The #MNTwins have their work cut out for them for the rest of the homestand as they’ll face the National League East Division-leading Atlanta Braves for 3 games before facing division foe, the Cleveland Indians, for 4 games.
Major League Baseball chose the Players of the Week for both Leagues today and…
They chose Toronto Blue Jays 3B Vladimir Guerrero, Jr over @Twins DH Nelson Cruz. You tell me if they made the right choice:
Guerrero, Jr:
.500/.536/.962 (AVG/OBP/SLG) (13-26) w/3 2Bs, 3 HRs, 11 RBI & 5 Rs w/2 BBs & 2 K in 6 games.
Nelson Cruz:
.500/.600/1.667 (AVG/OBP/SLG) (6-12) w/2 2Bs, 4 HRs, 10 RBI & 5 Rs w/2 BBs & 3 K in 5 games.
What do you think? Less than half the at-bats, all hits were extra-base hits, 1 less run batted in, 2 more home run. Wonder how they choose? Is there a tiebreaker?
New York Mets RHP Noah Syndergaard was the National League’s Player of the Week.
Alright. On to the game. RHP Jake Odorizzi is on the mound against Braves RHP Mike Soroka for a good pitching duel.
The game went scoreless until the bottom of the 4th with Soroka setting down 11 in a row to begin the game but the Twins then hit 4 straight singles with the last one being a 2-run single with the bases loaded from 2B Luis Arraez to take a 2-0 lead.
The Braves got one of those runs back in the top of the 5th on 1B Freddie Freeman’s 27th HR of the season off the top of the left-field wall.
Max Kepler saw Freeman’s HR and did him one better by going out to center field for his 31st HR of the season. Max Kepler has 31 HOME RUNS!!! WOW!!! Just an awesome season from Max!
Jake Odorizzi had a decent start but his pitch count got high early. He battled through 6 innings and left in line for his 13th win with the score at 3-1 Twins.
RHP Ryne Harper replaced Odo and he struck out the first batter he faced then allowed back-to-back singles. A passed ball in between those hits allowed Ronald Acuna, Jr to advance to 2nd base then score on the Ozzie Albies single to get within 1 run at 3-2. Jake Cave got eaten up by a bad hop on that 2nd single allowing Albies to advance to 2nd. Harper then got Freeman to fly out to left for the 2nd out and was then replaced by Twins manager Rocco Baldelli with RHP Tyler Duffey to face 3B Josh Donaldson and Tyler’s first pitch was a hanging curveball that Donaldson laced to left-center field to tie the game. Duffey got a popout to end the inning but the damage was done and the game was all square at 3 runs apiece.
RHP Trevor May was summoned from the Twins bullpen after not pitching for a couple games since getting a win by throwing 1 pitch in the 1st game against the Kansas City Royals. He walked Adam Duvall to lead off the inning then struck out Matt Joyce because Trevor May Strike You Out. He then induced a 4-6-3 double play to end the 8th inning but…
He came out to pitch the top of the 9th and got Charlie Culberson to line out to center before allowing a single to Ronald Acuna. He then got Ozzie Albies to fly out to center. Acuna tagged up and advanced to 2nd to get into scoring position but Trevor struck out Freddie Freeman to end the 9th on some 98mph High Heat! TREVOR MAY STRIKE YOU OUT!!!
On to the bottom of the 9th we went with Eddie Rosario, Marwin Gonzalez & Luis Arraez due up at the plate.
The Eddie chants slowly grew in volume but he softly grounded out to 1st for the 1st out then Marwin grounded out to 2nd for the 2nd out so it was up to Luis Arraez to make something happen and keep this game from going into extra innings. He blooped a 96mph inside fastball into left field to reach and bring up Ehire Adrianza but Rocco decided to pinch-hit for Ehire with Miguel Sano and give the Twins a chance to end it with his power.
Sano took the first pitch, a low slider for a called strike, then he got an outside cutter that he liked A LOT because he hit it off the limestone of the facing of the 2nd deck in center field for a Walk-Off HR, his 19th HR of the season, an absolute blast that had an exit velocity of 109mph, a launch angle of 29 degrees, an apex of 96 feet and it traveled 443 feet or….
A SANOOOOOOO-DOUBTERRRRR!!!!
#MNTwins Pitching:
Odorizzi: 6IP 5H 1R/ER 3BB 7K
Harper: 0.2IP 2H 2R 1ER 0BB 1K
Duffey: 0.1IP 1H 0R/ER 0BB 0K
May: 2IP 1H 0R/ER 1BB 2K 1 Win (5-3)
#MNTwins Hitting:
HR-Kepler (31) Sano (19)
Sano-1-1-Walk-Off 2-R HR in the bottom of the 9th!
Arraez-2-4-2-R 1B, R
Rosie/Cruz-1-4-R
Castro-1-3
Marwin-1-4
Adrianza-0-2-BB
Polanco-0-4
Cave-0-3
The Twins will continue this 3-game series against the Atlanta Braves tomorrow night at 7:10pm and it will be Twins RHP Jose Berrios (10-5, 2.80 ERA, 1.10 WHIP) on the mound against Braves RHP Mike Foltynewicz (2-5, 6.37 ERA, 1.42 WHIP) on Fox Sports North.
