Minnesota Twins Recap at Pittsburgh Pirates – 8-6-2020

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Robb
Twins go for the series & season sweep of the Pirates today.

The Minnesota Twins go for a series & season sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and also try to extend their winning streak to 7 games with RHP Kenta Maeda on the mound against Pirates RHP JT Brubaker. Twins 2B Luis Arraez gets the day off so Marwin Gonzalez gets the start at 2B and Ehire Adrianza will start at the hot corner.

The Twins have done a great job of jumping on teams early. So far, this season, the Twins have scored 16 runs in the 1st inning and 15 in the 2nd inning.

2020 Minnesota Twins Scoring Summary through August 5th, 2020

They added to that today as they struck again in the early going. RF Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd but SS Jorge Polanco singled to right field then, after DH Nelson Cruz popped out to 1st for the 2nd out, he stole 2nd base for his 1st stolen base of the season. LF Eddie Rosario walked and the ball 4 pitch (pitch #9) was a high and way outside fastball that allowed Polanco to advance to 3rd. That brought up 1B Miguel Sano and he took a slider for strike one but then turned on a low, inside fastball and turned a scoreless game into a 3-0 game and may have “broke left field” with a line drive HR (3) just inside the left field foul pole. It for sure sounded like he left a mark on at least one seat. BANG! 3-0 Twins

“…and that one broke left field.” – Pirates Play-By-Play announcer
#TheSoundsOfTheGame

Twins starter RHP Kenta Maeda got 3 flyouts in the bottom of the 1st. The Twins then got a leadoff single from Ehire Adrianza but C Alex Avila grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to put 2 quick outs on the board and empty the bases. CF Byron Buxton came to the plate and hit the ball hard to the Pirates 3B Phillip Evans but he couldn’t handle it right away and knowing it was the speedy Buxton who hit the ball, panic set in quickly but he couldn’t grab the ball quick enough so his Speed Tool allowed Buxton to reach on an error. Unfortunately, Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd again to end the half inning.

The Pirates led off the bottom of the 2nd with 2 singles from 1B Colin Moran and LF Bryan Reynolds. RF Gregory Polanco was either looking for the curveball or just likes what he saw and launched a 3-run Game-Tying HR into the river!

Into the drink! Gregory Polanco ties the game with a HR that lands in the river!

Maeda then set down the next 14 straight Pirates, striking out 4 of them (swinging) before walking Josh Bell with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th. The next batter grounded out at that’s as far as Kenta Maeda would go today. Kenta Maeda’s line:6IP 3H 3R/ER 1BB 4K 1 HR and he was in line to get his 3rd win of the season when he left.

Pirates starter JT Brubaker was taken out after the 3rd and replaced by RHP Cody Ponce and he gave up 2 hits, 1 walk and struck out 3 in those 3 innings. The 2 hits were big hits but before those happened, he got a friendly call on strike 3 to Alex Avila & Avila flipped his bat back to the dugout in response to the obviously low pitch:

Not a Strike! Blue that call!

So, Avila should’ve been on 1st with a walk when Byron Buxton comes to the plate next and ends up doing this on the 2nd pitch of the at-bat for his 1st HR of the season. Rosie got his in the 5th for his 3rd HR of the season. 5-3 Twins

Buxton (1 & Rosario (3) hit HRs in the 4th & 5th innings off Ponce.

The Twins had 3 hits & 1 walk in the final 4 innings, all singles from Cruz (2) & Adrianza and the walk went to Alex Avila on basically the same pitch he was called out on in the 4th. Come on, Blue!

The Twins brought in RHP Tyler Clippard for the 6th and he allowed a single but also struck out 2 in a scoreless 7th. RHP Sergio Romo pitched the 8th and walked the first batter he faced, CF Jerrod Dyson. Dyson then sandwiched stealing 2nd & 3rd around a Adam Frazier flyout then scored on an RBI groundout to 3rd to get within 1 at 5-4. Romo struck out Josh Bell to finish off the 8th with a 1-run Twins lead still intact.

Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought in LHP Taylor Rogers to close out the game. He gave up a leadoff single to Colin Moran on one of those just-trying-to-make-contact swings. Moran was pinch-run for by Cole Tucker. Bryan Reynolds then doubled down the 3rd-base line to advance Tucker to 3rd. Rogers struck out Gregory Polanco swinging for the 1st out and Pirates manager Derek Shelton then pinch-hit right-handed Kevin Newman for JT Riddle and this happened:

Pinch-Hit Walk-Off 2-run single from Pirates SS Kevin Newman

That’s a tough loss as the Minnesota Twins bullpen has been great so far this season but this is going to happen every now and then. This Twins team will respond the right way when they play the Kansas City Royals in KC tomorrow night at 7:05pm with:

LHP Devin Smeltzer (1-0, 11.57 ERA) on the mound and against RHP Jakob Junis (0-0, 4.15 ERA).

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Minnesota Twins Recap at Pittsburgh Pirates – 8-5-2020

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Robb
Minnesota Twins RHP Randy Dobnak started tonight’s game in his hometown!
How did he do?

After sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 2-game series at home, the Minnesota Twins will now try to do the same thing on the road as they head to Pittsburgh for a 2-game series.

It’s been so long since we’ve seen baseball on the east coast that I completely spaced on the game starting an hour earlier and the weirdest part about that is I usually post the game time in the recap but, for some reason, I didn’t do that last night & I really don’t know why.

The Twins have won 5 consecutive games but they haven’t been the same exciting, crazy-offensive numbers games us spoiled Twins fans have become used to. Consider this, in the 1st 3 games, these Twins scored 27 runs (10, 3 & 14) against the White Sox. In the last 8 games, they’ve scored 31 runs and in the last 5 (all wins), they’ve scored 22. That’s 9 runs per game in the 1st 3 games down to under 4 per games (3.875) in their last 8 games and 4.4 in the 5-game winning streak. 4 runs per game is not as exciting as 9 runs per game but…

Winning is exciting and in those same categories, they went 2-1 in the first 3 games then 7-1 in the last 8 games and, of course, 5-0 in their last five games to equal a league-leading 9-2 record and they’ve done it with pitching and timely and/or a lot of offense and it’s been awhile since Twins fans could be proud of their team on both sides of the ball. The pitching may be as good as it’s ever been and now we get to focus on one of the exciting young pitching prospects with RHP Randy Dobnak pitching tonight and it’s a big deal since Pittsburgh is his hometown.

In July, Randy Dobnak started 2 games, Game 2 in Chicago (& Game 2 of the season) and the 2nd game against Cleveland last Friday, July 31st. He is 1-1 in those starts have pitched 9 innings total, 4 in Chicago and 5 last Friday vs Cleveland. He allowed 3 hits & 2 walks in each start and 1 run & earned run in Chicago but no runs against Cleveland. He also struck out 3 in Chicago and 4 vs Cleveland for an ERA of 1.00 and a WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched) of 1.11.

So…how would he do tonight? He had never faced the Pittsburgh Pirates before so it’s likely that most of them didn’t know him but they do have Manager Derek Shelton who was the Minnesota Twins Bench Coach in the 2019 season so he knows him pretty well.

This was a pitching battle as only one run was scored in the first 8 innings of the game and that run was scored by the Twins in the top of the 2nd on a Marwin Gonzalez bloop 2-out single down the 3rd base line that scored Jake Cave from 2nd base. The ball actually landed on the 3rd-base/left field line and Pirates 3B Erik Gonzalez was chasing it down so the umpire couldn’t actually see the ball so he called it foul. The Twins challenged the call and it was overturned. 1-0 Twins.

There were only 7 hits and 3 walks in those 8 innings, too. That means there was some good pitching and the Twins Randy Dobnak was a big part of that. He went 6 innings pitching scoreless ball through all 6 and he allowed just 3 hits and no walks while striking out 1. One of those hits was a Josh Bell double so it’s easy to tell he had a great day. With the injuries to the pitching staff, it’s expected that Randy Dobnak will keep his spot

Only 2 of the 7 hits in the first 8 innings were of the extra-base variety, both of them being doubles, 1 for each team, Luis Arraez for the Twins and Josh Bell for the Pirates. A 1-0 game can definitely be exciting but the 9th really brought excitement because 6 runs were scored in that inning and 5 of those came off HRs.

A 1-0 game is exciting because the game can change on one swing of the bat so it’s always nice to get some insurance runs for your closer. The top of the 9th began with a CF Byron Buxton double, his first of the season, and it’s hard to believe the Twins and manager Rocco Baldelli would choose anyone other than the speedy Byron Buxton to be on 2nd base with no outs when wanting to expand their lead.

2B Luis Arraez flew out to left field for the first out then C Mitch Garver walked so the Pirates made a pitching change to bring in RHP Dovydas Neverauskas to face 1B Marwin Gonzalez and try to keep the game within reach for his offense. Marwin, a switch-hitter, was batting from the left side and he took the first pitch, a curveball inside, for a ball. The next pitch was a 93.3 MPH fastball right down the middle and Marwin did not miss it. He lined it to left-center to score Buxton from 2nd. 2-0 Twins.

Oh…but it wasn’t over yet. 3B Ehire Adrianza struck out looking for the 2nd out but that brought up RF Max Kepler who has been taking very good at-bats all season long and coming into this at-bat, he had 5 walks & 1 sacrifice fly in his last 8 plate appearances and had walked in his previous plate appearance on this night. He took 2 low fastballs for balls so he was ready for another fastball and, surprisingly it came and he crushed it to deep center field to change a 2-0 lead to a 5-0 lead as you can see (and hear) from the replay at the top of the article. Such a Sweet Sound, The Crack of the Bat!

That allowed Twins manager Rocco Baldelli to sit down LHP Taylor Rogers because there’s no reason to use your closer in a 5-run game. That meant young and recently called up RHP Jorge Alcala would get another chance to show what he can do on the mound. He’s known for having some control problems but he has good stuff and he showed it against the first batter. Even though it took 7 pitches, he blew a 97.6 fastball by JT Riddle for a swinging strikeout.

He then walked Adam Frazier but got Kevin Newman to fly out to right field. That brought up Josh Bell and he was having a good night with 2 previous hits including a double. He had to foul off a 1-2 slider and he must’ve been looking for that fastball because he hit a 97.4 MPH High Fastball out of the park to put the Pirates on the board and get them within 3 at 5-2.

Jorge Alcala took care of that by getting Colin Moran to strike out swinging (on a check swing attempt) to end the game on 97.4 MPH HEATER!!! Yeah, 97 MPH should work out alright in the bullpen.

So…the Twins extend their winning streak to 6 games and will go for series & season sweep tomorrow with RHP Kenta Maeda (2-0, 1.64 ERA) on the mound.

Pittsburgh will send RHP JT Brubaker to the mound. He’s only pitched in 2 games this season, one 2-inning outing and one 3-inning outing. We thought he was maybe going to be an opener but he’s started 99 of the 101 games he’s played in his 5-year minor-league career so they were just getting him some work . In those 5 innings this season, he’s allowed 4 hits and 1 walk while hitting one batter and striking out 7.

THE GAME TIME IS 12:35pm tomorrow and it will air on the MLB Network and on Fox Sports North.

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs Pittsburgh Pirates – 8-4-2020

Posted on August 4, 2020 by Robb
Minnesota Twins RHP Jose Berrios started his 3rd game of the season today.

Minnesota Twins pitchers seem to be dropping like flies through the 1st 2 weeks of the season. The Minnesota Twins were already without RHP Michael Pineda due to last season’s suspension so he’ll be like a trade acquisition in late August/early September.

But, since the begining of the season, 3 starting pitchers have had to be placed on the 10-Day Injured List (IL), RHP Jake Odorizzi before the season started with a right intercostal* strain, RHP Homer Bailey 2 days ago for Right Biceps Tendinitis and today, LHP Rich Hill for left shoulder fatigue (retroactive to July 31st).

So…start getting loose at home, everyone, and try to get stretched out so you can go at least 4 innings for the Twins because the bullpen can probably handle the last 5, right?

That being said, the Twins had their #1 starter, Jose Berrios, on the mound to day to try to complete a sweep of this short 2-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Jose had the good stuff today. Maybe not the Great stuff but the good stuff as he went 6 innings and only allowed 1 run while also allowing 4 hits and 3 walks but striking out 6. He struck out 2 in the 1st, 3 in the 2nd and 1 in the 3rd. All of them were swinging strikeouts, too. That’s a sign of good stuff.

During those 6 innings, Jose’s offense put up 7 runs for him to work with.In the bottom of the 1st, Max Kepler led off with a walk because he must’ve had his Walkin’ Shoes on but more on that later. Jorge Polanco flew out to LF for the 1st out. Nelson Cruz then singled up the middle to advance Kepler to 2nd. Eddie Rosario kept the train moving with another single to center field, this one scores Max Kepler to put the Twins up 1-0.

Miguel Sano then hit a double (2) down the 3rd base line that scores Cruz to double the leadd and Rosario advanced to 3rd. Luis Arraez then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Rosie and it was 3-0 Twins in the 1st.

Berrios gave up 2 of his 3 walks in the 2nd inning and a single loaded the bases with 1 out so he struck out CF Jarrod Dyson & former Twins C John Ryan Murphy to get out of it with no damage done. (Don’t mention the Trade, please! Thank You!)

In the bottom of the 2nd, Alex Avila struck out to lead off the inning but Byron Buxton got his 2nd hit of the season on a slow grounder but Byron’s speed forced the 3rd baseman to hurry his throw so that throw sailed over the 1st baseman’s head as Buxton glided to 2nd base. Kepler followed with his 2nd walk of the game. (Is it the shoes?) and Jorge Polanco also walked and the bases were loaded. Nelson Cruz singled for his 2nd hit of the game to score Buxton and keep the bases loaded. 4-0 Twins. Rosario popped out to 3rd & Miguel Sano struck out swinging.

Berrios allowed a single after striking out the first batter be he induced a ground ball for a 4-5-3 double play. That was also a “Shifty” double play. The Twins had the shift on for left-handed hitter Josh Bell so 2B Luis Arraez caught it closer to 1st base and threw to Marwin who was near 2nd base and then threw to 1st. That’s how it turns into a 4 (2B)-5 (3B)-3 (1B) double play. Good shift!

The Pirates scores their 1st run off a sacrifice fly from Gregory Polanco. It scored LF Bryan Reynolds from 3rd after he tripled off the center field wall with 1 out in the inning. Buxton was playing the bounce off the right center field part of the wall but it came off pretty quick and got past him. 4-1 Twins

Nothing doing for the Twins in the 3rd but in the 4th, Buxton led off by popping out to 2nd then Max Kepler walked for the 3rd time (were his teammates starting to look at his shoes, at least?). Kepler then stole 2nd base. He left on the pitch but there was no pitch because the catcher didn’t catch the pitch. Nelson Cruz then singled to left field to load the bases once again and former Twins Bench Coach and new Pirates Manager Derek Shelton decided that was it for his starting pitcher, RHP Joe Musgrove, and he brought in LHP Sam Howard to face Eddie Rosario. Well, Rosie doesn’t care about your lefty so he singled to left field to score Kepler but a great throw from LF Bryan Reynolds got Jorge Polanco out at home. 5-1 Twins

Miguel Sano struck out looking but the payoff pitch was outside so it should’ve been a walk as you can see below. (Pitch 7)

Sano strikes out looking on that 7th pitch, a fastball that is clearly outside.

In the 5th, there was an on-field delay because a drone was being flown over the ballpark so the teams were sent off the field and into their dugouts until they could get it out of there. 9 minutes or so later, they sent the players back out on the field to start the game again. Why would anyone be flying a drone in downtown Minneapolis in the middle of the afternoon. I wonder if that drone is gone now and/or how much did it cost the?

In the bottom of the 5th, the Twins scored 2 runs off Sacrifice Fly balls after they loaded the bases again. This time, it was off walks from Luis Arraez and Alex Avila with a single from Marwin Gonzalez between them. 7-1 Twins

Both teams went down 1-2-3 in the 6th. Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli brought in just-called-up LHP Caleb Thielbar for his 1st MLB outing since back in late April of 2015. He pitched 2.1 innings and almost earned his 1st career save but he allowed 2 runs to score with 1 out in the top of 9th. RHP Trevor May came in and finished the game. Thielbar allowed 5 hits in those and 2 walks and those 2 runs while also striking out 3 in those 2.1 innings.

After the game, Caleb talked about how long & difficult a road it’s been for him with Marney Gellner of Fox Sports North:

Stat of the Day:
In the bottom of the 8th, Max Kepler walked for the 4th time in the game. His other plate appearance was a sacrifice fly so…

Bottom line, the Twins won their 5th game in a row and now head to Pittsburgh to play a 2-game series there looking to extend that streak to 6 & 7.

The pitching matchups as of right now:
Tomorrow Night:
Twins RHP Randy Dobnak (1-1, 1.00 ERA) vs Pirates RHP Trevor Williams (0-2, 5.40 ERA)
Thursday Night:
Twins RHP Kenta Maeda (2-0, 1.64 ERA) vs Pirates RHP JT Brubaker (0-0. 0.00 ERA) as an Opener?

THANKS for Reading Our ‘Takes! We’d love to hear your ‘Takes! That’s why we call it…

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs Pittsburgh Pirates – 8-3-2020

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Robb
Can the Minnesota Twins make it 4 in a Row?

It’s already a weird season for obvious reasons. The #MNTwins played their 8th game of the season tonight and it’s August 3rd.

It’s especially weird when you’re only playing 9 teams in the regular season and more of those teams are from the National League than the American League but hey, it is what it is!
So, playing a National League team this early means players are probably not very familiar with the other team’s pitchers. Tonight, the Minnesota Twins faced LHP Derek Holland and he’s spent the majority of his career in the American League but that didn’t seem to matter as he went through 5 innings giving up just 2 singles in 14 at-bats and striking out 5.

Meanwhile, Twins starter LHP Lewis Thorpe gave up a HR on the very 1st pitch of the game and ended up allowing 3 runs on 6 hits & 4 walks while striking out 3.

Recently called up RHP Jorge Alcala took over in the 5th and allowed a leadoff single to Josh Bell. Bell then advanced to 2nd on a passed ball and later scored on a single to right field that Max Kepler didn’t get the best jump on to make it 4-0 Pirates. It was ruled an unearned run because of the passed ball. Alcala had a better 2nd inning of work, going popout, strike out and line out to end his night.

On to the bottom of the 6th and the Twins had some words for the home plate ump that may have changed the game but Twins batters seemed to take better at-bats, too. Whether that was because it was getting late in the game and/or because Pirates starter Holland was reaching the end of his rope, who knows but they Garver walked with 1 out then Arraez grounded out for the 2nd out. Nelson Cruz singled to right field to score Garver. Sano walked and that brought up Max Kepler.

Max hit the ball hard in his 1st 2 at-bats, a single to center in the 2nd and a lineout to a diving 2B in the 4th. This time, he hit another ball right on the screws and it fooled Pirates CF Cole Tucker so it sailed over his head to score 2 and make it 4-3 and that was it for Derek Holland.

The Pirates brought in LHP Miguel Del Pozo and he proceeded to walk Marwin Gonzalez then Jake Cave then throw a Wild Pitch that allowed Kepler to score to tie the game at 4. He then walked bases loaded to bring up Ehire Adrianza and he hit a blooper to left that was caught by a diving Bryan Reynolds to keep the game knotted at 4.

RHP Matt Wisler then pitched 2 perfect innings with 2 strikeouts and yes, they were both on sliders! The Twins only had a walk in the 7th and another Max Kepler single in the 8th but neither turned into anything so it was on to the 9th.

LHP Taylor Rogers came in since there would no longer be a save situation. He allowed a leadoff single but got 2 flyouts and a groundout on a great defensive play by Marwin Gonzalez to end the inning. He made a barehanded play on a weak grounder to 3rd to get Tucker at 1st to end the inning.

So…it’s the bottom of the 9th, now.

Rocco pinch-hits SS Jorge Polanco for Ehire Adrianza to face former Twins draft pick and prospect RHP Nick Burdi who throws some fireballs up there and JoPo battles to get the count full then gets another one of his just-trying-to-make-contact hits to left field. A Pirates passed ball allowed Polanco to advance to 2nd. Mitch Garver walked abd Luis Arraez lines out to deep right center and the CF & RF almost collide to make the play. Both Polanco & Garver tagged up and advanced a base so runners on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out and Nelson #TheBoomStick Cruz coming to the plate…

The result is the highlight at the top…a deep fly ball to center field that ends up being a Walk Off single and the Twins Win their 4th game in a row!

They always seem to get back in the game and you have to love that as a Twins and a baseball fan! It’s fun to watch!

What do you think, #TwinsTakers?

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs St. Louis Cardinals – 7-28-2020

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Robb
Time to Open up the 2020 Season at Target Field

The Minnesota Twins won their first road series and now come home to start an 8-game homestand with 2 against the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 against the Cleveland Indians & 2 against former Twins bench coach Derek Shelton’s Pittsburgh Pirates.

Tonight the Twins have 5th starter RHP Homer Bailey on the mound and CF Byron Buxton returns to the lineup. They’ll face Cardinals RHP Carlos Martinez who is also their 5th starter. Homer Bailey became kind of a different pitcher last season after struggling from the end of the 2014 season through basically 2018 due to arm (elbow ligament then Tommy John surgery) and knee injuries. Last season, he signed a minor-league deal with the Kansas City Royals with an invite to Spring Training and he’s revived his career since then and doing very well after being traded to the Oakland Athletics a couple of weeks before the trade deadline last season. The Twins saw that and kept their eye on him as an option for this season and, well, here we are.

Bailey didn’t look great in the start last Wednesday in the one exhibition game the Twins played in Chicago against the Cubs (3.0IP 5 H 4 R/ER 2 BB 3 K & 3 HR) but it was the first real competition in about 20 weeks so we probably shouldn’t take much from that, right?

It is kind of curious that Twins LHP Rich Hill who is now supposed to be the Twins 4th starter is pitching tomorrow night, though. The Twins wanted to give him another day to rest which is why they pushed him back from starting the 2nd game of the season on Saturday and had RHP Randy Dobnak start.

A lot of good stuff happens on Opening Day and this year is no different for the Minnesota Twins. They pregame had special videos celebrating the ones we’ve lost in 2020 (including prospect Ryan Costello who died suddenly last November), 60 Seasons of Twins Baseball and the Heroes of COVID-19, namely the Nurses, Doctors and Medical personnel who have bravely walked into work every day to help the thousands of people who have contracted Coronavirus.

Here are the lineups:

Homer Bailey allowed just a walk in the 1st inning, getting a groundout and 2 flyouts. The Twins got two 1-out singles from 3B Josh Donaldson & SS Jorge Polanco then Cardinals P Carlos Martinez tried to pickoff Donaldson at 2nd which allowed both runners to advance a base. DH Nelson Cruz popped up to 1st for the 2nd out which brought up LF Eddie Rosario and he was intentionally walked* to load the bases and get to Mitch Garver. That’s pretty crazy but apparently the Cardinals don’t want to pitch to Rosario in big spots or, at least, they don’t want Carlos Martinez to pitch to him or… they think Mitch Garver is an easier out as a right-handed hitter. Garver ended up grounding out to 3rd to end the 1st inning so good call, right? It’d be nice to know what their thoughts were there.
*Because Rosie walked here or was walked here, play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer had noted that Josh Donaldson had 100 walks in the 2019 season. Rosario has said he’d like to walk more this season so in Rosie’s next at-bat, Rosie took a close pitch outside then he goes up 3-0 and Dick says, “Talked about Josh Donaldson walking 100 times last year, Rosario may do that.” Analyst & former Twins player Roy Smalley replied with, “Calm Down Over There.”

In the 2nd inning, Bailey got a line out and a strikeout before walking RF Dexter Fowler and then getting a lineout/grounder back to the pitcher. The Twins led off the inning with a Luis Arraez single to right field followed by a Miguel Sano double down the 3rd base line advancing Arraez to 3rd. Buxton came up for his 1st at-bat of the season and he hit a grounder to the shortstop Paul DeJong and he thought he had a chance to get Arraez at home but, if you see the play, he doesn’t really make a quick throw. He kind of takes his time and Arraez makes a great slide to beat the throw so the Cardinals don’t get an out. Max Kepler singles in Sano from 2nd and Buxton advances to 3rd but he scores on Josh Donaldson’s sacrifice fly. Jorge Polanco then comes up and homers to right field for the 1st Home Run at Target Field in the 2020 season. 5-0 Twins.

Bailey allowed a double in the 3rd inning but struck out the side other than that hit. The Twins went down 1-2-3. In the 4th, Bailey allowed a 1-out single but then got a double play to end the inning. The Twins got a Home Run from Josh Donaldson, his 1st of the season and as a Twin but his 11th at Target Field overall because well, he used to terrorize the Twins at the plate when he’d play here with the Blue Jays, hitting 9 over 11 games from 2015 to 2017. Before that, he only hit 1 in 8 games from 2010 to 2014. He didn’t play at Target Field in 2018 and didn’t hit any home runs last season when he played for the Braves but we can finally say Welcome Back to Target Field and actually mean it. 6-0 Twins.

The top of the 5th began with a Dexter Fowler single to right field and LF Tyler O’Neill then put the Cardinals on the board with his 2nd HR of the season to center field. 6-2 Twins

The Twins didn’t get a hit after RHP Carlos Martinez was removed from the game with 2 outs in the 4th inning. The Cardinals got 3 hits including a Tommy Edman solo HR off of RHP Trevor May that Byron Buxton probably should’ve caught as it bounced off his glove and over the center field wall. Trevor May struck out the side in that 8th inning. 

RHP Tyler Clippard pitched a scoreless 6th, giving up a single. RHP Cody Stashak pitched the 7th and only gave up a 2-out double while striking out 1 and RHP Sergio Romo, who was warming up when Trevor May was on the mound in the 8th, ended pitching the 9th and allowed a baserunner on a hit by pitch but ended the game with a swinging strikeout to earn his 1st save of the season and Homer Bailey his first win of the season and as a Twin.

Bailey’s Pitching Line: 5.0 IP 4 H 2 R/ER 2 BB 4 K 1 HR 1 WIN 

Some people wonder why a healthy LHP Taylor Rogers wasn’t brought into the game. We figured it was because Romo was already warmed up but after checking an Aaron Gleeman article on The Athletic, our theory was verified as you can see from this quote:

Baldelli explained after the game that Rogers going unused, and Sergio Romo getting the save, was simply about Romo having already gotten “up and hot” when the Twins were ahead 6-2. Tommy Edman’s homer off Trevor May made it 6-3, but Baldelli decided to stick with Romo — who has 129 career saves — rather than warming up Rogers. — Aaron Gleeman

Same teams, same time tomorrow as:
Twins LHP Rich Hill takes the mound against Cardinals RHP Daniel Ponce de Leon at 7:10pm on Fox Sports North.

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