to impact Twins pitchers as well. Bailey Ober gave up a two-run homer in the third inning to Yordan Alvarez. It was the second pitch of the at-bat that Alvarez tattooed, but how the pitch right before it was called might have contributed to the snafu.
Knight called what appeared to be a strike that painted the bottom of the zone a ball. Ober's next pitch was higher in the zone, and it's possible that he was trying to feel out where the edges were so he could work Alvarez and the rest of the lineup that inning.
Ober's day was effectively over after that home run, as he was able to get out of the inning before being replaced by Kenta Maeda. If that home run isn't allowed, though, Ober might get out of the inning and has an otherwise respectable performance under his belt. He didn't pitch bad, but the Twins got absolutely zero breaks on calls which uncontainably shrunk an already small margin of error.
Then again, the Twins did plenty of things to bury themselves:
The Twins had:
— Andrew Luedtke (@andluedtke) October 7, 2023
1st and 2nd, nobody out in the 1st
1st and 2nd, one out in the 2nd
A leadoff double in the 3rd and 8th
They scored zero runs in these situations.
1-for-12 with RISP
😑😑😑
On a day like today, every call counts.
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