The Minnesota Twins have lost 11 of 13 and currently have the 2nd worst record in the whole league at 7-13 which, of course, means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of a 162-game baseball season. They’re 6.5 games back of the 1st place Kansas City Royals (14-7), 4.5 games back of 2nd place Chicago White Sox (12-9) & 2 games back of Cleveland, their opponent tonight & for the next 3 games.
After yesterday’s 2nd straight 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli spoke about getting going & getting into a normal baseball routine:
Rocco and the Twins aren’t making any excuses. They’re just thinking getting into a regular, back-to-normal routine will help them get out of this slump.
One Twinsaction was made that might help, too, as the Minnesota Twins activated SS Andrelton Simmons from the COVID Injured List (IL) and optioned SS Nick Gordon to the Alternate Training Site.
It’s sad for Nick Gordon because he didn’t get to make his MLB Debut but he did get to spend time with the big club and see how they do things and being called up shows the Twins recognized the work he’s putting in and that he’s close to making that debut soon.
Here’s how the teams lineup for Game 1 of 3 tonight:
How about this for irony? The Twins put OF/1B Alex Kirilloff at 4th in the lineup to give their top prospect a greater chance at success but then look at who is hitting 4th for Cleveland and it’s the guy Alex Kirilloff has or will replace in former Twin OF Eddie Rosario. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.
Eddie Rosario says he has “definitely no hard feelings” towards the Twins and he’ll remain forever grateful to the organization and the fans. Says he took it as a challenge when he was non-tendered.
RHP José Berríos (2-2, 3.00 ERA, 0.95 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched)) will take the mound to try to be the stopper of this losing slump & hopefully the start of a winning streak and back to Twins winning & he’ll be opposed by RHP Zach Plesac (1-3, 6.75 ERA, 1.34 WHIP)
Minnesota Twins Lineup:
Cleveland Lineup:
Minnesota Twins RF Brent Rooker’s 2020 season ended when he was hit by a pitch that fractured his right forearm. That pitch was thrown by RHP Zach Plesac. In the top of the 2nd inning, Rooker came to the plate to face Plesac for the first time since that injury and it’s not hard to believe he was looking to do something against Mr. Plesac. Well, on the very first pitch, Plesac threw a 94mph fastball right down the pipe and 5 seconds later, that ball left the park for Rooker’s 1st HR of the season and that had to feel good.
That HR put the Twins up 1-0.
In the top of the 4th, Minnesota Twins Top Prospect OF Alex Kirilloff got his first Major League Hit*, a double to left center field. It’s nice to see the kid finally get rewarded on another good swing. Hard to imagine Alex Kirilloff not having a nice, long Major League career filled with A LOT of Hits that will include A LOT of doubles & A LOT of Home Runs! This double (also a first) put Nelson Cruz into scoring position.
*It’s technically his 2nd 1st Major League Hit but his 1st 1st Major League Hit was in the Postseason so it isn’t recognized as his first Major League Hit. He’s the 1st player to get his first Major League Hit in the postseason. We assume he’s also the first player to have 2 first Major League Hits, a first first & a second first!
Jorge Polanco hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 4th to score Nelson Cruz from 3rd as they ran on Eddie Rosario but beat the throw home to make it 2-0 but Eddie would get them back with an RBI-double in the bottom of the 6th to get Cleveland within 1 and the very next batter, Franmil Reyes, would tie the game at 2 with an RBI-single.
In the top of the 8th, Jake Cave led off the inning with an infield single and 3 batters later, Luis Arraez hit a 2-out RBI-single to score Cave from 2nd (advanced on an Adrelton Simmons groundout to short) to take a 3-2 lead.
Twins RHP Tyler Duffey took over in the 8th inning. He got Jordan Luplow to ground out to 2nd then started out 3-0 against 3-time Silver Slugger 3B José Ramírez. He got a called strike then got him to swing at an outside fastball to get the count back to full but he hung a curveball that went into the seats just inside the right-field foul pole to tie the game. Another mistake pitch costs the Twins as it seems there are very few Twins relief pitchers who have good command so far this season, LHP Taylor Rogers & RHP Hansel Robles come to mind with maybe RHP Jorge Alcala among that group, too.
The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 9th on a groundout & two swinging strikeouts and LHP Taylor Rogers took over in the bottom of the 9th. He allowed a leadoff single then got a swinging strikeout then Andrés Giménez doubled to left field but defensive replacement Tzu-Wei Lin got to it and got the ball in quick enough to keep the runner at 3rd. The next batter grounded into a fielder’s choice to 3rd and Josh Donaldson threw Josh Naylor out at home then Rogers got Cesar Hernandez to ground out to short to end the 9th and send the game into extra innings.
The Twins had Willians Astudillo, who replaced Brent Rooker & took over at 1st base (Kirilloff moved from 1st to RF), at 2nd base to start extra innings. Jake Cave grounded out to short to begin the inning but Astudillo advance to 3rd. Andrelton Simons then struck out swinging & Ryan Jeffers grounded out to short to end the top of the 10th.
In came RHP Alex Colomé who had seemed to do nothing but struggle even though he does have 2 saves on the season. He only threw 2 pitches and the 2nd pitch left the yard for a walk-off HR off the bat of Jordan Luplow and the tough stretch for the Twins continues.
Game Notes
For the Twins or any team going through a tough stretch, you have to take the positives and move on to the next game. In this game, they took a lead in the 8th but their margin of error is so small, and losing makes players tense up and maybe try to be too fine that they maybe make more mistakes because of it. Nobody is perfect and you can’t be perfect. You just try to be as good as you can be every time you play. Being tense and worried about bad things happening is not how you should play the game. You have to get back to having confidence in your abilities to have success.
Will this bad stretch end easily? Not likely. The Minnesota Twins will have to battle out of this and get one or several big plays from at least one guy.
Byron Buxton appeared to have done that when he hit the 2-run HR in the top of the 10th in Oakland but they couldn’t hold the lead due to walks and 2 errors.
The battle never ends no matter if you win or lose.
Forget about it and get ’em tomorrow, fellas!
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