The #MNTwins lost a tough a hard-fought series against the Yankees on Wednesday night and RHP Jake Odorizzi took a beating, giving up 10 hits and 9 earned runs in just 4 innings.
So…it’s relatively obvious the Twins were looking for RHP Jose Berrios to take last night’s start and go as far as he could.
And that’s what he did. He ended up going 7 innings, allowing just 2 earned runs (3 total) on 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 8 and most nights, he would probably have been the story of the game but DH Nelson Cruz hit 3 HRs against supposedly one of the best pitchers in the American League, RHP Lucas Giolito.
That’s the first time Nelson Cruz has hit 3 HRs in a game. It’s funny how most people are surprised by that stat as if it’s easy to hit 3 HRs in a game.
OF Max Kepler (26) and 3B/1B Miguel Sano (17) also hit HRs in the game and all of those HRs were responsible for 9 of the 10 runs the Twins scored. The other run was scored on a SS Jorge Polanco RBI-single.
7 of those runs came off of White Sox All-Star RHP Lucas Giolito. That raised his ERA from 3.12 to 3.52 and his record to 11-5. In his last 7 starts, he has a record of 1-4 in 36.2 innings allowing 26 runs (9 HR) on 39 hits and 16 walks while striking out 46 batters. That’s an average of just over 5 innings per start with an ERA of 6.38 and a WHIP of 1.519.
The Twins will try to keep the momentum going tonight with RHP Michael Pineda on the mound against White Sox RHP Dylan Cease.
