After a three-game set in Seattle that started with a win on Friday night, the Twins were on track to come away with another series victory. Instead, they left with two brutal walk-off losses in a row, and both came with the same familiar question hanging over the ninth inning: should Derek Shelton have intentionally loaded the bases?
On the surface, Saturday and Sunday looked like carbon copies. Tied game.
Bottom of the ninth. One out.
Shelton had a chance to put the force play in every spot and chose not to. But the two decisions weren’t built the same way, and only one really invites a second guess.
Saturday’s spot came first. Seattle had runners on first and third after the Twins intentionally walked Julio Rodríguez, and Cal Raleigh came up with one out in the ninth and the score tied. Shelton had two choices: put Raleigh on and create force outs everywhere, or let Andrew Morris attack him.
That call was defensible. Raleigh had gone 0-for-4 with three strikeouts before that at-bat, and Josh Naylor, a left-handed hitter, was waiting on deck. Raleigh didn’t look like he had the ball figured out, so there was logic in trusting the matchup and letting the closer go after him.
The Twins even got the contact they wanted. Raleigh rolled a routine grounder to first that should have ended the inning with a double play.
But Royce Lewis had a costly lapse. After fielding it, he stepped on first base, wiping out the force at every bag, then hesitated before throwing home.
Once the runner had to be tagged instead of forced, the throw wasn’t enough, and Seattle walked it off.
That ending hurt, but it doesn’t automatically make the decision wrong. Shelton chose the path that leaned on his defense to finish a play that should have been there.
Sunday is the one that looks far shakier. Again, the game was tied in the ninth with one out, but this time Seattle had runners on second and third and top prospect Colt Emerson at the plate against Yoendrys Gómez. Shelton again had the option to load the bases and bring up Leo Rivas, the No. 9 hitter.
He passed on it and pitched to Emerson.
That’s a much tougher choice to justify. Emerson wasn’t in the same spot Raleigh had been the night before.
He wasn’t coming off an 0-for-4 day with three strikeouts, and he had the platoon edge against Gómez. By walking him, the Twins would have set up force outs everywhere and pushed Rivas to the plate.
Rivas entered the game hitting just .127.
There was always the chance Seattle could pinch-hit Rob Refsnyder or Mitch Garver for Rivas. Even then, Minnesota would still have had the force at every base, and Refsnyder came in hitting just .140. Both Refsnyder and Garver bat right-handed, which would have also given the Twins the platoon advantage.
Instead, Shelton stayed with Emerson, and Seattle made him pay. Emerson lined the game-winning single before Rivas ever had to hit.
It’s easy to judge a move by the result, and intentional walks have burned plenty of managers before. But these two decisions deserve different treatment.
Saturday was a sound process that ended in a defensive breakdown. Sunday looked like a real missed chance to avoid one of Seattle’s best young hitters and force the Mariners to beat a struggling No. 9 spot.
The outcomes were the same. The reasoning was not.
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