TwinsTakes.com

The #MNTwins won Game 1 2-0 behind a dominant pitching performance from their bullpen with 3 innings from LHP Devin Smeltzer, 2 innings (and a Win) from RHP Zack Littell, 1.2 innings from RHP Tyler Duffey, 0.2 innings from RHP Sergio Romo and 1.2 innings from LHP Taylor Rogers. 

So…what happened in Game 2?

Jorge Polanco followed his big Game 1 with a 1st inning single and then scored when Eddie Rosario homered (29) to right field to put the @Twins up 2-0.

LHP Lewis Thorpe got the start for the Twins and struggled big time in the 1st inning going walk (Lindor), double (Mercado), RBI-single (Santana), walk to load the bases, walk to bring in another run but then struck out the next 3 batters to get out of the inning with the game tied at 2 instead of what could’ve been a lot worse.

Thorpe’s 2nd inning was a little smoother although he allowed a leadoff walk. He then got Francisco Lindor to ground into a 4-3 double play with Jonathan Schoop fielding the ball & quickly stepping on 2nd base while throwing to 1st. Oscar Mercado then doubled and a Wild Pitch advanced him to 3rd but Thorpe got Carlos Santana to ground out to 2nd to end the inning with the game still tied at 2.

In the 3rd, Thorpe left a pitch up and that ball is now at home with a lucky Indians fan off the bat of Jordan Luplow (13). After he hit it, he flipped his bat back towards C Jason Castro and the home plate umpire almost hitting both of them and Castro wasn’t happy about it. The next batter, Franmil Reyes struck out swinging and slammed his bat on the ground and Castro wasn’t happy about that, either. The announcers were saying he probably wasn’t happy because a bat can easily send broken pieces up so Castro probably said don’t do that near me and there’s was an exchange of words so, the rivalry is getting good.

Then, in the 4th, Thorpe came back out as Rocco was trying to get as many innings out of him as possible and he got the first two batters out but Lindor singled then Mercado hit his 11th HR of the season to put the Indians up 5-2. RHP Cody Stashak was summoned from the bullpen and he got out of the inning on 1 pitch.

At this point, I received a tweet responding to Thorpe saying this was another loss we can blame on Rocco and Thorpe was struggling in the 3rd so why bring him out for the 4th.

How many of you think this offense doesn’t have a chance to come back from 3 runs down with 5 innings left in the game? Would you stop watching any game this team was playing if that were the case because I know I wouldn’t?

But…the Indians had set down 12 Twins in a row until Polanco singled in the top of the 6th. Nelson “The BoomStick” Cruz then came to the plate and his bat made a loud noise for his 37th HR of the season and the 3-run deficit became a 1-run deficit…Just Like That!!!

RHP Brusdar Graterol then entered the game to pitch the 6th inning (& maybe more). His first pitch showed 100mph on the radar gun & was clearly in the strike zone but it was called a ball. The 2nd pitch was the same thing. The number of missed calls on balls & strikes is getting out of hand. It’d be one thing if they were close but these pitches are 3-4 inches in or out of the zone. I don’t know what happens with the umpires. I would imagine (& hope) they go over the whole game to see how they did with the umpires committee (?) so they know where they screwed up and can improve upon it. (I’ll put the picture of the pitches location in the comments.)

Brusdar came back to strike out that first batter, got a groundout to 3rd on Lindor then struck out Mercado for a 1-2-3 inning. He then came out for the 7th and went groundout, strikeout of Puig and a groundout for his 2nd straight 1-2-3 inning (or should that be 4-5-6?)

So, the game headed to the top of the 8th. Jonathan Schoop singled to leadoff the inning and was replaced by pinch-runner Ian Miller. A Terry Francona pitching change brought LHP Oliver Perez in to face Max Kepler. He got Kepler to ground into a force out but Perez, for some reason, didn’t try to catch the throw back to 1st base so Kepler was safe at 1st. The very next pitch was a Jorge Polanco’s 36th double of the season and the Game Was Tied at 5. Nelson Cruz was intentionally walked to face Eddie Rosario and Eddie worked a walk, which hasn’t happened very often this season and in the last couple of months. That walk loaded the bases for one Miguel Sano! 

But…Terry Francona would make another pitching change to RHP Nick Goody and, just like Jorge, Miguel swung at the first pitch AND, just like Jorge, Miguel connected on that first pitch but, different than Jorge, Miguel’s ball left the yard and….Just Like That, the Twins led 9-5! How About That? So…do we blame this on Rocco, too?

RHP Trevor May was brought in to pitch the 8th. He got Reyes to line out to a leaping Arraez for the first out. Beware of the Leaping Luis! Trevor then got a strikeout of Ryan Flaherty (Trevor May Strike You Out!) and got Bradley Zimmer to ground out to 3rd to end the 8th, 1-2-3!

Trevor May stayed in for the 9th and went groundout, flyout and flyout to end the game and the comeback was COMPLETE and so was the DoubleHeader SWEEP!!! So…uhhh….yeah. Don’t give up on the Twins team!

They’ll go for the series sweep tomorrow and really tighten the grip on the Division lead. The Twins did announce that they were moving RHP Jose Berrios’ start back to Monday instead of today’s game and RHP Randy Dobnak will start the game today against RHP Shane Bieber at 12:10pm, which is after I’m posting this and, as of right now, the Twins trail 2-1 after Miguel Sano’s 29th HR of the season cut the Cleveland lead in half. Cleveland got their runs on 2 RBI Forceouts in the 1st inning.

The #MNTwins went 8-2 on a 10-game road trip then came home and lost two series 2 games to 1 to the Indians and the Nationals so, heading out on the road could be a good thing, right?

Sure but, they also had to get through a split doubleheader today with none of their starting pitchers scheduled to pitch an inning. They played 2+ innings last night before rain postponed the game and RHP Jake Odirizzi was done until his next start. So…what did you think would happen?

1. Twins sweep split doubleheader
2. Twins split the doubleheader
3. Twins lose both games of the doubleheader

I was hoping for one win but, after watching this team all season, we’ve seen them step up in these situations so, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that they could win both games. They’ve been great on the road and this team responds to adversity.

So…what did happen? Well, first, the Minnesota Twins made a #Twinsaction by DFAing RHP Marcos Diplan and selecting the contract of RHP Jorge Alcala as another arm in the bullpen.

We found out today that LHP Devin Smeltzer would start the 1st game. We know Devin can pitch and we’ve seen the Twins use him in a variety of ways but, mostly, in spots where they need him to pitch multiple innings and, as a starter, you pretty much expect him to be able to go 3-4 innings* and we’ve seen him pitch pretty well in the majority of those innings. 
*He’s pitched at least 4 innings in all 8 appearances he’s made for the Twins.

So, today, he pitched just 3 innings but he allowed just 1 hit & 1 walk and no runs in those 3 innings. The hit & walk along with a hit by pitch all happened in the 3rd inning so he needed a Great defensive play from SS Jorge Polanco, who made a 2-out diving catch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 3rd, to keep the Cleveland Indians off the board.

Last night, Jorge Polanco hit his 22nd HR of the season in the 1st inning, a 2-run shot after Max Kepler had singled to lead off the game. That was wiped out when the game was postponed due to the weather. In today’s 1st game, he did the same thing and Max Kepler had also singled to get on before him. The only difference was that it happened in the 3rd inning instead of the 1st inning but it still made the score 2-0.

The Twins brought in RHP Zack Littell and he allowed just 1 hit while striking out 2. He was followed by RHP Tyler Duffey, who went 1.2 innings with 1 hit allowed and 1 strikeout. RHP Sergio Romo was summoned with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th and he got a swinging strikeout to end the 7th then got Lindor to line out to center field but allowed a single before he was replaced by LHP Taylor Rogers with 1 out in the bottom of the 8th. Mr. Rogers was going for his 26th save. He allowed a single but sandwiched that single with called strikeouts of Carlos Santana and Greg Allen then, in the 9th, Mr. Rogers got Franmil Reyes to 2nd then he made an error on a little dribbler down the first baseline that ended up going under his glove. He struck out Roberto Perez and Mike Freeman swinging on the Mighty Slider.

What a pitching performance by the MNBP (Minnesota BullPen) to keep the Indians off the scoreboard. It was needed since Cleveland RHP Mike Clevinger allowed just the 2-run HR to Polanco over 8 innings among the 8 total hits he allowed along with 1 walk while striking out 10!

RHP Zack Littell got the win (5-0, now). Holds went to Duffey (12), Romo (14) and the save went to Rogers, of course (26).

How ‘bout this?

After the game, Cleveland starter RHP Mike Clevinger, in his press conference after he was asked if he was surprised Jorge Polanco was able to hit that HR out on him, said: “I mean, after last year, are you surprised?…” since Polanco was suspended in 2018 for the first half of the season for violating the leagues drug & substance abuse policy for testing positive for Stanozolol. Here’s the link to the video if you want to see it:

https://www.foxsports.com/ohio/video/1603351619811

Clevinger seems to catch himself and quickly goes into other thoughts about the home run. It’ll be interesting to see if anything else comes of this.

The Twins got one. Can they get 2?

The #MNTwins are in a tough spot. They are trying to compete with half of their lineup out. They aren’t going to make any excuses. Injuries are a part of the game. Every team goes through it in one way or another.

The Twins have had to send out a Sunday day game after a night game lineup on consecutive nights. Their pitching hasn’t been good since the All-Star Break and even the rotation has taken multiple hits on the injury (or suspension) front. Tonight’s starter, RHP Kyle Gibson, is coming off the Injured List with Ulcerative Colitis, something he’s been dealing with all season long so, while it’s good to have him back, who knows what kind of a start we’ll see from him.

Well, he gave up a run in the first inning, 2 in the 3rd then 3 in the 5th and was replaced by Cody Stashak with 2 outs in that inning (5th). Gibby allowed 8 hits, 6 runs (2 HR), 5 earned runs and 4 walks while striking out 5.

The Twins tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the 1st inning then scored single runs in the 3rd (making it 3-2) and the 5th (making it 6-3.)

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought in RHP Kohl Stewart to pitch the 6th and he gave up 4 runs. He also pitched a clean 7th.

The Twins actually made another comeback and, in the bottom of the 8th, they had the bases loaded with Nelson Cruz at the plate as the tying run but he & Polanco struck out to end the inning. They went down 1-2-3 in the 9th and lost 12-6 (Gomes 2-run HR in the top of the 9th.)

Some fans complained on Twitter about the move to Kohl Stewart with the score 6-3.

Here’s my ‘Take: Rocco has a 13-15-man bullpen right now, depending on if you count Devin Smeltzer & Lewis Thorpe as part of that ‘pen right now. He is trying to get all of those guys innings in the final games of the season so they know what they have in those pitchers. He has to find spots to get these guys in a game. Kohl Stewart hasn’t pitched since August 27th so who knows what you’re going to get with him. Tonight wasn’t good but he’s 24, is a starting pitcher who hasn’t pitched much as a reliever and got his first game action in 2+ weeks. That’s not really a recipe for success.

Also, Sergio Romo & Trevor May were used on Tuesday night & Littell, Graterol, Romero & Dobnak were used last night. Stashak was already used in the 5th so that leaves Stewart, Hildenberger, Harper, Smeltzer & Thorpe. Smeltzer & Thorpe might be used in an Opener/Bullpen-type game on Saturday night.

Could Rocco have gone to any pitcher who had pitched in the last two games? Probably but, obviously, he’s bringing in Stewart thinking he’ll get through the 6th with no to little damage. He can’t see the future. There’s no way to know if there will be a “good time” to bring Stewart in for an inning and he obviously felt the need to get him an inning.

What are your ‘Takes?

The Twins will now head to Cleveland for a 3-game series that very well might decide the American League Central Division. The Twins are up 3.5 games so they’ll be ahead at least a half a game at the end of the series if they lose all 3 games. Then they’ll have 13 games left (3 vs the White Sox, 4 vs the Royals, 3 at the Tigers & 3 at the Royals.)

Here are the pitching matchups:
Tomorrow night: RHP Jake Odorizzi vs RHP Aaron Civale – 6:10pm
Saturday night: TBD vs RHP Mike Clevinger – 6:10pm
Sunday afternoon: RHP Jose Berrios vs RHP Shane Bieber – 12:10pm

It should be a fun weekend as I expect this team to battle hard when it counts and they’ve been great on the road this season, too.

Oh! Also, in tonight’s game, the Twins lost IF Ehire Adrianza to a strained oblique muscle from a swing in the 2nd inning. Hard to imagine he’ll be back anytime soon with that.

We’ll try to keep you up to date on if Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Marwin Gonzalez, Jake Cave & Adrianza will be available this weekend.

#MNTwins 6, #OnePursuit 12 | F
W-Corbin (12-7) L-Gibson (10-8)
HR-WSH-Rendon (33) Eaton (14) Soto (34) Gomes (10)
MN-Schoop (22) Cruz (36)

The #MNTwins will have their work cut out for them tonight as Washington Nationals RHP Stephen Strasburg is one of the hottest starters in the whole league right now.

The Minnesota Twins counter with LHP Martin Perez who had a very good start in his last outing.

So…a bit of a mismatch on the mound but, hey, it’s baseball. Anything can happen.

But…before we get to baseball, we have to pay tribute to the people who sacrificed their lives to help save lives on this date, 18 years ago.

Never Forget any of the people who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001. Also, Always Remember the people who put their own lives in danger to help save those around them including the New York Police Department #NYPD, the Fire Department of New York #FDNY, the armed forces personnel from the Air Force, the Army, the Coast Guard, the Marines, the National Guard and the Navy and anyone who selflessly tried to help anyone on that day in whatever way.

Hopefully, baseball can help them escape the pain for awhile.

After watching Jose Berrios, Sergio Romo & Trevor May throw 9 shutout innings, Martin didn’t get 2 outs into the 1st tonight before allowing a run when OF Juan Soto singled in OF Adam Eaton after he hit a 1-out double. Perez got the 2nd out then gave up another RBI-single to Ryan Zimmerman.

In the bottom of the 1st, the Twins were making Strasburg pitch but only got an infield single and a walk to show for it. Maybe it will pay off later in the game.

Both teams went down 1-2-3 in the 2nd.

In the top of the 3rd, Perez got the 1st 2 outs then walked Soto. Howie Kendrick then doubled on a flyball to right-center field on a ball that probably should have been caught by Eddie Rosario but it went over his head and the next batter, Ryan Zimmerman, homered to left field and it was 5-0 Nationals.

The Twins responded with 2 runs in the bottom of the 3rd on Jorge Polanco’s 21st HR of the season, a blast over the right-center field wall with Luis Arraez on base (single.)

From the 4th through the 7th, there were only 3 hits and 2 walks between both teams. 

In the top of the 9th, RHP Randy Dobnak gave up a solo HR to Trea Turner to give the Nationals a 4-run lead. The Twins had the bottom of their lineup coming to the plate but with 2 outs, Castro single then Arraez singled but Polanco grounded out to first to end the game.

I started keeping track of the hits, walks, strikeouts & pitches thrown per inning. I have my doubts these will show up well on here, though. I’ll try to fix it if it looks bad. What are the odds it looks better on Facebook than it does on my blog? What’s that about? Ooh…I’ll just turn it into a picture.

Same teams, same time tomorrow night, 6:40pm on @FoxSportsNorth. The Twins will send RHP Kyle Gibson (13-6, 4.58 ERA, 1.35 WHIP) to the mound against another great pitcher in LHP Patrick Corbin (11-7, 3.16 ERA, 1.14 WHIP so it should be another good game. Corbin has 210 strikeouts in 179.2 innings this season. So…would you rather face Max Scherzer or Strasburg &/or Corbin? Geez!

Will the Twins ever send up starters like that? Can Berrios reach that level? I say he can. We’ve seen him pitch like he did last night. He’ll work on getting used to pitching late in the season. At 25-years-old, he’s still young and we know he’ll put in the work. Is last night how he’ll pitch for the rest of the season?

Jake Odorizzi has had an All-Star season. Look what they had in Pineda and they’ve also gotten more out of Gibson. You can even point to tonight’s start, LHP Martin Perez, and see how the Twins are developing pitchers. Now, think about having that development process on their young pitching prospects and how that will change this organization’s pitching. Then, as the Washington Nationals have done, they may have to go get another top of the rotation type pitcher like…say….RHP Gerrit Cole, who will be a free agent after this season. How would that make you feel? Or, do they make a blockbuster trade to acquire the pitching they seek?

What are your thoughts, #TwinsTakers?

The #MNTwins got more bad news on the injury front today, although, this was probably not that much of a surprise. CF Byron Buxton will miss the remainder of the season due to shoulder surgery that he was scheduled to have this afternoon. The surgery on his labrum has a recovery time of 5 to 6 months. That puts him close to ready for Spring Training but, obviously, he won’t be able to have a normal offseason and likely will be limited in what he can do to work out so he may have a late start to the 2020 MLB Season.

That means there is a Twinsaction to report:

Buxton was placed on the 60-Day Injured List (IL) opening a 40-man roster spot. The Minnesota Twins selected the contract of IF Ronald Torreyes from the Rochester Red Wings.

They also activated RHP Kyle Gibson from the 10-Day IL and he’s scheduled to start on Thursday.

Does this mean Gibson is actually healthy? Or will he have to deal with the after-effects from the e. coli poisoning (Ulcerative Colitis) until the offseason? You can easily argue that they need Gibby right now with the suspension to Michael Pineda but they are still a missing piece in the rotation. 

Will they go with a combination of Randy Dobnak, Devin Smeltzer & Lewis Thorpe like they did on Sunday? Or do they just have Lewis Thorpe, Devin Smeltzer or Kohl Stewart start a game?

For any Kohl Stewart doubters, he had his best month of the season in August:

In his last 4 starts, in 19.0 IP, he’s allowed 7 Hits, 4 Runs & 8 Walks while striking out 18 for an ERA of 1.89 & a WHIP of 0.79. His first start in August was also pretty good:

5.2 IP 6 H 2 R/ER 2 BB 2 K 1 Win for Rochester.

Okay. On to tonight’s game. The Twins had RHP Jose Berrios pitching tonight so, it’s another start to see where Jose is at. He’s pitched okay in his last couple of starts, at least from a stuff standpoint. He beat the White Sox 2 starts ago and had one bad inning against the Red Sox so it will be interesting to see how he does tonight. You know he wants to help his team get out of this home funk they are in.

Berrios took a step, a big step, in the right direction tonight. He set down the first 13 batters then allowed a single to Howie Kendrick, threw a pickoff attempt past The Turtle (#La Tortuga Willians Astudillo) then got a line out and a ground out to end the inning with no damage done.

He allowed a 2-out single in the top of the 6th then got another groundout to end that inning.

But…Washington Nationals pitcher Anibal Sanchez was pitching almost as well, allowing just 3 baserunners in the first 6 innings. 

Berrios then walked Anthony Rendon to lead off the top of the 7th then got a 4-3 double play (tag out, throw out at 1st) to take that runner away and got Kendrick to line out to end the 7th. He was at 94 pitches & 63 strikes at the end of that inning so it was up in the air if he’d come out for the 8th.

The Twins offense could definitely change that if they scored and they had Eddie! Eddie! Eddie Rosario, Mitch Garver and Ehire Adrianza coming to the plate. 

Eddie led off the inning with his 21st double of the season to right-center field and up came Mitch Garver looking to deliver some #GarvSauce and deliver he did. He hit his 30th HR of the season! We’ve never said that about a Minnesota Twins catcher before! This was a no-doubter like most of Garver’s seem to be and it put the Twins up 2-0!

RHP Sergio Romo came in the pitch the 8th for the Twins and he set the Nats down 1-2-3 (lineout, popout, strikeout).

Mr. Rogers was warming in the ‘pen with the Twins at the plate in the bottom of the 8th but the Twins would love to not have to use him…

Schoop was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Luis Arraez singled to left field then a Wild Pitch advanced both runners up a base. (It was #MNWild night so this seems fitting.) 2B Jorge Polanco hit a 96mph outside fastball down the left field line for his 35th double of the season & his 71st & 72nd RBIs of the season. Cruz struck out and Eddie Rosario was intentionally walked to bring up Mitch Garver. He walked to load the bases. Ehire Adrianza then hit a sacrifice fly to put the Twins up 5-0.

That 5th run got Taylor Rogers the night off. RHP Trevor May came in to pitch the 9th. He got a line out, a fly out and he struck out Adam Eaton on a check swing to end the game because….Trevor May Strike You OUT!!!

That’s a nice Twins Win. It temporarily puts them up 5.5 games in the division. Cleveland is in Los Angeles so they have a late start. They are currently up 2-0 in the top of the 3rd.

So…as of right now, the Twins number to clinch the division is 13. That’s 13 Twins Wins or Cleveland Losses to clinch the American League Central Division and clinch a spot in the 2019 @MLB Postseason.

Same teams, same time tomorrow night, 6:40pm on Fox Sports North. The Twins will send LHP Martin Perez (10-6, 4.75 ERA, 1.46 WHIP) to the mound against maybe the best pitcher in the National League, RHP Stephen Strasburg (16-6, 3.60 ERA, 1.05 WHIP so it should be a good game. He has 222 strikeouts in 185 innings this season.