TwinsTakes.com

The #MNTwins had to go with another bullpen game tonight but, that bullpen has been pretty good in these games. Those 2 bullpen game wins in Cleveland were HUGE.

Can they do it again?

RHP Randy Dobnak got the start and he’s been pretty good in whatever role the Minnesota Twins have asked him to pitch in. You could probably expect Rocco Baldelli & the Twins to ask him to pitch as long as possible after they had to use the bullpen for 7.1 innings last night.

Dobnak started the game with a perfect inning that included 2 swinging strikeouts of Kansas City Royals SS Adalberto Mondesi & slugger Jorge Soler. He began the 2nd inning with a 2-0 lead after Mitch Garver led off the game with a walk then Jorge Polanco doubled (39) and Nelson Cruz hit a sacrifice fly to score Garver and advances Polanco to 3rd. Rosie popped out to 3rd for the 2nd out but Miguel Sano picked him up by hitting his 2nd triple of the season off the left-center field wall. Dobnak’s 2nd inning wasn’t perfect with a hit batter and batter with a hit but he got out of the jam with a groundball & a flyout to center.

Dobnak started the 3rd inning by hitting another batter as he lost control on a pitch that hit right-handed hitter Nick Dini high on the left arm. He then struck out Whit Merrifield and got Mondesi to ground into a force out at 2nd base. Mondesi then stole 2nd. Soler walked then the Royals executed a double steal, Mondesit to 3rd & Soler to 2nd but Dobnak got Hunter Dozier to pop up to 2nd to end the inning, escaping another jam.

Nelson Cruz hit a 2-out double (24) in the bottom of the 3rd but was left stranded then Randy Dobnak allowed a 1-out single but got Erick Mejia to ground into a 3-6-3 double play, 1B C.J. Cron to SS Polanco & back to 1st base to keep the Twins up 2-0.

Dobnak walked the leadoff hitter in the 4th but got a lineout and then struck out both Merrifield & Mondesi looking to end the inning. #DobnaKKKKK!

The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning and Jorge Soler led off the 5th with a single then Dobnak got Dozier to ground out to the catcher. Soler advanced to 2nd on the play. Rocco decided to make a Pitching Change to RHP Cody Stashak and he allowed an RBI-double to Andrew Gordon that cut the lead in half at 2-1 but followed that hit with 2 strikeouts to end the inning with the lead still intact.

Polanco walked to lead off the bottom of the 6th but Cruz flew out and Rosario grounded into a force out with Polanco out at 2nd & Rosie safe at 1st. Sano walked and, after a Pitching Change, Marwin Gonzalez hit a 2-run double (19) to put the Twins up 4-1.

LHP Devin Smeltzer pitched the 7th and into the 8th but Mondesi reached on a throwing error from Miguel Sano and he walked Soler so RHP Brusdar Graterol was summoned from the bullpen. He allowed 3 hits that scored 2 runs but he got Lopez to ground out to end the inning with the Twins still ahead 4-3.

With Taylor Rogers pitching last night, Rocco went to RHP Trevor May for the 9th inning. Trevor gave up 2 HRs on Tuesday night and he allowed a hit and a walk last night so, maybe (or Maybe?) he was a little amped up to come in for the save. He needed just 13 pitches to strike out the side to earn his 2nd save of the season & the 5th save of his career and each strikeout ended with his upper 90s fastball. Say what you want about Trevor May but I think he’s got the makings to be a real effective late-inning reliever and…well…

He May Strike You Out, too!!!

The bigger story is the Win went to RHP Randy Dobnak for his 1st Career Win. What a story this kid has been this season. If you haven’t heard about it, yet, we’ll post about it tomorrow.

HEY! The Magic Number is down to FIVE, now!!!

The Twins will try to lower that number again tomorrow night and go for the series win with RHP Jose Berrios (13-8, 3.58 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) on the mound against RHP Glenn Sparkman (4-11, 6.02 ERA, 1.50 WHIP) at 6:10pm on Fox Sports North.

The #MNTwins, after winning Game 1 on Monday night by a score of 5-3 in comeback fashion, sent LHP Martin Perez to the mound against White Sox LHP Ross Detwiler looking to win the series.

Perez seems to have the stuff to be a decent pitcher but he’s been inconsistent since his last start in May. He had one good start in June, 2 good starts in July & 3 straight good starts in August. He started September with a good start but has been hit hard in the 11 of his last 17 starts so you never seem to know what you’re going to get. He was successful early largely because of a new cut fastball he was using but the league adjusted to it and he hasn’t been able to adjust back, yet, or, at least, on a consistent basis.

It’s hard to believe the Twins would bring him back for next season at this point and he got hit hard again tonight, allowing 10 hits in 4.2 innings but he did leave with a lead in the top of the 5th since he allowed only 3 runs.

The Twins offense activated in the bottom of the 3rd when CF Ryan LaMarre led off the inning with his 1st HR of the season. Then Garver walked. Nelson Cruz was intentionally walked and Eddie Rosario doubled (22) to score Mitch Garver and advance Cruz to 3rd. That brought up Miguel Sano and he absolutely crushed a ball to the upper deck in left field to put the Twins up 5-0. The ball traveled 482 feet for the 2nd longest HR is Target Field history.

It was also Miguel Sano’s 30th HR of the Season AND it made him the 5th Twins player to hit 30 or more HRs on the season and it also made the Twins the first team in MLB History to have 5 players hit 30 or more HRs in one season! Just another Bomba Record for the 2019 Minnesota Twins. #SanoBigDeal

The White Sox started to mount a comeback in the top of the 4th when Eloy Jimenez doubled (16) to lead off the inning. James McCann singled him in with 1 out to get them on the board.

Then, in the top of the 5th, the White Sox got a couple of singles to lead off the inning. A Wild Pitch allowed both runners to advance a base and a Tim Anderson sacrifice fly scored their 2nd run & Jose Abreu singled to bring in another run so 5-0 had changed to 5-3 pretty quickly. Rocci went out to get Martin and replaced him with Trevor May to get out of the 5th.

May came back out to pitch the 6th and after getting the first out on a flyout to left field, he gave up back-to-back home runs and the game was tied at 5. WOW!

Someone tweeted saying it was embarrassing that the Twins allowed the White Sox to come back after leading 5-0 but, and I’ve said this before, just because the White Sox have lost a lot of games and are 28 games out of 1st in the American League Central, doesn’t mean they don’t have talent and won’t compete. 

Division games are tough because those teams always want to beat you. They don’t care about the records for the whole season. They want to beat the Twins and try to spoil your season and, since they’ve played the Twins a lot, they know how to do that. None of these games are easy and There Are No Easy Wins!

The Twins offense, after Sano’s blast, had only 4 baserunners (2B, 1B & 2 walks) among the next 13 batters through the 6th inning.

RHP Tyler Duffey pitched the 7th and struck out the side with two swinging strikeouts and one looking to end the inning. Duffey has turned into a strikeout machine & a great relief pitcher with the help of the Twins and pitching coach Wes Johnson. He now has 73 strikeouts & only 14 walks in 52.2 innings on the season with a 2.39 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. He hasn’t given up a run since July 23rd, a 22-game & 19.1-inning scoreless streak. In those games, he’s 3-0 with 1 blown save & 9 holds and he’s allowed just 10 hits to 74 batters for a .169/.216/.179 triple-slash (Average/On-Base %/Slugging %) with 5 walks and 33 strikeouts!

Sorry, but that’s Awesome!

In the top of the 8th, RHP Sergio Romo battled through right leg pain to also strike out the side but he also allowed a single.

Nothing in the 9th forced extra innings and RHP Zack Littell was summoned to pitch the 10th. He allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. A sacrifice bunt advanced both runners up a base so Rocco had him intentionally walk Zack Collins to load the bases with 1 out to get to Adam Engel but he was pinch-hit for by Ryan Goins who ended up popping up to 3B Miguel Sano in foul territory for the 2nd out. He then got Leury Garcia to fly out to left field to end the inning.

The Twins went popout, strikeout & strikeout in the bottom of the 10th so Zack Littell came back out to pitch the 11th.

Tim Anderson led off the 11th with his 17th HR of the season. 6-5 Sox. Littell struck out Abreu, allowed a single to Jimenez then struck out Moncada and got McCann to ground out to end the inning but the Twins had some work to do to keep the game going and/or win it.

White Sox closer RHP Alex Colome entered the game looking for 18th save. Jonathan Schoop led off the inning with a single and was pinch-run for with OF LaMonte Wade. C.J. Cron then pinch-hit for Ian Miller and grounded out to 3rd but Wade advanced to 2nd on the play. An alert & speedy Wade advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch and then scored on a Mitch Garver sacrifice fly to tie the game back up at 6! Polanco struck out to end the inning but the Twins now had new life.

Wade stayed in the game as the center field and Ronald Torreyes came in to play 2B, replacing C.J. Cron, and RHP Ryne Harper came in to pitch the 12th. He got a groundout for the 1st out but then walked Zack Collins and allowed a 2-run HR to Ryan Cordell (7) to put the Sox up 8-6 so the Twins were put in another tough spot with 1 inning to score 2 runs to keep the game alive in the bottom of the 12th.

Nelson Cruz began the inning with a groundball single to left and Eddie Eddie Eddie Rosario doubled (23) off the right-center field wall to advance Cruz to 3rd. Sano struck out to bring up Marwin Gonzalez, who was 3-for-9 since returning to the lineup on Monday night so he & his bat had missed their time away. Well, he added another hit with a 2-run single to right field that tied the game again! WOW! This Game!

Luis Arraez then singled to advance Marwin to 2nd and bring up LaMonte Wade, who just entered the game in the bottom of the 11th and was now up with the game on the line and, in his last 2 games, he had hit his 1st Career HR & his 1st Career Double so…why not add a WalkOff hit, huh?

He worked the count to 2-1 and got a pitch in the zone and he laced it to center field and I thought for sure it was the game-winning hit but he hit it so hard, 3B coach Tony Diaz had to hold Marwin at 3rd so instead of the game-winning hit we had the bases loaded and Ronald Torreyes at the plate for his 5th plate appearance of the season. WOW! You can’t make it up!

Torreyes had the count at 1-1 and the pitch came inside. He was in his motion to swing but held up as he saw the pitch coming inside and the pitch hit him in his right (back) arm for a Walk-Off Hit By Pitch!

How ‘Bout That? The Number to Clinch the Division Title and a Berth to the Postseason is now 7! 7 Wins or Cleveland Losses and it’s Playoffs, Baby!!!

The Twins will go for the Sweep tonight with RHP Jake Odorizzi (14-6, 3.60 ERA, 1.23 WHIP) on the mound against RHP Ivan Nova (10-12, 4.86 ERA, 1.46 WHIP) at 6:40pm on Fox Sports North.

The #MNTwins come home after winning yet another series on the road, this one of the HUGE variety as they took 2 of 3 from the Cleveland Indians to get closer to the American League Central Division Title.

They continued their pursuit of one Title tonight against another Central Division opponent in the Chicago White Sox and they had their ace in RHP Jose Berrios on the mound and he’s looking more like the ace we believe he is in his last couple starts. How’d he do tonight pitching against White Sox RHP Reynaldo Lopez? Let’s find out!

Well, Jose didn’t inspire a lot of belief in the 1st 2 innings as he allowed a run in each to put his team down 2-0.

White Sox CF Leury Garcia singled to lead off the game and 3B Yoan Moncada followed with his 30th double of the season advancing Garcia to 3rd. DH Jose Abreu hit a sacrifice fly to right-center. Twins CF LaMonte Wade caught it and quickly threw home but the throw was cut off by IF Marwin Gonzalez, in his return to action, so he could throw to 3rd to get Moncada trying to advance to 3rd. We call that bad base running because he was out by a couple of feet. Oops! 1-0 White Sox.

In the top of the 2nd, C James McCann led off the inning with his 17th HR of the season to left-center field and it was 2-0 White Sox. Was Jose Berrios regressing? It kind of looked like it but after that HR, he set down18 of the next 23 batters before being replaced by RHP Tyler Duffey with 1 out in the 8th inning. Here’s what it looked like:

1st: 1B (Garcia), 2B (Moncada), SF-Out at 3rd, K
2nd: Groundout, K, BB (Sanchez), Groundout
3rd: Groundout, Groundout, K Looking
4th: Groundout, K, BB (Skole), Groundout
5th: Lineout, K, Flyout
6th: 1B (Moncada), Flyout, Pick Off at 1st, K
7th: Groundout, K, Error (E5), K
8th: 1B-Groundout for a final line of…
7.1 Innings 5 Hits 2 Runs 2 Earned Runs 2 Walks 8 Strikeouts (7 Swinging, 1 Looking) 1 HR (McCann)

So, did the Twins offense back up their ace?

In the bottom of the 2nd, Miguel Sano & Marwin Gonzalez singled then Luis Arraez singled to load the bases for Jorge Polanco, who hit a sacrifice fly of his own and Nelson Cruz followed that with a groundball RBI-single to tie the game at 2!

It took until the bottom of the 5th for the Twins to score again as Jorge Polanco led off the inning with his 37th double of the season then advanced to 3rd on a bad defensive play after a flyout to left field where the ball got past 3B Yoan Moncada. Eddie Rosario struck out for the 2nd out then Mitch Garver sent some Garv Sauce off the right-center field wall to score Polanco from 3rd. 3-2 Twins.

In the next inning, Sano walked to lead off the inning then Marwin hit into a force out. Sano out at 2nd. Marwin safe at 1st. That brought CF LaMonte Wade to the plate and the kid is starting to figure out this Major League Baseball thing at the plate. He hit his 1st Home Run on Sunday and tonight, he hit his 1st Career 2-bagger over the head of LF Eloy Jimenez. Marwin advanced to 3rd. The White Sox made a Pitching Change to LHP Jace Fry and Luis Arraez greeted him with a crazy ground ball that spun so much it curved past Moncada for a 2-RBI single. 5-2 Twins.

The Minnesota Bullpen did the rest. Duffey needed just 4 pitches to get 2 outs to finish off the 8th. Sergio Romo allowed a solo HR to Jimenez (28) before striking out McCann looking then LHP Taylor “Mister” Rogers came in and got pinch-hitter Wellington Castillo to groundout to 3rd then he struck out Danny Mendick swinging on one of his nasty sliders. Maybe Mr. Rogers should try to get a sponsorship from White Castle with Nasty Sliders like that, huh?

The victory, Berrios’ 13th of the season, makes the Twins number to clinch just 8, now! That’s 8 Twins victories or Indians losses to Win the Division and get to the Postseason!

They’ll continue & try to win the 3-game series against the White Sox with LHP Martin Perez (10-7, 4.89 ERA, 1.47 WHIP) on the mound against Chicago LHP Ross Detwiler (2-5, 6.79 ERA, 1.67 WHIP) at 6:40pm on Fox Sports North.

The #MNTwins are going to see how far they can go with this bullpen start thing? They got 2 wins on Saturday and only gave up 5 runs, right? Well, how do you judge the 2nd game? Lewis Thorpe started and pitched into the 4th and he gave up all 5 runs so, if you can him a starter, 8 relievers gave up 0 runs in 14.1 innings, allowed 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 15.

If you want to count LHP Devin Smeltzer as a starter, those stats change to 11.1 scoreless innings, 5 hits and no walks while striking out 14! That’s impressive. The pitchers: RHP Zack Littell (2 innings), RHP Tyler Duffey (1.2 innings), RHP Sergio Romo (.2), LHP Taylor Rogers (1.2), RHP Cody Stashak (1.1), RHP Brusdar Graterol (2) and RHP Trevor May (2.) Every one of them struck out at least one. This coming from a bullpen that everyone thought was (and maybe were) trash. They are developing pitching and they have starters coming soon, too.

Alright, let’s see what happened on Sunday afternoon.

The Twins got 3 singles in the first inning but got nothing out of it.

RHP Randy Dobnak got the start and he ended up going 5 innings. He allowed 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 unearned run (both in the 1st inning) and 1 walk while striking out 2. Cleveland SS Francisco Lindor singled to leadoff the game and an Eddie Rosario error allowed him to advance to 2nd. Oscar Mercado also singled, advancing Lindor to 3rd. Carlos Santana then grounded into a force out to score Lindor which goes down as the unearned run. 2B Jason Kipnis later grounded into a force out to score Carlos Santana for the Cleveland Indians 2-0 lead.

In the top of the 3rd, Twins 3B Miguel Sano hit his 29th of the season on a line drive to left field. Jake Cave followed with a double (10) but he was left stranded at 2nd.

Cleveland RHP Shane Bieber set down 8 of the next 9 Twins batters until Eddie Eddie Eddie Rosario came up in the top of the 6th inning with the score still 2-1 Indians. From August 10th through September 13th, Rosie hit just .234/.257/.364 (Average/On-Base %/Slugging %) in 26 games & 107 at-bats. He had 25 hits with 5 doubles & 3 HR along with 17 RBI and 15 runs scored with only 4 walks (1 intentional) and 21 strikeouts.

It does seem, though, that Eddie relishes the big moments and big games so with Eddie sitting on 29 Home Runs, he hit #30 out to right field and it was a no-doubter from the crack of the bat and the game was tied at 2! Then Willians Astudillo followed with a walk. Jonathan Schoop struck out and LaMonte Wade came to the plate and he swung at the first pitch and sent it deep to center field….Over The Fence for his 1st Career Major League Home Run and it put the Twins up 4-2!

RHP Fernando Romero came into the ballgame to pitch the 6th. He struck out Yasiel Puig to begin the inning then gave up a double (23) to Jason Kipnis, a walk to Franmil Reyes then Greg Allen reached on an error from Jonathan Schoop that allowed Kipnis to score to make it 4-3. A Mound Visit was followed by a Pitching Change to RHP Kyle Gibson and he proceeded to give up a 3-run HR on a 94 mph inside fastball that Roberto Perez planted into the season and a 4-3 lead changed to a 6-4 lead very quickly.

The Twins weren’t about to give up though. That’s for sure. Rosie came up again and this time he took the first pitch he saw out to right center field to get the Twins back within 1 run at 6-5.

They went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 8th then Luis Arraez led off the top of the 9th with a walk but Sano struck out, Cave struck out swinging & the Indians went to LHP Oliver Perez to get Rosario out and he ended up popping out to the catcher to end the game.

For what the Twins had for pitching this weekend, like Meatloaf says, “2 out of 3 ain’t bad!”

Tonight, they’ll start a 3-game series against the Chicago White Sox with RHP Jose Berrios on the mound against Chicago’s RHP Reynaldo Lopez at 6:40pm.

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.