The #MNTwins had a battle on their hands last night as the Kansas City Royals battled back to tie the game at 6 then got within 2 after the Minnesota Twins made it 11-6 with a 5-run 7th.
Everyone says division games are easy in the American League Central and, yes, the division is weak but they are still games against teams that know you and also want to play spoiler to your good season.
The Twins had RHP Kyle Gibson on the mound tonight against LHP Danny Duffy but first, there were some #Twinsactions made today.
The Twins placed OF Byron Buxton (left shoulder subluxation) & RHP Michael Pineda (right triceps strain) on the 10-Day Injured List (IL) so they recalled OF Jake Cave & RHP Zack Littell from AAA Rochester.
They also activated 1B C.J. Cron off the 10-Day IL after they optioned LHP Lewis Thorpe to AAA last night.
There was another rather big Twinsaction today…
The Twins Inducted RH RP Joe Nathan into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame. It’s always fun to see the former players get together to reminisce about the old days. In a fun moment, Joe Nathan had his son Cole throw him the first pitch of the game and his son, before the pitch, , took a deep breath and blew it out his mouth making his lips flutter just like his dad. Dad rose up to applaud his son like, “That’s my boy!” Haha!
Alright, now to the actual Twins Action! See what I did there? Twinsaction to Twins Action because it’s the action of a Twins…NEVERMIND!!!
So…the hottest hitter in the Twins lineup and the hitter that sat out 3 interleague games because he’s a Designated Hitter AND the reigning American League Player of the Week, Nelson Cruz, got the scoring underway with another BOOM as he homered for the 28th time this season to put the Twins up 2-0 (Jorge Polanco walk.) It was an opposite-field home run that landed about 4 runs up and only about 10 feet inside the foul pole so…it was a blast but maybe not the blast we expect from the BoomStick.
But, the big takeaway from it is he’s using the whole field and Twins fans hope another Boomer in Miguel Sano is watching Mr. Cruz very intently and learning that he too can hit the ball out to any part of the field.
Back to the action. In the top of the 2nd, the Royals cut the lead in half when Jorge Soler hit his 29th HR to the upper deck in left field. They tied the game at 2 later in the 2nd on an RBI single that scored Nicky Lopez, who had reached on a throwing error by 2B Jonathan Schoop.
The Twins responded with 5 runs in the bottom of the 2nd that began with C.J. Cron’s 19th HR of the season, a blast off the limestone in center field above the juniper wall. A Schoop single and a Mitch Garver walk brought Jorge Polanco to the plate and on an 2-0 inside fastball, Jorge turned on it and sent it into the stands in left field for his 17th HR of the season. That brought Nelson Cruz up and he got an 0-2 hanging slider and he launched it into the downtown Minneapolis night for his 2nd HR of the game and his 29th of the season. It went 466-feet into the upper deck in left-center field!
Torii Hunter said Kirby Puckett would call hanging sliders gifts from God and they shouldn’t be missed. That one wasn’t missed! Gift Received!
They then added 2 more runs in both the bottom of the 5th on 2 RBI-singles from Max Kepler & C.J. Cron, and, in the bottom of the 6th…
Luis Arraez singled to lead off the inning. Garver struck out and Polanco lined out to bring Nelson Cruz back to the plate and he got another Gift that he sent out to right field for his 3rd HR of the game and his 30th of the season. He hit 3 HRs in a game for the first time in his 15-year career in Chicago on July 25th. He must’ve enjoyed doing it so much, he did it again just 10 days later. He’s the first player to have multiple 3-homer games after turning 39-years-old.
He did strike out in his 3rd at-bat just so you know they did get him out once.
GEEZ! Someone asked if he might win AL Player of the Week again even though he’s only played in 4 games. I replied with “That could almost work in his favor.” I mean, everyone else played more games and he still had 4 HRs, 2 doubles and 10 RBI in just 9 at-bats! WHAT!
Alright, back to tonight’s game. Kyle Gibson had a very good start, going 6.2 innings and allowing just 4 hits, 2 earned runs (1 unearned) and 2 walks while striking out 6. He did get into trouble in the 7th and had to be pulled, though. The bullpen (Ryne Harper & Cody Stashak) cleaned that up and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings allowing just 1 hit and no walks while striking out 2.
For the most part, it was a good night all around. Should we worry that teams keep coming back or is that something they should expect as the team leading their division?
#MNTwins Pitching:
Gibby: 6.2IP 4H 3R 2ER 2BB 6K 1HR 1 WIN (11)
Harper: 0.1IP
StashaKK: 2IP 1H 0R/ER 0BB 2K
#MNTwins Hitting:
Cruz-3-4-3 HRs (28,29,30) 5 RBI
Cron-3-4-HR (19) R, 2 RBI
#JoPo-3-R HR (17), BB, 2 R
Arraez-2-4-R
Kepler-H, R, RBI
Marwin/Schoop-H, R
Garver-BB, R
