Can the Twins get back in the win column and start a new winning streak?
Winning 4 out of their last 5 games, the Minnesota Twins look to get back in the win column with Tyler Duffey on the mound. The majority of the Athletics have never faced the Twins young pitcher so will Tyler get them off-balance with the combination of his fastball and his curveball?
Eric Surkamp starts for the Oakland A’s. He’s made 5 starts this season and has only pitched past the 5th inning once and in his last two starts, he’s given up 10 runs including 3 HRs and raised his ERA from 3.68 to 6.55. This is actually his 3rd call-up to the A’s this season with 4 of his starts coming at the beginning of the season, one coming on May 11 and he was recalled today for tonight’s start.
Of course, the big news for this game is the Return of Byron Buxton, who was recalled by the Minnesota Twins last night after the Twins found out Danny Santana injured his left hamstring in yesterday’s game.
What Should We Expect This Time?
Byron Buxton was sent down to AAA Rochester on April 25th after hitting just .156/.208/.289 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with 5 runs, 7 hits, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 2 RBIs, 2 stolen bases and 2 walks with 24 strikeouts in 45 at-bats during 17 games at the beginning of the season. Since he’s been down at AAA, he’s changed his swing mechanics and he started hitting right from the 1st game down there and he never stopped. In 29 games at AAA, Byron Buxton hit .336/.403/.603 with 39 hits, 9 doubles, 2 triples, 6 home runs, 14 RBIs, 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts with 11 walks and 26 strikeouts while scoring 26 runs. BOOM! WOW! Will he be able to do that up with the big boys now?
The Twins opened the scoring with back-to-back doubles from Robbie Grossman and Byung Ho Park in the top of the 2nd inning but Oakland would tie it up in the bottom of the 2nd on a Billy Burns triple that got past Miguel Sano and as he turned to his left to chase the ball, he started limping a little. He would take his next at-bat and be safe running out a double play ball but come up lame and be replaced by Oswaldo Arcia. It turned out to be a left hamstring strain. Sano was put on the 15-Day DL and the Minnesota Twins recalled OF Max Kepler from AAA Rochester. That’s the same injury that forced Danny Santana to be placed on the 15-Day DL after Monday’s game.
Danny Valencia has been on a bit of a tear lately and he was none too shy to show his former team how he’s been hitting. Danny had a couple big hits for the A’s in this game. He hit a 2-run HR (8) to right field in the 3rd that gave his team at 3-2 lead and then he hit a double (3) in the 5th that gave his team the lead again at 4-3. He’s now hitting .333/.370/.558 for the season.
Robbie Grossman did all he could do to keep the Twins in the game, doubling in the 2nd (then scoring the 1st run), 5th (knocking in the tying run) and 8th innings (later scoring to bring the game within 1 run.) Unfortunately, the Twins couldn’t come up with a big hit and couldn’t hold a lead. You can’t win that way.
Tyler Duffey had a rough night tonight to go along with his last two starts. He gave up 10 hits tonight in 4.2 innings. That means, in his last 3 starts, he has an 8.47 ERA and a 1.88 WHIP. Phil Hughes might not be in the bullpen long in that keeps up.
FINAL
Minnesota Twins 4, Oakland Athletics 7
W-Dull (1-0) L-Duffey (2-4) S-Axford (1)
2B-Grossman (4,5,6), Park (7), Nunez (10), Buxton (5)
The Good
Eduardo Nunez, Joe Mauer, Robbie Grossman and Kurt Suzuki had multiple hits in tonight’s game. Byung Ho Park had a an RBI double to put the Twins in the lead in the 2nd inning. Byron Buxton looked better at the plate and hit a double but still struck out twice. We’ll see how he does tomorrow afternoon.
The Bad
Trevor Plouffe finished the month of May hitting .213/.231/.280 with 2 doubles, 1 HR, 5 RBIs and 2 walks with 14 strikeouts. Is it injury related? It could be. He may deserve some slack on the injury front. On that note, he was starting to get on a roll in April when he went down with a right intercostal strain. He even had it going a little bit in May about 4 games after being activated but he’s in the midst of a 4-for-32 slump with those 4 hits all being singles. He also has zero walks and 8 strikeouts over that 9 game span.
The Milestone, The Trivia, The Interesting?
With his hit in the top of the 9th inning,
Joe Mauer now has 1,749 hits, tying Kent Hrbek for 4th on the @Twins all-time hits list (since 1961). #MNTwins
— Dustin Morse (@Twins_morsecode) June 1, 2016
Up Next:
MN-Pat Dean (1-1, 3.43 ERA) vs OAK-Sean Manaea (1-3, 7.03 ERA)
2:30pm-FSN
Can Pat Dean keep up the good/great pitching and get the Twins a winning road trip before they go home for 10 games?
