When will this bad stretch end for the Minnesota Twins? Is it today?
The Minnesota Twins lost another tough game yesterday and they actually took a 1-run lead in the top of the 8th off a Luis Arraez RBI-single but they couldn’t hold that lead as a hanging curveball was sent out of the park to tie it up and, unfortunately, RHP Alex Colomé got another loss when his 2nd pitch was sent out to left field for another walk-off win against the Twins.
They have their ace or, at least, their 2020 ace in RHP Kenta Maeda on the mound. He should be a pitcher the Twins can count on to end losing streaks and start losing streaks but he’s not been his normal self so far this season so it’s hard to know what to expect from him.
We trust that any Twins player —or any professional athlete for that matter— does everything in their power to figure out what’s causing them to struggle whether that be mechanics, a mental thing, an injury or just plain not getting anything out of a good swing or play. Sometimes, they just have to keep doing what they’re doing, especially in baseball because in the game of baseball, you could be hitting the ball great but it keeps being an at-’em ball. Remember, a good hitter gets a hit 3 out of 10 at-bats. How many other sports or jobs would that mean success in?
So…we’ll see if Kenta Maeda can get this team a win and start to get them over this huge losing hump today.
Minnesota Twins Lineup:
Cleveland Lineup:
The Minnesota Twins got on the board first when Nelson Cruz hit a ball just fair off the right field wall & it bounced past right field Josh Naylor & Nelson put it on Cruz control for a stand-up triple. Byron Buxton hit an infield single before Cruz so he scored on the play and the Twins led 1-0. Alex Kirilloff came up to the plate next and he knocked Cruz in with an RBI-single off the left field wall. It would’ve been a double but he slid off the bag and Eddie The Gun Rosario had the ball there in time to end the inning.
So… the game started well for Minnesota & on came Kenta Maeda. He got a strikeout and a groundout to start the bottom of the 1st but left a pitch over the plate and José Ramírez put it in the seats. Eddie Rosario grounded out to first to end the 1st inning with the Twins still ahead 2-1 but that didn’t last long after the Twins got only a Jake Cave 1-out single in the top of the 2nd, Cleveland DH Franmil Reyes got a hanging slider and he put that one in the seats to tie the game at 2. It was another mistake pitch from Maeda.
In the bottom of the 3rd with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd, José Ramírez hit a pop fly down the left field line and Alex Kirilloff took a longer route than he probably needed or wanted to but he still got to it but it went off the heel of his glove and dropped so the run scored and the Twins trailed by 1 at 3-2.
Nelson Cruz led off the top of the 4th with an infield single and he advanced to second on a throwing error from shortstop Andrés Giménez. Kirilloff struck out swinging but Willians Astudillo hit what looked like a double to right center field to score Cruz from 2nd and tie the game at 3. Willians thought that would be a double so he turned hard towards 2nd but stopped to go back. He didn’t pay attention to the ball that was overthrown and who knows if he would’ve been able to advance because the TV feed didn’t really show a good angle to tell but it did show 1st base coach Tommy Watkins pointing to the ball as Astudillo was returning to 1st.
Jake Cave doubled in the next at-bat so Astudillo would’ve scored to give the Twins a lead but, again, we don’t know if he would’ve been able to get to 2nd on that play.
The next batter, Mitch Garver, hit into a fielder’s choice & 3B José Ramírez chose to go home to get Astudillo for the 2nd out. Andrelton Simmons then grounded out to short to end the top of the 4th.
Maeda had set down 6 straight but with 2 out in the bottom of the 6th, he tried to throw a fastball inside to Cleveland DH Franmil Reyes but he was ready for it and hit his 2nd HR of the day & his 7th of the season to put Cleveland up 4-3.
RF Josh Naylor followed with a double to center field and Rocco decided that was it for Maeda so he brought in LHP Caleb Thielbar to face Jake Bauers and he hit the first pitch to right field for an RBI-double to double the Cleveland lead to 5-3.
Thielbar stayed in for the first 2 outs of the 7th before being replaced by RHP Cody Stashak who walked 2 batters before getting Eddie Rosario to pop out to the catcher.
In the top of the 8th, with 2 outs, Cleveland RHP Aaron Civale left a pitch up to Byron Buxton and he cut the lead in half with his 7th HR of the season.
Rocco said before the game that he was going to start giving reliever RHP Alex Colomé some lower leverage situations to try to get his confidence back so he brought him in for the 8th to face the middle of the Cleveland lineup.
He struck out Franmil Reyes on a friendly called strike then he hit Josh Naylor up high with a pitch, walked Jake Bauers, got Roberto Perez to strike out swinging then walked Andrés Giménez to load the bases then walked Cesar Hernandez to walk in a run. He was replaced by RHP Jorge Alcala and he hit Jordan Luplow to force in another run before striking out José Ramírez to end the 8th.
Alex Kirilloff led off the top of the 9th and hit a screaming (101mph) liner but it was caught in right field. Astudillo popped up to 1st and Jake Cave struck out swinging to end the game.
Minnesota Twins 4, Cleveland Indians 7 | Final
W-Civale (4-0) L-Maeda (1-2) S-Karinchak (2)
The Bottom Paragraph
So…the losing continues and it feels like it will never end but it will end and it could end as soon as tomorrow afternoon when the last Twins pitcher to win a game, LHP J.A. Happ, is on the mound at 12:10pm on YouTube and he’ll pitch against LHP Logan Allen!
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