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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.

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?