Let's Remember That Yankees/Twins Instant Classic | Baseball Bits

[Music] the twins and yankees were the teams of 2019 neither one the pin it yet they best characterized what baseball looked like that year in a year dominated by the long ball the twins and yankees produced extreme results topping the all-time leaderboards for iso isolated power they spent the entire year in a maguire sosa-esque chase for the most home runs by a team in a season it was the twins who grabbed the record first with mitch garver hitting number 268 against the tigers in late august but the yankees chased them down the twins actually trailed by two home runs going into the final game of the season lance lynn shut down the bronx bombers while minnesota thrice took jorge lopez deep to finish on top looking at the yankees projected roster that season it wasn't hard to imagine them breaking all sorts of records but judge severino and stanton a trio that was expected to lead the team each suffered injuries judge played in just 102 games while stanton and severino essentially had lost seasons the yankees relied heavily on a misfit cast of players to fill in and they didn't miss a beat on the twin side lineup depth was key they had 8 players hit at least 20 home runs an mlb record it was powered by a huge shift in offensive philosophy as they led the league and pulled fly balls by a strong margin both teams won over 100 games and crews to win their respective divisions the two met in october with the yankees coming out on top before falling to houston in the alcs still both teams had a lot to be proud of and one of those sources of pride has to be what transpired at target field on july 23rd that year [Music] it's the yankees dd gregorius who delivers the initial blow hitting a long double to put the yankees up by two in the first they should call him double play gregorius because he specializes in twin killing with the most famous incident being a three run homer in the 2017 wild card game in 32 career games against minnesota he has hit 345 with 36 runs batted in new york starts the day with domingo hermann on the mound hermon was one of many surprises for the 2019 yankees and he comes into this game with a 338 era and a 13-3 record but having put two runners on in the second inning he's facing a pest control problem that pest is luisa rise unlike his teammates arize is not a home run hitter but he is an extreme hitter he rocked the league's highest contact rate and line drive rate in 2019 he's aggressive but not undisciplined as he walked more than he struck out a single up the middle puts the twins on the board if hermon demonstrated any weakness in 2019 it was the long ball his ratios and walks strikeouts and hits were good but home runs not so much the twins start the bottom of the third with back-to-back jacks first from jorge polanco and next from nelson cruz it was just another instance of cruz fighting off father time as he became just the fourth player to slug 600 in an age 38 season or older look at that company in terms of win probability those two homers put the twins back in the driver's seat we'll be monitoring this graph as the game goes along things get worse in the fourth for hermon double wild pitch single single hit by pitch sacrifice miguel cino comes to the plate in a five to two ball game with a chance to bust it right open so he does that three-run shot that ends herman's day on the other side kyle gibson isn't doing too hot either he has a chance to get out of the fifth with limited damage the only person in his way the twin killer himself [Music] oof still he finishes out the inning and exits in line for the win his chances are further helped by a jorge polanco double that stretches the twins lead to four the next twins pitcher is cody stachek who's making his big league debut it's a memorable one he strikes out three yankees and two innings forcing more swings and misses in 30 pitches than domingo hermond managed in 82 tommy kainley pitches a clean bottom of the 7th and with that this brief era of good pitching comes to an end we're getting to the late stages of this game there's been a lot of scoring but now it's about to get nuts blake parker comes in for the twins he's having a weird season having thrown 36 innings with a 325 era that's good but he also has a 5 33 fip fielding independent pitching that's bad he's about to experience a relief pitcher's greatest enemy regression to the mean with glaber torres on first jio urschala is the man in the batter's box and he's having himself a year the yankees acquired him from the blue jays in 2018 for cash considerations an injury to miguel anduhar opened up a chance for urshela to contribute and he took it coming into this game he's hitting 300 and slugging nearly 500 for new york and his great play continues with a double off parker up next is another yankee misfit turned star in mike talkman he never established himself with the rockies but the yankees sought out his services he was thrust into the lineup after some key injuries to yankee outfielders including giancarlo stanton talkman drives in torres with a double of his own it's another surprise success story for this year's squad at the end of the season talkman and urshela two role players practically given away by their former teams will finish as the fourth and fifth most valuable players on the new york yankees absolutely preposterous a two-run air and judge double brings the yankees within one and also sends blake parker packing literally he was dfa the next day and finished the season as one of many replacement philly's bullpen arms with two outs in the inning ryan harper is facing oh dear lord not again lifted in the air right center and deep kepler back at the wall leaping and he dropped it two runs will score with that two run double the yankees are once again in control of the win probability they total five runs in the eighth and get the lead back zach britton seems like the perfect yankee solution to this powerful twins lineup britain's greatest strength is his home run suppression allowing fewer long balls per nine innings than any pitcher over the previous five seasons he keeps the ball down with his signature sinker ball a pitch that has allowed him to generate a ludicrous 76.9 percent ground ball rate why am i telling you all this so you can be just as shocked as every hardcore baseball fan when miguel ceneaux does this back in front miguel puts one into orbit a majestic two-run blast our wpa graph is flipped on its head once again with the twins now likely to win this game going into the ninth and what a ninth inning it was [Music] in a game as close as this one the twins have been forced to adjust their pitching strategy they happily brought in stacejack to pitch some low leverage innings with a solid lead but they can't pull any punches in a one run ball game taylor rogers it is after a couple deep fly balls from gleber torres and giorchella the twins are just one out away from ending this intense game it's taylor rogers vs mike talkman after strike one target field is on its feet the crowd roars as rogers gets strike two on a lovely frame job from jason castro coming into this duel when probability already gave the twins a 96 chance of winning the game now the odds are even higher because rogers is in a favorable position talkman takes ball two then ball three and on full count he takes his base that brings up aaron hicks hicks was once teammates with his opponent after years of struggling as a twin he turned a corner with the yankees and established himself as one of the american league's top center fielders at least when healthy yet hicks is in a tough position here the talkman walk only slightly nudged the yankee's wind probability but as any reliever can attest it only takes one mistake hits this one deep in the air to left field that ball is gone aaron hicks a seismic shift the yankees move from an eight percent chance of winning to 79 percent with one swing of the bat it's one of the greatest wpa hits of the entire season the yankees now lead this game 12 to 11. judge tacks on a double but edwin incarnation strikes out before new york can add any insurance runs with the yankees now suddenly in position to close this one out the ball is handed to a rallis chapman the cuban missile throughout his career he has been the definition of unhittable rocking the highest strikeouts per nine and second lowest hits per nine of any post-integration pitcher with at least 500 innings pitched since the pitch fx era began in 2008 eraldis chapman's left arm is responsible for the 36 hardest thrown pitches the league has seen in 2019 he averaged 98 miles per hour on his fastball but in this appearance he's a couple ticks behind that's scary but there's an even more obvious warning sign he can't find the strike zone 12 of his first 17 pitches are taken for balls when max kepler walks to load the bases the twins are suddenly in a great spot to walk it off chapman occasionally has games like this against oakland in 2018 he also walked the first three hitters he faced but he got out of it unscathed jorge polanco lines out it's deep enough to score the tying run the game-winning run remains on second nelson cruz lines out to center and with two outs eddie rosario can't quite punch this ball over the infield we're going to extra innings that trio of batted balls from polanco cruz and rosario would have walked it off had any of them dropped for hits individually they weren't struck particularly well but according to expected batting average they collectively had a 68 chance of walking it off unlucky it's an inning of regret the twins were one strike away and couldn't get it done the yankees could have gotten an extra insurance run the twins should have further capitalized on chapman's mistakes the yankees regret letting this game get into extras in the first place yet on we go [Music] cole stewart takes the mound from minnesota he's more of a pitch to contact guy and he gets his first out on a deflected ground ball from dj lemayhue stewart then leaves his sinker ball too high in the zone for dd gregorius who capitalizes with what is this his ninth hit of the game austin romine follows it up with a little chip shot single of his own and suddenly the go-ahead run is in scoring position steward is floundering he finds himself in a 3-0 count against gleber torres for many batters what comes next is automatically a pitch you should take make the pitcher throw a strike but gleber torres likes to swing on a 3-0 count he's one of just nine hitters that batted five balls on a 3-0 count in 2019 it's risky as you can forfeit a highly advantageous situation but sometimes you're in a spot where a knock is far more valuable than a walk and this is one of those times swinging and lining a base hit into right center field gregorius rounding third he will score another huge wpa shift as the yankees lead 13 to 12. after a wild pitch to talkman romine scores from third mike t eventually grounds out to end the inning but the damage has been done the twins trail by two adam odovino is next out of the yankees super bowl pin he famously spent one off season on a diy pitcher's mount in harlem cooking up something diabolical you basically have to play a guessing game with him he throws a sinker with a two seam grip that does this and a cutter that does the exact opposite those two pictures are so complementary and i haven't even talked about his slider he once got dansby swanson to swing at a pitch that was closer to the on deck circle than the plate three different pitches three different speeds three totally different types of movement one atom out of vino he begins the inning by striking out miguel ceneaux but like chapman before him locating the nasty stuff becomes an issue for ottovino he walks marwan gonzalez on five pitches and then luis arias comes to the plate he's as pesky as it gets arize craves contact but he knows when to be patient he fouls off a pitch on full count then ultimately walks anavino sets up the double play ball with the perfect low two seamer and game of inches each team has had so many chances to close this one out yet we continue mitch garver steps into the batter's box and this is not the guy you want to deal with garver entered this game homering in over 10 percent of it bats and already took cece sabathia and luis cesa deep in the previous game this ends up being an unintentional intentional walk ottavino simply doesn't offer up a pitch to hit his day is over but the game has reached its climax base is loaded two outs chad green takes the bound and i don't envy him with dylan potanzas injured the yankees have used all five of their notable relievers in one game it really is playoff baseball in july one interesting stat for relief pitchers is leverage index it basically tells you how much pressure any given plate appearance is under the average is one with anything higher representing higher leverage spots the top five high leverage guys generally sit around two and two and a half on average over the course of a season right now chad green is going in to face one batter the leverage index is over seven the man applying that pressure is max kepler who takes ball one then green earns a call strike kepler responds by earning ball too he's doing a great job of seeing green stuff a double in the gap is just what he needs to walk it off in dramatic fashion max kepler has just hit a baseball very hard 103 miles per hour to be exact in this moment he too becomes a spectator the only thing he can do now is watch every ball strike twist and turn subverted expectation quirky baseball set and awkward tangent has led to this there's nothing more i can tell you so just enjoy the 2-1 kepler aligns that in the air to left-center hicks on the run dives and he made the catch they made the play oh my goodness what a catch yep yep that's some good baseball right there except for the part when the yankees won i personally don't care for that but good baseball nonetheless [Music] hey new patrons thank you so much for your support to see your name here you can go to patreon.com foolish baseball take care [Music] you

Channel: Foolish Baseball

Views: 650,511

Keywords: yankees twins highlights, twins yankees july 23, yankees vs twins 14 12, mlb best game ever, mlb game of the year, twins yankees 2019, yankees twins, aaron hicks, aaron hicks catch, aaron hicks catch vs twins, miguel sano, nelson cruz, luis arraez, didi gregorius, aroldis chapman, yankees twins home runs, yankees twins home run chase, twins single season home run record, mlb, baseball, minnesota twins, new york yankees, foolish baseball, baseball bits, mlb 2019 highlights

Id: PsBjzL1dqeM

Length: 15min 20sec (920 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

One of the greatest games and defensive plays I’ve ever witnessed. Truly absurd.

[u/Hairygrim]

The best game you could ever show to someone to get them into baseball. My favourite thing is that whereas usually you can guess the outcome of a game on YouTube because of the remaining time on the video, this is unpredictable until literally the final second

[u/damien_maymdien]

would prefer not to

[u/MightyMinnesota]

/u/foolishbaseball, you missed the part in the 8th where Rocco was ejected for arguing strikes after a slider to Voit that should have ended the inning, right before Gregorius' double.

[u/Monk_Philosophy]

Jesus I forgot about that final play.

[u/paperfisherman]

Yep, yep that's some good Foolish Baseball right there.

I will never forget this game. Just incredible. I still get chills watching the Hicks catch.

[u/CrowTR2]

"With two outs in the inning Ryan Harper is facing...

Oh dear Lord not again"

[u/cabose7]

Rucco really killed it with the calls that game

[u/A_few_prawns_short]

This game is a great example of how poor WPA is at determining the impact of defensive plays. Because the Yankees already had an 82% chance of winning this game before the final batter, the WPA for the final play was only 18%. Whereas we all know whether that ball is caught or not actually represents a 100% swing in the game's outcome.