Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Wednesday, September 14, 2016
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Wednesday, September 14, 2016 Twins rip Detroit 8-1 as Kyle Gibson cruises. Star Tribune (Neal lll) p. 1 J.J. Picollo interviews for Twins baseball director job, sources say. Star Tribune (Neal lll) p. 2 Kyle Gibson, Jorge Polanco lift Minnesota Twins past Detroit Tigers, 8-1. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 3 Minnesota Twins have interviewed Royals assistant J.J. Picollo, source says. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 4 MN Twins’ video plea to season-ticket holders: Stay with us. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 5 Gibson, Polanco lead way as Twins thump Tigers. MLB.com (Beck and Bollinger) p. 7 Polanco drives in four, triple shy of cycle. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 8 Twins' May done for season with back injury. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 9 Royals' Picollo up for Twins' front-office job. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 9 Anibal, Tigers continue playoff push vs. Twins. MLB.com (Beery) p. 10 Polanco has 4 RBI, Gibson strong in 8-1 Twins win over Tigers. Associated Press p. 11 Preview: Twins at Tigers. The Sports Xchange p. 12 MLB Rumor Central: J.J. Picollo a candidate in Twins' GM search. ESPN.com p. 13 Twins rip Detroit 8-1 as Kyle Gibson cruises La Velle E. Neal III | Star Tribune | September 14, 2016 Kyle Gibson wasn’t satisfied Tuesday night. He wanted to finish what he started in an 8-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers. “He wanted to go back for the ninth,’’ Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “He was pitching well, but [108] pitches in mid-September — I just didn’t see the benefit of rushing him out there.’’ Molitor used that same argument with Gibson after he finished the eighth. But the righthander had a counter-argument. “I had to remind him that I missed six weeks,’’ said Gibson, who spent time on the disabled list this season. “So it was the beginning of August for me.’’ Nice try. Molitor was just happy to put the Tigers away early on the way to the victory at Comerica Park. Gibson held the Tigers to one run over eight innings, only the second time in 12 games this month a Twins pitcher has gone at least seven innings. Gibson’s trip was made easy by Brian Dozier, Jorge Polanco and Kennys Vargas, who each had three hits. Polanco was a triple shy of the cycle. Vargas hit a solo home run. It enabled the Twins to end an 11-game road losing streak, which tied for the fourth longest in club history. The Twins’ last win on the road was Aug. 17 at Atlanta — when Gibson tossed a complete game. “Being up 7-1 in the fifth inning makes it a lot easier to go on the attack,’’ Gibson (6-9) said. The Twins took a 2-0 lead in the first on Robbie Grossman’s single to center, then took a 5-1 lead in the third behind a two-run homer by Polanco and a sacrifice fly by Kurt Suzuki. The first three hitters in the Twins lineup — Dozier, Polanco and Grossman — combined to go 6-for-6 with a home run and three doubles after two trips to the plate. With two outs in the fourth, Polanco worked a six-pitch at-bat before hitting a two-run single to center to give the Twins a 7-1 lead. Tigers fans booed as manager Brad Ausmus walked to the mound to replace lefthander Matt Boyd with righthander Buck Farmer. The game was set up for Gibson to make a deep run and keep the Twins’ leaky bullpen out of the game. After throwing only 33 pitches over the first three innings, Gibson loaded the bases in the fourth but threw three consecutive changeups to Jarrod Saltalamacchia before getting him to pop out and end the inning. Gibson pitched 22 pitches in the fourth, but retired the next six batters on a total of 23 pitches. Dozier was 3-for-4 with a walk and ran his career-best hitting streak to 17 games. Vargas added a solo homer in the ninth. “Offensively, we backed it up,’’ Molitor said. “The top of the order did a nice job.’’ May done for season Righthander Trevor May will not pitch for the remainder of the season after experiencing more back pain after pitching Sunday in his first appearance since coming off the 15-day disabled list. “In a matter of a couple pitches, the symptoms returned,’’ Molitor said. “He finished it out the best he could. He told us when he came off that we were back to Square 1.’’ May will fly to California to be examined by specialist Dr. Robert Watkins on Monday. May finishes the season with a 2-2 record and 5.27 ERA in 44 appearances. He was placed on the 15-day DL on Tuesday — the third time this season that he’s landed on it because of a back-related issue. “It’s terribly frustrating,’’ Molitor said. “You can’t quite figure out the exact source of why you’re having the problem. You start thinking about the worst-case scenario. I think he’s going to be OK over time.’’ Acting general manager Rob Antony said he would like May, once he gets over his back issues, to return to starting next season. “Hopefully, he can win a spot in the rotation,’’ Antony said. Etc. The Twins named righthander Jose Berrios the starter for Friday’s game in New York against the Mets. He worked on fastball command during a bullpen session Tuesday. Third baseman Miguel Sano said his back still was bothering him Tuesday after it forced him out of Monday’s game. He will need a couple of more days off. Molitor hopes that first baseman Joe Mauer (sore right quadriceps) can play Wednesday. J.J. Picollo interviews for Twins baseball director job, sources say La Velle E. Neal III | Star Tribune | September 14, 2016 Two more names have surfaced in the Twins search for a leader of their baseball department, but only one of them turned out to be a candidate. J.J. Picollo, a vice president and assistant general manager with Kansas City, has interviewed for the position, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the search. The same sources also have confirmed that the Twins reached out to former Boston GM Ben Cherington, but he declined an interview, citing personal reasons. 2 These are the latest known developments as the Twins seek to restructure their front office and join a growing trend of teams that appoint a director of baseball operations, who then will hire a general manager. The Twins remain in the initial phase of finding someone to lead the baseball department, and have conducted several interviews in the Twin Cities and out of town. They have worked off a list of candidates they assembled along with suggestions from executive search firm Korn Ferry. Picollo, who was interviewed last week when the Royals faced the Twins at Target Field, is considered one of the up-and-coming executives in the game. Dayton Moore was hired from Atlanta in 2006 to take over baseball operations and, shortly thereafter, brought in Picollo from the Braves to be the director of player development. Since then, Picollo has moved up the ranks. He became the assistant GM in charge of scouting and player development in 2008 and currently is their vice president/assistant GM in charge of player development. Under Moore and Piccolo, the Royals reached the World Series in 2014, losing to the Giants, then won it last year. Picollo interviewed for the Phillies’ GM job during that run but lost out to Matt Klentak. Picollo, 45, was drafted as a catcher in 1989 and ’93 by the Reds, then played a season in the Yankees organization. Cherington immediately was mentioned as a candidate when the Twins position become open, and it seemed like a forgone conclusion that he would be a target. He worked his way up the ranks with the Red Sox, finally getting his chance as GM before the 2012 season. When Dave Dombrowski was hired as president of baseball operations during the 2015 season, Cherington decided to resign. Cherington spent the past academic year teaching a “Leadership in Sports’’ class for the Columbia School of Management. The Twins were unable to get Cherington to interview for the job, indications are that they ended up picking his brain about potential candidates. On Monday, the Twins received permission to speak with Jason McLeod, the Cubs’ senior vice president of scouting and player development. The Twins could have interest in other Cubs officials as well. The Twins also have been linked to current Dodgers executive Alex Anthopoulos — who used to run the Blue Jays — but indications are that he never was a serious candidate. During an interview last week, Twins President Dave St. Peter said he believed that a new baseball boss could be installed by the end of October. The Twins even pushed back their deadline for the first installment for 2017 season tickets, one reason being that fans would then have time to learn who was hired. On the surface, hiring someone with a team in the playoffs — such as the Cubs — would be problematic. But the Twins could announce a hire while allowing that person to finish out the season with that club. Rob Antony, named acting GM on July 18 after Terry Ryan was dismissed, still is expected to interview for the position. Kyle Gibson, Jorge Polanco lift Minnesota Twins past Detroit Tigers, 8-1 Mike Berardino | Pioneer Press | September 13, 2016 Kyle Gibson didn’t go the distance this time, but he went far enough to reverse a disturbing downward trend.