Minnesota Twins Recap vs the New York Yankees – July 23rd, 2019

Posted on July 24, 2019 by Robb
Former Minnesota Twins CF Aaron Hicks spoils a walkoff win with this catch in the bottom of the 10th inning.

https://www.mlb.com/video/recap-nyy-14-min-12-f-10-x9693?t=most-popular

The #MNTwins beat the New York Yankees 8-6 on Monday night. They showed the resiliency and response we’ve seen all season long. They took everything the Yankees were giving and gave it right back, responding to being scored on by then scoring themselves. Then the bullpen had another good night to seal the victory.

Last night looked like the same thing but our Minnesota Twins just ended up on the wrong end of the game.

It was and Absolutely CRAZY GAME!!!

It was 302 minutes long and went into the 10th inning and there was a total of 26 runs scored, 35 hits, 14 walks, 17 strikeouts 6 Home Runs. There were 4 blown saves and 4 lead changes. From the 8th through the 10th inning, there were 12 runs scored, 13 hits, 9 walks, 5 strikeouts & 2 Home Runs.

It was another back & forth affair between two very good teams battling for wins and we can’t wait to see what tonight brings in the rubber game of the series.

BIG Moments of the game:
Top of 1: SS Didi Gregorious 2-run double (4) – 2-0 Yankees
Bottom of 2: 2B Luis Arraez RBI-single 2-1 Yankees
Bottom of 3: Back-to-Back HRs from Jorge Polanco (15) & Nelson Cruz (21) – 3-2 Twins
Bottom of 4: Miguel Sano 3-run HR (15) – 8-2 Twins
Top of 5: Gregorious 3-run HR (6) – 8-5 Twins
Bottom of 5: Polanco RBI-double (28) – 9-5 Twins
Top of 8: 4 Yankee doubles (Urshela (19), Tauchman (10), Judge (5) & Gregorious (5)) score 5 runs – 10-9 Yankees
Bottom of 8: Miguel Sano 2-run HR (16) – 11-10 Twins

A Blast of Sano in July made it 11-10 Minnesota Twins but, unfortunately, that lead wouldn’t hold.

Top of 9: Aaron Hicks 2-run HR (11) – 12-11 Yankees
Bottom of 9: Polanco sacrifice fly – 12-12
Top of 10: Gleyber Torres RBI-single – 13-12 Yankees, Wild Pitch made it 14-12
Bottom of 10: Yankee bullpen walks the bases loaded; Max Kepler hits a hard linedrive to the left center field gap….Aaron Hicks makes a diving, game-ending catch to spoil the comeback!

There were also several great defensive plays made as well!

#MNTwins RHP Cody Stashak also made his @MLB Debut in the top of the 6th. On the 2nd pitch, Gleyber Torres singled. He then struck out Gio Urshela for his 1st Major League Strikeout. Mike Tauchman hit another single that advanced Torres to 3rd so 1st & 3rd with 1 out and Cody got Aaron Hicks to fly out to short center field then struck out Aaron Judge on 4 pitches to end his 1st inning in Major League Baseball. He wasn’t done, though. Since he only threw 17 pitches, he was sent out to pitch the top of the 7th, too.

So, he began the 7th by striking out Edwin Encarnacion then allowed back-to-back singles and C Gary Sanchez was up next and he got him to ground into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play started by SS Jorge Polanco. 

So, a nice debut for maybe a future reliever for the Twins, at least.

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs the New York Yankees – July 22nd, 2019

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Robb

https://www.mlb.com/video/cg-nyy-min-7-22-19?t=most-popular

https://www.mlb.com/video/recap-min-8-nyy-6

The #MNTwins, coming off that huge win Sunday afternoon, had very little time to get ready for one of the best teams in the League, the New York Yankees.

The Minnesota Twins had LHP Martin Perez on the mound and, after that 4-game series with the Oakland Athletics, they really needed him to go at least 6 innings. That Minnesota Bullpen (#MNBP) was pretty spent. Spent so much that they had to option RHP Zack Littell and recall LHP Lewis Thorpe to get a fresh arm in the ‘pen just in case. They also put 1B C.J. Cron back on the 10-Day Injured List (IL) with right thumb inflammation and selected the contract of RHP Cody Stashak from AAA Rochester. Stashak has been throwing the ball well but, it might be kind of crazy to make your MLB Debut against the Bombers from the Bronx.

So…it was the Bronx Bombers against the Bombas Twins! Let’s Do This!

Perez began the game by walking the first 2 batters, 2B DJ LeMahieu and RF Aaron Judge, to bring 1B Edwin Encarnacion to the plate with 2 on so…not the greatest start but, hey, there’s always the triple play, right?

YOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED!!!

Encarnacion hit a grounder down the 3rd baseline & 3B Luis Arraez was running towards 3rd to get to the ball so he stepped on 3rd base then threw a great, accurate throw to 2B Jonathan Schoop at 2nd base and he made the great turn like he always does to catch and throw a rocket to 1B Miguel Sano to end the inning! Now, THAT is efficient!

The Twins offense went to work on LHP C.C. Sabathia right away. Mitch Garver flew out to right field for the 1st out then SS Jorge Polanco hit his 14th HR of the season to put the Twins up 1-0. Nelson Cruz then went back-to-back by hitting his 20th HR of the season to put the Twins up 2-0 in the 1st inning.

Twins know all to well, though, that no lead is ever safe against the Yankees. In the top of the 3rd, the Yankees indeed got a run back when 3B Gio Urshela hit his 10th HR of the season into the bullpen in center field. 2-1 Twins. LF Mike Tauchman followed with a single then DJ LeManhieu hit a double but Tauchman was held at 3rd. Aaron Judge followed with his 2nd walk of the game to load the bases. Encarnacion singled with the bases loaded to score LeMahieu and the Twins 2-run lead was gone.

Martin Perez was able to keep the game tied by getting C Gary Sanchez to ground into a 5-3 inning-ending double play as Arraez stepped on 3rd for the 1st out then threw to 1st for the 2nd out.

The Twins offense has been responding to getting scored on all season long and they kept doing that by scoring 3 runs on a walk, 2 singles, a catcher’s interference call when Nelson Cruz’ swing hit Sanchez’ glove. LF Eddie Rosario & 1B Miguel Sano then hit RBI-groundouts to put the Twins up 5-2!

The Yanks got one run back in the top of the 4th with DH Luke Voit’s 19th HR of the season, a solo shot that made it 5-3 Twins.

Max Kepler saw that Voit HR so he led off the bottom of the 4th with his 25th of the season to get that run back for the Twins and make it 6-3. Then, after a Schoop strikeout and a Arraez groundout, Mitch Garver hit his 18th HR of the season off the top of the left field wall to put the Twins up 7-3.

The Yanks responded with 2 runs in the top of the 5th on a single and DJ LeMahieu’s 15th HR of the season. 7-5 Twins. 

This back-and-forth game kept going back and forth, too, but the Yanks got the lead down to just 1 run on a double, a groundout and a single in the top of the 7th off just recalled LHP Lewis Thorpe. DJ LeMahieu then followed that up with a single and Twins Pitching Coach Wes Johnson used a Mound Visit to talk to his young, Australian lefty and on the very next pitch, Thorpe got Aaron Judge to ground into an inning-ending double play.

So…it was the Twins turn and in the bottom of the 7th, Mitch Garver hit his 2nd HR of the game and his 19th HR of the season. His HR in the 4th just barely got out but this one went off the facing of the 2nd deck to make it 8-6 Twins!

Lewis Thorpe pitched the next 1.2 innings giving up just a double before being replaced by RHP Ryne Harper to get the final out of the 8th.

That set up the 9th with LHP Taylor “Mr” Rogers looking for his 15th save of the season and he’d have to do it against the top of the New York lineup of LeMahieu, Judge and Encarnacion. He got LeMahieu to ground out to 3rd for the first out but Judge & Encarnacion both got groundball singles up the middle to put runners at 1st & 3rd with 1 out and Gary Sanchez coming to the plate. Rogers struck out Sanchez swinging on an 86mph slider low and inside then Aaron Hicks came up and he hit the first pitch he saw right back to Rogers who caught it and made the toss to first for the final out of the game to earn that 15th save and give LHP Lewis Thorpe his 1st MLB Win!

What a game!!! All-in-all, there were 8 HRs hit, 3 from the Yankees and 5 from the Twins and all but one of them were solo HRs. 9 runs were scored off of them.

That game really just kept feeling like the Twins weren’t going to be able to keep up with the Yankees but, in the end, they weren’t able to keep up with the Twins. How ‘bout that? 

What will tonight bring us?

It’s RHP Kyle Gibson (9-4, 4.02 ERA) pitching against RHP Domingo German (12-2, 3.38 ERA) and it’s on right NOW!

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs the Oakland Athletics – July 21st, 2019

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Robb
The Minnesota Twins tried to earn a split after a tough loss on Saturday night. 

The #MNTwins tried to salvage a split in the 4-game series with the Oakland Athletics after a tough loss last night.

They are also trying to avoid their 2nd 3-game losing streak after losing their 3rd consecutive game earlier this week when they lost to the New York Mets on Wednesday afternoon.

The Minnesota Twins also finalized a couple of #Twinsactions by completing trades of RHPs Mike Morin to the Philadelphia Phillies and Matt Magill to the Seattle Mariners for cash consideration. Also, LHP Adalberto Mejia was claimed by the Los Angeles Angels.

The Twins now have 4 open spots on the 40-man roster so they’re definitely ready for some trades and/or callups.

The Twins had RHP Michael Pineda on the mound against Athletics RHP Daniel Mengdon. Pineda began the game by striking out the first 2 batters then getting the 3rd out when Matt Olson tried to turn a single into a double and he was thrown out by RF Marwin Gonzalez at 2nd base. Jorge Polanco just had to catch the throw and wait for Olson to slide into his tag.

The Twins got back-to-back doubles from CF Max Kepler (23) and Jorge Polanco (27) to score the 1st run of the game right away in the 1st inning.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Ehire Adrianza doubled with 1 out then Jason Castro walked and the lineup turned over to Max Kepler and he didn’t waste any time. He hit the first pitch out to right field for his 24th HR of the season and put the Twins up 4-0 but we’ve learned the Oakland Athletics will battle back into games just like the Twins do so…they’ll have to try to keep them from doing that.

Pineda did that for the most part, allowing just walks but walks have a way of eventually coming back to “haunt” you and in the 5th, that’s what happened. He walked Jurickson Profar with 1 out and C Josh Phegley homered to left to cut the lead in half at 4-2. Marcus Semien & Matt Chapman followed with singles then Semien stole 3rd base but Big Mike struck out Matt Olson then got Mark Canha to ground out to end the inning with no further damage.

The Twins responded by hitting 3 straight singles in the bottom of the 5th, scoring Marwin Gonzalez on the 3rd one then Jason Castro walked to load the bases. Max Kepler came to the plate and he hit a ground ball to first for the quick tag of 1st base and the throw home to tag Luis Arraez before he could score. 5-2 Twins. Jorge Polanco then lined out to 3rd to end the 5th inning. Just 1 run as the ball seemed to just go to Oakland no matter what.

Michael Pineda came out to begin the 6th and he got the Ramon Laureano for his 8th strikeout but he then walked to Khris Davis for his 5th walk of the game and with 109 pitches thrown, Rocco decided it was time to go to his bullpen. He called for RHP Ryne Harper and he allowed a double to Robbie Grossman that advanced Khris Davis to 3rd. Oakland pinch-hit Chad Pinder for Jurickson Profar and Pinder hit a sacrifice fly to center field to get the run the Twins scored back and make it 5-3! Harper got out of the inning with no further damage.

The Twins offense had 2 on with 2 outs but Luis Arraez ended up grounding out to short on a weird play. SS Marcus Semien had to dive to his right to get the ball then throw quickly to 2nd base. That made Chad Pinder have to dive to his right to catch the ball and the play was called safe but Oakland challenged the call and they overturned it and called Marwin out to end the 6th.

RHP Trevor May was called upon to pitch the 7th. He walked Marcus Semien on 5 pitches then Matt Chapman doubled so Oakland had runners on 2nd & 3rd with no outs. May struck out Matt Olson then a Wild Pitch allowed Semien to score. May then struck out Mark Canha and Ramon Laureano to end the 7th. 5-4 Twins.

The Twins offense went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 7th and Trevor May came back out to pitch the 8th. He got Davis to fly out to begin the inning but then walked Grossman. Former Twin Chris Herrmann pinch-hit for Chad Pinder and he doubled off the top of the right-center field wall, missing a HR by about 3 feet. Marwin Gonzalez got to the ball pretty quickly but then somehow tripped before he could throw the ball and Grossman scored to tie the game at 5.

Franklin Barreto pinch-ran for Chris Herrmann at 2nd base and a passed ball allowed him to advance to 3rd base and Josh Phegley was then able to hit a sacrifice fly to score Barreto and give Oakland a 6-5 lead. Marcus Semien then walked and Rocco made a pitching change to Zack Littell, who was now pitching in his 3rd straight game, but he was still able to strike out Matt Chapman to end the 8th inning.

Jorge Polanco hit a ball off the right-center field wall and reach 2nd base with the scorer calling it an error on Ramon Laureano. Cruz then looked to have a single up the middle but Marcus Semien got to it and was still able to throw Cruz out for the 1st out. Polanco advanced to 3rd on the play. Rosie then popped out to 3rd on the first pitch and Miguel Sano struck out to end the inning with the score still 6-5 Oakland.

RHP Kohl Stewart came in to pitch the 9th and he walked Matt Olson to lead off the inning but then got Canha to fly out and finished off the inning by striking out both Ramon Laureano & Khris Davis swinging to give his team a chance in the bottom of the 9th.

The Twins had to try to tie the game against one of the hottest relievers in the game in RHP Liam Hendriks but the Twins got to him in the 9th last night so…they knew they could get to him again.

Marwin Gonzalez flew out to left on the first pitch. Luis Arraez then singled to left field. He may have been able to get to 2nd but with 1 out, he thought better of it and went back to first. Ehire Adrianza tripled off the right field wall to tie the game at 6 and now, the winning run was at 3rd base with 1 out so, of course, Jason Castro struck out but that brought up Maximillian Kepler and, like he and so many Twins do, he hit the first pitch he saw to left-center field and a TWINS WALK-OFF WIN!!!

WOW!!! WHAT A GAME!!! WHAT A SERIES!!!

After the game, the Twins sent RHP Zack Littell down to AAA and rumor has it, they are calling up @RocRedWings RHP Cody Stashak.

He’s been very good since being promoted to AAA on June 11th:

In 22.1 innings, he’s allowed 16 hits, 5 runs (4 earned runs) and 4 walks while striking out 31 for a 1.61 ERA, an .896 WHIP and a triple slash of .193/.227/.313 (Average/On-Base %/Slugging %). He’s also allowed 1 home run and 7 doubles. The lucky New Jersey native might have his MLB Debut against the New York Yankees as that’s who the Twins will begin a 3-game series with tomorrow night at 7:10pm with LHP Martin Perez on the mound pitching against LHP C.C. Sabathia.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=stasha000cod&type=pgl&year=2019

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs the Oakland Athletics – July 20th, 2019

Posted on July 20, 2019 by Robb
The Minnesota Twins will try to get back in the win column again.

The #MNTwins were looking to get back in the win column again tonight against the pesky Oakland Athletics.

They have Jose Berrios on the mound as he’ll look to also get back into the win column as he hasn’t won a start since June 6th at Cleveland. He’s pitched okay during that span, very well in the rest of June but just okay in July so far. He’ll face Oakland LHP Brett Anderson.

Berrios had to get himself out of some self-imposed damage in the first inning. He ended up striking out 3 but left the bases loaded.

The Minnesota Twins offense took little time to announce their arrival as Mitch Garver hit his 17th HR of the season on the 2nd pitch of the bottom of the 1st then Nelson Cruz hit his 19th of the season after Jorge Polanco grounded out. Cruz’ HR went to dead center field into the juniper plants. 2-0 Twins! Miguel Sano added a double but was left at 3rd.

Berrios kept getting in and out of trouble all night long including when he was replaced by RHP Tyler Duffey in the 6th with runners on 1st & 2nd but Duffey struck out Barreto to end the inning with the score still 2-0 Twins.

The Twins offense, after that awesome 1st inning, was shut down for the next 4 innings, not getting a baserunner until Mitch Garver walked to lead off the 6th but that was quickly erased by a double-play ball from Jorge Polanco.

Tyler Duffey stayed in the game to begin the 7th inning and he walked the leadoff hitter then got 3B Matt Chapman to pop out for the 1st out. That’s when Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought in RHP Zack Littell to pitch to 1B Matt Olson. He struck him out but he hung a slider to RF Mark Canha and that ball didn’t come back. The game was tied. The next hitter, CF Ramon Laureano, hit a 95mph fastball out to right-center field and all of a sudden a 2-0 Twins lead was gone and the A’s led 3-2! This is what the Twins were doing to teams in the first half of the season.

But….this is still a powerful Twins offense and we saw why when Miguel Sano got his own hanging slider and he deposited it into the left-field seats, tying the game at 3! Can’t tell if it went upper deck or not but it traveled a long way! Watch the pitcher’s reaction!

 After Oakland changed pitchers, Marwin grounded out but C.J. Cron singled and Oakland made another pitching change. Rocco pinch-ran for Cron with Ehire Adrianza then Max Kepler singled to get Adrianza to 3rd base. Schoop hit a sacrifice fly to short left field near the baseline and Adrianza tagged up to try to score. The throw wasn’t close and the Twins led 4-3! Kepler was picked off to end the 7th. The pitcher, Ryan Buchter, held his delivery for what seemed like forever and Kepler appeared to just be leaning towards going when the pitcher threw over to first.

Blake Parker pitched the 8th for the Twins. He allowed a 1-out single but struck out Jurickson Profar then got Marcus Semien to ground out to end the inning.

The Twins ended up loading the bases in the bottom of the 8th but Marwin Gonzalez softly grounded out to 1st to leave the bases loaded.

Into the game came LHP Taylor “Mr.” Rogers to pitch the 9th. He’s been so good, we just believe he’ll get the job done. He got Matt Chapman to ground out on the 1st pitch then he struck out Matt Olson but he hit Mark Canha with a pitch to put him on first base. CF Ramon Laureano was the Athletics last hope and Rogers had him & them down to their last strike but he left a slider up and it was sent to left field for a double and Oakland had runners on 2nd & 3rd with 2 outs and DH Khris Davis coming to the plate. On the first pitch, he hit a liner to the right of 1B Ehire Adrianza and he only got a piece of the ball so it slowly rolled past him and 2 runs scored to put the A’s back in the lead at 5-4! WOW!

Two batters later, the inning ended on a groundout to 2nd.

The Twins had Adrianza, Kepler & Schoop coming to the plate to face RHP Liam Hendriks. Adrianza struck out but Kepler singled to right field to get the tying run on base. Jonathan Schoop than doubled down the left-field line so runners were on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out and Jake Cave coming to the plate. Rocco pinch-hit for Jake Cave with Thursday’s hero OF Eddie Rosario and the Eddie chants began to get louder and louder but Oakland decided to intentionally walk Rosie to bring Mitch Garver to the plate….

and he swung at the first pitch. He hit it hard but it was right to the shortstop for a game-ending 6-4-3 double play! WOW!!!

That is how it’s been going for these Twins lately! Many chances to change and maybe win the game and the team that’s been winning gets the breaks and ends up winning the game while the Twins have to wait for tomorrow to look for some redemption and a series split.

It was a helluva game! Looked like a crazy playoff game where the stakes are at their highest! It was fun but the end wasn’t the one we wanted. Nothing you can do about but move on! There’s another game tomorrow!

That game is at 1:10pm on FOX Sports North with RHP Michael Pineda (6-5, 4.38 ERA) on the mound against Oakland RHP Daniel Mengdon (5-1, 4.21 ERA).

Some people say Rocco’s move of Adrianza as a pinch-runner for Cron wasn’t necessary, adding that he isn’t a very fast runner anyways, and it ends up costing them because Cron isn’t at first base to make the defensive play on the game-winning hit. Adrianza is a defensive specialist so it’s hard to say Cron makes that play over Adrianza but, the main point is…we can all second-guess the manager’s moves.

The Twins managers and statisticians likely know who’s faster on the bases than whoever else. How can they not? The information is probably available so they have it and they’ve looked at it and they know it. It’s probably the same for defense, too.

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs the Oakland Athletics – July 19th, 2019

Posted on July 20, 2019 by Robb

The #MNTwins got back in the win column with an exciting comeback win on Thursday night and tried to back that up by starting a winning streak but the @Athletics have played them tough this season as they are one of the hottest teams in baseball since the middle of June.

The @Twins, on the other hand, have been an average team since the middle of June with a record of 12-13. Their lead in the American League Central was only at 4 games prior to last night’s game as the Cleveland Indians are also one of the hottest teams in the league right now as well.

The Twins had RHP Jake Odorizzi on the mound against Oakland RHP Chris Bassitt and Oakland struck right away in the top of the 1st when Marcus Semien led off the game with a HR to left field. They strung together a single, a walk and a single to score another run before a Mound Visit and then Odo got out of the first. 2-0 Oakland.

The Twins got within 1 when Max Kepler was able to reach on an error to Oakland 1B Matt Olson that allowed Miguel Sano (walk) to score. 

The Twins then took the lead when Marwin Gonzalez hit his 11th HR of the season out to center field but after Jake Odorizzi seemed to find some rhythm, Marcus Semien doubled and Matt Olson singled him in to tie the game in the bottom of the 5th. 

Twins RHP Ryne Harper replaced Odorizzi to begin the 6th inning even though Jake was at 88 pitches and wanted to keep going. Harper gave up 2 hits to lead off the inning, a double and a single that gave Oakland a 4-3 lead. He then got a groundout and a strikeout before giving up another single and another run to make it 5-3 Oakland.

The Twins offense had chances to make something happen with runners on but did nothing with them. Former Twins RHP Liam Hendriks shut the door in the 8th & 9th.

There are a lot of Twins fans thinking this team is now slumping or choking and maybe want changes to the lineup but last night’s game in that crazy heat isn’t a game to evaluate things on.

They have their ace Jose Berrios on the mound tonight against Athletics LHP Chase Anderson. How will they respond?

This the same Twins team and Twins offense that got them the big lead in the AL Central and one of the best records in the league so we don’t expect them to make any drastic changes to the lineup.

We do expect some pitching to come through trades, though. The Trade Deadline is now just 11 days away. We expect them to add at least 2 relievers and maybe a starter, too. It will be very interesting to see what they have to give up to acquire the help they need. The farm system has a lot of good prospects thanks to trades last season and the draft but some of those prospects might be untouchable and the trades they don’t do might be more interesting because it might show that the front office doesn’t feel this team is ready for them to go all in on.


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