Here are three quick thoughts following the Twins' 4-2 loss to Detroit:
MOLITOR HAS PROBLEMS WITH RULING: The Twins didn't look to have a chance at a double play in the eighth when Niko Goodrum was forced out at second, but Goodrum looked to come a little bit across the bag while sticking his leg out. Twins second baseman Logan Forsythe didn't attempt a throw as Goodrum collided with him, knocking him off of balance. Again, I don't know if he had a chance at a double play, but the slide looked illegal to me. The umpires decided to review the play (not a Twins challenge) but they decided that there was no interference. It looked so to me. Twins manager Paul Molitor was not happy with the decision. Umpire crew chief Larry Vanover even came over to Molitor to explain the decision - which you don't see very often after these replays. "Well, I was a little disturbed by it," Molitor said of the ruling. "With this new rule in place, and the criteria of a bona fide slide, I don't feel that the slide met those things. There's things in there about having to try to make an attempt to make a throw, but we've clarified in the past that when certain things happen, the guy's not going to throw the ball ... just throw it away and then have it not overturned, then you're stuck with the guy on third who's gonna score and everything else. I didn't like the explanation, I don't really agree with it, and I'm gonna follow up tomorrow with some people and see what I can get, if I can get a little bit more clarification on why they made the ruling that they did."
HIILDY GETTING HIT: That's five straight shaky outings for reliever Trevor Hildenberger, who was charged with four earned runs during the game-changing eighth inning. His ERA over his last five outings is 29.73. When he's not throwing hittable pitches, he's getting outlasted during engthy battles with hitters before yielding hits. Nothing is working right now. ""We talked to the guys about doing some things differently this week, giving some people different opportunities to get outs in different slots," Molitor said. "It's just one of those things. You throw a first pitch to a guy who you don't know a lot about and he gets a base hit. Some guys put together some good at-bats. The patience in particular after getting ahead and working a walk. We all know Castellanos is a pretty darn good hitter. We had a chance to contain at 2-1 and keep ourselves in the game but after the slide and McCann's good at-bat off Trevor, we couldn't make that up at the end." Not the way to finish a season. I think Hildenberger can be a solid set-up man, but he's got to learn the hitters so he can stay one step ahead of them.
GARDY ON MAUER: Didn't have time to get this in for the dead tree edition, but here's Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire on Joe Mauer passing Harmon Killebrew to become the Twins all-time leader in times reaching base: "Anything Joe does, I'm really proud for him and happy for him. Wonderful baseball player, one of the best I've been around and he's still playing. Who know what he's going to do after this year, but if you play long enough – that's what they're always going to say – if you play long enough you're going to start setting records. But that kind of record and that kind of name, that's putting yourself up there with one of the best players I've ever had the chance to see and meet in Harmon. When you're name starts passing guys like that, that means you've done something."
