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Minnesota Twins vs Chicago White Sox – August 19th, 2019

The #MNTwins came home after a 5-1 road trip to face a division foe, the Chicago White Sox. They had to face RHP Ivan Nova who has been pitching very well, recently and he pitched very well against the Minnesota Twins back on July 27th holding them to 2 hits and 1 unearned run so the Twins will look to reverse that performance.

The Twins had RHP Kyle Gibson on the mound.

The game started out with Gibby facing just 3 Sox by getting a double-play ball to end the 1st. The Twins bats got it going with back-to-back doubles from Luis Arraez (with a great 10-pitch AB) and Jorge Polanco to score the 1st run. The 2nd run came off the bat of Nelson Cruz who singled in Polanco and they had 2 runs in their first 3 at-bats so….it looked like it could be a #BombaSquad game but…

Ivan Nova battled through 5.2, giving up 10 hits but only those 2 first-inning runs and his White Sox scored 4 runs in the top of the 3rd on 3 singles and a 3-run blast from Jose Abreu (27) to make it 4-2.

The White then scored again in the top of the 7th on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze to go ahead 5-2. 

The Twins got that run right back in the bottom of the 7th on Jorge Polanco’s 18th HR of the season but then gave that run right back on an Eloy Jimenez RBI-single off LHP Lewis Thorpe.

It came down to the bottom of the 9th against White Sox closer RHP Alex Colome against the number 9, 1 & 2 hitters for the Twins. That was Jason Castro but Mitch Garver pinch-hit for him then grounded out for the 1st out. Luis Arraez singled then Polanco grounded into what looked for sure to be an inning-ending double-play but #JoPo beat it out to keep the game alive and give his team a chance for a comeback. 

Nelson Cruz & Eddie Rosario both singled on the first pitch they saw with Rosie’s being an RBI-single that scored Polanco, made the score 6-4 and brought Miguel Sano to the plate where one swing could end the game. 

One swing did end the game but, unfortunately, it was on a swinging strike on a low & outside slider to end the game and break the Twins 4-game winning streak!

They’ll try to get back in the win column tonight with RHP Michael Pineda (8-5, 4.20 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) on the mound against White Sox RHP Reynaldo Lopez (7-10, 5.29 ERA, 1.50 WHIP) at 7:10pm on FOX Sports North.

The #MNTwins have won 2 games in a row and tried to win the series in Game 3 last night. 

They had RHP Jose Berrios on the mound and he has struggled of late so it’s hard to know what to expect from him.

The @Rangers countered with RHP Ariel Jurado on the mound and the @Twins got to him early with a 6-run 1st inning that happened after Jurado failed to catch a high throw from 2B Roughned Odor that would’ve ended the inning on a double play.

Since he did not catch the ball, Miguel Sano scored on the Eddie Rosario fielder’s choice to make it 1-0. Luis Arraez followed with an RBI-single to center field then Marwin Gonzalez hit a 2-run double (17) and C.J. Cron homered (20) to right-center field.

With a 6-0 lead, you’d have thought Jose Berrios would cruise to a win but, like we said, he’s been struggling lately so, instead of starting well, he gave up a leadoff single to Shin-Soo Choo and former Twin Danny Santana homered (20) on the very next pitch. 6-2 Twins.

The Twins got those 2 runs back in the top of the 2nd when they loaded the bases on a Max Kepler walk, a Miguel Sano single and a Jorge Polanco single was followed by an Eddie Rosario sacrifice fly and Mitch Garver RBI-groundout. 8-2 Twins.

Berrios then allowed a leadoff walk to Odor in the bottom of the 2nd. Logan Forsythe & Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit back-to-back singles scored Odor. Forsythe then scored on a Choo groundout then Danny Santana homered for the 2nd time (21) and it was 8-6! Oh, boy! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE?

The Twins scored again after loading the bases again in the top of the 5th but they only got 1 run out of it on a Max Kepler single. 9-6 Twins.

Berrios had gotten 8 of the next 9 batters out then allowed back-to-back singles then back-to-back walks, walking in a run before being replaced by RHP Tyler Duffey who got a strikeout & a flyout to end the inning with no further damage after coming into a tough spot with the bases loaded and just 1 out.

RHP Ryne Harper took over in the 6th for the Twins and allowed a leadoff single followed by a double by Choo but they ran themselves into another out between 3rd and home when C Jose Trevino was thrown at home again in the series. Oops! Hint: Catchers aren’t full of speed! Send them at your own risk….if you still have a job. A flyout and a popout ended the inning.

RHP Trevor May pitched a perfect 7th AND a perfect 8th with one strikeout because….Trevor May Strike You Out!

The Twins then added a run in the top of the 8th on a Mitch Garver 1-out RBI-single that scored Jorge Polanco, who reached on his 32nd double of the season. That’s the old, Polanco & Garver Insurance-Run package.

Marwin Gonzalez grounded out to end the top of the 8th, swinging at the first pitch, and, for some reason, Rangers RHP Shawn Kelley took exception to something he did. Marwin has been on fire in this series. At the time he was 10-for-13 with 2 doubles and 4 RBI. The only thing that we can see that may have irritated Kelley was that Marwin seemed to admire the ball off his bat but it was a groundout to 2nd to end the inning but Kelley said something to Gonzo that he wasn’t happy about and the benches cleared, which, of course, is the stupidest thing in baseball because the pitchers all come running in from the bullpen. Sano & Odor were going at each other but nothing crazy happened and peace was restored. PHEW! Sano vs Odor would be interesting, huh? 

Miguel Sano may have taken his anger out on the next pitch he saw as he hit his 23rd HR of the season to put the Twins up 12-7 in the top of the 9th and RHP Zack Littell finished the game allowing 1 hit while strike one out, too.

It’s huge if both C.J. Cron AND Jorge Polanco can start to get back on a roll again.

Can they complete the sweep today with LHP Martin Perez pitching against former Twin RHP Lance Lynn on the mound for the Rangers?

The #MNTwins are 26-26 since they reached a season-high American League Central lead of 11 games on June 15th. Since the All-Star Break, they are 16-15 and since the Trade Deadline, they are 7-7. Playing .500 the rest of the way is probably not going to win the division, so they need to get on a roll here in the stretch run.

They used the Bomba Squad offense to beat the Rangers 13-6 on Thursday night and they had Jake Odorizzi on the mound last night against the Texas Rangers best pitcher in LHP Mike Minor.

The game was a mini-pitcher’s duel for the first 3 innings with the Twins getting just 2 hits & a walk and the Ranger getting only 1 hit and a walk.

The top of the 4th changed that when, after Miguel Sano reached when a sky-high flyball was dropped by Rangers’ 2B Roughned Odor, Max Kepler took the very next pitch deep to right field to put the Twins up 2-0.

The Rangers responded in the bottom of the 4th with back-to-back 1-out singles to have runners on 1st & 3rd. Odo struck out Mazara but then threw a wild pitch that scored Andrus from 3rd and cut the lead in half at 2-1.

In the bottom of the 6th, Odorizzi gave up a leadoff double to Shin-Soo Choo then struck out former Twin Danny Santana and got Andrus to ground out but Choo advanced to 3rd. Rocco kept Odo in to face left-handed hitter Nomar Mazara who had already doubled in his first at-bat then struck out in his 2nd at-bat. Well, he ended up doubling again to score 2 runs and the 1-run lead turned into a 1-run deficit and that was it for Odo. He was cruising along but couldn’t finish strong and get through 6 innings. RHP Tyler Duffey came in and struck out Odor to finish the 6th.

Jake ended with a line of: 5.2IP 5H 3R/ER 2BB & 5K.

We’ve seen this team respond to being scored on a lot this season. We’d rather have a bigger lead so they don’t always need to respond but they did it again and right away in the next half inning as Marwin Gonzalez singled to left field with 1 out in the top of the 7th then Jonathan Schoop came up and homered to left field to put the Twins back in front at 4-3, his 17th HR of the season. It’s been a while since Schoop contributed much with the bat so it was nice to see.

The Twins bullpen handled the rest with RHP Sam Dyson, LHP Taylor Rogers and RHP Sergio Romo finishing the game, allowing 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2 but giving up ZERO runs. Rocco brought Rogers in to get the tough left-handed hitters. He gave up a couple of hits but he also struck out 2 to give Romo a save opportunity. Romo had the slider-changeup combo working and earned his 20th save of the season & his 3rd with the Twins.

The Indians lost to the Yankees so the Twins are now up 1.5 games in the Central Division. The Indians are also losing 6-5 to the Yankees in the top of the 8th in New York right now.

Will the Twins keep the streak alive with RHP Jose Berrios on the mound tonight? He’ll have to do it against RHP Ariel Jurado (6-8, 5.31 ERA, 1.45 WHIP) at 7:05pm on Fox Sports North. Tonight might be the better option to win the series as they’ll have to face former Twin RHP Lance Lynn tomorrow.

The #MNTwins are in Texas to start a 4-game series against the Texas Rangers tonight and they’ll have RHP Michael Pineda on the mound after being activated from the 10-Day IL (Injured List) earlier today.

To make room for Pineda, the Minnesota Twins optioned RHP Randy Dobnak down to AAA Rochester. #Twinsaction

To the game…the Rangers had RHP Pedro Payano on the mound and he set the Twins down 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st but Michael Pineda matched that by setting the Rangers down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 1st then…

The Twins started rolling out the barrels. They put a 5-spot up in the top of the 2nd starting with Luis Arraez’ 3rd HR of the season, a 2-run shot to right field. That was followed by a Marwin Gonzalez double (16), a Jason Castro walk and then a Jake Cave double (6) to score Marwin. Max Kepler then grounded to 2B Elvis Andrus, who tried to get Castro at home but C Jose Trevino couldn’t catch the ball so Castro scored and Jake Cave came around to score, too. 5-0 Twins.

In the top of the 3rd, after Pineda worked around a 1-out walk to keep the Rangers off the board, Luis Arraez doubled and then scored on a Marwin Gonzalez single to make it 6-0 Twins.

The top of the 4th began with a Jake Cave walk then Max Kepler grounded into a fielder’s choice to 3rd. Cave advanced to 2nd then Miguel Sano walked and Payano was replaced by RHP David Carpenter who was greeted with a first pitch RBI single from Jorge Polanco then Eddie Rosario walked then C.J. Cron hit a 2-RBI single to left field. Arraez flew out for the 2nd out but Marwin got another hit to bring in Rosario and in 3 innings the Twins made it 10-0! Add another HR from Miguel Sano, his 22nd of the season, in the top of the 5th to make it 11-0!

Michael Pineda was cruising. He entered the 5th inning with just one hit  and 1 walk allowed while striking out 4 but having just come off the injured list, maybe he was lacking the stamina to go into the 5th inning because he got roughed up. He gave up a solo HR to Willie Calhoun (11) then back-to-back singles before getting a force out (a run scored) and a strikeout for the first 2 outs. He’d lost command and it took awhile to get it back enough to get a strikeout for the final out of the 5th inning and his night. He allowed 2 more singles that scored another run but he got out of it without major damage considering his team was still ahead by 8 runs at 11-3.

The Twins got one of those runs back right away as Eddie Rosario hit his 27th HR of the season just over the right field wall in the top of the 6th inning.

In came LHP Devin Smeltzer to relieve Michael Pineda and he had one of the weirdest innings you’ll ever see because all of the outs in the inning came on the basepaths for the Rangers. He gave up a leadoff HR to Hunter Pence (18) then Willie Calhoun singled and was sent home rounding 3rd on a Roughned Odor double to center but Calhoun was gunned down by the relay from Kepler to Polanco and Polanco to Castro. 1 Out. 

Former Twins Logan Forsythe then grounded out to 3rd and Miguel Sano got Odor into a rundown for the 2nd out. Jose Trevino then singled to left, advancing Forsythe to 2nd. Delino DeShields then doubled to left field. Forsythe scored. Rosario threw to 3rd and Jose Trevino didn’t see in time that his 3B Coach had the stop sign up so he turned to get back to 3rd but he was too late as Sano put the tag on him to end the inning with the Rangers only scoring 2 more runs on 2 doubles and 2 singles.

Each team added another run each on RBI-singles from Arraez & former Twin Danny Santana.

Smeltzer did a lot better in his other 3 innings, going 1-2-3 in both the 7th & 8th then giving up a run in the 9th but he pitched the final four innings and earned his first @MLB Save because of it.

It’s the same teams at the same time tomorrow and it will be RHP Jake Odorizzi on the mound for the Twins against the Rangers, who will send LHP Mike Minor to the mound and on @FoxSportsNorth at 7:10pm.

The #MNTwins got a big comeback victory last night and will look to Kyle Gibson to keep the Milwaukee Brewers at bay while they try to start a winning streak.

The Brewers had LHP Gio Gonzalez on the mound and the Minnesota Twins didn’t waste any time getting a run off the Brewers lefty as Mitch Garver led off the game with his 23rd HR of the season. This one went to the opposite field. 2 batters later, Eddie Rosario also went oppo for his 26th HR of the season and the Twins led 2-0 after the top of the 1st.

Given a 2-run lead apparently didn’t help Kyle Gibson because he allowed a single and a walk to the first 2 batters with a Wild Pitch in between before striking out Yelich for the 1st out. Keston Hiura then singled on a ground ball to left field and the Brewers got one run back right away. 2-1 Twins.

In the top of the 3rd, Miguel Sano hit his 21st HR of the season a long ways to get the Twins 2-run lead back. Miguel is hitting the heck out of the ball after changing some swing mechanics that have allowed him to be quicker to the ball. Will he get to 30 HR by the end of the season?

The Brewers put together 3 singles to score in the bottom of the 3rd inning and it was back to a 1-run game again.

The Twins then loaded the bases in the top of the 4th with 1 out on a Max Kepler walk, a Jonathan Schoop double and a Kyle Gibson walk (the good kind) then Mitch Garver struck out for the 2nd out but Jorge Polanco hit a 2-RBI single to give the Twins a 5-2 lead. Finally, a big hit with the bases loaded.

The Brewers answered the Twins once again in the bottom of the 5th when Eric Thames singled in Mike Moustakas, who had doubled (26) with 1 out. 5-3 Twins.

RHP Sam Dyson replaced Gibson in the bottom of the 6th and allowed 1 hit but struck out 2 in the 6th inning. RHP Trevor May then pitched the 7th allowing just a leadoff walk before striking out 2 (Trevor May Strike You Out) then getting Thames to pop out to end the inning.

RHP Sergio Romo came in to pitch the 8th for the Twins and Ryan Braun reached on a throwing error by Jorge Polanco. Hernan Perez then singled bringing up Trent Gresham, the player who ended last night’s game with a good at-bat but he got nothing out of it.

He ended up taking a Sergio Romo slider deep to right field to give the Brewers a 6-5 lead. Romo got the next 2 batters out but the damage was done and they ended up bringing in RHP Zack Littell to get out of the 8th inning and now the Twins had to try to come back again.

They had Arraez, Garver & Polanco due up. Arraez flew out to left for the first out and Mitch Garver struck out for the 2nd out so it was up to Jorge Polanco to keep the game alive and he ended up walking then Miguel Sano walked then Eddie Rosario walked to load the bases again and they had C.J. Cron at the plate. 

Cron gave one a ride to left-center field that looked like it might’ve had a chance to go out but Lorenzo Cain had it lined up and caught the ball just short of the warning track to seal a nice comeback victory by the Brewers.

It’s a disappointing loss but the game felt like a game that should be played in about a month from now, a back and forth affair with both teams coming back multiple times, answering runs scored by scoring some runs themselves.

Now, the Twins will travel to Texas to take on the Rangers in a 4-game series starting tomorrow night.