Minnesota Twins Daily Clips. Thursday, April 13, 2017

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1 Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Thursday, April 13, 2017 Twins drop second straight to Detroit as Kyle Gibson suffers five-run fourth inning. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 1 Brian Dozier ties Twins record for most career homers leading off a game. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 2 Jack Morris: Joe Mauer should consider changing his hitting approach. Star Tribune (Rand) p. 3 Minnesota Ballpark Authority to vote Thursday on getting rid of friends, family from Target Field suite. Star Tribune (Olson) p. 4 Punchless Twins fall 5-3 to Detroit Tigers as Kyle Gibson struggles again. Star Tribune (Berardino) p. 5 Twins sit struggling center fielder Byron Buxton. Star Tribune (Berardino) p. 6 For second game, Gibson can't escape jam. MLB (Beery) p. 7 Dozier's homer not enough for Twins. MLB (Beck & Beery) p. 8 Park placed on 7-day DL in Triple-A. MLB (Beery) p. 9 Hughes looks to build on strong debut. MLB (Beery) p Draft bonus pools, pick values. MLB (Callis) p. 10 Twins pitching staff stumbles in 5-3 loss to Tigers. FOX Sports (Associated Press) p. 11 Real or not? ESPN (Schoenfield) p. 12 It's not too early for the Twins to be concerned about Byron Buxton's dreadful start. Sports Illustrated (Tayler) p. 12 Twins drop second straight to Detroit as Kyle Gibson suffers five-run fourth inning Phil Miller Star Tribune April 13, 2017 DETROIT The preludes to impending disaster are so impressive for Kyle Gibson. But the detonations are so flammable. Gibson has thrown seven marvelous innings in his two starts this season, with barely a whisper of a threat. He s thrown two others, though, that have undone all that good work. On Wednesday, the powder keg erupted in a five-run fourth inning and came in the form of a grand slam by Andrew Romine, the decisive blow in the Twins 5-3 loss to the Tigers. Just like [Tuesday] one swing beat us, said second baseman Brian Dozier, who contributed his first home run of the season. That s the way this game can be. We play well, we pitch well, and we d have two wins here except for two swings. You ve got to have that Mike Tyson knockout punch, and they ve had it. We haven t. Romine s grand slam, the first Gibson has allowed in his five-year career, was more dramatic than the decisive two-run shot that James McCann hit off Hector Santiago on Tuesday, and it came with a flourish, too: a nifty flip of the bat that Gibson said was understandable, not insulting. He put a good swing on it in a big situation, Gibson said. No hard feelings from me. That doesn t mean it should have happened, either, Gibson said. The Twins had provided him three runs with which to work against reigning AL Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer, and instead of pitching aggressively with his fastball, he allowed both Tyler Collins, who drove home a run with a single, and Romine to feast on pitches they could better handle. It s just a matter of continuing to make the same pitches with nobody on as you do when you get in a little bit of danger, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. It looked like his feel for the pitch and his trust in them kind of waned a little bit as the inning wore on. That inning included a leadoff double by Nick Castellanos on a 3-2 pitch, a slider that bounced off Victor Martinez s left foot and a four-pitch walk to Justin Upton.

2 And the home run pitch itself, on a 1-2 count with the bases loaded and two outs? It was the pitch Gibson wanted to throw, in the spot he wanted to throw it. But that down-and-in slider is what Romine wanted, too. If he s going to put that good of a swing on the ball, down below the [strike] zone, he s probably looking for [the slider] in that situation, Gibson said. If you execute a pitch like that and it s a ball out of the zone and they still get the barrel to it and hit it that hard, they were probably looking for it. Wrong pitch at the wrong time. We were still in control, as far as two out, two strikes, 3-1 lead. But [Gibson] got too much of the plate with a slider, Molitor said. Fulmer hung in there. Not his best day, but he walks away with a win because he grinded out six innings. And who could have expected that? The worst part of the loss is that the Twins had waited out Fulmer, running his pitch count to 74 with a 40- pitch third inning. They also loaded the bases with two outs, and Joe Mauer knocked a 3-and-2 pitch up the middle for a two-run single. That gave the Twins a three-run cushion, and it appeared Fulmer s day would be short. But it was Gibson who was gone soon; Fulmer rebounded by lasting three more innings, retiring the final 10 hitters he faced, and the Tigers bullpen didn t allow a hit over the final three innings, either. We had him on the ropes, Dozier said of Fulmer. Gol, we let him get away. That s what s frustrating. You ve got to find ways to stomp on their throats. Brian Dozier ties Twins record for most career homers leading off a game Phil Miller Star Tribune April 13, 2017 DETROIT Brian Dozier hit 42 home runs last season, but only three in April and two in May. So there was no urgency about getting his first one of 2017, no what s-wrong-with-dozier speculation about his seven homer-free games to start the season. And yet I m sure he was a little anxious to get that first one, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. It kind of lingers in the back of your mind, especially coming off 42. Dozier doesn t agree that he had been concerned about that zero, but now it s a moot point. The four-time Twins home run leader belted a 2-1 fastball from Michael Fulmer more than 400 feet to the flagpole in center field, his first home run of the season. He just left it in the middle. I don t think that s where he wanted it, Dozier said. I was just trying to battle. The fact that the homer came in the game s first at-bat was significant, too. It was the 20th time Dozier had led off a game with a home run, tying him with Jacque Jones, now assistant hitting coach with the Nationals, for most in Twins history. That s pretty cool. He was a heck of a leadoff hitter, Dozier said. He was a heck of a player all around. Dozier is a long way from the major league record, of course Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, a former teammate of Molitor, had 81. But the ones Dozier has are meaningful, he said, because he s noticed leadoff home runs might have a carryover effect. First of all, percentages say the team that scores first wins more often, Dozier said. And hitting them on the road kind of puts the opposing pitchers in defensive mode. Time to regroup Byron Buxton played Wednesday, but just barely. When Jorge Polanco and Jason Castro walked in the ninth inning, Molitor had Buxton replace Castro, who represented the tying run. But the game ended without Buxton getting to use his speed. That speed, and his remarkable defensive ability, have kept Buxton in the lineup this season, despite his ineffectiveness at the plate. But after Buxton looked at called third strikes three times Tuesday, Molitor decide the time had come for a break. Buxton was not in the starting lineup for the first time in

3 We re going to back him off today and give him a chance to maybe slow the game down a little bit by watching, Molitor said. We ll get some other people in there who we thought had a good opportunity to have some good at-bats. Buxton hasn t had many of those. With only two hits and a walk in 30 plate appearances, the 23-year-old outfielder has an.069 batting average with 17 strikeouts. I m sure he ll be disappointed, but given how things have gone, it seemed like a good day to back him off, Molitor said. Eddie Rosario moved from left to center, with Danny Santana in left field. Lineup shuffling Speaking of lineups, Polanco checked on it as soon as he arrived at Comerica Park on Wednesday. I never know where I m going to be, the shortstop explained. Wherever it is, I have to be ready. Polanco has batted third, fifth, sixth and seventh this season, and that s come as a surprise not only to Polanco, but to Molitor, who makes those lineups. You re never sure what the right combinations are going to be, Molitor said. I ve talked to all those guys. We re going to have to try to be open-minded about how lineups go from time to time. You might find yourself anywhere from, who knows, second to eighth on a given day. Actually, Polanco has now started at least two Twins games during his career at every lineup spot but cleanup. I like it, Polanco said. It doesn t change what I do. But I like to see where I ll be [each day]. Jack Morris: Joe Mauer should consider changing his hitting approach Michael Rand Star Tribune April 12, 2017 Former Twins pitcher and St. Paul native Jack Morris was on the radio with Dan Barreiro on Tuesday, and the subject inevitably turned to current Twins first baseman and St. Paul native Joe Mauer. Lest you think it was a hot take-fest, it really wasn t. For the most part, it was a nuanced discussion of Mauer, who turns 34 next week and who started Tuesday on the bench in the midst of a 3 for 18 beginning to his season at the plate. That said, Morris also wasn t shy with some criticism when asked by Barreiro about what the Twins have planned for Mauer this year. I don t think there s any question that Paul (Molitor) wants to give him every opportunity in the world to succeed. He ll put him in situations now early in the year where he might not face left-handers as much. If you look at his first week, he made good contact in several of his atbats. He drove the ball sharply right at people. When you put that together with a couple of bad at-bats and all of the sudden you re hitting under.200 and you re the highest-paid player on the team and you re the franchise player, people are going to talk. That s human nature, Morris said. But I know one thing: Paul Molitor believes in him and the organization really believes in him because of his on-base percentage. "It drives me absolutely insane when he ll have guys on first and second and he s the number 4 hitter who is supposed to drive in runs and he s happy with taking a walk. That drives me nuts But you can t argue with the fact that he s on base. He got his walk. He just didn t drive in the run that we needed. This is a common lament from Twins fans when it comes to Mauer, though I think most would agree that he is miscast as a No. 4 hitter even if that s where he started the season in a Twins lineup devoid of a lot of obvious roles. After Morris made the point about Mauer being content to take a walk, Barreiro dug in a little on Mauer s pinch-hitting appearance Tuesday which ended with a soft single that moved the tying run into scoring position in a rally that ultimately fizzled. Barreiro s critique was that Mauer let some fatter pitches go that could have possibly be driven harder, perhaps into the gap to score the tying run. It was a sincere version of the sarcastic not a dinger crowd on Twitter that picks on Mauer for every hit that isn t a home run. But before we pile on Barreiro for piling on a guy who got a hit, let s check in on the larger point in play, which Morris expanded on: It s just hard to argue with the way Joe has approached his at-bats. He s always been a guy to go deep in a count. He s not worried about hitting early in the count, Morris started. But then he added: I can testify as a pitcher your worst pitch sometimes is strike one. I don t know how many pitches I threw right down the middle to Wade Boggs early in his career where he wouldn t even make a pass at it. But later on he realized too many guys are getting strike one to me, and those are the best pitches I m going to get in my at-bat. I m going to start swinging at 3

4 those and he started crushing them. I don t know when Joe will figure that one out or will be willing to try that, but that s what frustrates a lot of baseball fans watching him. Statistics help back up what Morris said, at least to a degree. For his career, Mauer has only put the first pitch in play in 5 percent of his plate appearances. In 2016, that number was even lower: 4 percent. Brian Dozier, by contrast, put 8.6 percent of first pitches in play last season (including eight of them for home runs). Career numbers aren t available for Boggs since Baseball Reference didn t start tracking that data until 1988, but in that season he put the first pitch in play a Mauer-like 5.1 percent of the time. In 1996, at the tail end of his career, he was hardly a free swinger but his rate had gone up to 6.8 percent that season. Boggs walked a little less as his career wore on from once every seven plate appearances through 1991 to once every 8.4 for the rest of his career but cumulatively he remained a.300 hitter from the season in which he turned 34 to the end of his career. It s not a simple as flipping a switch when it comes to changing one s approach at the plate, but Boggs and Mauer are somewhat similar hitters. Mauer still has value when he gets on base regardless if it s via a hit or a walk, but Morris might also be onto something when it comes to evolving his approach at this stage of his career. Minnesota Ballpark Authority to vote Thursday on getting rid of friends, family from Target Field suite Rochelle Olson Star Tribune April 13, 2017 The Minnesota Ballpark Authority (MBA) will vote Thursday on whether to bar friends and family from using a publicly owned suite at Target Field, a policy change in reaction to the outcry over luxury suite use across downtown at U.S. Bank Stadium. The MBA, a five-member public body that oversees the operation of Target Field on behalf of taxpayers, has had access to a suite for the 81- game Twins home season since the building opened in At the regular quarterly meeting Thursday, the MBA is expected to vote to set aside the suite almost exclusively for charities. The MBA also will keep records of who uses the suite. The action is a direct response to criticism over public officials using two 18-person suites at U.S. Bank Stadium. The controversy over suite use at U.S. Bank Stadium, revealed by the Star Tribune in late November, resulted in the resignations of Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA) Chairwoman Michele Kelm-Helgen and executive director Ted Mondale. Before the two departures, the state legislative auditor investigated and found the MSFA s use of the suites for friends, family and other public officials to be an ethical violation. The MBA has been paying attention, according to Dan Kenney, executive director, and Margaret Anderson Kelliher, its chairwoman. Public feedback obviously was strong, Anderson Kelliher said about the suite use at U.S. Bank Stadium. It s a policy that needs to be updated, and we re doing it. The Minnesota House already has passed bills to restrict the use of the publicly owned U.S. Bank Stadium suites, which sell for about $200,000 for a Vikings season alone. The proposals include directing the legislative auditor to study how suites are handled at other stadiums in town, including Target Field. Kenney and Anderson Kelliher said they met with legislative auditor Jim Nobles as they developed the new Target Field policy to make sure they were addressing concerns. The public suite situation at Target Field is different from U.S. Bank Stadium in several ways. At Target Field, the suite, which accommodated 20 guests, was the furthest one down the first base line, but per the Twins request, was recently moved to the third base line overlooking left field. The new suite seats 24. At Target Field, the suite was, and is, part of the MBA office. The two Vikings suites are on the main concourse and above the 20-yard lines. MSFA offices are in a different part of the building. Also, while taxpayers paid for $32,000 in food at U.S. Bank Stadium, there was no free lunch at Target Field. We ve never spent a nickel in public money on food and beverage, Kenney said. 4

5 But since Target Field opened seven years ago, the five unpaid MBA commissioners as well as the four-person paid staff have had access to the suite and no records were kept about who used the suite for games. Under the new policy, records will be kept. The Vikings play eight regular season games at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Twins play 81 at Target Field. Both stadiums received significant public financing. Taxpayers subsidized $350 million of the $545 million cost to build Target Field. U.S. Bank Stadium cost twice as much and taxpayers covered $498 million. In the past, Kenney said, commissioners often gave their tickets to charity, especially for day games. As to whether elected officials or lobbyists were guests, Kenney said, I don t know but I don t think that s the case. At U.S. Bank Stadium, state commissioners, members of Gov. Mark Dayton s staff, Minneapolis City Council members, the mayor and at least one lobbyist were among the guests in the suites. After the publicity, the MSFA barred friends and family from the U.S. Bank Stadium suites. The MBA also will add to its code of conduct on Thursday to expressly prohibit the use or attempted use of public positions to secure benefits, privileges, exemptions or advantages for themselves, friends or family. In addition to using the publicly owned suites, Kelm-Helgen, her friends and family were able to cut to the head of the seniority line to purchase some of the best seats at U.S. Bank Stadium for the Vikings games. Both Kenney and Anderson Kelliher said it s important for commissioners to know how the building works especially as it ages and capital updates become an issue. When a commissioner or staff member wants to bring someone to the suite for business purposes, they will need board approval. The Twins have played three games at home this season. The MBA suite wasn t used for any of them pending the development of a new policy. Some 20 charities have applied to use the suite this season. Other nonprofit organizations interested in using it can apply through the MBA website. Punchless Twins fall 5-3 to Detroit Tigers as Kyle Gibson struggles again Mike Berardino Pioneer Press April 12, 2017 DETROIT Kyle Gibson was cruising until a marathon fourth inning ended his afternoon and cast some level of doubt upon the right-hander s once-promising offseason mechanical revamp. Light-hitting Detroit Tigers outfielder Andrew Romine punctuated the uprising by golfing a two-strike slider for his first career grand slam, sending Gibson and the Twins to a 5-3 loss Wednesday at Comerica Park. Dropping consecutive games for the first time this season, the Twins fell a game behind the Tigers in the early American League Central standings. The Twins have dropped 17 of their past 21 meetings with the Tigers. Since the start of 2015, the Twins are 2-15 against their division rivals over the season s first three months. It s always tough to swallow when you give up a five-spot, Gibson said. One- or two-run innings are going to happen, but when you give up a five-spot there when your team gives you a 3-0 lead it s frustrating, especially when you re close and make a couple pitches and you could get out of it with no runs. Brian Dozier had put the Twins up quickly with his 20th career leadoff homer, tying Jacque Jones for the Twins franchise mark. Joe Mauer extended the lead with a two-run single up the middle off Tigers right-hander Michael Fulmer with two down in a 40-pitch third. Fulmer, voted the top AL rookie in 2016, stabilized from there. After reaching three-ball counts seven times to his first 15 batters, he somehow chugged all the way through the sixth inning and a quality start on 110 total pitches. Armed with a mid-90s fastball and a power change, he needed just 36 pitches to secure his final nine outs. The Twins managed just three baserunners (all walks) over the final six innings as right-hander Alex Wilson recorded the final six outs for his third career save. Consecutive two-out walks in the ninth put the potential tying run on base, but Eduardo Escobar flied to center to end the game. 5

6 We didn t muster too much offensively, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. Fulmer hung in there. Probably not his best day, but he walks away a winner because he grinded out six innings. Back-to-back days we had a chance in the ninth inning and couldn t get a hit. Falling to 4-6 in 11 career starts against the Tigers, Gibson saw his earned-run average climb to 5.25 against them. His season ERA sits at 8.00 after Molitor pulled him following a 32-pitch fourth that immediately followed a seven-pitch third. Surrendering only a Justin Upton double through the first three frames, Gibson saw Nick Castellanos whack a fastball off the wall in left to start the fourth. After slow-starting Miguel Cabrera lined out to right, Gibson went hit batter, walk, run-scoring single to his next three foes. Plate umpire Chris Conroy, who had angered Twins catcher Jason Castro with his generous strike zone in the second, tightened things up considerably in the third and fourth. Gibson seemed to pay for that with a few close calls after starting eight of his first 12 batters with strikes. There were a couple puzzlers but that s not too untypical throughout the course of 300 pitches, Molitor said. It s one of those things you ve got to rise above. After retiring James McCann, Tuesday s home-run hero for the Tigers, on a soft liner to second, Gibson watched Romine connect on just his seventh homer in parts of eight big-league seasons. His career high for homers in a season is two. In retrospect, Gibson said he probably should have stuck with his fastball after Romine struggled to catch up with it earlier in the at-bat. Seven of Gibson s first nine outs were recorded on offspeed pitches, and he suspected Tyler Collins (RBI single) and Romine were both looking soft once he got them to two strikes. I don t think I ve lost any confidence, Gibson said. I ve felt really good out there for probably 95 percent of the pitches I ve thrown. A couple pitches here and there, and I would have a couple pretty good starts. Unfortunately they don t look so good. Twins sit struggling center fielder Byron Buxton Mike Berardino Pioneer Press April 12, 2017 DETROIT Struggling center fielder Byron Buxton was left out of the Twins lineup Wednesday for the first time this season. With just two hits through his first 29 at-bats and a majors-worst 17 strikeouts, Buxton was given a day to clear his head rather than face Detroit Tigers right-hander Michael Fulmer, the 2016 American League Rookie of the Year. It seemed like the right day, Twins manager Paul Molitor said. Fulmer is tough on everybody. I think righties actually do a little better than lefties. It s not a great matchup for a lot of our guys, but I thought it was a good day for Byron to just kind of sit back and hopefully be available late in the game, maybe to make a play or steal a base or do something. Buxton entered as a pinch runner for catcher Jason Castro in the ninth inning of Wednesday s 5-3 loss to the Tigers. He was stranded when Eduardo Escobar flied out three pitches later. Hitting just.069 with one walk, Buxton has seen his swinging-strike rate jump to 24.4 percent through the first seven games. His career rate in the majors is 15.2 percent. In terms of plate discipline, Fangraphs.com has Buxton swinging outside the strike zone 43.3 percent of the time, another stark increase from his career rate of 33 percent. His chase rate is a little more palatable according to Statcorner.com, which lists him at 38.5 percent so far, secondworst among Twins regulars behind fellow outfielder Eddie Rosario (45.8 percent). We re going to back him off and maybe give him a chance to slow the game down a little bit by watching, Molitor said. I m sure he ll be disappointed, but given how things have gone, it seems like a good day to back him off. Rosario slid over to take Buxton s place in center field, with switch-hitter Danny Santana coming off the bench to start in left. Max Kepler, who also can handle center, remained in right field. I m comfortable with all those guys in center field, Molitor said. 6

7 BRESLOW ON TRACK Even with an eight-man bullpen, all but one Twins reliever entered Wednesday with multiple outings, veteran lefty Craig Breslow. Unused since retiring just one Kansas City Royals batter on April 6, giving up a walk and a hit, Breslow has been available throughout. He worked a perfect eighth on 12 pitches Wednesday, striking out two. He has used the downtime to continue tweaking his revamped arm slot and pitch mix. I m working on a couple things, still kind of tinkering and fine-tuning, Breslow said. I feel like every day that I m not pitching is an opportunity to get better. After walking seven in nine Grapefruit League innings, the 36-year-old has been working to get his body more in line with the plate in his delivery. I think the command and consistency was probably going to be the last thing to come when making such a significant change, he said. Taylor Rogers, the other lefty in the Twins bullpen, has made three scoreless appearances. DRAFT BONUSES SET Holding the No. 1 overall pick for just the third time in the 53-year history of baseball s amateur draft, the Twins will lead the way with a total bonus pool of $14.16 million for the first 10 rounds, according to MLB.com. That s nearly $6 million more than the average for the 30 big-league teams. Just six other teams will have $10 million to spend on the first 10 rounds. The Twins have three of the top 37 picks with recommended signing slots of $7.77 million for the top pick, $1.94 million for the 35th selection (Competitive Balance Round A) and $1.85 million for No. 37 (second round). In the first five years of the bonus-pool system, no top pick has signed for more than the $6.5 million the Arizona Diamondbacks gave Vanderbilt shortstop Dansby Swanson in Last year s top pick, California high school outfielder Mickey Moniak, signed for $6.1 million, nearly $3 million less than the Philadelphia Phillies slot allotment. The Twins are strongly considering both California prep right-hander Hunter Greene and University of Louisville left-hander Brendan McKay for the top pick on June 12. BRIEFLY Twins left-hander Hector Santiago had no ill effects after taking a Nick Castellanos comebacker off his pitching hand on Tuesday. Santiago said the ball caught him in the middle of his palm as opposed to the other three times he s been hit on the hand with batted balls. He has never left a start early for that reason. For second game, Gibson can't escape jam Kyle Beery MLB April 12, 2017 DETROIT -- Twins starter Kyle Gibson seemed to be cruising along through three innings of work in Detroit on Wednesday before things got away from him with a five-run fourth inning, capped by a two-strike, two-out grand slam surrendered to Austin Romine. Gibson retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced before that brutal frame knocked him out of the 5-3 loss. That is a similar pattern to what happened in his last start against Kansas City, in which he allowed two baserunners in the first four innings before losing his command in the fifth and sixth and allowing a pair of solo home runs. So far this season, Gibson has pitched nine innings, and he thinks seven of them have been great -- he just hasn't been able to keep his stuff working when he gets into hot water. "I felt like I was getting ahead of guys, using my fastball really well," Gibson said of the first three innings on Wednesday. "My sinker was moving 7

8 pretty well and I made an adjustment this week on my slider and changeup to get my arm angle high enough. I thought that was pretty good. I think I just got in a situation where I didn't throw my fastball enough there in the fourth inning." Through two starts, Gibson has a relatively low WHIP of 1.33 stacked up against an 8.00 ERA. Manager Paul Molitor said he saw some similarities between Gibson's two starts in terms of being close to escaping danger. "He's one pitch away from getting off the field. That certainly changed the outcome of the game with one pitch," Molitor said, of the 1-2 offspeed pitch that Romine blasted to right field. Gibson has struggled to get through the lineup a second time. Romine said he and the rest of the Tigers were able to make adjustments. "I think that was the first time we'd seen him since we played them last year, six months ago, or whatever it was," Romine said. "Obviously, seeing someone for the first time, seeing their pitches, you've got to kind of re-lock it in your head -- 'This is what his pitches do, and this is where they're going to end up.' So I think the second time around, we kind of got a little more comfortable, and saw all the pitches he had thrown." Gibson said he feels he is just a couple pitches away from having two really great starts, and wishes he had stuck to his fastball more in both of his starts. "I'll look back at it and see if there are any patterns, see if there's something I can change," Gibson said. Dozier's homer not enough for Twins Jason Beck and Kyle Beery MLB April 12, 2017 DETROIT -- Andrew Romine's first career grand slam led the Tigers back from an early deficit and pulled Michael Fulmer out of early troubles, sending Detroit to its fifth win in six games with a 5-3 victory over the Twins on Wednesday at Comerica Park. The Tigers' 6-2 record marks the third straight season they've won at least six of their first eight games. The win also moved Detroit out of a first-place tie with Minnesota atop the American League Central. Brian Dozier led off the game with his first home run of the season. In the third inning, Joe Mauer's two-run single seemingly put the Twins in command with a 3-0 lead and Fulmer at 74 pitches. But Nicholas Castellanos' leadoff double brought the Tigers roaring back in the fourth before Romine sent a 1-2 slider from Kyle Gibson deep to right. "I could feel it when I hit it," Romine said. "I hit it on the barrel, so really at that point, when I made contact, it was just a matter of whether it was going to stay fair. Once I realized that, there was a lot of adrenaline going on." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Mauer makes trouble for Tigers: Mauer's 100th career RBI against the Tigers capped an inning in which Twins batters forced Fulmer to labor. Fulmer had a 1-2 count with a runner on first base and two outs before a Max Kepler hit-by-pitch and Miguel Sano walk extended the inning. Mauer battled out of an 0-2 hole to run the count full, then sent a seeing-eye bouncer through the middle. The ball had a 14 percent hit probability, according to Statcast. Romine rakes: Romine had six career home runs, five of them solo shots, when he stepped to the plate in the fourth. His bat flip upon connecting with Gibson's 1-2 offering showed his confidence that it was headed out. The long inning, in which Gibson threw 32 pitches, not only put Detroit ahead -- it gave Fulmer, who retired the final 10 batters he faced, a much-needed breather. "He was pitching his butt off," Romine said of Fulmer. "I mean, that was the least we could do, get him a couple of runs." QUOTABLE "I don't remember the bat flip. I heard about it. I did not mean to flip it. I still haven't seen it." -- Romine, on flipping the bat after his first career grand slam. "He's a pretty good offspeed hitter with two strikes. We saw him get another hit with two strikes off Duffey on an offspeed pitch. It's probably 8

9 one of those ones you want to see him bury it and see if you can get him to expand a little bit." -- Twins manager Paul Molitor, on Romine's grand slam. SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS Romine's grand slam extended the Tigers' home run streak to eight games, their longest to open a season in franchise history. Detroit is the first team to homer in its first eight games since the 2012 Indians did so in their first nine contests. None of Detroit's home runs so far, though, have come from Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez or Justin Upton. REPLAY REVIEW A crew chief review looked at Miguel Sano's third-inning drive down the right-field line to see if it might have glanced off the foul pole before landing foul. After a review, the crew couldn't determine definitively, so the foul call stood. Sano eventually walked. WHAT'S NEXT Twins: Phil Hughes (1-0, 1.50) takes the mound Thursday in the finale of the three-game series. Hughes is making his second regular-season start since his 2016 campaign ended early due to a rib removal surgery to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome. Hughes said he feels he has recovered to full health and Molitor is encouraged by his progress. Tigers: Jordan Zimmermann takes the mound in the series finale looking to build off of his six innings of one-run ball last Saturday against the Red Sox. He didn't miss many bats but kept Boston's lineup off-balance. Park placed on 7-day DL in Triple-A Kyle Beery MLB April 12, 2017 DETROIT -- ByungHo Park was placed on the 7-day Minor League disabled list Tuesday with a right hamstring strain. Park, who was held off the Twins' Opening Day roster despite a strong Spring Training, has six hits and three RBIs in 16 at-bats for Triple-A Rochester. Twins manager Paul Molitor said Park had been playing well through the first four games with Rochester, and he is expecting another update at some point on Wednesday regarding the injury. "A lot of times it's the first or second day you usually get a better feel of the degree of the injury," Molitor said. Worth noting First baseman Kennys Vargas was also held off the Twins' Opening Day roster and has been performing well with Rochester, with a.313 batting average and one home run through the first four games. Hector Santiago took a hard-hit grounder off his left palm during Tuesday's start at Detroit, but said he has no lingering pain. He took a few warmup pitches after the incident to make sure he felt fine, and said he totally forgot about the injury until his dad asked him about it Wednesday morning. Hughes looks to build on strong debut Kyle Beery MLB April 12, 2017 The Twins and Tigers wrap up a three-game series in Detroit on Thursday with the Tigers looking for a sweep and their 18th win in their last 22 meetings against the Twins. Phil Hughes (1-0, 1.50) gets the start for Minnesota, while Jordan Zimmermann (1-0, 1.50) takes the mound for Detroit. After allowing one run over six innings in a win against the White Sox, Hughes is making his second regular-season start since his 2016 season ended early when he had a rib removed to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome. Hughes seems to be doing well both health-wise and on the mound, which is encouraging to Twins manager Paul Molitor. "This spring, as far as results go, [they] weren't great early, but he seemed to get more confidence with his pitches as he got near the end of camp and found a way to get deep in the game his first outing, which was a positive," Molitor said. "I think we'll see a little bit of a different guy with the fact that he's throwing that changeup a lot more than he used to, and he's got that curveball and cutter to go with it." 9

10 Molitor said the team will have to continue to monitor Hughes, but they remain encouraged from a health standpoint. Zimmermann also gave up just one run and four hits over six innings in his first start of the season, picking up a win against the Red Sox. Despite Zimmermann's strong outing, there were a couple of potential signs of trouble. He generated just five swinging strikes on 92 pitches (5.4 percent), and the contact against him was solid. Boston averaged a 92.9-mph exit velocity, the highest single-game mark against Zimmermann in the Statcast Era (minimum 15 batted balls). Things to know about this game Thursday's game was originally scheduled to be broadcast on MLB Network, with no planned broadcast for Fox Sports North in Minnesota. MLB Network is no longer carrying the game, and there will be no TV broadcast in Minnesota, but there will still be a radio broadcast and the game is available on MLB.TV. Hughes has had a bit of a rough time against the Tigers over the last two seasons, going 1-3 with a 5.64 ERA in six starts. His best outing in that span was last May in Detroit when he gave up just one run in 6 1/3 innings of work. Zimmermann's last outing against Minnesota came in May 2016 when he allowed seven earned runs in seven innings but still got the win, thanks to an eight-run first inning by the Tigers Draft bonus pools, pick values Jim Callis MLB April 12, 2017 The Twins not only own the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 Draft, but they also have the benefit of the largest bonus pool. MLB has notified teams of the official allotments, and Minnesota leads the way with $14,156,800 in spending power. Every choice in the top 10 rounds has an assigned value, and the total for each of a club's selections equals what it can spend in those rounds without incurring a penalty. Any bonus money above $125,000 given to an individual player picked in rounds also counts against a team's bonus pool. Besides the Twins, six other clubs have an eight-figure spending pool: the Reds ($13,658,400), Rays ($12,528,100), Padres ($11,839,000), Athletics ($11,407,500), Brewers ($10,447,700) and Pirates ($10,135,900). Cincinnati, San Diego and Tampa Bay follow Minnesota -- in that order -- with choices at the very top of the Draft. The Cardinals have the lowest bonus pool at $2,176,000. St. Louis forfeited its first-round pick by signing free agent Dexter Fowler, and it surrendered its second- and supplemental second-rounders as part of a punishment for former scouting director Chris Correa hacking the Astros' information systems. The pools for all 30 teams total $245,806,800, which averages to $8,193,560 per club. Last year, the industry spent a record $267,451,610 on Draft bonuses, including $38,704,465 after the 10th round. As part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the bonus value for each of the top two picks was reduced to bring them more in line with the rest of the first round. The Twins' No. 1 choice is now allotted $7,770,700, down from $9,015,000 a year ago. The Reds' No. 2 selection is worth $7,193,200, reduced from $7,762,900. Neither Minnesota nor Cincinnati is likely to utilize their full allotment, allowing them to spend the savings on later picks. Mickey Moniak, 2016's No. 1 overall choice, signed for $6.1 million with the Phillies. In five years with the bonus-pool rules, no top selection has received more than the $6.5 million the Diamondbacks gave Dansby Swanson in If a player selected in the first 10 rounds doesn't sign, his pick's value is subtracted from his club's pool. If a team surpasses its allotment, it faces a penalty. A team that outspends its pool by 0-5 percent pays a 75 percent tax on the overage. At higher thresholds, clubs lose future picks: a first-rounder and a 75 percent tax for exceeding their pool by more than five and up to 10 percent; a first- and a second-rounder and a 100 percent tax for more than 10 and up to 15 percent; and two first-rounders and a 100 percent tax for more than 15 percent. In five years with these rules, clubs have surpassed their pool a total of 74 times, but never by more than 5 percent. Twenty-three of the 30 teams outspent their pool last year. 10

11 Twins pitching staff stumbles in 5-3 loss to Tigers Associated Press FOX Sports April 12, 2017 DETROIT The moment he made contact, Andrew Romine could tell he had a chance at his first career grand slam. I could feel it. I hit it on the barrel, the Detroit utilityman said. It was a matter of whether it was going to stay fair. Once I realized that, there was a lot of adrenaline going on. Romine cleared the bases in the fourth inning, and the Tigers rallied from an early three-run deficit to beat the Minnesota Twins 5-3 on Wednesday. Detroit trailed 3-0 before scoring five runs in the fourth, with Romine delivering the key hit when his drive to right field easily cleared the wall to give the Tigers the lead. Michael Fulmer (1-0) allowed three runs and four hits in six innings, walking one and striking out seven. Detroit s maligned bullpen pitched three hitless innings, with Alex Wilson working the final two for his third career save and first this season. With closer Francisco Rodriguez unavailable after pitching the previous two days, Wilson walked two in the ninth but retired Eduardo Escobar on a flyball to end it. Kyle Gibson (0-1) allowed five runs and four hits in four innings. Brian Dozier led off the game with a homer for Minnesota. Detroit has won five of six to take sole possession of first place in the AL Central. The Tigers and Twins entered the day tied for the lead. Minnesota was ahead 3-0 when the Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the fourth. Tyler Collins hit an RBI single, but after James McCann s flare was caught by Dozier, the second baseman, Gibson was one out away from getting out of the jam with the lead still intact. Instead, Romine connected on a 1-2 slider. That was obviously the wrong pitch at the wrong time, because he was waiting for it, Gibson said. I don t think I m tipping pitches, but maybe I m getting into a pattern, because it seemed like Collins was looking for a slider, and Romine was definitely looking for something soft. There s no way he could have gone down and gotten that kind of swing on that pitch if he wasn t looking on it, so it was obviously the wrong pitch. It was only the seventh career home run for the 31-year-old Romine, who quickly flipped the bat away as he started toward first. I don t remember the bat flip, he said afterward. I heard about it. I did not mean to flip it. I still haven t seen it. Reporters had to wait a little while for Romine after the game. He said he d been giving blood for random drug testing, but he was even in good spirits about that. That was immediately when I walked in it was, `You ve got a drug test,' he said. Fulmer, who threw six scoreless innings in a no-decision against Boston last week, was less sharp against the Twins. Dozier put Minnesota up 1-0 with his 20th leadoff homer, tying Jacque Jones for the top spot on the team s career list. Joe Mauer added a two-run single in the third for the Twins, but that was Minnesota s final hit of the game. UNLIKELY SOURCES The Tigers have homered in their first eight games of the season for the first time in franchise history. That s without any home runs from Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez or Justin Upton. We re going to get the bulk of our RBIs from the heart of our lineup when it s all said and done, manager Brad Ausmus said. You need the contribution of players that aren t quote-unquote run producers to produce runs once in a while. TRAINER S ROOM Tigers: Detroit continues to be without J.D. Martinez (sprained right foot) in RF. Collins started there Wednesday and had two hits. 11

12 UP NEXT Twins: RHP Phil Hughes (1-0) takes the mound Thursday when Minnesota tries to avoid a three-game sweep in this series. Tigers: RHP Jordan Zimmermann (1-0) makes his second start of the season. He allowed a run in six innings in a win over Boston on Saturday. Real or not? David Schoenfield ESPN April 13, 2017 The following is an excerpt from the full article: Let's talk about Byron Buxton: The 23-year-old center-fielder for the Minnesota Twins began the season hitting third. That lasted four games, in which Buxton went 1-for-18 with 11 strikeouts. Paul Molitor moved him down to the seventh spot, then eighth. On Wednesday, with Buxton 2- for-29 with 17 strikeouts, Molitor gave him a day off, which certainly seems like a good idea. I guess what I don't understand is why Molitor wanted to hit him third in the first place. After opening the season with the Twins in 2016, Buxton struggled, was sent down, called back up, struggled again, went back down, then came back up in September and hit.287 with nine home runs, slugging.653 in the process. OK, that's a big month, and he homered off some excellent pitchers -- Jose Quintana, Kelvin Herrera, Danny Salazar, Justin Verlander, Chris Sale. That had to do wonders for Buxton's confidence considering he'd hit.199 with a 35 percent strikeout in his career up to that point. Still, it was just one month and the kid struck out in 34 percent of his plate appearances. His control of the strike zone was still questionable and that's why I would have started Buxton out lower in the order instead of putting the pressure of hitting third on a young player who was unproven and still had obvious holes in his swing. Anyway, through these first seven games, he has lost all semblance of a good approach. His chase rate is 42 percent, which is Pablo Sandoval-esque. His swing-and-miss rate is 44 percent. Hopefully the day off will clear his mind. But don't turn him into a No. 3 hitter until you know he's ready. It's not too early for the Twins to be concerned about Byron Buxton's dreadful start Jon Tayler Sports Illustrated April 12, 2017 In the small-sample size theater of April, it s hard to discern meaningful results and stats from the ocean of noise created by just a few weeks worth of at-bats and innings. Still, there are numbers that jump out as indicative of something larger happening. Case in point: Byron Buxton. When we last saw the former No. 1 pick and top prospect at the end of the 2016 season, he was giving Twins fans a new reason to believe that his long-awaited breakout was finally here. After struggling to a miserable.193/.247/.315 line from April through August a stretch that included two separate month-long demotions to Triple A, one in May and another in August Buxton put together a sterling September, hitting.287/.357/.653 with nine homers in 113 plate appearances. Those numbers, as well as some changes to his stance and a newfound proclivity to pulling the ball, gave Buxton some helium as he went into spring training. That he spent his time in Florida hitting for power nine doubles and a homer in 53 trips to the plate didn t hurt. Nor did the stories that came out during the off-season about how Buxton, who has perennially been expected to turn into an All-Star since the age of 18, seemingly found a way to shake the pressure during his strong September. If I don t think, I play a whole lot better, he told MLB.com s Rhett Bollinger in March. [Last] September, I was just loose. Unfortunately, whatever it was that helped Buxton get back on the path to stardom has vanished through the early going of this season. After a hitless performance against the Tigers on Tuesday afternoon, Buxton is just 2-for-29 in his first seven games. Worse, of his 30 plate appearances, 17 have ended with a strikeout a 57% rate. Including Tuesday s game, in which Buxton struck out in all three of his at-bats, he has now swung and missed a staggering 24.4% of the time, the second most in baseball behind the Angels Danny Espinosa. This early in the year, it s hard to tell if Buxton s bad start is a sign of a bigger problem or just a bad stretch that happens to coincide with the beginning of the season. But as ESPN s Sam Miller noted in this piece on Joey Votto (based on research by Baseball Prospectus Russell Carleton), swing rates stabilize much more quickly than traditional rate stats that is, they are generally more reliable in a smaller sample size. And Buxton s swing rates are truly eye-popping, as his approach has been to take a cut at just about everything he can see: So far, he has swung at 57.7% of all pitches he s seen, a huge jump from his excessive 2015 and '16 figures (45.4 and 46.7, respectively). Up, too, is his swing rate at outside pitches (43.3%, from 33.2 last year). And despite all the extra hacks, his contact rates have plummeted, both inside and outside of the strike zone, and his overall contact rate of 57.8% is the third-lowest mark in the league. 12

13 That inability to make contact is now a multi-year issue. Last year, Buxton had a swinging-strike rate of 15%, nearly five percent worse than league average; the season before, it was 13.5, or almost four points higher. In 2016, he made contact just 67.9% of the time he swung, over 10 points below league average and itself a drop from his 70.4% rate in 15. Among all hitters with at least 300 plate appearances last year (Buxton had 331), that 67.9% contact rate was ninth-worst, trailing such hackers as Ryan Howard, Chris Carter and Chris Davis. Even in his stellar September, Buxton still had plenty of issues putting bat on ball. On the month (and including two games in October), he struck out 38 times in 113 plate appearances a 33.6% rate that wasn t much of an improvement from his pre-september mark of 36.7 (80 whiffs in 218 plate appearances). As you can imagine, it s hard to be a productive major league hitter when you re striking out that much: Of the 16 players with 300 or more plate appearances last year with a strikeout rate of 30% or higher, only half were able to post a wrc+ of 100 or better. What s instructive about that sample of hitters is that most of those players are either traditional slugger types (Carter, Davis, Minnesota teammate Miguel Sano) or flashed serious power in abbreviated seasons (Trevor Story, Ryan Schimpf). Buxton s.205 isolated power in 2016 wasn t awful it put him right in line with NL Rookie of the Year Corey Seager but it s not high enough to make up for all the whiffs. Buxton is swinging too often and missing too often, and just as problematic is that the few times he does make contact, he isn t hitting the ball hard, as he has yet to put a single line drive into play this season. The problem isn t just a heavy dose of breaking or off-speed stuff, either; at this point, pitchers are just blowing fastballs right by him. And while it s too early to overreact to a week s worth of action, the Twins have to be worried that so far, Buxton s approach has been a complete mess and that, if the slump deepens, he will once again bury himself under the kind of pressure that derailed his first two seasons in the majors. 13